Help with a Super Villain

[Bengalelf]

I just recently purchased the Villains and Vigilantes module Terror by Night.

 

Is there an existing supervillain vampire in the Champions world that I could use for Baron Victor Heinrich? I know about the greater vampire in the bestiary. I was just hoping there was an existing one I could use. I looked through me Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks. I was unable to find one. I am aware of Stalker from the Asesinos in 4th edition. I was hoping 5th might have one.

 

Anyone have any ideas???????

[Greywind]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

Why don't you just do a conversion of the existing character? Terror By Night isn't one of the modules that I own, so I can't help you on that front. Check with Proditor. He may have a 5th conversion of him available.

[Bengalelf]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

I did consider that, but Champions has so many existing villains. I would rather use one of them. What is the conversion formula?

[Zeropoint]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

Generally, the best way to convert between RPG systems is to first "convert" the character from the source system to a game-mechanic-free description. Note any objective performance ratings, like "can lift a horse over his head briefly", or "his eye-blasts will relieably punch through a standard 6"-thick brick wall" or whatever.

 

Then, use the target system to create a writeup for the character in the same way that you would write up a character that came from a book or movie.

 

Trying to do a mechanical, formulaic conversion will likely be time-consuming, frustrating, and ultimately give something not too different than what you would have come up with on your own.

 

Zeropoint

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

Hmm... I'm not familiar with Terror by Night, so I don't know what role Baron Victor Heinrich plays in it. There are vampires, and there are vampires.

 

The most formidable "super-class" vampire that I've seen under Fifth Edition is the assassin Angelina, from Digital Hero #6. She's a scion of an old Mafia family, a highly-trained hitwoman, and has been a vampire for many years. She's a pure mercenary, killing anyone if the money's right; but you could certainly change her motivation if that doesn't work for the adventure. She is noted as Hunting those that she feels have wronged her.

 

Angelina is built on 600 Character Points, and is much more efficiently designed than the Greater Vampire from the Bestiary. She's very formidable in a physical confrontation, but has substantial mental powers and stealth abilities as well. Besides her supernatural abilities and considerable combat training, she typically carries a silvered katana and an advanced needler pistol, and "ballistic cloth" armor. These things are said to bear some resemblance to VIPER and UNTIL equipment, so the character has at least a slight tie to the mainstream Champions Universe.

 

BTW the DH article featuring her also provides a "basic vampire" template, and describes various abilities that vampires might possess which you could use to customize that template. They come across as similar to the abilities of vampires from White Wolf's RPG of the same name, which I suspect is deliberate.

 

I hope that's helpful.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

I did consider that' date=' but Champions has so many existing villains. I would rather use one of them. What is the conversion formula?[/quote']

 

You can find that Attached to this thread, as a Document file (post #3) and as a spreadsheet (post #21).

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

You know, I can think of one other possibility. "Baron Von Darien" is a PC created by one of our boardmates, who posted his 5E writeup and background here some time back. Although not an official CU character, his history does fit into the official timeline. Also, he's actually a hero rather than a villain, but it wouldn't be hard to change his history so that the villainous act that he maintains for centuries was in fact his real personality. He's also an old and powerful vampire, and might have to be toned down for your purposes.

 

Anyway, here is where you can look up Baron Von Darien.

[gojira]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

I just recently purchased the Villains and Vigilantes module Terror by Night.

 

Is there an existing supervillain vampire in the Champions world that I could use for Baron Victor Heinrich? I know about the greater vampire in the bestiary. I was just hoping there was an existing one I could use. I looked through me Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks. I was unable to find one. I am aware of Stalker from the Asesinos in 4th edition. I was hoping 5th might have one.

 

Anyone have any ideas???????

 

I think the best way would be for you to tell us what sort of role you want this villian to play.

 

Is he going to be beat up by your players? Better not make him too tough.

 

Will he play a major role as a re-occuring villian in the campaign? No need to stat him out completely, just make sure he gets away to fight the players another day.

 

Etc. We'll need to know about what power level your players are too, and any special abilities they might have.

[Bengalelf]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

The villain, according to the module is a millionare vampire who runs a circus. While it visits the campaign city he kills a couple of beautiful women. The clues lead back to the circus. After the heros follow set clues there, the vampire puts them into a sort of dungeon crawl with high teck robots from his robotics company that have a horror theme.

All and all he is testing the party's strength and weaknesses. Should he ever return to the area. I do not plan to use him again. The module is just a filler to give me time to write.

Does this help Gojira?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

Well, since you say that you don't plan to use this character again, and since his capacity to go toe-to-toe with your PCs doesn't appear to be an issue, I'd say that whether or not you use an "official" CU vampire wouldn't make much difference. I would suggest just using the Bestiary stats for the Greater Vampire, strengthened or weakened depending on how tough your PCs are (assuming you'll have him face them in battle at all); then name him Baron Victor Heinrich, and run the game.

[TheTemplar]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

Yeah, based on the description from the M&M mod, it sounds like he fits more of a "mastermind" villain role (IE: One who's FAR too important to sully his hands by lowering himself to engage in fistacuffs with a bunch of holier-than-thou dogooders.) If he doesn't need to participate in combat, I don't even know that I'd write him up in Hero terms at all. When the players reach the end of the dungeon, all they find is his abandoned lair, which he fled long before they reached the end of the dungeon when it became apparent that his schemes were going to be foiled.

[gojira]

Re: Help with a Super Villain

 

Ok, first I'd make him a billionaire. A million bucks doesn't go far these days.

 

Second, you really just need to make sure he has enough defenses that he can survive an impromtu attack from a PC (or several, if they get the drop on him). Probably he has a really high CON, DEX, EGO Defense, PRE, rPD and rED, and Damage Reduction. Give him Missile Deflection (Vampire Psychokinesis) too. Give him overall levels and levels with Perception, just to make sure he isn't surprised often. He probably needs Desolid also, and not just "mist form", let him do it and remain fully visible, so the players won't know why a good shot misses him.

 

Mental Illusions could help too. If he can decieve the players into seeing anything, then anything is really possible. Now that I think about it, a huge Mind Scan would let him "see" the players anywhere in the circus, so he could make any plan against them, and know what they are doing at all times.

 

Then he just needs lots of disadvantages like total Overconfidence, Meglomania, Compulsive behaviour about leaving clues and setting traps, and such to make sure he has a good reason not to just kill the players right away.

 

Maybe decide how the players are going to walk into the trap. Will he use Mental Illusions to deceive the players into thinking someone inside needs help? Will he walk in himself then use desolid to get out, leaving the players behind? If all else fails, you can give him a Scroll of Teleportation and just 'port the players into the maze. Have a few plans so that if one fails, the others are ready.

 

That's about all I can think of. You should look at your players' character sheets to make sure that there isn't some sort of special defense the Vampire will need. Then it's all a matter of fudging stuff to get the players into your trap so they can have an adventure. One thought is to be sure to give the players some goal they can accomplish, like rescueing someone, so they can feel that they still "defeated" the vampire even when he gets away.

 

Good luck!