GestaltBennie

For Mike, and fans of Mike's work, a link of interest:

http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1057&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Scott Bennie

Re: Agent combat....

That's a really nifty table. Thanks AA!

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Next up will be Dark Prowler. I'll try to do one per week, depending on my progress on Villainy Amok and other projects (and on public interest, of course).

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Mechastar

Player:

Total Character Cost: 477

Disadvantage Points: 110

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 167

Total Experience Available: 167

Experience Unspent: 0

Background: High school were the glory days for Terry Kellogg. He ruled the campus: straight A grades, high school quarterback, and even a girflriend who was gorgeous, funny, and brains to spare. What's not to love? His parents spent most of their time smiling at him. And when he got a football scholarship to Brown University, he expected even better things to follow. When you're 17 and king of high school, no one thinks about the Peter Principle.

College was a kick in the teeth, in more ways than one.

IIn his first year, Terry made third string quarterback, and saw action on three plays - he was sacked on one of them. His nemesis was Carl Murphy. Murphy was tall, athletic, and gregarious, his arm was a rocket launcher, and his sprinting speed might have qualified him for the Olympic team (with a little practise). He made all the friends that Terry didn't, and his grades were better too. Terry had to console himself with life as a second stringer.

His parents still smiled at him, but they seemed a little more forced than before.

Terry graduated with a degree in Engineering, did a year's work in graduate studies in cybernetics, and watched Murphy get drafted by the Cincinatti Bengals. He was recruited by another winning team too - UNTIL. Terry trained or a year, choose to forgo the technical services, and ended up as a Peacekeeper Agen\ stationed in Cyprus for several years. After his tour (which had been quite boring) had finally expired, Terry took a job in UNTIL's engineering corp, transferred to a lab in Maryland, and spent the next several years working on Project Taloned Dove, the development of the next generation of Peacekeeper armor.

And that's where he met Shelley.

####

Her name was Shelley Hackett, African-American female, 25, brown hair and as for her eyes, well she could probably write down "intoxicating" on her driver's license and get away witrh it. She and Terry were the only ones under 40 in the lab, so naturally they had a relationship. It was the best time of Bill's life The relationship lasted for six months, lots of laughs, lots of sex, long dinners filled with deep stares and the touching of hands, and late nights making engineering breakthroughs, followed by a breakthrough of another sort. It was that rare sort of relationship that worked on every level. and filled Terry with an ecstacy that seemed to go on without end. At least until the night that Shelley, playing with his chest hair after a hot summer night, casually informed the engineer that she was a VIPER agent, and that VIPER wanted him to defect, along with the project schematics and prototypes.

Terry didn't want to betray UNTIL - and Shelley had been the best thing to enter his life in years. He almost told his superiors, but Shelley knew how to work her target. She found out his one great dream - to design the perfect battlesuit, build it, and fly it - and dangled it in front of him like a carrot. She found out how much he had hated his peacekeeping duty in Cyprus and how much he hated the inefficiency of UNTIL's bureaucracy. She used them to manipulate him, and he didn't betray her. "I'm a hardened pragmatist," he said.

"And that's why I love you," Shelley replied.

But just when Bill thought he had reached a point of stability in his life, things took an unexpected turn. One of his family members had arrived, and things were about to turn into a spectacular mess. Terry and his brother Bill had had a sibling relationship that bordered on the mythological. Like Thor and Loki, or Set and Osiris

Terry thought Bill was a sulky, mentally challenged, emotionally stilted, eternally sulking, Grade AAA loser. The kindest thing he ever called him was "the moron" and that was when he was in a good mood. What Bill thought of Terry would probably violate most obsenity restrictions. But despite their near fratricidal relationship, they'd always been there for each other in the clutch. Terry's parents were insistent - Bill needed a job, and Terry had connections. So Bill took a job as a janitor at the facility. And (as far as Terry was concerned) he could barely do *that* right

Terry constantly tripped over his brother in the halls. Gossip and Terry's already over-the-top feeling of shame amplified every little mistake he made a hundredfpld, so that Terry was soon embarrassed by the mere sight of him. It was an emotion that Shelley played on; whenever she needed to get him worked up - VIPER would not only help Terry, they'd also make sure his brother was removed from his life. For her part, she was quite friendly to Bill - nothing unsettles a man like a little jealousy, though that emotion had to be played with finesse. She needed to be sure that Terry wanted her. When the time came for VIPER to make its move, everything had to be in place.

The moment of truth was not too long in coming. VIPER staged a raid on the facility. The raid was a cover for *their* operation, the complete removal of Project Taloned Dove. Shelley began to download the project specs while Terry put on the prototype Peacekeeper B suit, knowing the time was coming to desert. He was oddly hesitant about it. But before he could make a final decision, Bill burst into the room with a gun in his hand - and was quickly gunned down by a VIPER agent from behind. For a moment Terry forgot about the sibling rivalry and blasted the VIPER agent, and that's then UNTIL agents overran the attackers and stormed the room. Realizing that the operation was blown, Terry pointed an accusing finger at Shelley.

"I say her typing in codes - and a snake insignia came up!" he exclaimed.

Her treason exposed, Shelley was taken away. Terry was a hero. But he didn't feel like one. He'd never orget the look on Shelley's face when he blasted the VIPER agent. And he'd certainly never forget the final glance Shelley gave him.

It was a look of approval, as if his betrayal was the only logical course of action open to him. She really did love him for his pragmatism..

####

Terry continued to talk secretly with VIPER, cultivating enough of a relationship with them that when his brother somehow stumbled into the secret program that turned him into Terastar, Terry was able to set him up with a good criminal lab. But Terry continued to play a dangerous game, never fully severing ties with VIPER but never giving his full allegiance to them either. Perhaps they sensed this: they never made a serious effort to recruit him again. Eventually UNTIL forgot about Terry's "heroism". The lab was turned over to a private sector defense contractor who had no interest in past heroics, new engineers joined the project, and news managers came aboard who wanted to put their stamp on it. Terry was perceived as"yesterday's man". In the end, he received a pink slip and a polite note from UNTIL which said that he was always welcome to rejoin the Peacekeeper service.

However, Bill didn't want to go to "Bos-nausea" or some other UN hole, or be subject to anyone's orders. His dream remained the same as it had been when he was working with Shelley: design, build, and fly. Unfortunately it was a bad time for the battlesuit business. Downsizing in the defense industry had caused a glut of Masters and Doctoral level engineers to flood the market. Even VIPER wasn't hiring.

Terry had a contingency plan. Hr had also stolen enough parts to construct his own variant Peacekeeper armor, one which have all the systems *he* had designed (which the senior members of the project team had vetoed). Thanks to money that was paid to him by his stupid brother (now a marginally successful criminal), Terry could pursue his dream. So he redesigned the Peacekeeper armor so it'd be unrecognizable, and became a criminal.

He called himself MechaStar, and hired himself as an industrial espionage specialist. That was a modestly profitable field (by supercriminal standards, but there was still something missing in his life. He figured it was vengeance, so he decided to get some. He tracked down Carl Murphy, whose successful career with the Bengals was winding down, and crippled him. This proved to be the mistake of his life. Murphy wasn't just a NFL star, he was a community leader with many friends in high places. Including superheroes. Terry was now a hunted man.

For the first time, Terry found that he needed protection, so he tracked down his brother and announced that he was joinng his team. Sleeper said "really?", but because he was Terastar's family (and because Phobos and Deimos's desertion had left them undermanned), the villain decided to give him a chance. So far results have been mixed - Mechastar's powers have made a valuable combat asset, but he and Terastar are constantly at each others throats, he has little respect for Sleeper, and he doesn't understand why Silver Dragon hasn't gone to bed with him. He can't guess at his long term future in PLUNDER, but it's not likely to end happily.

Personality: Moody and unfriendly, Terry's an egotist who thinks the world revolves around him and that everyone else is either an idiot or exists to serve his needs. He assumes everyone is an enemy - or going to become one in the near future - and believes it's best to make preemptive strikes against them. And Terry can be very petty when he's being preemptive.

Terry's ambitious, and he's set his sights on becoming the next Dr. Destroyer, the next battlesuit genius. Unfortunately, he's more of a common bully, for all of his brains and would rather enjoy the fruits of an operation than develop a long-term scheme.

Quote: "Did that hurt? Too bad. I'm just getting started."

Powers/Tactics: Mechastar has two combat modes. When he's not angry, he likes to play "smart", which is to hover about three meters off the ground, about twenty meters from his target, and play the "my range modifier is better than your range modifier" game. When he's mad, he'll go to close range and start hitting.

His suit has one interesting weakness; it's fitted with an adrenal booster that can (in conjunction with the suit's systems) greatly amplify his strength, but when he uses it, he has a chance to go berserk. As Terry's not quite as good an engineer as he thinks, the suit's powers are not as efficient as genuine UNTIL Peacekeeper armor, hence it has an activation roll.

Appearance: Terry is a Caucasian male in his early 30s, 6'0' and 210 lbs. He has sandy brown hair that (too his dismay) is starting to recede, and green eyes. His build's still athletic, though there's a small flabby ridge in his mid-section. The Mechastar armor is humanoid in appearance, not terribly different than normal Peacekeeper Armor (see UNTIL p. 61), jet black with gold plating, Out of costume, Terry favors polo shirts, dress slacks, and bomber jackets. His voice is a deep tenor.

Re: Authority, we just need a few good men.

Who'd have the right mindset? It needs to be the right combination of sanctimony and a desire for change, combined with a power level where one could impose one's will on the people:

I can't think of DC right now, but here's a Marvel list. I know some of these guys are dead, but this is Marvel.

Korvac (leader)

Moondragon

Dr. Druid

Flagsmasher

Black Panther

Hyperion (okay, the Squadron Supreme's a bit of a cheat, since they were the Authority before the Authority, but every team needs a superman)

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Heyaw! Thanks again Scott. These guys are great. They have alot more personality now. Were you limited in the amount of description you could give them in the original supplements?

There were no real space limitations. I think the simple truth is that I'm a much better writer than I was sixteen years ago.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

And now, the supervillain who was almost named after a spice.

Scott Bennie

------

Terastar

Player:

Total Character Cost: 349

Disadvantage Points: 85

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 64

Total Experience Available: 64

Experience Unspent: 0

Background: It began the earth demon Terasto. UNTIL had mustered four full attack squads, and still the demon kept on coming. The battle didn't turn until UNITY arrived, and finally the demon broke into thousands of little pieces. Score one of the good guys. End of story.

Except that humanity is a meddler by nature. Dr. Elias Custer, biochemist and part time mystic, wondered if he could isolate the strength factor of the demon's remains, isolate it from the darker parts of the demonic heritage, and be able to infuse humanity with the power of a major league earth elemental. It as a radical idea, the sort that scientists usually develop just before they're told "no" by their superiors and jump to VIPER in a huff. So this time, the superiors said yes...

####

Enter Bill Kellogg. He didn't intend to become a lackey, he was just an average kid with a lot of ambition and a cosmic "kick me" sign permanently attached to his buttocks. When people wanted to pick on someone, they invariably picked on Bill. Adolescence was a lonely, deprressing time, but he managed to survive it.

Having an older brother who had been the class measuring stick. Terry Kellogg had been class valedictorian, first string receiver, the works. No matter what Bill tried, he could never hope to match the pearl of the clan. Fortrunately, Bil's parents were supportive; they made sure he knew that no matter how badly he disappointed them, Bill was still loved.

After high school, Bill attended community college, studying biology. He had always kept a close eye on superheroes - ever since he was ten years ofl, when he caught a glimpse of Meteor Man III from half a mile away - they'd always fascinated him. He studied biology. hoping that he'd figure out a way to arrange for one of those freak accidents to happen that would transform him into a superhuman.

After to years, he managed to get a C average. "But a 'C' is very good, Bill," his parents told him.

Meanwhile Bill's brother had joined UNTIL and become Corporal Terry Kellogg, Peacekeeper. After his parents begged Terry to find his brother a job, Bill found himself employed as an UNTIL janitor. Bill was hoping to be an agent. He seethed at the perceived insult. "But Bill," his mother told him sympathetically. "UNTIL needs janitors as well as agents."

Bill spent three years attending to UNTIL's janitorial needs, mostly ignored by the other janitorial staff - the agents usually gave him funny looks and walked.away when they tried to strike up a conversation. One day, his facility was attacked by a VIPER squad. Bill immediately put don his pail, grabbed a blaster from a downed VIPER agent and joined the firefight. He ended up getting in the way of the UNTIL defenders and was shot twice. While recovering in the infirmary, Bill's parents berated him for his foolishness, and Terry told him the next time he tried such a "stupid stunt", he wouldn't pull strings to keep his job.

Bill was near his breaking point, but hadn't reached it yet. That occurred when Dr. Custer brought the remains of Terasto into the base and began experimenting on them. In a few weeks, he'd developed a serum that could, theoretically, give a human being the strength and powers of an earth elemental. Custer called for volunteers, UNTIL offered him some agents who had contracted terminal cancer. This wadn't good enough for the doctor, so Custer secretly tested people at the base for compatibility.

Bill was the best match.

Naturally Custer wanted Bill, and the two men collaborated on faking a psych test so he could be admitted into the program. He received his first injection, and it worked! Bill received superhuman strength for nearly an hour. The treatment toughened Bill up even when he wasn't under the direct influence of the drug. Unfortunately Bill was the only person who didn't suffer serious side effects from the formula and for UNTIL, one success wasn't good enough. They shut down the program, and transferred Custer to their alien autopsy division where they could keep a closer eye on him. But before he left, Bill managed to steal several vials of Custer's formula.

A few days after the project was disbanded, Terry approached his brother and asked him about the experiment. "If only we had a sample," he wondered aloud. Bill smiled and produced one.

'Sorry, only enough for one," he quipped.

Terey groaned - he'd already tested negative for the program - and gave Bill a brotherly slap on the forehead. You know, you can be both incredibly smart and incredibly stupid at the same time. It's very annoying."

"It's genetic." Bill grinned.

Terry took out a piece of paper and wrote down an address. "These people are your best bet for getting it analyzed and duplicated. Get an estimate. I'll cover the first few payments, but I expect to repaid - with a lot of interest. In small, unmarked bills. Comprehend?"

"But Terry, I could be a superhero... I could be part of UNITY..."

"Those stuck up bastards?" Terry snorted. "It's time to burn the comic book collection, Billy. Like it or not, you're going to play this smart for once. And you're going to become rich, even if I have to kick your ass to do it. So wecome to the other side of your boyhood dream."

#####

It had never occurred to Bill to become a supervillain, but he discovered that once he'd accepted the idea, he didn't have too many qualms about it. He discovered many new and interesting things: that he looked good in spandex, that face masks were hot and itchy in summer, that gas stations weren't as heavily guardfed as banks but still had a lot of small bills, and that it was fun crawling around underground like a kid in a tunnel.

He left his custodial job. UNTIL figured that as long as he didn't make contact with Custer, he wouldn't be a problem. As they had Custer under constant surveilliance, they ignored Kellogg, though he kept their lowest level security clearance (so he could cut through red tape and inform them as soon as possible in case Custer tried to make a deal with him). They never connected the new supervillain Teragon with the outcome of Project Terasto.

Bill was enjoying a good career as a supervillain, but he soon fell victim to the number one killer of supervillains - boredom. After awhile, robbing gas stations just wasn't exciting enough. Carefully choosing his target, he decided to rob a local museum. It was in the middle of this hesit that he met Sleeper.

"Teragon?" Sleeper wondered. "You named yourself after a spice?"

But when Bill demonstrated to Sleeper that he could easily hoist a marble atatue without risking a hernia, Sleeper offered to make Bill his "partner" in crime. The only provision was that he change his name to Terastar ("it almost rhymes with disaster, but not quite").Bill agreed, and that's how Terastar became Sleeper's lackey. Lackey, not partner. Fortunately for Bill, Sleper treats his lackeys better than most people treat their partners, and Bill began to feel like he belonged in a group for the first time in his life. He was comfortable, he was happy, and (with Silver Dragon) even in love. Sure Sleeper often treated him like a hybrid of a man and a giant puppy, and around Silver Dragon he often acts like a fumbling schoolboy, but he was still having the time of his life.

At least until his brother showed up on the doorstep of the PLUNDER-Dome, homemade battle armor in tow, and announced he was joining the team...

Personality: Bill Kellogg's funloving, overconfident facade hides a host of insecurities. He often comes across as a "dumb brick"; he's a little smarter than he appears, Sleeper's intellectual streak often intimidates him into silence. He has a habit of getting lost in his own personal train of thought, and occasionally breaks up conversations with totally inappropriate nonsequitur remarks that makes him look as dumb as a box of rocks. Most people ignore them, which irritates him.

In combat, Bill likes to cultivate a "friendly foe" relationship with the superhero opposition, especially bricks.He loves shouting friendly schoolboy insults and issuing challenges for someone to meet him man to man.

Bill's acrophobia's a recent development, one of the side effects of the serum. Whether there'll be any long term side effects of being "a human earth elemental" remains to be seen.

Bill has definite trust issues. Except for Sleeper or Silver Dragon, he doesn't trust anyone's word. A promise from a superhero with a spotless reputation for integrity will be looked upon with skepticism. His paranoia extends to identity issues; Bill's paranoid he'll be unmasked and exposed, and has concocted several alternate identities that ill be triggered if he's ever captured, so his captors will never figure out he's really Bill Kellogg.

Quote: Hi! Meet my fist!

Powers/Tactics: Terastar's formula gives him the strength, and toughness of a low grade earth elemental, while maintaining his human form, with no apparent side effects. How he managed to be compitable with the essence of the demon elemental Terasto is a mystery that may be used by the GM as a future plot hook. For one hour every day, Terastar may imbibe Dr. Custer's formula and substantiallly boost his power level and abilities - an always painful process, but Bill prides himself on being a man's man and able to cope with a little pain.

In combat, Terastar's too self-centered to be an effective tactician. He prefers solo fights against bricks; unimaginatively, he liikes to plant his feet in solid rock and slug it out until someone goes down. One time, though, when fighting in a gravel quarry, Terastar used a few telekinetic tricks to beat a very famous brick superhero, so when Bill's in the right mood and environment, he can be an unexpectedly dangerous opponent.

Appearance: Bill's a Caucasian male in his mid-20s; 6'1" tall and 215 lbs. A stocky kid in high school, he's now in fine fighting form, but still has the mental image of himself as a "husky" kid. Bill has light brown hair and green eyes; his tenor register is thick and spoken a little slow, leaving people with the first impression that he's an idiot. His costume is a light brown spandex suit with a dark green face mask. Out of costume, he wears solid brown T-shirts or muscle shirts, and blue jeans. Due to his natural inattentiveness, he rarely concentrates on his surroundings and can sometimes be seen staring blankly out into space.

Re: Your Character's Greatest Fear?

Omega (foul mouthed 20-year-old uberbeing(w/magic powers variable pool)/brick): Someone killing (or worse to his dad). Also, fighting someone with the Transform power "Straight to Gay". :-)

Stuntman (handsome but pragmatic tough guy super in his early 30s, nearly impervious to pain). Being the only member of his team left alive at the end of a fight.

Thundrax (teenaged boy scout brick). A radioactive master villain named Spectre (though he'd never openly admit it).

Johnny (son of Johnny Canuck, minor league superhero leader, marginally superhuman martial artist, a normal with a few luck powers). His daughter becoming a supervillain.

Pan (as in Peter Pan, exiled from Neverland). His mother. Pan has a real strong hatred/fear of them.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

He's spanking gnus?

Absolutely. He's definitely got an ox to grind.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

I know PLUNDER had Phobos & Deimos' date=' Sleeper, Terastar & Silver Dragon. Where does MechaTStar come from?[/quote']

 

He's brand spanking new (or at least he hasn't been published).

 

Scott Bennie

Re: UNTIL's Theme Song / Reality Show

I would call it.... "UNTIL, We Meet Again"

There's a reason I don't work in Hollywood. :-)

Scott Bennne

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

So' date=' are you going to be redoing these from scratch or did you find the notes?[/quote']

 

I found the notes, but in paper, not electronic format. It'll take me awhile to retype them - I was very wordy back in 1995. :-)

 

Scott Bennie

Re: Take the 5e Solo villains, and make a team out of them

That's an appropriate role for the 4th edition Oculon, but the Fifth Edition version is no underdog.

I do like the concept. How about Black Diamond, Boa Constrictor, Esper, Armadillo, Shrinker, and Pulsar, with Pulsar as group leader?

Scott Bennie

Re: M&M: this is a Nightmare?

Hero's always done well when there's strong competition.

As long as their sales remain at their current level, I don't see a problem.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Any chance of seeing TeraStar and his brother MechaTStar ?

I'm still looking for my old notes. If I don't find them by the weekend, I'll rewrite them from scratch.

Scott Bennie

Here's a weird one for you.

I'm developing a canine character and I want to give it a fighting style that resembles a dog's. Here's what I've come up with so far; do you guys have any suggestions for additional appropriate moves?

Scott Bennie

------

Re: Need Name For Telekinetic Villain

Hey guys' date=' I need some help coming up with a name for a very powerful telekinetic villain. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.[/quote']

 

Here's a few suggestion (some light-hearted, some not so):

 

Shift

Force Lord

Impact Player

Dr. Domino

Fuerzo (Spanish for "Force")

Repulsor

Beam

Domain

Prime Force

Flux

 

Scott Bennie

Re: Why do folks that dislike Hero hang out here?

There are quite a few threads (What Would You Do, the art threads, a lot of Hermit's polls), that are applicable to anyone who's interested in supers gaming, so I can see folk who dislike Hero hanging out here for a number of good reasons.

Scott Bennie

Re: What character concepts make you cringe?

Generally, if I want to play a serious game, and I get a roster of PCs who'd be too silly-stupid for Mystery Men or the League of Substitute Antarctican Heroes, I cringe.

Scott Bennie

Re: Villainy Amok - What Would *You* Like To See

Just want to let you know that I hope to finalize the outline by Wednesday, so if you have any other scenario suggestions (or suggestions on how to treat the scenarios in general), now's the time to send it in.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Just posting to let people know I made a minor correction on Sleeper's character sheet, so you should redownload the file (or manually add the Ranged advantage to the Negative Skill level portion of the "Make People Act Like They're Tired" Power).

Terastar's revision and Mechastar's sheet will need to be reconstructed from scratch, so future revisions will probably take awhile.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

Sleeper

Player:

Total Character Cost: 730

Disadvantage Points: 130

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 400

Total Experience Available: 399

Experience Unspent: 0

BACKGROUND: Calvin Davis. At age 14, he never quite left some of his more childish pursuits behind him. He still played role-playing games, he still read comic books, he didn’t go out with girls, and hung around with people who were generally considered nerds. He wasn’t particularly close to any of those people either. Calvin was too mild-mannered to be noticeable, and those who preyed on Calvin’s type usually found gawky, easier targets. He was smart, but there were others who got better grades. So Calvin spent his life as a shy little boy, a bright little boy, an unnoticed little boy.

As Calvin approached the ripe age of 15, he begun to realize the sad truth about his life. He had no control over his destiny. He wasn’t really much of anything. The angst-filled teenage equivalent of a mid-life crisis began to consume him. Only his older sister noticed that the shell that he withdrew into was getting tighter and tighter.

Then, one day, Calvin was hit by a car and struck his head on the pavement. He fell into what doctors thought was a coma, but they found that his brain activity was almost off the charts – he was in a continuous dream state for eight months. When he awoke, everything had changed. Something clicked inside his head. He suddenly got a lot smarter. Mathematics suddenly became easy for him. Almost overnight, his features became more impressive, much more impressive. People noticed him, and girls were attracted to him. He did his best to adapt to this new life, but actually found himself uncomfortable at the attention. But that would change.

Calvin began to explore his abilities, and found that he was more than just a prodigy. His touch could, if he willed, bring about the sleep that he had experienced for so long. And perhaps even more impressively, just as a dream is malleable, so could Calvin control and change the environment in his immediate vacinity. Obviously, the trauma had awakened some sort of latent mutation. Calvin intended to put this to good use.

But when he tried, he couldn’t. Calvin Davis was just too repressed. He had to adopt a fantasy persona to come out of his shell. Rick Rogers, Private Investigator, was his favorite player character from his Modern Hero game; now he came to life. Rick Rogers could go into the real world, the adult world, and have fun. With his shape-shifting, he could make it appear as though Rick was 27, and he wouldn’t have to worry about ID. But he needed to set things up to give Rick a true identity. Over the course of six months, he arranged for birth records, social security, and other essential pieces of background. To create these records, he had to perform a lot of illegal actions, like hacking government records. But Calvin enjoyed the challenge, and soon began to justify his actions. It was only a game. No one really got hurt.

Within a year, Calvin had used his powers to steal other trappings for Rick Rogers; a lot of money, a car, even artwork. Calvin -- or should I say Rick Rogers -- liked living well. But as the deception wore on, Calvin was getting bored. It was too easy. He needed a challenge, a real challenge. It was then that Calvin went back to his comic book roots. He decided that superheroes, real superheroes, were the greatest force to reckon with in the modern world. Defeating superheroes, therefore, must be the greatest challenge imaginable.

Calvin then created a third persona, a supervillain persona, the Sleeper. Sleeper’s first crime was a jewelry store heist. He left a block of ice with a riddle inside for the police, giving them a false clue to his secret base, and a box of donuts that contained the real clue. The police didn’t even bother to try checking out the phony clue; they just filed the reports and let the insurance take care of the robbery. Sleeper realized that he had to target the superheroes directly. But superheroes didn’t take solo villains seriously unless they were out to conquer the world, or hurt large numbers of innocents. Calvin wouldn’t know what to do with the world if he did conquer it, and hurting large numbers of innocents is in incredibly poor taste. There are more than enough psychotics in the world. It needed a kinder gentler supervillain, and he would be that villain. But first he’d have to get people’s attention.

Calvin decided that if he was to make an impact, he’d have to come up with his own supervillain team. The result was PLUNDER (Perfidious Larcenous Unity of Nefarious Devious Expert Rogues; so it’s as weak as every other villainous acronym, he was trying to parody the name of the Vancouver superhero team SUNDER). The initial members was the tunnelling brick Terastar, the ronin Silver Dragon, and the twin demons Phobos and Deimos. Phobos and Deimos were much more vicious than Sleeper liked, and eventually they parted company. To replace them, Sleeper recruited Terastar’s brother, a test pilot in a stolen battlesuit named Mechastar.

PLUNDER has been a successful supervillain team, devoted to making its members comfortable and rich, and giving Sleeper a high profile and lots of opportunities to making superheroes look foolish. So far, he’s succeeded at nearly everything he’s done. But what else would you expect -- Calvin gave up his games and comic books for them.

PERSONALITY: Sleeper is a total grandstander. He doesn’t believe in just committing clever crimes; he likes to come up with clever clues, puzzles, and riddles which will lead the heroes to his intended target, so he can increase the humiliation. Sleeper is a nerd who’s overly consumed with his own cleverness. He absolutely cannot stand being the butt of a joke, and will avoid physical conflict if at all possible. Other PLUNDER members have remarked on several occasions that their primary function is to serve as Sleeper’s cannon fodder, although he always finds a way to rescue them when they’re captured.

On the other hand, Sleeper has some redeeming qualities. He abhors the idea of killing. or even using deadly force. He hates superheroes far less than he hates psychotic supervillains, and will frequently give helpful clues to heroes if he discovers someone is up to something deadly. His dislike of the IHA organization is particularly intense – he’s a mutant and proud of his evolutionary advances, so there. He refers to them as “Genocideâ€, a label that’s stuck in a few quarters.

As Calvin Davis, he is very subdued, but over the years Sleeper has spent less time in his Calvin Davis or Rick Rogers personae, for Sleeper feels more “real†and “alive†to him. To Sleeper, life isn’t lived “on the edgeâ€, it’s lived “over the topâ€.

QUOTE: “Answer these two simple questions, Shamus, and get an insight into my fertile genius. First, what does a bookstore have in common with dentistry? Second, what measurement goes up when gravity goes down?â€

POWERS/TACTICS: Sleeper has a psionic ability to create illusions and subtle alterations to the alteration of the world around him. He’s limited to his immediate vacinity (an area a couple of meters around his body). He might, over the course of time, learn how to regenerate serious wounds, or disrupt the cell structure of those he touches (although Sleeper isn’t really interested in racking up a body count; this would be a deadly attack). Because his powers are psionic, they’re not always effective on those with high EGOs.

Sleeper believes in providing clues, then performing robberies to a script. He typically relies on his shapeshifting ability to get him out of trouble, or to set up an opponent for his touch. His shapeshifting ability is limited by height/mass concerns, and most of all by clothing, which does not change as he does.

Sleeper is also an excellent gadgeteer. For a long time, he used an experimental teleportation device, but that was taken from him by a local superhero. Now, he’ll typically develop devices that will help him make quick escapes (in-line skates for his shoes, a smoke bomb to obscure his get-away, etc.) Calvin follows the “flight†rather than the “fight†impulse.

APPEARANCE: Calvin is 5’10†and an athletic 160 lbs; he is Caucasian with brown hair and brown eyes, and wears round “John Lennon†eyeglasses. As Rick Rogers, he doesn’t wear eyeglasses, but grows stuble, and wears a raincoat (as one might expect, he watched too much Columbo as a kid). As Sleeper, he has the same height and build, but with a darker skin tone, longer hair, and a moustache; he wears a three-piece suit (with an “S†marked on his chest), and carries a silver cane (purely decorative).

In 5th edition, Hero products have included scenario hooks attached to the published characters. I was wondering which ones, if any, struck you as particularly good, especially if you actually built a game around them.

Scott bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

was DP always a multiple personality man?

It's a bit of a long story. Alex played short solo Champs games with a number of GMs while we were at UBC. Prowler had a habit of getting into losing battles against pretty much the entire cast of Enemies I and II. After about sixteen defeats in a row (good thing the player's a bit of a masochist :-)) Alex changed Prowler's identity to the Blue Phantom - and immediately started beating the same opponents that had beaten Dark Prowler handily before. This was the start of the multiple personality issue. Prowler couldn't stand being a straight man, so he reverted to Dark Prowler. The Scavenger persona emerged later, when there were times when a situation called on someone too serious for Prowler and too unheroic for Phantom.

And yes, he did have a *very* bad childhood.

Scott Bennie

Re: [Fifth Ed Conversion] Villainy Unbound: Phobos and Deimos

PLUNDER was a big factor in the old SUNDER game I helped run in the early to mid 80s. So were Borealis,Invictus Silhouette, and Nightshade. The PSI-Kin were villains in Kelly Phare's game. Dark Prowler was Alex Palmer's PC.

Scott Bennie