Next part of the current series on gameplay. Probably be one more and then I’m done, unless something else occurs to me.
This one’s mostly an examination of how to prep and sequence different scenes types, with practical examples of starting points for a session.
So apparently I got this guy about 90% done, shoved the post in drafts and proceeded to forget about it for…almost a year? Which means I spent the last few months thinking I was done with my “one of every villain approach and archetype” project when, in fact, my Ancient Squad baddie was loitering in electronic limbo. Sigh.
Anyway, here he is with his band of signature lieutenants:
Cursed immortal doomed to walk the Earth till the final judgement, pawn of dark powers beyond his comprehension, pretty much done with the whole schtick and just wants to get it all over with.
A villain written up to resolve a lingering Major Twist effect from a campaign that ended before I could use him. Well, maybe someday…
Musclemind Maximus, Not As Dead As Expected
Seriously, when you stop the Doomsday Device on the last turn with a Major Twist to boot, that villain you dumped in a vat of boiling chemicals probably did, in fact, survive. What did you expect?
More villainy, this one the very worst kind - a trust fund baby.
His motto: It Takes Money To Steal Money, So Hire The Best.
Paycheck’s getaway vehicle mentions Baron Bowman apropos of nothing, so I’m guessing this could’ve been copy-paste overlooked in proof.
Dammit, caught two instances and zoned out on the third. Fixed. Thanks.
Digging through my campaign notes again, this weirdo villain was the result of a Major Twist in an older campaign and has been cropped up in others a few times since.
Meta-textually speaking, this one was probably popular with artists and colorists, since conceptually it’s drawn as a vaguely human-shaped void filled with zip-a-tone dots that doesn’t even need to maintain consistent dimensions. And you thought Kirby collages were time-savers. 
Couldn’t resist filling in the backstory for a one-shot character I will probably never play again, so here’s a retro-writeup for the 1960s hero & villain pair whose shenanigans ultimately led to the creation of Go-Go Robo, along with some period-appropriate minions:
Really need to stop doing writeups for canonically dead supers that I’m likely to never get any use out of. Got some nice alliteration going on there, though.
Finally started playing in another campaign after a dry spell, so time for a new hero.
This guy’s still pretty new with just two sessions under his belt, and his personality’s still growing. Like many form-changer archetypes he’s a Swiss army knife of powers and abilities but can’t access all his tricks at once. His stupidly basic supranym doesn’t begin to make up for all the absurd Comic Book Science technobabble explaining (handwaving) how his abilities and forms work, but the game’s got a nuSilver Age vibe so that’s okay.
We’ll see how he develops going forward, assuming the game lasts long enough for some change.
A couple of connected villains from a short magic-focused game a couple of years back, dug up after FrivYeti’s Madame Calamity post the other day reminded me they existed. They’re a bit of a specialized duo as written because of how they were used in my game, but I’ve stuck some suggestions on how to use them independent of one another (albeit with different background fluff) down in the Design Notes section. A lot less versatile than Madame Calamity since they can only transform from small-to-Titan and not the other way, but still handy to have on the villain roster.
They were originally inspired by the Warner Brothers short “Show Biz Bugs” where Daffy blows himself up on stage and when an encore is called for his ghost laments that it was a great trick but he can only do it once, which is equally true for poor Hugo here. That was the last cartoon I saw before leaving for my first day of kindergarten way back when and it’s always stuck with me.
New hero for a potential play-by-post game. This guy’s young enough to be a Masks character, but he’s been through some rough times in his short life. Stay in school, kids.
Finally got around to putting together a coherent writeup for the secret magical conspiracy that was responsible for Hugo Hellbinder and his parasitical WMD. They’re bad people, even by evil wizard standards.
As an organization writeup, includes minions, lieutenants (which make up the actual leadership), and a bunch of magical creations or summons for heavier support against meddling heroes.
A gimmick villain from the first ongoing game I ran, which had a 1960s SHIELD-inspired super-agent theme. Think they first showed up about three sessions in and made return appearances for a couple of months before the heroes finally managed to catch them. If that game had kept going I had plans for them to eventually reappear, only this time working for one of US alphabet agencies (CIA, NSA, etc.) in exchange for being let of prison.
Wow, that’s one hell of a resilient villain. I hadn’t thought of combining “ignore the last hit against you” with “heal”; if the players don’t pile on really effectively, that can be hard to punch through, especially with all the Hinders in play.
Yeah, silly, isn’t it? The Hinders help too, they can really degrade incoming damage. At least it’s mostly reaction dependent so there’s workarounds, but you really don’t want them to get a turn in before the next hit after the failed “finisher” blow - that can easily be a 5 point swing, which isn’t hey when you’re on the ropes. I remember one player putting a 23 point Charged-Up Blast into Slink when they had 13 Health left and dealing a whole point of damage, leaving them to heal from 12. That was fun, once.
If you want maximum frustration, combine that Loner ability with an Approach that reduces damage. React to a finisher, change damage to 1, reduce damage by (probably) 2 or 3 so the end result is zero damage. Doesn’t make much practical difference in the grand scheme of things but man, it’s adding insult to lack of injury.
New environment, and a pretty wacky one at that.
Aside from some really demented twists, there’s also a trio of suggestions for plots that lead to this environment with accompanying scene element ideas.
Sigh. Let’s try this again with the links all right and everything. I’m like a drunken monkey on the keyboard today.
I guess if I’m going to do a cartoon environment another cartoon villain to go with it wouldn’t hurt.
Not everyone’s going to want to use Mister Mean or Deadeye Mouse, after all.
This Clown Town cartoon stuff’s getting out of control.
Dedicating this week the the worst excesses of the Nineties, a decade of comics that produced some real gems and a staggering amount of utter trash as the Speculator Boom (and Bust) distorted the entire industry. Half of our current table (self included) spent years behind the counter in comic shops back then, and we’ve been enjoying ourselves parodying the bottom tier books with a few one shots lately. Oh, the memories. The terrible, awful memories.
Starting off with a very metatextual environment reflecting the kind of nonsense you could expect to run into when perusing the more disappointing books of the period.
This is an absolutely brilliant and terrible meta-environment. 11/10, no notes.
Continuing Nineties Week with a villain who reflects two regrettably recurring features of the decade - petty, childish edginess and inadequate artistic skills. When you you just can’t stay on-model, creating a metamorph character to compensate just makes good sense. Taking a cheap shot at a major competitor, not so much.