Getting my feet wet...

[Kakashi64]

I'm looking to start slow with Madcap, and have him meet other heroes one or two at a time. This is because at this point, he'd be a bit nervous about being near a whole passel of heroes – he is impersonating a known super-villain, after all – and he would probably bolt.

So I'm looking for one or maybe a pair of heroes for this thread. The rough scenario I have in my head is that the hero(es) gets wind of an accident on a bridge, and arrive to find Madcap assisting the people in a car teetering off the edge – clearly doing something heroic, which is surprising for a villain. Of course, the cause of the accident turns out to be a baddie of some sort who must be subdued. After that? Depends on the personalities, I think.

[Nyrath]

MA is up for this at least, she's unlikely to know much about the history connected with the Madcap identity (though she could make DC10&15 untrained so some basics at least, provided she doesn't roll badly). In any case she'd be giving him the benefit of doubt at the very least, she's fairly accepting and acknowledges that there's many shades of grey and not so much white or black as one might like.

[quotemyname]

I'll gladly play Colt for this thread. For much the same reasons as Nyrath has for playing MA.

[Kakashi64]

Cool. Thanks to you both. Bear with me as I get accustomed to the process here.

First of all, any particular place you'd like to suggest this happening? I don't have FC with me at the moment, but I can check tonight for likely bridges.

Secondly, the villain(s): how does the selection process work? Do we choose? From what sources? Can we generalize about what type of villain, and allow a GM to fill in the blanks?

I'm thinking that the baddie is on the bridge because he's chasing someone in a car, either to get the person him/herself, or something that person is carrying. Any ideas on specifics? Maybe a scientist carrying new technology on his way to a show, or a lecture, or the airport?

[quotemyname]

Probably the Mangold bridge. It leads from the bulk of the city into Hanover where FCU is located.

You certainly have a few good ideas there. Take a look through the NPC's on the site. Anything with Tier 1 next to it's name can be run by anyone at any time (as long as you don't blow up the city permanently or anything).

Other than that, you can use Instant Super heroes to model a few villains. I've been known to do that rather frequently

Tell us what you come up with!

[Gizmo]

I don't think he'd be appropriate for this first thread, but I'd like to have Jack of all Blades meet up with Madcap at some point as well. Unlike Colt and MA, Jack takes a pretty dim view on supposedly 'reformed' villains, and he'd probably be inclined to fight first and let the cops sort it out later. Once things were cleared up, though, he'd definitely be able to relate to Matt's desire to protect his neighbourhood, and his theatrical fighting style.

[Geez3r]

Jester and Madcap need to meet up at some point, but not sure if this is the proper venue, too much stepping on each others toes. Perhaps another thread where Jester and Madcap meet up?

[Kakashi64]

Oh, I'm looking forward to some "I act crazy, but this guy is crazy" goodness. But yeah, I think both characters need to establish themselves first.

[Kakashi64]

What is the status of Malice? He's certainly a badass, but he seems likely to be the type to cause a multi-car pile up on a bridge in pursuit of a piece of high-tech.

FYI, I'm out of town for the weekend, so I'm not ignoring any responses, just unavailable.

[Geez3r]

Malice was my original character. I played him for about 17 months. That's why his power cost is weird and he is sitting on a pool of 18 unspent power points.

His shtick was that he hates all the meta humans, all of them. I described him in Chat as a combination of Norman Osborne, Lex Luthor and Hitler. When he was last played, he had his arm blown off as Arrowhawk blew up Malice's HQ, with a nice chuck of residential Riverside to go along with it. He spent a few months behind bars where he had a visit from Dr. Archeville and Dark Star, which solidified the fact that he was crazy pants.

However, after a few months he was busted out of prison by the higher ups of the Shadow Academy (the anti Claremont) so he could be one of their teachers. They wanted a teacher that knew their way around high explosives and was willing to put the fear of God into the students, and Malice topped a very short list. Shortly after, the "No PC Villains" Rule was enacted. So as far as Cannon is concerned, he's still working with Shadow Academy.

The reason that Malice is Tier 1 instead of Tier 2 or even Tier 3 is that I have no problem with letting other people play him. But note 3 things: He considers himself a hero, he has never intentionally harmed a civilian, and he has never committed a robbery.

[Nyrath]

Malice could be there supervising a student, or students. This would help keep any fight from being too lopsided, even Malice would struggle against three heroes of this caliber. It would also help set up a possible way for Malice to be forced into retreat even if he manages to remain fairly fit; if his student(s) get taken down he needs to get them out of there before even more heroes show up. That could led to having the power-armoured meta-hater get back into a more active role in the setting.

[quotemyname]

Despite Malice's status as a Tier 1 NPC, I still feel that Geez3r is the best man for the job when playing the man.

[Nyrath]

I concur.

[Kakashi64]

Ah, so maybe the student(s) is responsible for the mess on the bridge (pursuing an unauthorized personal matter), and Malice comes to retrieve him…

[quotemyname]

That, or Malice is already "on-screen" overseeing some kind of "field trip."

If that's the case, I doubt Malice would get involved unless someone attacked him directly or his students needed to be bailed out.

[angrydurf]

Quick note IIRC almost all the shadow academy was in the PL 6-8 range (with a few exceptions) and wouldn't be much threat to a group of PL 10-12's. Even Malice as scary as he is would be hard pressed to even up those odds and get away, though in Geez3rs hands he probably could.

[Nyrath]

There's a couple of PL 9s, and a couple of PL10s in the NPC section. And then it's possible to have a few others of a viable PL from teams other than Alpha and Beta.

Just a thought.

[quotemyname]

I think it could work any way you wanted it to, really ;)

[Kakashi64]

OK, now about the timing... Madcap's not invovled anywhere else at the moment, but I know your heroes are. "When" should this be set?

[quotemyname]

Colt has had a pretty busy January, but there are certainly some openings. Just take a look on the timeline on the wiki and see when people are free.

[Geez3r]

Yeah. I'm just figuring out a proper way to run the encounter without it being a curb stomp in either direction. Probably going to fake level up some of the NPC's and then use Malice's Inventor and Masterplan as a backup. If it goes "according to plan" then the heroes stop the villains from achieving any of their goals, but they manage to slink away into the shadows.

Sound good?

[quotemyname]

Works for me.

[Nyrath]

^What he said

[Geez3r]

Ok. Think I got everything ready, just double checking interest before we set off.

[quotemyname]

Colt is locked and loaded.