The Villain City

[Clonus]

Usually Campaign City is a place which, while not perfect, is a place where the heros and their law enforcement allies have the upper hand for the most part. But how does one go about creating a city where heros are the true underdogs and supervillains run the show without much fear of a national government and its military?

 

Option 1: Hold the city hostage with a nuke. Seen in Dark Knight Rises. An inherently unstable situation. You will leak hostages, it cuts the city off from the commerce it needs to feed itself, and the national government will sooner or later decide that it is time to roll the dice and blame the resulting catastrophe on the villain, who is after all the one who set off a nuke. Also even your colleagues may not relish living under a constant sword of Damocles.

 

Option 2: Enclose the city with an impenetrable barrier. The result is cannibalism of course unless you also provide a super-science means of feeding everyone.

 

Option 3. Take advantage of the national government being somehow disabled, even if it wasn't you who did it. In the middle of an alien invasion or a red-state/blue state civil war both sides may choose to leave dealing with a city defended by supervillains for a later date. If the rest of the nation has been depopulated by some kind of nuclear holocaust or super volcano, the concept of "supervillain" may become nearly meaningless.

 

Option 4. Take covert control. The national government isn't sending in the troops because they don't know that the city cops and administration are on your pay roll and you are quietly framing and/or murdering any wanna-be heros.

 

Option 5. Convince the federal government to abandon the city by, say, environmentally contaminating it or turning it into a place of exile for troublesome people.

 

Option 6. Build it outside the territory of any national government

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Villain City

 

Well, there is a variation of Option 4: have a city with such rot and corruption at its heart, the criminals are largely running the show. Local government officials are either in the pockets of the crooks, or impotent in the face of the systemic decay of the city's institutions. People who stand up against the illegalities are discredited or found dead with depressing regularity. The federal government keeps making promises and sometimes throwing money at the situation, but any substantive aid is always diverted by criminals at the city level.

 

This is the premise of some interpretations of Gotham City at its worst, and of Hero Games's own Hudson City setting. It's not really much of a stretch from real-world examples, either. Look at the collapse of the urban core of Detroit, or the massively-entrenched gang violence in Los Angeles. These have been major problems for many years, but no one has been able to substantially impact them, and inhabitants of those cities have largely accepted this state of affairs as just the way things are.

 

Making this work for a full superhumans campaign would just be a matter of amping up the organized criminals, their leaders and enforcers using powers rather than guns. You would have to tone down the costumes, public IDs and flashy effects somewhat to make it harder for the crooks to be identified; but if supervillains existed in real life that's how they'd most likely operate.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Villain City

 

Option 6. Build it outside the territory of any national government

 

Or, have the particular national government in question be complicit in the situation, because some the profits from criminal activities go into its own pocket. Essentially pre-Communist Havana on steroids.

 

You also have examples such as Medellin or Cali in Colombia, where the criminals plowed some of their profits back into projects benefitting the local people. They enjoyed widespread support from the populace of their cities for many years, making it very difficult for federal authorities to track or infiltrate their organizations.

[Ranxerox]

Re: The Villain City

 

Option 8: Kill down the line of succession until the Secretary of Agriculture is now President, and let him know that if he tries to mess with your city the Secretary of Commerce will be getting a big promotion.

[ayinde]

Re: The Villain City

 

why not just quietly take control a disenfranchised sub culture if the crime boss maintains order in there community the crime boss becomes the preferred law in the area and the legitimist law would be seen as meddlers and trouble makers

[Hermit]

Re: The Villain City

 

Don't forget the fun options of subtle (or not always so subtle) mind control or magics that mimic same, or even blatant transformation. I recall Kulan Gath 'taking over' NYC by creating a magic field that transformed everything (And everyone) that came into it to fit the pocket reality. The military couldn't do anything about it because their tech failed, and their soldiers became warriors in service to the evil sorcerer as soon as they entered.

 

One doesn't have to go Stygian age stuff to pull it off. Imagine a pin stripped suit wearing 'Boss' from the early part of the twenty century with his own piece of the jade mirror of reality shifting a section of modern day Chicago to instead reflect a gangster paradise where Tommy guns were the latest firearm and every cop suddenly was on the take. Your heroes might have the strength of will to resist long enough to find his magic mcguffin and restore everyone, but in the mean time they find themselves living a pulp adventure

[sinanju]

Re: The Villain City

 

Well, there is a variation of Option 4: have a city with such rot and corruption at its heart, the criminals are largely running the show. Local government officials are either in the pockets of the crooks, or impotent in the face of the systemic decay of the city's institutions. People who stand up against the illegalities are discredited or found dead with depressing regularity. The federal government keeps making promises and sometimes throwing money at the situation, but any substantive aid is always diverted by criminals at the city level.

 

This is the premise of some interpretations of Gotham City at its worst, and of Hero Games's own Hudson City setting. It's not really much of a stretch from real-world examples, either. Look at the collapse of the urban core of Detroit, or the massively-entrenched gang violence in Los Angeles. These have been major problems for many years, but no one has been able to substantially impact them, and inhabitants of those cities have largely accepted this state of affairs as just the way things are.

 

Making this work for a full superhumans campaign would just be a matter of amping up the organized criminals, their leaders and enforcers using powers rather than guns. You would have to tone down the costumes, public IDs and flashy effects somewhat to make it harder for the crooks to be identified; but if supervillains existed in real life that's how they'd most likely operate.

 

I second this. I'd also suggest looking at Chicago. The corruption and cronyism there is legendary, as is the way criminals have intertwined with government, labor and business.

 

The costumed villains are probably mostly going to be outsiders, or second-tier bad guys. The REAL powers in the city are too busy running things (or enjoying the fruits of their ill-gotten gains) to be running around getting into fights with costumed heroes. Besides, they have a) lawyers and the cops on speed dial in case some bloody-minded vigilante takes it into his head to come after them.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: The Villain City

 

Don't forget the fun options of subtle (or not always so subtle) mind control or magics that mimic same, or even blatant transformation. I recall Kulan Gath 'taking over' NYC by creating a magic field that transformed everything (And everyone) that came into it to fit the pocket reality. The military couldn't do anything about it because their tech failed, and their soldiers became warriors in service to the evil sorcerer as soon as they entered.

 

One doesn't have to go Stygian age stuff to pull it off. Imagine a pin stripped suit wearing 'Boss' from the early part of the twenty century with his own piece of the jade mirror of reality shifting a section of modern day Chicago to instead reflect a gangster paradise where Tommy guns were the latest firearm and every cop suddenly was on the take. Your heroes might have the strength of will to resist long enough to find his magic mcguffin and restore everyone, but in the mean time they find themselves living a pulp adventure

 

The entry on Tezcatlipoca in Champions Villains even gives one the mechanism by which such a state of affairs can be set up.

[Doc Samson]

Re: The Villain City

 

City of Villains had an interesting idea with the city being its own island government run by supervillains.

[Clonus]

Re: The Villain City

 

Option 8: Kill down the line of succession until the Secretary of Agriculture is now President' date=' and let him know that if he tries to mess with your city the Secretary of Commerce will be getting a big promotion.[/quote']

 

Once you've done that there's no particular reason to stop at a city, though since obviously nobody is able to put up effective resistance to you.

[Ranxerox]

Re: The Villain City

 

Once you've done that there's no particular reason to stop at a city' date=' though since obviously nobody is able to put up effective resistance to you.[/quote']

 

Well, there is a difference between being able to kill individuals at will and being able to take on the US army. Threatening the President, even if you have have a clearly demonstrated ability make good on your threat, is only going to take you so far.

[Kirby]

Re: The Villain City

 

Well' date=' there is a difference between being able to kill individuals at will and being able to take on the US army. Threatening the President, even if you have have a clearly demonstrated ability make good on your threat, is only going to take you so far.[/quote']Yeah? You and what army? Oh, that one.

[TheQuestionMan]

Metropolis vs Gotham - Both are Hero and Villains Cities. 

[clsage]

Depending on the 'grit/realism' level of the campaign, you might want to try the method seen in the cartoon series The Super Hero Squad Show. It is (at its core) a version of the 'build a giant wall' option mentioned in the original post: two cities sit side by side - Super Hero City and Villainville. The series is full of self referential and self deprecating humor. Definitely a good option for a 'beer and pretzels' scenario or three....

[bubba smith]

this could fit a DARK CHAMPIONS low powered or tv level powers game as well

[clsage]

I also just (well, several hours ago..) remembered that there is a wall that divides the city we see in the SF television show Almost Human, with the primary action occurring in the more prosperous side, and the corrupt 'Syndicate' being based in the ghetto-ized side. They really haven't followed up much on the trope, excluding some 'throw away references' (eg: segments of the pilot episode, the 'memory parlor' that Kenex has visited, something one of the NX's said after interviewing a witness, etc). And while it is more a street level Star Hero, or perhaps  Dark Champions, campaign venue it might be worth a gander for ideas.

[The Weapon]

Ok, the central question is "Why doesn't the central government (State or National) step in and take down the big bad guys.".  

There might be many reasons.  The central government might have far more pressing problems than one city being corrupt.  Big political struggles over the future of the State/Country mean that neither side can afford to take on the bosses in Ogacihc city.  Besides it's not like they're a national security problem.  The bosses just want to run their rackets, take a bit from the hardworking workers and kill the occasional witness.   Sure it's not good, but it's not going to threaten your entire society.  So what's the central government going to do?  Spend lots of time, resources, money, and possibly the lives of their top men to shut down a few crime bosses?  Or let well enough alone?  After all the bosses can be helpful at times, deliver congressional seats reliably, contribute to campaign funds, all sorts of things.  And they have an interest in stopping the truly big threats. All they have to do is help take out potential world killers now and again and it's well worth a few million people having less than perfect lives.

 

Of course if the country as a whole viewed the situation as intolerable pressure would build.  But most people aren't going to care, it's not happening to them and the bosses put a lot of effort into minimizing the bad press.  And nobody really delves into how bad things really are because a) it makes powerful people look incompetent or corrupt, they get killed, and c) there's no point because nobody will do anything anyway.  .  

[TheQuestionMan]

Good references inlude;

Black Summer by Warren Ellis.

Batman: No Man's Land

Invincible Vol. 1

Marvel's AIM Island

 

Check them out

 

QM

[Hermit]

Not sure if someone already mentioned this, but there's also the Megaprison gone wrong. A city sized prison meant to hold ALL the bad guys, where suddenly the inmates not only get out and take over, they have either hidden their take over so no one is the wiser or they have something to lord over the authorities

[Nothere]

Well there's always the Mandarin solution. One of the criminals in the city has such advanced alien technology, or other useful resourse the government looks the other way.

[Hermit]

Possible idea for a villain City in the CU....

 

Costa Azul (I think that's the one) has long been a haven for drugs, white slavery, gun running, and more. It's leader has seemingly mocked international law knowing that the Middle East and other parts of the world are the bigger concerns even when you take supervillains out of the equation.

 

That was the case at least until roughly a year and a half ago.

 

A group of supervillains was offered a chance at reduced sentences if they could perform a black op on Costa Azul's dictator. It was all supposed to be very hush hush. Failsafes were supposed to be in place for all contingences. Unfortunately, the intelligence organization that prepared this underestimated the villains in question.

 

While the villains DID suceed in killing the dictator, they had also managed to gather evidence that the US govt (Or at least a part of it, including certain HIGH ranking politicians in more than once branch) was behind the mission. The villains broke free from the remote devices meant to contain them (Be it bombs in the head or power surpressors that could activate any time) and went public as the NEW leaders of the small island nation. With such nice blackmail material at their disposal, they managed not only to get away with it, but pressed for covert support. That's right, they struck a different sort of deal, one where they would turn over non powered terrorists that came to the area and allow it to look like the work of said government officials.

 

"After all," One villain suggested, "Grond in DC is BAD...but a nuke going off is worse."

Non masked villains would be sacrificed in exchange for the masked ones living like kings.

 

Costa Azul is now a supervillain haven, a sanctuary for sin, where supervillains, be they solo acts or teams, can lick their wounds after a defeat, or spend their wealth after a success.

 

How long it will last is hard to say, but it hasn't broken up into infighting yet as was predicted.

[Alewis478]

In the book Steelheart there are no heroes, only villians, and while most of the world is a wasteland a few major villians have "claimed" a city. In those cities, or at least in Chicago where the book takes place, the major villan lets lesser villians roam free and do whatever they want as long as they don't interfere with the running of the city. (No blowing up the power station)

[carmachu]

You could go the old GI Joe comic plot- complicated plot that raised an island off in the ocean far enough away to be declared its own  country and/or citystate.......

[godjam4]

'Bedlam City' is an excellent example of a corrupt city- something along the lines of Nightwing's 'Bludhaven', it'd recommend it for ideas of how crime and criminals can have the upperhand in a city.

It is quite street-level and gritty, but also hints that there might be magical, corperate and secret government types who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo- it's actually quite realistic as to why 1) most people on the national stage ignore it. (think Detroit)  and 2) That it would be really hard to fix, even for superhero types.

[wcw43921]

You could go the old GI Joe comic plot- complicated plot that raised an island off in the ocean far enough away to be declared its own  country and/or citystate.......

 

Wouldn't that make it easier for a nation opposed to the villains to declare war on them, though?  That's what I'd do if I were President and Mr. Villain raised up his own Mr. Villain Island--inform Congress of the impending threat and send in the Marines and everything else.