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Forums > Home› Champions Pen and Paper RPG

Kevin Poe Questions

kaosarcannakaosarcanna Posts: 124 Arc User
in Champions Pen and Paper RPG
My understanding may be limited and in error, but I believe that in Champions PNP Kevin Poe and Psimon are the same person.

I also believe that Medusa is Psimon's mother in the PNP.

Can someone confirm these things?

And in regards to Kevin Poe in CO, is there a canon explanation for why he has Dark Powers instead of PSI powers? I think someone told me once he started out with PSI but was swapped over to Dark. Just wondering if he's a low level sorcerer who might have picked up a few tricks or if that's just how his Telepathy/TK powers work.

P.S. Is there a New Purple gang in the PNP? If there is, who started it if there's no Kevin Poe?

Comments

  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited April 2018
    Hello, kaosarcanna. (Not many kinds of venue where you get to write a greeting like that.) ;)

    I'm afraid your background information regarding Kevin Poe is the victim of "edition-itis." There have been several editions of PnP Champions, which have made revisions both to the Hero System game mechanics, and to the default official setting that the published Champions supers exist in. For a previous edition, Psimon the leader of PSI was Simon Poe, son of PSI founder Dr. Sebastian Poe. Medusa, or as she was called then "Mother Medusa," was Dr. Poe's ex-wife and Psimon's mother. However, when the setting was rebooted to its current configuration, Medusa was retconned as Dr. Poe's secretary with whom he had an affair. Psimon was Poe's protege but no relation. Psimon and Medusa became lovers, betrayed Dr. Poe to the authorities, and took over PSI.

    Kevin Poe is a newer character created for the current setting. He's Sebastian Poe's son, who formed the New Purple Gang (the original Purple Gang were real-world notorious Detroit mobsters in the 1920s and 30s) as a tool to gain revenge against PSI for betraying his father, and to take control of PSI for himself as his "birthright." Sebastian Poe experimented on his infant son with his prototype "Psi Serum," which can amplify latent genetic psionic ability. That's the source of Kevin's superhuman powers. Interestingly, the original PnP Kevin Poe was granted a genius intellect by his father's experiment, but no psionic powers. Cryptic Studios revised his concept to be telekinetic, undoubtedly to make him a more challenging and typically "super" opponent in CO. The most recent PnP source books dealing with Kevin Poe, published since the Cryptic IP purchase, incorporated that change to his concept.

    As to why Kevin Poe in CO today has "Dark" powers, you'd need to ask the CO devs for a definitive answer; but they may have decided those better suited the way they wanted his telekinesis to work. Or maybe that they just looked cooler. :p There's no magic involved in any iteration of his background for PnP -- on the contrary, he's a very adept self-taught scientist.

    PSI's official history, and full write-ups for their current membership, are in Champions Villains Vol. 2: Villain Teams. The most recent edition of Champions Universe (the core setting sourcebook) briefly mentions Kevin Poe's updated concept, but his full history and original PnP game stats are in the older Millennium City book.

    There is one other intriguing detail regarding Dr. Poe, which the PnP game publishers have not had a chance to address. In 1995 Poe was tried and sentenced to twenty years in Stronghold for his crimes. The books explicitly state he wasn't among the escapees who followed Menton out of Stronghold in 2009. However, his sentence obviously would have been up in 2015.

    Post edited by bulgarex on
  • jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,334 Arc User
    As for where the Dark powers came from, recall the opening cinematic for "Lemurian Antiquities", the first mission you get after creating your Nemesis. As the camera dollies through the crowd, you see Kevin Poe making a deal of some sort with a mysterious figure...
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  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,916 Arc User
    I kinda figured he was supposed to be a psychic vampire, and that the actual Psi framework just doesn't do that so this was closest?
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  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    Cryptic turned the Drifter -- a sorcerer originating from the pulp era -- into a cyborg. For some things in this game you just have to abandon logic and go with it. :/
  • riveroceanriverocean Posts: 1,690 Arc User
    markhawkman said:

    I kinda figured he was supposed to be a psychic vampire, and that the actual Psi framework just doesn't do that so this was closest?

    Likewise. I always just assumed Kevin had some sort of "dark psychic" powers.
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  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,916 Arc User
    bulgarex said:

    Cryptic turned the Drifter -- a sorcerer originating from the pulp era -- into a cyborg. For some things in this game you just have to abandon logic and go with it. :/

    Maybe the cyborg look is a disguise? :p
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  • kaosarcannakaosarcanna Posts: 124 Arc User
    riverocean said:

    markhawkman said:

    I kinda figured he was supposed to be a psychic vampire, and that the actual Psi framework just doesn't do that so this was closest?

    Likewise. I always just assumed Kevin had some sort of "dark psychic" powers.
    Well Mind Drain is a power that came up much later. Otherwise I assume he could be using that and some sort of PSI Immobilize, but I don't think they're going to change him now. :smile:

    Thanks very much for the info, bulgarex (and it's not often I say a name like "bulgarex" either.) :smile:

  • jaazaniah1jaazaniah1 Posts: 5,560 Arc User
    Why does he use dual pistols then? And what's with the gas mask?
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  • pantagruel01pantagruel01 Posts: 7,091 Arc User
    At game launch, Kevin Poe used force powers, and a different costume.
    http://web.archive.org/web/20100923114331/http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Kevin_Poe

    He was changed to his current costume and powers with the West Side revamp in 2011.
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  • biffsmackwellbiffsmackwell Posts: 4,743 Arc User
    The guy that Kevin Poe is talking to in the Lemurian Antiquities cutscene is a red-skinned dude named John Devil. So there may have been some intent that he was selling his soul for power(s).
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited April 2018
    I'm not a fan of the devs muddying up characters' concepts. Kevin Poe's abilities in CO at launch made perfect sense based on his background. Even adding gadgets would be reasonable given his intellect. But supernatural powers due to soul-selling really comes out of left field. :/
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,916 Arc User
    Well, if you look at the version of Poe in Resistance, he basically wears a standard Purple Gang outfit.
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  • kaosarcannakaosarcanna Posts: 124 Arc User
    markhawkman said:

    Well, if you look at the version of Poe in Resistance, he basically wears a standard Purple Gang outfit.

    That looks like Kevin Poe's original outfit before his revamp.

    Didn't notice that Stingray was one of the captured heroes in Multifaria.



  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,916 Arc User
    kaosarcanna said:

    That looks like Kevin Poe's original outfit before his revamp.

    Yeah, that's what i was thinking but I wasn't sure.
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