Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

[Kirby]

Hello everyone,

 

When our next Champions game starts up, I am going to run a few plots using the villain team Anarchy (from Enemies of San Angelo).

 

The group's objectives are "to eliminate the trappings of civilization, which it views as the root of ideology, greed and territorialism. The team considers government institutionalized dehumanization, and society a dangerous addiction that separates people more than it brings them together." (p. 4)

 

Anarchy basically likes to weaken organized society, or spread chaos by weakening the faith the public has in governmental protections. Anarchy believs that the only social structure of value is the family.

 

Members are:

Blight - leader, plague/disease powers (drains) (519 pts)

Blaze - Fire powers (older sister of Haze) (544pts)

Haze - Smoke powers (younger brother of Blaze) (397 pts)

Harpy - Actual Harpy - mind controls to humiliate; loathes magic users (380 pts)

Quartz - former scientist; 'gem' brick (EC put actually puts him on scale with Durak) (461 pts)

 

(I'm also thinking of a scenario having them 'recruit' Pantera from 4E Eurostar [the team doesn't exist here] right after she kills her father and maybe 'stalks' people in a public park.)

 

My initial scenario involving Anarchy will have them attacking toll booths on the highway. I have planned for the 'established' NPC team, Justice Foundation, to come in to help. I do this, because after a few scenarios, I want Anarchy to fight the NPC team so that the PCs will discover how much of a threat Anarchy really is, as well as Anarchy attacking who they think their biggest obsticle is (Anarchy equates superheroes with government establishments). Then, Anarchy will attack a police station outright (to weaken the public's faith) not thinking that the PCs will show up. (Since they've dismissed them in their minds.)

 

So, any plot ideas that could fit well with this villain team? No bank robberies or conquering scenarios, please. Anything that would reinforce the idea of destabilizing urban society (and the faith in it), or attacking anything that goes against the core of a family unit would be greatly appreciated, but other related ideas are also welcome, of course.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Destroy the methods of modern communication. TV stations, radio, cell phones, internet providers, etc. Attacking the transportation infrastructure is a good first step, but remove their communications and the society will collapse instantly.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

There was a Bat-villain called Anarchy - IIRC he did similar things. The Captain America villain Flag Smasher was trying to pull down society in order to create a true worldwide society. Different supposed end goal, but the methods would be pretty similar. If you can grab any stories with them in it, it might give you ideas.

 

(side note - I'd like to see their reaction if a hero points out that aside from two members of the team, their Villain team is a non-family organization )

 

I'd say prime targets would be those that keep society from devolving into anarchy. Police, courts, utilities, etc. If they can turn the city's power and water off, start a few fires and keep the police busy, chaos may descend pretty quickly. Bust a prison open while you're at it.

 

If family is the only valued unit, any other organization is a target. Churches. Charities. Girl Scouts. Klingon LARPers. Whatever. Any business is an artificial structure that should be destroyed.

[Koshka]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

So' date=' any plot ideas that could fit well with this villain team? No bank robberies or conquering scenarios, please.[/quote']

 

What about simply destroying the banks? Federal Reserve would be ideal if you've got one handy, but any really large bank would do in a pinch. Currency in general is an artificial government construct that assigns value to otherwise worthless paper -- at least that's how they'd probably see it.

 

If they leave the money blowing in the breeze of their departure, it would emphasize that they're not your ordinary crooks.

[Scifi_Toughguy]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

You could just have them go right after the courthouse or town hall. I'm sure any military organizations that are around would be prime targets as well. Something that the public thinks is safely off limits or pretty well locked up. If they think that the superheroes are part of the establishment, wouldn't they want to crush/target them in order shake the publics trust in them?

[Blue]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Crash the Stock Market, Bring down the Air Traffic Control system (Perhaps feeding it a virus that reroutes planes at random), Set free all those oppressed people that "The Man" has put in jail.

[Katherine]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

For psychological warfare, attack symbols of authority (Police Stations, Federal buildings, courthouses) prove that the police and other trappings of society can't protect people. Utilities and infrastructures, national monuments. Computer viruses and other destructive vandalism could help. "Robin Hood" crimes like destroying credit card computers, mortgage offices, etc to "free" people from the artifical chains that society has placed on them. Big splashly public crimes with a message since they're trying to install a meme into the global conciousness. They would want to spread uncertainity but not utter terror. They want their message on some level to be appealing so inflicting overt hardships on mass amounts of people should probably a secondary goal.

[assault]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

You could always make them anarchists, rather than lunatics.

[David Blue]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Modern government is based on written records. Burn, baby, burn!

 

Burn up the places where government keeps the official paper records and electronic records on land title deeds, births, deaths, marriages and changes of name. It's likely all in one building or a couple of buildings side by side, preferably not too far from the courts (for convenience). Everything is likely to be well-backed up - but if it's only backed up at that physical location, it'll still be gone. (In the unlikely event it is backed up offsite, a simultaneous strike should take care of that.)

 

Then the government will have not only no right but no power to say who owns what (land) and to identify people by officially valid - "real" - names.

 

This can be made profitable if friends and proxies of Anarchy are ready to go with land claims that will be difficult to dispute in the absence of the official records.

 

Census records and electoral rolls are legitimate targets. Better yet if there's been a dispute about whether someone's been legitimately elected. It's all illegitimate - Anarchy should want to prove that in a practical manner.

 

Tax office records are obvious, high-value targets that should be hit hard and early. Again, any time you can eliminate the official records that say someone owes the government money, whether that's because of tax or for any other reason, the potential for profit or for Anarchy to recruit partners in the destruction of government who are simply acting for their own interests is greatly increased.

 

Courts make excellent targets, both practically and in terms of the anarchist message. Again, get the records. All those trolleys of irreplaceable documents you'll see in a court: "Foosh - crackle!" The effect on criminal cases is obvious in a super game. If you want to get some villain off "on a technicality," now's the time. But the effect on huge, complicated, big-money civil suits will even be better. That'll teach people to let the government arbitrate their disputes! And again, the potentials for profits and allies are obvious.

 

For recreation after a hard day's government record-burning, have fun in a government car pool/parking lot, especially any place there are highly expensive specialised vehicles, like a VIP vehicle fleet. (I don't mean the central fire department with its fire engines - you hit that early in the morning, to make the rest of your fun go better, didn't you?) This could be where the heroes catch the villains, in a multi-story parking lot, with inflammables all over the place (brought in for speedier destruction and more fun), thick, rolling smoke, and cars going up in flames - "Boom!"

 

That could be a fun fight!

[Black Omega]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Unless they consider close personal bonds to be similar to being family, they do sound a little loony.

 

They can either go to violent route and trash all symbols of authority, in which case police academy, police stations, etc are good.

 

Though for real suffering, they can attack the infrastructure. Take down the internet, post offices, credit card companies, loan offices, electricty, water, etc.

 

I know simply taking me off the internet would be suffering enough to drive me crazy:)

[Kirby]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Thanks for the great ideas guys, and please keep them coming!

 

For some clarification, they treat each other like family (adopted, but still), so that goes for their close bonding. Blight rescued Blaze & Haze from their tragic orphan past, and Quartz was once a science professor at University of Californa at San Angelo, but when he became transformed into his quartz-looking brick form, they let him go. Harpy is really used more of a weapon by blight, as she is very bloodthirsty. But eating raw meat can do that to a secretary who was transformed in a demon-summoning-spell-gone-awry kind of thing.

 

Though they are big on points, none of them have teamwork. Blight likes the chaos of their independent fighting style, even if Blaze & Haze tag team sometimes.

[HewhoisMatt]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

You have given me much luv in the past Kirby so here you go.

 

Now this will work country wide or city wide depending on the size of your game.

 

They plant EMP weapons in stratigic places (these can be built by Quartz or stolen if you need a hook to start them off) to bring down as many computers as possible. Pretty much any puter not shielded will go down utilities, bank records, police, fire dept, most cars etc etc etc. For their plan to have max effect all weapons need to go off at once. The heros need to fig out the plan, who is behind it, where the weapons are, and disable them. Anarchy would not plan on taking credit for what happened, but on letting the public think it just did, like the blackout in the northeast a while back and blame the goverment. I can flesh this out more if you like.

 

Somthing like this was the back ground to the TV Show "Dark Angel"

[KA.]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Well, if you want something that will make an impact, without actually bringing down society, you could play a game that I like to call "Alarm Tag".

The members split up, and go around the city on a busy Saturday night doing things that cause alarms to go off, without being observed.

 

Blight - Could get the ball rolling by dropping by some type of germ research facility and releasing a harmless bacteria that would cause the biohazard sensors to go off. This should really get some action in the nearby area, from local authorities all the way up to the CDC, depending on how deadly the stuff in the lab actually was.

Blaze - Do the same basic thing with the fire alarms at several area hospitals. No real fires, just enough to make the alarms go off.

Haze - Smoke alarms at crowded restaurants, theaters, etc.

Quartz - Sets off seismic alarms at banks, supermax prisons, etc.

Harpy - Uses her mind control to force public officials (Mayor, Police Chief, Fire Chief) to issue unconcerned, non-sensical, press releases, amid the chaos that is going on.

 

Now comes the most sinister part of the plan - the helping.

 

That's right. Either in disguise, or civilian ID, the members of the group are going to go forth and help the common people during the chaos.

While the official emergency response teams are running on endless wild goose chases, these seemingly 'normal citizens' are going to be dashing around the city helping people with real problems.

(After all, they will know where all the false alarms are, since they started them, so a little monitoring of the emergency band will lead them right to real people with real problems.)

As they are helping, of course, they will be spreading 'the gospel'.

"You know, neighbor, this just goes to show that when you really need help, the government is never there for you.

Why do we pay all these taxes when we have to help ourselves?

If the police and the fire department can't come when you need them, why have them at all?"

 

This adventure will basically have three phases.

 

1) CHAOS - Alarms are going off all over the place and the heroes are run ragged trying to head off non-existent catastrophes.

 

2) Recognition - The Heroes begin to realize that they have two problems to face:

a) Someone is deliberately causing all the false alarms, and they need to be stopped.

The city is now so paralyzed that help is not going to people who really need it, and the heroes are going to have to step in to help with real emergencies.

(Easy enough to have them begin to notice real fires on the way to fake fires, real medical emergencies while on the way to fake ones, etc.)

 

3) The Hook - As the heroes are trying to find the real emergencies, they begin to notice the same faces among the 'helpers' in the crowd.

But, as the heroes begin to realize that these people might have something to do with the false alarms, members of Anarchy are stirring up the frustrated citizens into an angry mob:

"Oh, the mighty heroes have arrived to save us!

Where were you an hour ago?

We don't need your help now!

Why don't you just go back where you came from?"

Eventually the Anarchy members will cut loose with some sneak attacks and change into their Villain ID's, but by then the crowd may well be supporting them!

No matter who wins the fight, there will be a lot of angry public sentiment, and lack of confidence in public officials, just what Anarchy wanted in the first place.

 

KA.

[CBikle]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Have them destroy the internet !

 

Maybe Quartz is able to accomplish this by stealing/building super-computers and/or kidnapping/recruiting hackers.

[David Blue]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

"Quartz was once a science professor at University of Californa at San Angelo ..."

 

Well why didn't you say so? (grin)

 

Do you realise that government distorts science by neglecting good research and funding dangerous experiments? Quartz does. I think he'll have partly-informed suspicions about what dire things may be hidden behind the closed doors of government-funded research projects.

 

Blight - leader, plague/disease powers - would know what to do about that: let the public find out in person about this awful science that's being funded by the government: crash those gates, smash in those doors, open those cages, and let out the monkeys infected with ... rage!

 

If your aim is to "eliminate the trappings of civilization," that could do it. (28 days later ...)

 

Too bad if raw meat-eating Harpie herself eats anything there, that could get nasty - and we wouldn't want that, would we? (But Quartz should probably be bright enough to anticipate any problem like that.)

 

For a game, I think you want to tone down the disease a lot. Make its effects curable and/or temporary. This is where any medically/scientifically-inclined heroes can save the day. Just look for the center of the trouble, duck into the complex - past any uninfected trying to hide out or flee from the enraged (winged and acrobatic heroes can lift people to safe places) - past the smoke-sleeped guards, who will be waking up armed and (lightly) armoured and of course enraged at last - for the research clues and scientific equipment, and take it from there.

 

(If the player characters are struggling for clues after souping up some quick un-rage, let their path pass a crop-sprayer or let them see a plane doing sign-writing - "HELP!" - or something like that.)

 

This shouldn't be a game-ending threat. Just let the rage virus unleashed by Anarchy be big enough to create a day of total raging (Blight/disease-fuelled) mob fury, with fires and smoke and lots of property damage.

 

Steal stuff from any modern turbo-zombie movie, like the recent (2004) Dawn of the Dead.

 

Have a bus flee the enraged at unsafe speeds, with the obvious consequences, like being crashed and half-hung over the edge of a bridge, with the enraged closing fast. (Brick to the rescue time!)

 

Etcetera. You know the drill. (grin)

[OddHat]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Have them move out of their dorm rooms, get real jobs, and grow up?

 

[Kirby]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

A few in Anarchy can't really disguise themselves:

 

Blight, 45, is a former US Gov't scientist whose powers came after a biohazard test went wrong. He has a distinctive feature "Diseased, rotted." He probably was white, but now has yellow-ish eyes and pus oozes from his tainted body.

 

Harpy, 33, has the legs of a huge, filthy bird (including talons) and her wings are permanent. She has claws at the end of her fingers, along with pointy ears and sharp teeth. (Previously a secretary.)

 

Quartz, 30, is 9 feet tall, 1600 kg, and looks like living quartz. (He was a geologist.)

 

The only two that can pass for normal are:

 

Blaze, 19, black female. Haze, 17, black male. They both have an instant change when in combat mode.

 

If any of you have the opportunity to pick up Enemies of San Angelo, I highly recommend it. It puts a more human feel to all the criminals listed, and nearly every villain in the book has a 'normal' NPC that is somehow associated (such as a relative, a victim, a law enforcement officer, an obsessed follower, etc.).

[wcw43921]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

I was going to suggest EMP weapons, but HewhoisMatt beat me to it. Of course you could always have them build a "Doomsday" EMP-bomb capable of frying every electronic system around the globe. Imagine the fun of the PCs not only having to deal with Anarchy, but also Mechanon, who's trying to preserve his own existence by preventing the bomb's detonation.

 

Another possible scenario is to have Anarchy attack clinics where abortions are performed, their reasoning being that women who terminate their pregnancies are "contributing to the destruction of the family." They would attack at night, leaving the clinics a smoldering wreck in the morning, and the PCs may suspect local right-wing reactionaries at first, until they find the evidence that leads them to the correct conclusion.

 

As Supreme Serpent mentioned, churches would make a good target--Anarchy would most likely focus on all the suffering caused by organized religion. They could also attempt to start a "holy war" by attacking two particular religious affiliations' houses of worship (mosques and synagogues, for example) and make it look like each one is responsible for the attacks on the other.

 

Hope those ideas help.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

during an old champions campaign, our new up and coming superhero group was trying to make a name for itself and build up its rep

 

one of our team was an illusionist, so we disguised ourselves as the well known local superhero team while it was away dealing with something entirely different, and did our best to smear the other teams rep into the mud, nothing illegal, just lots of bad press, and then our team staging some incidents to help out at, and pointing out where was the other team when all this was going on

 

by the time the other team got back, we had muddied the waters enough that trying to clear their rep was a major undertaking, and we covered our tracks well enough that they could never definattively prove who was responsible.

 

this could work for a villain team just trying to wreck havoc on the good guys

[Mortuorum`]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

If you haven't seen Fight Club (or read the book), do so. I guarantee you will find Tyler Durden's philosophy useful in understanding the motivations and methods of an anarchist.

 

Most of these guys sound like they'd have more of a beef with the Federal Government than with the State Government. I'd reckon they're probably split on the local government thing with half of them in favor of local government and half in favor of true lawlessness. Given that assumption (which may not be correct, but probably is), they'd be more likely to go after targets that everyone in the group would agree on: Fereral Reserve banks, district court buildings, offices of the FBI, military recruiting offices (or bases, if they're feeling ambitious) and the like. Maybe an assassination attempt on the President or other high-level functionary (damn you, Secretary of Transportation!) when they're in town.

 

With this group, they'd probably be violently anti-big business, as well. (Hell, the heroes might not even want to thwart them if they went after Haliburton's San Angelo office.) Targets would include money-center banks, oil companies, pharmaceutical companies and pretty much any corporation with close ties to the Government.

[assault]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

If you haven't seen Fight Club (or read the book)' date=' do so. I guarantee you will find Tyler Durden's philosophy useful in understanding the motivations and methods of an anarchist.[/quote']

 

I have to say that that isn't where I would start...

 

That character is a Hollywood joke. I'm surprised they didn't give him a swastika tattoo.

 

I'm no fan of real anarchists, but they deserve better than this kind of abuse.

[The Hyborian]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

When I first read the title of the post my dyslexia was kicking in hard and I thought it said Antichrist villian team. I had this great idea about Pat Robertson's head exploding on national television, but I guess it wont work here.

 

Deep Sigh.

 

T.H.

[Tech]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

A few in Anarchy can't really disguise themselves:

 

Blight, 45, is a former US Gov't scientist whose powers came after a biohazard test went wrong. He has a distinctive feature "Diseased, rotted." He probably was white, but now has yellow-ish eyes and pus oozes from his tainted body.

 

Harpy, 33, has the legs of a huge, filthy bird (including talons) and her wings are permanent. She has claws at the end of her fingers, along with pointy ears and sharp teeth. (Previously a secretary.)

 

Quartz, 30, is 9 feet tall, 1600 kg, and looks like living quartz. (He was a geologist.)

 

The only two that can pass for normal are:

 

Blaze, 19, black female. Haze, 17, black male. They both have an instant change when in combat mode.

 

If any of you have the opportunity to pick up Enemies of San Angelo, I highly recommend it. It puts a more human feel to all the criminals listed, and nearly every villain in the book has a 'normal' NPC that is somehow associated (such as a relative, a victim, a law enforcement officer, an obsessed follower, etc.).

 

I enjoy this group alot, except for the fact that Blight is the leader. C'mon, already! He has a 0 COM, he looked diseased & rotted, if he continually oozes and has a gangrenous odor about him - and he's the leader? The rest of the group descriptions have him being treated like he's normal in appearance but he's anything but. This is my only beef with this group. I made Blaze the leader instead, making her slightly more capable.

[Mortuorum`]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Why does a group of anarchists need a leader?

 

(Yes, I know. That's a joke.)

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Request for plot ideas for an Anarchist villain team.

 

Anarchists unite!