Super Villains I

For the next several weeks I'll be sharing material from the Worlds in Peril game I ran for my local group. Expect a review Wednesday and partial recap in a few weeks. For now here are some of the villains they faced in session 1.

Banshee

Description: This veiled woman appears to be garbed in Victorian mourning dress. Black cloth covers her skin completely from long silk gloves to an impenetrable veil. Her true appearance remains a mystery. Speaking in screams and rasps, she appears cold and lifeless to those who can sense such things.

Motive: to bring sorrow and pain

Condition Threshold: 3

Powers: Banshee possesses a unique set of abilities in addition to the consequences of being undead. She doesn't need to breathe [3], resists cold [1], and is immune to disease and poisons [3].

She can also turn into a chilly mist. When in solid form, she can harm people with a freezing touch with which she can also form icy claws. She also possesses a sonic scream that can shatter glass and stun foes.

In Play: The first super villain my PCs faced, her powers were partially improvised and as such she turned out to be tougher than I initially expected. In particular her mist form made her very hard to contain and defeat.

Her role in the main plot of the game never became very clear. She helped release the Herald (below) from an abandoned lab, presumably to deliver him to a powerful super villain who could absorb DNA based super powers.

My original plan was to make her a foil to one of the super heroes, a death themed character named the Gravedigger. This worked out to a certain extent as he became obsessed with tracking her down after her escape.

The Herald/Plasma

Motive: to be directionless and easily led; to burn, to glory in destruction

Description: The Herald was once a normal mortal before the Eater, a living singularity , blessed him with superhuman strength and toughness. After serving it faithfully for several years however, the blond bruiser went missing.

That was 14 years ago.

A group of superheroes discovered him in suspended animation in a long abandoned laboratory. Once released he learned his old master had been banished many years ago. Lost, he allowed himself to be locked up in their secret prison.

While there, he found a rage overtaking him. Displaying new powers, he burned his way to freedom, destroying a city block before being defeated. When he recovered, he couldn't recall what had happened.

In this new form as Plasma, he is a man wreathed in fire, shooting blasts of flame and engaging in rampant destruction.

Condition Threshold: 3

Powers: Normally the Herald possesses super strength and toughness. The Eater occasionally granted him other powers and/or equipment but these are no longer available.

When in his new form, he can fly and shoot blasts of flame. He is utterly immune to fire and heat [3] and can create a flame shield to protect him from further harm [A, 1].

In Play: The Herald was essentially improvised on the spot though "Plasma", his alter ego, was prepped beforehand as a possible minion of another villain. As his story emerged in play I slam the two characters together and simplified my story.