Supervillain team goals

[DShomshak]

On 1/28/2019 at 5:35 PM, Lord Liaden said:

This approach can be extended to any ideology or group that particular villains may identify as a threat to society and in need of being fought: industrialists, the military, organized religion, the media, Canadians, etc.

Many years ago, the radio program A Prairie Home Companion did a "Red Scare" spoof about Creeping International Canadianism! "A Canadian takeover of the United States: Could it happen? What would it look like?"

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

So, considering villain teams instead of solo villains...

Some super-teams work for larger organizations. If the sponsor is villainous, so is the team. The classic form is the team of super-soldiers working for an evil government (or one of those shadowy, malign government agencies that were de rigeur in Iron Age comics). Evil corporations are another classic, such as the Serpent Squad teams assembled by Marvel's favorite corporate nasty, Roxxon. Or in the CU, VIPER sponsors a number of villain teams as super-powered backup for its regular agents. Your campaign's international criminal/subversive/terrorist agency can do the same.

You can also make a villain team distinctive based on why its members stick together. This usually connects to their goals, but not always. For instance, a team of villains might stay together because they were all part of the same origin event.

For a further variation, the villains might be related. I recently heard of a study that a very small percentage of American families account for a surprisingly large percentage of American crime. And no, this isn't Mafia-style organized crime: just families where everybody is a criminal -- mostly petty crime, from shoplifting to burglary or the convenience-store level of armed robbery. Some of these criminal families go back generations. Let them be mutants, or all be exposed to the same radiation accident, and you've got a supervillain team.

 

Dean Shomshak

[steriaca]

While not a "team goal", Jason from Friday the 13th has an interesting one. It is "leave me alone". You are a human and trespass where he is, he IS going to kill you.

[BoloOfEarth]

16 hours ago, steriaca said:

While not a "team goal", Jason from Friday the 13th has an interesting one. It is "leave me alone". You are a human and trespass where he is, he IS going to kill you.

 

This could be a team goal.  For instance, a group of mutants hiding in the sewers might just want to be left in peace. 

[BoloOfEarth]

So here's an attempt at a list of suggested motivations, with the understanding that some motivations might have overlap.  And if I missed any, or if you object to my combining any, my apologies:

• Greed
• World Domination
• Revolution
• Revenge
• Seeking Knowledge / Science!
• Clearing My Name
• Ends Justify the Means / Greater Good
• My Powers Made Me This Way / Madness!
• I Can Do What I Want / Entitlement
• Seeking Love
• Being In Love
• Political Motives / Ideologies
• Thrill-Seeker
• Old Mistake
• Existential Dread
• Collection
• Property Rights
• The Challenge
• Trying to Get Home
• Amass Personal Power
• Extortion
• Make a Fool of X
• Mutual Assistance Against X
• Social Affinity
• Societal Transformation
• Playing a Game
• Extreme Personal Goal
• We Are Family
• Leave Me / Us Alone

[Hermit]

 

The City of Apple Cove was not large as cities went. It wasn't a New York City, hell, it wasn't even an Albany. It had become quite the stop over for VIPER activities though. It seemed green and yellow scumwads pulled a new heist every month or so, perhaps as training for the 'real cities'.  Banks would get hit, not even carrying that much. Whole lower class neighborhoods would get raided, the cops would get hammered and then nothing. You might hear about a similar battle on a larger scale in some metropolis hundreds of miles away.

 

Requests for official government sanctioned super teams, or at least a PRIMUS unit were sent, but due to 'budgetary constraints' and 'New rules requiring prioritization' were ignored . And civilian superhero teams?  Well, why would you come to a town with a monthly flare up when cities like Chicago were facing world conquerors every other day? 

 

Apple Cove just wasn't in trouble enough.

 

Until... they came.

 

Doctor Menace, Catty-Corner, Killer Nimbus, and Dark Magus!

 

Swearing they put crush the city entirely! Already they've caused a black out! They seized a limo of a local millionaire in a failed kidnapping attempt

 

Of course, they're all fakes...it's a con. 

Doctor Menace is NOT the Doctor Destroyer look alike he pretends to be. He's a theatre major, and maybe his mother, a police officer, getting nearly killed by VIPER isn't important to bean counters, but she's important to  him!

Catty-Corner is a shy girl normally, but she's quite enjoying the cosplay angle. She's never been the 'sexy girl' before. She was the one who proposed 'kidnapping' her father, a millionaire who might have the pull to push on the federal level for help. Of course, it had to fail...not like they'd really hurt him geez. Dad doesn't know that the private all girls school had an elective in 'self defense' courses.

Killer Nimbus wouldn't hurt a soul. She's a drone enthusiast and a pretty good hacker. Easy to 'plunge a city into darkness' when can hack the electric company while folks think it's demonic magic or what not.

Dark Magus is a stage magician pretending to be the real thing.

They can't take on VIPER

They're risking their lives taking on the cops

but if they cause enough trouble, make it look like a real super villain team has set up shop... PRIMUS will re prioritize Apple Cove, or maybe some REAL Superhero will show up. They just have to hope the protective gear they have set up will let them survive it.

 

As far as they know, they're the only supervillain team motivated by federal bureaucratic requirements

 

 

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

Hermit I like the thought that VIPER does bank robbing not for finanacial gain but training. Maybe it’s also initiation too?

[Hermit]

6 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Hermit I like the thought that VIPER does bank robbing not for finanacial gain but training. Maybe it’s also initiation too?

 

Snakebait, oh ah ha!

?

 

[Alverant]

This may fall under "do whatever I want" but what about trolling? Villains who do bad things because they know it will make others mad. It could be augmented to fit a social agenda where they want to upset a group of people they don't like. Some of it may even be legal which would frustrate the heroes since they won't have a valid reason for fighting said villains. Think of it like a mean-spirited version of CLOWN.

 

In my campaign I had a street gang that deliberately avoided crimes like drive-bys and drug trafficking because they wanted the police to focus their attention elsewhere. They went with low-risk/low-reward crimes to slowly build power. In some ways, that's a bigger threat than the constant struggle to be on top.