Brick City SPOILERS

The Great Super Villain Contest

issue #1

M&M presents: "tGSVC, part I" , September 12, 2007. GM: KEVIN
RECAP:  ???
Issue ROSTER:  ???

GM ONLY Notes:
For several months, the anti-social activities of many of the world's most powerful villains have been on the decline. This has been seen in many quarters as evidence that the constant vigilance of the world's costumed champions of justice has been more successful of late; however, some fear that this observed decline is merely an indication that some greater evil is marshalling its forces for a grand assaunt on humankind.

Those fears are correct.
Hidden deep beneath the semi-toxic waters of one of Brick City's chemical factories lies the secret citadel of  ??? , the mysterious villain whose very existence is still unknown. From this sub-terra stronghold, the mastermind has sent forth his emissaries of evil to make contact with the most powerful villains of all. He has offered them an opportunity to prove once and for all which among them is the deadliest threat to the forces of law and order. Their immediate objective will be to embarrass, defeat, and ultimately to destroy the superheroes of Earth. Their final goal will be Power Absolute.
To the final victor in the struggle for supremacy the mastermind has promised  ??? ...

PHASE 1 - the qualifying round

• Mastermind begins contacting villains, thugs, crooks and other seedy elements, telling them of the contest and its prize, instructing them to begin assailing superheroes and passing the good word to their villainous allies. To participate they must simply respond with accknowledgement. He doesn't mention that every villain on Earth is a contestant - even villain totally ignorant of the contest will be evaluated so long as word of their deeds reach the mastermind.
• GOAL: Gain points by battling, defeating, and humiliating heroes. The more formidable the hero the more points are awarded for his defeat. Conversely, the more villainsthere are attacking a hero, the fewer points there are to go around. This is to weed out would-be competitors who are unfit to be a supervillain and to evaluate the supervillains abilites and powers. Villains who consistently lose to heroes, or who are too stupid to take advantage of their opportunities, or who are too psychopathic to control themselves under stress, will likely not do well enough to reach the second phase of the competition. The purpose of the contest is to determine the most powerful supervillains (and heroes) on Earth.

issue #2

M&M presents: "tGSVC, part I" , September 19, 2007. GM: KEVIN
RECAP:  ???
Issue ROSTER:  ???

GM ONLY Notes:

issue #3

M&M presents: "tGSVC, part I" , September 19, 2007. GM: KEVIN
RECAP:  ???
Issue ROSTER:  ???

GM ONLY Notes:

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SETTING IDEAS

• C.H.O.R.E.S. - the Commission for Heroic Operations Reward Endevor System: In order to increase the safety and welfare of its citizens the city government is instituting this super-rewards program.
  "Do the chores get the rewards Brick City heroes!"

standing in line to cash in the coupons for dumb gifts

save the coupons up to get the good stuff like with the fairground tickets.

special offers of just about any sort that you receive with your credit card statement

exchange some of their points/reward dollars for tickets to theme parks, airline upgrades, magazine subscriptions, sunglasses, free superhero business cards and return address labels (just pay for shipping)

discounts at local second rate clothing stores (for all those suits they'll be leaving in phone booths)

discounts on large framed eye glasses (same reason)

discounts for drycleaning (for their super suits).

a free home make over for their hideouts (On the popular "Secret HQ for You" TV show for d-listers, like trading spaces or spouces but for team HQ's and/ or team leaders)!

• "Super Welfare": snide super (one with hefty endorsements) refer to the checks that the B-list heroes wait in line for as "welfare" checks...

The heroes get into a really tough knock-down drag-out fight with a known super-villain and eventually are victorious. They are giddy and high-fiving each other all the way to the CHORE offices where they fill out the paperwork for their claim.

• Reviewer: "Hmm it says here that you battled against Eviscerator at 5th and Main near Central Bank."
• Hero 1: "Yeah! We kicked his butt!"
• Reviewer: "Well Eviscerator is currently rated as a class C felon of minimal threat level..."
• Hero 2: "Class C!?!? Minimal threat level!?!? His power is to make peoples guts explode!"
• Reviewer: "True, but that is only one person at a time, which hardly classifies him as a Person of Mass Destruction."
• Hero 3: "He exploded my guts!"
• Reviewer: "You look okay..."
• Hero 3: "I regenerate."
• Reviewer: "Oh, I see. Regeneration negates the injury claims that you cited on the back of your claim form."
• Hero 3: "He EXPLODED my GUTS!!!"
• Reviewer: "Which brings me to the post-battle hazard clause. According to the police you did not remain for the entire clean-up after the battle."
• Hero 2: "Yes, that's true. Because we were carrying our teammate to the hospital after his guts exploded."
• Reviewer: "Unfortunately without an injury claim, you won't be able to file a hospital exemption clause for missing the post-battle cleanup; And apparently there was an exceptional mess near the bus stop..."
• Hero 1: "Bus stop?"
• Hero 3: "Sorry boss. That was me... it was where I was standing when my GUTS EXPLODED!!!"

• C.H.E.A.P. - the Commission for Heroic Enterprise Award Program: The heroes earn points similar to frequent flier miles, with outrageous restrictions on their earning and use. The system could feature a Byzantine telephone application system which (after suffering through a series of confusing choices and inscrutable instructions) inevitably requires the heroes to “stay on the line to talk to a customer service representative.” For a nice touch, track down some cheesy music on hold, and play it for your group while you go hit the bathroom, make yourself a sandwich, etc…
  adding them both to the compaign for even more fun, maybe the chore stuff is the original that gets phased out and replaced with the cheap system, which is deamed more efficient by city hall(and can be run from another country at a fracton of the cost) make i a premium rate line aswell to add to the highjinx

VILLAIN IDEAS

The Raiders

The Raiders are a bank robbery gang. Violent, but not terribly powerful. Think deNiro's crew from Heat and you've got the right notion. Their members are:

• Six Gun: He wears a suit of low-powered high-tech body armor and wields (you guessed it) six SMGs (mounted on 4 robotic limbs [i]a la[/]i Doc Ock), along with a helmet that gives him 360 degree vision. He's the brains of the group and hell on normal police and agents, but his weaponry isn't very high-powered.
• Bombshell: Beauty school dropout with the power to explode like a grenade and reintegrate herself. Think a low-powered Nitro and you're on the right track. She's nasty, cruel and not terribly bright.
• The Amazing Gecko: he has the ability to transform himself into...an entirely ordinary gecko, with human intelligence. Gecko is the Raiders' inside man.
• Respin: Respin is a speedster with the ability to spin ast high speeds. He carries buzzsaw blades around and spins them in his fingers for intimidation. Think bargain-basement Whirlwind.

Murder, LLC

A pair of down and out Iron Age villains that formerly ran a murder for hire scheme. They may've been bad, mad and dangerous to know back in the day, but now? A bit pathetic.

• Assaulto: Militiaman extraordinaire. Assaulto has an assault rifle that fires bullets, fire and grenades. He wears ordinary body armor. Sputs a lot of right-wing rhetoric.
• Kill-Stab: Assaulto's partner and close-combat expert. Ex Special Forces with a thing for swords and knives. Much with the psychotic stabby.

The Crime Circus

Well, they're trying to form the Crime Circus, but so far the two founding members haven't had a lot of luck...

• The Hurler: A circus strongman that throws cannonballs at people. That's his entire schtick. The hurls stuff, and has a terrible name.
• Anklebiter: a 2' tall psychotic Canadian with too much body hair, claws and a serious case of poor impulse control. Often thrown at people by the Hurler.

FORCE Ops

• Yeoman: Iron Age Green Arrow. Yeah, he's got trick arrows, but they're snares, explosives and poison gas.
• Mocker: Shapeshifting psychotic alien. Think a mean-ass Martian Manhunter.
• Bluestreak: Foul-mouthed speedster.
• Thunderfist: Massive cyborg brute with electrical powers.
• The 'Hood: City elemental and personification of urban blight.
• Lady Justice: Another personification, this time of unwavering, harsh justice.\\
• Super-Life: The PCs are all put together by a reality-TV producer who wants to do a show on [# of PCs] superhumans, all strangers, all fitting 'just the right made for TV dynamic' are put in an apartment for six months and filmed 24/7. The film crew would consist of some kind of gadgeteer able to made cameras that can follow them on their adventures, battles, and even 'trips to dimension X'.

Single Villains

• Dr. TNT: minons, which are actually identical robots (that look exactly like the evil doctor) and EXPLODE when triggered. A Triggered damage effect with the Explosion extra. Killing the user seems to be accepted as a -3 flaw around these parts.
• Do-Over: The Character is a thief. He stole a time-stopping device and is using it to steal $$, Jewels, and Priceless Art. He is remeniscent of the Clock King from Batman, but his only initial motivation is money. He is extremely thorough, and timely in all that he does, and is rather anti-social.
  The Power is built as an area affect. If you look in Ultimate Power, it says that Time Stop affects a bubble of Rank x 5 ft. I contemplated making it happen everywhere, but this really makes the power a bit too ridiculous, and minimizes its effectiveness as a plot device. He has "all the time in the world" have him be ocd, and re-arrange funiture, dust peoples coats, and clean the surroundings in the area of his time stop. State subtlely how things are cleaner, or more well ordered than normal, and casually state that the vault wheel spokes are parallel to the floor, and that lady's hair is redone.... Very Happy. He turns on the faucet, there's a blink, then suddenly the faucet is overflowing and the song on the radio has changed. He opens the freezer door, there's a blink, and suddenly there's frost over everthing.

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Personally, I wouln't give him the No Saving Throw Extra. For the first couple of times, every time he uses his power around the PCs, give them a Hero Point for being automaticaly affected by the power. Then, once they figure out that someone is using a time manipulating power on them, start allowing them their saving throws. Or, for even better stealth, figure out how many times you think he's gonna use the power, and give them the HP's at the beginning of the adventure.

Time Stopper villain needs to smash a watch or clock in order to achieve the effect. In this way, he'd leave physical evidence behind to alert the PCs that he'd been there and used his power. They could also anticipate when he was about to do it again. The idea came from the XTC song 25 O'Clock, specifically the lines:

"My spell of hours will make you fall
Each timer that I break
Will halt the flowing sands
Each timer that I break
Will put you in my hands"

• Cat-Lady: strange lady with dozens of cats
• Hell-Cow:
• Mr. See Through: a hero whose hero form is made of solid flat plained glass, his abilities focus on "invisibility" however in times of need he can break and fire bits of his body in glass shards at foes. His major flaw is his massive "glass jaw".
• Frat-Lad: continual college student who has the ability to eat/drink anything, can do great feats of daring, etc... but only if dared to do so and beer is usually involved.

OPENING

METRO CITY is a shining jewel in the crown of truth, justice and the American way, a thriving metropolis that is home to some of the greatest heroes this world has ever known.

BRICK CITY is about 30 minutes to the west, one of METRO CITY's neighbors. A town formerly known for its high-quality building materials - now known for its low-to-medium-quality superheroes.

Those heroes who are really good at it may someday receive the coveted golden envelope that means an interview with the Exemplars in Metro City. For those who aren't, or at least aren't yet ... well, that's why most superheroes in Brick City have day jobs.

These ain't your classic superheroes. They're not the favorites. These're the other guys. The guys nobody ever bets on. ... They strike down evil with the mighty sword of mediocrity and the hammer of sheer luck.

There's no shame in that those, HEY... we can all be heroes, some of us look better in spandex than others...

Heck, we all know the major difficulty in superheroing is you are reactive. The villain gets all the time to plot and plan, and manipulate, and when they pull the curtain on their big show, you've got to trash it in 59 seconds.

Sigh... If Count Killcrazy wants revenge on Brick City, he will have his chance.

And someone will be waiting. These dudes are not famous, not super-cool.

They don't have their own Saturday morning cartoon, or breakfast cereal.

No high-profile sponsorship deals, or endorsements.

They're barely acceptable.

They suck.

ACCEPTABLES! HEROIFY!

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Brick City