Grandiose Schemes For Over The Top Villains

[Clonus]

 1.  Start a chain reaction that causes every dormant and active volcano in the Ring of Fire to erupt at the same time.  

 2.  Create a tailored disease that cripples the part of the human brain that allows for facial identification.  

 3.  Open a teleport gate in the ocean that connects to one of those water worlds with miles deep oceans.  As the water flows through it causes the oceans to rise until eventually no land will be above water.  

 4.  Teleport a large city into the Cretaceous era.

 5.  Use Sleeping Beauty's curse to put a county into suspended animation with the perimeter walled off by animate thorn bushes that grow back from all damage and suicidal birds that take out any low flying aircraft.  

 6.  Expose an entire country to mutagenic chemicals or radiation to "help evolution"

 7.  Cast a spell to render the written word unintelligible to everyone who doesn't know enough magic.

 8. Put chemicals into city water supplies to render the inhabitants more suggestible.  

 9.  Rig the sound systems at large public events with rays that cause the attendees to gradually shrink to the size of action figures.  

10. Create an extremely popular MMORPG.  There was going to be more to this plan, but that's already evil enough.  I mean there will be lootboxes.  

[Lord Liaden]

I developed a pretty grandiose scheme for my modified Champions Universe campaign, involving the setting's Darkseid/Thanos analogue, Xarriel (Champions Beyond). His plan involved acquiring three artifacts of tremendous power, also described in CB. The Cosmic Gems allow a possessor of one of them to wield great cosmic energy, proportionate to the wielder's innate strength and will. In the hand of a godlike being such as Xarriel a Gem's power would be nearly infinite. The Annihilation Scepter can cause a "Big Crunch" event, collapsing the entire universe back into a primal atom -- which also destroys the holder of the Scepter. The Kdothri Mirror can alter reality for anything reflected on its surface, however its user desires. In the past it's been used against entire planets, but the Mirror must be placed so as to reflect the entirely of the object to be affected, so its wielder can clearly recognize the target.

 

I won't bore you with my plots for Xarriel acquiring each artifact; but once he has them all, Xarriel will trigger the Annihilation Scepter. This normally would kill Xarriel, but he believes his power plus that of a Cosmic Gem will be enough to protect him. When the universe has collapsed into the primal atom, Xarriel will position the Kdothri Mirror outside the event horizon, so he can shape the new Big Bang into a universe where every living thing worships and serves himself.

 

(BTW and FWIW, I thought of this years before Infinity War.)

[assault]

1. Reverse global warming by eliminating 90% of the population of the northern hemisphere. Techniques can vary, but ideally should be controllable enough to spare indigenous and other unique or endangered cultures. And preferably not get out of control and kill everyone...

 

2. Destroy the modern world by reviving extinct species in large numbers, and with disproportionate amounts of predators.

 

3. An insectoid villain tries to find/create a suitable mate, hopefully resulting in the laying of eggs. Lots of eggs. Lots and lots of eggs...

[steriaca]

Send the leaders of the world into a comatose state, so that the only logical leadership for the entire world is the villain.

 

Threaten to revive the worse villains out of history unless payment of 10 Million are made to the villain. He has already cloned a few, just to prove it can be done.

 

We can't talk about grand plans without talking about Foxbat's grand kidnapping plot. To kidnap and hold for ransom everyone on the planet using perceived tech from Paramount (transporter technology from Star Trek, which do not work for real).

[DShomshak]

On 5/30/2019 at 12:49 PM, Clonus said:

 

 4.  Teleport a large city into the Cretaceous era.

  

I had this as a bit of campaign background for my Avant Guard campaign. Doctor Thane, the world's most powerful techno-villain, sent the Dallas-Fort Worth area back to the Cretaceous to show Evangelicals that geological history was real. By conservation of mass, an equal area of the Cretaceous appeared in the city's place in Texas. Tech-her and time travel specialist Doctor Future put the city back, but there was a lot of cleanup afterward. First, a bunch of dinosaurs escaped into Texas. Second, a bunch of Texans escaped into the Cretaceous as the grabbed their buns and went out to HUNT DINOSAURS! The dinos escaped into the 21st century didn't last long. The Texans escaped into the Mesozoic took a long time to round up -- those who weren't eaten -- and Doctor Future was never sure all of them were accounted for.

 

Doctor Thane's thing was conducting experiments that could incidentally destroy the world, or at least large portions of it. He tried setting off the Yelloowstone caldera because he wanted to study the effects of really big megavolcanic eruptions (and he had not yet developed time travel). And could nanobots really destroy the world in a Gray Goo meltdown? Only one way to find out! Can the local gravitational constant be changed? Yes, and that this will cause the Moon to crash into the Earth presents further research opportunities. Thane's final plan was to destroy the universe as a way of testing "decay of the false vacuum" theories. Avant Guard stopped him, but it apparently cost Doctor Future's life. They hope Thane is gone for good, too, but they doubt it: Time travelers are hard to eliminate forever.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Mark Rand]

On 5/30/2019 at 3:49 PM, Clonus said:

 4.  Teleport a large city into the Cretaceous era.

I love this one.  He could even send both Washington, D.C. and Moscow back and threaten to return them to present day unless given control of the world.  Of course, dinosaurs, including several specimens of T-Rex, would return with the them.

[KA.]

On 6/1/2019 at 3:18 PM, DShomshak said:

I had this as a bit of campaign background for my Avant Guard campaign. Doctor Thane, the world's most powerful techno-villain, sent the Dallas-Fort Worth area back to the Cretaceous to show Evangelicals that geological history was real. By conservation of mass, an equal area of the Cretaceous appeared in the city's place in Texas. Tech-her and time travel specialist Doctor Future put the city back, but there was a lot of cleanup afterward. First, a bunch of dinosaurs escaped into Texas. Second, a bunch of Texans escaped into the Cretaceous as the grabbed their buns and went out to HUNT DINOSAURS! The dinos escaped into the 21st century didn't last long. The Texans escaped into the Mesozoic took a long time to round up -- those who weren't eaten -- and Doctor Future was never sure all of them were accounted for.

 

Doctor Thane's thing was conducting experiments that could incidentally destroy the world, or at least large portions of it. He tried setting off the Yelloowstone caldera because he wanted to study the effects of really big megavolcanic eruptions (and he had not yet developed time travel). And could nanobots really destroy the world in a Gray Goo meltdown? Only one way to find out! Can the local gravitational constant be changed? Yes, and that this will cause the Moon to crash into the Earth presents further research opportunities. Thane's final plan was to destroy the universe as a way of testing "decay of the false vacuum" theories. Avant Guard stopped him, but it apparently cost Doctor Future's life. They hope Thane is gone for good, too, but they doubt it: Time travelers are hard to eliminate forever.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

I am pretty sure that if Texans were exposed to Dinosaurs, their first move would be to grab their buns and go hunting!

 

Why?

 

Two words . . .

 

Dino Burgers!

[clnicholsusa]

If anybody suggested I should take my thirty ought six and challenge a tyrannosaur, I think I'd be grabbing my buns, too.

[BoloOfEarth]

Stealing a page from Marvel: magically transforming a city and all its inhabitants into ancient history equivalents.  (So the police become city guards, most of the inhabitants become peasants, etc.)  To everybody in the city, and anyone entering the city, they've *always* been that way and have no recollection of the modern world.

 

Launching hundreds of small (textbook-sized) satellites into orbit, each of which can generate a localized gravity field.  Combined, they can create a giant gravity lens capable of focusing the sun's energy into a massive (half a kilometer wide) laser-like beam directed at any point on the Earth's surface.

 

Cause everybody on Earth to become uncontrollably able to read the minds of everybody near them, ostensibly to stop crime and foster peace world-wide.  However, the chaos (as people hear what others *really* think about them) would be unbelievable.

 

Use cell phones and electrical lines to generate fields that interfere with the intelligence and common sense of anybody nearby. 

[Tech]

I suppose Foxbat's master plan of stealing all the Cheetos in the city doesn't count?

[steriaca]

58 minutes ago, Tech said:

I suppose Foxbat's master plan of stealing all the Cheetos in the city doesn't count?

It pails in comparison to kidnapping everyone In the world and holding them for ransom. It involved a Mechanon shell, and stealing the transporter technology from Paramount Studios/Desilou. Note, he is referring to Star Trek, of course, and such tech FOR TV AND MOVIES is only special effects.

 

Assuming he could get the shell (it was hidden in plane sight as the Guardians coat rack), and the technology is real and at Paramount, there are two problems he haven't thought of. One, where will he store everybody? Two, who would pay the ransom?

[BoloOfEarth]

Hmmm...  Foxbat plans...

 

I've had him break into the Federal Reserve, with the goal of removing several million dollars worth of actual money and replacing it with Foxbat-Bucks (dollars with his picture, and those of the members of Foxbat Force, in place of the presidents - oh, and In Foxbat We Trust emblazoned on them).  As a distraction / attempt to keep PRIMUS and heroes away, he created a force dome over that section of the city and caused it to snow inside -- effectively creating a giant snowglobe.

 

Not exactly grandiose, but he's stolen the Batmobile and costumes / props from the 1960s Batman TV show, and then tried to kidnap Adam West and Burt Ward (using his Costumatron - Instant Change usable against others - to put them into said stolen costumes).  The epic parts of this were that (1) he also had a Photonic Optical Waveform (POW) generator, which generated holograms of "POW!"  "BAM!"  "CRASH!" etc. at appropriate points during combat, and (2) the PC heroes dressed up as the villains from the TV show before fighting Foxbat and friends.

 

I always liked the idea someone posted on these boards, of Foxbat using an anti-gravity generator to lift (I think) a convention center way up in the air, while a Flat Earthers convention was taking place, to show them the curvature of the Earth and prove it's spherical.)

 

 

[Tech]

steriaca, my post was a joke so of course it wasn't grandoise (relatively speaking). I always use Foxbat for comic relief.

[steriaca]

42 minutes ago, Tech said:

steriaca, my post was a joke so of course it wasn't grandoise (relatively speaking). I always use Foxbat for comic relief.

Well, depriving an entire city of Cheetos Is a grand plan in some circles. Don't set yourself short there.

[Lord Liaden]

Heck, considering how I feel about Cheetos, I'd probably help him.

[BoloOfEarth]

10 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Heck, considering how I feel about Cheetos, I'd probably help him.

 

But that would be Cheet-ing.

[steriaca]

Ok. Every major mastermind has a go to master plan. Doctor Destroyer likes satellites, either for mind control, a Really Bleeping Huge Laser, or a Relay Bleeping Huge Asteroid Attracting Tractor Beam. Mechanon likes replacing organics in control with robotic doppelgangers. Thorn does something with plants. Lots of plants. King Cobra uses his obsession of snakes.

 

But what is Holocaust's go to? Or anyone else in the VV1 book?

[Tjack]

    What if some undeniably evil and brilliant villain like Dr.Destroyer announced that he’s launched weather control satellites that would reverse Global Warming, developed soy hybrids that would stop world hunger and found the cure for Cancer but would destroy them all unless he were named Ruler of Earth.  

    The heroes would have to make some hard decisions....huh?

[Lord Liaden]

If Destroyer can create them, other people can too. There isn't just one super genius in comic books. And whenever you sign a deal with the devil, there's always a trap in the fine print.

[steriaca]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

If Destroyer can create them, other people can too. There isn't just one super genius in comic books. And whenever you sign a deal with the devil, there's always a trap in the fine print.

True Liaden. But the bad Doctor made and launched a lot of them. Not that it is his M.O. He has had other plans, right?

[DShomshak]

I try to give each megavillain their own style. In my campaign, Professor Proton was the straight-up, give me the world or I'll blow stuff up high-tech megalomaniac. (And I thought of him before Big Bang Theory used the name for the aging host of a kid's science show. Though I don't begrudge them the use of the name, because Bob Newhart.) For campaign background, Professor Proton first built a base inside one of the highest peaks of the Himalayas, from which he threatened half of Asia with long-range plasma cannons. He later reoccupied Proton Peak, built a Weather Dominator and held the monsoon hostage. For a change of pace he built a skyscraper in New Delhi that was actually the resonator for an Ultrasonic Mind Control device with which he hoped to take over the Indian government. Taking a cue from the Austin Powers movies, he built a giant laser on the Moon and threatened to burn cities unless the world surrendered to him. A PC origin was tied to his flying battle station Jagganoor ("Divine Light of the World," also with a big laser and a defensive screen that could only be pierced by MegaScale teleportation.

 

The PCs finally caught up with Professor Proton when he built a Gravitron and used it to deflect Comet ISON so it would hit the Earth. Either the world must surrender (in which case he'll steer the comet away) or he'll rule the few survivors after the world-ravaging impact. In addition to his own awesome power, Professor proton had a team of hench-villains and a small army of agents, including Nuclear Kshatriyas with battlesuits and plasma bazookas. As a further complication, the PCs were warned the Gravitron was volatile: If it was damaged in the slightest degree, either it would explode and vaporize everything within hundreds of miles (and leave a big hole in the Earth's crust), or its neutronium core would collapse into a black hole and start eating the Earth. The villains, of course, knew this too, which made them cautious fighting the heroes! \

 

The PCs went into the fight intending to kill Professor Proton, and knew that no one would condemn them for it: Professor Proton was in the habit of destroying small cities to demonstrate his latest superweapon, just to show he was serious. They played on his Psych Lims to keep him fighting instead of teleporting away; and when they finally knocked him out, they executed him. That just left the problem of defusing the Gravitron, but since the remaining minions had fled that was only a matter of time.

 

Though Professor proton was dead, his organization continued to play a part in the campaign: former lieutenants out for revenge, bases occupied by other villains, etc.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Tjack]

   To Lord Liaden, maybe others could do those things, but nobody has so far;  And there’s no guarantee anyone will.  Genius villains tend not to work on “saving the world” kind of problems.  (might be why they end up as villains)

   I just wanted to throw the heroes in this game a moral problem to work over, kind of like the one in Wings of the Valkyrie.  “Do we save the timeline from being changed or do we save Hitler from being killed by time traveling assassins.”

   Besides,watching the news this morning I was wondering how many countries around the world crippled by debt, suffering from drought or starving populations might say OK to the deal.

[Lord Liaden]

Oh, I concur, I'm sure some nations would agree. But I strongly doubt most nations would, or that heroes would even consider it. This is really just a variation on the old supervillain world-destroying blackmail scheme. Who would want to put the human race in the hands of someone with the means to save countless lives, but who would destroy that means if he doesn't get his way? The cure could be worse than the disease.

 

The situation reminds me of a scene from the All-Star Superman comic miniseries/animated movie. Lex Luthor has gained Superman's powers, but when he starts to view the world with Superman's senses, from the sub-atomic scale, he experiences a revelation of how everything is connected, how to solve the greatest mysteries in science. But his powers run out and Superman prevents Lex from renewing them. Luthor collapses in despair, lamenting the loss of his insight, that "I could have saved the world!" Superman tells him: "Lex, if you really wanted to save the world, you could have done it years ago."

[Cancer]

If your villain has been around long enough, very long-duration plans can do fascinating and deadly things.  Something with that long a lifetime and planning horizon probably isn't human. 

 

Maybe a collective hive mind intelligence of a few million tons of thermophilic archaebacteria that wants the "good old eons"  back, the time of low-oxygen high-CO2 and none of those confounded multicelled life forms?  If (for example) the exposure of the hotspot under Yellowstone to the rich Rocky Mountain mineral fields, with the water seeping from above from the high Rockies icecaps, was enough to make for this massive collective-mentality colony developing in the geyser fields of Wyoming say half a million years back or so ... you could have something unimagined and really alien.  And if it had telepathic powers, it could have influenced those silly ground primates to start digging up and burning all that fossil carbon as fast as they possibly can and bring the global atmosphere back towards what it likes...

 

(Rats.  Maybe I should have saved this idea for the July "create a pantheon" superdraft over in NGD-land.)

 

Thinking on a lesser scale ... with only modest interplanetary capacity and, say, 10,000 years of lead time, you could arrange for a shower of small asteroids to strike over a modest interval of time (a few weeks, I think).

[Tjack]

 I just flashed on a real world example of this.   When Richard Nixon campaigned and won on the statement that he had a “Secret Plan” to stop the war in Vietnam.  He becomes President and then it turns out the plan was “everybody out of the pool!”

    Maybe he was a Supervillain.....still better than what we’ve got now.