Brick City SPOILERS

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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:


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.
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.

ommy Gun - A roaring 20's mobster themed guy with a hi-tech machine guy in a violin case.

Funny Bones - A freak accident turned everything but his skullton invisible and made him super strechy too

Belladonna - The "deadly nightshade" a poison ivy type with plant and poison powers

King of Hearts - Either play him as a playboy thief with a card moffit or maybe make him some serial killer who collects the "hearts" of his lovelies

Trouble-maker - A mutant with the ability to cause violent emotions to surface in persons in his/her area of effect if mutant does work for ya give them a experimental device (helmet) that produces same effect.

Black Aria - A former opera singer who was injured in a freak accident she used the wealth from her former husbands (she marries and then somethign accidental seems to happen to them) to pay for a series of operations and bio-tech vocal cords that grant a wide range of sonic abilities

Dr Diablo - A genetics expert driven to create the perfect "being" - to bad most of his experiments all involved up-lifting animals and mix matching any DNA he could come across (animal human mutant alien etc)

Frostbyte - Hi tech suit/armor ice themed guy - he loves to steal "cold" cash

The Big Bad Wolf - What do you do when a fairy tale character comes to life? Well a misplace spell (some college kids having fun) and the cursed tomb (Grimm's fairy tales) summons this intelligent Beast and with no lil Red to catch his eye he is going to feed on the city itself. A twist on the mindless werewolf archtype. HAHA! I did one with this name and gave him Superbreath; it was hilarious. I had him small, looking like a toonish humanoid wolf who would change when his Rage kicked in.

Card Shark Think Gambit but with trick cards he throws.

Dorothy and the OZ Gang First off Dorothy is a super model turned criminal mastermind - her lackys are trained attack dog Toto - Scarecrow escape artist/thief - Tin man a computer hacker - Lion the strong guy of the group (think Wolverine without claws or mutant abilities)

Beatnik: A 'beat generation' style poet who stages crimes as publicity stunts for his latest piece of doggerel. Has henchmen that follow him around clicking their fingers a lot, and fights foes with his 'beat stick.'

Folie a Trois: Three mentally ill patients who were placed in the same ward at a psychiatric hospital, and had extremely negative effects on each other. They sparked off and exacerbated each other's disorders, trapping all three of them in a vicious cycle of increasingly violent shared delusions and paranoia. This group madness motivated them to escape, and is driving them through a series of escalating crimes. If separated, they can be made to calm down and restored to relative sanity.

Anaconda: A pro wrestler (a grapple-freak mechanically) turned criminal with an affinity for snakes.

Baby Boomer: A midget demolitions expert.

Captain Collateral: A walking weapons locker around whom bad luck tends to crop up. If he were a character he would definitely have the Accident complication.

One-Man Mob: An ambitious criminal who uses a mind-control drug to turn innocents into his unknowing lackeys.

Password: Someone with extensive knowledge of computers as well as the human psyche.

Ford Tennessee: Once a mild-mannered clerk at the Bureau of Weights and Measures, Melvin Brunhicky suffered a break down and assaulted several of his co-workers for not appreciating precision as much as he did. In prison, he lifted a lot of weights and began abusing steroids, changing from a skinny weakling to a muscle-drenched bodybuilder. His fixation with absolute precision in measurements grew into a true obsessive compulsive disorder. On his release, he contacted a criminal scientist he'd heard about on the inside, and was able to acquire a pair of gauntlets (one fist of iron, the other of steel) that gave him superhuman strength – the ability to lift sixteen tons exactly. He now plots crimes that have to do with weights, lengths, and other statistical and dimensional quanta.

Urban Myss: An assassin who kills victims by recreating urban myths -- the hook on the door-handle, the removal of kidneys, etc. She only kills her targets -- no innocent bystanders, no heroes, nobody else -- and she justifies her actions by blaming society for creating a world of fear and ignorance that requires her murders to infuse logic into it.

Penny Wise: A play on the saying "Penny-wise, pound foolish." She's a con artist, master of disguise and thief who has an incredible IQ and few scruples. She believes that fools and their money deserve to be parted, and most of her cons and heists target events or interests stereotyped as being for the non-educated set -- the diamond-studded belt-buckle at a high-stakes rodeo, the solid-gold folding chair at a major wrestling event, or the car auctioned off to coincide with the opening of a big dumb action movie (in which the car is a major feature).

Prism: A villain with a hue-and-color theme. She uses high-tech illusions (usually to fool people, occasionally to blind with high-intensity light), and her attacks always follow the color spectrum -- if the Red Diamond is stolen on Monday, then on Tuesday, you'd better guard all the banks that have "Orange" in their name, and on Wednesday, put a few guards on Yellowstone Museum.

Cold Shoulder: Once a promising, if self-centered researcher in the field of cryonics, Susan Sleat was caught in a lab explosion that left her right arm twisted and mangled. When a corporate probe blamed her for the accident, she was sacked in short ordered and black-listed from the technology sector. Enraged by the insult, Sleat kidnapped a former associate and, with their combined technological genius, constructed the Cold Shoulder harness, an exo-frame for her chest and right arm that granted her incredible strength and the ability to drop objects to sub-zero temperatures with a touch. With he weapon, she struck back at her former employers, stealing money and technology to sell to the highest bidder. Cold Shoulder is cunning and intelligent, but dispite her name she is fairly hot-headed and egotistical. Her few captures can be chalked up to overconfidence moreso than any lack of ability.

The Haberdasher: Dashing Marcus Wattson II is a true Renaissance man, having studied history, literature, science, tactics and pugilism; a shame he wastes his talent and vast family fortune on crime. Watterson realized long ago that neither business nor hunting would satisfy him, and realized that only the cat-and-mouse games of matching wits with superheroes really interested him. His capers are always well thought-out and follow a theme (though often a confusing one related to classic literature, poetry, or famous battles). The Haberdasher is a classic gentleman, always well-spoken and calm, and would never imagine taking advantage of a disadvantaged foe; he has even come to the aid of citizens in distress in the past, though it's not a habit. He earned his name by wearing a different, stylish cap to each crime, each chapeau concealling a different gimmick. The Haberdasher is never found without a cadre of minions and at least three escape plans.

March Harriet: The Haberdashers mad assistant and Wuxia master, March Harriet is the perfectly-toned muscle to his well-dressed brains.

Doubletalk: When Mindy Twain's twin sister Mandy was shot by police, her mind snapped. Never a shining beacon of morality to begin with, Twain jumped from petty criminal to costumed maniac in short order. She still believes Mandy to be alive, unaware that their personalities inhabit the same body, and the seperation between the two personalities is so strong that she regularly has conversations and even arguments with herself. Her clothing is almost always patchwork sewn together from two different outfits, highlighting Mindy's 'spicey' personality and Mandy's 'sweet'. Doubletalk has a psychotic hatred of law officers, though she can't remember why, and her crimes usually build up to some grand scheme against a major police official or location. While both personalities are distinct (Mindy is more emotional and 'cheap', while Mandy is refined and intellectual), both are thoroughly insane and dangerous to anyone who gets in their way. Doublespeak seems to be inhumanly perceptive and has uncanning reflexes, possibly a side-effect of her insanity (she is thinking for two these days).

Bodycount - a murder obsessed psychopath bent only on increasing the number of people he's killed.

Penny Dreadful: female thief specializing in manuscripts, books, baseball cards... anything printed. Usually dresses in a pin-striped zoot-suit, but will sometimes dress as a literary character. Will have goons in appropriately-themed costumes (for example, if she goes as the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, the goons will have a playing card motif).

Janus: Has a two-faced mask that allows him to see 360 degrees. Master lock-picker (maybe as a power?). Other than that, he's a fairly straight-forward crime boss, a-la Two Face. Note: he's actually twins, but only one is ever seen outside the mask at a time. Think Christian Bale's character from The Prestige.

Firebug: professional arsonist. Midget. (Inspired by the Firefly episode Objects in Space, where Jubal Early talks about a midget arsonist. "Little man loooved fires."

Charade: Gaston was a third-rate theater actor struggling to make ends meet. His life was almost in the dumps when he was given the chance to audition for a cutting edge new play by a revered playwright. But on his way to the audition, he was accidentally pushed in front of a moving car by a superhero. Gaston suffered many broken bones, but the worst injury was that the right side of his face was scarred horribly. From then on, Gaston was unable to get a part in anything because of his disfigurement. He slowly went insane, and broke into an abandoned theater and set up his home there, as well as his killing ground. His new gimmick, as Charade, is to kidnap influential people in the city and bring them to his play house, forcing them at gunpoint to act out the parts in his own twisted plays, all of which end with the death of every character. This is all in an attempt to catch the hero's attention and exact his revenge.

PIMPHAND aka Emerson Oakley - Emerson grew up in the low income side of Chicago in the 1970's during the time when the major "Players" around town were the Pimp types. There was an Urban legend circulating that one Pimp who was known to mess around with "Voodoo" moved his soul into his items upon passing like the ancient Egyptian belief. His cane, sunglasses and false teeth were all imbued with magical powers to hypnotize, lower your rep and even blind people, his ring could summon this previous owner's driver or bodyguard a brick type man called Mr. G. and his martial arts entourage of Foxy Ho's would help him pull off elaborate heists and robberies. So now Emerson has become the new Pimphand and his desire to gain a "Rep" has made him small time on the bad guy scene and his main obsession is stealing new "Bling"


SHAMROCK - aka Sean McEvery -Irish Boxer Sean McEvery was never that good a fighter and always down on his luck and down for the count. His short fuse and wild temper made him hard for manager's to promote and his lack of focus in the ring made him the target for a quick knockout when fighting a skilled opponent. This all changed the day that Sean inherited his Grandfather's personal belongings, one such item a small pendant with an emerald shamrocks around a mysterious stone. This strange trinket granted the wearer the ability to change the luck of others from good to bad or to change the luck of the wearer from bad to good with supernatural effects. Selfish by nature Sean soon realized that he could use this pendant to pull off petty heists and he disregarded his failed career as a boxer for a life of crime.

STAR SPANGLED SLAMMER - aka Chet Morrison - A former "bad guy" on the wrestling circuit. I am not sure how he came to become a real bad guy or how. Still working on those aspects.

CORPPRAL PUNISHMENT - aka Rick Timmins. A former solider in the US Army, Rick was a superior officer with strong fighting and reasoning skills. His superiors labeled him a perfect test subject for an experimental process to imbue a regular solider with the abilites of others simply by touch. This drug was tampered with by the original designer to ensure that an antidote could later be extorted from the military at a later time. Rick's own physiology and the unstable drug created a rift between his reasoning and his physical combat abilities so sever that he would soon develop a third and new section to his brain based on the skill absorbing effects. His inner aggression going off the charts turned him into a jeckle and hyde type. He took his one man crusade to punish those who he thought beneath him to the streets becoming a reverse Punisher type character.

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!



Brick City

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