Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 I am having a hard time coming up with a group of villains to oppose a superhero group. The setting will be 1954. I wanted that sort of feel and it is also the year when VIPER first forms. I can only really think of one villain that is mentioned in HERO to be around that time, Humbug, that I am sure that I want to use. He is a mental illusionist who also has the ability to inspire blah feelings and depression in his enemies. He'd be the sort of dapper, top hat and cane villain and the most human of them. I can't really think of anything else to go with him. I want to keep it sort of simple and not magic-based. Any ideas? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Well about a Russian/Communist themed villian? The Red Guard he could be super soldier type villian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Thank you. I am sort of setting it in an alternative time period in which the two World Wars did not occur. So I do have some sort of ideas. Fascist Italy still remains and they have a sort of "Hero" duo called Libo and Moschetto (Book and Musket, a sort of brains and brawn team) I don't really want to do Nazi stuff though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains I just thought of another sterotypical villian. A Chinese Martial Artist and or magician. Named of courst the Dragon! The theme of the villian group would be to destroy the United States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Okay, that is hokey enough to work. So we have a Power Suit, a Martial Artist, Humbug (I'll have him be the cranky German school teacher sort as I have had plenty of those). Moschetto will be like Lazer or Hazard and Libro will be a book-themed sort of wizard with good Cramming skills, can read a book and get superhero powers out of it, etc. Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Well, when I think Silver Age, I think the Rogue's Gallery of Barry Allen's Flash--so if you can collect a bunch of resourceful criminal types with signature weapons (like Captain Cold and Heat-Wave) or gadgeteers whose devices follow a specific theme (like Captain Boomerang, The Top, The Trickster and The Mirror Master) you should be able to capture the flavor perfectly. Which is not to say that there weren't any superpowered villains in the Silver Age--I believe this is when Batman first met the second Clayface, whose malleable body could assume any shape he wished. Something like that should present all sorts of fun challenges for your characters. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains I was thinking that yes, not a lot of the powers should be inherent. They should be gear, power suits, being superheroically good with a certain type of weapon, etc. Humbug will likely be the only character with some sort of inherent, blatant "superpower." One of the characters I thinking of doing is some sort of Zorro/Scarlet Pimpernel sort of character who is whip-based. One will have a special musket (Moschetto), the Dragon thing with the Chinese character is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Monsters are always good. Alien, radioactive, other scientific, mystical. Accidentally and intentionally created, natural beings, or ancient creatures released into the modern world. Or into the past (our now) from the future. These can often handle an entire superteam by themselves, and need to be defeated by discovering and attacking their one weakness. Alternatively, they can hunt in packs. Villains with temporary superpowers are good. In most ways, these are the same as any other supervillain, except they are one offs. They may even pass their powers on to gangs of thugs, creating a temporary supervillain team. Mad science is good, as is archeology, magic and a whole bunch of ways of meddling with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. 1954 was an interesting time in terms of comics. It was more or less the end of the Golden Age, with the Space Age elements of the Silver Age only beginning to kick in. The Cold War stuff wasn't as important as it might seem - Marvel's attempts to remake their characters as Cold Warriors failed pretty miserably. Superhero titles were shrinking down to a mere handful of solo titles. The only near contemporary team I can think of would be the World's Finest non-team of Superman, Batman and Robin, with Batwoman occasionally showing up after 1956. Your alternate timeline sounds interesting. I'm not sure how the pre-WW1 situation would have gone without the war. There was enough accident in the actual war that eliminating it would have been easy enough, but the factors that actually caused it would remain in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Here is how the alternative timeline sort of happened, I'll try to keep it short. World War I did not occur because there were no defense pacts and the assassination didn't happen. All the players of the 1930s to 1950s survive. Mao, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and the like. Hitler manages to convince other nations to adopt National Socialism and the NSDAP bankrolls revolutions and coups the way the Soviets did. Greece, Norway, Denmark, Vichy France and Austria are the principle National Socialist nations. There is no World War II, labor camps or Holocaust because Germany is too busy fomenting and helping revolutions and there is an arms race in the 1930s and it all gets put into military technology and superhero creation. The Third Reich has several superheroes from every National Socialist country/client state. Black Sun succeeds in creating a group of strong Dark Magic users. The Manhattan Project and Paragon Initiative are American responses to the German Superhero programs and Black Sun activity. The Manhattan Project is 5 very strong superheros and the other is a Division of "supersoldiers." A superhero team was part of Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward and was bankrolled by Stalin. The Bolsheviks sponsored, created and trained a team and supersoldiers of their own. Japan's program is similar to Germany's two pronged superhero/magic approach. Basically instead of World War 2 there is about a 20 year Superpowered Cold War occurring. I have decided against Aliens though, no Area 51 stuff or any of that. Magic a bit though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexMundi Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains My Last Major arc for my own 6e Campaign was set firmly in the 50's. I've got PILES of 50's Badguys laying around at various point levels (though most are starting 400/75 guys but my campaign has some interesting limiters and freebies as opposed to caps and point levels).... If you want a few just shoot me an outline of what they will be facing and I can post up the sheets and what not..... ~Rex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Oh that would be a great help to me. I need a Powered-Suit Bad Guy Any type of Soviet/Japanese/Chinese villains A mentalist badguy for sure. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexMundi Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains 'Aight, let me get them punched into Hero Designer and I'll post up a few groups for you... ~Rex ....may take a little bit but I'll earmark the thread. Stay tuned over the next couple of days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains World War I did not occur because there were no defense pacts and the assassination didn't happen. All the players of the 1930s to 1950s survive. Mao' date=' Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and the like.[/quote'] Hmm... a lot of this stuff happened historically because of the wars. No WW1 -> no fascism. What was the equivalent crisis in your timeline? Even the Russian Revolution was crisis related - the 1905 uprising was tied to the Russo-Japanese War, while the February Revolution was a result of failure in WW1. The side effects of that include the emergence of Poland, Finland and the Baltic states. Then there's the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and so on. It's a big change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains I realize that. I think Fascism would have happened regardless of World War 1, just as an anti-leftist/anti-Socialist thing in Italy and Spain. I am not getting entirely into the nitty gritty, it is just an excuse for some players, one of which is from Italy and the other is from Germany, to play Italian and Germany guys in that time period without negative baggage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexMundi Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains We talking 5th or 6th Ed here? ~Rex....looking at sheets..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains 6th edition sir, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexMundi Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Noted..... ~Rex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains I am not getting entirely into the nitty gritty' date=' it is just an excuse for some players, one of which is from Italy and the other is from Germany, to play Italian and Germany guys in that time period without negative baggage.[/quote'] A legitimate goal. My only real attempt at an alternative timeline involved eliminating WW2. It kind of worked, giving the part Pulp/part Space Age feel I wanted, but it felt a little like a racist's fantasy, since the colonial empires were still around, there was no Civil Rights movement in the US, and other things like that. (WW2 stimulated decolonisation, which encouraged the Civil Rights movement, and so on.) Since I only went up to ~1958, the timeline didn't actually diverge all that far from our world. Blast, now I'm thinking about it again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexMundi Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains May have my first badguy contribution up in an Hour or so .....Unless I hit the hay earlier in which case I'll post it after work tomorrow.... He's a complicated build but a lot of fun as either a Player or a GM.... Russian. ~Rex.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Yay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterVimes Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains If you want to eliminate the stigma associated with Germans and Italians in your alternative world, then here is a suggestion: drag out WWI. Instead of the war ending in 1918, drag it out to 1930. Have Woodrow Wilson push for a League of Nations and have his VP, Thomas R. Marshall, follow Wilson as President and settle the whole WWII question with the League. The Axis never comes into existence because of the League and your technology progresses because the war ran long. Entertainment booms for the same reason it did during WWII, just earlier and you can carefully write the depression out of the mix with a fiat. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, but the Germans and Italians don't ally because of the League. The Soviets and the US slug it out with the Japanese and the cold war becomes over control of the Pacific. Germany and the US had good relations for many years in the real world, 20 years after a war that didn't end up crushing them financially would do the same. Then you can eliminate the fascist angle altogether and litter the world with Soviet spies, mad scientists, and non-ethnic supervillains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Wouldn't a 17 year long World War make it even more likely for some sort of Fascistic backlash, especially against a League of Nations that has numerous Communist countries in it? I do like the idea of stretching World War I out but I don't really know how to get there. Also one of the things I am going to try to do with the characters going into the past is that they will be the catalyst that kicks off a robot/drone/superhero/"Super-Soldier" First World War. Maybe the League of Nations will form after that. Thanks for the good idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MisterVimes Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains Wouldn't a 17 year long World War make it even more likely for some sort of Fascistic backlash' date=' especially against a League of Nations that has numerous Communist countries in it?[/quote'] To over simplify: The Nazis got a stronghold in Germany because the country was financially crippled by the Treaty of Versailles. You could literally buy a loaf of bread and the cost of that bread would double by the time you got home from the store. You drag out the war and have the peace conference treat the Germans (and their allies) with a more even hand and then force everyone to get along (via the League) and you never have a crisis that sparks a revolution. A pair of well know historians, Palmer and Coulton, made a great observation: "To have a revolution you must have three things, an incompetent government, a crisis, and hope for change. In the scenario above, you eliminate the crisis and build "hope for change" into the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overkill Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains You don't think governments that allowed a world war to occur for 17 years would be incompetent or that nearly 2 decades of world war wouldn't be a crisis? I think you'd wind up with people that make Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin look like pikers if that ever happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Re: Silver Age/1950s Style Villains We never got around to running it, but a friend and I had planned a mini-campaign where the heroes would be transported to an alternate world in its 1950s, with Golden Age analogues of the PCs. One PC, an armored Japanese hero, would have discovered that his analogue was one of the greatest villains of that world, having grown bitter during his time in an internment camp during WW2. Anyway, we came up with a few period villain ideas that never quite got written up. Like Paul Maul, a Wolverine-type with fog attacks due to his incessant chain-smoking (because everybody smoked in the '50s) and for the D&D crowd, The Gelatinous Cuban. It wasn't the most serious of games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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