Alrighty then....that could be a problem. So what's going on in CU America during the Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)? Is there any possibility that such a movement of backlash could take place, at least in certain areas of the nation if not in its entirety? Or any suggestions into modifying that area of the story with the universe as is?
The civil rights period and Viet Nam war had a polarizing effect on the American superhuman community as it did the rest of American society. Some superheroes supported these movements, including supers volunteering to serve in Viet Nam, while others opposed them. These heroes often became symbols for the causes they espoused, and lightning rods for opposition to them. You might be able to adapt some of this to your concept, by having the school founded as a symbol of inclusion, where supers of all backgrounds and political opinions could learn to use their abilities responsibly.
Is there a date of establishment for Ravenwood? Also, were there any events in American history where superhumans (even if they weren't superheroes, per se) are called into action for the nation's defense. I don't want Viktoria to be a hero, per se, but I would like for her to have been there to give aid in certain circumstances when something big went down.
See my comments above for superheroes "called into action for the nation's defense." Ravenswood Academy was founded in 1989, and has graduated many students over the years, although it doesn't appear that the majority became superheroes
To be honest, while your backstory for the Laurus Academy is fascinating, there are so many points of overlap or conflict with Ravenswood and the official CU history that IMHO it's never going to fit comfortably with them. For purposes of characters used in Champions Online, unless you want to make Viktoria or Ashton as playable characters you're probably better off using Ravenswood itself. There's no reason why a group of Ravenswood graduates with similar mindset and goals couldn't offer their services as a team to the US government. If you'd like to know more about Ravenswood Academy, the sourcebook Teen Champions goes into detail about its history, personnel, and students.
The subject of superhuman soldiers actually ties into another character that will eventually become associated with the Laurus Academy, but I'll deal with him later.
That leads me to wonder....I know UNTIL has a superhuman division (UNITE, right?). Does any sort of organization like that exist in the US military that might conflict with the eventual establishment of the Guardian Force, or is there something I could replace it with? Also, are there dates for the military's various Super-soldier experiments? If I can see what was done when, I might be able to include a military superhuman recruitment effort in there.
Okay, here's a rundown of US government superhuman soldier programs.
During WW II research programs were haphazard. Two of them produced single successes, the heroes Achilles and The Comet, both of whom were killed during the war.
In the late 1960's, "Project Perseus" developed a method of producing enhanced (although not truly superhuman) people. This method has produced a succession of "official" government heroes up to the present day using the name The All-American.
In 1977 "Project Yeoman" granted low-level superpowers to six Navy Seals, who were christened Ameriforce One. It's unclear whether Ameriforce One was ever known to the public, but their missions were normally secret. They were killed in 1983, but a new Ameriforce has recently been created.
Perhaps the most successful project was the development of Cyberline in the 1980's, a drug/gene therapy which could grant superhuman physical abilities to compatible recipients. It was used to create the Golden Avenger and a small number of Silver Avengers, who supplement the forces of PRIMUS, the American domestic equivalent of UNTIL.
In 1994, "Project Sunburst" deliberately exposed soldiers to a nuclear explosion to attempt to spawn superhumans. Almost all the soldiers died; most of the survivors remain comatose today; the few who didn't did gain energy-based powers, but to date all have become villains.
Around the same time as Sunburst, the Army's "Man Amplification Program" was trying to develop inexpensive, practical powered armor for soldiers. The only test subject to successfully interface with the prototype armor stole it and became the supervillain Armadillo.
"Project Onslaught" in 1998 attempted to use gene splicing of human with animal DNA. Two successful results are known, the now-deceased superhero Janissary, and the supervillain who calls himself Onslaught.
My idea had been to take the Laurus Academy idea and make a supergroup out of it, with Viktoria as the head. However, it doesn't seem that the idea will adapt very well in its current form, and it loses some of its flavor if I make it just another superhuman boarding school/training center. Like was said, there's already Ravenswood Academy for that.
Perhaps, if I want to make an RP SG, I'll just adapt one of my old CoG SGs....the Oniwabanshu, a group of Shinobi that had served as the Guardians of Kyoto Castle.
However, all of that information on the Super soldier projects is quite useful. The main character I want to plan has secretly been recruited into a rogue military operation that's trying to develop it's own super-powered soldiers, to discredit or wipe out the majority of the super-powered heroes of the world and then rent out their own soldiers to the world's nations. My character had latent superspeed and was mixed with a Reptilian DNA cocktail to strengthen him and help release the super speed, his predecessor was given a chemical which increased her power as her adrenaline began pumping and then there was also one who he was made plant-like and had some plant empathy powers. With the info you've given me, L_L, I'll work on his background a bit and then post it here to get all of your opinions.
Could i get some input on some of my characters? Beware Incoming WALL OF TEXT
Mr. Maximillion Q. Smithy
A former Pinkerton detective, Mr. Smithy was resident of Chicago, Illonois, though he travelled throughout the world solving cases. He discovered, and helped defend the lost city of T'zong Wu in the orient, saved the queen of Spain from rebels, and helped defeat one of Vlad Lenins first attepts to conquer Russia with the communists. Basically a pulp hero fighting normal people and weak magics/technology groups. His final mission in the 1910's took him to Detroit, where he discovered, Chronoton, an Evil time traveller, attempting to conquer the world. In their final climactic battle, they were accidnetally tossed almost a century into the future, where Detroit was now Millenium City. Chronoton escaped, or was possibly killed (see below) stranding smithy in the future.
This is all pretty well worked out. I'd just like to adapt this more to the CO. Were their any evil groups active back then Smithy could have fought specifically? Also, i was reading on hero games about a guy named Captain Chronos, and i was thinking of involving him. Perhaps he was related to Chronoton, an earlier or later version (Kang/Immortus like), and/or since he tries to protect the time stream, perhaps he set up the whole thing to get Smithy into to future for no other reason then history said Smithy was there. (I always liked people blindly following the timeline for no reason then history says so.)
Also, in sort of a nod to how different pulp heroes were to super heroes, i'm thinking maybe Smithy killed Chronoton (in self defense, not cold blooded murder, of course) and maybe got in some legal troubles, and thats why he can't return to the past (any laws regarding time travel i should know about?)
The other character, yet to be renamed till i figure out what powers to take
Some of you may remember a post i made about this character, and i got a lot of good suggestions from it. This character was originally from city of heroes, but i think i've managed to adapt it to CO.
The character grew up surrounded by hate. Raised in a family with very white supremacist values, she was taken out of school early to be home schooled to keep her mind 'pure'. Even so, she quickly showed a great apptitude for math and sciences. As she grew older, a family friend in the cause introduced them to an individual, a wealthy man who claimed to be a believer in the 'cause', who wanted to help further her education and give her a job afterwards.
My idea is for the person to be a viper agent in reality, using her to help develop advanced tech for Viper, which she wouldn't like cause Viper kills white people too. This goes on for several years until eventually some hero traces the tech to her, and attacks, telling her shes working for viper. Shocked, she goes to see the man, and in the process lets the hero follow her to the Viper nest, where he mocks her close minded views and tries to kill her for leading the hero right to them. She manages to survive, and gains super powers (aint comics grand ). Realizing shes been an idiot her whole life, and unable to return to her old life, since shes been exposed and is now being hunted by the government, she assusmes a superheroic identity to both conceal her old identity, since thats now been exposed, and fight against viper.
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Edit Just had one of those ideas. Perhaps instead of gaining powers, she had a good old fashioned body swap with the hero, and now is living in another body, while hers is dead. That way she might feel guilty about what she'd done, and try and give heroing a shot in search of redemption. This could also work for a nemesis, since Viper or the institute of human advancement could have fished her old body out of the wreckage, reanimated it, with it retaining some sense of what had happened, and now her old body is trying to kill her.
Could i get some input on some of my characters? Beware Incoming WALL OF TEXT
Mr. Maximillion Q. Smithy
A former Pinkerton detective, Mr. Smithy was resident of Chicago, Illonois, though he travelled throughout the world solving cases. He discovered, and helped defend the lost city of T'zong Wu in the orient, saved the queen of Spain from rebels, and helped defeat one of Vlad Lenins first attepts to conquer Russia with the communists. Basically a pulp hero fighting normal people and weak magics/technology groups. His final mission in the 1910's took him to Detroit, where he discovered, Chronoton, an Evil time traveller, attempting to conquer the world. In their final climactic battle, they were accidnetally tossed almost a century into the future, where Detroit was now Millenium City. Chronoton escaped, or was possibly killed (see below) stranding smithy in the future.
This is all pretty well worked out. I'd just like to adapt this more to the CO. Were their any evil groups active back then Smithy could have fought specifically? Also, i was reading on hero games about a guy named Captain Chronos, and i was thinking of involving him. Perhaps he was related to Chronoton, an earlier or later version (Kang/Immortus like), and/or since he tries to protect the time stream, perhaps he set up the whole thing to get Smithy into to future for no other reason then history said Smithy was there. (I always liked people blindly following the timeline for no reason then history says so.)
Also, in sort of a nod to how different pulp heroes were to super heroes, i'm thinking maybe Smithy killed Chronoton (in self defense, not cold blooded murder, of course) and maybe got in some legal troubles, and thats why he can't return to the past (any laws regarding time travel i should know about?)
Hi, Mr. Smithy. Captain Chronos is something of a wild card in the Champions Universe. He came back to the past to prevent some kind of future catastrophe, which he won't specify. In order to set up things that have to happen to avert disaster, the Captain sometimes acts in ways that might be called "villainous," but at other times he assists heroes. As such he could very well have set up Smithy to face Chronoton, have provided Chronoton with his time technology, or even have been "Chronoton" (pretending to act like a conqueror in the past). It may be no coincidence that the Captain's outfit has a decidedly "pulpy" flavor: silver lame jumpsuit, winged aviator's helmet, and goggles with little electric-arcing antennae).
As for other foes Smithy could have fought around the turn of the century, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon was the premiere occult conspiracy of the day, with great but secret political and economic influence accumulated through subtle magic. They often tried to take over governments through mystic and mundane means, but were thwarted most often by agents of their "good" rivals, the Trismegistus Council.
A similar group of conspirators, the Unholy Order of the Grand Reptile (direct predecessors of today's VIPER), sponsored various eccentric scientists such as the original Dr. Moreau, and attempted to summon the serpent-god Nama on two occasions (1900 and 1910), thwarted both times by unspecified "heroic adventurers."
As for the "lost city of T'zong Wu," the Champions Universe has a couple of good candidates. The hidden Himalayan city of Shamballah is a repository of great mystical and martial-arts knowledge, and stands in eternal opposition to its evil sister-city of Agharti. Also somewhere in the mountains of the East was Yengtao Temple, dedicated to teaching the profoundist secrets of the martial arts to dedicated students who could find the Temple. Either one would be a good place for your character to learn "super-class" MA techniques.
T'zong Wu is just something i made up for CoX, to explain Smithy's martial arts abilities (since CoX didn't have brawling) and frankly, i've seen a half dozen lost Oriental cities in CO, so i don't think it would be stretching things too much to have one more
Thanks for the input on those historical evil societies.
Okay. Bear with me for yet another idea to clog the thread with. I was just inspired by, of all things, the 'Harry Osborn' achievement icon in Spiderman 3, a head silhouette of Harry in his New Goblin mouthguard and goggles looking off with this perfectly detached look. So I had the idea of a character whose powers are a result of an actual successful (!) military project to produce an 'urban enforcer', keeping order in places like Baghdad with a minimal troop presence. The result is SPC Mark Vanderhoek (codename ideas?), a volunteer who is testing the first 'live fire' prototype of the GUARDIAN weapon system. His first field run- maintain order in the Millenium City urban environment. He's a military professional in a largely civillian world who answers to the Pentagon- not City Hall, not the police, and certainly not to other heroes. For powers, i'rm leaning towards super speed, super leap, super strength, something like the cops in Crackdown. Something that could maybe be provided by tech. Suggestions?
Well, "Guardian" sounds like a perfectly acceptable code name for a character like this. AFAICT there currently are no official CU solo characters with that name.
I would suggest a suite of sensory enhancers for the character as well -- if he's going to keep order, he should be able to locate the disorder.
If you'd like some Champions Universe background help, back in the early 1990s the army started the "Man Amplification Project" to develop cheap, practical powered armor for its soldiers. At the time the only person who could use the armor's cybernetic interface was a soldier with accidentally-altered neuro chemistry, who stole the prototype and became the supervillain Armadillo. Perhaps the army has finally solved the armor's technical problems and revived the project, or there may be something unique about your character that also allows him to interface successfully.
Hmm...intriguing. Come to think of it, doesn't the CU American government sponsor a few superteams with this sort of focus? I seem to recall one called Ameriforce that he might feasibly work with.
Please scroll up this thread to post #402 for a listing of other programs by the US government to create "superhuman soldiers." Of the ones listed there, the Golden Avenger and Silver Avengers of PRIMUS, and the current All-American, are active today.
The new Ameriforce One has publicly assisted in the war in Iraq. It's made up of true superhumans recruited and trained by the government, not augmented as was the original Ameriforce.
Other prominent government superheroes include Victory, an Air Force pilot who gained formidable energy powers in a space-shuttle accident; Stalwart, a powered-armor hero who's part of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team; and two other FBI supers posted to Millennium City, the superstrong Kodiak and his partner, the "cyberkinetic" Teknique.
Well, I guess I'll throw up my rough ideas for my main hero and see how it sticks. Thanks again, Liaden, for the information on the past Super Soldier projects. That gives me a good idea of where things have been and how I can work with the idea.
Do keep in mind that I haven't adapted everything into writing from when I played the character in CoH, but I at least wanted to discuss my Heroes origin at first. The Jade Scale
In January of 2008, James Legardo (age 27), a lieutenant in the United States Army, was assigned as a peace keeper in the Ghor province in Afghanistan under Captain Robert Anderton. While moving through a small trading town, Lt. Legardo's squad are attacked by insurgents out of the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. During an intense bout of fighting, James and Capt. Anderton are pinned down behind a small stone wall and an overturned jeep respectively when the enemy begins to use Rocket-Propelled Grenades. Seeing his Captain in danger as a grenade hurtles towards the jeep, James leaps forward from his hiding space and, tapping into an up-to-this-point latent ability for super speed, grabs Anderton and rushes him to safety. For his bravery, Lt. Legardo is rewarded a medal of honor for acts of gallantry and intepidity during his tour and for helping his unit holdout until reinforcements could arrive.
After returning home at the end of his tour of duty, James receives an invitation to a private dinner being held by General Vincent Anderton to celebrate the return of his son from the field of combat. Upon arriving, he is surprised to see that the reception is made up mostly of military, political and corporate power-players, all friends of General Anderton, and feels rather out of place. The General, however, assures the Lieutenant that he is most welcome and that he had been looking to talk personally with the young man. Anderton reveals that he has heard all about the operation in Ghor from his son and knows about the manifestation of super powers within the young soldier. James reveals that his super speed was actually a freak revelation and that he hadn't ever used it before and hadn't been able to use it since. With a smile, General Anderton says that that's why he wanted to speak to him.
After the party, when most of his guests have departed, the General takes James to his private study and reveals to him a project he had been working on for some months now... a project (currently unnamed) to unlock and give superhuman abilities to soldiers to serve their nation and all humanity. Anderton tells the Lieutenant that he feels that he would be a good candidate for the project, though Legardo is hesitant at first to undergo any procedures. Fully understanding, the General gives James his private number and tells him to call if he decides to go through with it.
In the coming weeks, James spends much of his free time mulling over the offer, wondering if unlocking these abilities is really worth modifying his body, but he eventually comes to the conclusion that, if he wants to serve to the utmost of his ability, an ideal that led him to enter the military in the first place, that he should take the General's offer. Surely, the military he's put his trust in wouldn't do anything to willingly endanger its soldiers (yes, he's a bit naive).
Contacting General Anderton and making arrangements, he is taken to a secret facility in the Franklin Mountains, far outside El Paso, Texas. As James is being prepared for the procedure, General Anderton begins to recount the history of Super Soldier development over the years, purposely leaving out the fact that not all attempts have been successful but merely stating that they have been thus far unsuccessful. However, this time will be different. They have studied the past operations and have taken it upon themselves to improve upon past research.
As the procedure begins, James is infused with a cocktail of Reptilian DNA and undergoes a complex operation of genetic manipulation. In the coming hours, as the procedure comes to an end, the General's scientists find that their operation has proven successful. Strong, sharp claws have emerged from the subject's fingers, his body is now covered is armored, emerald scales, his teeth have become increasingly sharp and he has sprouted a thick, powerful tail. The ordeal, however, leaves James unconscious for over a day, and when he awakens and finds himself as transformed as he is, he has to be restrained from the shock. This, however, proves difficult as his strength has increased several fold. General Anderton quickly has psychologists brought in who have worked previously with those who have had sudden, life-altering transformations as a result of the manifestation of super-powers (a lie the General uses to explain his physical metamorphosis) and, after several weeks of therapy, James is deemed stable enough to return to duty.
Immediately, he is put through a rigorous testing curriculum to see how his powers have manifested. Besides super speed, James has developed increased strength and stamina, stealth abilities, jaws that can snap bone, a tail that can tear through concrete and claws that can tear through armor and flesh. With a profile of his powers established and the subject fully stable, General Anderton reveals that it is now time to enter into the service of his government once again. The General reveals that the project he's been running is only a part of a larger operation he is in charge of: establishing a task force to police the super-human subculture and to identify and eliminate potential troublemakers before they can go fully rogue. Given the name 'Jade Scale', James is to infiltrate the superhuman population circles, to observe them, and report back all of his discoveries, including powers and weaknesses of chosen targets. This will be his primary responsibility. At the same time, he is tasked to track down a superhuman mercenary going by the name of 'Intensity' that was last seen performing operations for a local crimelord outside Millennium City. Fully equipped with the latest power-reactive, highly durable power armor, Jade Scale accepts his mission and ships out to Millennium City immediately.
Little does James realize the true implications of all that he has become involved in. General Anderton's entire operation has performed in secret from the US Government at large, funded by private investors and supplied by allies within the military. His true goal is to eliminate the superhuman population and establish his own super-powered mercenary force with which he will hire out to the nations of the world to deal with the remaining super-villains, to protect their client nations and to bring a swift end to conflicts, benefiting those who hire their service. The Jade Scale is actually the second test subject for Anderton's operation, though the first to be subjected to the modified procedures taken from Project Onslaught. Their first subject was actually Intensity herself, in reality Dr. Elysia Graham, who had been working with General Anderton on their first phase of superhuman development. They had created a syrum that granted a human being a percentage increase in natural abilities that would grow as adrenaline was released into the body. With no other test subjects available at the time, the General used Dr. Graham for the experiment. At first, the syrum proved a success until the subject began to show signs of instability, growing more and more addicted to adrenaline surges to the point where she would no longer follow orders and only pursued jobs that would feed her need. Thus, with one rogue test subject on the loose, General Anderton will test the success of Phase Two against his Phase One creation before proceeding on with further tests.
All in all, James is a good-hearted and earnest hero looking to serve and protect the people of world only to have fallen into the clutches of those with more devious intentions. He will not remain oblivious to General Anderton's operations forever, as more orders are passed down and he begins to see the true character of those above him. However, by the time he even contemplates going rogue himself, Phase Three is already complete, with the loyalty of this subject assured, to track down and eliminated the Jade Scale.
Well, that's my rough outline so far. Once I get this established, I can work more on James' past and personality, but I wanted to get the origin ironed out first. I also still need to come up with a catchy name for General Anderton's project and his organization itself, so if you have any suggestions I'll gladly take them.
My hero will be Ingmar Thandr, a Scandinavian scientist who unintentionally exposed himself to dangerous chemicals as he was experimenting with human cells to possibly cure cancer. He has a certain sympathy for those that have been weakened by mortal diseases, including his mother, and spent the majority of his career battling villains to fund anti-cancer pursuits by global scientists. His "human disguise" is in the form of Dr. Thomas Williams, a prominent doctor who heads the Cancer Department in one of Millennium City's finest hospitals. He is calm and calculating in combat, which oftentimes causes his opponents to become angered and reckless. Thrandr's strategy is to provoke them into abandoning their common sense and acting on raw instinct: which, more often than not, hands him an advantage.
His arch-nemesis is simply known as the Enigmatic One, the leader of an underground cult that's anti-structure and anti-society. The Enigmatic One's "mercenaries" were the very ones that Ingmar apprehended for money to fund his experiments, and he's hell-bent on destroying Thandr for threatening the pace of his trafficking operations. The Enigmatic One was originally human, but the sewer that he built his headquarters in contained toxic waste: this twisted and bent his form, causing him to take a more demonic shape that resembles his inner chaos and disorder.
The Enigmatic One is able to use most of the elements to his advantage, but he's quite vulnerable to mental attacks. He'll eventually be left for dead in an epic struggle between the two adversaries, and one of his "mercenaries" will take up the opportunity to succeed him and claim the mantle of authority. What's unknown to his "group" is that their underground base was actually once an unhinged cultist's shrine; it's supposedly haunted by the victims that he slew for sacrifices. They unwittingly unleashed the vengeful spirits of the victims, and they are now thralls to their will. Thrandr will have to deal with supernatural threats in order to protect the city that he both loves and admires.
My hero will be Ingmar Thandr, a Scandinavian scientist who unintentionally exposed himself to dangerous chemicals as he was experimenting with human cells to possibly cure cancer. He has a certain sympathy for those that have been weakened by mortal diseases, including his mother, and spent the majority of his career battling villains to fund anti-cancer pursuits by global scientists. His "human disguise" is in the form of Dr. Thomas Williams, a prominent doctor who heads the Cancer Department in one of Millennium City's finest hospitals. He is calm and calculating in combat, which oftentimes causes his opponents to become angered and reckless. Thrandr's strategy is to provoke them into abandoning their common sense and acting on raw instinct: which, more often than not, hands him an advantage.
His arch-nemesis is simply known as the Enigmatic One, the leader of an underground cult that's anti-structure and anti-society. The Enigmatic One's "mercenaries" were the very ones that Ingmar apprehended for money to fund his experiments, and he's hell-bent on destroying Thandr for threatening the pace of his trafficking operations. The Enigmatic One was originally human, but the sewer that he built his headquarters in contained toxic waste: this twisted and bent his form, causing him to take a more demonic shape that resembles his inner chaos and disorder.
The Enigmatic One is able to use most of the elements to his advantage, but he's quite vulnerable to mental attacks. He'll eventually be left for dead in an epic struggle between the two adversaries, and one of his "mercenaries" will take up the opportunity to succeed him and claim the mantle of authority. What's unknown to his "group" is that their underground base was actually once an unhinged cultist's shrine; it's supposedly haunted by the victims that he slew for sacrifices. They unwittingly unleashed the vengeful spirits of the victims, and they are now thralls to their will. Thrandr will have to deal with supernatural threats in order to protect the city that he both loves and admires.
Wow, that's pretty good. I think you have a pretty solid story there.
One thing though, maybe I just missed it, but what's your guy's power?
I feel to some degree I feel I'm late to the part perhaps I too could gain the benefit of someones assistance? While I have an Idea for a character and an even better idea of history I'm afraid I don't know enough about the Champions setting to truly make it work withing the game. That said my idea is as follows.
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A young man in his mid-twenties, he grew up learning to give and receive a beating as matter of daily survival against his oft much more aggressive peers. Never trained in any form of martial-art or self defense he over time developed his own style of street boxing, and an exaggerated sense of calm in the midst of chaos. Skills that would serve him well in his adult life, as his sarcastic cynicism and lack of outward ambition were not well received in most place.
One night while begrudgingly waiting to meet someone at a small rundown bar off the highway in New Mexico a fight broke out around him. Attacked by three large gentlemen of a rough and rural persuasion at the outset it was only a matter of moments before the three found themselves sprawled on the floor. Once the fight was over an elderly man approached him praising his ability to handle himself in a fight. Imposing his company the old man explained that back when he was young he was something of an adventurer, taking on the challenges of ancient temples and unlocking the keys to forgotten mysteries. Finally the old man offered a job. At first it sounded ridiculous, the old man claiming now to be a Cryptozoologist with a university in Millennium City. The job in short was to watch over students in the field, and to go in the old man's stead on hunts for the more magnificent beasts that populate urban legends and superstitions around the world. After a bit of thinking, he took the job.
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So yes, that's basically the gist of it. A by proxy adventurer for higher who goes out and hunts for clues of things like Bigfoot and the Chupacabra for an old man who teaches students how to find new species of animal by interpreting local legends. It needs a lot of fleshing out, but that is more or less the rundown. If you're wondering what fighting has to do with Cryptozoology, the answer is nothing. It's more a "I like the cut of your jib!" type on the spot hire. Role wise he's sort of a cynical, lazy equivalent to characters like Race Banon, or Brock Samson.
Hmm... as presented your character sounds more like a pulp-era or modern-day adventurer. His motivation, while it could be a good excuse for drawing other characters into a particular crypto-zoological mission (and there are a few opportunities for that in the Champions Universe), it doesn't really match with the motives and likely missions involving other heroic characters. His background also doesn't seem to justify having the abilities to successfully hang with true superpowered heroes.
Here's one suggestion drawing from Champions Universe background: the "old man" who hires him could, in his adventuring youth, have studied the advanced, secret "super martial arts" techniques once taught at the hidden Yengtao Temple, and trains your character in some of those techniques both to make him a more capable fighter, and to teach him focus and discipline.
Hmm... as presented your character sounds more like a pulp-era or modern-day adventurer. His motivation, while it could be a good excuse for drawing other characters into a particular crypto-zoological mission (and there are a few opportunities for that in the Champions Universe), it doesn't really match with the motives and likely missions involving other heroic characters. His background also doesn't seem to justify having the abilities to successfully hang with true superpowered heroes.
Here's one suggestion drawing from Champions Universe background: the "old man" who hires him could, in his adventuring youth, have studied the advanced, secret "super martial arts" techniques once taught at the hidden Yengtao Temple, and trains your character in some of those techniques both to make him a more capable fighter, and to teach him focus and discipline.
Perhaps he is more pulp styled, but I doubt anyone is going to make a game of the Pulp Hero setting. As for his ability to fight capably I left out the majority of what I want him to be capable of part by design so as not to detract from his back story. But also because I'm not sure how it will work within the power choices we will ultimately be able to choose. In CoX he'd be an Energy/Willpower brute, but even then that isn't an exact fit for where I want to go with the character. Because while he has pulpy origins, in terms of practical playability I'm going for more of a Terry Bogard feeling. Extremely strong fighting instincts with a natural affinity for kidou allow him to perform well beyond what he should just being a street fighter.
As for the nature of his missions they don't have to be exclusively that. And as most will come in as requests from other people outside his daily life it doesn't really matter if it's part of his job or a favor to the old man. Some are just simply explained by being in the setting, Monster Island being a good example of this.
I suppose I'd best fire off my idea, especially since I know naff all about the Champions universe outside of what's in the hero and villain profiles of this site.
The idea's mostly based off my Dual Blades/Dark Armour scrapper in CoX (Union Server), which kinda went all kinds of wrong ICly. Still, he's getting close to 50.
And there's the problem of whether there'd be anything that would allow dual blades or something resembling Dark Armour in CO.
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Richard Thomas Stacker. 21. Hails from Durham City in England. Prefers to be called Richie. When he got school over and done with, he felt burnt out and unable to decide what to do with himself after leaving before finding himself dragged into illegal underground fights, which for several years he enjoyed, much to the disagreement of his parents, who subsequently wanted nothing to do with him from then on. One day however, Richie found himself in a match nobody could see him winning, however in spite of this he floored his opponent with a few dirty tricks and won the match, but not without taking a good beating himself. Refusing all offers of help, he opted to find his own way home, a bad enough idea on its own, what with it being the middle of the night. Eventually, Richie's ill sense of direction led him to finally faceplant outside the city's catherdal.
When he finally came to early the next morning, he noticed something near him: A batch of spellbooks unceremoniously dumped outside the catherdal in a carrier bag. Richie took them back to his place and went through them. While the pages were all written in a language Richie couldn't make sense of, the previous owner seemed to have been kind/stupid enough to write notes down in English, allowing Richie to discover the protective effects of the spells written in its pages.
Richie was allowed to put said spells to use in future matches by the collective organising the fights, and basically railraoded through most of them.
One day his 'career' came to an end after a falling out with a friend of his, Matt Dennison, who had been handling all the formalities of Richie's fights. Matt then stole Richie's spellbooks and quickly fled the country. With a little digging around and some 'persuasion', Richie traced him to Millenium City. During his somewhat fruitless efforts to find Dennison there, he bumped into a Japanese woman by the name of Momo Serizawa, who he promptly got to know well after a few coffees, cinema visits and other things. Basically, they started dating.
Dennison, meanwhile, learned of Richie's arrival and had been keeping an eye on him. He saw what he beleived to be the perfect means of getting him off his back indefinitely: Killing Momo.
Dennison struck when either of them least expected, at her apartment, but by some dumb luck, Richie turned up in the nick of time, originally popping by to suggest something to Momo, he found himself fighting Dennison off to save her. Unfortunately for Richie, Dennison had his nose in those books the whole time he had them and successfully floored him. He was just about to return his attention to killing Momo when she took him by surprise with a single gunshot to the shoulder. Not quite -that- protective, then.
Dennison fled. Richie came to, and the two of them discussed the situation. Momo, while annoyed at Richie over the recent ordeal that took place, beleived Richie could put himself on the right track again after all his wrong turns in his life, and offered to help him out in this to the best of her abilities. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she had friends in the right places and could call upon them for any information that could aid him.
Richie himself set about putting himself on the right track, starting with the foolish task of breaking into Dennison's at-the-time hideout and stealing a couple of swords he had 'aquired', and coupling them with the few spells he knew to make up for his past mistakes and at the very least try to clean up the streets.
The Crazy Dragon doesn't so much as stalk the city streets. More charges through them, screaming like a maniac.
________________________
*gets the Dunce hat at the ready (to plop onto my own head)* >_>
The Crazy Dragon doesn't so much as stalk the city streets. More charges through them, screaming like a maniac.
That one line already has me liking this character.
Aside from what effects Champions Online will allow, the biggest mystery about Crazy Dragon is, who in his right mind would dump a sack of spell books in the street next to a passed-out drunk? :rolleyes: My first thought is that someone sensed the potential for magic abilities in Richie and wanted him to develop them for his/their own purposes... most likely to call in the favor, or press-gang Richie into service, at a later date. In the CU the Trismegistus Council (a cabal of benevolent occult scholars aiding mystic superheroes), the Circle of the Scarlet Moon (a very influential international magic-wielding conspiracy), or Demonologist, leader of the mystic supervillain team The Devil's Advocates, all operate this way.
For a more random possibility: another member of the Devil's Advocates, the English supervillain called Golem, murdered his kabbalist mentor to steal his grimoire and learn all the kabbalist's secrets; but the writing in the book faded soon after its owner's death. I could see Golem finally throwing the book away, but its writing being restored when it found its way to someone with the potential for good. Of course if Golem figures that out he'll be after Crazy Dragon to recover the book.
This might also be of use to you: There's an underground fight circuit for low-powered superhumans, known as The Arena, in a number of large American cities including Millennium City. It would certainly draw someone with Richie (and Dennison's) background and magical resources looking to cash in on their abilities.
Aside from what effects Champions Online will allow, the biggest mystery about Crazy Dragon is, who in his right mind would dump a sack of spell books in the street next to a passed-out drunk? :rolleyes:
Well in CoX they were dumped near the cathedral moments before Richie arrived and passed out, originally awaiting collection from someone else as part of a shady deal. Looking back now, it's probably a bit naff now, so the Council, Circle or Demonologist idea sounds pretty class, and sounds like something that'd help avoid turning Richie into an angst-ball. Cheers.
This might also be of use to you: There's an underground fight circuit for low-powered superhumans, known as The Arena, in a number of large American cities including Millennium City. It would certainly draw someone with Richie (and Dennison's) background and magical resources looking to cash in on their abilities.
I might be able to work something from that too. Might. Not entirely sure how, though, but I'm sure it'll smack me in the face pretty soonish. :eek:
I might be able to work something from that too. Might. Not entirely sure how, though, but I'm sure it'll smack me in the face pretty soonish. :eek:
Well, I was really thinking that this would be a good way to justify Richie and Dennison initially coming to America, to take advantage of the lucrative opportunities that Richie's new spell powers would offer him as a superpowered fighter. It also builds some potential complications into his life as Crazy Dragon, from former rivals in the Arena wanting to pay him back for some of the lumps he gave them, to promoters unhappy with his leaving the circuit who would like to "convince" him to fight again.
If you don't mind a suggestion about the events of Crazy Dragon's origin, IMO it would be more dramatic, and true to the superhero genre, if Dennison confronted Richie at Momo's apartment intending to kill him, but was on the verge of being defeated by Richie (with the aid of two family-heirloom swords of Momo's that she kept in her apartment) when Dennison critically injured Momo, so that Richie had to choose between saving her and pursuing Dennison. That choice would be Richie's first step away from his selfish, dissolute past and toward the path of a true hero. Momo's gratitude, and entrusting him with the honor of her family's swords, would also cement their relationship.
I've run into a massive problem here. A character all worked out personality, powers, etc, however I have no real background for him. Often I'll try and work out background for myself but I've been struggling with this guy for about 3 weeks and haven't come up with anything solid yet.
His name is Damien Black, A.K.A Manus Deus.
Powers - Low grade magic, mostly mind affecting spells like mind reading and clouding minds.
- His right hand has an unknown spirit like creature bound in it The hand is covered in swirling red symbols that are very slowly spreading up his arm. Most of his power come from the hand, it grants increased strength, telekinesis, disintegration and increasing temperature.
Personality - Damien is massively cynical in nature. He loathes all drug dealers and sees it as his responsibility to stop them. His main goal is to protect the slums and it's citizens from gangs, dealers, etc. Often opposes killing but will kill if necessary. Sees himself as a "Working Class Warlock"
So far I only have 2 points of background and they are very vague. First, he is a recovered heroin addict who grew up in the slums of the city. Second, he was partially trained by another "Working Class Warlock" who was later killed by drug dealers. That all I've got for background so far.
Also he is not widely known, he's become sort of like an urban myth. He'll appear out of nowhere, do his thing and then vanish.
I am open to any ideas and constructive criticism
Thanks in advance
How do you see him having gained his powers? Are they something that he's always had? Did they emerge recently, perhaps as part of his training by his warlock mentor? Or did he encounter some type of being, object, or event which imbued him with them? Is the fact that the symbols are spreading causing the character any kind of physical or emotional distress, directly or indirectly?
Also, what's his relationship to the "spirit" in his hand? Is it sapient? Can he communicate with it? What's its personality and goals -- do they agree or conflict with your character's? Does he control his powers, or does the spirit control them and can withold them from the character if he won't cooperate?
Answers to those questions might also give clues as to background from the official Champions Universe that would fit your character. I've already thought of a few possible concepts that I could pass on, if you'd like.
I always saw his mental powers as part of the training from his mentor. The hand is a recent development, I could never think on how he got it besides having some kind of event which bound it with his hand.
The symbols are spreading due to some unknown cause, the spreading itself is a blessing and a curse. All the power associated with his hand can only be used where the symbols cover (eg, he can only raise the temperature of objects in contact with the symbols). however areas covered by the symbols feel as if they are burning, the intensity of the burning is based on how often he uses its powers (eg, most of the time it just feels hot, when he's using telekinesis it feels like its on fire)
In regards to his relation with the "spirit" he knows almost nothing about it. It has never directly communicated with him yet and it seems he is in control of its powers while it resides in his hand, however if he is in life threatening danger the spirit will take control usually resulting in a demonstration of previously unknown powers. The spirits goals are currently unknown as it refuses to communicate and only takes control when it absolutely must to save its host.
Yes, that helps quite a bit. I have a couple of Champions Universe concepts in mind that might work for this character, and could lead to some interesting plot developments. Both of these relate to a now-deceased occult master villain called Archimago, probably the greatest sorceror of the Twentieth Century. In CU continuity Archimago has been dead for over twenty years, but some of the schemes he set in motion continue to affect the world. For example:
In 1979 Archimago attempted the Zodiac Working, a plan to impregnate twelve kidnapped women with the seed of twelve powerful demons from Hell. Heroes kept the Working from (apparently) being completed, as the women showed no signs of pregnancy. However, a few years later, one of those women had a child with a partly-demonic heritage and powers that emerged during her teens (although she herself has no idea of her past and considers herself a mutant). That girl is now a supervillain called Frag. No other children of the Working have been mentioned, leaving it open as an origin for new characters. Your hero could be one of those children. The marks on his hand may have emerged due to his magical training, or they may be a birthmark but their power was awakened by his training. The "spirit" of his hand may be his demonic parent working to strengthen his demonic heritage, and when necessary preserve him for its own purposes. (Certainly the heat and burning sensation would be appropriate to a scion from Hell.)
One other known supervillain (albeit a reluctant one) owes her power to Archimago, the woman now known as Evil Eye. She was the victim of an assault which also cost her an eye; later a package came addressed to her in the mail, which she eventually learned was connected to Archimago, even though that villain had been dead for decades. The package contained a glass eye which gives her deadly magical powers, but sometimes the eye uses its powers on its own against her will, and she's no longer able to remove it. Your character could have received such a package in the mail. Perhaps it contained something that branded or tatooed the symbols to his hand. Alternatively, if he lost a hand due to some trauma, Archimago could have sent him a magical prosthesis which grafted itself to his stump. In this case the hand's spirit could be a servant of Archimago carrying out his will, or even the sorceror himself from beyond the grave, maneuvering your character for some hidden purpose.
Glad to be of service. Frankly, the Zodiac Working is one of my favorite potential supers origins in the Champions Universe, still largely untapped. Characters can have just about any power set depending on their sire's specialty, be villainous or heroic, but have no idea that their origin has anything to do with black magic. They automatically have a pretty nasty villain on their case (their "father"), with an unknown purpose for them. Their partly demonic nature is likely to cause internal conflicts and psychological problems, particularly for would-be heroes.
I took another look at your character's name, and was suddenly struck by another idea for a background and origin for him, one that could potentially tie him to some of the biggest ongoing plotlines in the Champions Universe; which is why I offer it with that cautionary note. Since this info contains Really Big Secrets I'll put it within Spoiler tags for folks who'd rather not know:
DEMON is the world's largest and most powerful villainous occult organization, worshipping the Kings of Edom (think H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones) and dedicated to freeing them and bringing them to Earth. The hidden leader of DEMON, known only as The Edomite, is a centuries-old sorceror who unbeknownst to almost anyone, used to go by the name "Luther Black."
Sure. I'll try to summarize the most salient points, without giving away so much that it would spoil the game or violate Cryptic's IP. Again, Spoiler tags:
Luther Black (a name he chose for himself in his youth) was born in England in 1732. Since the early Twentieth Century, when he first came to America, Black has been building the foundation for DEMON as his means to summon and control the power of the Kings of Edom. The Edomite hasn't used the name "Luther Black" in public in a century, maintaining several other cover identities around the world (including Australia) , and records of Black cease from that time; but he could have had children (most likely illegitimate, as he himself was) who took his name, and perhaps passed on some of his great innate talent for magic to their decendants. The Edomite has been a recluse since 1986, as a result of major occult events. He's had to work indirectly through special agents.
Part of his plan to release the Kings of Edom involves letting the energies of the "Qliphothic" dimensions into our world to corrupt the natural order. (In the CU the Qliphoth are ancient universes, such as the one that spawned the Kings, which have become so decayed that their physical and mystical properties are opposite and inimical to those of our world.) Sometimes those energies infect humans, creating occult supervillains. DEMON does this constantly on a small scale, but the last great release of those energies occurred in 1986.
The Edomite's plan requires that he find five special individuals, tainted by the Qliphoth, to form the Inner Circle of DEMON's leadership. To date he's only been able to locate four.
The complete story of Luther Black and DEMON is in the Champions sourcebook, DEMON: Servants Of Darkness. If you like supernatural supers with a horror twist, it's a very interesting read. :cool:
I have a charecter idea i have been working on.. Its more of an orgins idea. I would love some help with it sometime if you're available to look over what I have for charecter bio thus far.
Hey guys I need a lil bit of help. I know on CO we have to create our own Nemesis for the characters we create. I have 5 heroes in mind and I have an idea for their Nemisis'. But I have no idea what their background origins/powers could be. Need some help.
The first nemesis I want him to be of a Demonic background origin. Taking on the appearance of a demon and is the epitome of everything we fear. I already know I want him to have like Fire Powers. But as far as his backgrouns is concerned I have no clue.
The second nemesis I want to be a Girl. She has to be beautiful and seductive and I want her to have like mind controlling powers.
The third I want to take on the apperance of a shark. I want him to be huge and he has to have someway of surviving outside the water.
The fourth I want to take on the appearance of a spider. But something unique. Not Spiderman or venom.
And the last one I want to take on the appearance of a snake.
Hey guys I need a lil bit of help. I know on CO we have to create our own Nemesis for the characters we create. I have 5 heroes in mind and I have an idea for their Nemisis'. But I have no idea what their background origins/powers could be. Need some help.
The third I want to take on the appearance of a shark. I want him to be huge and he has to have someway of surviving outside the water.
Interesting. I would suggest looking at Abe Sapien from the Hellboy movies for some inspiration. If you've seen the movies, you'll notice he has a small collar-like device that he wears allowing him to be out of water for an extended period of time.
The fourth I want to take on the appearance of a spider. But something unique. Not Spider-man or Venom.
Sounds very promising. As for his/her appearance, I would say, if at all possible, give them longer, spindly arms and legs. For an origin? Hmmm, perhaps some sort of tie to the deity Anansi?
pacoenelsaco, I'm going to throw out brief suggestions for backgrounds based on elements of the Champions Universe setting. If any of them interest you, let me know and I'll be glad to give you more details.
Demons of all religious and folkloric traditions exist in the CU. In the past, one especially powerful evil sorceror attempted the Zodiac Working to have twelve kidnapped women impregnated by twelve powerful demons. At least one child of one of the victims grew up with supernatural powers as a result, but the fate of the rest hasn't been revealed.
There are several geneticist villains who can and have created animal-themed superhumans. Teleios is by far the most skilled and versatile of them. A descendant of Dr. Moreau has continued his ancestor's experiments to make various animals sapient. Moreover, there's a hidden colony of his former servant creatures in eastern Europe.
On the snake-villain front, the worldwide superterrorist group VIPER makes an especial effort to create snake-themed superhuman operatives. One of their former employees in this research became the independent master villain King Cobra, with the power to genetically modify humans into serpent-beings loyal to him. Going away from genetics origins, the powerful and malevolent supernatural entity called The Dragon is worshipped by cults around the world. Its worshippers sometimes use magic to transform themselves into serpentine/draconian monsters.
For your shark villain, besides the geneticists mentioned above, the Atlantean aquatic villain Stingray used ancient forbidden magics from Atlantis to give herself powers of various sea creatures. Your nemesis could be a creation of hers, or have used the magic on himself.
You "seductive mind controlling girl" could have a variety of origins, including some mentioned above. However, there's an organization of criminal mentalists called PSI which actively seeks out and recruits psychic people, by force if necessary. PSI also has the scientific means to bring out latent psionic abilities.
pacoenelsaco, I'm going to throw out brief suggestions for backgrounds based on elements of the Champions Universe setting. If any of them interest you, let me know and I'll be glad to give you more details.
Demons of all religious and folkloric traditions exist in the CU. In the past, one especially powerful evil sorceror attempted the Zodiac Working to have twelve kidnapped women impregnated by twelve powerful demons. At least one child of one of the victims grew up with supernatural powers as a result, but the fate of the rest hasn't been revealed.
There are several geneticist villains who can and have created animal-themed superhumans. Teleios is by far the most skilled and versatile of them. A descendant of Dr. Moreau has continued his ancestor's experiments to make various animals sapient. Moreover, there's a hidden colony of his former servant creatures in eastern Europe.
On the snake-villain front, the worldwide superterrorist group VIPER makes an especial effort to create snake-themed superhuman operatives. One of their former employees in this research became the independent master villain King Cobra, with the power to genetically modify humans into serpent-beings loyal to him. Going away from genetics origins, the powerful and malevolent supernatural entity called The Dragon is worshipped by cults around the world. Its worshippers sometimes use magic to transform themselves into serpentine/draconian monsters.
For your shark villain, besides the geneticists mentioned above, the Atlantean aquatic villain Stingray used ancient forbidden magics from Atlantis to give herself powers of various sea creatures. Your nemesis could be a creation of hers, or have used the magic on himself.
You "seductive mind controlling girl" could have a variety of origins, including some mentioned above. However, there's an organization of criminal mentalists called PSI which actively seeks out and recruits psychic people, by force if necessary. PSI also has the scientific means to bring out latent psionic abilities.
Anything there sound interesting?
OOOHHH!!! Dude, I REALLY LOVE that Demonic background idea!!! That was AWESOME!!! I'm definetly gonna work on that one a bit. As well as the shark nemesis idea. I like those both a lot.
You think you could add a lil more details to the other backgrounds a bit? They sound great, I just think I need a lil more information to get the full picture in my head, ya know? I'd really appreciate it.
Hey guys I need a lil bit of help. I know on CO we have to create our own Nemesis for the characters we create. I have 5 heroes in mind and I have an idea for their Nemisis'. But I have no idea what their background origins/powers could be. Need some help.
The first nemesis I want him to be of a Demonic background origin. Taking on the appearance of a demon and is the epitome of everything we fear. I already know I want him to have like Fire Powers. But as far as his background is concerned I have no clue.
The second nemesis I want to be a Girl. She has to be beautiful and seductive and I want her to have like mind controlling powers.
The third I want to take on the appearance of a shark. I want him to be huge and he has to have someway of surviving outside the water.
The fourth I want to take on the appearance of a spider. But something unique. Not Spiderman or venom.
And the last one I want to take on the appearance of a snake.
So yeah, any ideas?...
In regards to the Girl.
Succubus used to seduce mortals with physical pleasures, then steal their life-force. I can see that as some kind of stun followed by a power drain / transfer. Touch attacks for the life-steal makes it more in character, and more powerful. The stun could be 1/encounter, to show the fact that she could only try to seduce you when things changed. Her powers would be very strong when they worked.
Nymphs seduced men, but they were so beautiful that often the men died. Mind Control with a AE attack that only works if the subject is mind-controlled. In Champs RPG, Ego killing attack. Too expensive for the RPG. Making it a normal ego attack with the limitation that they had to be, "seduced," brings it in line.
Dryads entranced men and turned them into slaves. Mind Control, with Minions.
Female Vampires are almost always seductive. Minor - Major mind powers, lots of invulnerabilities and vulnerabilities. Minions possible. Touch-only power drain / transfer like the succubus.
Sirens lured men to their deaths. Mind control and some kind of trap ability. "Join me at the powder keg."
Gypsies were often accused of casting charms on men. Mind control and general magic abilities. Same for Sorceresses.
Marvel's White Queen was a powerful Psychic, and leader of the Hellfire Club. She became a good guy. Kinda.
All of these can fit in the Psychic Seducer profile.
I would like to add that women usually don't have to have psychic powers to make men lose focus. Guys are already programed that way.
Succubus used to seduce mortals with physical pleasures, then steal their life-force. I can see that as some kind of stun followed by a power drain / transfer. Touch attacks for the life-steal makes it more in character, and more powerful. The stun could be 1/encounter, to show the fact that she could only try to seduce you when things changed. Her powers would be very strong when they worked.
Nymphs seduced men, but they were so beautiful that often the men died. Mind Control with a AE attack that only works if the subject is mind-controlled. In Champs RPG, Ego killing attack. Too expensive for the RPG. Making it a normal ego attack with the limitation that they had to be, "seduced," brings it in line.
Dryads entranced men and turned them into slaves. Mind Control, with Minions.
Female Vampires are almost always seductive. Minor - Major mind powers, lots of invulnerabilities and vulnerabilities. Minions possible. Touch-only power drain / transfer like the succubus.
Sirens lured men to their deaths. Mind control and some kind of trap ability. "Join me at the powder keg."
Gypsies were often accused of casting charms on men. Mind control and general magic abilities. Same for Sorceresses.
Marvel's White Queen was a powerful Psychic, and leader of the Hellfire Club. She became a good guy. Kinda.
All of these can fit in the Psychic Seducer profile.
I would like to add that women usually don't have to have psychic powers to make men lose focus. Guys are already programed that way.
Ok, those are really helpful. I'll try to see what I can come up with.
And for anyone else who can help me, please feel free to hand out your suggestions. I really appreciate the help ...
Ooooh, scratch the spider villain. i got another idea for a nemesis. But this one is gonna require some imagination. Cause i don't think it's ever been done before. Now it may sound stupid, but I'm going for the whole stupid villain thing here. I got an idea for a nemesis, who's a cartoon. Like a villain who is ACTUALLY a cartoon. Meaning, he can't really be hurt or killed and he's just completly silly evil. Like the joker.
Ooooh, scratch the spider villain. i got another idea for a nemesis. But this one is gonna require some imagination. Cause i don't think it's ever been done before. Now it may sound stupid, but I'm going for the whole stupid villain thing here. I got an idea for a nemesis, who's a cartoon. Like a villain who is ACTUALLY a cartoon. Meaning, he can't really be hurt or killed and he's just completly silly evil. Like the joker.
Any suggestions?
Sounds like the villain from the movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. :cool:
I have a suggestion. On the Astral Plane adjacent to CU Earth are several "imaginal realms," dimensions created out of the collective imaginations of humanity, with inhabitants also spawned from imagination, but as real and tangible as any Earthly being. One of these dimensions, Babylon,The City of Man, is a mosaic of all the great cities of human history, real or imagined, as people remember them best: imperial Rome, Victorian London, fin de siecle Paris, Batman's Gotham City, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and so on. Babylon can also spawn dopplegangers of real or fictitious "pop icons" if enough people think about them. Here you can meet John F. Kennedy or Sherlock Holmes, Elvis or Ronald MacDonald... and even cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse.
All you need to do is make up a fictional history for your desired 'toon for CU Earth, making him well known enough that he'd materialize in Babylon; or choose one of the iconic villains from real-world cartoons, like Wile E. Coyote or Boris Badenov.
(PS paco, I'm working on your other info request now; keep an eye on your Private Message inbox.)
So I have an idea for this character that I've been working on for a while. The idea behind him is that his telekinetic powers come from alien nanobot-like technology. The alien tech is powered by kinetic energy. Since the nanobots are so small, they aren't able to generate enough energy to power themselves past minimal levels. As you can see, I have a pretty good concept of the origin. My biggest problem? coming up with a name for my hero. I really have nothing.
So I have an idea for this character that I've been working on for a while. The idea behind him is that his telekinetic powers come from alien nanobot-like technology. The alien tech is powered by kinetic energy. Since the nanobots are so small, they aren't able to generate enough energy to power themselves past minimal levels. As you can see, I have a pretty good concept of the origin. My biggest problem? coming up with a name for my hero. I really have nothing.
Any ideas?
He's telekenetic... he uses his mind to move, control, etc...
Mindmeld?
Greywave
The Authority
Presage
knowing more about who he is (as opposed to "what he is able to do") would help in comming up with a name for him.
Batman isnt called batman because he has "bat powers"....
He;s a creepy night dwelling creature...
so are bats...
"who" a character is, is vastly more important than "what" his powers are or "how" he aquired them.
Here are some notes on what I have for the character so far.
- Telekinetic abilities through alien technology
- Strong sense of right and wrong
- Doesnt like to hide behind the mask, but understands and accepts its place
- Enjoys helping people
- Trying to find his place in life when he is given his powers
o Just graduated from college
o Trying to find a good job
- Isnt sure that hes the best man for the job and isnt sure why he would be chosen to carry the technology of an alien planet
- Alien tech benevolent
o Sent on mission to assist other worlds in preparation to join the Alliance
o Tied to downed space-ship A.I.
- Can access internet and other alien databases
o Wants to help the human race move along technologically
- Believes them to possibly be a great addition to the conglomeration of different species that make up a coalition that share information
o Acts as a type of mentor and guide to the hero
Really any kind of input on the character is welcome. I'll take any help I can get.
Did your character encounter the spaceship/AI by accident, or did it deliberately seek him out? That could make a difference as to whether he was specifically chosen to be the recipient of this technology, or it was an unintended consequence. Similarly, was the spaceship "downed" through mishap, or did it come here deliberately?
I can think of a couple of alien civilizations within the Champions Universe that might work for your character's background. The Conjoined Civilizations Republic is an interstellar coalition of various races, dominated by the insectile Se'ecra. The Se'ecra are meddlesome but generally benevolent, fond of "uplifting" other species to join the CCR, so they have the right overall attitude for the AI you describe. The CCR is relatively far from Earth and has not made formal contact with humanity as of the present day, but an exploration vessel could have crashed here unintentionally. Se'ecra technology probably isn't quite up to the superhuman augmentations you describe, but humans in the CU have demonstrated the potential to manifest superpowers through interaction with alien tech, so unintended "infection" of your character with nanobots is entirely plausible.
Another possibility is the Mandaarians, an ancient, advanced, psionically-gifted humanoid race. Although they usually maintain a strict non-intervention policy, the Mandaarians consider themselves mentors and protectors to the "younger" races of the galaxy, so indirect help to humanity like this probably isn't beyond at least a faction of them. Mandaaria is closer to Earth than the CCR, and they've publicly visited this planet several times, ostensibly to explore and observe. Their technology is almost certainly advanced enough to deliberately grant your character his abilities.
Comments
The civil rights period and Viet Nam war had a polarizing effect on the American superhuman community as it did the rest of American society. Some superheroes supported these movements, including supers volunteering to serve in Viet Nam, while others opposed them. These heroes often became symbols for the causes they espoused, and lightning rods for opposition to them. You might be able to adapt some of this to your concept, by having the school founded as a symbol of inclusion, where supers of all backgrounds and political opinions could learn to use their abilities responsibly.
See my comments above for superheroes "called into action for the nation's defense." Ravenswood Academy was founded in 1989, and has graduated many students over the years, although it doesn't appear that the majority became superheroes
To be honest, while your backstory for the Laurus Academy is fascinating, there are so many points of overlap or conflict with Ravenswood and the official CU history that IMHO it's never going to fit comfortably with them. For purposes of characters used in Champions Online, unless you want to make Viktoria or Ashton as playable characters you're probably better off using Ravenswood itself. There's no reason why a group of Ravenswood graduates with similar mindset and goals couldn't offer their services as a team to the US government. If you'd like to know more about Ravenswood Academy, the sourcebook Teen Champions goes into detail about its history, personnel, and students.
As to US government supers, see below.
Okay, here's a rundown of US government superhuman soldier programs.
During WW II research programs were haphazard. Two of them produced single successes, the heroes Achilles and The Comet, both of whom were killed during the war.
In the late 1960's, "Project Perseus" developed a method of producing enhanced (although not truly superhuman) people. This method has produced a succession of "official" government heroes up to the present day using the name The All-American.
In 1977 "Project Yeoman" granted low-level superpowers to six Navy Seals, who were christened Ameriforce One. It's unclear whether Ameriforce One was ever known to the public, but their missions were normally secret. They were killed in 1983, but a new Ameriforce has recently been created.
Perhaps the most successful project was the development of Cyberline in the 1980's, a drug/gene therapy which could grant superhuman physical abilities to compatible recipients. It was used to create the Golden Avenger and a small number of Silver Avengers, who supplement the forces of PRIMUS, the American domestic equivalent of UNTIL.
In 1994, "Project Sunburst" deliberately exposed soldiers to a nuclear explosion to attempt to spawn superhumans. Almost all the soldiers died; most of the survivors remain comatose today; the few who didn't did gain energy-based powers, but to date all have become villains.
Around the same time as Sunburst, the Army's "Man Amplification Program" was trying to develop inexpensive, practical powered armor for soldiers. The only test subject to successfully interface with the prototype armor stole it and became the supervillain Armadillo.
"Project Onslaught" in 1998 attempted to use gene splicing of human with animal DNA. Two successful results are known, the now-deceased superhero Janissary, and the supervillain who calls himself Onslaught.
Perhaps, if I want to make an RP SG, I'll just adapt one of my old CoG SGs....the Oniwabanshu, a group of Shinobi that had served as the Guardians of Kyoto Castle.
However, all of that information on the Super soldier projects is quite useful. The main character I want to plan has secretly been recruited into a rogue military operation that's trying to develop it's own super-powered soldiers, to discredit or wipe out the majority of the super-powered heroes of the world and then rent out their own soldiers to the world's nations. My character had latent superspeed and was mixed with a Reptilian DNA cocktail to strengthen him and help release the super speed, his predecessor was given a chemical which increased her power as her adrenaline began pumping and then there was also one who he was made plant-like and had some plant empathy powers. With the info you've given me, L_L, I'll work on his background a bit and then post it here to get all of your opinions.
Mr. Maximillion Q. Smithy
A former Pinkerton detective, Mr. Smithy was resident of Chicago, Illonois, though he travelled throughout the world solving cases. He discovered, and helped defend the lost city of T'zong Wu in the orient, saved the queen of Spain from rebels, and helped defeat one of Vlad Lenins first attepts to conquer Russia with the communists. Basically a pulp hero fighting normal people and weak magics/technology groups. His final mission in the 1910's took him to Detroit, where he discovered, Chronoton, an Evil time traveller, attempting to conquer the world. In their final climactic battle, they were accidnetally tossed almost a century into the future, where Detroit was now Millenium City. Chronoton escaped, or was possibly killed (see below) stranding smithy in the future.
This is all pretty well worked out. I'd just like to adapt this more to the CO. Were their any evil groups active back then Smithy could have fought specifically? Also, i was reading on hero games about a guy named Captain Chronos, and i was thinking of involving him. Perhaps he was related to Chronoton, an earlier or later version (Kang/Immortus like), and/or since he tries to protect the time stream, perhaps he set up the whole thing to get Smithy into to future for no other reason then history said Smithy was there. (I always liked people blindly following the timeline for no reason then history says so.)
Also, in sort of a nod to how different pulp heroes were to super heroes, i'm thinking maybe Smithy killed Chronoton (in self defense, not cold blooded murder, of course) and maybe got in some legal troubles, and thats why he can't return to the past (any laws regarding time travel i should know about?)
The other character, yet to be renamed till i figure out what powers to take
Some of you may remember a post i made about this character, and i got a lot of good suggestions from it. This character was originally from city of heroes, but i think i've managed to adapt it to CO.
The character grew up surrounded by hate. Raised in a family with very white supremacist values, she was taken out of school early to be home schooled to keep her mind 'pure'. Even so, she quickly showed a great apptitude for math and sciences. As she grew older, a family friend in the cause introduced them to an individual, a wealthy man who claimed to be a believer in the 'cause', who wanted to help further her education and give her a job afterwards.
My idea is for the person to be a viper agent in reality, using her to help develop advanced tech for Viper, which she wouldn't like cause Viper kills white people too. This goes on for several years until eventually some hero traces the tech to her, and attacks, telling her shes working for viper. Shocked, she goes to see the man, and in the process lets the hero follow her to the Viper nest, where he mocks her close minded views and tries to kill her for leading the hero right to them. She manages to survive, and gains super powers (aint comics grand
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Edit Just had one of those ideas. Perhaps instead of gaining powers, she had a good old fashioned body swap with the hero, and now is living in another body, while hers is dead. That way she might feel guilty about what she'd done, and try and give heroing a shot in search of redemption. This could also work for a nemesis, since Viper or the institute of human advancement could have fished her old body out of the wreckage, reanimated it, with it retaining some sense of what had happened, and now her old body is trying to kill her.
Hi, Mr. Smithy.
As for other foes Smithy could have fought around the turn of the century, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon was the premiere occult conspiracy of the day, with great but secret political and economic influence accumulated through subtle magic. They often tried to take over governments through mystic and mundane means, but were thwarted most often by agents of their "good" rivals, the Trismegistus Council.
A similar group of conspirators, the Unholy Order of the Grand Reptile (direct predecessors of today's VIPER), sponsored various eccentric scientists such as the original Dr. Moreau, and attempted to summon the serpent-god Nama on two occasions (1900 and 1910), thwarted both times by unspecified "heroic adventurers."
As for the "lost city of T'zong Wu," the Champions Universe has a couple of good candidates. The hidden Himalayan city of Shamballah is a repository of great mystical and martial-arts knowledge, and stands in eternal opposition to its evil sister-city of Agharti. Also somewhere in the mountains of the East was Yengtao Temple, dedicated to teaching the profoundist secrets of the martial arts to dedicated students who could find the Temple. Either one would be a good place for your character to learn "super-class" MA techniques.
Thanks for the input on those historical evil societies.
I would suggest a suite of sensory enhancers for the character as well -- if he's going to keep order, he should be able to locate the disorder.
If you'd like some Champions Universe background help, back in the early 1990s the army started the "Man Amplification Project" to develop cheap, practical powered armor for its soldiers. At the time the only person who could use the armor's cybernetic interface was a soldier with accidentally-altered neuro chemistry, who stole the prototype and became the supervillain Armadillo. Perhaps the army has finally solved the armor's technical problems and revived the project, or there may be something unique about your character that also allows him to interface successfully.
The new Ameriforce One has publicly assisted in the war in Iraq. It's made up of true superhumans recruited and trained by the government, not augmented as was the original Ameriforce.
Other prominent government superheroes include Victory, an Air Force pilot who gained formidable energy powers in a space-shuttle accident; Stalwart, a powered-armor hero who's part of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team; and two other FBI supers posted to Millennium City, the superstrong Kodiak and his partner, the "cyberkinetic" Teknique.
Do keep in mind that I haven't adapted everything into writing from when I played the character in CoH, but I at least wanted to discuss my Heroes origin at first.
The Jade Scale
In January of 2008, James Legardo (age 27), a lieutenant in the United States Army, was assigned as a peace keeper in the Ghor province in Afghanistan under Captain Robert Anderton. While moving through a small trading town, Lt. Legardo's squad are attacked by insurgents out of the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. During an intense bout of fighting, James and Capt. Anderton are pinned down behind a small stone wall and an overturned jeep respectively when the enemy begins to use Rocket-Propelled Grenades. Seeing his Captain in danger as a grenade hurtles towards the jeep, James leaps forward from his hiding space and, tapping into an up-to-this-point latent ability for super speed, grabs Anderton and rushes him to safety. For his bravery, Lt. Legardo is rewarded a medal of honor for acts of gallantry and intepidity during his tour and for helping his unit holdout until reinforcements could arrive.
After returning home at the end of his tour of duty, James receives an invitation to a private dinner being held by General Vincent Anderton to celebrate the return of his son from the field of combat. Upon arriving, he is surprised to see that the reception is made up mostly of military, political and corporate power-players, all friends of General Anderton, and feels rather out of place. The General, however, assures the Lieutenant that he is most welcome and that he had been looking to talk personally with the young man. Anderton reveals that he has heard all about the operation in Ghor from his son and knows about the manifestation of super powers within the young soldier. James reveals that his super speed was actually a freak revelation and that he hadn't ever used it before and hadn't been able to use it since. With a smile, General Anderton says that that's why he wanted to speak to him.
After the party, when most of his guests have departed, the General takes James to his private study and reveals to him a project he had been working on for some months now... a project (currently unnamed) to unlock and give superhuman abilities to soldiers to serve their nation and all humanity. Anderton tells the Lieutenant that he feels that he would be a good candidate for the project, though Legardo is hesitant at first to undergo any procedures. Fully understanding, the General gives James his private number and tells him to call if he decides to go through with it.
In the coming weeks, James spends much of his free time mulling over the offer, wondering if unlocking these abilities is really worth modifying his body, but he eventually comes to the conclusion that, if he wants to serve to the utmost of his ability, an ideal that led him to enter the military in the first place, that he should take the General's offer. Surely, the military he's put his trust in wouldn't do anything to willingly endanger its soldiers (yes, he's a bit naive).
Contacting General Anderton and making arrangements, he is taken to a secret facility in the Franklin Mountains, far outside El Paso, Texas. As James is being prepared for the procedure, General Anderton begins to recount the history of Super Soldier development over the years, purposely leaving out the fact that not all attempts have been successful but merely stating that they have been thus far unsuccessful. However, this time will be different. They have studied the past operations and have taken it upon themselves to improve upon past research.
As the procedure begins, James is infused with a cocktail of Reptilian DNA and undergoes a complex operation of genetic manipulation. In the coming hours, as the procedure comes to an end, the General's scientists find that their operation has proven successful. Strong, sharp claws have emerged from the subject's fingers, his body is now covered is armored, emerald scales, his teeth have become increasingly sharp and he has sprouted a thick, powerful tail. The ordeal, however, leaves James unconscious for over a day, and when he awakens and finds himself as transformed as he is, he has to be restrained from the shock. This, however, proves difficult as his strength has increased several fold. General Anderton quickly has psychologists brought in who have worked previously with those who have had sudden, life-altering transformations as a result of the manifestation of super-powers (a lie the General uses to explain his physical metamorphosis) and, after several weeks of therapy, James is deemed stable enough to return to duty.
Immediately, he is put through a rigorous testing curriculum to see how his powers have manifested. Besides super speed, James has developed increased strength and stamina, stealth abilities, jaws that can snap bone, a tail that can tear through concrete and claws that can tear through armor and flesh. With a profile of his powers established and the subject fully stable, General Anderton reveals that it is now time to enter into the service of his government once again. The General reveals that the project he's been running is only a part of a larger operation he is in charge of: establishing a task force to police the super-human subculture and to identify and eliminate potential troublemakers before they can go fully rogue. Given the name 'Jade Scale', James is to infiltrate the superhuman population circles, to observe them, and report back all of his discoveries, including powers and weaknesses of chosen targets. This will be his primary responsibility. At the same time, he is tasked to track down a superhuman mercenary going by the name of 'Intensity' that was last seen performing operations for a local crimelord outside Millennium City. Fully equipped with the latest power-reactive, highly durable power armor, Jade Scale accepts his mission and ships out to Millennium City immediately.
Little does James realize the true implications of all that he has become involved in. General Anderton's entire operation has performed in secret from the US Government at large, funded by private investors and supplied by allies within the military. His true goal is to eliminate the superhuman population and establish his own super-powered mercenary force with which he will hire out to the nations of the world to deal with the remaining super-villains, to protect their client nations and to bring a swift end to conflicts, benefiting those who hire their service. The Jade Scale is actually the second test subject for Anderton's operation, though the first to be subjected to the modified procedures taken from Project Onslaught. Their first subject was actually Intensity herself, in reality Dr. Elysia Graham, who had been working with General Anderton on their first phase of superhuman development. They had created a syrum that granted a human being a percentage increase in natural abilities that would grow as adrenaline was released into the body. With no other test subjects available at the time, the General used Dr. Graham for the experiment. At first, the syrum proved a success until the subject began to show signs of instability, growing more and more addicted to adrenaline surges to the point where she would no longer follow orders and only pursued jobs that would feed her need. Thus, with one rogue test subject on the loose, General Anderton will test the success of Phase Two against his Phase One creation before proceeding on with further tests.
All in all, James is a good-hearted and earnest hero looking to serve and protect the people of world only to have fallen into the clutches of those with more devious intentions. He will not remain oblivious to General Anderton's operations forever, as more orders are passed down and he begins to see the true character of those above him. However, by the time he even contemplates going rogue himself, Phase Three is already complete, with the loyalty of this subject assured, to track down and eliminated the Jade Scale.
Well, that's my rough outline so far. Once I get this established, I can work more on James' past and personality, but I wanted to get the origin ironed out first. I also still need to come up with a catchy name for General Anderton's project and his organization itself, so if you have any suggestions I'll gladly take them.
My hero will be Ingmar Thandr, a Scandinavian scientist who unintentionally exposed himself to dangerous chemicals as he was experimenting with human cells to possibly cure cancer. He has a certain sympathy for those that have been weakened by mortal diseases, including his mother, and spent the majority of his career battling villains to fund anti-cancer pursuits by global scientists. His "human disguise" is in the form of Dr. Thomas Williams, a prominent doctor who heads the Cancer Department in one of Millennium City's finest hospitals. He is calm and calculating in combat, which oftentimes causes his opponents to become angered and reckless. Thrandr's strategy is to provoke them into abandoning their common sense and acting on raw instinct: which, more often than not, hands him an advantage.
His arch-nemesis is simply known as the Enigmatic One, the leader of an underground cult that's anti-structure and anti-society. The Enigmatic One's "mercenaries" were the very ones that Ingmar apprehended for money to fund his experiments, and he's hell-bent on destroying Thandr for threatening the pace of his trafficking operations. The Enigmatic One was originally human, but the sewer that he built his headquarters in contained toxic waste: this twisted and bent his form, causing him to take a more demonic shape that resembles his inner chaos and disorder.
The Enigmatic One is able to use most of the elements to his advantage, but he's quite vulnerable to mental attacks. He'll eventually be left for dead in an epic struggle between the two adversaries, and one of his "mercenaries" will take up the opportunity to succeed him and claim the mantle of authority. What's unknown to his "group" is that their underground base was actually once an unhinged cultist's shrine; it's supposedly haunted by the victims that he slew for sacrifices. They unwittingly unleashed the vengeful spirits of the victims, and they are now thralls to their will. Thrandr will have to deal with supernatural threats in order to protect the city that he both loves and admires.
Wow, that's pretty good. I think you have a pretty solid story there.
One thing though, maybe I just missed it, but what's your guy's power?
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A young man in his mid-twenties, he grew up learning to give and receive a beating as matter of daily survival against his oft much more aggressive peers. Never trained in any form of martial-art or self defense he over time developed his own style of street boxing, and an exaggerated sense of calm in the midst of chaos. Skills that would serve him well in his adult life, as his sarcastic cynicism and lack of outward ambition were not well received in most place.
One night while begrudgingly waiting to meet someone at a small rundown bar off the highway in New Mexico a fight broke out around him. Attacked by three large gentlemen of a rough and rural persuasion at the outset it was only a matter of moments before the three found themselves sprawled on the floor. Once the fight was over an elderly man approached him praising his ability to handle himself in a fight. Imposing his company the old man explained that back when he was young he was something of an adventurer, taking on the challenges of ancient temples and unlocking the keys to forgotten mysteries. Finally the old man offered a job. At first it sounded ridiculous, the old man claiming now to be a Cryptozoologist with a university in Millennium City. The job in short was to watch over students in the field, and to go in the old man's stead on hunts for the more magnificent beasts that populate urban legends and superstitions around the world. After a bit of thinking, he took the job.
--
So yes, that's basically the gist of it. A by proxy adventurer for higher who goes out and hunts for clues of things like Bigfoot and the Chupacabra for an old man who teaches students how to find new species of animal by interpreting local legends. It needs a lot of fleshing out, but that is more or less the rundown. If you're wondering what fighting has to do with Cryptozoology, the answer is nothing. It's more a "I like the cut of your jib!" type on the spot hire. Role wise he's sort of a cynical, lazy equivalent to characters like Race Banon, or Brock Samson.
Here's one suggestion drawing from Champions Universe background: the "old man" who hires him could, in his adventuring youth, have studied the advanced, secret "super martial arts" techniques once taught at the hidden Yengtao Temple, and trains your character in some of those techniques both to make him a more capable fighter, and to teach him focus and discipline.
Perhaps he is more pulp styled, but I doubt anyone is going to make a game of the Pulp Hero setting. As for his ability to fight capably I left out the majority of what I want him to be capable of part by design so as not to detract from his back story. But also because I'm not sure how it will work within the power choices we will ultimately be able to choose. In CoX he'd be an Energy/Willpower brute, but even then that isn't an exact fit for where I want to go with the character. Because while he has pulpy origins, in terms of practical playability I'm going for more of a Terry Bogard feeling. Extremely strong fighting instincts with a natural affinity for kidou allow him to perform well beyond what he should just being a street fighter.
As for the nature of his missions they don't have to be exclusively that. And as most will come in as requests from other people outside his daily life it doesn't really matter if it's part of his job or a favor to the old man. Some are just simply explained by being in the setting, Monster Island being a good example of this.
The idea's mostly based off my Dual Blades/Dark Armour scrapper in CoX (Union Server), which kinda went all kinds of wrong ICly. Still, he's getting close to 50.
And there's the problem of whether there'd be anything that would allow dual blades or something resembling Dark Armour in CO.
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Richard Thomas Stacker. 21. Hails from Durham City in England. Prefers to be called Richie. When he got school over and done with, he felt burnt out and unable to decide what to do with himself after leaving before finding himself dragged into illegal underground fights, which for several years he enjoyed, much to the disagreement of his parents, who subsequently wanted nothing to do with him from then on. One day however, Richie found himself in a match nobody could see him winning, however in spite of this he floored his opponent with a few dirty tricks and won the match, but not without taking a good beating himself. Refusing all offers of help, he opted to find his own way home, a bad enough idea on its own, what with it being the middle of the night. Eventually, Richie's ill sense of direction led him to finally faceplant outside the city's catherdal.
When he finally came to early the next morning, he noticed something near him: A batch of spellbooks unceremoniously dumped outside the catherdal in a carrier bag. Richie took them back to his place and went through them. While the pages were all written in a language Richie couldn't make sense of, the previous owner seemed to have been kind/stupid enough to write notes down in English, allowing Richie to discover the protective effects of the spells written in its pages.
Richie was allowed to put said spells to use in future matches by the collective organising the fights, and basically railraoded through most of them.
One day his 'career' came to an end after a falling out with a friend of his, Matt Dennison, who had been handling all the formalities of Richie's fights. Matt then stole Richie's spellbooks and quickly fled the country. With a little digging around and some 'persuasion', Richie traced him to Millenium City. During his somewhat fruitless efforts to find Dennison there, he bumped into a Japanese woman by the name of Momo Serizawa, who he promptly got to know well after a few coffees, cinema visits and other things. Basically, they started dating.
Dennison, meanwhile, learned of Richie's arrival and had been keeping an eye on him. He saw what he beleived to be the perfect means of getting him off his back indefinitely: Killing Momo.
Dennison struck when either of them least expected, at her apartment, but by some dumb luck, Richie turned up in the nick of time, originally popping by to suggest something to Momo, he found himself fighting Dennison off to save her. Unfortunately for Richie, Dennison had his nose in those books the whole time he had them and successfully floored him. He was just about to return his attention to killing Momo when she took him by surprise with a single gunshot to the shoulder. Not quite -that- protective, then.
Dennison fled. Richie came to, and the two of them discussed the situation. Momo, while annoyed at Richie over the recent ordeal that took place, beleived Richie could put himself on the right track again after all his wrong turns in his life, and offered to help him out in this to the best of her abilities. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she had friends in the right places and could call upon them for any information that could aid him.
Richie himself set about putting himself on the right track, starting with the foolish task of breaking into Dennison's at-the-time hideout and stealing a couple of swords he had 'aquired', and coupling them with the few spells he knew to make up for his past mistakes and at the very least try to clean up the streets.
The Crazy Dragon doesn't so much as stalk the city streets. More charges through them, screaming like a maniac.
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*gets the Dunce hat at the ready (to plop onto my own head)* >_>
That one line already has me liking this character.
Aside from what effects Champions Online will allow, the biggest mystery about Crazy Dragon is, who in his right mind would dump a sack of spell books in the street next to a passed-out drunk? :rolleyes: My first thought is that someone sensed the potential for magic abilities in Richie and wanted him to develop them for his/their own purposes... most likely to call in the favor, or press-gang Richie into service, at a later date. In the CU the Trismegistus Council (a cabal of benevolent occult scholars aiding mystic superheroes), the Circle of the Scarlet Moon (a very influential international magic-wielding conspiracy), or Demonologist, leader of the mystic supervillain team The Devil's Advocates, all operate this way.
For a more random possibility: another member of the Devil's Advocates, the English supervillain called Golem, murdered his kabbalist mentor to steal his grimoire and learn all the kabbalist's secrets; but the writing in the book faded soon after its owner's death. I could see Golem finally throwing the book away, but its writing being restored when it found its way to someone with the potential for good. Of course if Golem figures that out he'll be after Crazy Dragon to recover the book.
This might also be of use to you: There's an underground fight circuit for low-powered superhumans, known as The Arena, in a number of large American cities including Millennium City. It would certainly draw someone with Richie (and Dennison's) background and magical resources looking to cash in on their abilities.
Well in CoX they were dumped near the cathedral moments before Richie arrived and passed out, originally awaiting collection from someone else as part of a shady deal. Looking back now, it's probably a bit naff now, so the Council, Circle or Demonologist idea sounds pretty class, and sounds like something that'd help avoid turning Richie into an angst-ball. Cheers.
I might be able to work something from that too. Might. Not entirely sure how, though, but I'm sure it'll smack me in the face pretty soonish. :eek:
Well, I was really thinking that this would be a good way to justify Richie and Dennison initially coming to America, to take advantage of the lucrative opportunities that Richie's new spell powers would offer him as a superpowered fighter. It also builds some potential complications into his life as Crazy Dragon, from former rivals in the Arena wanting to pay him back for some of the lumps he gave them, to promoters unhappy with his leaving the circuit who would like to "convince" him to fight again.
If you don't mind a suggestion about the events of Crazy Dragon's origin, IMO it would be more dramatic, and true to the superhero genre, if Dennison confronted Richie at Momo's apartment intending to kill him, but was on the verge of being defeated by Richie (with the aid of two family-heirloom swords of Momo's that she kept in her apartment) when Dennison critically injured Momo, so that Richie had to choose between saving her and pursuing Dennison. That choice would be Richie's first step away from his selfish, dissolute past and toward the path of a true hero. Momo's gratitude, and entrusting him with the honor of her family's swords, would also cement their relationship.
His name is Damien Black, A.K.A Manus Deus.
Powers - Low grade magic, mostly mind affecting spells like mind reading and clouding minds.
- His right hand has an unknown spirit like creature bound in it The hand is covered in swirling red symbols that are very slowly spreading up his arm. Most of his power come from the hand, it grants increased strength, telekinesis, disintegration and increasing temperature.
Personality - Damien is massively cynical in nature. He loathes all drug dealers and sees it as his responsibility to stop them. His main goal is to protect the slums and it's citizens from gangs, dealers, etc. Often opposes killing but will kill if necessary. Sees himself as a "Working Class Warlock"
So far I only have 2 points of background and they are very vague. First, he is a recovered heroin addict who grew up in the slums of the city. Second, he was partially trained by another "Working Class Warlock" who was later killed by drug dealers. That all I've got for background so far.
Also he is not widely known, he's become sort of like an urban myth. He'll appear out of nowhere, do his thing and then vanish.
I am open to any ideas and constructive criticism
Thanks in advance
Also, what's his relationship to the "spirit" in his hand? Is it sapient? Can he communicate with it? What's its personality and goals -- do they agree or conflict with your character's? Does he control his powers, or does the spirit control them and can withold them from the character if he won't cooperate?
Answers to those questions might also give clues as to background from the official Champions Universe that would fit your character. I've already thought of a few possible concepts that I could pass on, if you'd like.
The symbols are spreading due to some unknown cause, the spreading itself is a blessing and a curse. All the power associated with his hand can only be used where the symbols cover (eg, he can only raise the temperature of objects in contact with the symbols). however areas covered by the symbols feel as if they are burning, the intensity of the burning is based on how often he uses its powers (eg, most of the time it just feels hot, when he's using telekinesis it feels like its on fire)
In regards to his relation with the "spirit" he knows almost nothing about it. It has never directly communicated with him yet and it seems he is in control of its powers while it resides in his hand, however if he is in life threatening danger the spirit will take control usually resulting in a demonstration of previously unknown powers. The spirits goals are currently unknown as it refuses to communicate and only takes control when it absolutely must to save its host.
Hope that helps
In 1979 Archimago attempted the Zodiac Working, a plan to impregnate twelve kidnapped women with the seed of twelve powerful demons from Hell. Heroes kept the Working from (apparently) being completed, as the women showed no signs of pregnancy. However, a few years later, one of those women had a child with a partly-demonic heritage and powers that emerged during her teens (although she herself has no idea of her past and considers herself a mutant). That girl is now a supervillain called Frag. No other children of the Working have been mentioned, leaving it open as an origin for new characters. Your hero could be one of those children. The marks on his hand may have emerged due to his magical training, or they may be a birthmark but their power was awakened by his training. The "spirit" of his hand may be his demonic parent working to strengthen his demonic heritage, and when necessary preserve him for its own purposes. (Certainly the heat and burning sensation would be appropriate to a scion from Hell.)
One other known supervillain (albeit a reluctant one) owes her power to Archimago, the woman now known as Evil Eye. She was the victim of an assault which also cost her an eye; later a package came addressed to her in the mail, which she eventually learned was connected to Archimago, even though that villain had been dead for decades. The package contained a glass eye which gives her deadly magical powers, but sometimes the eye uses its powers on its own against her will, and she's no longer able to remove it. Your character could have received such a package in the mail. Perhaps it contained something that branded or tatooed the symbols to his hand. Alternatively, if he lost a hand due to some trauma, Archimago could have sent him a magical prosthesis which grafted itself to his stump. In this case the hand's spirit could be a servant of Archimago carrying out his will, or even the sorceror himself from beyond the grave, maneuvering your character for some hidden purpose.
Either of those sound workable?
Liaden, you rock. Thanks for helping out, and giving awsome ideas, advice, and Champs knowlege
I took another look at your character's name, and was suddenly struck by another idea for a background and origin for him, one that could potentially tie him to some of the biggest ongoing plotlines in the Champions Universe; which is why I offer it with that cautionary note. Since this info contains Really Big Secrets I'll put it within Spoiler tags for folks who'd rather not know:
Let me know if you'd like more details.
Sure.
Part of his plan to release the Kings of Edom involves letting the energies of the "Qliphothic" dimensions into our world to corrupt the natural order. (In the CU the Qliphoth are ancient universes, such as the one that spawned the Kings, which have become so decayed that their physical and mystical properties are opposite and inimical to those of our world.) Sometimes those energies infect humans, creating occult supervillains. DEMON does this constantly on a small scale, but the last great release of those energies occurred in 1986.
The Edomite's plan requires that he find five special individuals, tainted by the Qliphoth, to form the Inner Circle of DEMON's leadership. To date he's only been able to locate four.
The complete story of Luther Black and DEMON is in the Champions sourcebook, DEMON: Servants Of Darkness. If you like supernatural supers with a horror twist, it's a very interesting read. :cool:
Thanks for the info though, I could probably use that for another character
The first nemesis I want him to be of a Demonic background origin. Taking on the appearance of a demon and is the epitome of everything we fear. I already know I want him to have like Fire Powers. But as far as his backgrouns is concerned I have no clue.
The second nemesis I want to be a Girl. She has to be beautiful and seductive and I want her to have like mind controlling powers.
The third I want to take on the apperance of a shark. I want him to be huge and he has to have someway of surviving outside the water.
The fourth I want to take on the appearance of a spider. But something unique. Not Spiderman or venom.
And the last one I want to take on the appearance of a snake.
So yeah, any ideas?...
Interesting. I would suggest looking at Abe Sapien from the Hellboy movies for some inspiration. If you've seen the movies, you'll notice he has a small collar-like device that he wears allowing him to be out of water for an extended period of time.
Sounds very promising. As for his/her appearance, I would say, if at all possible, give them longer, spindly arms and legs. For an origin? Hmmm, perhaps some sort of tie to the deity Anansi?
I hate snakes, so nothing on that one.
Demons of all religious and folkloric traditions exist in the CU. In the past, one especially powerful evil sorceror attempted the Zodiac Working to have twelve kidnapped women impregnated by twelve powerful demons. At least one child of one of the victims grew up with supernatural powers as a result, but the fate of the rest hasn't been revealed.
There are several geneticist villains who can and have created animal-themed superhumans. Teleios is by far the most skilled and versatile of them. A descendant of Dr. Moreau has continued his ancestor's experiments to make various animals sapient. Moreover, there's a hidden colony of his former servant creatures in eastern Europe.
On the snake-villain front, the worldwide superterrorist group VIPER makes an especial effort to create snake-themed superhuman operatives. One of their former employees in this research became the independent master villain King Cobra, with the power to genetically modify humans into serpent-beings loyal to him. Going away from genetics origins, the powerful and malevolent supernatural entity called The Dragon is worshipped by cults around the world. Its worshippers sometimes use magic to transform themselves into serpentine/draconian monsters.
For your shark villain, besides the geneticists mentioned above, the Atlantean aquatic villain Stingray used ancient forbidden magics from Atlantis to give herself powers of various sea creatures. Your nemesis could be a creation of hers, or have used the magic on himself.
You "seductive mind controlling girl" could have a variety of origins, including some mentioned above. However, there's an organization of criminal mentalists called PSI which actively seeks out and recruits psychic people, by force if necessary. PSI also has the scientific means to bring out latent psionic abilities.
Anything there sound interesting?
OOOHHH!!! Dude, I REALLY LOVE that Demonic background idea!!! That was AWESOME!!! I'm definetly gonna work on that one a bit. As well as the shark nemesis idea. I like those both a lot.
You think you could add a lil more details to the other backgrounds a bit? They sound great, I just think I need a lil more information to get the full picture in my head, ya know? I'd really appreciate it.
If you can wait a bit until I have more time, I'll send you a Private Message with the details.
In regards to the Girl.
Succubus used to seduce mortals with physical pleasures, then steal their life-force. I can see that as some kind of stun followed by a power drain / transfer. Touch attacks for the life-steal makes it more in character, and more powerful. The stun could be 1/encounter, to show the fact that she could only try to seduce you when things changed. Her powers would be very strong when they worked.
Nymphs seduced men, but they were so beautiful that often the men died. Mind Control with a AE attack that only works if the subject is mind-controlled. In Champs RPG, Ego killing attack. Too expensive for the RPG. Making it a normal ego attack with the limitation that they had to be, "seduced," brings it in line.
Dryads entranced men and turned them into slaves. Mind Control, with Minions.
Female Vampires are almost always seductive. Minor - Major mind powers, lots of invulnerabilities and vulnerabilities. Minions possible. Touch-only power drain / transfer like the succubus.
Sirens lured men to their deaths. Mind control and some kind of trap ability. "Join me at the powder keg."
Gypsies were often accused of casting charms on men. Mind control and general magic abilities. Same for Sorceresses.
Marvel's White Queen was a powerful Psychic, and leader of the Hellfire Club. She became a good guy. Kinda.
All of these can fit in the Psychic Seducer profile.
I would like to add that women usually don't have to have psychic powers to make men lose focus. Guys are already programed that way.
Sure, that's ok with me. I'll look foward to hearing back from you. Thanks
Ok, those are really helpful. I'll try to see what I can come up with.
And for anyone else who can help me, please feel free to hand out your suggestions. I really appreciate the help
Any suggestions?
The only way to stop him is to get him to say his name backwards.
He was very cartoony.
Sounds like the villain from the movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. :cool:
I have a suggestion. On the Astral Plane adjacent to CU Earth are several "imaginal realms," dimensions created out of the collective imaginations of humanity, with inhabitants also spawned from imagination, but as real and tangible as any Earthly being. One of these dimensions, Babylon, The City of Man, is a mosaic of all the great cities of human history, real or imagined, as people remember them best: imperial Rome, Victorian London, fin de siecle Paris, Batman's Gotham City, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and so on. Babylon can also spawn dopplegangers of real or fictitious "pop icons" if enough people think about them. Here you can meet John F. Kennedy or Sherlock Holmes, Elvis or Ronald MacDonald... and even cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse.
All you need to do is make up a fictional history for your desired 'toon for CU Earth, making him well known enough that he'd materialize in Babylon; or choose one of the iconic villains from real-world cartoons, like Wile E. Coyote or Boris Badenov.
(PS paco, I'm working on your other info request now; keep an eye on your Private Message inbox.)
Any ideas?
Does your character absorb incoming kinetic energy, or generate his own via the nanobots?
He's telekenetic... he uses his mind to move, control, etc...
Mindmeld?
Greywave
The Authority
Presage
knowing more about who he is (as opposed to "what he is able to do") would help in comming up with a name for him.
Batman isnt called batman because he has "bat powers"....
He;s a creepy night dwelling creature...
so are bats...
"who" a character is, is vastly more important than "what" his powers are or "how" he aquired them.
- Telekinetic abilities through alien technology
- Strong sense of right and wrong
- Doesnt like to hide behind the mask, but understands and accepts its place
- Enjoys helping people
- Trying to find his place in life when he is given his powers
- Alien tech benevolent
Really any kind of input on the character is welcome. I'll take any help I can get.
I can think of a couple of alien civilizations within the Champions Universe that might work for your character's background. The Conjoined Civilizations Republic is an interstellar coalition of various races, dominated by the insectile Se'ecra. The Se'ecra are meddlesome but generally benevolent, fond of "uplifting" other species to join the CCR, so they have the right overall attitude for the AI you describe. The CCR is relatively far from Earth and has not made formal contact with humanity as of the present day, but an exploration vessel could have crashed here unintentionally. Se'ecra technology probably isn't quite up to the superhuman augmentations you describe, but humans in the CU have demonstrated the potential to manifest superpowers through interaction with alien tech, so unintended "infection" of your character with nanobots is entirely plausible.
Another possibility is the Mandaarians, an ancient, advanced, psionically-gifted humanoid race. Although they usually maintain a strict non-intervention policy, the Mandaarians consider themselves mentors and protectors to the "younger" races of the galaxy, so indirect help to humanity like this probably isn't beyond at least a faction of them. Mandaaria is closer to Earth than the CCR, and they've publicly visited this planet several times, ostensibly to explore and observe. Their technology is almost certainly advanced enough to deliberately grant your character his abilities.