New Purple Gang Help

[Rechan]

My PCs are basicly setting up an ambush to screw up an operation of the NPG. Now, the MC suggests that your average NPG member uses the stats for the Street Thug in the CU.

 

I ran a demo combat with my PCs against these stats a week ago, and they Tore Through my PCs. An OCV/DCV of 3, with a PD of 1 will not stand up to 4 350 point Dark Champions characters.

 

I'm thinking of having around 6-8 NPG members here. What would be a good amount of points for each of these thugs? About how many points, on average, for their weaponry? I want something that is decent enough to scratch the toughest PC, while not enough of an overkill for splattering the weakest.

 

Suggestions? I can take examples from the MARS weaponry, which is what the NPG basicly is equipped with.

[Rechan]

Why is it I never get posts before I have to ask for Anybody?

 

A little help here folks?

[Monolith]

I do not see the NPG having too much hi-tech equipment. The group is basically just a bunch of gang kids. They are really not meant to be a combat challenge for a group of superheroes. If you think about it, the average 350 point hero can stand up to 4-5 VIPER agents. That should mean a dozen gang kids.

 

The best way to use the NPG is to have them lure heroes into traps; down dark alleys where they have nets waiting to spring on the unsuspecting hero. Another thing would be to have them following Kevin's lead and have them using a few "found" VIPER or ARGENT weapons. Not too many of those weapons but possible a couple of really powerful ones. That group of heroes who gets lured into the dark alley and then gets torched with a couple of 18d6 ARGENT bazookas from the rooftops above will make them think twice.

[Rechan]

Well, I really don't have that option, seeing as the NPG has strongarmed Cybermind into taking control of the VCC Mainframe in the City Center to take everyone on the Loop hostage, while they take a counter-strike against the MCPD nearest to the City Center.

 

So I really don't have the *option* of just making them some street kids with blasters. I've built them up as an actual threat; Hi-Tech bank robbing thugs. Serious players.

[Rechan]

Infact, here's how I've figured it.

 

The NPG as Monolith describes them is how they've been opperating. They have been, until now, a very ragtag 'kids with toys'. But despite their lack of skill, they have been *very* smooth with their tactics.

 

Until now, it's been arson, theft, burglary, bank robberies, ambushes, not amazing stuff. But unknown to those who have been watching them, the NPG has been improving. Slowly. This is their debute, their first announcement to MC that 'We're not children with adult hardware. Say hello to some real players.'

 

While, outwardly, this may seem very Brassy and Stupid, Kevin Poe considers this a good move. While it will certainly turn many dogs of justice on the NPG, it will also turn the heads of quite a few crooked individuals' heads. You make some noise, you start getting more people wanting to join up. I doubt Kevin would turn down a metahuman if they tried to join the ranks of the NPG.

 

Part of the plot actually has revolved around the NPG strongarming Cybermind (my campaign's version of Cybermind, who the PCs have turned on their side). They've used him for rerouting an armored car's delivery route, for an ambush by the NPG, erasing criminal records and traces, and even relocating a witness to be sniped. As it stands, the NPG was contracted to use Cybermind's abilities to 'send a message' to another corporate head. Said corporate head is founding the PCs team.

 

I realize that I used the NPG thinking they were a mafia individuals (Because I used them before the MC book came out), but I can mold them a little better to my plot, now.

[Fur Face]

Dark Champions

 

Hey Rechan,

 

No normal gang, even Mafia, should ever be able to stand up to PC's, even Dark Champions (though Dark Champions are supposed to somewhat fear common weapons). It sounds like you have a real nice story going, but unless the NPG finds a way to stand up to the PC's, they'll never be much of a threat. Some things you could do:

 

1) Hey, we need special ammunition for our machine pistols!

 

2) Traps, as Monolith has suggested, but you don't need to give them special weapons, just tactics. It's hard to dodge a falling wall that's just blown down or fake room with napalm furniture.

 

3) Do what other groups do: Hire someone who can take them on. In the old Dark Champions supplements, that was what many groups did, otherwise they'd be cannon fodder. Or, since they've got cybermind, have them extort someone, or just "finger" them to a know hunted.

 

4) Have them approach a bad guy for help, only the have the bad guy turn on them (DEMON turns them into Demons, or the Steel Commado thinks he's taken care of the heroes so then he wipes out the gang so he can have the spoils for himself).

 

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps!

[Rechan]

Well, the NPG doesn't know that Supers are going to stop them *IN THE ACT*.

 

The NPG's little attack on the Loop's mainframe is a very tactical 'Get in, DO it, Get Out'. They think no one is aware of them, and plan on setting up so much Chaos throughout the city to offer enough of a distraction that they hope they aren't noticed until after they've done what they gotta do, and are long gone.

 

So they're not expecting a Super (or 4) to crash their party IN THE ACT. The only way this happened is, Cybermind betrayed them.

 

I'm thinking these guys are worth a around 100 to 150 with 50 points disads. Around 8 or 9 of those, with a 60-80 point power (for weapons) limitation sounds about right.

 

The reason they are buff enough is because they have been training. Kevin has been rigorously training these guys to work as a Team. They're not going to be like Black Ops clockwork, but they've got it down.

 

And yeah 'no gang shouldn't stand up to heros'. Look, this is my PCs first mission. I want to give them a Good Fight. It's not going to be As Difficult as facing an actual powered villain, but it shouldn't be 'He misses, we knock them all down'. Their powers are pretty 'single attacker dealing'. Heck, one of the PCs really doesn't have a whole lot of offensive power; a little martial arts, some SPD reductioni or upping OCV/DCVs, but really, he's not an offensive kinda guy.

[JmOz]

give the purple gang some moderatly advance tech (maybe that's what they are stealing?), then again I have seen Taesers built as an NND...

[Rechan]

Originally posted by JmOz

give the purple gang some moderatly advance tech (maybe that's what they are stealing?), then again I have seen Taesers built as an NND...

 

That's kinda their motif...

[BlackCobra]

I've seen a group of 200-pt (total) villains, each with one relatively middling power (or weapon) take down an entire supergroup, simply through the use of good tactics --- even when those same villains were surprised in the midst of their robbery attempt. Because they assumed, in a world with superheroes, that they MIGHT get jumped, and so planned backups accordingly.

[Rechan]

Right.

 

I plan on doing a little dice fudging, if I have to. My attempt here, is to make the fight *Fun*. Make it one hell of a brawl.

 

Seeing as the NPG has a habit of lifting high tech stuff, and has some MARS equipment, I imagine some of it will be nonlethal. Which I will take advantage of. Some will have tech weapons, some will have regular guns. For instance, one'll have a shotgun and a 'stun baton'; he'll have some some STR to wield it. That's it.

 

My PCs are very... equipped. Invisibility, one with Desol, two with teleportation... They're hard to hit, hard to nail down.

[death tribble]

Don't forget the orchestra.

 

As Elvis said, 'The Whole Rhythm section was the Purple Gang, let's rock'