Victor Krum

[quozaxx]

In my games I have one recurring character. His name is Victor Krum.

Victor is one of those "in-between" characters. He presents himself as neither truly evil, nor truly good.

 

He has an unusual power, which I need help defining.

 

He can "see" how things fit together - like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

 

Perhaps I need to explain more of his history so you can get a better feel of how this power works.

 

Ever since Victor can remember, he "knows" how things fit together. Not necessarily how things work (he can't just rebuild a car, or do major surgery), but he "knows" how events and people fit together to create a better outcome.

 

When Victor was just 10 years old, he convinced his father to apply to work for a company that was later found out to be a VIPER related company. He did this because he "knew" it was important for him to be inter connected with VIPER at an early age, thus making him seem totally loyal.

 

When Victor was 16, he was a full member of Generation VIPER. Even though his powers never showed up on any devices. He convinced VIPER to give booster flu shots to infants to pose as a trustworthy front. But in reality, he gave one 2 year old a shot that would later turn him into a super hero.

 

The individual would always think that they were born a mutant. (A PC in one of my past groups named Metamorph),

 

Victor rose quickly up the ranks of VIPER. But he was careful never to actually kill anyone, because he "knew" it was important not to do it.

 

When he was 26, he convinced VIPER to try turning criminals into super powered individuals. He worked his way into a "normal" prison as a cook, and one day served up glowing green meatloaf. Two individuals gained super powers that day. One was a PC hero by the name of Fast Freddy, and the other was an npc called Freight Train. (his Hunted)

 

4 more years pass, as Freddy establishes himself to be a model prisoner, Victor was working with a scientist on a new device. That device was sabotaged by Victor, and would explode at a certain time. The scientist was not harmed but his roommate was blinded and gained super powers because of it. (A PC by the name of Ocular), and his roommate would blame his roommate for the explosion.

 

4 more years pass, Victor works his way into a chemical plant that was secretly owned my VIPER, where a PC had just quit as a secretary (she never knew it belonged to VIPER). A shootout occurred between VIPER and PRIMUS. PRIMUS got an anonymous call that the company was owned by VIPER. During the shootout, Victor shot one of the chemical vats, making it spill onto the PC, thus giving her super powers.

 

Now, in the present day, Victor has quit VIPER taking many, many former VIPER agents with him. He was acquitted of any crimes while in VIPER because he helped PRIMUS take down 3 training facilities His body guard is Freight Train.

 

Victor publicly states that his whole purpose is to take down VIPER, once and for all. He uses stolen VIPER weapons, money, and resources to do this. He created the Ex-VIPERS. A group of former VIPER agents to help accomplish this.

 

What Victor's long term plans are no one knows. Why he ultimately created the Guardians, no one knows. They are just one corner piece of his giant puzzle. Just like his father getting that job with VIPER, was all part of a puzzle piece. This is why Victor comes across as neither a good guy nor a bad guy. You can't get any more "gray" than Victor.

 

Normally, I'd think this was some sort of Precognition Power. But I think there is more there. What do you think?

[Sketchpad]

Re: Victor Krum

 

I would almost give him a low level VPP to represent having an answer for most things. Specifically speaking, I would definitely say a form of Precognition, plus maybe a high score in Tactics bought as a power.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Re: Victor Krum

 

As in all Hero games: define the effect. What you've said so far could be simply a super high Deduction skill, or it could be a limited precognition or luck, or it could be an odd kind of aid or transform that "nudges" outcomes. Heck, it could even be "Extra-Dimensional Movement" that transports the character into the possible world where the outcome is realized (as with the Fantasy Hero "wish" spell).

 

What do you want the character to do, and what are you willing to permit as a GM? Heck, if this is an NPC, why actually try to build the power instead of simply attaching a generic active points value (for adjustment powers) and a generic test roll value (13- or something) to it?

[psyber624]

Re: Victor Krum

 

I knew that name sounded familiar... Harry Potter character... lol

 

Honestly everything you have described seems to be an uncontrollable Precognition power, if you were trying to set him up as a PC. It's a weird one to say the least, with the GM constantly having to tell the player (you know you should do this) but similar concepts have appeared in numerous sources (the movie "Push" leaps to mind with the precog talents of the girl and her mother.). You might also want to consider the power of that one guy from the Alpha's TV show first season, I can't remember his name but he had the power to start a chain reaction of seemingly unrelated events which would lead to a conclusion that he wanted. I'd buy something like that as a VPP and just pick what "final effect" you want to be the power selected, and the "series of events leading up to it" simply the SFX.

[massey]

Re: Victor Krum

 

For super-smart characters (which is basically what this guy is), you can always give them an array of powers to represent long-term plans coming to fruition, or their genius at work. For your guy, you may want to give him a ton of Contacts. It's not that he knows those people or has an actual "contact" with them, but he can have a game-terms Contact with them because he'll arrange things so that the specific person finds themselves in a position where they will do what he wants. While the police chief doesn't know the guy, he'll end up functioning as a Contact because your guy makes an anonymous phone call that leads random detective to find a few clues, which in its normal course of investigation will eventually result in police chief doing whatever it is that your guy wanted him to do.

 

Similarly, your guy can have Wealth because he gets money whenever he needs it. If your guy keeps causing people to get superpowers (and from your description it sounds intentional), then he probably needs a Transform to use on people to make them into supers. Maybe it's Time Delay, Indirect, and Variable SFX.

 

Build him as you would a normal master villain. He's got bases and followers (because he's just that good that people do what he wants), Danger Sense, some Precognition, skill levels, possibly Missile Reflection (he planted a smoke bomb that went off a few moments ago, and that obscured the attacker's sight, so when they thought they shot at you, they actually shot at that guy over there). You can buy Armor based on objects miraculously being in the way (blast strikes falling debris, passing car, tree, etc). It depends how much of his power should be combat-related.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Victor Krum

 

Reminds a bit of a character I made with a form of hyper intelligence; I described him a "pattern savant." It has been my observation that, in game mechanics, hyper-intelligence and hyper-luck work almost the same way. It's about gaining the advantage in some way, even over reality itself. The basics: skill levels, find weakness, danger sense, limited precognition, luck. Some form of avoidance based defense such as missile deflection, combat luck or high DCV levels. For what you describe, I would say some sort of stealth or invisibility to avoid detection as a source of trouble. You may even want a form of TK or Change Environment to mimic nudging things in the right direction. A VPP is always a good idea.

[quozaxx]

Re: Victor Krum

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]44811[/ATTACH]

 

I want Krum to be a more "behind the scenes" kind of guy. You probably wouldn't just attack him since you're not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy.

 

Please let me know what you would add or change.

[quozaxx]

Re: Victor Krum

 

I still think that Krum needs work. He doesn't seem quite finished.

 

Does he need more Knowledge skills?

Is his VPP too powerful, nor powerful enough, or just right? Did I phrase it right?

How about the cost for his vehicles and bases?

Do I need to add anything to his Danger sense?

Did I do his Clarsentience right?

How about his Transform? I'm pretty sure that 1d6 is probably not enough, how high should I make it?

[psyber624]

Re: Victor Krum

 

Well, here is my 2 cents (not that its worth that much of course, but you asked for opinions...)

 

Does he need more Knowledge skills?

"He knows what he needs to know" should cover exactly that. Based on what you have given us about his background I don't see anything else that would be appropriate. KS: X-Viper or KS: Primus might be appropriate, but I don't know that they would be important enough to list seperately.

 

Is his VPP too powerful, nor powerful enough, or just right? Did I phrase it right?

Based on your description of him I would probably increase the control cost a bit. IE he should be able to get fairly powerful abilities, but they should be somewhat limited (few charges on a power or such, granted charges isn't much of a limitation on a VPP power, but you get the idea.) He doesn't just get a full fledged 50 point power, he gets a 70-80 point power, but has to take limitations on it to represent the fact that he only has it for a limited time, or only gets to use it for a specific purpose, etc. (Also note that this is NOT something I would recommend for a PC, but for an NPC it should work fine.)

 

How about the cost for his vehicles and bases?

Depends on your level of handwavium. 80 points in V/B allows you to build up to 400 points in bases or vehicles, but technically that's not a VPP, it should be a one time purchase sort of thing that he sticks with. If your handwaving it to allow him to spend and replace as needed (like a vpp) its plenty honestly. If your not then no amount will suffice and you would need a V/B VPP to simulate that ability.

 

Do I need to add anything to his Danger sense?

Nothing wrong with it, maybe add some way to counteract "invisible to danger sense" powers if you think they may come up, as I understand it his danger sense is less of a "spidey sense" kind of power and more of a precog sort of power, so while he might have trouble using it vs other time manipulators normal danger sense avoidance techniques are likely to fail vs him.

 

Did I do his Clarsentience right?

I don't think Uncontrolled is what you want here. I would need to pour over the rules for Clairsentience and Uncontrolled quite a bit to be sure, but Uncontrolled is more of a way of setting up a power to work on its own even if your KO'd, out of range, etc... sort of a "constant that I don't have to worry about" kind of thing. Not sure how that would work with Clair. What I think you wanted there is No Conscious Control to reflect the fact that its a "GM Tells him" sort of thing. He doesn't go around scanning the timelines looking for ways to make things work, they just come to him. (When I spoke earlier about uncontrollable precog i was using uncontrollable as an adjective, not as a power modifier. Sorry if that caused confusion.)

 

How about his Transform? I'm pretty sure that 1d6 is probably not enough, how high should I make it?

1d6, especially with DOT 6 increments, is MORE than enough. As defined your transform will only work on "Normal" humans, which means that they have around 10 body normally (20 at most) and no Power Defense. So 1 application would be all that's needed to transform MOST humans (after 6 turns.) Even at 20 Body, on average it would take around 2 applications of the power to transform them (40 Body worth of Transform damage required, 3.5 x 6 increments is 21 average Transform Damage per use) for a total of only 12 turns... no more should be needed.

 

 

That's the points you asked about. Overall I would say this is one odd bird. He is both incredibly powerful, and surprisingly average. You said you planned to have him more of a "behind the scenes" sort of guy, but I don't know where exactly he would have a role in an actual game. As a pc he is way overpowered (or underpowered, take your pick). As an NPC the way he is written and described he would be incredibly frustrating and "unfun." Unless you actually told the PC's what was going on it would seem like stuff is always happening around/to them that they can't really control (if your letting him manipulate them.) Yet if they ever did figure out who he is and what he is doing, he is ambiguous enough that the players wouldn't really know what to do. This kind of guy could be great in a novel/comic... but I question his usefulness to an RPG.

 

That being said I am sure that there are some genius GM's out there that could make this guy rock, and I would love to see what they would do with him, because he leaves me scratching my head in confusion.