SKJAM!

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Sir Neville Winford was a brilliant young man who studied law and philosophy before being recruited for the Diplomatic Service. His ability to sift through piles of data to discover the nuggets of good information and spot the patterns helped immensely in his African posts. While he was aware of the dangers associated with being a British diplomat, it was not revolutionaries or terrorists who planted the bomb in his car, but ordinary poachers who'd mistaken his vehicle for that of the bush ranger who'd done so much to thwart them. By some miracle Neville survived, despite having essentially nothing left beneath the chest; just enough left of his internal organs to keep going. He was knighted for his trouble, and pensioned off generously. But Sir Neville was still a relatively young man, with a keen brain and most of his arms left. He mastered the use of information technology, and began using it to gather data on criminals as a hobby. When he had sufficient info, he would inform the proper authorities. Eventually, he came to the attention of Vigilance Inc., who had just lost another electronic intelligence specialist, and desperately needed a replacement. Now, as Protocol Four, Sir Neville gathers, sorts and evalutes data between missions to get the best possible intel. During missions, he's the helpful voice whispering important information into the field operatives' ears when it's needed. Despite his personal suffering, Protocol Four is not as fervent about eliminating criminals as his teammates--he'll cold-bloodedly consider what's best for the mission rather than who actually deserves to die most. His mobile HQ is heavily defended and armed, since those that hate Vigilance Inc. know that taking out their intelligence is a top priority.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Taifun is the daughter of a powerful nature spirit and a mortal man, with some control over wind, rain and general stormy conditions. Using these effects over a small area is simple enough, but the wider an area she attempts to cover, the more likely the weather is to run out of Taifun's control and run wild. She's actually in the Shinsengumi for her own protection--it seems her mother was quite the prankster in her youth, and managed to tick off half the supernatural beings in Japan, and not a few outside it. These beings are only too glad to target their enemy's daughter for anything from a return pranking to slow torture and murder. Taifun gets along well with Kappa, but not the water goblin's handler, who she thinks has the hots for her, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Go Squad counts as one character for membership purposes. Looking forward to the crossover of Sword of the Emperor and "The Samurai" of the Crossed Blades team.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Go Squad are five Japanese government agents trained to fight as a unit, and given special powered armor. Each suit on its own isn't that impressive, but when two of the agents combine their suits, the combined suit has double the power. Three armors combined has quadruple the power, four combined octuple the power, and when all five of them form into one gigantic armor, it has sixteen times the power of an individual suit. By judicious combining and separating, Go Squad always has the right amount of firepower for the Shinsengumi's needs.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! The Swimmer In Shadows, "Shady" to its teammates, is a mysterious figure who can dive to the greatest depths, see in the blackest ink cloud, and never leaves the water in daylight. Only Capricorn has ever met Shady face-to-face, and vouches for the creature, despite the faint aura of "wrongness" people feel when the swimmer is near. Indeed, the Pisces member of the Zodiac is an enigma and it likes it that way. No one (except Capricorn) must ever know that it is a renegade Deep One, sworn to protect humanity from its kin and their mad gods. Presently, the Zodiac is without an Aries, but tryouts are underway. That's twelve, so the next team up is... Threshold G: Five heroes, or at least heroically-inclined beings, whose powers are so destructive, dangerous, squicky and/or morally dubious that they have volunteered to be placed in suspended animation, activated only for the most dire crises that actually require one or more of them. If great responsibility comes with great power, then their responsibility is grave indeed. Pray the day never comes when all five need to be woken at once. Named for the "Godzilla Threshold", the theoretical point at which the situation is so disastrous that summoning Godzilla won't make things worse.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Etienne Fasaud is probably just a mutant, but he spins a great yarn about being cursed by a spider goddess. Whatever the reason, he has six arms, and has trained in a special multiple-sword style, specializing in the curved swords that give him the codename Scimitar Spider. He often coats his scimitars with poisons that cause crippling pain, paralysis or blindness. (But not death, if he wanted you dead, he'd just use the swords themselves. Scimitar Spider is an excellent climber and contortionist, and uses a swing line to get to harder-to-reach places. He's aware that his use of poisons is disdained by the more honorable members of the Crossed Blades, but he will only ever "fight fair" against another multi-sword expert (minimum three blades at once. Perhaps Scimitar Spider's most impressive stunt is using his weaving swords to deflect bullets, but this does damage the swords. themselves.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Bullet Time is officially known as Nikita Cherenkov, although that is almost certainly not her birth name. She's a mutant, able to enter the Speed Zone for up to a second real time, five seconds her time. Thus she can fire multiple rounds from her pistols without the usual penalties for rapid firing, or dodge attacks that certainly could not miss. The tell-tale is a faint blue glow whenever her powers are about to activate. Bullet Time is rather small and not particularly strong, so she can't use the larger calibers or wear heavy body armor. She's almost always paired with one of the Hired Guns' more tankish members, acting as mobile support to their heavy weapons platform. (In addition to her pistols and plenty of ammo, Nikita carries burglary tools (yep, she can use them) and a couple of holdout knives. If she knows she'll be going up against a specific super, her ammo load will change appropriately.) Personality-wise, Bullet Time is standoffish but not frigid. She'll gladly listen to you talk all day, just don't expect her to respond or suggest a topic of conversation.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Gigantus X-40 actually was a menace on its home planet, when the brooding teen genius Squa Tront built it as a humongous humanoid mecha for his plan of world conquest. Only a brilliant scientist's teleport trap that exiled Squa Tront in his machine to Earth saved their world. And that's when Squa's nightmare began. You see, he's only three inches tall by human standards, and Gigantus X-40 is roughly the size of an average adult human male. Gigantus is somewhat stronger than a normal human, and considerably tougher. It also has a wide variety of offensive weapons...scaled to be devastating to three-inch-tall people. It can also fly, though not very fast. Squa himself is a genius inventor, and helped develop Conquering Warrior's electric weapon as a prototype to upgrading Gigantus' weapons. He's off his medications for his bi-polar personality disorder, though, so is often too depressed to work on the mecha.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Moonchild Gold represents Cancer, the crab. That's her real name, by the way, her parents were hippies. Moonchild's powers may or may not have come from her parents' habit of consuming recreational drugs. Moonchild has the ability to create powerful force fields, both around herself and others--she can choose what gets through and what doesn't at will--one of her sneakier tricks is creating a field that only stops mental powers. As a secondary effect, all of her fields affect other beings as though they were blessed silver, something that does not make her popular with evil supernaturals. As you might expect, Moonchild is a firm believer in peaceful resolutions and attempting to find win-win solutions to problems. Sadly, she lives in a world where violence is often the only viable option.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Erm...this is tacky I know, but since we need to move on... Doll Girl is Ynez Aragones, who possesses a pouch of "magic dust". Any toy or doll that she sprinkles the dust on comes to "life" temporarily, to assist Ynez with her crimefighting. Where she got this dust from is a mystery even to her--she simply found it in her possession one morning, and though it has been stolen several times, the pouch is always back in her hand the next dawn. There's one exception to the "temporary" part of her powers--Kitty-chan of the Kill-Stompy-Samas. Not only did the doll stay alive ever since being activated, but it possesses an evil personality. As Kitty-chan's "mother", Ynez is anxious to reclaim the toy and find out what went wrong. And now our new group, The Knights of Saint Nicholas. It's actually a secret society with roots back in the Middle Ages. Its members are sworn to protect and defend children, and punish those who harm them. It's never been a particularly large conspiracy, and has a high rate of burnout among its members due to the sheer immensity of wrong done to children in the world. The full number of members is not known, but there are four superpowered members who act as the public face of the organization. The job doesn't pay, as such, but when fulfilling a mission for the Knights, you'll have access to minimal food, shelter and transportation. Some of the members joke about "gnomes" preparing the necessary supplies. So, four members, none of them secretly Santa Claus (who is instead their secret patron.)

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Tristan Weaver would really like to be known as Manotaur, or Raging Bull, or something cool like that. Unfortunately, the mad scientist who changed him had a sense of humor, and now Tristan has a massive udder with four prominent teats right there on his chest. An udder that fills with delicious, nutritious, wholesome milk, which he can then spray at people. Or simply be milked, as he needs to be at least twice a day to relieve the pressure. He also got horns, though they're short and dull, and hooves for feet. At least he has the strength of a bovine, despite being normal human sized. But for his other attributes, and his short temper, Tristan Weaver is now known as Mad Cow.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Dashing Swordsman 2 The original Dashing Swordsman, Gibson Eroll, was a member of the Iron Eagles, alleged heroes who attempted to bring Britain and America onto the side of Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. They stayed together as a group for only a short time before the march of history and the baser instincts of some of their members brought it all crashing down. The Dashing Swordsman, who did have genuinely heroic instincts, especially loathed the Spider once he learned the truth behind that villain's activities. But before he could expose the Spider, the Spider released a file of information regarding the Dashing Swordsman's less-than-heroic private life to the British police. The ensuing trial completely ruined Eroll's reputation, and he chose to join a "suicide mission" that struck against the Nazis deep within enemy territory. Recently declassified documents indicate he died heroically on that mission. This inspired Gibson Eroll's grandson by blood, Fairbanks Cooney, to take up the name and updated costume of the Dashing Swordsman, to redeem the original's name. He uses a gimmicked sword and utility belt to better keep up with the modern criminal. Fairbanks is considerably better as a person than his grandfather, but shares his taste for underage women...which causes him much angst due to never following through on these impulses.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Spotted Dick Richard Blandings was a second-story man nicknamed "Clever Dick" before he was captured and genetically altered. Now he has large dark circles scattered over his skin, each of which activates a "spot" power when pressed. A "spotlight", "the Black Spot" (causes fear), "X Marks the Spot" (lowers the target's DCV) and so forth.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Tictoc the Crocodile Man The jury is still out on whether Tictoc is a deformed mutant or the actual result of human/crocodile interbreeding; he won't say. All the clues to his origin he'll give is that he comes from an island "to the right" and that the temperature was much hotter than here. Tictoc hunts by taste; once he has tasted something, he will always be able to track it down, even years later. His primary obstacle to becoming a professional killer was learning to leave enough of the corpse to be identifiable. Fortunately for potential victims, Tictoc's reptilian physiology is cold-blooded, giving him some weaknesses.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Just thought of the perfect plotline for the Replacements. A new hero shows up and wants to join the team. Thanks to their own connections, several of the members recognize him as an undercover VIPER agent...but they can't reveal this without exposing who they really are. Thus, each member is secretly trying to find a way to get rid of Repiv without tipping their hand....

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! As is perhaps appropriate for a group named The Interruption, it was launched before the previous group was finished. (And could we get some more info on the Rigger--which hero or heroes he's seeking revenge on, and what sort of traps he specializes in?) So one more member of the Revenge Squad: Repulse: Once Reed White was a normal member of a right wing hate group, until he and his buddies got overly violent at a rally in Washington DC. Naturally, the local heroes interfered, and Reed found himself merged with a wheelchair-bound black lesbian thanks to the power of Melting Pot. That experience moderated his political views somewhat, but Reed found himself ostracized by his friends and colleagues because he was now "contaminated" and "unpure." He grew to resent Melting Pot's actions, and volunteered for underworld experiments to give him powers to seek revenge. Repulse now has the ability to repel any solid or liquid object, forcing them away from him. He's working on ungrading to gases, and hopes someday to be able to repel energy, which he believes will make him truly invincible. In the meantime, he's with the Revenge Squad, who can cover for his vulnerabilities.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Peacebringer: Is a gentle soul who has the ability to drain the aggression and negative emotions from a crowd. When he concentrates on a single person, he can render them unable to take any action at all. He's also possessed of a really good mental shield. Peacebringer is actually an agent of PSI, looking for espers to be kidnapped and brainwashed, but has no ability to read other people's minds whatsoever and thus is completely unaware of his colleagues' true motivations.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! MC Starr born Myshawn Tops, grew up poor in the inner city. Early on, he displayed a talent for rhythm and rhyme, and began the path to becoming a successful rapper. With his first decent-sized paycheck from a gig, Myshawn bought himself a gold ring, his first bling. At his next concert, as he was busting some moves, the young MC found that he could leap great distances, and even fly! But after the gig when he landed, he found that his ring had become corroded and thin. Some experimentation later, MC Starr discovered that he could control gravity to a limited extent, but he needed to be in contact with gold to do so. The more gold, and the greater its purity, the more power he has to draw on. Unfortunately, the use of this power consumes the gold, requiring Starr to constantly replenish his supply, a very expensive limitation. Myshawn is hoping that hanging out with the Victory Corps will increase his visibility and popularity, so he can charge more for his concerts, so that he can get his entire body covered with bling, which he needs to be heroic.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Photogenic Girl Florence Paris (nee Parowski) is quite good-looking in person, true, but the cameras really love her. Photos, film and artificial eyes all register Florence as one of the most beautiful women on Earth. (Extra Striking Appearance, only when seen through cameras) Which explains her career as an advertising model. But what makes her a superhero is her "other" definition of photogenic--the ability to produce and manipulate light. Light-based illusions, a brilliant flare, the ability to give people sunburn.... Florence lives for the adulation of the masses, and is only a hero because that gets her more popularity. She's slowly learning to enjoy doing good for its own sake.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! The Revenge Squad Five low-powered villains, each of whom has a personal grudge against one or more of the heroes from the Hero Theme Team thread. They met while coincidentally all being transported to prison on the same bus, and escaped together. The Revenge Squad hopes that by ganging up on individual heroes, they each can attain the vengeance that they've been unable to accomplish on their own. Each has taken a vow to stick together until all of them have had their revenge.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Doktor Eternity promises everlasting life through his immortality serum. And it's true, you won't ever die. But considering you will never heal either, that might not be such a good thing. And the bad Doktor generally fails to mention that anyone under the influence of his serum must obey his every command. What's the serum made of, you ask? Well, let's just say that there's a good reason Doktor Eternity never takes off his clothing. Ever.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! The Dashing Swordsman would be a perfect gentleman towards America's Dream...until she hits sixteen. Still mannerly thereafter, but actively trying to get into her pants. He's into "jailbait", not children. The Voice of Reason Pastor Coffin Rausch (his father was a very strange man) is a man of strong beliefs and considerable speaking ability. He immediately grasped the implications of radio for his ministry and has slowly built from just a weekly half hour to a full-powered station that can be heard three states over dedicated primarily to spreading his version of the gospel. Then he noticed something odd. While the parishoners in his physical church were appreciative and generally agreed with him, they sometimes had opinions that were at odds with his, and weren't afraid to tell him to his face. But the radio listeners...the people who listened to his daily sermons faithfully seemed to hold exactly the positions he told them to in his speeches. Although Pastor Rausch is not fully aware how it is that it works, the slight distortion of his voice by radio speakers gives it a mildly hypnotic effect. It takes several days to several weeks to fully kick in, but eventually every opinion The Voice of Reason repeats to you over and over will become your opinions as well. What brought Pastor Rausch to Mr. Edsel's attention was his fervent anti-Communism. The pastor is absolutely convinced the Reds are a clear and present danger, and only arming Germany and its allies to battle the forces of International Communism will slow them down. Pastor Rausch is married, but has only had sex with his wife enough to produce three daughters and (finally!) a son. He's terribly confused by the feelings he has towards other men, such as Mr. Edsel, that seem unduly close even for friendship, and battles them with flagellation.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Dashing Swordsman Gibson Eroll was, up until a few months ago, one of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood. His good looks, charming personality and quite honestly excellent acting chops made him the perfect lead for such Megalithic Pictures films as "Pirate Honor," "The Ace of Swords" and "Patriotic Passion". But it all came crashing down when he crashed his convertible on a street in downtown Los Angeles...in the middle of the afternoon...while three sheets to the wind...badly injuring the underaged hooker in the passenger seat...in front of a bar that catered to newspapermen. Just to top it off, when Gibson was being arrested, he gave a long, impassioned rant to the police officers about how this was all the fault of the "filthy Jews" who ran the studio system in Hollywood. It being a slow news day, Gibson's meltdown made all the evening editions--though even the slimiest of tabloids had to elide about a quarter of the words in his rant. Since Mr. Eroll was rich and famous, the legal consequences weren't so harsh--a light fine and a three month suspension of his driver's license. But Megalithic Studios dropped the actor like a hot potato, quoting the "moral turpitude" clause in his contract. And no other major studio picked him up. And he knew why. It wasn't the drinking, or the women, it was because he'd dared to tell the truth about Jewish control of filmdom. His bank account rapidly eroded--it's expensive to maintain a Hollywood star lifestyle when you aren't working, and the hospital expenses for the hooker and hush money for her family weren't cheap either. It was then that Harold Edsel, impressed by what he'd read, contacted Gibson and offered him a new role. Once he got the idea across, Mr. Eroll jumped at the chance to do right by his country. The Dashing Swordsman is dressed like the hero of a swashbuckler film, with the tiniest of domino masks providing deniability. (It will soon be an open secret who the Dashing Swordsman really is.) It doesn't even hide the famous Eroll pencil mustache so many filmgoers have swooned over. Gibson is a pretty good fencer, an excellent acrobat (he did all his own stunts), a fair driver and horseman (learning how to fly a plane even now) and is certainly brave, handsome and will default to heroic actions whenever there's a clear-cut choice. He's savvy enough when sober to can the anti-Semitism and concentrate on America's shared German heritage and Germany's example of government reform. But Mr. Eroll is also a binge drinker (he can go without for long stretches, but once he tastes alcohol he won't voluntarily stop drinking), has a thing for underaged women (that is, sixteen to seventeen year olds), insufferably vain and has bought into the Iron Eagles' philosophy. You shouldn't expect him to survive the upcoming war period.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Jeanne D'Arc Or "Joan of Arc" to you English-speakers. In addition to being an excellent swordswoman and motivational speaker, Jeanne has High-Range Radio Hearing, able to tune in on any broadcast wavelength. What she's not aware of is that part of her computer mind is constantly scanning the airwaves, looking for information to correlate into "hunches" that Jeanne gets, sudden unexpected insights. She interprets this as "the voice of God" giving her divine guidance. Jeanne still tends to dress in a mannish style, and hates the English. She's wary of fire, though she's actually nearly immune to the effects.

Re: Malthesitic Fantasy Universes Spike Y. Jones' campaign, retitled "Madlands" for GURPS Fantasy. The "gods" range from not-terribly-helpful to actively malevolent, with most just being very alien. Actively worshipping gods is considered an insane activity by the locals, as it draws attention to you. Smart humans try to avoid contact with the gods whenever possible.