Brain Drain...?

theravenforce · February 2015

I was running a nemesis mission and came across (yet again) Brain Drain...a small NPC with an unusually large head (Pic doesn't show it as well, but his head, to me seems quite large):

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I wasn't able to find anything about him through PSI...

I was wondering if he was CO's variation on the villain Brainchild? Or if he had his own lore?

Thanks in advance.

bulgarex · February 2015

Well, there was a brief entry for him on the old CO Wiki, in relation to his appearance in the nemesis mission, "The Violent Majority." It simply reads, "Smarter than the average cookie, so he likes to think. Brain Drain will use his mind to turn the tables on you well before you even know it."

None of the villains from that mission have background in the PnP lore, unless Brain Drain is indeed meant to replace Brainchild. Brainchild is as much a gadgeteer as a mentalist, but I'm not sure whether that helmet is supposed to be some sort of mind-amplying device.

CO devs created quite a few original characters for the MMO, many of them seemingly throwaways. Steve Long adapted some that he liked for the most recent edition of the PnP, defining their powers and fleshing out their backgrounds. Brain Drain isn't one of them.

bulgarex · February 2015

It is something of a cliche, but I suppose in an MMO it makes mentalists more visually distinctive. Their powers typically lack identifiable flashy effects.

Aside from how Cryptic Studios rendered Menton, I can actually think of only one mentalist from the PnP game who's drawn with an enlarged cranium, the hero Psiphon, one of the informal team called the Millennium City Eight. And his head only becomes enlarged when he uses his power to absorb the psionic energy from another mentalist who tries to attack him, which he can then redirect back at his attacker or at someone else.

Mentiac, of UNITY, has a "swellin' melon," but that's a reflection of his superhuman intellect. He has no psi ability.

riverocean · February 2015

bulgarex wrote: »

CO devs created quite a few original characters for the MMO, many of them seemingly throwaways. Steve Long adapted some that he liked for the most recent edition of the PnP, defining their powers and fleshing out their backgrounds. Brain Drain isn't one of them.

I love mentalists! And there seems to be a small army of throw-away villains that never get used much. I keep hoping the awful "Lilith" style generics we get in nemesis alerts, get replaced by them.

bulgarex · February 2015

The PnP source books contain literally hundreds of villains, with detailed backgrounds and personalities, power descriptions, and color artwork, all owned by Cryptic/PW. A high percentage of them were designed to be easily inserted into many different kinds of scenarios. I've never understood why CO devs have seemed so reluctant to draw from them.

theravenforce · February 2015

bulgarex wrote: »

The PnP source books contain literally hundreds of villains, with detailed backgrounds and personalities, power descriptions, and color artwork, all owned by Cryptic/PW. A high percentage of them were designed to be easily inserted into many different kinds of scenarios. I've never understood why CO devs have seemed so reluctant to draw from them.

Exactly, I've been looking at a few more villains recently (mainly for writing purposes as well as general interest) and I'm sad more of them aren't in game.

Thanks for answering my question about Brain Drain!

Brain Drain...?

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