MTH:The Malefactors Society

“Quality Villainy” is the grinning watchword of the Malefactors. Evil is a sacred calling, or so they say. Some argue that they enforce a kind of natural selection, or that the strong deserve harsh testing. The rationales are many, but they all resolve down to a justification (most would say rationalization) for intentional evil.

First and foremost the Society exists to aid nascent supervillians in the development of their 'career'. Any superpowered individual who regularly appears to attempt to do great harm will be contacted by the Society and offered membership. This offer is compulsory in the eyes of the Society. Those who do not comply are killed. The Malefactor candidate must either outrun the Society forever, convince them they are dead, or join one of the other Affiliations. Though it allows for enough personal variation that members rarely remember, the Society is a fascist organization.

Those that ask to join are still tested with a few creative 'mildly lethal' tests, but this is more for the amusement of members then to actually gain entry.

The Society grants many benefits that make things easier for potential villains (see merits), but also apply restrictions with the stated goal of producing 'high-quality villainy'.

All members of the Society are assigned an arch nemesis, a hero, as the Society defines the term, who the Malefactor is supposed to focus their villainous exploits on. The Society matches the hero to the villain in terms of Power Level, approximate type of powers, and, if possible, superhero theme and personality. Malefactors are expected to kill their nemesis only after a protracted and comprehensive menacing, usually several years or decades.

Pairs of villains may petition for Duo status, and groups of villains may petition for Cabal status. Duos and cabals are assigned a pair or group set of nemesis as appropriate. Often, politicking occurs around who get's assigned to who. A higher profile antagonist raises a Malefactor's stock in the eyes of their peers.

Membership

The Malefactors are an extremely diverse lot, and they prize individuality. There is no uniform or badge of membership, but members are required to wear obviously sinister and outlandish costumes during all villainous activities where doing so would not directly hinder the activity (thus they are allowed to wear disguises temporarily). Similarly, members are required to create a villainous name, and encouraged to create a theme for their crimes, costume, name and equipment.

Benefits

Once the character has been assigned a nemesis they gain Status 1 with the Malefactor Society for free. This status can be raised with exp and roleplay like other forms of Status, and can add to other merits for the purposes of acquiring stereotypical villainous equipment. The character also can buy the Equipment Merits at half cost. Lastly, membership in the Society can be used as a rational for Contacts and Allies which are shady and will perform illegal services.

Membership comes with following Society Law. This byzantine system is almost impossible to work through competently (supervillian lawyers are highly refined form of evil), but that just allows members to manipulate the system for their own benefit, which, really, is the point. Members are able to bedevil other members with legal wrangling. They may roll Intelligence + Politics + Power Level to trump up a charges the Society will try the target for. Successes equal the severity of the offense (see below). Beating the charges requires creativity.

Restrictions

New members are generally told to stick to the following guidelines to act in line with Society Law;
1 - Wear an appropriately ostentatious Costume during all acts of villainy, and go by an appropriate Society-registered name.
2 – Kill a Nemesis only when they have been Brought Low. (stripped of all Merits & loved ones, at a minimum).
3 – Kill Civilians only when they seek to aid Heroes, or if they are being used to manipulate a Hero, such as a hostage. (The Society considers pointless or random killing to be the mark of an amateur.)
4 – All major crime must relate, directly or indirectly, to the Malefactor's Nemesis.

Characters which break these rules will be captured and brought before The Tribunal. This secretive court system will try the character and possibly sentence them to some harsh punishment. The exact sanctions are left to the ST to determine, but they always seem at least a little excessive. STs may set this up as a separate session if they wish, with other characters called as witnesses. If the ST would rather handle this more quickly, assume it happens between sessions, as an extended Intelligence + Politics roll with a target difficulty equal to the severity of the crime. Assume that each way the character violated one of the above rules increases the severity by 1. The character can make one roll per dot of Power Level each day. Pseudo-legalistic Stylish Execution is encouraged. Success means they got away with it scott-free, while if they don't beat the target number, then whatever successes they did achieve reduce the severity of the punishment on a one-to-one basis.

The Society doesn't clarify the guidelines for punishments, as a way of making Society justice scarier.