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Aberrant RPG - The most Powerful Adversary you've ever Faced/Created


Kirby1024

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We've all had one of those characters that we thought "No way could anyone have a chance at this guy" (and, inevitably, he gets completely vapourised by crafty players). So, I ask you, who was this guy? I've just made up a rather powerful guy (made pretty much without Nova Points, just tacking on any and all powers that fit him). What do you think of this guy?

---------------------------------------------

Tempus

Real Name: Jeremiah Crane

Nature: Conniver

Eruption: Accident

Tempus is from another reality (specifically, one where Novas exist, but are several times more powerful than the Novas of the canon universe, and are somewhat rarer). Tempus appears to be a somewhat old man (around 60 or so, but considering he is able to manipulate time, he could very well be centuries old. He is currently on the run from the authorities from his own reality, and on this run he at some point popped into the canon universe, stuffed up the players something chronic, and opened the door to an adventure through many times and spaces.

Willpower 7

Taint 7

Quantum 8

Quantum Pool 50

Initiative 7

Attributes/Abilities:

Strength 1

Might 1

Dexterity 3

Athletics 1

Firearms 1

Martial Arts 1

Melee 1

Stamina 4 (Tenacious)

Endurance 3

Resistance 3

Perception 4 (Observant)

Awareness 3

Intelligence 5 (Rational)

Academics 2

Computer 1

Engineering 1

Science 5 (Quantum Physics)

Wits 4 (Cunning)

Rapport 1

Appearance 2

Intimidation 2

Manipulation 4 (Persuasive)

Interrogation 2

Subterfuge 4

Charisma 3

Command 3

Etiquette 1

Backgrounds: Attunement 5, Node 5, Cipher 5 (because he's not from around here...) Allies 3 (himself in any universe where he exists)

Powers (there's a lot, so bear with me):

Force Field 5 (Defined as using creating a shield of time around him to absorb/deflect attacks)

Temporal Deletion (Disintegration) 4 (Defined as erasing a person from the Time/Space Continuum

Temporal Phasing (Density Decrease) 5 (Defined as pushing his physical form outside of Time/Space, thereby making him untouchable)

Premonition 3 (Nothing special)

Temporal Calling (Matter Creation) 3 (Defined as "pulling" the object he wants through time to his location)

Temporal Manipulation 6 (With all Techniques and the Mastery 2 Extra)

Crosstime Travel 3

Time Travel 5

Temporal Healing (Healing) 3 (Defined as pushing the area around the wound back in time to before it was wounded)

Flight 2 (This was just because I wanted to)

Pretercognition 5 (Looking through time)

Mega Attributes:

Mega-Dex 1 (No Enhancements)

Mega-Stamina 3 (Hardbody, Regeneration)

Mega-Perception 3 (Quantum Attunement, Ultraperipheral Vision)

Mega-Intelligence 3 (Analyze Weakness, Taint Resistance)

Mega-Wits 3 (Enhanced Initiative)

Mega-Manipulation 3 (Persuader, Hypnotic Gaze)

Merits: Natural Leader 1pt

Flaws: Overconfidence (and why not?) 1pt

Secret (On the run) 3pts

Aberrations:

Eufiber Rejection (His reality doesn't have Eufiber + his body, being of a different "Quantum Pattern" naturally rejects eufiber from other worlds)

Aberrant Eyes - Like staring into a void...

Feeding Requirement - Bio-temporal energy (to fuel his powers, he must take the "temporal stability" of other people. This of course causes the said person to fluctuate wildly in age, until a few days later when they die of the strain on their bodies)

Paranoia - People from his reality are out to get him (True, but he's magnified the threat somewhat)

---------------------------------------------

So, that's mine, comments welcome, and what's your "Ultimate Villain"?

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Think of a Giant Squid....with the Foot Of Pax in the belly...full of tentacles with HANDS.....with a M-R node bigger than you...

Awful...

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Hmmm, the most powerful adversary I've ever faced using Ranger 7 would have been the various incarnations of creature/being we called the Virus. The Virus was a mix of a deadly nova-created virus, a set of eufiber and the part of the remains of a nova shapeshifter who was part of our group.

The Virus Mk I, was similar to the Carnage simbiote from Spiderman. It attempted to latch on to the Doctor (The DOctor was also part of our group) who was studying it and when it was rejected it went on a rampage, killing and infecting dozens of people in downtown NY before being killed by our group.

The Virus Mark 2 appreared some time later and was taken out by Project Utopia, but because of the nature of the being it spawned again from virus it left dormant in it victims.

I can't remember the number of incarnations we fought before discovering a weapon to kill the creature but I think it was on mark 5 or so. The virus existed to kill and spread itself but we managed to develop a weapon that disrupted it on a molecular level.

The Virus' abilities and strengths varied with its incarnation (always adapting and getting stronger) but in all incarnations it could do the following:

Possess a human or Nova body to use and enhance...the first Virus we fought was using a human, the last one was using Cestus Pax and a member of our team.

Enhance the physical attributes of its chosen victim to incredible levels, including armour, strength, stamina and dexterity. (including enhancements)

Hurl armour pierceing "blades" of hardened biomatter coated in virus which allowed it to possess people wounded.

Fast regeneration of wounds.

Take multiple actions per round.

In character we believe that the Virus is finally destroyed but out of character we know that the being hurled shards of itself into the atmosphere before dying. We are not looking formward to a Mark Six!

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That would be Coriolis, in the post above yours. I have a feeling his "system" for the Virus was more "cinematic" and off the cuff than any set rules but it certainly be worked out.

The virus is a really nasty SOB and is a perfect recurring villian because its so hard to be sure you've got it all. Out of character we know that the last Virus hurled virus shards from the moon towards earths surface before we got to him for example.

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I think one of the main problems with the Virus is the fact that most of us quiet liked him (Damn you C.)..... and I have to agree with Ranger. There was no real system, he did what he needed to do to annoy us to the fullest. He was a classic villan, I look forward to his next appearance.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

just finished playing a game (set in London) where the ST's main bad guy was a 'jack the ripper' stlye nasty piece of work.

His taint had turned him into a freaky thing with the effect of blood dripping from his hands, gaunt face and gleaming red eyes etc...

Walked around in a top hat and tails as well....

When we met him/it for the first time it was very well done (the ST is excellent)....

No one would guess he's a big WoD fan either smile

Spooky

Europnet

for ALL Aeon Continuum Games http://www.chill.uk.net/europnet

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While i was reading through these post i had a Great IDEA for a Nova/Villian/Hero (im wording it carefully because i dont want to be struck by lightning.....

TWO WORDS : JESUS CHRIST

supose Jesus really was a nova..

people and many theologians said he would return.. supose he does and when he see 's the state of the world he gets really pissed.

Heres the story. He was a Nova in biblical times. He tried to teach the people of the time peace and Love. After every thought he was dead he left our world to try to find another one where they would hear his message. After Travelling the universe he returns thousands of years later (on of his powers is extended life span each year he live he ages 100) to the planet earth only to find out about all the wars blood shed and bad things done in his name. He sets off to make things right and punish those who have corrupted his teachings, namely The "Clergy" and other CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

he team up with 3 other Novas to Purge the world of "EVIL" They become the Four horsemen of the APOCOLYPSE

They go by

War : has the power to distort others passion and increase hate in the masses

until the battle one another)

Famine : who uses Quantum leech to stave other novas of their power and drain energy

Disease : who makes others sick using Poisioning and powers to cause sickness

Their goal is to Break down the "Esablisment" so a new on can be built on the ashes.

Jesus new beliefs teach the world is to corrupt to fix so he and his horsemen will build a new one.

Okay this is serious stuff i mean these novas are very powerful ((( I will work up stats for future postings)) i hope the idea did not offend anyone if i did i sincerly appologise.

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Jesus Christ, the avenging angel of death and destruction, furious that people haven't listened to his words of peace and love, loses the plot, and like the all powerful son of God that he is, teams up with 3 other psychopaths and lays waste to humanity thus teaching them that peace is the way.

Well I'm not sure.

"If you have a problem.

And noone else can help you (destroy the world).

Then you need, The J team."

I pity the fool!

No. Definatly not. No.

There are so many reasons why not that I'm finding it hard to focus on any of them.

Think about it for a minute please Lucky.

Why do you even need Jesus for this? Could not any 4 novas team up to be the four horsemen? Why would they want horses? I'm not even going there.

God bless all here.

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nice one lucky strike, might not the sphinx have a been a nova also tainted of course, or a person belong to a religon that venerated cats thus when they erupted the subconsiuosly took on charcteristics of the cat.

And the minotuar, i would just put him down to low level nova with either a bull religon fascination, or a taint problem, or he could just be superimposing a illusion onto himself, or possible shapeshifting, still would go with taint since the had him stuck in a maze and wouldnt let him out.

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Father ryan+ Dr. C.

Okay Okay Okay , i think you are all trying to tell me that maybe it wasn't such a hot idea. I just thought it would be cool to have some of those prophecys come to pass into the Trinity universe. I mean sure any 4 Novas can be the horsemen but the Threat of them would not only come from themselves but in the sybolic age old fear of humanity fearing the end of the world. And yes horses may be outdated , Maybe they could Drive Harleys Like the Four HorseMen. I mean Bikers of the apocalypse did in the book Good Omens.. Ok the Ideas got some Flaws but The Force of them is not just a physical on but symbolic.

The whole aspect on this story is that when set establish ments are corrupt sometimes they must be torn down to make way for a better way. In my story Christ Returns to Destroy a corrupt world to make a better one. As alway when people See something like this they resist. Novas and baselines will fight against him because they are not ready for his better world. Of course they will defeat him because they are not ready to accept his message. The story idea is actually my personal statement about the wrongs i see in the world. I was hoping that i might provoke some thoughts in my players. Perhaps after they defeated him they will see the wrong in what they have done when they look out and see the corrupt world that they supposedly saved.

Ok the story may have some flaws and it may even be sacralidge and blasphemy to some but it does have a message to it.

I may have to re think it though. ;-)

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The attempt has some merrit Lucky Strike, but your approach is all wrong. Your taking a hammer to the teacup in an attempt to fix it.

If you really want to do such a story, even though it doesn't quite fit the mould of Aberrant, try being more subtle. Jesus Christ is an enigma to the modern world. The entire New Testement of the bible is devoted to his ministry yet we still know so little about what truly happened in that era and who the man truly is.

The story your talking about is the biblical apocolypse. If that is the story you want to tell, I suggest you talk to your players and see if their okay with that kind of story. If their not, then you should scrap the whole story right there.

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I've created dozens of nasty critters for my Aberrant campaign; Quantum 8 near-gods, vicious bloodspilling ghouls, sneaky mastermind types. Probably the one that got my players' ire the most was a quantum powered samurai type by the name of Aiko Chen. He didn't have any quantum powers, just shitloads of Mega-Dex, Mega-Wits, Melee, Martial Arts, and Quickness. Oh, and a katana.

On the surface Aiko was your typical hack and slasher. But part of what made him so nasty as an NPC was that he was smart. Not Mega-Int smart, but smart enough to know when to get away. And get away he did. A couple of times. He had all the stuff good villainous types need to have: such as Contacts, Followers, and Backing, all giving him an edge my poor players who stocked up on Quantum Powers simply weren't equipped to handle. And how could they bitch when Aiko had the dots to prove it?

But the real kicker was just in how EEEEVVVIIIILLLLL Aiko was. In one session, Aiko and one of my (former) players were fighting in a prison van that had been suspended in midair over a river by another player's (Wrinkle) time stopping power. Aiko had broken free of his bonds (and took a bashing level for it) but his hands were still bound with a long stretch of chain dangling from the end. The player in with him (Twitch) figured that without his katana, Aiko posed no real threat. Two rounds later, Twitch was unconscious and Aiko used Twitch's own cell phone to actually CALL Wrinkle and make him release the van, or else he'd kill Twitch. Wrinkle let the van go, and it was promptly carted away from the gravitokinetic working for Aiko. He left Twitch alive, basically to put the fear of god in Twitch that he was beaten and COULD HAVE been killed. It was a good bit of RPing on the parts of both me and my players. Unfortunately Twitch died before I could bring Aiko back to see what the fallout of the previous encounter would be.

In my opinion, the really powerful foes are the ones that can make PCs shudder even though they may be on the same power level. It's not always what powers you have; sometimes it's how you use 'em.

D effin' W cool

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Darkwave, love the story, great idea for a villian. What was Aiko's motivation that brought him into conflict with the players? That is always the hardest part for me.

I've always liked the idea of the "machine master" criminal: one who creates legions of robot followers that the players can happily blast away at and not feel the need to worry about killing innocents. I especially like the idea of a criminal who uses cyberkinesis to "possess" the robot bodies. Great for an assassin or a master villian with a plan.

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Whew! That was a long time ago...Aiko was the leader of a local gang called the Golden Chi. The Chi were being used as footsoldiers for a corporation bent on creating a machine that could turn baselines into novas. (And this was before the X-Men movie was out! :P ) An NPC friend of the players with Density Decrease and Disintegration, was mad bent on destroying the Golden Chi, for it was the Golden Chi who murdered his best friend and triggered his eruption. Problem: Aiko was the only npc the players knew of who'd had direct contact with th leaders of this shadowy corporation. So they had to capture Aiko and somehow stop their friend before he got to Aiko. (How do you stop a guy who can walk through walls again?) At the end of that session, Aiko got away.

In regards to my post above, Aiko had been re-captured by Maryland State Police, who then requested the players' assistance in transporting Aiko since they'd had experience in dealing with him already.

Another villain my palyers loved to hate, similar to your Machine Master idea, Ranger, was the Eater of the Dead. A Molecular Manipulator who animated dead bodies. I tweaked with Boost, rigging it so the Eater couldn't use it on himself, but instead could Boost the living sh!t out his zombie army. Spooooooooky.

D cool W

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I still love the ST who ran us against a plague of nanites that ate the node out of novas and used the energy to power dead bodies. Very ghoulish. Worse, they could graft dead flesh to their bodies to power themselves. Those people who weren't infected were herded into pens for later 'consumption'.

Best of all, when the blizzard ended, the nanites would be able to flee the valley that we were all trapped in. We had to fight the zombies in containment suits. Loads of fun.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I finally got a bad guy that's worthy of being on this thread.

His name is "The Ingeneer".

Basically, he comes from a parellel universe (Cross Time Travel) where he was one of the few to erupt. His super-genius and molecular manipulation allowed to all but rule that world. Now he's coming for ours... for knowledge and for new challenges.

The twist is, he already exist in this universe - He's one of the player. Let just say that was quite a shock to everybody involved.

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  • 2 years later...
Quote:
Originally posted by Kirby1024:
We've all had one of those characters that we thought "No way could anyone have a chance at this guy" (and, inevitably, he gets completely vapourised by crafty players). So, I ask you, who was this guy? I've just made up a rather powerful guy (made pretty much without Nova Points, just tacking on any and all powers that fit him). What do you think of this guy?
Two ways you could kick his ass easy... get a couple of novas with Disrupt and make him powerless (literally!)... or even more fun get a nova with a huge Dominate ability and tell him to destroy himself!

Just hope that he didn't see it coming with his precog!
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My PCs have had quite a few badass villains to deal with in the course of their adventures. Chiraben (currently Version 4.0)'s always popping up to aggravate and annoy in the way of Seth, the billion dollar super-bastard from The Authority. They're all scared of Totentanz, having gotten a glimpse of his stats in the Elite book.

But their biggest and most powerful problem is the Sphinx hypermind which appears to be manipulating the UK and the UK Directive from behind the scenes. It's called Chronos and may well have been sent from a distant(?) future by it's master The Colony to ensure that Eden never happens.

Oh the pain, the pain.

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A really cool way to spice up villains quick is to give them off the wall abilities that most people wouldn't think about right away.

My favorite and one that would work really well with Tempus would be the aberration, permanent power combined with Premonition!

I would never allow a PC to run it as there is no real downside, but with a villain it works out really well. Since suprises and most other widely used tactics won't work (he see's it coming)it forces the players to come up with new and interesting approaches to succeed

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Quote:
Originally posted by Templar:
Quote:
Originally posted by Kirby1024:
We've all had one of those characters that we thought "No way could anyone have a chance at this guy" (and, inevitably, he gets completely vapourised by crafty players). So, I ask you, who was this guy? I've just made up a rather powerful guy (made pretty much without Nova Points, just tacking on any and all powers that fit him). What do you think of this guy?
Two ways you could kick his ass easy... get a couple of novas with Disrupt and make him powerless (literally!)... or even more fun get a nova with a huge Dominate ability and tell him to destroy himself!

Just hope that he didn't see it coming with his precog!
Just realised he would be resisting the Disrupt with 13 dice! eek

hmmmmmm not such a good idea...
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  • 2 months later...

My worst villian(s) ever were my PCs. I had a group of up-for-anything Roleplayers that also happened to be badass bastards. I explained Aberrant to them, and the first thing they came up with was: "A shades of grey world with real people instead of two-dimentional characters? Cool, we'll be four-color SUPERVILLIANS!!"...Thus, the LEGION OF DOOM was born.

I know, I know.

Under the Guidance of the mysterious 'Rebel' (I later decided that he was The Confederate of Teragen fame, but when we started I didn't know about him), the group did some of the most henious things I have ever been a witness to. I really, really tried to portray the way the Aberrant Universe would have reacted to their antics, but they were SOOO good at covering their asses.

Ba'al, Demon God of War

The EvAngelist

Syntax Error

Mindflayer

Reverund

The Ghost

This was the Legion of Doom.

From their first bank robbery (which ended with a congregation of Methodists eating the NJ state police who responded and spelling out Legion of Doom with their body parts), to the kidnapping of little Kevin (EvAngelist's body shield, since he had no defense, he was trained to pee his pants at the sound of key T2M personnel's voices), to the Confession of Andre Corbin (Syntax's masterpiece), to the Washington Monument shoved up the Statue of Liberty's skirt (Ba'al's idea of an April Fool's prank), they followed most of the canon adventures and scenarios with their own brand of catch-us-if-you-can, blatant villiany.

It was the most entertaining campaign I've ever run, and I have zero desire to do it again. But, oh man, the stories I could tell you...

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  • 2 weeks later...

The worst villian I've had to face in this game would have to be Doctor Bodybag. He wasn't anything too bizarre except for this combination (I'll only list the powers we found out he had, he was never really explained completely):

Homunculus: With the Organ extra and Domination: with both the Multiple victims simultaneously extra and the Parasitic Possession Through Organs extra. Nova Proxy is what we guess he must have had as well, since even his Baseline possessed victims could use some of his powers.

As in he would split up his body by placing his organs (or his scary ass body parts) into the bodies of baselines or nova kind. Sure, he's not destructive on a grand scale, but there's something scary about someone who it after you by putting his mis-shapen eyeball in Mephistafaleez's head (don't ask).

Then again, he's no Jesus or a giant MR-node powered squid.

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My worst villain(s) was the characters themselves from the future.

It was a heroes type game and they felt they were strong enough to deal with whatever happened. Then they ran into themselves from the future.

"They" were much stronger, more experienced, and the set of powers the heroes had was a subset of the powers "They" had.

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Quote:
Originally posted by David 'Dr. Troll' Smith:
My worst villain(s) was the characters themselves from the future.

It was a heroes type game and they felt they were strong enough to deal with whatever happened. Then they ran into themselves from the future.

"They" were much stronger, more experienced, and the set of powers the heroes had was a subset of the powers "They" had.
Please tell me that one of the player characters wasn't there as a future self. Nothing is creepier than being told by a storyteller that you have NO FUTURE.

I did this to one of my players in a game I ran. They were all seeing themselves in the future (not fighting themselves..cool idea Troll) and my friend Humberto kept saying: Where the fuck am I? Where am I?
It was great.
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That's always a fun one, Menagerie... a DM did something like that me once with prophetic dreams. Everyone got dreams except my character... when I asked what's up, the DM said "Well, maybe you don't have a future?" Turned out later my character had no destiny (a' la Sparhawk) but that bugged the hell out of me for awhile.

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I don't GM very often, but when I do, I generally don't run really serious games. So I never kill off players.

However, several of my character have been killed, and I have never held it against the GM. I have no problem with a GM killing off my character, so long as the death is not meaningless and unreasonable. If the GM hints strongly that YOU SHOULD NOT FIGHT THIS, and you charge into battle, you should die. But if you don't have any real choices, then fighting shouldn't kill you outright.

Just my opinion.

Oh, and to keep this slightly on topic:

The nastiest baddy I've ever fought against was an illusionist who was trying to get one of the characters to fall in love with him. His character had ties into several of the players back stories (including mine, he got me out of a tight jam), so several of us owed him favors. We all knew that he was bad news, but we couldn't just turn our backs on him (if we did, I'm sure he would have become even more of a pain), and we couldn't fight him outright because he was never violent. That campaign ended while we were still trying to get rid of him - he was never directly the enemy, but he was going to be sooner or later.

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Despite my ranting about Domination on an earlier topic... the nastiest opponent I have ever come up with is a Nova with Domination (PP) and Telepathy (Telepathic Channeling). He had a couple of dots of M-strength as well and Mental Imbalance (Rage) as well. There is something about an enemy that can attack at your players’ minds that really raises the danger/drama/intensity level of the game quite a bit.

And personally I have a little saying about GM's and player death. "A good GM never kills a player he/she only gives the player the choice." Just like Alchemist said as long as it isn't an unreasonable thing... most players are pretty understanding. I once turned a player who died (or so they thought) heroically into a reoccurring villain that had gone crazy because of the event. That character's player was actually happy about that.

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