tiger Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 I'm thinking of creating a couple villain teams to catch heroes off guard. Most villain teams are balanced between bricks, speedsters, mentalist etc. I'm thinking of trying the follow for a change a pace. Hardcore: All brick team. Each memeber would be a "brick" with different abilities. Flashback: All speedsters, either runners, flyers etc. PSI - Good as is Might use a all martial arts team and a all gadgets as well. These groups wouldn't be used alot. Only when the heroes figure they have the tactics down pat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Great idea I actually like this idea... a lot! Especially the all brick team. Any lack of versitility would be compensated both by the surprise factor, and (most likely) a collectively HUGE amount of stun Might be a loooong combat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger Posted June 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Re: Great idea Originally posted by Hermit Might be a loooong combat... Yes it could, but it be fun. The theroy goes well with my other villain team W.O.M.E.N. I deviced them because I got sick of players taking "Won't fight/hit a women". They seemed to see it as free points. If there were women members of a team they could ignore them. Some even figured most teams wouldn't have any. The look on their faces when a all women group showed up was priceless!! The team as actually evolved into one of my favorite villain team. So it had a double bonus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specks Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Better yet, How about a team that looks like the "generic-whatever" on the outside but is completely different in what they're suppose to be. Example: A guy 6'8" muscle-bound brick type who turns out to be a mentalist using his psychokinesis to lift large objects but only has 15 STR at the most. That will probably knock your PC's for a loop (at least for a while) You get the idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger Posted June 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Originally posted by specks Better yet, How about a team that looks like the "generic-whatever" on the outside but is completely different in what they're suppose to be. Example: A guy 6'8" muscle-bound brick type who turns out to be a mentalist using his psychokinesis to lift large objects but only has 15 STR at the most. That will probably knock your PC's for a loop (at least for a while) You get the idea! Their was a writeup in an old Adventurer's Club about something allong those lines. Only a brick with huge PD but little ED. Villains easily killed by over zealous heroes. But the idea you haven't wouldn't be bad. A speedster who actually isn't that fast just uses images to make people think he is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayday Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 We once played a family of 4, each of us had a stat that we could 'share' with all our sibs. Mine was Dex, like 30 points of it. Others gave 30 STR, or Con, or Ego I believe. Also might I recommend a DEBuffing squad? It would be amusing to see just how low they could drain your heroes' stats to..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klytus Posted June 19, 2003 Report Share Posted June 19, 2003 Originally posted by specks Better yet, How about a team that looks like the "generic-whatever" on the outside but is completely different in what they're suppose to be. Example: A guy 6'8" muscle-bound brick type who turns out to be a mentalist using his psychokinesis to lift large objects but only has 15 STR at the most. That will probably knock your PC's for a loop (at least for a while) You get the idea! That sounds like Pocket Power: a 4'7" female vilain in my gameverse. Her powers are all psionic in nature, but it's stuff like range 0 TK and invisible force fields, so she appears to the world as the super-strong and super-tough brick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dei1c3 Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Their was a writeup in an old Adventurer's Club about something allong those lines. Only a brick with huge PD but little ED. Villains easily killed by over zealous heroes. I remember that! It was an idea to deal with players who charge in "guns blazing" so to speak, without regard for deadly force. It was a trio of villains: Goldrush (speedster), Goldbrick (brick...duh) and Goldmind (3 guesses...yep, Mentalist). They were extremely tough looking and had just enough defense so that the cops did no damage at all to them. The catch was that they had almost ZERO BODY, so when the PCs more powerful attacks started to get through the villains' defenses...SPLAT! Dead and dying villains, lying in a big pool of blood, while cops and citizens looked on in horror. Good times... Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Weren't they called the Gilt Complex? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Arrow Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Originally posted by dei1c3 The catch was that they had almost ZERO BODY, so when the PCs more powerful attacks started to get through the villains' defenses...SPLAT! Dead and dying villains, lying in a big pool of blood, while cops and citizens looked on in horror. Actually a very interesting idea, although was there a reason they all had low BODY scores? Does anyone remember when Dr. Bedlam inhabited a giant construct and made Captain Marvel believe he'd caused the giant's death? Bedlam grabbed the Big Red Cheese, who did his "I'll turn back to Billy Batson to escape" thing and the lightning triggered an explosive. Billy was so worried about killing someone (and the media were reacting negatively to supers at the time), that he decided never to turn into Captain Marvel again. This could work in the Champions Universe. Imagine a set of villains who are actually created by Teleios. The would explain their low BODY scores; he wants the heroes to kill the villains because of the public outcry it would cause (and it might even send a hero with Code vs Killing over the edge). You could be really subtle and give the villains Susceptibilities or Vulnerabilities to attacks the heroes use. Who'd have thought that the brick had a fatal allergy to Ego Attacks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Arrow Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Oops, I never dealt with tiger's original point! Yes, a non-mixed team is an interesting idea. There was an all-speedster villain team in "Villains Unlimited", IIRC. Each still had a different schtick, though (eg one was like a cheetah, one was like Marvel's Whirlwind, etc). Gadgets won't really give you a problem with diversity (except maybe super strength, but an exo-skeleton or TK device would solve that). If you include Fu-type powers, the same is true, although super strength is a little less likely to be seen, perhaps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 The 4E Allies supplement included the Braverman Foundation, who were all super-strong and tough (at least 40 STR) but had other powers as well: a growing brick, speedster brick, martial artist brick, couple of flying bricks, etc. They operated as a travelling circus of super strongmen, but would be easy enough to use as heroes or villains. Speaking of circuses, a "Flying Circus" (as the WW I German fighter squads were called) of all flying villains could be interesting if they had different sfx for their powers: say, a wind controller, birdman with wings and claws, gadgeteer with a rocket back, sonic-base energy projector, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 The Wrecker and his Wrecking Crew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Originally posted by specks How about a team that looks like the "generic-whatever" on the outside but is completely different in what they're suppose to be. Example: A guy 6'8" muscle-bound brick type who turns out to be a mentalist... That's a really cool idea. I don't think I'd have a whole team of different 'surprise packages' though. Doesn't make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klytus Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 There is one bit of cruelty I once saw used in JLA I'm going to spring on my players one day. A team of bad-guys, all of whom can fly, all wearing armor. It isn't battle-armor like Defender's, it simply makes them all look 100% identical. They each have compeltely different powers, too, only there is no way to tell who's who by looking at them, and they always fly around, cluster, then break appart again to make it nearly impossible for the heroes to keep track of them. "Which one did I just shoot?" "Is the one comming after me now the flame-dude, the mental dude, the brick, or someone else?" The only way the JLA was able to beat them was by disrupting their radio communication. Without it, even THEY couldn't tell each other appart, and they lost their ability to coordinate without being overheard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZootSoot Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Reminds me of the new Ironmen, a team that was originally a joke. Each member was a powered armored villain with a play on Ironman in their code names. (Ironed Man, a brick whose armor was a giant steam iron; IronyMan a mentalist whose powers were derived from his power armor, three others whose names and powers escape me). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiger Posted June 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 I like the idea of having 4 guys show up with armor that looks they same, but different powrs. Only the GM knows who can do what. Then have them all or a couple "huddle up" then come out fighting. That way the GM can switch them around and totally keep the heroes guessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dei1c3 Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Originally posted by Crimson Arrow Actually a very interesting idea, although was there a reason they all had low BODY scores? I don't think the article included ANY background about these villains. They were merely presented as a way for GMs to try to rein in overly aggressive characters. I think it was left to the GM who used them to come up with a justification for why they had such low Body. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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