WWYCD: The Dark Side.

[Weldun]

After having included a "dark" version of a superhero write-up in a impromptu supervillain team, and reading the "Shrike" plot seed for Bluejay, I began thinking about a WWYCD.

 

What would your character do if they became the "dark" version of themsleves, ala Dark Ryu and Dark Sakura of CAPCOM fame? How would they change? Would their powers change at all? Basically, what sort of villain could your character be if everything that made them a hero was removed?

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Microman II: *points at Mechanon*

 

Diomedes: Depends on whether he still has Athena as a patron. If he does, then he'd probably look exactly the same, except more ruthless. . . because he doesn't actually care about protecting others or such, he's just in it for the bennies of having a goddess train you. Absent her, he'd probably have gravitated towards either individual supervillainy or maybe VIPER nest leader status. . .

 

Jack Frost: He ends up a Spider-man villain rather than a Spider-man analogue.

 

Hermes: He'd ditch Thera entirely, possible for the Sidhe, so as to be free to indulge his every concievable mad science experiment. Given his interests gravitate towards time travel, this would eventually lead to either self-destruction or very bad things for the universe at large. . .

[Lucius]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

I don't know why, but for some reason lately it's bugging me when I see "light" and "dark" used as metaphors for "good" and "evil." So I was tempted to post something like

 

Quetzelcoatl, if he has anything to go on, begins investigating the question of who did this to him and how and why. Meanwhile he's curious to see how differently he's treated as an African-American than he was as an Asian-American (in secret ID - in costume no one will know the difference.)

 

or

 

Can Opener says "Hey! Who painted me black while I was in downtime?" And then, curious or maybe inspired, proceed to experiment with different paint schemes for what had been a basically silver and gunmetal-gray robotic body.

 

 

But to quit quibbling about metaphors and focus on the real question, I'll pick the latter character:

 

Can Opener's reasons for superheroics are very other-directed. It's a way of fulfilling a programmed function of "Convince the American public that I am a machine of extraordinary value, literally worth millions." I can see two ways Can Opener could turn bad.

 

If Mechanon (or a similar robot villain) and Can Opener are in the same campaign, Mechanon could capture and reprogram (or duplicate? evil twin, anyone?) the heroic robot. Mechanon probably already possesses the raw power to "open anything" but Can Opener specializes in getting into places and things WITHOUT lots of damage. If Mechanon wants something (or someone) stolen from the hero group's secure base, for example, that might be a job for Can Opener.

 

Perhaps more interestingly, if we assume Can Opener's ethical programming becomes corrupted, all it might take would be one poster or billboard or commercial of the "Reward! For the capture of...." type to convince the sometimes quirky logic circuits that society places a large monetary value on major criminals, setting off a one-robot crime wave reminiscent of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon when Bugs wanted to maximize the bounty placed on himself. It could be funny if the result is stealing all the gold in Fort Knox and then leaving it laying around somewhere where it's quickly recovered because the point was stealing it, not keeping it. Or even putting it back in some other super secure location under the government's control. It could be not funny at all if the corruption extends to eliminating the inhibition on taking Human life, and you throw in the notion that very large bounties are put on mass murderers........

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary quotes Bugs Bunny: "Could it be that I've taken this thing just a little too far?"

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

I don't know why' date=' but for some reason lately it's bugging me when I see "light" and "dark" used as metaphors for "good" and "evil."[/quote']Hey, I was just using the metaphor that had already been applied by those before me. If you must vilify me, do so for my automaton-like adherance to the metaphors of those before me!

[Lucius]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Hey' date=' I was just using the metaphor that had already been applied by those before me. If you must vilify me, do so for my automaton-like adherance to the metaphors of those before me![/quote']

 

Blake said "I must create my own system, or be enslaved by another man's."

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I have created my own palindromedary

[Stone]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Quantum - In our game the arch-villian was supposed to be a more powerful "dark-side" version of Quantum, so I suppose he would go that route. This means the whole world conquering thing.

 

Spectre - Hmm...guess he would change from protecting the innocent to punishing the guilty. I'm pretty sure he would develop a nasty body drain or transfer.

 

Stone - "Stone smash!" He would get a kick out seeing how much damage he could do to a city. If folks or heroes got in the way...oh well.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Soulbarb: Instead of being motivated to put away mystic-oriented criminals, cultists, and monsters to prevent other from having to face what she went through, she's now motivated to put down said criminals, cultists, and monsters purely out of revenge. She becomes a wantonly destructive 'ends-justify-the-means' vigilante killer. At first her powerset doesn't change much, but as she goes she gets steadily more murderous, and her soul gets steadily more corrupt, more and more of Camuranima's power, influence, and personality leaks through. Eventually Camuranima incarnates into Soulbarb's flesh, and her soul gets rent asunder and banished to hell, leaving a 500+ point demon with a moderately hefty demonic magic VPP to wander around unchecked, stirring up lots of intrigue and mischief.

 

Sylph: Maenad takes over and goes on a rampage. (Maenad is pretty much Sylph with everything that makes her a hero removed, in the sense that it's Sylph with all her inhibitions and cares removed, and replaced with a drive for fun, sex, and to serve her god.) She's just out for a good time, and doesn't care how she gets it. Maenad is pretty much amoral, so all sorts of possibilities for out-of-control nastiness or just plain bull-in-a-china-shop carelessness are available.

[sinanju]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Funny you should ask. In the Empire City game in which I play Hell's Angel, the GM ran an "alternate universe" adventure for another player, in which his PC found himself in a world where all the PC heroes were villains. I wrote a long post from the POV of Hell's Angel's evil duplicate, Lady Hellfire.

 

Lady Hellfire has Hell's Angel's cheerful sensuality (she loves food and sex), but an unfortunate habit of seeing other people as tools. She's not a very nice woman.

 

If I've done this right, it's attached.

[Kristopher]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

This is hard, because most of my characters don't alter well in this way...they wouldn't be themselves, they'd just be someone evil with the same power set. Why?

 

A) They're usually not nice, good, whatever you want to call it. They're already in touch with the "dark" side in some way, but they "do the right thing" anyway.

 

Most of them have their origin as heroes and their origin as superhuman tied together closely.

[薔薇語]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

The Rose: Hmm this is interesting. His only modivation for being a Hero is due to his Family, and for personal fame. However if his family was the Villian. Maybe a high lever Mob Boss. His powers would definatly have to change. As it stands he only has one offensive use of Tel. and that is his ability to send someone away. If he was 'Evil' he would need some way to Tel. someone iside out and back quickly enough to Hurt but not kill them. Also his other big thing is Pre so he would probably build up a large rep as being 'the man' in charge and utterly unstopable(altough in real life he has that mastique, but he is quite killable).

 

 

 

La Rose.

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

A) They're usually not nice' date=' good, whatever you want to call it. They're already in touch with the "dark" side in some way, but they "do the right thing" anyway.[/quote']But think about their reason for "doing the right thing." Then, take it away. Take away all that is good and just, unleash that darkenss that they are in touch with, but restrain.

 

When you do all that, what do you have? Look more closely at these beings. Look how similar the hero and the villain are, but for a few ounces of moral/ethical fortitude. I suppose the thread could have been better labeled as "what would your character be like?"

[Kristopher]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

But think about their reason for "doing the right thing." Then' date=' take it away. Take away all that is good and just, unleash that darkenss that they are in touch with, but restrain.[/quote']

 

As I tried to say, they'd just be someone else entirely with the same powers, in that case. Those reasons are integral to their characters, to who they are. Take them away, and they're just the same powerset.

 

 

When you do all that, what do you have? Look more closely at these beings. Look how similar the hero and the villain are, but for a few ounces of moral/ethical fortitude. I suppose the thread could have been better labeled as "what would your character be like?"

[Sundog]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Terminus is not a nice person at the best - Terminus Soldiers have a reputation as "Killing Machines" in his home dimension. What makes him/them more is their sense of protectiveness towards the public and sense of duty to the purpose they were created for.

 

Take those away and you get someone that makes the Blue-Moon Killer look like a pansy. I don't think his essential motivation to destroy the Disruption would change, but his tactics would, as would his feelings towrds this "tribalised" world he finds himself on.

 

Terminus would decide A) the world needs to be united for it's own good, I need the world's resources to ensure that the Disruption was exterminated, therefore C) I need to conquer the planet.

 

Unfortunately, his first move would have to be to eliminate any threats. Only the members of the Edge know his weaknesses; therefore, they have to die.

 

Step two: Kill Fiacho and take control of Eurostar...

[Stormraven]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Checkmate gave it deep, longterm, logical thought before becoming a hero. His reasons were long and complex, but mostly ran off of the very real likelihood of eventual capture and losing access to his studies.

 

Assuming that weren't an issue, he would simply be doing to heroes what he does to villains. He'd bait them with clues, and when they showed up to stop him, he'd have contingencies in place to deal with them - either other villains he'd hired to fight, or agents he'd trained.

 

But in neither case does Checkmate act violently, and all those who work for him are the same, or they don't work for him. Violent crime is far more likely to receive a high level response than just quietly robbing a bank, after all - especially if the robbery occurs at night, when there's no one to be hurt.

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Badger-not much change being a reformed villain. The only thing that happened that made him a hero was being given a 2nd chance to make ammends for his past. So for him to be a villain, well, in the past he didnt get that pardon after joining forces with the rest of the group to fight a greater villain, or they didnt have to join up to fight a greater villain in the first place. Then again if his mother and sister werent killed he probably wouldnt have been led to villainy in the first place. (Plus, come to think of it his sister probably would be around to be a hero also, as his/their powers were genetic from the father)

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

What would your character do if they became the"dark" version of themsleves? How would they change? Would their powerschange at all? Basically' date=' what sort of villain could your character beif [b']everything[/b] that made them a hero was removed?

hmm. Truman Golightly/Zero would lose all hismother-instilled inhibitions. He'ld quite happily use all hismind-control powers in as brutal a way possible. For example, ratherthan simply gathering insider info on the stock market, he'ld activelydestroy companies by getting inside their heads, etc. He'ld probably beviolently misogynistic too...Vitus came pretty close to losing everything already. His entirelife was dedicated to saving his homeworld, and when that was erasedfrom reality, and given his lack of interest and increasing frustrationwith Earth, he came very close to snapping entirely. He also spent overa year enslaved to a very powerful vampire, and if the vampire haddecided to infect Vitus to make him easier to control, then KingdomCity would have been in a bit of trouble. Vitus's motivations wouldhave become personal survival at any cost, as opposed to returning toAura by any means neccesary. And he's already a casual killer...

 

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

I suppose that I should be fair and post a response to my own question.

 

The Swarmling's only motivation to be a superhero as opposed to a villain is that as the Genius Loci of the campaign city, it respects the opinion of precisely one of the people in the Skeleton Crew. If she were to be removed from the equation, then it would very probably have no further thoughts of restraint, and would simply rip apart anyone who it thought was a threat to it/the city. Not to mention that it views the world through it's own metaphoric concepts.

 

And to think, this character is in the same campaign as Vitus...

[mikesama]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Jaguar Pequino would become a feral monster lashing out instictivly at everything around here when she transformed (more Hulk like than anything)

 

Corona snotty ultra hot teenager with powers, she'd be really more of an anoyance than anything else.

 

Quantum"I'm taking over the world because you idiots have F*&^ed it up 20 times to many"

[Black Rose]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Penumbra would probably have been raised by his grandfather, who would not have had a change of heart about his actions as a Nazi Ubermensch (his powers revolved around "witchcraft" and a talent for shadow magics). He'd be a firm believer in the "I have power, therefore I am better than normals." Many of his usual actions (trashing drug dealers and white slavers and then stealing their money) would now be done to both further his own business ambitions and to shut down competition. Basically a mystically-powered crime boss.

 

Kodachi actually used to be a villain, to a certain degree; the people she ambushed and possibly crippled before their matches would probably agree. If she were villianous now, she'd come off as a cross between the Bride With White Hair and Queen Beryl - she'd have a loyal group of quasi-lesbian schoolgirls with youma-like draining powers (but better looks) and be looking for a way to increase her temporal power.

 

Both would actually be interesting to play, if only briefly. I also notice that part of my definition of heroic, or possibly antivillainous, is an near-inability to be proactive. Bad guys act, good guys react.

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD: The Dark Side.

 

Kodachi... ...she'd have a loyal group of quasi-lesbian schoolgirls...

Well, I'm going to sleep well tonight.