LeeRoy

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

@Dedonus This is true, you are not wrong.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

This isn't me trying to start an argument, by the way, it's just my point of view on how a good villain/hero dynamic is played.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

@FacePunch Again, I see your point. It matters IN THE UNIVERSE.

The problem is, just because the players MAKE the universe, doesn't mean that events in the universe directly affect them without some way of directly causing them to feel distress.

Let me draw from a roleplay of my own back in my chatroom days.

I played a Hero named Captain Explosion.

Captain Explosion was the greatest hero of the chatroom, until he met The Golden God.

The Golden God was the source of his powers, canonically, and the two of them saw eachother as equals. This was a horrible mistake.

The Golden God was far greater than Captain Explosion.

When the two duked it out, Captain explosion was crushed beneath a giant golden idol of a lion that was formed out of magical fire.

This idol of fire burnt away half of his face, tore off his left arm, left him horribly burnt on his entire left side, and popped his left eye. It also caused severe brain damage to him, causing him to overproduce stress hormones and adrenaline. This turned him into the raging beast that became known as The Splatterer.

The Splatterer used all of his explosive powers to kill people because he had been driven insane by his inability to ever calm down, and his inability to ever sleep. Nor could the wounds on the left half of his body heal.

This made him crazy, it made him violent, and it broke the once great hero.

It didn't kill him, but it killed who he was.

It had impact because it hurt him personally, it also made for better story telling. You don't have to kill them, but you do have to hurt them.

Note: I did not play both Captain Explosion and Golden God. Golden God was the GM character.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

@Raptorman I haven't actually read through every character sheet, I don't actually know what Mercy's powers are. Though I did know she was a villain.

@Dedonus
The simplified statement is that without motivation other than spooking a few NPCs who don't have any emotional yield, most people are going to be averse to being a villain. Because most people don't UNDERSTAND that killing isn't the only motivation.

Killing is a means to an end for a good villain, it isn't their end goal.

@NeutralNexus
I'm not saying it should be a contest, because heroes always win. Simply because that's how heroes work, they rally people to their cause. They work together and eventually they overcome the obstacle.

I'm just saying that a good villain always needs something up their sleeve, and unfortunately in this medium it's to hurt them. To make them useless or to make them dead.

I could list off other ways to hurt them, but it's 12 am and I'm not exactly in the right mindset to hunt down ways to hurt characters.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Continuing with my previous point. Look towards Umbraxis, the current most powerful Villain. Obviously scary and intimidating, but what sum total did he actually do to hurt our heroes? Umbraxis showed up, got his cosmic buttocks squarely kicked, returned to space where he is currently being shot with rays of light and put through an existential crisis.

Where in that does fear take hold? He's the most powerful opponent yet, and he's already been defeated and is stood still in a cosmic standoff.

It's like Galactus compared to Ozymandias.

Galactus shows up, looks really spooky for a bit, then concurrently fucks off after some artifact shows up to prove to be dangerous.

Ozymandias won 35 minutes before you even arrived.

A villain compared to a real villain.

You have to have some sort of impact in the world that you're in, otherwise you're just another common thug who roughs people up in the street. Maybe a little more fancy than common thugs, but still just the same.

NPC deaths hold no real ground, since they're just NPCs. Unless you have time to make some formative emotional connection between them and the player, nobody is going to miss them.

See my point?

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

@Dedonus Obviously they would be discussed, I'm not a heartless monster. Just your average ordinary monster.

Though I am one for the field of: "If you fuck up bad enough to actually get yourself killed you deserve it."

And it too reduces the actual want or need to be a supervillain if they cannot pose any 'real' threat to the hero.

If the sum total of your villainy is barking at the heels of the superheroes and getting your teeth kicked in, of course people are going to be averse to being a villain.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I mean if you want a Villain, that's MY personal field of expertise. If you really want a villain, you can just ask and I will deliver the deaths of at least three heroes.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

@VATROU Might might be in Philly for a while, or not very long. Considering my next post requires input from the one in charge of the evolution story arc.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

I'm in tears. You're literally arguing the difference of 15 degrees.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

@KaiserElectric I'm excited to see.