Firstly, even though I said that I originally wanted to use this for M&M, I recognize that Mutant's and Masterminds isn't everyones first choice for Superheroic adventures.
As a result, I'll be trying to be as rules light as I can, just detailing fluff and background, perhaps with general impressions as to how I think he/she/it should used.

Again though, comments are always welcome.

Here's a Villain concept that I got one day that I liked.

The Crimson Commisar - The Vampire Communist.

Because not every vampire is a count you know. A silly idea to be sure, but he'd make an excellent foil for Golden Era superheroe's. Kidnapping their girlfriends, and trying to force a communist system onto the world powers with his mental abilities.
Of course his nature as a vampire pretty much precludes his use in the Silver Age, meaning that he will have to wait for the Bronze Age to make a suprise comeback.
Also, the idea of the communists, and athiest system championing an element of folklore is a vague jab at implying the wider hypocrisy within the communist system. The powers that be would probably support the concept of the Crimson Commisar.

Another concept I was toying around with in the shower is this:

We get a fair number of heroes who are fully capable medical doctors, but invariably these skills are simply background information to the character, and is often overlooked or forgotten in the face of his ability to CONTROL THE FORCES OF DARKNESS or the fact that he's SORCEROR FRIKKEN SUPREME.

What about a low level hero who's main them is that he is the best, most epic doctor in the world?
It's an idea that would fit in well with Pulp Heroes of the golden age, though would possibly be reduced to a background reference character during the silver age, due to that age's problems with showing blood and vital fluids. Though it's entirely possible he might get used to save a critically wounded hero from time to time.
He'd be equally at home in the Bronze age and beyond, perhaps he's hunting down a secret government superhuman vivisection conspiracy or maybe he's trying to cure the worlds most dangerous plague.
An excellent PC idea for low powered campaigns I think.

>>6414098
What a good idea.

Given the writing project I've been working on for a few years now: I wonder how the fluff for Battletech got started. I know they got inspiration for 'mech designs from Japanese animators, but the story - the whole Star League, collapse, Exodus, rise of ComStar, etc. - did they come up with that on their own?

Coming up with a good story for a campaign is almost as hard as coming up with new rules for a campaign.

>>6414098
I would do my black superhero idea I've been wanting to get out of my head. From sterotypical southerner who fights behind the main characters, to working against COMMUNISTS IN CUBA to then CIVIL RIGHTS JUSTICE then 80s URBAN RIOTS and new modern era would be someone taking up the mantle

Powers are controlling a zombie at first with general SUPER NEGRO STRENGTH to eventually fighting with guns, using the ability to manipulate "the man" to work with me, since this works.

>>6414306
Or high-powered campaigns.

Medicine-focused Twilight-caste Solar who's on his way to learning the Citrine Poxes of Contagion SMA.

I was trying to think up a major Supervillain, someone on the same league as Thanos, Darkseid and Apocalypse.

In the end I just couldn't find a way around it. I just had to try and make a supervillain out Sinistar.

I'm not going to nail this on my first try, you WILL have put forwards suggestions to improve this. It's frigging Sinistar.

The Sinistar is an ancient (possibly from the birth of the universe or before) suprabeing. Godlike in his power, deeply intelligent and a brutal and ruthless tyrant.

As the campaign starts The Sinistar is split into six pieces, two arms, legs his body and his head. Each one is an artifact of incredible cosmic power and all of them have to remain buried and contained a certain distance away from the head, or else it will begin to awaken.

During the golden ages, interstellar journeys might make references to him in much the same way we might refer to Satan, and his worshippers: the deliberately cheesily named Sinistrologists are treated as such.
By the Silver Ages, the religious references have taken a back seat to a more detailed description of The Sinistar, heroes will have to try and prevent the Sinistrologists from hunting down or stealing pieces of their master to prevent his resurrection.
By the Bronze Age, they succeed.

I don't know what to do with his arms or legs, but the head will basically be Pic Related, with the ability to absorb energy and shoot it out as gigantic eye-beams. If awake he'd show great cunning in order to be reunited with his missing parts.

The Body? I'm planning on using that as the power supply for this universes equivalent of the Green Lanterns.

>>6414482
You should try (with a cruel sense of humour, and some horror), to make Sinistar truly invincible.

Unkillable, unstoppable. The only thing left would be to slow him down.
DM tried it two campaigns ago, and it really grabs you... you try hard, but fail. It sucks, but it's also heroic in some way. It's hard to explain, but it was pretty awesome.

But it shouldn't happen too often.

>>6414482

It's a bit derivative to use Sinistar almost as-is in the universe, but I like the name. Besides the Cult of Sinistrology, which will have mostly human followers who don't know what they're doing, there could be alien Sinistroids, Sinistar's creations intended to be his lieutenants.

>>6414191

I like this. Maybe a vampire that actually embraced the Communist ideal in order to leave his backwards village and gain power and influcence. There could be a few other Communist monsters like him, a female Red Werewolf perhaps?

>>6414508

if you do that have sinistar awaken in the Iron Age

I've never played M&M, but this concept is pretty cool.

>>6414508
Not OP, but I think I might try this out for my Eclipse Dawn campaign.

The campaign has been quite emotional so far, and I really want this campaign to end with a bang... it must be remembered.

Like an awesome movie. Awesome movies often end in an epic but bad end.

>There could be a few other Communist monsters like him, a female Red Werewolf perhaps?

I *did* have an idea for a communist turned werewolf oddly enough, but he was little more than a minion for the diabolic BARON VON EVILSATAN.
If that sounds familiar, it's because I stole it from a triptag.

>It's a bit derivative to use Sinistar almost as-is in the universe, but I like the name.

I know, but I just couldn't think of a better name. His head is as is, it's dangerous, but it's limited in how strong it is by how much ambient energy it can suck up from the area around it.
Which is why it's so important not to let it reach it's body, which contains technically near infinite energy.

>You should try (with a cruel sense of humour, and some horror), to make Sinistar truly invincible.

It's a nice idea, but you have to remember that by the fact that his bodies been split apart as it has means that he's been defeated once already, which I'll go into in my next when I talk about another hero concept.

http://zogsnightmare.com/racialComix/page_01.htm
klassic komix kollection

Awesome idea, especially if the feeling of time passing feels legit.

The idea of the Supers having shit under control, and steadily their powers and the ever growing capability of "Average humans" get away from them, and things turn into the modern day "GRIMDARK".

>>6414522
> a vampire that actually embraced the Communist ideal in order to leave his backwards village and gain power and influcence
This makes me chuckle. IIRC one of the reasons Djugashvili joined the Communist movement was that he hated the Russian-superiority thing inherent in the Russian rule over Georgia.

The irony of it was that the USSR kept the same corrupt policies of the monarchy it overthrew.

>>6414625
Defeated, but not destroyed.

They can only delay the inevitable.

>>6414653

Holy shit, Vampire Stalin. Now that's an awesome idea.

Or, closer to home, you could have a Vampire Ceauşescu. Like Dr Doom, only a vampire dictator, ruling over his people with an iron fist.

If you can throw Rasputin into anything you get bonus points.

>>6414720
An evil Dr. Strange.

A campy magician villain in the early ages. Gradually more menacing.

>>6414759
"Haha I've created a spell to turn all of the Hostess fruit pies into snakes!"

Turns into:

"I've stolen the flesh of countless children to sow onto my own body to keep my devilish good looks. My beard however has never needed replacement"

>>6414815

Damn, 4chan ate my post.

Okay, he's an idea that can be run in all ages:

BEWARE EVILDOER! FOR YOU FACE...

CRO-MAGNON MAN.

The equivalent to a good Vandal Savage, Cro-Magnon man would have the subtitle : MANKINDS FIRST SUPERHERO on his comics.

Powers wise, he'd a be simple if high level mimic. Hailing from the first superhumans during the caveman era (it is implied that mankind has an upsurge in superhuman levels every 500 to 1000 years) he helped make the cavemen extinct and ensure humanities dominace over the earth.
However during this time The Sinistar is striding around with his Sinistroids, raping the galaxy or possibly the universe.
So all of the heroes around at that time get together and decide to fight him, with Cro-Magnon Man and his compatriots dragooned in. The resulting battle ends in stars being extinguished, planets shattered, and the fate of reality hanging in the balance, but eventually at the end of this cataclysmic fight, The Sinistar is cast into the void outside of reality, and everyone goes home. Cro-Magnon man picks up The Sinistars Immortality as a souviner.

Several thousand years later...

>>6414815
:D

"Soon all of the MOON CRYSTALS will be mine for the taking!"

"I will burn your soul for an eternity, and use the flames to fuel my infernal war machines!"

>>6414856
Quite the gradual shift between ages.

>>6414625
... Which was taken from Red vs. Blue.

>>6414856
MOON CRYSTALS!? I love moon crystals. Almost as much as vaguely magical Crystals.

>>6414855

A thousand years later, Cro-Magnon man is chilling in Atlantis/Lemuria as part of a superpowered community of magicians, sorcerors and philosophers.
Unfortunately, a group of these philosophers accidentially help free Sinistar from his prison. The Sinistar has been badly weakened outside of reality, and tricks these fools into restoring a large part of his power for promises of rewards. The philosophers are the first of his Sinistrologists.
Luckily, Cro-Magnon Man catches wind of this, rounds up a galactic posse and beats The Sinistar before he reaches full power, splitting his body into the six pieces. Atlantis/Lemuria is unfortunately destroyed in the process.
The Head is (of course) buried on earth.

Of course next to none of this would come out until The Sinistar reforms himself, and would be kept secret.

With his Mimic abilities, Cro-Magnon man could play in pretty much any age.

>>6415003

So Cro-Magnon Man is an immortal wise warrior with powerful magic or psychic abilities, who watches over Humanity in disguise over the ages?

Maybe you should change his name to The Emperor.

>>6415003
Mimic abilities seem out of place. Why not just something simpler, like superhuman strength and endurance? Then the added immortality just adds to it.

Mimicry just seems so . . . odd.

If you want the character to "fit in" with the different ages, just look at that one character from The Sandman. Whatever his name was. Hob? I think? The man who simply refused to age. Good progression there, fitting into the different eras.

>>6414968
>MOON CRYSTALS!? I love moon crystals. Almost as much as vaguely magical Crystals.

Lemme guess. You have them guarded by orc like creatures with spears that fire vaguely defined energy beams don't you?

>>6414688
Possibly, he was created as the ultimate weapon by an ancient race.

However the civilisation was too scared to use him against their enemies... so the parts were never assembled.

>>6415138

I like that. You could possibly even have something like an ancient pan-galactic Mutual Assured Destruction scenario, with the opponents of the ancient race that made Sinistar have a similar-level destructive avatar thing. Then they both get activated and fight by throwing solar systems at each other.

>>6415056
>>6415071

Thanks. I picked mimicry as an idea that he could adapt to the times as a concept.

Also the idea that he stole immortality from the Cosmo Satan tickles me.

>>6415180
Make it even worse.

The two death machines are combined into one shape. And it becomes one giant death machine akin to Janus, the Roman two-headed god...

>>6415203

I think if he's immortal, having a name like Cro-Magnon Man makes a wrong impression. It makes him sound like a Captain Caveman comic relief hairy barbarian character. He needs a name more fitting to his status, like The First or The Guardian.

>>6415203
As far as mimic goes, there is always a "Big Strong Unkillable" guy, in like every age.

His looks and name could change as time passes. You could put hints that he was once Herc, or Sampson or other legendary heroes.

>>6415138

I'm not sure about the idea that he was manufactured. I guess I was sort of hoping to give him the aspect of a transcendant force of nature, like Galactus.

I do like the concept of some kind of multi-part doomsday weapon villain though.

>>6415252
Yeah, having this first superhero be the mythical heroes of legend is a great plot point.

>>6415242

Sure, the name would work best in the Silver and Golden age, by the bronze age a reinvent will be in order.
During the Iron ages he'd be operating behind the scenes incognito as an industrialist, trying to secretly promote green industries and space travel, whilst undermining dirty industry from within.

>>6415270
>>6415180
Honestly, two opposing forces like that sounds a bit . . . retarded. Yin and Yang. Megatron Optium Prime. It makes the characters meaningless, because it's just about those two.

>>6415339
Badass.

>>6415342
I can not type at all.

>>6415342

Well obviously when the big bads wake up it's essentially game over and the players watch on the sidelines as the universe is raped. But I think an ultimate superweapon being thing would be an interesting macguffin to center a campaign around. You'd have villains trying to start up the Big Bad, or harbingers of the Big Bad arriving and starting shit, Silver Surfer-style.

>>6414306
Like Doctor Mid-Nite?

>>6415390
I wasn't saying that having a large, indestructible evil force would be a bad idea. Like OP said, Galactus style.

But throwing in an inverse of that, a Good Galactus, is ridiculous.

Have the superman hero from the golden/silver age get weary of the hero game. By the bronze age, he is completely burnt out, and quits all super hero leagues.

One day, he snaps.... goes completely nuts, and all the other super heroes have to gang up and stop him.

Right before he is beaten, a building in the city crumbles due to the massive fight, and he spots a little girl underneath the falling rubble. "MOVE! GET OUT OF THERE YOU LITTLE BRAT!! WHY WONT YOU.. ARRGHH!!" He flies down, throws her out, and saves her... being crushed to death under the rubble.
Her parents run up, and put her in a wheelchair.

birth of the modern era.

>>6415252

Yeah, that sort of thing is what I was going for, he could be any number of ancient heroes due to how his powers work.

>>6415342

You say retarded, but honestly, I'd be suprised if comics haven't done this exact scenario in the past.
Though if you want a massive crossover series that results in an entire setting reboot.

>>6415426

I didn't mean an opposite as in "good Galactus". I meant an opposite as in "Space Ancient US has a nuke, and Space Ancient Soviets have a nuke, and so neither side can use them since they'll end up destroying everything".

rolled 68 = 68

>>6415431
I assume the girl grows up and in 90s era becomes an apologist for the Superman figure then?

Odd question, in the say 1940s, what would be a common enemy in the south besides ... Oh god I have it. NAZI INFILTRATORS IN THE BAYOU. Zombie army vs Nazi SCIENCE MAGIC? Would that work?

>>6415431
So, a bit like Kingdom Come, except Superman is the villain?

>>6415449
>Though if you want a massive crossover series that results in an entire setting reboot that would be the way to do it.

Fixed.

>>6415465

>NAZI INFILTRATORS IN THE BAYOU. Zombie army vs Nazi SCIENCE MAGIC? Would that work?

Work? That is PERFECTLY Golden Era.

>>6415451

Yeah, that's I thought what you meant, everyone else seems to think you mean something like the Monitor - Anti-Monitor kind of parralell though.

>>6415465
Depends on how far South, but...
How about Mexican forces hearkening to the glory days of Santa Anna trying to take "their" land back from the Americans.
They're being aided by Nazi paranormologists and summoning up the ghosts of conquistadors... but some of these ghosts have a different idea of Mexico than the Mexicans do. One more in line of a 'New Spain' idea.

>>6415532

Maybe you could even have some misguided idiot hero think that the other Sinistar-level weapon thing actually IS an avatar of good and try to activate it believing it will save the universe. And then he'll kill himself when it turns out to be just as destructive and mindless.

Have a Sasquatch hero.

He starts off in the, not Golden age, but whatever age encompasses the 50's.

>>6415400
I'd say Doctor Mid-Nite fits the bill perfectly. Sure, he isn't a badass normal, since he does have a super power, but what does he use his x-ray vision for? Surgery.
He's known as the greatest surgeon in the world, and that's pretty much it.
Soronik for GLC might also count. She's a Green Lantern, but she's also a surgeon, and it isn't just background fluff.

>>6415578
The 50s was the golden age...Oh wait, do you mean the Interregnum?
There really won't many capes comics in that "era-that-isn't-an-era."

>>6415623
I was talking about whatever era had the Giant Space Lizards! An atomic robots!

But now that I say that, it sounds like the golden age.

>>6415645
That sounds more Silver Age really.
Silver Age was the Holy Shit what the fuck is going on? era. and everything was SCIENCE! powered.

>>6415578

That'll be either Gold or Silver Age. But do go on.

>>6415555

>How about Mexican forces hearkening to the glory days of Santa Anna trying to take "their" land back from the Americans.
>They're being aided by Nazi paranormologists and summoning up the ghosts of conquistadors... but some of these ghosts have a different idea of Mexico than the Mexicans do. One more in line of a 'New Spain' idea.

How about the accidentially summon up older than they meant to and ressurect some sort of Lovecraftian horror?

Because so far this is an excellent pulp comic book adventure hook.

What you should encourage PCs to do is to make utterly ridiculous characters first.

And then Bronze age try their damn hardest to make them take a more serious turn. It'd be hilarious.

>>6415692
Or, going along with the "Older ghosts than they meant" they resurrect ancient Aztec ghosts. Aztec ghosts in Northern Mexico you ask?

It's comics from the 50s.

Vengeful types. But maybe there's one in the bunch who becomes a hero. Banishing the rest of them back to the afterlife.

>>6415692
>How about the accidentially summon up older than they meant to and ressurect some sort of Lovecraftian horror?


They summon a alien ghost, who tells them of the Ultimate Weapon...

SINISTAR.

So the space-nazis (who cannot beat the space-allies), go try to activate Sinistar.

Despite the PC's the space-nazis activate Sinistar.

And then you get this emotional scene where the big bad BBEG cries "Was habe Ich getan?!" (trans: What have I done?).

And as Sinistar storms across the galaxy, consuming all stars, the PC's and the nazis fight on a dying chunk of planet, as the universe dies. Because even when all is lost, you still have to fight.

An "allegory" of Rorschach, who continued to fight even when the world was going to die.

>>6415707

Also: Give out bonus point if they make their character a minority, and then play them as a somewhat racist, but nevertheless positive stereotype.
Shit was RIFE with that back in the day.

Damn good idea though.

>>6415761

>But maybe there's one in the bunch who becomes a hero. Banishing the rest of them back to the afterlife.

I'm pretty sure you're required by law to name that hero THUNDERBIRD.

>>6415784
Nah. Rorschach was just afraid to make decisions. Life is static. Things change, and he couldn't accept that, because he was ruined as a person.

>>6415828
Or better yet, Quetzalquotl or however you spell the name, for their lightning/thunder god bird.

>>6415904

Not for golden age or Silver Age, certainly not for Silver Age because it's an actual (dead) religion.

Heros from that age all have to have names you can pronounce at a glance.

Here's an expansion on >>6414522 idea of Sinistroids, instead of being robots, let's make them energy constructs created by The Sinistar from his own energy.
And it's this that gives some ancient but slowly dying race the idea of forming their Not-Green Lanterns.
All of the Rings/Belts/whatever's draw their power directly from the Torso to create their energy constructs, and you now how normally in these cases, the user is advised to only use their powers in the line of duty or somesuch? Not in this case, use it to make a house, do your chores, move rain clouds away, take joyrides through the universe, because no matter what: the less energy the Chest has at any one time the better, just in case The Sinistar manages to steal it back.

When he's awake, using the Rings/Whatevers power on him would require the user to make a will check vs Sinistars (which is godly as you would expect)
One person probably couldn't manage it... 20, 30, a 100? Those are slightly better odds...

Of course he's going to be killing them in large swathes as their trying to put him down, so in the end it might be down to one last NotLantern who perhaps get's a lucky strike in when Cro-Magnon Man or a Superman aggregate pops up and distracts Sinistar.

>>6415784
Nah, don't have him wake up as early as the golden age. Foreshadow the fuck out of him right the way through the Golden and Silver Age, it should be a big, possibly end of everything event.
I like the general scenario though.

>>6415555
Oh god, I can see it now,
"Your Zombie Magic will never stop.. THE NEW INQUISTION!"

"I .. can't win.. is this the end?"

Then a NOT ZORO comes in or something, perhaps?

Thanks for Archiving this thread, whoever did that.

So, we have some people (I'd like some more imput on the concepts I broached in >>6416035 though) what about locations?

Most superhero settings keep it fairly identical, but occaisionally throw in fictional locations, Metropolis, Genosha, Edge City, Atlantis, Thymiscria (sp?).
So any ideas?

I've used a fictional city called Los Labyrinthos in games of M&M in the past if anyone's interested.

>>6417680
At some point make sure to just throw them into New York. Because honestly I think 99 percent of every marvel hero lives in New York or has at least stopped an evil villain there.

Los Labyrinthos was an american city, somewhere western from the sound of it. Which was built over a vast interconnected warren of underground tunnels and caves.
The Government used these caves as a base for a system of top secret Research and Development facilities.
All was going fine (aside from that brief dabbling with human genetic modification in the eighties) up until the point where Dr Tremor devestated the city with a massive earthquake.
Most of the buildings above collapse as the tunnels below them caved in, causing massive devestation.
The entire north eastern district sunk three meters underground, causing the adjacent lake to rush in and turn the entire area into a cross between Venice and Beruit.
Meanwhile, the eathquake damage causes large amounts of the governments stockpiled Superpower Endowing Gas (It's a macguffin, don't worry about it.) to vent up into the city.
Which is how I gave the PC's their powers.

There first adventure involved stopping other newly superpowered crimanals from robbing banks and causing a mess of the freeway, meeting up with the National Guard, and tracking down Dr Tremor.

When they find him, he proceeds to make his escape by wrapping up the brick, mortar and stone of the bank around the heroes, turning it into a giant three-dimensional Maze and then precariously levitating it on top of thh nearest skyscraper.

The PC's just punched their way out. ):

>Not for golden age or Silver Age, certainly not for Silver Age because it's an actual (dead) religion.

Unlike Thor, who was invented in the 60s and never worshipped by anyone before that.