Supervillain

[ThreeJumps]

So I was on #4 the other day when ISaidNo started putting custom jobs in, and one of the jobs offered was 'test subject'. The idea was that you were a subhuman resource whose mental instability or (presumably) criminal malice had landed you in a straightjacket and muzzle to be used and abused by the science staff at their leisure.

I don't think I need to explain how awesome this was.

Either way, the round progressed and I managed to get free of my Straightjacket and muzzle, procured an Engineering ID and (with the help of a traitor) managed to get my hands on a power sink and some Syndicool trick cigarettes. Needless to say, with the station plunged into darkness and a truckload of deranged men shambling around the corridors hysteria quickly struck. Traitors became more devious and my cackling over the intercom seemed to enterain people.

It was then that an idea struck: Given how a round with a mentally unstable escaped convict with explosives had been an incredible amount of fun for me, the escapee, the antagonists using the confusion to their advantage and the security forces trying to detain me (and the other test subjects who were slowly loosing themselves in the darkness caused by the power sink) would a game mode which capitalised on this be worthwhile?

The idea is this: One player is designated as the 'villain', and is given an objective. This objective would, of course, have to be nefarious enough to pose a threat to the station but at the same time be grandiose enough to befit a true villain. We're not talking 'amass 40,000 credits' here, we're talking 'amass a million credits and escape in the captain's pod', or 'Kidnap the HoP and take him off-station'.

Imagine the chaos that could ensue. The villain could hold areas and systems like the engine hostage with homemade explosives unless his demands are met, slowly decimating the station faculty by faculty until it's no more than a husk manned by a skeleton crew. Imagine the chases through maintenance tunnels as the villain tries to escape, an unconscious player dragged behind them, dodging taser shots as he goes, or a sting surrounding a dropoff of credits as Security finally outwits their prey.

I think it might have legs.

With a few loyalty implants by default for creating a couple of henchmen, maybe an area akin to the wizard's den to flee to or take objectives to win (like a lair) and a few items, like a bobby pin to escape from the brig or a sleepy pen which paralyses victims I think it could work. The possibilities for dialogue and theatrics as well could be incredibly entertaining. When I was an escaped convict in that one round I stalked another player through vents, blowing up airlocks in the dark, funneling him towards escape.

He says it was pretty intense.

Anyway, that's my idea: A supervillain game mode, or at least a supervillain antagonist class similar to wizard or vampire. What do you guys think?

Cheers.

[icarus]

they're going to need a reason to not just act like really well-equipped traitors, theatrics are cool but half the people aren't going to actually do them

if they become Mixed mode antags with custom, gimmicky gear instead of syndicate gear then they could be cool

make it so that they can order packs that'll work for different supervillain themes, like an ice pack that gives you a freeze ray or a pack that rips off the Penguin and gives you supply boxes and loads of money/loyalty implants to recruit henchmen, etc.

[Weavel]

This could work really cool.

Maybe like the wizard's spellbook you can pick your theme, as said before, and work off that?
Let's say your objectives are
#1. Steal 50,000 credits.
#2. Kidnap the Captain and have him alive in your lair.

Your "Supervillain Argos Catalogue" (wow they really have everything) allows you to pick your theme and the items from it.
Pick a Bond Villain style of play, and you get a lair-only Portabrig system to kidnap dudes, a box of grenades that convert monkeys into vicious killing machines, a stronger Golden Derringer, and a reskinned Butcher's Knife as a Top Hat.

Or, pick a Magneto setup, and you get a syringe to give yourself TK, a sweet costume and three mindslaves that give random superpowers along with their enslaving (though they don't work on yourself!).

maybe you could even let people be a Predator through this option idk

[atomic1fire]

You could give them conspiracy implants, if they want to grab some minions.

I think there was a discussion in irc earlier about how lasers, and someone said they wanted to have a bond style table with a laser (I think that was the jist of it) You could throw someone on it and have the laser slowly cut someone in half. That seems fitting for a supervillain.

Also some kind of mechanical suit ala lex luther could be cool.

[APARTHEID]

What's the difference between a supervillain and a traitor? Crystals? Objectives? The grandiose nature of their objectives?

[ThreeJumps]

What's the difference between a supervillain and a traitor? Crystals? Objectives? The grandiose nature of their objectives?

I think this sums it up. Maybe by switching their items from syndicate to a specific list for villains only could create a need for theatrics? I think Apartheid hit the nail on the head though- it's the scheme that makes the villain, not their power.

Regular traitors don't have to do anything that large-scale usually, just murdering people or escaping alone is one thing, but getting the command staff to give you the entire station budget, or trading you a human life so that you'll release Botany from the hold of your mutant man-eating plant men.

What icarus said rings true too:

if they become Mixed mode antags with custom, gimmicky gear instead of syndicate gear then they could be cool

This might be a little too much work to implement though? Iuno.

FURTHER DISCUSSION REQUIRED.

[david2222121]

It'd probably be good to have this start as an admin started only mode(if it even gets off the ground at all).

As for powers, how about a mafia boss-esque supervillain, who instead of being powerful himself instead relies on a legion of NPC mobs, like bees, angry monkeys, feral space cats, etc. as his main threat.

Or maybe a techno-villain, who can get a voltron and power gloves so he can zip around the power lines and zap people, to boot?

[ThreeJumps]

I figured the "powers" would be based more on trickery and deception than actual 'powers'. Like injecting plasma into power cells and swapping them out into APCs so when they get turned back on they explode.

Subversion is the most entertaining form of villainy, after all.

[enforcer9]

I can't really see this idea working well, to be honest.

[ThreeJumps]

I can't really see this idea working well, to be honest.

Why not?

[enforcer9]

I can't really see this idea working well, to be honest.

Why not?

It seems really reliant on a persons ability to dialogue to be any fun.

There are people on goonstation with that ability, but they are the 1%, which means 99% of the rounds played will be boring.

At least that's the way I see it.

[ThreeJumps]

I feel like the incentive to commit gigantic feats of villainy will be an incentive for people to try hard. I can understand what you're saying though.

[Cogwerks]

Things like this always sound awesome in theory but are horrible once the random traitor selection process is involved. Jerk idea: make it only pull from the HoS list.

I'd be happy to start running supervillain custom rounds with handpicked villains though. I can see some test runs working very well with people I know would be up for the task.

[atomic1fire]

I actually like the idea of super-villain custom rounds. Perhaps genetics could start trying to cook up superheroes (and fail horribly) as a response. Also it would be interesting to see how the crew reacts to some crazy person in a colorful costume blowing the station up or murdering the crew, Do they make their own superhero identities to combat new threat?

[ThreeJumps]

I actually like the idea of super-villain custom rounds. Perhaps genetics could start trying to cook up superheroes (and fail horribly) as a response. Also it would be interesting to see how the crew reacts to some crazy person in a colorful costume blowing the station up or murdering the crew, Do they make their own superhero identities to combat new threat?

Yessssssssssssssssssssssss. This is the kind of gorgeous creativity we need.