Wakshaani

There have been many Dopplegangers over the years, from the romantic spy of the 60's who vexed Cold War Allies by seducing their agents to the Communists to the shapeshifting hero of the 80's to the face-stealing psychopath of the 90's to today's throwback who hails from the hidden city of Dopploppolis and can duplicate any superbeing that they see. But the one who was a legend was WWII's master of disguise, a former actor who joined the war effort and used his uncanny skills to infiltrate first the French, then the British, and finally worked his way to America, where he lead a fifth column of saboteurs against the industrial cities of the US. He was finally killed by Detroit's namesake hero, Detroit Steel, when he leapt at the distracted hero, sailed over his head, and fell into the gears of the assembly line that he was trying to blow up. Upon his mysterious return, he acclimated quickly to the modern world and now seeks to complete his final mission by bringing America down. He wears hats of both leftists and rightists, sowing dissent by enflaming each side against the other. He can be seen whispering in the ears of politicians, business leaders, and protest leader, then anonymously posts on the Internet, dropping dank memes and false information. He knows that there is no greater weapon to turn against the nation than itself and is gleefully watching it tear itself apart. As for Detroit Steel? Doppleganger sits in a café in downtown Detroit, watching the city rot around him, content to not so much as lift a finger as the city slowly crumbles. Should another hero take up the mantle? They'll find Doppleganger ready to balance an old debt.

Current or past, and examples of what struck you solid if possible. (IE, George Perez4E cover, the Enemies I picture of Utlity, whatever.) I'm curious to see what peoples' favorites are. No need for a "Top five, in order" or the like, just a handful that really sing to you. (Edited to the correct artist. This is my face of shame!)

Nice! Great to see someone pull the ol' boots on again.

Not familiar with the new almanac I'm afraid, but, SAT having a role was nice to deal with having two otherwise-similar groups. And, yes, having your top field agent as the desk jockey was a problem, so, brought the director back for my home games... each regional office has a civilian head, too. In Boston (the city I ran for my hero teams), you had the Director, with the Silver Avenger his right hand, then heads of field operations (Captain Dermott... field officers topped at Captain), head of the Iron Guard, head of investigations, head of R&D, and then a liason officer who workd with each local superteam (The liasons were all pulled from the bureaucratic majority that the director was in charge of, so they had no official power other than advisory, but it was good form to have them around for major calls.) That's a lot of paperwork, but, we're talking about a bureaucratic force, so it works. SAT, meanwhile, was the strikeforce and, unlike Primus which had a turf war/rivalry with UNTIL, SAT worked with them … in essence, SAT was the tip of the spear, sent in first, then UNTIL would come in as peacekeepers, akin to having the US military assault somewhere and the Blue Helmets take over when the fighting was done. The setup allowed each force to do what it did best, so there wasn't all that much friction between the two. There is, however, a lot of one-upmanship between Primus agents and SAT troopers, tho. "Nice watching you guys guard the mayor last week. All that standing around in dress uniforms. Musta been nice." "Yeah, well we ere on the lookout for super villains." "Oh, like the ones we took down three weeks ago?" "What, the *Canadian* villains? No, we were watching for REAL villains." "Hey, don't sell him short because he's Canadian! The Amasing Darkon is-" "The Amazing Darkon! Listen to this guy! Couldn't cut it in a real *American* outfit." "You shut your mouth before I shut it for you!" Etc etc and so on.

Oh, it stays in Justice (or Homeland Security) for certain. It doesn't need to be an official "strike force"... it's the Super FBI, in essence. (but SAT, the Super American tactics? That effectively dead org I rebuilt as, in effect, GI Joe. THAT'S the international terrorist-fighting arm of the US military. Gives each organization a reason to exist.) But Primus as a group where heroes can buy supertech (like costumes that don't burst into flames when you use your powers) or get staff to work in their HQ? Yeah, the administrative side has some real strength. Civillian oversight of the Avenger program, instead of Golden Avenger = The Boss... that's a key factor, I think.

To be the government's law enforcement division for Supercrime and, to a lesser extent, the oversight body for superheroes. In addition to taking care of supercrime, and incarcerating/transporting supervillains, they also handle papaerwork, serve as government liasons with hero teams, and so on. Probably have a research arm into super powers as well. More over, they're for the US government, not for an international body like UNTIL. The US tends to be a tad … distrustful … of giving up any degree of sovereignty to international organizations.

I think the pouch rule is similar to the cats rule... you can have up to three. One's fine, need somewhere to store your civilian stuff when heroing … I mean, even *Superman* has a pouch in his cape, you know? Two? You can do two pouches. One for each leg, good for mechanics and the like. Three? Well, that's one at the small of the back and two more but … you've got as much there as a police officer's belt and those things are notoriously blocky and cumbersome. More than that? You've gone full Liefeld. You never go full Liefeld.

Oh, absolutely, the goal here is to purge the darkness and bring Primus back into being a positive agency, out there doing the right thing. One of the big steps, IMHO, is to bring back the civilian oversite aspect: There'll be a bureaucrat as the top of the agency, with the Golden Avenger being the #1 field agent, in command of the Avengers, but NOT the commander of Primus as a whole. There'll wind up being several department heads: Avenger program Field Agents Science Undercover ops Bureaucracy There may or may not be a slot for the powersuit corps … normally they're under Field Agent, but there's potential to move them to, say, "Incarcerations" and put Stronghold under Primus' overall control, moving the suits to mostly prisoner transport and guard, rather than being a deployable asset for battle. The last slot, bureaucracy, is actualy the majority of people … cooks, janitors, paper-pushers, psychologists, etc, who make the whole org tick.

May go back further than Johnson, but, yeah, tossing Dr D into the mix can work if you want to take some hate off of Kaufman himself. The bigger thing was "How big of a scandal is it when the public finds out how CYberline was made?" and, from there, hat happens to Primus. I was assuming the Cyberline production would end which would rock the entire org from grunt to Gold, but I don't know if it would fold or if the bigger story would be, "We need Primus, we just can't let THAT continue. So, purge. Purge ALL THE THINGS, then rebuild a more transparent organization that America can trust." And from there, what that group would look like. I don't know if going with more Iron Guard would be a stopgap or the overall goal … Turtle Armor's been a thing for a while, after all, and building more tech to hand out is easy while brewing up a new genebroth is gonna be. like, ALL THE MONEY. And then my brain starts to think about recruiting mutants into the mix and watching Kaufman's racist buddies flip out and resign. Which would then set up a Primus rivalry with Genocide of all things, which … is kind of neat. Hrm. I might have to walk around inside of this thoughtcave for a bit, see where it leads.

Still swing by! Thrilled to hear about my babies. Professional writing work keeps me busy most of the time, these days. 23 RPG books released and counting. Phew!

Well, "blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy with a German name finds out about SuperJew, has him kidnapped, sedated, and draws blood from him for 50 years to create super-powered agents for an American enforcement agency" can be read a tad problematicly, especially since Kaufman later went all "Kill all the Muties!" and had facist overtones. His replacement's better.

Hrm. Good to know! I don't know if I have the newer (newest?) version of Champions Universe or not. I'll have to dig into the closet later, see what's what.

Interesting. Didn't know that there'd been a more modern take on Primus. The different Cyberline treatment stands out. Hmmm...

For those who've read the rather keen Primus sourcebook from back in the day, you'd know of the rather terrible origins of the Cyberline treatment and the process that creates the Silver and Golden Avengers. That was well over 20 years ago, however, and the world has moved on. Assuming that the program was exposed and terminated, what would you use to replace it? Would Primus agents go 'cold turkey' and then turn into regular agents? Would Silver Avengers vanish? What replaces them? A new Super Soldier treatment? Androids? Cybernetic upgrades? Everybody wears power armor? Or does the entire organization go belly up from the release of the information and Until just steps in to every area that Primus once filled? What does Primus 2020 look like to you?

Which 80's? Because the 1980-1982 era is not 84-86 which isn't 88-90. Hair metal guys can face off against leftover Disco baddies in '81 for instance but not '89, while parachute-pants-clad Mr. Hammer and Vanilla Icepick don't belong in '84. I mean, the Cold War's on in the beginning, giving you Soviets, but by the end of the decade, the Soviets have fallen on hard times.

Well, were it to happen, I'd rather the bits on VIPER be brief, since they deserve their own book (And I, for one, would love to pitch for it! Mind you, I use them as a pyramid scheme that sells the Brand Name of Evil (tm) to yutzes for easy money, but.) … while Demon got a big look (it needs so much change!) … after that? Terror Inc as a rebooted organization would work well. Pick up the pieces, sprinkle in some classics that have been overlooked over the years, and enjoy. There are some others that can go in, but you really need to sit down and think about what you NEED, then pick groups that fill those roles. One big evil magic group? Demon, check! One big evil terrorist group? Terror Inc, check! One big Mutant-hating group? Genocide, check! One big science group? There's some room there. Some kind of secret conspiracy group ala the Illuminati? Some kind of alien group? Evil mutants? Robots? You've got options. (As for me? I rebuilt SAT as, in essence, GI Joe. They were the go out into other countries and blow stuff up group while Primus was, in essence, the Super FBI. One stayed in the borders, one fought worldwide terror threats. Worked out well!)

"It depends." That's a terrible, but true, retort. For instance, if you want a Silver Age-styled game, where heroic morality is important, then the heroes need to be more powerful, and better-looking, than the villains, who all need to be failures, generally be ugly, and who are weaker than the hero, showcasing good soul = STRONG while weak will = weak. This is why you got SUPERMAN vs Lex Luthor, or BATMAN vs the Ten-Fingered Man. Good was stronger because it was good and evil was, by definition, weak, tricky, and cowardly. A Bronze Age game, meanwhile, likes heroes with feet of clay, struggling uphill against powerful forces... in these stories, bad guys are rich, powerful, and surrounded by beauty as they showcase how crime PAYS. Heroes are roughed up, tossed out windows, always broke, mocked for being suckers, etc. Badguys often skate (unless the hero gives in to being just as bad as the badguy and killing them), while the hero's never appreciated for what they do. I tend to go more of a blend personally, with some villains being more powerful in many areas (Master villains) while others are stronger in a narrow field but weak in general (For instance, Ogre, amazingly strong but dumb, or Pulsar, powerful blaster with small-time aim.) … but there's also room for some weak, "cameo" villains like Bulldozer or King Bee who can be swatted aside easily, moving the story along. It all comes down to what you intend for your villains to *do*, honestly.

Thunder and lightning have GOT to be part of this somehow. Either the first ones to go through it, the same judge involved, serving as the team's mentors for a month before their time runs out, arch-foes, or have their kid being the team liason who talks about how their parents got a second chance and squandered it, so now it's their turn to try and help out. But it calls out for 'em.

Hey gang, Wak here, trying to remember an obscure bit from Enemies III. Yeah, Enemies III from, like, third edition. Oy. Near teh end of teh book was a team that I don't think anyone ever used, featuring Guassian, Sergeant Supreme (Of the OIF chest tatoo!), and two peopole that I can't recall. Does anyone know who these two were and what the team was called? My OCD's decided to flare up and kick me in the teeth if I can't figure it out. I'd be ever so much obliged!

Re: Skrull vs. Avengers Yeah, there's a "Leftover X-Men" Superskrull with Polaris, Havok, Sunfire, and Banshee powers thusfar shown, one or three Avengers ones (One with Cap's shield, for instance, another with Giant Man size, but not shown other powers yet), a few more. All told, there's probably a dozen Amalgamations and dozens of one-hero-duplicator types. Plus gobs and gobs of normal Skrulls. ... Not a fan of teh story, no.

Re: The "True" Origin of Mechanon I *still* like the old "It was the robot butler for the Champions but, one day, IceStar's razzing went too far and it snapped." bit. That was just classic.

Re: how many points to spend on villains Yeah, a lot of it comes down to math. Let's say that you have 6 heroes, each at SPD 6 (At that point level, a given), tossing 20D6 attacks each. That means that he'll be getting around 30 attacks a round on his chest (assuming 6 miss or lost due to dodging) ... that's an awful lot. EVen if he had 60 PD and ED, he'd be taking 300 STUN a turn. Yikes. He'll need a SPD of at least 9, probably higher, to deal with teh heroes as well ... SPD enough to attack each oen once, plus some "Follow up" shots. His attacks need to be high enough to Stun the average hero in one hit. If they each have 60 PD and ED, plus a CON of 30, you need to toss off 90 damage attacks, which is, what? 30d6? That's a rough number, yeah. ... Might want to ski ahead and just use Dr Destroyer at this point. -- Wak, can't hang at that power level!

I know that, as of FRED and Champions Universe, VIPER's anagram has been revealed, but, it doesn't feel right. I coiuld swear that it was mentioned in an older location and was quite a bit different than the 'new' one, but, I'll be buggered if i can remember what it was. Anybody know what VIPER stood for before today?

Re: Fire Powers Geeze, firepowers? There's, like, a billion things to do with it. The usual energy blast, RKA, and energy blast: explosion, natch. Flash and flash explosion. Darkness (Smoke) and/or NND area of effect. Change Environment (Hot feet!) RKA, uncontrolled, continuous, 1 hex AoE with hole in the middle (Creates fire around one hex that doesn't burn inside ... touch it, tho, and roast. Great way to cage crooks.) Autofire EB or RKA (lil' firedarts) Continuous energy blast or RKA (Jet of flame) RKA damage shield (Too hot to handle) Heck, can even get an entangle, only vs targets on a surface (Melt the asphalt under their feet, then cook it solid when they sink ankle deep) TONS of options.

Re: Superhero Skills Well, to help out new players, I was putting together a few "Kits" of stats, powers, and so on, including skills. As such, to make your life easier, here's my "Skill Kits", each of which cost 15 points. Acrobat Acrobatics at +1 Breakfall Climbing PS: Circus Acrobat: 11- KS: The Circus: 11- Actor Acting +1 Disguise Persuasion Seduction Perk: Actor Union Membership Bon Vivant High Society +1 Conversation Seduction KS: The Rich and Famous 11- 2 pts of Wealth Detective Criminology +1 Deduction +1 Conversation KS: City of Operations 11- Doctor Paramedics +1 Bureaucratics PS: Medicine KS: Speciality: 11- Perk: Liscense to Practice Medicine Patriot Oratory +1 Persuasion Tactics KS: National History 11- KS: Home Nation 11- Scientist Inventor Scientist Science A +1 Science B Science C Science X 11- Science Y 11- Technician Computer Programming Electronics Mechanics Security Systems Systems Operations Thief Concealment Contortionist Lockpicking Sleight of Hand Stealth Traveller Navigation Survival Trading AK: Country of choice 11- Language: Fluent in one language AK: Secondary country 8- Language: Basic conversation in one language Ten basic skill packages to pick from that can be easily combined (For example, Acrobat and Theif gives a cat burglar, while Doctor and Traveller can give a 30's-era explorer, and so on. Obviously, each has plenty of room for tweaking, but, they work as a starting point for new players.