phoenix240

Dr. Demonica: Evelyn Diablos (her actual name. It was a source of endless amusement to her peers in college and aggravation for Evelyn) was a promising resarcher for Horizon Technologies, the bleeding edge organization dedicated to pushing the boundaries of conventional and "fringe" science in hopes of developing new technologies for a brighter, better tomorrow. Her field was physics, specifically quantum and spatial physics. She hoped to discover new, clean and inexhaustible power sources and even material resources by studying the concept of Zero Point energy and so called "dark matter". Dr. Diablos was largely consumed by her research, foregoing a normal life and interests in pursuit of her passion. 
 
In the course of her research, she came across sign of an unusual anomaly, a fold or pocket in space/time or perhaps reality itself.  The exact nature of this anomaly intrigued the doctor and she turned her considerable intellectual talents towards piercing one this Free Floating Singularity" as she dubbed it. It was fascinating, her calculations indicated that could have been as big as known Universe inside but generated nothing her instruments either conventional or the considerably more esoeteric resources avaiable to Horizon Tech could detect which only more. 
 
Evelyn was not a woman used to be stymied by anything intellectual and her curosity became as obsession. She vanished into her labs for montths. Finally, she thought she had a solution and using a somewhat unethical device that tapped into the powers of a clairvoyant subject (who endured significant discomfort but Evelyn paid her handsomely) she got her chance to see the inside of the FFS. Unfortunately for her. 
 
As it turned out it was a prison containing an entity so alien it might have been from a differnt universe completely or from some distant magical plane. It was bizarre, powerful, nearly mindless as human understood such things and malevolent. Sensing a Evelyn's intrusion, it attacked the doctor's projected awarness savagely out of pure malice and bestial instinct, trying to overtake and conquer it to have something to play with and torture. The horrifed scientist fought back with all her considerable will and intellect. The battle was intense, savage and over a few seconds. 
 
It was a draw. 
 
Evelyn's mind was left generally intact but tainted, partially merged with the malevolent alien's dark urges and mindset overwritting most of her morality and limits. Her attacker gained some of her intellect, awareness and mental nuance, became more human essentially which turned out to be someting of a curse as it was still trapped was aware of it and could feel bordome now and could only rage at it etneral confinement. One might suspect that "gift" was on purpose. Evelyn only smiles slightly at that suggesting that their battle had a victor after all. 
 
The dour, some might aloof even cold personality was replaced by an aggressively curious, amoral persona. Her sense of ethics even basic morality replaced with a ruthless drive to experiment. And she now had so many subjects. Evelyn had, deep down, always considered herself above most people, a breed apart though she didn't actively disdain them. Now most people, perhaps all people seemed like nothing more than fodder for her experiements, clever useful lab animals. Not just for simple scientific tests but for deeper exploration to jus what made and could break a person. 
 
For months, Evelyn subtly ran her tests at her place of work, quielty making her her co workers lives surrreal even Hellish. She's personally responsible for a number of the superhumans that can trace their origin to Horizon such as their corporate "Special Operatives" codenamed The Road crew. 
 
When she grew bored with subtly, Evelyn truly embraced the mad scientist persona after faking a disabling accident that forced Evelyn to "retire" and remerged as Dr. Demonica. A role that allows her to indulge her secret love of camp and meloadrama and play the cackling mad scientist to the hilt. WHich happens to cause her subjects to underestimate  even dismiss her while they'e drawn deeper and deeper into the sadistic games she calls "experiments" which are ofen layered to the point its difficult for an observer to tell what their true purpose except the Doctor's perverse amusmement. Though Demonica effects infernal trappings and often makes mention of "dark forces" she has no real ties to the nether realms. Its yet another deflection and private joke. 
 


 

"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the PRE Attack that does Knockback! I am Darkwing Duck!"

a homage to Duck Tales called
 
Duck Champions

Gestermancer was born with an extra finger on his left hand. This made him able to master spells more ordinary fingered magicians could not. He uses his extra finger and magical talents to fight crime, both mystical and mundain in nature. Why does he do this? So once he mastered all the magic he can, he can Take Over The World.

Dr. Demonica: Evelyn Diablos (her actual name. It was a source of endless amusement to her peers in college and aggravation for Evelyn) was a promising resarcher for Horizon Technologies, the bleeding edge organization dedicated to pushing the boundaries of conventional and "fringe" science in hopes of developing new technologies for a brighter, better tomorrow. Her field was physics, specifically quantum and spatial physics. She hoped to discover new, clean and inexhaustible power sources and even material resources by studying the concept of Zero Point energy and so called "dark matter". Dr. Diablos was largely consumed by her research, foregoing a normal life and interests in pursuit of her passion. 
 
In the course of her research, she came across sign of an unusual anomaly, a fold or pocket in space/time or perhaps reality itself.  The exact nature of this anomaly intrigued the doctor and she turned her considerable intellectual talents towards piercing one this Free Floating Singularity" as she dubbed it. It was fascinating, her calculations indicated that could have been as big as known Universe inside but generated nothing her instruments either conventional or the considerably more esoeteric resources avaiable to Horizon Tech could detect which only more. 
 
Evelyn was not a woman used to be stymied by anything intellectual and her curosity became as obsession. She vanished into her labs for montths. Finally, she thought she had a solution and using a somewhat unethical device that tapped into the powers of a clairvoyant subject (who endured significant discomfort but Evelyn paid her handsomely) she got her chance to see the inside of the FFS. Unfortunately for her. 
 
As it turned out it was a prison containing an entity so alien it might have been from a differnt universe completely or from some distant magical plane. It was bizarre, powerful, nearly mindless as human understood such things and malevolent. Sensing a Evelyn's intrusion, it attacked the doctor's projected awarness savagely out of pure malice and bestial instinct, trying to overtake and conquer it to have something to play with and torture. The horrifed scientist fought back with all her considerable will and intellect. The battle was intense, savage and over a few seconds. 
 
It was a draw. 
 
Evelyn's mind was left generally intact but tainted, partially merged with the malevolent alien's dark urges and mindset overwritting most of her morality and limits. Her attacker gained some of her intellect, awareness and mental nuance, became more human essentially which turned out to be someting of a curse as it was still trapped was aware of it and could feel bordome now and could only rage at it etneral confinement. One might suspect that "gift" was on purpose. Evelyn only smiles slightly at that suggesting that their battle had a victor after all. 
 
The dour, some might aloof even cold personality was replaced by an aggressively curious, amoral persona. Her sense of ethics even basic morality replaced with a ruthless drive to experiment. And she now had so many subjects. Evelyn had, deep down, always considered herself above most people, a breed apart though she didn't actively disdain them. Now most people, perhaps all people seemed like nothing more than fodder for her experiements, clever useful lab animals. Not just for simple scientific tests but for deeper exploration to jus what made and could break a person. 
 
For months, Evelyn subtly ran her tests at her place of work, quielty making her her co workers lives surrreal even Hellish. She's personally responsible for a number of the superhumans that can trace their origin to Horizon such as their corporate "Special Operatives" codenamed The Road crew. 
 
When she grew bored with subtly, Evelyn truly embraced the mad scientist persona after faking a disabling accident that forced Evelyn to "retire" and remerged as Dr. Demonica. A role that allows her to indulge her secret love of camp and meloadrama and play the cackling mad scientist to the hilt. WHich happens to cause her subjects to underestimate  even dismiss her while they'e drawn deeper and deeper into the sadistic games she calls "experiments" which are ofen layered to the point its difficult for an observer to tell what their true purpose except the Doctor's perverse amusmement. Though Demonica effects infernal trappings and often makes mention of "dark forces" she has no real ties to the nether realms. Its yet another deflection and private joke. 
 


 

Ladytron
 
Old Marty Wicks felt that the world had degenerated since the end of the War. Sure some things had got better but others had gotten so bad it was no longer safe to go outside let alone leave your doors unlocked. People needed hope or a symbol. But Marty's son was not going to be any help in that department. Marty felt that something could and should be done.
It was not until the late 90s and the early 2000s that the opportunity started to appear and crystallise. Marty helped in the clean ups after hurricanes and tornadoes and these sometimes gave up unexpected bounty. Sure Marty found cash occasionally and jewelry and would hand these in. Stumbling onto hidden underground bases or caches were quite another thing. From these he began to design and construct a battlesuit. He knew he would never wear it but someone would. And that person turned out to be his granddaughter who felt she could do something to make things better. Over a period of a few months as she came of age, Marty tested her to see if she had the moral fibre and will required to serve the public interest as good police officers, paramedics and the fire department are wont to do. When he was satisfied that she had 'the right stuff' he showed her the suit. She helped him complete it and became the hero known as Ladytron. She thinks it is after the film with the light cycles. She does not know that it is after a Roxy Music record. Helena Wicks is continuing to inspire people today after the passing of old Marty.   

How about this one:
 

Iron Maus: Armored political statement. Despite his comedic appearance, Iron Maus is quite serious in his war against corporate dominance and its stranglehold on many endeavors especially the creative fields. And his (Iron Maus is presumed male but no one has seen his true appearance). armor is no joke either and is easily a match for some of the most formidable high tech battlesuits available. 
 

For a time, Shaman joined the international superteam "Unity" and changed his costume to reflect their more modern (and to some degree paramilitary) mind set. 

Nomad: Mercenary and bounty hunter, Nomad is less a hero than a profiteer, working for anyone willing to pay her hefty fees. Theif, spy, saboteur and "acquisition specialist" the one job she has so far stopped short of performing is murder for hire.Though she has killed in the course of her operations her goal is never murder and her actions seem planned to reduce the chance of deaths to minimum. As usual with such figures there are numerous conspiracy theories about her actual agenda and identity along with the source for the seemingly endless variety of weapons and cunning gear she employs with such impeccable skill. 
 

A family portrait from one of the games in our collective Wyldstrike games. Stonewall, her girlfriend Gaia and their daughter (an alien/mutant hybrid... long story) Crystal. 
 
 

Personally, what I don't want to see:
* Licensed settings -- no interest at all -- unless someone knows the licensed world as well as those who officially write for it, I really don't want them creating material for it. Plus I have never been the type to imagine myself in a TV or book setting. 
* Detailed settings -- far easier to come up with something of my own rather than reading and absorbing a big book
 
What I'd like to see:
* Books of adventures seeds and ideas with thoughts on where to take them
* Books of setting ideas with maybe a page or two on each setting
* In general, books that are more about teaching a GM to fish as opposed to giving him fish.

IP issues aside, I'm not sure that I'd want something that was an exact clone of an existing fictional setting. I'd rather use the premise behind that setting ("secret magical school") and use it as inspiration for something original.

Just as personal preference, not as an attempt to 'save' it but just things you'd like to see. Dream as big as you like!
 
I'd like see more construction guide style books that detail how to use Hero System interesting ways to get the game you want. More genre books, more character type guides (loved the Ultimate books), books detailing eras like "The Wild West" and Ancient Rome with prebuilt equipment, weaponry and maps. Though its really an expensive pipe dream, books on licensed settings. I'd love to see Supernatural or The Expanse or Game of Thrones sourcebook in Hero System. Books detailing variant magical systems, superpower types and other interesting system implementation would be cool even "homages" to certain settings like how to represent Aberrant's taint/quantum style superpower special effects. 
 
Character books can be useful as long as they aren't wedded to a particular setting. Character books for other genres aside from superheroes might be interesting as well. 
 

Just as personal preference, not as an attempt to 'save' it but just things you'd like to see. Dream as big as you like!
 
I'd like see more construction guide style books that detail how to use Hero System interesting ways to get the game you want. More genre books, more character type guides (loved the Ultimate books), books detailing eras like "The Wild West" and Ancient Rome with prebuilt equipment, weaponry and maps. Though its really an expensive pipe dream, books on licensed settings. I'd love to see Supernatural or The Expanse or Game of Thrones sourcebook in Hero System. Books detailing variant magical systems, superpower types and other interesting system implementation would be cool even "homages" to certain settings like how to represent Aberrant's taint/quantum style superpower special effects. 
 
Character books can be useful as long as they aren't wedded to a particular setting. Character books for other genres aside from superheroes might be interesting as well. 
 

The Gold Scorpion. Serkets Fist.
 
Serket is a old Egyptian Godess. As usual for a member of the Egyptian Pantheon, she is a Godess of contradictions. Indeed her name can be read both as "(she who) tightens the throat" and "(she who) causes the throat to breathe" - wich associates her both with the deadliness of Scorpions and protection against them.
The Gold Scorpion armor, is the defining trait of her champion. It was lost and forgotten in a ancient egyptian tomb for milennia but recently unearthed.
It is unknown who the wearer is, but he or she seems a devout follower of Seket. If this is due to pre-existing believe, brainwashing from the armor or if it is the armor itself that came to live is unknown - nobody has seen the wearer.
 
While Serkets Fist is Predominantly neutral, there are two peculiar groups the Gold Scorpion is opposed to:
The Fellowship of Isis. This is largely due to Isis Ursuping Serkets role (reducing Serket as low as a mere aspect of isis).
The Pharmaceutical Industry. This is largely due to them using Skorpion Poision in many medicinces (even aside from Scropion Andidotes) and thus agressively harvesting them.
That later part is what makes the Gold Scorpion a villain, as it targets Pharamceutical plants using Scorpions. Aside from the issues of releasing highly poisionous Scorpions during it's raids, the Golden Scorpion is not in paticulary choosy wich part of the plants it destroys after it saw to the safety of the animals. As such the result of it's action could cause millions to suffer and even die. It also gave rise to a theory that the wearer (if there is one) might be a fanatical animal rights activist.
 
Powerset:
The Armor is Solar Powered, wich explains the golden color sheme. While that does not lends itself to stealth, the Golden Scorpion seems to be able to travel in a sort of "Light Form", wich can move scarily fast to start a raid or escape afterwards before the heroes can respond.
Suprising the Gold Scorpion is near impossible: The black sphere like parts functions as "eyes" for the Armor without being vulnerable spots, giving the wearer 720° vision. A tremorsense protects it agaisnt tunneling attacks and most invisible foes as well.
The Tail is highly atriculated and shoots a paralising beam with short range. As it has several eyes, it can fire into every direction, but due to the orientation of the "eyes" the most likely use is for forward facing targets. It is not used as the primary weapon, but only to escape or deal with irrelevant targets (like normal Guards).
True to the animal, the Gold Scorpions primary means of combats is it's strenght and it prefers to grab it's targets

How about this one?
 

Peter Rodgers has been a bounty hunter since he was 18 and apprenticed under the famous "Jack Daniels" McCoy.  Though powerless, J.D. McCoy would go after (low-powered) supervillains who jumped bail, and he was actually good enough (or rather, skilled and ruthless enough) to bring a fair number of them in.  He taught young Rodgers everything he knew, and the pair were earning quite a bit of money until they made the mistake of going after a supervillain named Slicer.  J.D. McCoy was killed, and Rodgers was severely maimed and left for dead. 
 
Fortunately for Rodgers, he survived, though he lost both arms, one leg, and an eye.  Also fortunately for him, he was sole heir to all of McCoy's money - which was considerable due to his high-risk bounty.  Using some contacts with ARGENT, Rodgers arranged to get bionic limbs attached, along with a bionic eye and subdermal armor.  He also bought a gauss carbine, which he normally keeps slung on his back.  A few months later, the newly renamed Repo found Slicer and brought him back to justice (though with a few holes in him, including several through both hands).
 
Repo still works as a bounty hunter, still specializing in supervillains, though he also hires out to acquire rare and hard-to-acquire objects (ostensibly ones that were stolen from their rightful owners, though there are rumors he'll get things from rightful owners if the price is right). 

Apologies for not responding sooner--again, I was taking care of some family business.
 
And yes, I am giving it to Heroic Halfwit--because frankly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the responses to this picture, and he actually put some thought into the character.  Perhaps next time I'm up I'll find an image that provides greater inspiration.  Until then, let's see what Heroic Halfwit can do.

This could be played up as a feature not bug! 

Karswell, named after the Satanist that summoned him in the Film noir Classic "Night of the Demon."  Among Karswell's amazing attributes is a continuing area of effect change environment which renders everything within 30 meters decolorized, i.e. Black and White complete with creepy monster music heavy on the subsonics. 

In an 80s cartoon inspired setting a mad-scientist villain grows his disposable super-agents in vats.  But one of his more valued and effective recurrent agents is the stealthy Shadowgoyle who is constantly stealing maguffins from the heroes.  

Recently been making a lot with Hero Machine...Will post them here for review
 
First group are the Heroes of San Corona.  A group of heroes who step  up when the Fox goes missing: Midnight Avenger, Brute, Dragonfly, Tengu, Coral, & Bandit
 
 

Re: Superhero Images
 
I prefer the second one with the "BUG Eyes" Optics Helmet. Looks more insectoid. Maybe you should give her a super-tech wing-pack to complete the ensemble?