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Manimals - Superhero?
sgtken60
Posts: 254 Arc User
I was getting ready to work on my Man-Bull: Tarbh background so I was wondering if there is any case PnP or in-game background for Manimals becoming Superheroes?
My basic idea - He fought his way out of "Lab/Prison/ETC." And found this Glowing Axe (or Sword) that was being studied by "insert Bad Guy's Name".
My basic idea - He fought his way out of "Lab/Prison/ETC." And found this Glowing Axe (or Sword) that was being studied by "insert Bad Guy's Name".
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Silverback relocated to England and took a job with Cambridge Biochemical Industries. He later moved to Millennium City to work at the Cambridge Biochem labs there, and became a scientific consultant to and reserve member of the Champions hero team. Dr. Silverback is one of the world's premier scientists and among its most famous superheroes.
I'll add that Manimals sourced from Dr. Moreau are not the only origin for such a character. Other criminal geneticists have been responsible for evolving true animals, and/or creating human/animal hybrids. Since you're looking to "insert Bad Guy's Name" as the one responsible for Tarbh (either creating him or capturing him to experiment on), I suggest the Overbrain, leader of the villain team, The Brain Trust (who have already appeared in CO). Two of the team's members are animalistic supers of his creation, Ape-Plus who was evolved in imitation of Dr. Silverback, and Lynx, a human he mutated into a literal catgirl. But Overbrain's scientific brilliance extends well beyond the field of genetics, so he'd be likely to try to analyze a "glowing sword" he came across, or even make one with his technology.
BTW Dr. Silverback's full story appears in Champions Universe. and the Brain Trust is detailed in Champions Villains Volume Two: Villain Teams.
Well there's my Homer moment
Is there any online links for Overbrain's story line (I will look for it too) I do not have access to any of the books anymore. Thanks again o7
Here is a link to archived info about the members of the Brain Trust from the old Champions Online Wiki, but it's very thin on background for the Overbrain. So I'll just hit the high points for you.
After Dr. Crandall Herzog learned he had terminal lung cancer, he devoted his great intellect to preserving his brain after his body died, creating a preservative tank for it and mechanical manipulators and sensors linked to it. No longer constrained by his body, Herzog's brain began to develop formidable telepathic and psychokinetic powers (he's no Menton, but still quite capable). But his unnatural existence affected his mental balance, pushing his existing arrogance and selfishness to megalomaniacal levels.
The Overbrain dreams of and schemes toward conquering the world, but knows he'll need huge working capital to achieve that, so he also commits crimes and hires himself out to other villains. He maintains several secret laboratories where he conducts various experiments, and has quite a few doctors and scientists under his mental domination. Realizing that super-powered minions would help him greatly, he created or press-ganged the other members of the Brain Trust. Overbrain is always on the lookout for more potential members to brainwash or create to add to his resources, so he certainly could have decided to recruit or make Tarbh.
Tarbh
When The Overbrain had the success of Ape-Plus, he decided to continue this success and create a second manimal, but the only animal type that was available was a young Highland cattle bull-calf. This appealed to The Overbrain, to outshine Moreau’s feeble attempts at new life-forms.
So, The Overbrain followed the same plans he did for Ape-Plus and a few months of work he got the Man-Bull which he name “Tarbh”, while this creature did seem Ape-Plus equal in hand-to-hand combat it seem to lack the same intellect as Ape-Plus, and was far more rebellious, yes even “bull-headed”, so The Overbrain quickly relegated Tarbh as just a normal lab guard, not wanting to trust the manimal to guard him.
This was mainly because The Overbrain had a new project, Black Mist had recovered a huge and ancient Axe from some VIPER agents and brought it back to the Lab. Late one night while Tarbh was guarding the Lab – the Axe “spoke” to him not with words, but it the same means as The Overbrain, in Tarbh’s mind! It promised Tarbh freedom, it promised him power and strength.
Just as Tarbh reached for the Axe, the base’s alarms went off. It was because Justiciar and the rest of members of the StarForce were attacking The Overmind’s Base. As Tarbh grabbed the Axe its cutting edge glowed with power. So, in the confusion of the attack, Tarbh escaped into the Canadian Wilderness for days he wandered alone fighting off creatures of the wild, and minions of The Overmind.
All the while the Axe “spoke” to him, he grew in size and in strength and more his mind grew as well. The Axe called itself “Tuagh Bulg” and it was truly ancient. It was forged with fire and magic to fight against those who would cause evil, it and its brethren were forged to be used against those who “welded the swords of evil”.
Soon two weeks had passed, Tarbh had just made camp for the night as he neared the border, when he heard a voice. “Greetings, Creature” it was Justiciar “We have been following you for some time now, but it is time for you to come with us”.
Tarbh rose to his full height, “I am Tarbh, I am not a Creature” – “I will not fight you only because I sense no evil in you.”
“Well then Tarbh, you will not mind handing over the Axe then?” Justiciar continued, as the rest of members of the StarForce stepped out of the darkness.
“As you wish, human but know this the Axe of Tuagh Bulg and I are bonded, and it will heed my call!” With this Tarbh entered the pages of Heroes, and he has never looked back. Become friends with the likes of Justiciar, Defender and so many others.
Tarbh moved Millennium City, and currently has not joined with any supergroups. But is know to many of them. He lives in a old Basement hidden in a forgotten part of Millennium City, it access well hidden for those who may look for it.
There is also Tiger as a case from [recent] historic Champions. He died in '92 during the Battle For Detorit. He was a man-tiger.
I find Tarbh's actual origin story to be pretty well thought-out. It implies that his axe played a big role in changing his personality toward heroism, compensating for his limited experience provided by the Overbrain. It would make sense if it has telepathic abilities that it also helped Tarbh overcome the mental conditioning that Overbrain uses to ensure loyalty among his minions, and played a role in "sensing" that Justiciar "had no evil in him."
I do have some questions regarding practical matters beginning with Tarbh's encounter with StarForce. A lot of players would not care about those matters and just play their character as they want to, which is fair. I won't pretend this is other than me expressing what occurs to me if I as a Game Master was presented with this PC.
StarForce are a Canadian team, so I assume Overmind's base was somewhere in Canada. Did StarForce not take Tarbh into custody? If they did, why was he released to go wherever he wants? He has no citizenship with any country, and claims possession of a huge lethal weapon that apparently has supernatural powers. If he was able to eventually convince StarForce (and the Canadian government) that he's no threat and they let him go, why would he want to relocate in Millennium City rather than Toronto where StarForce is based, or another Canadian city? Did he escape from custody and flee across the border? Is that why he's living in hiding, because he's a fugitive? Or is he hiding from the Brain Trust?
It sounds like in MC he's living as a homeless squatter. How does he support himself, get food and clothing and transportation? Does he beg? Take rewards for heroic acts? Or does he have some kind of job, maybe making use of his superhuman abilities? (That's far from unknown for official superhumans in the setting, including Manimals living in the wider world.)
"Anthropomorphic Animal Characters in the Champions Universe," the topic I stared in this sub-forum (currently just below this one) explores all the precedents and possibilities inherent in this setting for that type of character.
You're right, the Overbrain uses a combination of genetic modification and telepathic psychological condition to make his minions willing servants, even if that isn't their normal personality. But the fact he has to handle Black Mist carefully lest his more disciplined mind should "strain" his conditioning, implies that it isn't unbreakable.
Well I am still trying to figure some of this out, last time I actually played/GM Champions PnP was way back in 1986
While I did not add in there, I assume that StarForce would of taken him into custody - - BUT I am not sure about how he got stateside/in MC still working on that. Same with Citizenship
Hiding - - Well I not sure on this BUT his nemesis is Beast-Woman name Wildmaid. So maybe she is working for the Brain Trust? Not sure again I will have to research/think on this more.
Homeless Squatter - I should of explained this more, I bought awhile back the Basement Hideout in game, so I was trying to work this into his background (picture attached) so I will expand on this.
The Axe - In my mind its bonded to him, so it "disappears" until he needs it. Unless he dies then it would reappear next to his body
Income - Okay this was one more thing I have to figure out, I mean a 7 foot tall Bull-Man does not just go down to the unemployment office. Not sure if there is a disguise kit or image projector in Champions PnP that would cover this?
So, any input from you bulgarex or anyone else would be much appreciated and thanks bulgarex for these points
For earning money, I have always considered the game-currency rewards we get as part of the missions and alerts as a PRIMUS-sponsored bounty mechanism. It would probably be tied into a person's ASPRA registration, which grants heroes the ability to retain a secret identity, in return for their ASPRA registration that would include the heroes actual identity, and gives them some legal protection for use of their powers in protection of civilians and crime prevention, as well as the ability to give evidence under their hero-identity.
You mentioned in your same paragraph as income the availability of disguise kits or projectors. As you were beating up some escaped prisoners, I am going to assume you were following that mission-sequence. There is a relatively early mission that has your character enter Lou's Bar, and you are given a holographic projection device that allows you to hide your identity and speak to an NPC that then gives you the locations of some weapons crates around an area where New Purple Gang members and Maniacs are fighting (I believe the scene is intended to be a homage to the alleyway fight in Big Trouble In Little China, although that is also given a further homage in later areas too). You would retain that device as long as you don't hand the mission into the Chief, so you could argue that Tarbh was able to keep it, or employ a little hand waving to say he was able to somehow palm the device, or the Chief simply forgot to ask for it back. Considering the number of super-brains in the city, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that one of them could help create an alternative projection that is more compatible with Tarbh's size, which then means you can make a 'human-shape' costume in one of your spare build slots and have some kind of technological transformation effect to account for the hologram starting up. I personally have no end of fun using the build buttons and transforms between costume sets for my characters.
On the "holographic disguise" front, you are certainly correct that there are enough super-geniuses among the superheroes to create something like that for Tarbh. Such items exist in the setting and have been described, but to date the official ones have almost all been in the possession of villains, e.g. ARGENT and the Gadroon. Gadroon "holo-disguise systems" used by their spies are particularly sophisticated, able to make a Gadroon look, sound, smell, and even feel like a normal Human, and can even copy someone else's appearance with a minute to scan them. (See Champions Beyond p.185.) Sgtken60, if you want to go the technological route to disguising Tarbh, you could have him come across and defeat a Gadroon spy and "confiscate" his disguise. If his axe is telepathic, the disguise doesn't work against such powers. OTOH you could just declare that part of the axe's magic is being able to disguise Tarbh (convenient but effective). Of course his size will draw some degree of attention even if he looks human.
There are plenty of precedents in Champions for superhumans using their powers for gainful employment, even if they don't have legal citizenship status. For example, the reformed alien supervillain Herculan employs his superhuman strength to get various labor jobs. The Manimal emigre from Beast Mountain named Ram works as a bouncer at Valerian Scarlet's nightclub, "The Minefield," in Vibora Bay. After all, the "underground economy" is a major employer in the real world.
The amount of assistance Tarbh gets from the superhuman community, and society in general, will be proportional to how much he integrates into the system. Registration with the government as sapphiechu suggests will help him get legal status in the USA, and maybe some assistance by law enforcement or other government agencies; but the government will require his true identity and the extent of his powers, and will know where to find him. How you describe the character makes him sound like something of an outsider, so your choice would be affected by the degree to which you want him to be.
If you do want him to eventually find his way to Millennium City, I would recommend against his confrontation with StarForce. That just adds complications. If you want him to start in Canada, I'd suggest their involvement be limited to attacking the Brain Trust base, giving Tarbh cover to escape. His "wandering in the wilderness" could last longer as he makes his way toward the American border, giving his axe more time to work on expanding his mind, and letting him observe and learn how the wider world works (reminiscent of the initial wandering by Frankenstein's monster in Mary Shelley's novel). Alternatively, you could start him somewhere in the States and substitute an American hero team for StarForce.
If you'd still like him to be confronted by a hero team, I recommend it be during a battle with supervillains or villainous agents like VIPER. Tarbh being able to "sense evil" would know who the good guys are, and if he joins in to fight on the heroes' side that would automatically incline them to assist Tarbh in getting settled in, proportionate to their resources and connections. There are several teams and solo heroes based in or near MC, with varying levels of support from the government and the Superhuman World subculture.