Classic Enemies: The Few, The Proud, The Miscellaneous, Part 2!

I apologize for the delays in getting this one out.  My original goal was to push through to the end of the book by the end of May.  Thanks to some unpleasantness at work, an anxiety attack, and the arrival of my copy of "Blowing Up The Movies", I've either been too out of it to work on this entry, or watching kung fu movies. So, let's see if I can get back on track.  Today, we're going to look at another four villains from Classic Enemies I've never gotten much use from.

We'll start with that walking, talking, 284 points of St. Patrick's Day Parade incarnate, Shamrock (created by Glenn Thain).

This guy always bugged me, but in re-reading him (and trying to keep my head in a late-80s, pre-Reconciliation mindset), there's some useful angles to him I hadn't considered.  But first, let's get deal with the 400 lb Guinness Bottle in the room: that's a terrible, terrible costume.  Coupled with the name Shamrock, there's no way this guy won't come off as a buffoon.

But it occurs to me, that could kind of be the point.  He's dedicated to the IRA and his activities in the US are all about raising money for arms.  Given the way the very real IRA used the US for just those purposes back in the day, his goofy outfit and handle might make a twisted sort of sense, if you look at it as sort of a marketing ploy.  If I'd considered that back in the days of the IMPACT game, I might have put him to use.

In terms of his powers, he's a straight-up high-end brick (STR 75) with solid Resistant defenses (it takes a 56 STUN punch to stun him for a round).  He's also got ridiculously high Luck, but that's always been a weird power in Champions, to be honest, seldom working as I think it was intended.  Generally, I play it as a reminder that this character will be improbably lucky, rather than worrying about the mechanics.  He's quite vulnerable to magic and mental powers, so he's hardly unbeatable.

The one thing in his write-up that bothers me is the inclusion of Martial Arts (in this case Boxing) on Brick archetype.  But that's a personal pet peeve, and in this case, it doesn't actually improve his damage output, so I'll let it slide.

Next comes Sparkler, another Barry Wilson creation.  She's pretty much the definition of a one-trick pony.  But it's a hell of a trick: A 2d6 Autofire RKA (10 shot burst) at 0 END, and +8 Combat Levels with it (OCV 16).  That's like an AK-47 with double the burst capability, and she can do it all day long.  She's got a solid, but not unbeatable Force Field, and that's pretty much it. All in all, not a bad starter villain or member of a low-end group.

I'm fairly sure the reason I never used Sparkler is because when she first saw print, I wasn't particularly enamored of the Silver Age.  As a result, a character named Sparkler, who has fireworks powers, and who got them due to an explosion in a fireworks factory was too "on the nose" and goofy for me.  Looking at her right now, I'm thinking about how much fun she would be to convert to ICONS.  Because now, she's square in my wheelhouse.

Though we'd have to do something about that costume.

Our last miscellaneous villain today is Thok, created by George MacDonald.  He's an alien bug prince.  Seriously, he's an another extraterrestrial nobleman stuck on Earth, trying to find a way home.  Unlike Herculan, he's incapable of communicating with humans, and is generally misunderstood, etc., blah, blah blah.  He's got nasty claws and a tough chitinous hide, and - unlike a lot of characters in this book - a fair number of useful non-combat skills.

I never disliked Thok, I just never really had a use for him back in the day.  My games didn't feature a lot of extraterrestrial hijinks, and Thok's primary focus being on getting off this ball of rock means a lot of players would be willing to help him, once the basic misunderstanding can be worked through.

That said, an adventure does suggest itself:  

The heroes hear of a meteor strike near the campaign city. If they investigate, they find the remains of a crashed spacecraft, but no lifeforms.

A few weeks later, heroes with an interest in VIPER (Hunteds, etc.) notice that VIPER activity in the city drops off completely.  It's like they just closed up shop.  Further investigation (informants, electronic intelligence - hey, it's your campaign) leads to a local business called Green Scales and Measures (a name I got from Steve Long, so credit where it's due).  It is, of course, a front for the local VIPER nest.

Investigating Green, the heroes discover a way into the sealed-off nest.  It's a charnel house: the nest has been wiped out completely and there are dead VIPER agents everywhere.  The nest is on emergency power (for atmosphere) and the stink of death is everywhere.  It's basically Thok as the exomorph from  "Alien", except it may take a while for the heroes to figure out they're up against a highly intelligent opponent.  Hopefully, no one else has to die, and maybe they can even keep Thok from getting out.  If they win, they have a treasure trove of VIPER intel.  Seems worth the fight.

Next time, I'll take a break from the miscellany.  We're on the home stretch now.

Classic Enemies: The Few, The Proud, The Miscellaneous, Part 1!

I won't lie to you, Gentle Reader.  Some of these posts are easier to write than others.  A lot easier.  The big guns are usually easy.  The quirky characters I got a lot of mileage out of are no problem.  The fan favorites? A snap.  It's the ones I've never used, or never liked that are harder.  Which is why I tend to group them together.  This entry and the next will collect these characters from Classic Enemies, leaving me a few interesting ones to round out this project.

First up is Oculon (created by Steve Peterson).  Honestly, he's kind of a weenie.  He was a normal hood who lost his vision in shootout.  His buddies took him to the only doctor they could find, a certain fellow with the last name Levy (remember him from Halfjack?).  Levy replaced his human eyes with some from an alien he was in the process of dissecting, granting him...well, basically Cyclops' power, albeit with better control.

None of which made hi any less of a weenie.  He's got a very powerful optical blast, which he can also use to temporarily blind people or deflect incoming missiles.  Apart from that last item, he's pretty much a glass cannon: one or two solid shots can drop him.

Personality-wise, he's a big old whiner with a persecution complex; the sort of guy the heroes love to beat up while they're bringing him to justice. I've used him once in a while as additional firepower for an ad hoc villain team, but he's not one of my favorites.

Next in our cavalcade of meh is Power Crusher, by Andrew Robinson.  I think PC wins the award for most garish costume in the Champions Universe. "...he wears a jet black hood. His tunic is orange above, dark blue below, with a purple stripe charged with a red gauntlet. His actual gauntlets are also red and crackle with yellow power. He wears brown trunks and boots, and light brown pants with white side stripes." That alone should disqualify him from serious consideration for inclusion into your campaign world.

But wait, there's more!

He's a mutant, born with super strength and toughness.  VIPER supplied him with gauntlets that allow him to steal every possible Physical Characteristic from a living target (Power Transfer).  For me, Transfers, like all Adjustment Powers are a nightmare to GM, requiring far more attention to detail than they're worth.

Long story short, he's never appeared in any of my games.

Our last one for today is Plague (a creation of Kevin Dinapoli). A typical teenaged stoner wasteoid, his mutant powers were triggered by habitual drug use. A wealthy drug dealer got wind of his powers, hired him as a bodyguard and set him up with a supervillain identity.  Unfortunately for his sponsor, Plague wasn't the most effective of bodyguards.  As a result, Plague hires himself out to whoever'll help pay the bills.

Powers-wise, Plague is a pain in the butt.  He can turn insubstantial and fly, and when he touches someone, he generates a close proximity gas that knocks them out in short order.

Personality-wise, there's a reason he's not scarier.  He's a flake, probably more than a little damaged by his habits, and prone to flashbacks.  The few times I've used him, I've based him on Keanu Reeves' character in "River's Edge."  He's usually in over his head and easily led.  Of the three, he's the one I've used most, but even that wasn't often.  I think he most notably featured in a Stronghold breakout, where the heroes encountered him out of costume and didn't know what to expect until it was too late.

Next time, another three lesser lights.

Classic Enemies: My Favorite Monster

Today, I made my annual pilgrimage to Comicpalooza, Houston's biggest comics/media con.  My personal highlight was meeting Walter Simonson and getting my "Thor" Omnibus and a reprint collection of his 70s "Manhunter" comic signed.  Along the way, I got to see a bunch of terrific cosplayers in action and generally soak up the positive geek vibes.  Good times.

And how about this illustration?

So it's fitting, I guess, that tonight features another one of my favorite villains in Classic Enemies, The Monster.  Created by the late Mark Williams, this guy is just so great.  He epitomizes the whole notion of "Your campaign will be different" that was so important to early Champions products, before the Champions Universe got codified into statuary.  On the surface, The Monster is a ravenous killing machine, extremely tough, extremely fast, extremely strong, and capable of generating 5d6+1 Hand-to-Hand Killing Attacks.  He is walking death and that's pretty much his entire motivation.  Which would be kind of boring, except...

No one knows why.  At least, no one outside of you the GM knows why for your game.  Is The Monster a supernatural horror? If so, where did he come from? Does he serve someone stronger/worse? What is his purpose? Or maybe he's a mechanical horror, created by a twisted genius with a flare for the Gothic instead? What if he's actually an alien probe, not from space, but from a dark dimension adjacent to ours (Ravenloft Champions, anyone?).  There's a multitude of possibilities, and Classic Enemies provides no correct answer.  And that's the way it should be.The GM should always have the last word about how something works in his or her campaign, and The Monster is the horrible, blood-drenched, maniacally cackling poster child of this philosophy.

Go forth, my Monster! Wreak havoc! Kill! KILL! KILL!

Classic Enemies: Jonny Li's Temple of Kung-Fu!

One thing that strikes me as I go through Classic Enemies is how well it covers multiple power levels.  Yesterday, we looked at the ridiculously overpowered Menton. Today, we get quite the opposite.

Mongoose was created by Glenn Thain. He's a low-powered martial artist (240 points, 10 of them in Bases) with a particular hatred for Cobra's COIL (they kind of tried to kill him, so it's justified). In another world, he might be a hero, but in the Champions Universe, he finances his war against the scaly villains with bank robberies and the like.  In this respect, he's like Dragon Master without the anti-China politics, or Lady Blue without the charity. What he might lack in complete and total originality, he more than makes up for in fun factor.  Mongoose is a flashy hyperconfident showoff who'll leap before he looks nine times out of ten (and the last he'll do with his eyes closed).

He's also got kind of an Iron Fist thing, where he focuses his chi and unleashes a potent Armor Piercing kick.  It's easily his most powerful attack, but it does tire him out quickly.

With his flashy (possibly annoying) style, he makes a great foil for a PC martial artist, particularly one with an overly serious outlook.  His hatred of COIL makes him a potential uneasy ally, though almost certainly an annoying one.  Or a DNPC, looking to enroll in a self-defense course finds herself not only studying at Jonny Li's Temple of Kung-Fu (a chain of martial arts studios owned by Mongoose's secret identity), but she might get recruited into his army of martial artists, hellbent on taking down COIL.

Or, she could end up dating him...

It took me a while to warm up to Mongoose, because my second ever PC had the same name.  When I got the Enemies books, I was honestly less than thrilled at the time.  Eventually, I grew the hell up, and came to the realization that he's a great character.  Thing is, he's a great character if you've got COIL in your game.  Otherwise, he loses a lot of his charm.  In my games (since I'm not a huge fan of Cobra), I've played up the kung fu school angle (making him akin to the mighty Count Dante) and shifting his rivalry to Dragon Master.  It worked pretty well.

Classic Enemies: Do You Mind?

Tonight, we examine a tale as old as time. A young child of privilege, who, along with his twin sister, is given over to the most dangerous supervillain on the globe, who brainwashes him to total obedience before turning him into the most powerful psionic on the planet.  At 1154 points total, he's a feel-good story for the ages.

I am, of course, talking about Menton (created by George MacDonald). Here we see him in his traditional outfit, which makes him look like a classic "Nordic" extraterrestrial who crash landed in Siegfried and Roy's laundry room.

I kid, I kid...after all, he is an absolute nightmare of a character.  Conditioned from early childhood to be the Destroyer's weapon of the mind, he is all that and more. Menton is one of those perfect examples of the old maxim, "Points are for players."  He's got every conceivable power you could want in a solo villain: high SPD, multiple ranged options, Mental Illusions, Mind Control...he's even a light brick (STR 40) plus he's got Grond STR-level Telekinesis!

In short, there's a reason he's so expensive.  And, because he's psionic, a straight-up fight is probably going to be his last course of action.  Far better to infiltrate a place invisibly, read minds to get what he wants, mind control those who need it, then teleport away undetected.  The dude is straight-up terrifying, even if he does look like a poster child for Raëlism.

Like his sister Mentalla, Menton first appeared in Classic Enemies.  He made the cut to 5th edition, where he got a not unsurprising power-up, but still kept his classic good looks.  When he was adapted to the Champions Online MMO, they took a different tack.  I've never played the game, but visually, I'm not impressed.  You can look it up if you're that curious.

In my games, Menton never featured.  He was so far outside the weight class of the PCs as to be no fun at all.  Also, with all his power -- because of all his power -- he constantly raises the question, "Why hasn't he won?" It leads to the GM having to jump through mental contortions that really take away from the fun.  At least in my experience.  I'm content to have him be part of the horrific background noise.  If I did use him, it would probably be in a role-reversal and have him come to the PCs desperate for their assistance against something he's unable to contend with (though figuring that out is more mental exercise than I'm up for tonight).

Classic Enemies: Skluuuuuurrrrtch...

It's been longer than I planned since my last post.  My apologies.  I needed the weekend to recover from last week, and then yesterday was terrible.  I'll just leave it at that.  On the plus side, while searching my garage for Different Worlds #30, I found a treasure trove of old Judge's Guild stuff I'd forgotten I owned.  It's all beat to hell, but it's cool to look through.  I also found well over a hundred old Champions character sheets, filled in and "illustrated" by hand. I'm going to take them to work and scan them to PDF as-is, then figure out what to do with them.

And tonight's season finale of "The Flash" was amazing.  So with that sort of inspiration, let's get back on track.

Leech, created by Steve Peterson, is one of my favorite villains.  He's creepy, but tragic, being both a monster and a victim.  He works as supernatural muscle or as a solo "slasher." He's purple and slimy and utterly mad.

Of course, he wasn't always a hideous babbling sucker-beast.  He was once an ordinary New York cabbie named Frank, who picked up the wrong fare. The weirdo in the cape wasn't going to a costume party, he was a powerful, evil sorcerer who transformed Frank into the hideous Leech.

Mechanically, Leech is pretty much a perfect ambush predator.  He's got light brick STR (40) and sturdy defenses.  He's invisible with stationary, can swim underwater indefinitely, and - worst of all - possesses a pair of nasty Drains (STR and BODY).  Given that, in my experience, Power Defense is seldom a priority for starting characters, he can put a serious hurt on someone regardless of their PD and ED.  Tactically, he's best when he attacks by surprise, grabbing his opponent, then using the STR Drain to keep them from breaking free and then turning to BODY to finish them off.  In fact, this combination may prove to be too effective, so GMs may want to use it sparingly unless characters need close brushes with death.  I know this one from painful experience.  My first PC (Spectrum - Your Radioactive Pal!) was attacked in just such a manner and ended up in a radiation shielded ICU, with half a major park radiated and a serious case of remorse.  For his part, Leech was even more horribly mutated, developing stretching and body-shifting powers that allowed him to do nasty things like worm his way into our HQ via the water pipes.  Good times.

One of the aspects of Leech's backstory I've always enjoyed was his nameless creator. Who is he? We know he's quite powerful, able to control minds as well as transform a person into a monster.  He needed Leech as a servant.  Suppose he needed an army?  Could he make more?

Maybe he's actually Simon: King of the Witches

Next time, we get mental...

Classic Enemies: Bang, You're Dead

Like what I assume is a majority of Champions fans, I'm an avid comic book reader.  I've been collecting comics since December of 1981, which may seem like a long time, but I was a freshman in college at the time.  Sure, I'd bought and read the occasional comic when I was younger (particularly the giant-sized Marvel and DC reprint treasuries I could get at the grocery store), but I wasn't an avid reader.  Superhero gaming changed all that.  

In December of '81, while I was on winter break, I bought a copy of Villains & Vigilantes (2nd edition) and was instantly hooked.  I started planning a game and realized I knew absolutely nothing about how a superhero game should work. So, late one night, I went to the nearby convenience store (you could still buy funnybooks on the spinner racks back then) and bought a digest-sized treasury of "Legion of Superheroes" stories and a copy of "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" #3.  The next day, I found a local comic book shop (ComicQuest!) and bought my first back issues (#1 and #2) as well as a handful of other books.  Thus became a lifetime hobby.

Anyway, one of my early favorite comics was "New Teen Titans." I was pretty much the ideal audience for it, being the same age as the protagonists (not to mention George Perez's art). And my favorite Titans bad guy was Deathstroke the Terminator. "The Judas Contract" remains one of my favorite storylines of all time, and my first introduction to the long-term plot arc.

All of which is a rather convoluted way to introduce Mechassassin.  Created by Andrew Robinson, he's the Champions Universe's answer to Deathstroke. 

Ex-Military? Check.  

Mercenary? Check.

Enhanced Physical Abilities? Check.

Equally Deadly At Range Or Up Close? Checkerino!

Of course, Slade Wilson is a helluva lot better name than Craig Vandersnoot, but you can't have everything.  Also, his costume is kind of terrible, but it's hard to hate, because it's just so darned  comic-booky.

Mechanically, Mechassassin is very, very capable.  He hits as hard as a brick with his martial arts, has deadly wrist blades, and a host of ranged capabilities.  He's got armor and more armor (his shield).  He has a few weaknesses, mostly based on his equipment, but I wouldn't count on them being enough.

In a campaign, Mechassassin can fill a number of roles: he's a good solo villain to take on a new team.  If the GM builds him up sufficiently, he can be the sign of someone's goose being well and truly cooked ("Word on the street is Mechassassin accepted the contract.  Santino's a dead man.").  His contempt for supers means that if thwarted by one, he's not going to forget it.  Classic Enemies suggests using him as the head of security for a master villain, a role he can play quite well (despite his propensity for back-stabbing).  I've used him in all of the above.  He's just all-around fun.

(Incidentally, somewhere in my collection I've got an issue of Different Worlds magazine that had official stats for Deathstroke. It's been forever since I looked at them.  I ought to see how they compare.)

Classic Enemies: High-Tech Enemies

Ok, not actually High-Tech Enemies. That's a later sourcebook, penned by Sean Patrick Fannon. In this case, I'm simply reflecting on the fortuitous set of circumstances that puts three technology-focused villains in a row for this entry.

Lady Blue (created by George MacDonald) is one of my favorite characters in Classic Enemies.  She's another Robin Hood type, but not as obnoxious as the Fox.  Her schtick is that she came from rags to riches, as a self-made woman.  She pushed herself to learn martial arts, gymnastics, and several sciences.

She used her knowledge to build a battlesuit and created a career as a super who goes against injustices that law-abiding heroes can't (or won't) touch.  It's a delightfully late-Silver/early-Bronze Age conceit that is kind of charming by today's standards.  I mean, "Leverage" had how many seasons?

On top of her MO (which includes a Code vs Killing), she's terrific at manipulating the media; she's officially the most popular supervillain in America, which means heroes who oppose her may run afoul of her fans, an unusual challenge for folks who are used to being admired just for saving the day.

Mechanically, she's your typical battlesuit wearer: high STR, DEX, and CON, enhanced defenses, a blaster and flight.  Of course, she's also a gifted martial artist with enhanced STR, so she can do you some serious hurting up close as well.  When I've used her in my games (and I've used her quite a bit), I emphasize her acrobatics and have her making all sorts of extraneous flips and rolls in combat. Her 9" of Flight isn't much, but it's enough to make her fight like a super-strong wuxia character.

As I mentioned, she's shown up in quite a few of my games.  She pretty much screams "potential complicated girlfriend" for a do-gooder PC.  Given that she does quite a bit of good as a side-effect of being bad, she presents all sorts of moral quandaries to conventional heroes.  Of course, our new millennium has a bit more of a jaded outlook on the whole heroism thing, in which case, she might not be considered a supervillain at all, just a professional rival.  However you use her, she's got a lot of potential to bring fun to a campaign.

Next up is Glenn Thain's Ladybug.  I wish I could muster up the same enthusiasm for her as I did Lady Blue, but...

Look, I get it.  Ladybugs have armor and fly.  Ladybug has flying armor that looks kind of bug-like.  It's a very Silver Age concept, and if I were running a game that was set squarely in the Silver Age, I'd probably work her in.  But then, I'd probably have to change her very Bronze Age origin.  See, LB here was a genius graduate researcher in Toronto who's revolutionary power armor failed miserably during a demonstration.  So, of course, she used it to rob banks instead.

(OK, that's not horribly Bronze Age, I guess, but lady scientists were pretty much unheard of at the Big Two until the 80s, last time I looked.)

Mechanically, she's a very solid brick.  With a 70 STR, she packs a wallop, though she doesn't have any ranged capability, so she relies on mobility to get in and out of trouble. I'm not a fan of Damage Resistance bought via a focus -- it always feels inelegant to me, but I know that's a minority opinion -- but it's a minor gripe.

I don't think I've ever used her as-is in one of my games, but I did change her nationality, look, and name and used her as the Iron Maiden in Agents of IMPACT.  She was Thatcherite Great Britain's most Thatcherite defender.  Not a particularly nice person, I'm afraid, but a potential ally for US-based IMPACT operatives all the same.

Our final high-tech contestant is Lazer, also created by George MacDonald.  This guy.  This guy right here?  This guy is awesome.  I mean, how much chutzpah does it take to paint your villain ID on the chestplate of your armor?  Not a symbol, but the actual name?  Lots, that's how much.  And don't get me started on those rocket exhausts...

Lazer is your basic hard-luck case with one marketable skill and 102 points of Obvious Foci.  He can fly, he can shoot (boy, can he shoot!).  He can dish out quite a bit of punishment and, if his Activation Rolls hold out, take a punch or two before flying away.  He is the very definition of "goober with a gun," and he fits in to pretty much any villain group except heavy magical types.

I used him most memorably in a campaign where one of the PCs was a power armor guy named Mechanix.  I created a Hunted for him called TECH (I don't remember what it stood for) and Lazer was one of their many operatives.  His crowning moment was burning the words "TECH WANTS MECH" in the window of the team's HQ without being detected.  It was a small thing at the time, but it turned into one of those campaign moments that everyone remembered and talked about years later.  Funny how it's the little things, sometimes.

Looking ahead, our next guy is also high-tech.  But he's one of my favorites, so he'll get his own entry.  Until then, keep the city safe!

Classic Enemies: Snakes, Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?

Today we're going to take a look at one of Champions' best second-tier master villains: Bruce Harlick's King Cobra.  In and of himself, he's just OK: a snake themed villain with the requisite reptilian traits.  But it's his obsession with turning everyone into a subservient snake being that makes him really stand out.

King Cobra was originally a genetics specialist named Timothy Blank.  Even then, his research ethics were nonexistent, which caused him no end of trouble with mainstream scientists.  Undaunted, he continued his research,using himself as a subject, ultimately splicing king cobra DNA with his own.

The results were at once horrifying and exhilarating: he was hideous to "conventional" perspective, but Dr. Blank saw the big picture: the very future of humanity!  With him in charge (naturally).  Armed with his new-found knowledge, he went forth to create a serpentine army.

So yeah, he's a snake villain who can make more snake villains.  Pretty neat.  Classic Enemies provides us with a single serpent minion in the form of Black Mamba.  Interestingly enough, his Transformation effect only has a 50/50 chance of working. Ever. So there's no guarantee he can just turn everyone into a scaly minion.

As I mentioned above, King Cobra is really a second-tier master villain. He's not powerful enough to be a world-beater, really, though with his army of snake dudes and dudettes, he's certainly enough to hang a long campaign arc on. A later product (Champions Presents #2) expanded his organization and named it COIL, so you can kind of look at this appearance as his "early days."

I used King Cobra in some of my early games as a typical mad scientist (transform a city by putting his formula in the water supply, yaddayaddayadda), but all that stopped when I met my wife.  She's extremely ophidiophobic, and even snake themed characters are off-limits in games she plays in (I learned this the hard way - she didn't speak to me for a day).  Since she plays in most of my campaigns, I retired him with no regrets.

Next:  Getting Technical

Classic Enemies: H is for...

We're at another point in Classic Enemies where we're between big guns.  These characters are good as filler for ad hoc villain groups, or as slightly oddball Hunters of PCs.  That said, they do provide a few interesting bits of world-building, so let's take a look at them.

First up is Halfjack, another Bruce Harlick creation.  He's a cyborg. He was a mercenary named Jack Smith who got himself blowed-up real good.  The only available medical care was a nutcase named Dr. Levy. Pro tip: If a guy calls himself a doctor, but he also owns cyborg panthers, he's probably not the kind of doctor you want.  Levy killed Jack's companions and used what was left of him for experiments.  The result was pretty much the outcome you expect: a psychotic half-man, half-machine monstrosity.  The one twist is that Jack's psychosis is over the remaining human parts of his superior mechanical form.  He wants to be all machine.

Mechanically, Halfjack is interesting in that his defenses are all based on his half-robotic form with Activation Rolls.  Offensively, he's got superhuman Strength, a couple of ranged attacks, and a STR Drain that I don't really understand but don't lose sleep over.

Campaign-wise, he works well in a lot of contexts.  He can be a solo villain with a gang of mooks backing him up, he can be part of a crew, or he could even be working for a group like VIPER on a short-term basis.  His obsession with becoming entirely mechanical could find him allying with Mechanon, who he sees as a perfect aspirational goal. Or maybe he becomes the high priest of a cult of fanatical Mechanon worshippers (an idea that just occurred to me as I typed this).  In my own games, he's usually been hired muscle.  In Agents of IMPACT, he was a terrible cautionary example. In that setting, there has only ever been one successful cyborg (Col. Austin, the Bionic Man).  Halfjack is an example of what usually happens, possibly the worst example of what usually happens.  Usually, cyborgs go mad, burn brightly, then die horribly.  Halfjack's longevity is one reason why Dr. Levy is among the top three individuals wanted by IMPACT.

Up next is Herculan, created by Glenn Thain. He's an extraterrestrial who got stranded on Earth and is trying to get home.  Unfortunately, his initial misunderstandings with the denizens of this barbarous primitive galactic backwater has led him down a path antagonistic to the forces of law and order.  At least as we primitive barbarians understand those concepts.

Herculan never got much use in my games because he's all about Adjustment Powers.  I hate GMing Drains and Transfers because they make for too much bookkeeping on the fly.  I do like the fact that he's honorable and even possibly benevolent. If the PCs could show they could help him in his cause, he might even ally with them (though there's still the matter of his previous crimes). I do find it amusing that he's hunted by NASA; in one of my games, that stood for the National Alien Studies Academy, which stood in for METE.

But honestly, I never really did much with him.  How about you?

Finally, we come to Hideous, a George MacDonald creation who proves all you need for a decent villain is an adjective for a name.  Hideous takes that concept and runs with it.  He's big, he's tough, he's super ugly.  So ugly that you have to make a Ego roll to look at him without flinching, which is an interesting bit of fluff unsupported by the rules.

According to his origin, Hideous was once incredibly good looking.  One warehouse accident with a hazardous chemical later and he was, well, hideous.  Also super-strong. Also super-stupid.  Also, a walking pity party.

Hideous isn't particularly powerful (215 points), though he's strong enough to present a threat to life and limb.  Given his weak mental stats, he's easily manipulated, prime fodder for a master villain to put him on the payroll.  Furthermore, given his desire to be left alone, he could fill a Solomon Grundy sort of niche. In one of my campaigns, I killed him off, then reanimated him, running with that angle a bit more explicitly.  Of the three, he's probably the villain I've used the most, simply because he's pretty easy to slot into any campaign.

Next time:  Hisssssssssss...

Classic Enemies: GROND IS THE STRONGEST!

Do I really need to say anything about Grond?  I do? OK.

Grond was created by Steve Peterson, first appearing in the pages (and cover) of Enemies II.  He is, beyond a doubt, one of the most iconic Champions villains.  He is also the strongest character in Classic Enemies, a full 90, which entitles him to dead-lift 6.4 kilotons (128,000,000 kilos). Technically speaking, this exceeds canonical Hulk-level strength by several orders of magnitude, but who's counting.

Origin-wise, Grond's not that different from Griffon, really.  Both were prisoners who agreed to being guinea pigs in order to reduce their sentences (aka, the "Luke Cage Parole").  Both were transformed into horrible monsters.  The difference?  Grond fills the all-important Hulk role in the Champions Universe, just by being big and green and strong.  The amphibian fins where his ears were hearken back to the Abomination, so you've got both characters in one package.  The extra pair of limbs?  Just plain cool. Sadly, in 5th edition and the MMO, the art direction on him moved away from the classy gent you see above and went more bestial and monstrous.  Pity.

Grond is a great villain for a novice GM; he requires very little in the way of tactical acumen because his only tactic is hit things - a lot.  And while the CE version of him is definitely tough and strong, he's far from unbeatable.  He's slow, and if you can keep out of his reach, he can be picked off at range.  The trick is preventing him from wrecking half the city while you're doing it.  Mentalist will have a field day with him, but that cuts both ways.  With his low Ego, he's a prime target for psionic villains who need some muscle.  They just need to make sure they're out of the way when he breaks out from under their influence.

I've used Grond on multiple occasions in my games, usually when I needed a threat the heroes had to take seriously that didn't require a lot of consideration regarding motives or plans.  In that, he's the perfect villain to use when you don't have anything else prepared.  The last campaign I ran used him as the very first threat our heroes had to face, as he was dropped (apparently from orbit) in a spherical capsule onto Alcatraz, providing a handy distraction while my master villain pulled off some high-tech robberies in Silicon Valley.  He would have won had Oracle not shifted into her Aphrodite aspect and charmed him into quiescence.

All of the above is optional.  Really, Grond is just awesome.

Classic Enemies: We Three Freaks

To make up for missing yesterday, here's a trifecta of villains. On the downside, they're all a little lot weird..  Your mileage may vary.

First up is The Fox of Crime, created by Ray Greer.  Full disclosure time: at Origins 84 in Dallas, a buddy and I shared a breakfast table with Ray and Doug Garrett (author of Danger International). Nice guys; we got to help explain Texas dry counties to Mr. Greer.

Anyway, the Fox's dealie-o is that he's a mutant whose head looks like a fox (the tail is just part of the costume).  He's a world-class teleporter and enjoys baiting, taunting, and being chased by superheroes.  His modus operandi generally involves teleporting in on an unsuspecting hero, hitting him in the face with a cream pie (2d6 Flash) and teleporting away.  In those rare situations where the heroes have a shot at laying a glove on him, he can generate a whopping 18 DCV (!) by merely dodging and burning some End.

Personality-wise, he's a walking cartoon.  He plays the heroes for suckers, then vanishes, usually pulling off a monumental robbery that he dispenses to the poor, Robin Hood style.

I've honestly never really used him in a game, though I do remember painting a Grenadier miniature of him.  Looking at his write ups (both in Enemies and Classic Enemies) I have to admire both the creativity in interpreting a cream pie to the face as a Flash and a build so focused on defense as to make a character this fragile viable.  I don't think I'd use him in a game now, but I have a little more respect.

Next up, we have Gremlin (created by George MacDonald).  She first appeared in "Microfilm Madness," a Champions adventure published in the pages of Space Gamer, a terrific magazine published by Steve Jackson Games in the 80s.  "Microfilm Madness" was designed to slot into the "VIPER's Nest" scenario in the 2e Champions boxed set, and featured three new villains (Black Claw, Black Diamond, and Gremlin - all members of GRAB).

Gremlin was a member of a radical female terrorist group called WITCH, who were at war with VIPER.  She blackmailed a heroine she assisted into giving her a formula stolen from VIPER.  After sampling it, she gained the ability to turn into the monstrous Gremlin.

(I can't find that issue of Space Gamer at the moment, but I remember that in her original origin, the formula was the same one used by Gargoyle, a member of the Guardians, which I gather were the home campaign at Hero Games.  Gargoyle, created and played by Mark Williams was a flying brick with a habit of eating the microphones of hapless reporter Jimmy Dugan. Gremlin was a villainous female version of Gargoyle.)

Stats-wise, Gremlin comes in at lower points than a normal starting PC, but she's not a total lightweight.  She's got superhuman strength with Armor-Piercing on it, so she can hit above her weight class. She's tough, but not brick tough, and she can fly.  Notably, she's got a boatload of useful skills for a thief, so she's far from useless.  On the downside, she has substantial limitations when it comes to cold environments and attacks, and all of her powers come from her transformation.  In normal form, she's precisely that.

Campaign-wise, she's a great utility infielder character, particularly for a starting campaign. Her mercenary nature and the fact that VIPER hates her as much as they hate superheroes can lead to uneasy truces (though her need to humiliate heroes will probably win out).  In short, she's a fun villainess to add into the mix.

Did I say we'd seen all of Barry Wilson's creations already?  Turns out I was wrong and there are actually two more.  Griffin is the next, and I can safely say I've never used him.  He's a criminal who was transformed by a mad scientist into a horrible man-bird hybrid with a taste for blood.  Looking at his background, he was pretty horrible to begin with (a pimp who murdered one of his girls).

Stats-wise, he's built to kill, with all the requisite killing attacks and solid defenses (including resistant, flash, power, and danger sense).  Lots of enhance sight too, and a very fast flyer. He's also got a 20 STR TK, only for pushing things away, which I interpret as a powerful wing buffet.

That said, he's boring. Terribly, terribly boring.  His origin is practically a rote recitation of mad science.  His motivation is killing people. His Disads and PsychLims make him virtually useless as an ally or a team member.  In short, he is what we call a "Mort."

Next time, we answer that musical question, "What has green skin, six arms, and a bad temper?"

Classic Enemies: F is for Firewing

I took yesterday off to attend an important SCA event (I have other hobbies) and watched "Avengers: Age of Ultron" this afternoon, which means I'm really in the mood to take a look at Mechanon.  However, I'm already committed to Classic Enemies, so let's keep going.

Today, we look at one of the all-time greats: George MacDonald's Firewing.  At nearly 700 points, he's a challenge for even an experienced team of heroes and a nightmare for novices.  His origin provides a fine bit of universe building.  Born on the planet Malva, Firewing was once that world's greatest gladiator.  But his sense of honor could not bear the decadence of his homeworld, and so he attempted a form of ritual suicide that transformed him into something greater.  Sent forth to find a world for his people to conquer in order to revive their warrior spirit, he came to Earth and began a single-handed war of conquest.

Mechanically, Firewing is pure power, a perfect example of the maxim "Points are for PCs." He's not built for cost effectiveness, with reduced END on his powers being the one concession to long-term survivability.  Not that he needs it.  His attacks start with a straight-up 12d6 EB, then get fancy (a 10d6 Explosion, a 10d6 Armor Piercer that's 0 END, a 12d6 Affects Desolid, and another 10d6 0 END blast that's also invisible).  His defenses match up to these attacks quite nicely, and with a Speed of 7, he's got enough actions to make life extremely unpleasant for the heroes.

In all honesty, the biggest thing holding him back is his code of honor.  He's obsessed with personal combat, single combat in particular, so he may hold off attacking an entire team in favor of fighting their fiercest combatant.  This code, coupled with his arrogance, makes him easy to manipulate, a weakness his DNPC (a con artist named Jacob Lascke) has been known to exploit.

In my games, Firewing has been a fixture in the recent history.  At least two campaigns featured "The Firewing War" as something that had happened in the recent past.  I lifted it from the origin of Quasar, a nifty superhero published in Scott Heine's "To Serve and Protect," one of my favorite 3e adventures.  In it, Quasar was a companion to Firewing (almost a Silver Surfer to Firewing's Galactus) who chose to warn the Earth of an incoming Malvan invasion. In my games, the Firewing War was a way to clear the superhero field a bit in order to provide room for the PCs to come in at a needed time.  It was also Mechanon's origin, as a Malvan AI that corrupted an existing superhero team's robot butler and went rogue.  It's still my preferred take on Mechanon.

See? I managed to work him in anyway.