Create a Villain Theme Team!

[SKJAM!]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Coodaytah is actually Bruce Van Der Moon, wealthy playboy. He paid big bucks to have a super-empowering process applied to him, but was somewhat disappointed by the results. Bruce can move at superspeed, but for only ten seconds at a time, then he needs to rest for a full minute. Superheroing was way too much work for his tastes, and true villainy wasn't in his character. But then he met the Pantzers, and their ethos appealed to him. Coodaytah "counts coup" on unsuspecting heroes, tying their shoelaces together, slapping "Kick Me" signs on their backs, pulling their pants down, whatever he can get away with in the short time frame he has before he needs to run away.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Excerpt from featured interview in Villainy Unbound issue #117 (April 2010):

 

As we talked, he opened his right hand and his beer bottle slid across the table and into his grasp. After emptying it in one long pull, he set the bottle back down and gave it a slight nudge. Disconcertingly, it spun in place, first slowly and then faster, until the label was a multicolored blur.

 

"Y'know, I tried to join a hero team once," he said with a wry grin. "Yeah, the Olympus Corps turned me down cold. Said that TK and friction control are nice and all, but they felt my powers are too limited. I can only pick up about 20 pounds, and my frictionless or high-friction fields can only encompass about a square meter total, though I usually make 'em even smaller than that. And the neat thing is, my powers are completely invisible, totally undetectable -- until you feel the effects, that is."

 

"Those fools at the Olympus Corps... they didn't see how things could be used creatively. That's why I love being one of the Pantzers. They appreciate knowing how to put a twist into a power and making it really work. Sure, I'm not overjoyed at the name Pratfall, but it fits pretty well."

 

Pratfall then described his favorite uses of his powers. "When a hero goes for a weapon -- I don't know if it's more fun to increase friction so he can't pull it from the holster, or hit the grip with a frictionless field so the gun goes flying! And you gotta love those incredible leapers -- when I make the soles of their feet completely friction free, some of 'em go flying every which where when they jump, and if I catch 'em in mid-leap, they land flat on their kiesters! Man, do they get pissed!"

 

- - - - - - -

 

New team: Escape Clause

Members: 6

 

Through various means, the members of this team have the ability to either help individuals escape incarceration, or to remove objects from seemingly secure lockup. Members used to perform thefts and such, but they discovered that supervillains would pay big bucks to get broken out of police or PRIMUS custody, or to have captured armor/weapons/equipment retrieved.

 

Additional difficulty: The first letter of each member's villain name spells out the word "ESCAPE".

[csyphrett]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The Exit Man opens doors for the team. Everitt Mendle is usually a noncombatant since his power is the ability to create gates. If attacked, he has been known to send his enemies to places miles away from where he is.

CES

[Badger]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Question: We dont have to do the letters in order do we? Like can we skip to the A or P?

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Question: We dont have to do the letters in order do we? Like can we skip to the A or P?

 

I don't see a need to do them in order, as long as all get used.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

A child of the oh-so-hip nineties, Lewis Ng was Phabrykater long before he met up with the other members of Escape Clause. He has the uncanny ability to build small devices of narrow, specific use that can be concealed and smuggled through a variety of means: plastic telescoping lockpicks, otherwise harmless solvents of mortar, and once even a bit of carefully-painted origami that unfolded -- yes, unfolded -- into a life-size mannequin head (inspired by the famous Alcatraz escape). He provides such devices for Escape Clause.

 

While he normally keeps to the sidelines, Phabrykater keeps a number of disguised weapons about his person just in case authorities find him. He can fashion nearly anything into a dangerous weapon if he has to: a sheet of paper, a pillow, his underwear, even the handcuffs used to arrest him. He's an unparalleled master of the surprise attack, to the extent that it doesn't even matter if you never turn your back on him.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The villain known as Second Skin is a master of disguise and a world-class actor, often playing the role of a prison guard or police officer (and in one memorable case, a superhero) in order to deliver Phabrykater's gadgets, scout an entry for Exit Man, or otherwise assist another member of Escape Clause. If a supervillain is inexplicably transferred to another prison and broken out enroute, it's likely that the transfer orders were forged and all transfer plans leaked by Second Skin.

 

For those villains who pay extra to have Escape Clause on retainer and bother to inform the group of planned crimes, Second Skin has been known to infiltrate nearby police or PRIMUS teams beforehand and sabotage any super-cuffs or villain restraint system likely to be used against those villains.

 

 

Second Skin isn't just a master of disguise; if he wants, he can polymorph into a genetic duplicate of anybody he touches for several seconds, simultaneously reading the target's mind telepathically to better mimic that individual. Since this is typically done after the target has been rendered unconscious, this ability isn't really known outside of Escape Clause.

 

[Clonus]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Circuitbreaker brings security system neutralization to the table with his power to extend wires out of his flesh which can cut into and take control of electrical wiring and circuitry, modifications that he paid for with money he stole by more conventional hacking methods.

[rcv]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Advocate is mentalist who "persuades" security guards to leave doors unlocked and take sudden coffee breaks. In her secret identity as a criminal defense lawyer, she tries to get Escape Clause's clients released through mundane (but expensive) means. If that fails, the team goes into action.

[Nothere]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

When the man who would become Exit found the magic disk, he thought he had it made. He'd wander between dimensions stealing objects of power and return to conquer the universe. An encouter with Istvatha V'han's forces convinced him to stay closer to home. In his wanderings he had found a dimension that was apparently nothing but empty space. Now as a member of escape clause he can slip between dimensions to release people that all other efforts have failed to free. But he keeps it short and acts as trarely as possible. In the hopes of remaining beneath V'han's notice.

 

And as long as I'm bringing in the Champions big guns. the next group is...

 

The Telions. You thought you knew who you were. You thought you knew what you were. You thought you knew why you committed crimes. That changed six months ago. You were taken prisoner by Teleios. He explained that you were not real. Just some experiments he set loose to gauge hero's abilities. But your faulty. For some reason you never checked back in. So he'd just have to stuff you back in the vats, and reuse your dna. At first you didn't believe it, but the more you thought about it, the more it explained the gaps in your memory that start anywhere past five years ago. What elios didn't know is your faulty in another way. You don't obey. You broke out and trashed the lab. Deciding to stick together you named the team Telions as an up yours to him. But what to do next.? Well you may not be who you thought you were, but being a crook is programed into you. So the 5 of you started a crime spree.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

The Exit Man opens doors for the team.

 

When the man who would become Exit found the magic disk' date=' he thought he had it made.[/quote']

 

Since we have two characters with similar names, should one be renamed? Or is there maybe some in-team rivalry or tension due to their chosen names?

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

(Brushing off an old character of mine from the 4th edition days, created by Malachite to learn the weaknesses of the PC heroes.)

 

The man known only as John Doe had no memory prior to waking up in one of Teleios' labs and breaking free. He operated mostly as a thief and information gatherer for five years, breaking into places to steal things to pay the bills while he tried to learn who he had been before Teleios apparently wiped his memory. Despite his amnesia, he knows how to use every weapon known to man (with great skill) and can pick most any lock and bypass most any alarm system. When he looks at people, they are overlaid with diagrams of pressure points and other potential weaknesses. When viewing known superhumans and aliens, John Doe also sees a list of their abilities, vulnerabilities, and other combat information.

 

After getting recaptured by Teleios, John realized that he wasn't just somebody whose memory Teleios had erased. Rather, he was a wholesale creation, engineered to gather information on the heroes and report that back to Teleios. This angered John greatly, so when he heard about others like him, he was eager to join the Telions.

 

[John Doe is in all physical respects a normal human, albeit one at peak condition. His extraordinary nature comes from his ability to grab any weapon, hand-to-hand or firearm, and use it to potentially lethal effect against almost any target. (In pre-6th days, this equated to an Cone-Effect Find Weakness with some Limitations.)]

[Clonus]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Femme Fatale never thought much about why she would issue riddling clues to her thefts, or why she felt so compelled to flirt with the superheros who would inevitably show up to thwart her. Her pheromonal perfume, inhuman reflexes, flexibility and wall-crawling abilities made her a slippery, but harmless opponent despite her name. Many superheroes quite anticipated meeting her, regarding her more as a hot hero groupie than a real problem. That she was unconsciously gathering information about their skills and powers as well as personal information about heros who succumbed to her charms was something none of them suspected and she would have done quite a bit of damage had she worked as designed. But her creator underestimated her self-will and the lockpicking skills she'd developed over years of impossible burglary, and she released her recalled siblings from their restraints. Now that she's part of a team she's reluctantly given up announcing her crimes with riddles, but she still loves to flirt with heroes when she meets them.

 

(As far an alternate E for Escape, how about Elastik? He could follow the Plastic Man template.)

[Nothere]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Actually if that's going to be a problem last in first changed.

Then Exit joined escape and met someone with a similar name , and changed his to Egress.

[Badger]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Salamander

 

Yeah, yeah, some Teleios experiment. He knows better than that. He just must have got amnesia or something. He'll remember eventually.......oh you guys want to escape and make a go of it on your own? Sure, I'm in. Teleios is friggin dumb @$$ for a smart guy.

 

Salamander's powers: He seems to have some wierd ability to go completely "invisible". Well, not really invisible. Just for some reason the cameras want pick him up. Many of the heroes just want see him. (though, his allies may or may not dependent on his intent). Infrared/Ultraviolet? Nope. cant see him. It defies all normalcy. (well it isnt totally under his control, on rare occasion he is liable to just blend in to the background during the team meeting for no reason for example).

 

 

Note: Actually, I was going to do this one for ESCAPE, but it could work here.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Leonard Fuller sat behind the wheel of the rented Suburban, staring at the house down the street. He saw the man walk out the front door and head for a car parked in the driveway before getting called back by his wife, holding his lunch. Cheryl looked just the same as Leonard remembered her; not much had changed in five years. He closed his eyes and remembered the police officer telling him that they had positively identified her body, as well as those of his two kids, in the minivan crushed beneath the collapsed bridge. Over a dozen people had died in the fight between that hero group and Grond, and his family had become just another statistic.

 

Leonard remembered the rage at the heroes that allowed it to happen, how he had left his home and all his belongings behind in his quest for revenge. He remembered contacting a discredited scientist to graft jungle-cat DNA into him, giving him incredible agility and speed as well as claws and a preternatural sense of danger. He recalled spending several years honing his skills until he felt ready to teach those heroes a lesson. All of it came clear as a bell to his mind, as if it had all happened only yesterday.

 

But now, he knew all of those were false memories implanted by Teleios into a cloned and genetically-altered body known as Leonidas. His last five years had been a complete lie, while his family (and the original "him") lived their normal lives.

 

As the real Leonard Fuller drove off to work, Leonidas pulled away from the curb and headed back to the airport. That life wasn't his, never really had been. He was due to meet up with the other Telions to discuss what they were going to do next. All he knew for sure was, Teleios would pay dearly for this.

[csyphrett]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

everyone else got the cool powers, why do I get the big feet and the poison touch. Still the jumping and sticking to stuff is okay. The Poison Dart could be an okay codename.

 

Look out world, here I come.

 

Based on the poison dart frog, naturally this character has clinging, leaping, some enhanced sight, extra limb in a tongue, and an uncontrolled killing attack.

 

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Looks like I got the last guy for the Telions. here's the set up for the next team.

 

The Secrets

members: 5

The Secrets are psychics that don't know they are psychic. Their powers manifest as physical illusions that commit crimes for various reasons.

 

So each Secret needs the public face, the illusion, and the type of crimes they specialize in.

 

CES

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Ryan Feester spends almost all of his time at the retirement home watching TV, playing cards, and regaling anybody who will listen with tales of his glory days as a swashbuckling pirate on the silver screen. According to Feester, he was the one who taught Errol Flynn everything he knows. If you're lucky -- depending upon one's definition of "lucky" -- you might catch one of Feester's movies on the late-late show. He wasn't great, but he wasn't bad.

 

However, when Feester sleeps (which is a considerable portion of the time), his psyche manifests as Epee: a strong, brave and handsome rogue who steals from the rich and... well, nobody (including Feester) knows what Epee does with the loot. With his glowing epee and flowing cape and faithful steed Toro (who, like Epee, seems to appear or disappear at will), Epee usually steals from other criminals, corrupt officials, and anybody named either Errol or Flynn. As a result of Feester's past dealings with banks, Epee is also likely to rob banks, though never the bank's customers.

 

It should be noted that, though Epee looks a lot like a young Ryan Feester, he is actually a much more capable swordsman, acrobat, and ladies' man than Feester ever was.

[csyphrett]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Cale Spinner delivers pizzas for a living. He enjoys driving around his delivery area, and glad handing the customer. Sometimes he goes out and has a bit too much to drink.

 

When he is deep in an alcoholic stupor, his car comes to life as Hellwheeler. It roams the streets at high speeds on fiery tires, and distorted paint job.

 

This Secret participates in street races and if it wins it will crash the other racer into something. This has led to at least one death.

 

When Cale sobers up, the car returns to its normal, like brand new condition.

CES

[SKJAM!]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Katherine Tennessee is a good wife and mother. She cooks and cleans and sews and makes sure the kids get plenty of love. Katherine's active in her church and her kids' school activities, and supportive of her husband and his important work. Everyone remarks on how cheerful and peaceful she is, never a harsh word or burst of temper. If you ask her, Katherine will say she's quite fulfilled with her life, and doesn't miss her old career at all.

 

This is a lie. Inside Katherine's facade of domestic tranquility, she's immensely frustrated with what her life has become. So when she sleeps, Rage Woman appears, an eight-foot tall, heavily muscled Amazon that smashes the patriarchy, criminals, sexist men, businesses that exploit women, and random objects, in roughly that priority order.

 

Katherine wakes up feeling refreshed and ready to face another day. Rage Woman's pattern of appearances will initially baffle investigators, since they're tied to how bad Katherine's week has been going. If everything is well, Rage Woman might appear only once. On bad weeks, it's out every night.

[Matt Holck]

telepathy

 

sigh

people are so predictable

so mean

so petty

I could make up the tired arguments

for that day to day living

WHO WOULD WANT TO LIVE A LIFE OF DAY TO DAY DRUDGERY

not me

even psychoanalysis comes back round to abuse, desire and power relations

any secrets as transparent as water

it is easy to take what others think their hiding.

 

Doctor Klein has no problem getting clients with his psychological practice

just I bit of boredom where even the easiest life needs to have surprises

[Cygnia]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Peggy Anne Zapruder spends perhaps WAY too much time on-line arguing with tools and trolls on various forums. And maybe she lets things get too personal. But she knows when to walk away...

 

...Cyber Wilde, on the other hand, has learned how to become the ghost in the machine -- and to hunt down these pathetic lesser beings to where they live in real life and literally flame them.

 

*****

 

New team: The Dark Blossom Knights

Number: 5

Theme: Five very, very unlucky young men have been chosen to be unwilling pawns of EVIL~! in order to thwart the Magical Princess GemStars. All their secret identities must have a type of flower in their name. Much to these young men's dismay, they are losing control of their normal lives and memories. They are unable to communicate their plight to the GemStars. They are unable to use competent tactics or strategies against the heroes. Worse still, each Knight is falling in love with a particular GemStar -- even if in their normal ID, they already HAVE a significant other they deeply care about/are asexual or gay. When creating a Knight, list also which GemStar Fate seems to insist they're to be strangled by the red thread to.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Ken Kikugawa ("Chrysanthemum River") is a basketball nut, though he's also a perpetual benchwarmer due to not being very tall or fast. He has a huge crush on a girl at his school named Betsy Evans, a shy, quiet girl he's been working up the courage to ask out. But as Blood Chrysanthemum, this Dark Blossom Knight uses his water-based powers to attack the GemStars. And much to his horror, he's developed a "I have you now, my pretty" interest in Charging Light Emerald, a girl his civilian side thinks is far too aggressive and assertive for his tastes.

 

Edit to add: When in Dark Blossom form, he tends to fly into a rage whenever the girls fail to pronounce his name correctly; they haven't figured out to do this deliberately yet.

[Cygnia]

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

 

Marcus Shaw is a quiet, mild-mannered history student who just celebrated his two year anniversary with his devoted boyfriend Jason Collins (with the couple having the fortunate support of both their families). And then what he dubbed "The Hell" hit him...

 

Now Marcus finds himself changing at the most inopportune times into a savage bestial creature resembling a humanoid displacer beast complete with two thorny tentacles protruding from its massive, muscular back: Ravager Tiger Lily. To his horror, he is dimly aware of the creature's growing lust for Glowing Angel Amethyst. Worse still, whoever or whatever is controlling his changes seems to be forcing Marcus to reveal himself in such a violent way that it will scare off Jason -- or worse. He's managed to fight off transforming long enough to at least make sure Jason isn't in any danger, but he fears his control is slipping. Marcus is terrified that bit by bit, he's becoming a puppet in his own body -- a catspaw to a giggling idiot who just treats him like a big kitten that he's helpless against, with feelings of love towards that aren't truly his.