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[Marvel Villainous Roleplaying] Necessary Evil
dresdenphile
Watch out for snakes!Registered User regular
Watch out for snakes!Registered User regular
The first ships appeared over every major city of the planet. There was no prelude and no demands. The aliens just attacked. They were an amphibious race that combined the nastiest aspects of sharks and crocodiles with an aggression matched by neither. They were the stuff of nightmares to most. The people called them “Fins.” New York became a war zone, Tokyo burned, and even sunken Atlantis was rubbled and its ruler—the legendary Namor—slain.
Earth’s superheroes fought back immediately. The fins were terrifying, but no one ever doubted the heroes would win out in the end. After all, aliens had tried to invade Earth three times before, and Earth’s defenders had always emerged triumphant. But the fins possessed advanced technology and savage bloodlust, so the losses were heavy. Earth began to worry.
Then came the turn of the tide the people had come to expect in these epic wars of aliens and supermen. Advance forces of another alien race arrived in earth orbit—the V’sori. They claimed to be the long-lost descendants of Atlantis who had been searching for their missing brothers and sisters for hundreds of years. During their quest, they had grown to become the defenders of the galaxy.
The V’sori claimed the Fins—or K’tharen as they called themselves—were rampaging mercenaries who ravaged world after world, but the V’sori had fought them before and would help Earth against them now. This world’s greatest superhero, The Sentry, flew into space to meet them. He returned later and gave a stirring speech that called for humanity to hold out for just a bit longer. They did, though the final cost in blood was great.
When the V’sori arrived, the K’tharen fleet rose to fight them. The alien ships fought a titanic battle in space, but the V’sori won out, and even beamed the images of the fleeing Fins to earth. Humanity cheered their saviors and welcomed the advanced alien protectors with open arms. Anxious youths danced in the streets, proclaiming an era of peace and love. Less trusting commentators were booed and mocked in the national press. And some appeasement-minded governments even offered the aliens the figurative keys to their states.
Of course that’s just what the aliens wanted all along.
In every major city, heroes and world leaders joined together to welcome the aliens. The crowds cheered as the V’sori ships appeared overhead. Every superhero, sidekick, president, and even stars of sports, movies, and music attended these grand galas. The people of earth cheered as they watched their heroes greet the alien saviors on the news networks.
The cheers turned to screams when the V’sori ships opened fire on the gathered throngs. Moments afterward, the K’tharen warships returned—servants of the V’sori. Sentry was standing before the cameras when the V’sori hit. They targeted him with a concentrated beam of energy that turned the hero into a pulpy mass. Massive death rays then swept over the gathered throngs, slaying thousands of heroes, officials, generals, and innocents in moments. Within 30 minutes, the unthinkable had occurred. Earth’s greatest heroes were dead and its leaders vaporized.
The aliens had won.
Soon, televisions and radios around the world carried an announcement from the admiral of the V’sori fleet. Earth was now under the control of the V’sori Empire. Resistance would be met with death. The V’sori Empire wanted Earth’s resources. They needed a way to study our defenses, and then take them out with a surprise strike of surgical precision. They succeeded flawlessly. They claimed destroying more of our infrastructure and our people was counterproductive to their goal, gaining a new self-sufficient source of raw resources.
The V’sori have placed Governors in charge of the former nations of Earth. The invaders and their Fin servants are now commonplace. There isn’t a single government left to oppose them, and they feel they have nothing to fear from Earth.
But they are wrong.
Earth’s heroes are dead, but there are other beings with extraordinary abilities on our planet. They are supervillains. And they are a necessary evil.
***********
Back-story: I purchased this Savage Worlds rulebook, Necessary Evil, forever ago, and while it would seem I'll never use it for a Savage Worlds game, the subject seems ripe for plundering and jamming into a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying PbP game, which is where you are right now.
Obviously, this is not your mama's Marvel Universe. Notable changes include Captain America and Bucky never being thawed out, Galactus never came to nom-nom the Earth, and the Kree, Shi'ar, and Skrull are off doing their own thing for the most part and don't really care about us silly Earthlings.
I'd like to get a good 3-5 villains to start things up. The game seems pretty welcoming towards new people jumping in and swapping out(never too hard to have another villain just happen to be nearby) so if I can get at least 3 to start initially I say we'd be good to go. I have the main book, the Civil War main book, Civil War: X-Men, and Civil War: Runaways/Young Avengers, so I have all the villains in those particular available. For people that don't have them, here's a list of them for those who don't have any books and would like to just pick someone and have me give them the stats*:
That being said, it will be your job as a player to rob and modify at least 1 Milestone progression from a hero, or come up with your own that seems reasonable. I'd also like an in-character post about how you reacted to the invasion and the death of the heroes (maybe your primary foe?).
I am a rookie MHR DM, so please bear with me and try not to brow-beat me too much if I get a roll wrong.
So...who wants to be the bad** guy AND save the world?
**
Earth’s superheroes fought back immediately. The fins were terrifying, but no one ever doubted the heroes would win out in the end. After all, aliens had tried to invade Earth three times before, and Earth’s defenders had always emerged triumphant. But the fins possessed advanced technology and savage bloodlust, so the losses were heavy. Earth began to worry.
Then came the turn of the tide the people had come to expect in these epic wars of aliens and supermen. Advance forces of another alien race arrived in earth orbit—the V’sori. They claimed to be the long-lost descendants of Atlantis who had been searching for their missing brothers and sisters for hundreds of years. During their quest, they had grown to become the defenders of the galaxy.
The V’sori claimed the Fins—or K’tharen as they called themselves—were rampaging mercenaries who ravaged world after world, but the V’sori had fought them before and would help Earth against them now. This world’s greatest superhero, The Sentry, flew into space to meet them. He returned later and gave a stirring speech that called for humanity to hold out for just a bit longer. They did, though the final cost in blood was great.
When the V’sori arrived, the K’tharen fleet rose to fight them. The alien ships fought a titanic battle in space, but the V’sori won out, and even beamed the images of the fleeing Fins to earth. Humanity cheered their saviors and welcomed the advanced alien protectors with open arms. Anxious youths danced in the streets, proclaiming an era of peace and love. Less trusting commentators were booed and mocked in the national press. And some appeasement-minded governments even offered the aliens the figurative keys to their states.
Of course that’s just what the aliens wanted all along.
In every major city, heroes and world leaders joined together to welcome the aliens. The crowds cheered as the V’sori ships appeared overhead. Every superhero, sidekick, president, and even stars of sports, movies, and music attended these grand galas. The people of earth cheered as they watched their heroes greet the alien saviors on the news networks.
The cheers turned to screams when the V’sori ships opened fire on the gathered throngs. Moments afterward, the K’tharen warships returned—servants of the V’sori. Sentry was standing before the cameras when the V’sori hit. They targeted him with a concentrated beam of energy that turned the hero into a pulpy mass. Massive death rays then swept over the gathered throngs, slaying thousands of heroes, officials, generals, and innocents in moments. Within 30 minutes, the unthinkable had occurred. Earth’s greatest heroes were dead and its leaders vaporized.
The aliens had won.
Soon, televisions and radios around the world carried an announcement from the admiral of the V’sori fleet. Earth was now under the control of the V’sori Empire. Resistance would be met with death. The V’sori Empire wanted Earth’s resources. They needed a way to study our defenses, and then take them out with a surprise strike of surgical precision. They succeeded flawlessly. They claimed destroying more of our infrastructure and our people was counterproductive to their goal, gaining a new self-sufficient source of raw resources.
The V’sori have placed Governors in charge of the former nations of Earth. The invaders and their Fin servants are now commonplace. There isn’t a single government left to oppose them, and they feel they have nothing to fear from Earth.
But they are wrong.
Earth’s heroes are dead, but there are other beings with extraordinary abilities on our planet. They are supervillains. And they are a necessary evil.
***********
Back-story: I purchased this Savage Worlds rulebook, Necessary Evil, forever ago, and while it would seem I'll never use it for a Savage Worlds game, the subject seems ripe for plundering and jamming into a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying PbP game, which is where you are right now.
Obviously, this is not your mama's Marvel Universe. Notable changes include Captain America and Bucky never being thawed out, Galactus never came to nom-nom the Earth, and the Kree, Shi'ar, and Skrull are off doing their own thing for the most part and don't really care about us silly Earthlings.
I'd like to get a good 3-5 villains to start things up. The game seems pretty welcoming towards new people jumping in and swapping out(never too hard to have another villain just happen to be nearby) so if I can get at least 3 to start initially I say we'd be good to go. I have the main book, the Civil War main book, Civil War: X-Men, and Civil War: Runaways/Young Avengers, so I have all the villains in those particular available. For people that don't have them, here's a list of them for those who don't have any books and would like to just pick someone and have me give them the stats*:
Alex Wilder
Amphibius
Armadillo
Barbarus
Bloodshed
Brainchild
Bulldozer
Bullseye
Bushwacker
Carnage
Chemistro
Cobalt Man
Coldheart
Constrictor
Controller
Count Nefaria
Crossbones
Crossfire
Crusader
Cutthroat
Electro
Ghost-Maker
Graviton
Green Goblin
Grey Gargoyle
Griffin
Hammerhead
Hydro-Man
Ironclad
Jack O Lantern
Jester
Jigsaw
Kingpin
Lady Deathstrike
Living Laser
Lupo
Mandrill
Moonstone
Mr. Fear
Mr. Hyde
Piledriver
Purple Man
Radioactive Man
Razor Fist
Sauron
Scalphunter
Scarecrow
Shockwave
Silver Samurai
Slyde
Songbird
Speedfreek
Stilt-Man
Swordsman
Taskmaster
Thunderball
Tiger Shark
Titanium Man
Toad
Tombstone
Typhoid Mary
Vapor
Vector
Venom (Marc Gargan)
Vermin
Vertigo
Vienna
Whiteout
Worm
Wrecker
X-Ray
Zzzax
*This is what I believe to be the full list. The Civil War books are a little loosey-goosey in terms of how characters are written up. Toad, for example, has the same size and color write-up as Vision, so if I missed someone, let me know.
Amphibius
Armadillo
Barbarus
Bloodshed
Brainchild
Bulldozer
Bullseye
Bushwacker
Carnage
Chemistro
Cobalt Man
Coldheart
Constrictor
Controller
Count Nefaria
Crossbones
Crossfire
Crusader
Cutthroat
Electro
Ghost-Maker
Graviton
Green Goblin
Grey Gargoyle
Griffin
Hammerhead
Hydro-Man
Ironclad
Jack O Lantern
Jester
Jigsaw
Kingpin
Lady Deathstrike
Living Laser
Lupo
Mandrill
Moonstone
Mr. Fear
Mr. Hyde
Piledriver
Purple Man
Radioactive Man
Razor Fist
Sauron
Scalphunter
Scarecrow
Shockwave
Silver Samurai
Slyde
Songbird
Speedfreek
Stilt-Man
Swordsman
Taskmaster
Thunderball
Tiger Shark
Titanium Man
Toad
Tombstone
Typhoid Mary
Vapor
Vector
Venom (Marc Gargan)
Vermin
Vertigo
Vienna
Whiteout
Worm
Wrecker
X-Ray
Zzzax
*This is what I believe to be the full list. The Civil War books are a little loosey-goosey in terms of how characters are written up. Toad, for example, has the same size and color write-up as Vision, so if I missed someone, let me know.
That being said, it will be your job as a player to rob and modify at least 1 Milestone progression from a hero, or come up with your own that seems reasonable. I'd also like an in-character post about how you reacted to the invasion and the death of the heroes (maybe your primary foe?).
I am a rookie MHR DM, so please bear with me and try not to brow-beat me too much if I get a roll wrong.
So...who wants to be the bad** guy AND save the world?
**
Stolen from the NE guidebook and is very relevant:
This game is all about playing the villains of four-color comics, with their grand schemes of world domination and destruction. While these villains may be murderous and megalomaniacal, they don’t tend to be mindless killers without purpose.
The super-villain you make up should at least have the potential for working with other super-villains. While playing a completely antisocial psychotic does have its charms, it does not usually make for good team game-play. Take some time to consider why your villain would cooperate with other villains, especially under the circumstances. Your villain could certainly murder his fellow compatriots at a later date to serve his own goals, but for the time being, he ought to realize he’s more powerful with others by his side
This game is all about playing the villains of four-color comics, with their grand schemes of world domination and destruction. While these villains may be murderous and megalomaniacal, they don’t tend to be mindless killers without purpose.
The super-villain you make up should at least have the potential for working with other super-villains. While playing a completely antisocial psychotic does have its charms, it does not usually make for good team game-play. Take some time to consider why your villain would cooperate with other villains, especially under the circumstances. Your villain could certainly murder his fellow compatriots at a later date to serve his own goals, but for the time being, he ought to realize he’s more powerful with others by his side
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Posts
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
Comics, Games, Booze
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
As long as you can copy-pasta their datafile to me, I'm cool with any of those.
This will require some research.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
Doom is totally in the Civil War book.
Magento not having an official file sucks, yeah. Xavier doesn't have one either. The thing is all the books that came out were from during and a little before Civil War, and during that time period neither of them were really around. But Magneto has some solid fanmade files out there, I'm sure.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
So he is! I missed that somehow. Ok, I'm going to browse for some Magneto files and do some thinking, but I'll be one of the two if the DM approves.
This is a really useful resource for finding fanmade files.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
8->
This reads as oddly like one of the early-ish Exiles storylines, but in that one the Skrulls had taken over and the heroes were all gladiators.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
That'd be Doc Ock 2, or 1 depending on whether brain-surgery or something has happened yet, iirc. Not wiki-ing him right this second to check. Dude has jumped through about as many hosts as The Specter at this point, with less justification.
My preference would be for Avalanche anyway. Poor guy's got first-tier powers but has seen too much crap / was never ambitious enough to get proper recognition.
Don't take my fun away! I love building datafiles!
They don't have one for Avalanche, but there is one for Rictor in an X-men book and that'd be the place to start if you were gonna.
Also, since I checked wikipedia after all, that's Doctor Octopus 2 (Carolyn Trainer) aka Lady Octopus, but no brain transplant. She was going to ressurrect Otto from his brain patterns or something, instead.
Renascence is her name; she used to be Wind Dancer, apparently.
Moonstone might be fun.
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
Philippa Sontag (secret)
Solo d6
Buddy d8
Team d10
Anger Issues
Cloned Marauder
Former Soldier
SEISMIC MUTANT
Enhanced Stamina d8
Seismic Blast d10
Superhuman Durability d10
Superhuman Strength d10
SFX: Power Punch. Include both Seismic Mutant and Superhuman Strength in the same attack action at no additional cost. Remove the highest rolling die and step up physical stress inflicted.
Limit: Mutant. When affected by mutant-specific complica- tion or tech, step up the lowest die in the doom pool or add a d6 doom die.
Combat Expert d8
Covert Expert d8
Menace Expert d8
The strength is probably off, because IIRC, Avalanche is at peak-human levels, at best. But, it's at least a starting point!
Edit: Blob, Juggernaut, Sabertooth, and Taskmaster jump right out at me.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
I'd like to play Alex Wilder.
I was likely to kill all of Mystique's Brotherhood in Avalanche's backstory but if you want Fred Dukes, he can live. :P
No big, Juggernaut and Taskmaster are talking more to me at this point. Though the Juggy datafiles are sick.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
About the only thing more ridiculous than Juggernaut in current continuity is Phoenix-empowered Jugglossus, yeah. Maybe Hulk, too.