Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

[BoloOfEarth]

In a week and a half, I'm running the second half of a two-part adventure in my S-Squad Champions game. For the first part (The Clubhouse), the players guest-ran a group of teen heroes who discovered the abandoned underground base of a hero team that disappeared in 1956. They also found one of the team's enemies, an evil druid named Black Oak, in stasis in a secret part of that base. We're just about to tie that half up as Black Oak escapes from stasis (with help from two extra-dimensional imps, Mischief and Mayhem, who were Black Oak's teammates in the Alliance of Evil).

 

The second half (Getting the Band Back Together) involves Black Oak gathering the surviving members of his former team, and S-Squad having to take them down. I've already created Black Oak (summoner with nature control), Mister Magnificent (flying brick), and both Mischief and Mayhem (magic creatures each with a 45-point cosmic VPP), but I have one more member to create: The Gypsy.

 

I'm looking for some unique ideas to create her, and perhaps some thoughts on what she's been up to (apart from her incarceration from 1956 to 1971 or so). By my estimation, she should be in her 70s, but she could reasonably have some Life Support to minimize the effects of aging.

 

The information I've already given the players is that she is a psychic and mystic who accurately predicted both the Alliance's capture and the hero team's disappearance shortly afterward. She was arrested and convicted in 1956, but records of her incarceration after the early 1970s are curiously missing, so the heroes don't know her current whereabouts. There are rumors she was secretly pardoned by Nixon in exchange for her help getting him re-elected. Whether this is true or not is up for grabs, though I'm strongly inclined to make it so.

 

Note that the hero team's disappearance did not involve the Alliance of Evil, so that shouldn't factor into The Gypsy's whereabouts or activities at all. When the now-missing heroes captured most of the Alliance members, they *did* take The Gypsy's crystal ball for their trophy room, and I'm making it capable of long-term precognition (though she could have natural short-term precog abilities as well). Other than that, though, I'm at a loss for her powers and abilities.

 

Let the brainstorming commence!

[Cygnia]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

Able to curse her enemies/probability manipulation perhaps?

 

"Evil Eye" Presence attack?

 

Alchemy VPP of potions/elixirs/philters that cause Flash/Darkness/NND put enemies to sleep/Entangle?

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

Able to curse her enemies/probability manipulation perhaps?

 

"Evil Eye" Presence attack?

 

Alchemy VPP of potions/elixirs/philters that cause Flash/Darkness/NND put enemies to sleep/Entangle?

 

The probability manipulation could be interesting, since the PC hero Serendipity has that same type of ability. I like the idea of Curses, including the ability to cancel out Serendipity's prob-manip effects.

 

The heroes haven't found a crystal ball -- perhaps her long-term precog could be based on a cauldron instead (akin to Nostradamus' purported method of seeing the future). That would fit in with alchemy, too, and she could have gotten her hands on a new cauldron in the past 35-40 years.

[Cygnia]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

You could always have the heroes assume the crystal ball was her Focus, but it was the cauldron instead. They locked up the crystal ball in the trophy room while destroying the villains' base including the cauldron the last time around ("A necessary sacrifice to prepare for this future. All of this was planned for...").

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

She could have some spells as Mental Powers cast using the distinctive Romani (Gypsy) music and/or dance.

 

For something even more cliche , she may travel in a traditional-looking Gypsy wagon which is "bigger inside than out," and can self-propel at great speed, fly and/or teleport.

 

As for what she's been up to in recent years, her precognitive abilities would be in great demand by criminal or terrorist groups who want to stay a step ahead of the law. Such could have been providing her money and protection. (It is rather remarkable that Osama bin Laden has eluded capture all these years...) Since you want Gypsy's pardon by Nixon to be real, she could even have been working for the US government, assisting them with various black ops. That could be either a boon or a complication to the PC heroes, depending on whether the government would help them with intelligence on her to get her back or reimprison her; or don't want her captured for fear of what she could spill.

[death tribble]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

She would have connections and friends in the Gypsy community worldwide which could account for her disappearance.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

She could have some spells as Mental Powers cast using the distinctive Romani (Gypsy) music and/or dance.

 

For something even more cliche , she may travel in a traditional-looking Gypsy wagon which is "bigger inside than out," and can self-propel at great speed, fly and/or teleport.

 

As for what she's been up to in recent years, her precognitive abilities would be in great demand by criminal or terrorist groups who want to stay a step ahead of the law. Such could have been providing her money and protection. (It is rather remarkable that Osama bin Laden has eluded capture all these years...) Since you want Gypsy's pardon by Nixon to be real, she could even have been working for the US government, assisting them with various black ops. That could be either a boon or a complication to the PC heroes, depending on whether the government would help them with intelligence on her to get her back or reimprison her; or don't want her captured for fear of what she could spill.

I was already leaning toward a 60-point VPP of Gypsy Magics for her, with a Variable Limitation (usually Gestures and Incantations from dancing and music), so all I need to do now is create the Curses and other fun stuff to come from the VPP.

 

And since the character originated in the 1950s, I doubt "cliche" would really be a problem. One dimensionally-enhanced wagon, coming right up! (It's a pity that I didn't have that in the hero base's trophy room.)

 

Just because she was working with the US government in the 1970s doesn't mean she had to continue doing so. Once free from prison, she could have turned on them (after all, if she was working for Nixon, shouldn't she have warned him about that whole Watergate thing?) and now be assisting terrorists. Yeah, I kinda like that idea.

[Cygnia]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

Heck, if you want to be really bastardly: Pre-cog + foreseeing the debacle of the housing/banking/auto markets = monetary killing in the stock market!

 

As for a possible plot point to work around her being old, maybe she might be interested in "body snatching" later on down the line? And perhaps that Serendipity (or another female hero/DNPC) will be a very suitable candidate...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

Since we're already looking at "dimensional enhancement" among the Gypsy's resources; any chance that crystal ball might have a pocket dimension inside it? Perhaps containing something Gypsy might want back? Or something problematic the PCs could accidentally set loose?

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

You could always have the heroes assume the crystal ball was her Focus' date=' but it was the cauldron instead. They locked up the crystal ball in the trophy room while destroying the villains' base including the cauldron the last time around ("A necessary sacrifice to prepare for this future. All of this was planned for...").[/quote']

 

The reason I needed her Precog focus at the base is that one of the 1950s heroes actually used it. The details are not directly related, so putting behind a spoiler tag.

 

 

Professor Tesla was trying to capture his time-travelling nemesis, Zeitgeist, so he used the Precog focus to help get an idea when Zeitgeist was going to appear next. Not being expressly conversant with its use, the resulting visions weren't clear and Tesla wasn't able to see the final result -- the team's banishment in time and space. Also, through the base's robot custodian, the players know that Tesla somehow had an idea they might be showing up 50+ years later, so the presence of that focus would explain that knowledge.

 

 

So whatever is at the base (crystal ball or cauldron or whatever) needs to be the actual focus, not a case of mistaken identity.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

Since we're already looking at "dimensional enhancement" among the Gypsy's resources; any chance that crystal ball might have a pocket dimension inside it? Perhaps containing something Gypsy might want back? Or something problematic the PCs could accidentally set loose?

 

Actually, that's why I was wishing I'd listed a gypsy wagon in the trophy room -- not for the actual PCs, but for the teen heroes (as NPCs) to accidentally set something loose that gets under the PCs' skin. I could still do that with the cauldron, I suppose. Perhaps the precog is due to a demonic or extra-dimensional being bound to the cauldron, and the teens let it loose. Good fodder for a future adventure.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

She would have connections and friends in the Gypsy community worldwide which could account for her disappearance.

 

Good idea. She won't have been working and living with terrorists full-time. She doesn't strike me as a cave person.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

So, what kind of Curses should she have? I figure we can do some decent damage and still fit into a 60-point VPP.

 

My initial thoughts:

Blindness, Deafness, and Unlucky (all through Transforms)

Combat Clumsiness (minuses to OCV or DCV)

Bad Luck (through Blast with different SFX's - ceiling collapses, gas line explodes, etc.)

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

While it's not an official use, I've employed Spiritual Transform in my campaign to inflict various kinds of Disadvantages/Complications that don't comfortably fit into either Physical or Mental Transforms: Social Complications, negative Reputation, Hunted, Rivalry. I rationalize this as modifying the character's fate/karmic path/moira/etc. These things fall more within the traditional definition of curses, and could be applied to the PCs subtly (perhaps with Invisible Power Effects) to cause long-term problems for them.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

While it's not an official use' date=' I've employed Spiritual Transform in my campaign to inflict various kinds of Disadvantages/Complications that don't comfortably fit into either Physical or Mental Transforms: Social Complications, negative Reputation, Hunted, Rivalry. I rationalize this as modifying the character's fate/karmic path/moira/etc. These things fall more within the traditional definition of curses, and could be applied to the PCs subtly (perhaps with Invisible Power Effects) to cause long-term problems for them.[/quote']

 

6th Edition specifically lists adding up to 20 points of Complications under Major Transform, and 5th Ed rules do mention adding Disads to offset any added Powers, so doing as you said seems official enough for me. And I agree it seems more of a Spirit than a Body transformation. I could see this as a final parting-shot Curse before she goes down, something that could haunt the target for some time to come. I could be *truly* evil and make it Sticky (freeing one frees all), so the target slowly transforms whomever he/she touches to also have bad luck. Removing the curse could be the plot of a whole other adventure. Hee, hee! Evil GM likes.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Fishing for ideas: The Gypsy

 

A couple of curses you might consider:

 

Deathmark: 3d6 RKA, Variable SFX, Triggered by dangerous situation. This curse just hangs around until the victim is in a potentially dangerous situation at which point it goes off (conveniently up to the GM). For instance if the victim is walking near a bonfire, he trips and falls in. He might get hit by a car with a jagged fender while trying to cross the street. He might get struck by lightning in a thunderstorm. Of course most superbattles would be considered highly dangerous...

 

Paralyzed by Fear: 2d6 DEF2 Mental Paralysis, Triggered by Psychological Complications. This curse goes off when the victim is confronted with some situation that affects one of their Psychological Complications. If they are afraid of snakes, then they become completely frozen by the sight of one. But from a curse standpoint it is even better if they have something like Must Defend the Helpless or Loyalty to Friends, because then they seize up at a moment when their actions could affect something near to their hearts.