Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

[gmurie]

There used to be a zodiac group in an old old OLD expansion for Champions. I thought it might be fun to create a new group. I'm not big on originality, but I like carrying on a project from other ideas and sources.

 

I'm not inclined to work on this if there's zero interest in it though. If you search around in this forum you can see a hijack that I did of Hermit's Adonis. I made a whole bunch of sexy lady supers for him.

[Mindscape]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

Zodiac groups are always fun because I believe that they give you a rather large, related group of villians to pull from and thus don't have to worry about the PC's fighting the same group over and over since you can mix and match. So I'm in.

 

Let me know if anyone else express interest.

[MilkmanDan]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

Yeah, the Zodiac Conspiracy in 4th edition. Didn't care for all of the writeups, but did a really nice job of taking some creative approaches to the particular signs and such. Have the book, will use them for a campaign some day just because I think they're pretty cool.

[Cygnia]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I liked the original Taurus in ZC, but man, how many different Geminis did 4th edition CU have again?!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

Yeah' date=' the Zodiac Conspiracy in 4th edition. Didn't care for all of the writeups, but did a really nice job of taking some creative approaches to the particular signs and such. Have the book, will use them for a campaign some day just because I think they're pretty cool.[/quote']

 

Our boardmate Ghost-Archer used that Zodiac villain group as part of the inspiration for his own version of the Zodiac, for his "Wild Hunt" campaign. He mixed original characters with modified takes on the published ones. Most of the writeups for that group can be viewed here: http://the-wild-hunt.org/villains/zodiac/index.html

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I was just looking over that book the other night, and considering remaking them, both in terms of fixing things I don't like (I don't like Taurus' cybernetics being OIFs), and possibly adjusting the roster, say by exchanging Stormfront from CKC for Aquarius (for example), after the PCs in question bump into him.

[Pariah]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I'd be interested in such a group. It's always nice to have a group like this for emergencies. "So Player X isn't going to be here tonight? Hmm, okay, well...{looks in panic for an adventure idea that doesn't have Player X's character as a plot lynchpin}...all right, Zodiac it is!" And as mentioned above, you can mix and match for a new threat every time.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

One of the things that always bothered me about the original Zodiac, was that for villains with such a long history and aspirations of world conquest, they had very little in the way of support organization "on the ground" to gather information and execute their plans. When I last used the Zodiac in a campaign I made most of their members people of status and influence in the world in their own rights.

 

For example, Gemini was senior partner in a prestigious law firm. Scorpio had taken control of his ninja clan. Pisces had seized the throne of Atlantis. Cancer led a small army of less-powerful duplicates of himself, grown from the fragments of his ship. Libra assassinated and then impersonated a major industrialist. Aquarius actually was a king of a small island nation. Sagittarius used her fashion and modeling company to recruit high-end "escorts" who spied on their elite clients. Leo expanded his musical success into a multimedia empire. And Taurus used magical disguises to establish identities as a political or scientific advisor to a number of the world's foremost leaders.

 

Not only does this expand their resources, it multiplies the plot possibilities for using individual Zodiac members.

[tadk]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

There used to be a zodiac group in an old old OLD expansion for Champions. I thought it might be fun to create a new group. I'm not big on originality, but I like carrying on a project from other ideas and sources.

 

I'm not inclined to work on this if there's zero interest in it though. If you search around in this forum you can see a hijack that I did of Hermit's Adonis. I made a whole bunch of sexy lady supers for him.

 

I would like one

[MilkmanDan]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

One of the things that always bothered me about the original Zodiac, was that for villains with such a long history and aspirations of world conquest, they had very little in the way of support organization "on the ground" to gather information and execute their plans. When I last used the Zodiac in a campaign I made most of their members people of status and influence in the world in their own rights.

 

For example, Gemini was senior partner in a prestigious law firm. Scorpio had taken control of his ninja clan. Pisces had seized the throne of Atlantis. Cancer led a small army of less-powerful duplicates of himself, grown from the fragments of his ship. Libra assassinated and then impersonated a major industrialist. Aquarius actually was a king of a small island nation. Sagittarius used her fashion and modeling company to recruit high-end "escorts" who spied on their elite clients. Leo expanded his musical success into a multimedia empire. And Taurus used magical disguises to establish identities as a political or scientific advisor to a number of the world's foremost leaders.

 

Not only does this expand their resources, it multiplies the plot possibilities for using individual Zodiac members.

 

Very nice. Yeah, the group wasn't vaguely fleshed out enough, and adding that stuff to their story makes them far more interesting.

[Tungsten Shephard]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I have always liked zodiac themed master villain groups. I agree with "LL" that the original Champions team had little in the form of proper support.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

Very nice. Yeah' date=' the group wasn't vaguely fleshed out enough, and adding that stuff to their story makes them far more interesting.[/quote']

 

I added one more twist that made for a nice role-playing climax for that arc of my campaign. Anyone who read the 4E Champs supplement Kingdom of Champions, dealing with the United Kingdom in the CU, may remember the AI space probe Danu, left behind by the Progenitors to monitor their experiments on Earth. Danu was responsible for, among other acts, sinking Lyonesse and creating Nuada of the Silver Hand.

 

In my campaign Danu became the Zodiac's space-station base, the Zodiakos Kyklos. It was Danu which received Taurus's experimental radio transmissions. Deciding that it could use operatives on Earth to observe human development first hand, it concocted a cover story and let Taurus occupy it, all the time using him to gain information. Danu wasn't overly concerned about the Zodiac's aspirations of political power over Earth, but if any of their schemes threatened large numbers of innocents or the environment, it would secretly pass warning clues to superheroes (primarily my PCs). It would also sometimes subtly guide the heroes or the Zodiac to investigate particular areas of interest, or to test Earth's super beings.

 

The Zodiakos Kyklos was the site of the final confrontation between the PCs and the Zodiac, and where Taurus's spirit was broken when he learned that all the time he thought he was a secret master of the world, he was really just the pawn of an alien machine. The pathos of the moment came off quite well if I do say so myself.

[Kirby]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I've actually already introduced the Zodiac into my campaign. Taurus told the PCs that their purpose was to ensure that no one came to rule the world A) that wasn't born on Earth, and 2) without the world's blessing. The Zodiac assisted the PCs in pushing V'han's invasion out of the system.

 

My Zodiac does have a lot more in the way of perks, though.

One of the things that always bothered me about the original Zodiac, was that for villains with such a long history and aspirations of world conquest, they had very little in the way of support organization "on the ground" to gather information and execute their plans. When I last used the Zodiac in a campaign I made most of their members people of status and influence in the world in their own rights.

 

For example, Gemini was senior partner in a prestigious law firm. Scorpio had taken control of his ninja clan. Pisces had seized the throne of Atlantis. Cancer led a small army of less-powerful duplicates of himself, grown from the fragments of his ship. Libra assassinated and then impersonated a major industrialist. Aquarius actually was a king of a small island nation. Sagittarius used her fashion and modeling company to recruit high-end "escorts" who spied on their elite clients. Leo expanded his musical success into a multimedia empire. And Taurus used magical disguises to establish identities as a political or scientific advisor to a number of the world's foremost leaders.

 

Not only does this expand their resources, it multiplies the plot possibilities for using individual Zodiac members.

Very nice. I'd rep you for this, but you have too much already. Well, that and I have to spread it around again. Consider me to use this similar to your Birth of RAVEN. I'll modify some to tailor it to my campaign.

[Agent.0.Fortune]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

One of the things that always bothered me about the original Zodiac, was that for villains with such a long history and aspirations of world conquest, they had very little in the way of support organization "on the ground" to gather information and execute their plans. When I last used the Zodiac in a campaign I made most of their members people of status and influence in the world in their own rights.

 

For example, Gemini was senior partner in a prestigious law firm. Scorpio had taken control of his ninja clan. Pisces had seized the throne of Atlantis. Cancer led a small army of less-powerful duplicates of himself, grown from the fragments of his ship. Libra assassinated and then impersonated a major industrialist. Aquarius actually was a king of a small island nation. Sagittarius used her fashion and modeling company to recruit high-end "escorts" who spied on their elite clients. Leo expanded his musical success into a multimedia empire. And Taurus used magical disguises to establish identities as a political or scientific advisor to a number of the world's foremost leaders.

 

Not only does this expand their resources, it multiplies the plot possibilities for using individual Zodiac members.

 

Awesome. Zodiac was always one of my favorite villian groups, but lacked in depth. These are great ideas to expand and entrench Zodiac in a manner that far exceeds their stats.

[casualplayer]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I used the bejeezus out of this group back in the day. One of my team was someone that Zodiac had tried to recruit, to replace the recently deceased Pisces. The team martial artist began his fearsome reputation as The Man Who Broke Leo's Nose, leading to a friendly foe relationship and Leo actually giving the PC one of his katana as a show of respect. One of my players sired a child with Sagitarrius.

 

But, whooo boy, was that ever a poorly edited book. Powers described and not in the write-ups and vice versa, skills not even close or appropriate for the character backgrounds and some of the most Perkless world-shakers that you are ever like to meet.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I'm afraid those 4E books were rather infamous for editing gaffs.

 

Speaking of editing errors in The Zodiac Conspiracy, our board colleague Derek Hiemforth "debugged" ZC some years ago, noting and correcting errors and inconsistencies in the writeups, and adding elements that were described in the text but not on the character sheets. Derek has his debugging notes on his website: http://rhinobunny.com/derek/champions/zodiac.html

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

For those of you who never read the 4E edition of Champions Universe, that book proposed an interesting MO for the Zodiac. Taurus was described as negotiating treaties and forging alliances with other super villains and villainous organizations, as a means to expand the Zodiac's resources and to gain influence over these villains, with the ultimate goal of subverting them.

[Shaft]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I have a Zodiac themed group in my Dark Champions/Street Level Supers game:

 

Leo: their leader- ruler of a tiny East African nation. In addition to his resources, he has lion DNA spliced into him, giving him augmented physical abilities including improved physical stats, nightvision and HKA.

 

Virgo- French villainess with pheromone based mind control powers. Expert in seduction.

 

Libra- Telekinetic

 

Scorpio- Middle Eastern poison expert

 

Sagitarius- Japanese zen archer (Shaft's rival)

 

Capricorn- Force Blasts

 

Aquarius- Body Transformation into Water (Pisces' lover)

 

Pisces- Indian Power armour themed submarine captain based on Black Manta & Captain Nemo

 

Aries- Satyr

 

Taurus- Minotaur themed Brick

 

Gemini- Persistent duplicates that all had telepathic links to one another.

 

Cancer- Oversized power armour w/crab theme

[Mindscape]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

So did we decide to try and post an updated set of the Zodiac group or not? Just wondering.

[Haerandir]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I think we're all busily agreeing that it would be a great idea... And waiting for someone else to do it.

[Mindscape]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I see in that case I shall return before 11 o'clock tonight (EST) with the first of them...albeit with my own twist on them. (Insert evil laughter).

[Cygnia]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

I see in that case I shall return before 11 o'clock tonight (EST) with the first of them...albeit with my own twist on them. (Insert evil laughter).

 

 

"What the--?! Bob Sagat as Scorpio?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!!!!"

[Mindscape]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

Here is the first of what will hopefully be a completely recreated Zodiac group. I am open to suggestion about improving it.Scorpio

[gmurie]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

Snnrk. Now I know how Hermit felt when I hijacked his Adonis thread.

 

Me oh my....

 

In brief I have the following origin for the group in mind. It assumes integrating the group in the main Hero Universe, but they can be winched in anywhere there's a master villain or organization with super tech genetics, but might not be sharp enough to stay on top of the project.

 

VIPER is mightily cheesed off at King Cobra after the events of "Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth", but in the end they'd have to have samples of the mad scientist's genetics research. Naturally, they're not crazy enough to fool about with DNA of dangerous predators. However, some of the organization's more maverick researchers decide that if they get some of their less useful recruits to be test subjects they might make some useful advances for other projects.

 

They get a bunch of losers and hard luck cases together. People they'd normally never recruit as VIPER agents even the most desperate of times. Instead of snake DNA that King Cobra used they use DNA samples from harmless herbivores like sheep, goats, and cows. That they underestimated the human side of the equation and how the resultant hybrids turned out is a given.

 

Ares (Sheep DNA), Taurus (Cow DNA), Sagittarius (Horse DNA), Capricorn (Goat DNA), and Pisces (Goldfish DNA - one of the scientists was a loon) managed to escape in the confusion of an UNTIL raid on the facility. They'd managed to track down the missing criminals and homeless people used as research subjects. At the time these original members of Zodiac didn't think of themselves as anything other than victims and freaks, and might have surrendered to UNTIL in some hopes of being cured except they were contacted and aided by a mystic supervillain from the 60's called Aquarius. He'd been in deep meditation in another dimension for decades after his last scheme fell apart.

 

Using his powers of prophecy and other mystic rituals he tried to assemble a group of allies to help him in this new age, and found himself among these unfortunates. He quickly managed to convince them that they could all be rich and powerful if they elected to travel with him instead. All five of them were easily convinced that there was something greater at work when it turned out that they were all actually born under the star signs they now represented.

 

Since then the group has actively recruited the other six members. Only rarely do they all work together at a single job, but each member knows and can rely on the other eleven to support and assist them whenever needed.

 

-----

 

NOTE: I've just finished Cancer. He's a disgruntled engineer who discovers that his great grandfather was a pulp villain called King Crab. He finds his great grandfather's secret lair and a primitive submarine and power armor. that he's updated, while preserving the retro Jules Verne look of the original equipment.

 

Ares is also done, he's a pickpocket and low rent conman who's been turned into a move through specialist.

 

I haven't formed any thoughts about the other five yet. The five VIPER victims and Aquarius are the groups core members, and I did it that way so the group has a cohesive and linked background that gave them a reason to cooperate and work together.

[st barbara]

Re: Any interest in a Zodiac villain group?

 

"Marvel" comics also had a group of villains called "Zodiac". They first appeared in "Defenders" back in 1977.