ZootSoot

Is there a write-up of Silverback somewhere? He is described as "superhumanly intelligent" and since Teleios' 50 is peak of human capacity it suggests Silverback's could be even higher. I think we have to look at what characters have to work with and how well they achieve their goals. How long has Destroyer been trying to rule the world? How long has Mechanon been trying to destroy it? How long has Teleios worked at making it his own private lab? i don't think any hero could be most intelligent, they are all reactive and seem to have as a primary goal keeping things as they are. I think the villain who has shown himself to effective at achieving his goals, even when his resources have been minimal, is probably smarter than any of the others. Thus I propose, Dark Harlequin!!!

Obviously Ultron has an emotional capacity. But, a being dedicated to ending organic life who is capable of reprogramming himself and who is smarter than a cockroach (or a comic book writer) would never be stuck working out puerile sex fantasies of forty-something year old, virgin comics writers/editors. Given everything else, for example, why would he build Jocasta with teats?

I think both Doom and Luthor are wastes of ink, boring and dull and pointles. But I can't believe anybody could consider that puling, foul, awful, rip-off of a plot device Doomsday as a great villain!

If a great villain has to be a master villain (which I don't agree with) I thought maybe we needed this thread. When it comes to meat and potato beat-down villains, the guys who maybe are working for someone else,aren't that smart or are just too lazy to use there powers for more than knocking over a bank branch or a few stores, who is the best? Rhino is my first choice.

Which is a fairly pointless diversion given that we have all of the necesary dysfunctional patterns within the Avengers themselves (I think dysfunctional is an entirely idiotic term, since it implies there is a "functional" norm). Ultron is at his most boring when the writers go Freudian (mostly because the writers themselves have a limited and lurid grasp of Freud and because many of Freud's central concepts have been largely dismissed). Having Ultron, a machine, become enmeshed in Freud's libidinal motivation complex is a serious waste of thematic potential and character development.

Ultron should have been on my list. The only master villain whose ambitions don't seem ludicrous when compared to what he has already achieved; I did despise the Jocasta storylines though, wtf is going on with the writers that they think Ultron is interested in sex (or even has a gender)?

Tough oe, so many villains are just annoyingly stupid (andf I include Luthor and Doom in that category) and often have as a super power (which many recent heroes also have had) the ability to kick-@ss without any rationale. So here goes: Joker. Taskmaster, the guy who has figured out how to use his powers usefully. Kingpin, he actually looks like he makes at profit at his crimes. The Ringmaster, though I have trouble buying his Circus of Crime as an efficient criminal organization, this guy really has some brass ones. The Spot, comes so close to having a unique power set that I have to admire him, horribly underutilized. Destine of the Brother of Evil Mutants, a female villain who is not only not knockout and a kick-@ss martial artist, but is neither. Huzzah! The Scorpion, just love his origin and his original look. The Rhino. They don't get any more straightforward. J. Jonah Jameson, neither superpowered nor megalomaniacal, he is an ethical man who is Spiderman's real arch-nemesis despite that fact.

Why not let it succeed? Not simply have the world against them, instead let people believe them when they promise utopia. The campaign will be lots of fun as ther PCs attempt to deliver on their promises without alienating the people. Ruling the US (or the world) can be a thoroughly thankless and difficult and endless task. Eventually they will willingly surrender power.

Faster than a speeding bullet . . . More powerful than a locomotive . . . Smarter than the average bear? Look, I know the big dumb brick has been done to death, but my idea is a guy who succeeds because he is stupid. A character who makes the biggest blunders and wins because of them, a la Shaggy and Scooby, Hong Kong Fuey, etc , , , Any ideas of what sort of powers this guy should have (not necessarily cartoony but powers that simulate him being successful because he follows his stupdest ideas to their conclusion)?

Reminds me of the new Ironmen, a team that was originally a joke. Each member was a powered armored villain with a play on Ironman in their code names. (Ironed Man, a brick whose armor was a giant steam iron; IronyMan a mentalist whose powers were derived from his power armor, three others whose names and powers escape me).

Anyone else remember the old Murphy's Rukes bit about Champions throwing rules? Something bout an infant being able to rifle a football an extraordinary distance . . .

Hmm, is that a total CVK? I think that might work for a moderate or even a strong CVK, not sure it would for a total . . .

300 Body an hour isn't phenomenal? If you want him to be the best have everyone else buy the power down the time chart.

I can't see Wolverine having more than 1/turn regeneration. That's 5 Body per minute, 300 Body per hour, surely he doesn't need more than that.

Cronos is Death, the reaper with his scythe. Interestingly he deposed Ouranos not by slaying his father but by castrating him so that he would father no more children, and that father role is the central role of the leader god. Look at Zeus and and note how many gods were fathered by anyone else. The Titans are fascinating because they are a fully developed pantheon of gods who are overthrown by new gods and generally (with the exception of Zeus who having survived to adulthood is essentially omnipotent) are more powerful than their successors (which follows the classic notion of time being a process of decline). The titans names are their portfolio, their names are words with specific meaning and should give you a handle on their abilities.

For the former Kid Cyclone caught up in the social revolution how about "Winds of Change" (or Changewind, but that seems more confusing).

Umm, it doesn't make sense in the real world where people don't have superpowers, I'm not sure it's that unrealistic once you add that element . . .

Consequences are everything. A while back my team began investigating a series of brutal, sacrificial murders that turned out to be being committed by Talisman on behalf of Black Paladin (who ws trying to ressurect his sorceress lover). My character has a big killing attack and a moderate code vs killing. Other members of the team have different backgrounds, but one had no code versus killing and another (my character's best friend) had made her earlier career murdering gang members (not that we knew that, it really wasn't why we made her team leader ). I missed the game where they made contact (team leader managed to get herself marked for sacrifice). Several NPC hroes were involved, two villains were banished to Hell. Talisman was captured by the PCs and transported to our base. Fear of Talisman is high, one character smashes her hands so they are useless. When she comes to she isn't frightened, but is looking for vengeance. Leader gives character with no code permission to kill her. Team brick (reformed gangbanger) pulls a Pilate and walks out of the room. Leader's sidekick PC (sorry, but sometimes . . .) tries to distract former Silver Avenger with Total CVK and Talisman is executed before he can intervene. Outrage (???) is so high that executioner is (sorta) drummed off team, leader's complicity is hidden from rest of team. I'm back for next session, am given edited version about teammate turning killer. My best friend admits she has been having nightmares about Talisman. My character wonders if this is merely guilt, after all Talisman is a sorceress and "death may not be 'another country' for her as it is for us." During the course of a team meeting two other members of the team mention nightmares and my character (she's a little naive and open sometimes) accidentally spills beans that team leader is having them too and that she thinks this isn't normal nightmares and Talisman communicates suddenly to all those having the nightmares that they don't have to be sleeping . . . My character is the most recent incarnation of a superhero with a lineage stretching back some 1800 years, it's mystically based (Korean) and involved each new incarnation to absorb a portion of the predecessor's soul (thus each incarnation has fragments of souls stretching back all those centuries); she doesn't know much about mystical matters, but has made the mystic contacts and so she consults those, getting confirmation that Talisman is not "dead." Talisman now exists entirely on the Astral plane, unless she can find a host to reincarnate as, but on the Astral planes she is many times as powerful as before. Plus, she can possess those who, in my character's words "owe her a karmic debt" temporarily. While I am getting this information Talisman's executioner, under her control, has captured all but the team leader (who has heroically gone into complete hiding;) ). I get captured trying to bring that information o the others. Team brick's mental powers are the wildcard that let us escape while Talisman through her puppet hunt for team leader. Eventually we all rendezvous, including her puppet who has , temporarily at least, won his freedom, at the headquarters of the Champions where, in addition to getting her advice people essentially confess to Witchcraft the degree of their involvement in murdering her sister. Witchcraft is upset, but confesses that she has tried to kill her sister in the past but was always thwarted, of course she had the advantage/disadvantage of knowing the consequences. She explains that to stop Talisman now, we have to kill her. This is difficult for a couple of reasons. First, we might be able to kill her when she possesses someone (which she has done with two of our characters and can probably do with two others, the ones without Mental Defenses), but we would have to do it before she got a second phase, because she can abandon a living puppet pretty much at will. Witchcraft can (and will) send us to the astral plane to confront Talisman, but since we are anchored in the material plane we will only have the equivalent of our normal powers while hers will be increased around ten-fold because she is fully resident on the astral plane. Which is the information my naive, 19 year old heroine needs to come up with a desperate plan. She has no karmic debt towards Talisman, more importantly she carries the souls of around sixty previous incarnations of her character and she has no successor to absorb them if she dies. She explains her idea, and to her dismay Witchcraft tells her she is right, if she dies she will have vast power to confront Talisman on the astral plane. Whole team freaks out about this plan, and eventually set up a situation where my character has a chance of being resurrected by an NPC hero who has (once) brought another character back from the dead. My character kills herself as Witchcraft sends the rest of the team to the Astral plane in a more conventional way. When we confront Talisman we are cotinuously thrown off by her tactics, but my character stands firm against and Talisman decides that she is worrisome enough that she needs the others gone as distractions. She dismisses all (except one who managed to deflect the spell) back to the material plane, denmying them even knowledge of what transpires. Team leader freaks out and tries to kill herself to rejoin the fight, but is restrained. Eventually my character gets the upper hand and slays Talisman on the astral plane and uses her vast powers to assure she is truly destroyed. Witchcraft communicates my victory. The healer brings me back, but succumbs herself in doing so. The team transforms itself. the leader decides she will not kill anymore and even turns herself in for the killings she has done (the cop in question refuses to arrest her). The executioner of Talisman decides that while killing in combat is forgivable , there is no way he will ever execute somene again. We dedicate ourselves to honoring the memory of the healer who died so that my character could live. Lots of death, lots of consequences, none of it cut and dried. A rule is the worst way to deal with this question, instead make a continual source for role-playing, regardless of how each decision is reached.

Most agents should not cost more than 1500pts plus disads.

Marvl consistently and ridiculously underestimates the Strength levels of their characters. It is part of their whle marketing position of having more"human" characters than DC. Feat for feat Marvel characters are just as srong as DC characters and vastly stronger thn the Marvel editorial staff is willing to admit.

Namor has some summoning powers of his own (remember "the Whale that walks like a man") which are underrated and Namor's Atlantis has its own armies while (IIRC) Arthur's is a desolate ruin.

"So-called heroes ran away once. My little sister died. I don't care who you are, I ain't running!"

They do, but it seems to suggest the general tech level is inclusive of all these things.

Re: X-Men campaign w/o Mutants Simple enough. there are no types of superpowers that do not have the origin of choice. People with super powers are seen as threatening, particularly since the ones everyone knows of are genocidal megalomaniacs (or at least engaged in very anti-social criminal activities in which their superiority is flaunted). Hero team has primary goal of getting their class of being accepted, unfortunately they are usually distracted from this goal by having to protect the bigots from the monsters.

Three Cheers for WhammeWhamme Hip Hip Hurrah Hip Hip Hurrah Hip Hip Hurrah! Desolid either should not have to have that "reasonably common special effect" limit or the "Affects Desolid" advantage should be eliminated (I prefer the latter solution). Having both is a solid hose (plus "affects Desolid" is an entirely game mechanical advantage that escapes special effect limits that powers are supposed to built on, since it explains affecting every type of desolid). Actually, should NND attacks affect desolid characters all the time, or only when their special effects correspond to the desolidifications vulnerability? I'm inclined to say no, because while desolidification has some defensive aspects, I don't thik of it as a "defense" power.