With Great Power... - This nifty little game from Incarnadine Press did just about everything I wanted to do with Panels, and a whole lot more. For instance, they managed to put together some actual examples of play. I was very impressed, so I switched the Rogue's Gallery I was doing for one game over to the new system.
The Reserves Universe - Back in college, me and some other comic book geeks tried to do our own superhero game, one that was initially inspired by some power-level graphics on a few trading cards one guy bought. We ended up talking about things like using continuity and fan reactions as scores. But, more importantly, we cobbled together a game universe where we could get together and play heroes in a Justice-League-cum-Avengers-style superteam without worrying about attendance (all of us worked, all of us had classes, all of us had other responsibilites like familes, community theatre projects, law suits and volunteer work.)
So we decided to be the Reserves, a government-sponsored program for super-people that got the more underfunded style of superhero off the hook for property damages and other legal hassles associated with masked vigilante activity in exchange for one weekend a month of world-saving pseudo-military service. These weekend-warrior superhero stories made as much sense as anything else at the time.
I present here a set of villains cribbed from that more innocent time. You may notice similarities to other comic book villains floating around the general aether of fandom at the time (our big favorites back then were Spawn and Gen13, I should point out.) I've also tried to add a few of my favorite villains from the old Marvel Superheroes game and the DCU game who've popped up from time to time.
Have fun fighting them!
Small Time Crooks
The Load
Description: An overweight old guy with weird machinery strapped to his back. As a bitter semi-retiree, Lyle Lodell was exposed to an experimental gravitational accelerator while working at a menial job and he has blamed society for it ever since. Obsession: "You can't handle the load!"
"It's not right that I should have so many burdens!" Power Asset:The Curse of Weight (Personal)
The Load can make things heavier, especially himself. He doesn't like to do this, however, and often underestimates the amount of weight to apply. He secretly fears his own power will crush him, one day. Relationship Asset: Cousin Esther (Municipal)
The Load listens to his Cousin Esther, who will gently remind him that his burdens are, usually, his own fault. Cousin Esther works for the Mayor, who knows of her relationship to the Load. The Mayor tends to think of both Cousin Esther and Lyle as political tools.
Pellucid Doll
Description: A slightly see-through little lady with ringlets and a a cherubic face. On closer inspection, she isn't a child, but a psychotic obsessed with creating the perfect home environment. Obsession: "Why can't you leave me alone with my perfect new family?!?"
"Be perfect!" Power Asset:Imperfect Clarity (Personal)
Pellucid Doll can make herself almost, but not quite, invisible at will. She's tricky but she has an obsession with getting things exactly right that can work for her or against her. Relationship Asset: Her Latest Victims (Personal)
Pellucid Doll tries to surround herself with perfection, but she always uses real people to do it. She will terrify, murder and twist random victims into her version of the perfect home, where she acts as a kind of cross between the blue fairy and pinocchio. She's more like a violent-prone scaramouch, ready to slice her terrified "perfect family" into bits for displeasing her.
Public Enemies
The Influence
Description: An outlandishly-large-headed man who never seems to stand out in a crowd, despite his flamboyant costume. He prefers to weild power behind the scenes. Obsession: "Why don't you share my vision with everyone?" Power Asset: Hypnotic Mastery (Municipal)
The Influence weilds total command over just about every form of hypnotism and subliminal persuasion ever invented, and he comes up with new variations all the time. This tends to make him view most people as mere puppets. Minion Asset: A Consenting Populace (National)
Most people will go along with the Influence's dastardly plans without a second thought. But anyone who really stops to consider their actions tends to snap out of his manipulations rather easily. If you have enough courage to break with the crowd, the Influence can't hold you.
Yellowcake
Description: A beefy woman wearing a golden "Kaiser-style" biker helmet (complete with a spike) and similar-colored leggings. She likes to pound on things. Obsession: "I used to be little and scared. I never want to feel that way again... so now you will, just in case!" Power Asset:Weapons-Grade Rage (Municipal)
The angrier Yellowcake gets, the harder she can hit. She tends to get angry when she gets scared. She never wants to feel like a victim again, but she doesn't have any problem making other people her victims, especially those she sees as predators. Relationship Asset: Colonel Tucker (National)
Yellowcake is in love with Colonel Tucker, a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" battleaxe in the armed forces. Colonel Tucker tries to do everything she can to stop Yellowcake's rampages, but she'll deploy the tanks to save the country, if she must.
World-Shattering Entities
Swansong
(Formerly Noteworthy)
Description: A voluptuous opera soprano with death-white skin. Her eerie singing heralds the end of entire worlds. Obsession: "When Love Dies, The World Dies With It" Identity Asset:The Banshee of Worlds (Global)
Swansong used to be a powerful superheroine named Noteworthy, but she has been corrupted by an evil necromancer, posing as her mentor (see below.) She has been twisted by Threnody's tutoring into beleiving that no one loves her, especially not her old team mates. Relationship Asset: Threnody (Municipal)
A shrivelled old necromancer from an alternate dimension, Threnody fooled Noteworthy into thinking she had died during a recent pandimensional escapade. He has brought her back to this dimension after carefully twisting her mind with lies and weird teachings. Threnody never seems to have enough zombies to carry out his elaborate plans and he secretly hates the concept of love.
Quantifex
The Predictor
Description: A bearded alien wearing a high tech version of alchemist or court astrologer's robes. He carries a book with the dire predictions he's made for your world and he will use his advanced technology to force them to come true. Obsession: "What I Have Foreseen MUST Come to Pass!" Resource Asset:The Hyperspace Almagest (Global) Quantifex has cast the astrological future for your planet and he has never been proven wrong. He's encoded all sorts of alien technology, stolen from a thousand world's whose dire fates he also predicted, into his sufficiently advanced charts. Quantifex often has outlandish and horrible predictions that he forces to come true with the technology inside his book. He lies to himself about the accuracy of his predictions, claiming that anything created by the technology in his book was intended by fate. He has trouble separating fantasy from reality, sometimes. Social Circle Asset: The Invisible Commonwealth (Cosmic)
Quantifex has earned a lot of respect in a vast community of space hoppers called The Invisible Commonwealth. Composed of aliens from a thousand worlds who seek to restore the lost beauty of their own cultures by rekindling mythology and legends, they respect Quantifex's creative prophecies and the way he makes them come true. They do not respect people who delude themselves or enslave planets, however, and he would quickly fall out of favor if they knew Quantifex's true habits.
