The Naming of Names (and weekly roundup)

SYSTEM: Any

So it suddenly occurred to me to ask whether the word Gemini was based on a plural, and it is. So if a second of Luorno's selves dies, she can still fight crime as the singleton Dame Geminus. It gets better: Geminus of Rhodes was an astronomer in the first century BCE, whose astronomy text Introduction to Phenomena survives. Which means that if you had supervillains named Gemini or maybe Castor and Pollux, and one of them retires or dies, the other can thematically still continue as Geminus.

Two items repeated after I posted them elsewhere, because I can't get here during the week, and one of which is actually dealing with a name:

Today's plot device character: The Midwife, who gives you superpowers if you fit her stringent requirements.

For extra angst, the Midwife is a former super whose spirit was put in a body that is simply unable to support powers, and he-she-it is creating these supers in the hope that some day, one of them will have his-her-its old powerset and then phase two of the plan (takeover!) can begin....

And a longer one:

And, because I wrote about a brain in a jar recently, here are some variations that I thought of. (A brainiac 5, if you will.)

1. The apparent brain-in-a-jar is a drone, an avatar run by some remote operator, as an actual radio-controlled thing. In ICONS, this could be a kind of Doombot for the Ultra-Mind.
2. Variation: it's a person/alien/whatever brain in a jar and there's some technology that imprints the driver's personality on it, so that the brain-in-a-jar becomes that person for a while. The twist I thought of and decided not to write about is that the brain was from another dimension, sent to collect information, and it put up with this because it learns so much more about humanity this way...and everyone who has ever piloted the brain carries some alien taint because the imprinting goes both ways....
3. In comics you don't see it often, but you could also do the classic Curt Siodmak novel (Donovan's Brain? Been a long time since I read it) where someone is being mentally taken over by, yes, a brain in a jar. After he or she shrugs off the brain's influence, you discover that one of the things the brain has been doing is having the victim build it a body...
4. "Ex-term-in-ate!" Yes, a Dr. Who reference. The thinly-disguised Daleks appear and invade and the only one who can negotiate with them is...the brain-in-a-jar. And they provide a nifty upgrade to his "body," too.
5. You know, the ancient Egyptians used to put various organs in jars (canopic jars) as part of the mummification process. I know they didn't actually care about the brain (it was removed through the nose with a hooked stick) but suppose they did. Suppose there was a splinter sect of Egyptians that put the brain in a canopic jar. And suppose the brain can control its mummified body over any distance. You have an intelligent brain, literally in a jar, and a mummy for horror fans, and there can probably be several interesting attacks before anyone realizes that the shambling bandage-clad mummy is trying to gather the five (canonically four, but I added the brain, remember) canopic jars so that he can live again! For extra fun, is the Serpent Sphinx trying to stop him or help him? Bonus points if you can fit in some family relationship with Sekhmet or one of your players.

Charles Brown then reminded me of H. P. Lovecraft's "The Whisperer In The Darkness," where the alien mi-go (the fungi from Yuggoth) put people's brains in jars to transport them across space.

That's a possible origin for a brain in a jar character: brain placed in a container by the equivalent of the mi-go and the new dangerous container has been created for the character after the jar was "liberated" from the faux-mi-go and the original body was, erm, lost or terminated in an accident or worse won't be given back by the alien invaders. So both the original brain and the original body might be villain characters in your game, along with the other faux-mi-go, complete with interesting conflicting agendas.

(Distraction: Someone invented/found a cloning machine that pumps out a copy of person X every nine months...and no one knows how long it's been doing this. Maybe five years. Maybe fifty. Maybe five hundred. One of them is a PC. Not quite Orphan Black, but the PC gets involved in it when discovering another person who looks like him. And then an older one. And all of them are sterile, which has caused at least two of them to become...potential supervillains.... Okay, I'll stop now.)

The Fast Antagonist Generator

Sometimes you need a really fast antagonist. So based on 5 minutes thought, here's what I do. This doesn't generate well-rounded opponents, just fast ones. It also doesn't generate themes or names...that's a different thing from this, though I nod to it in the last step.

I've made this moderately generic, so you'll also have to translate into the appropriate stuff for your system. It is probably slanted to ICONS, because that's the system I was thinking of, but I hope it's not slanted too much.

1. Do you need a combat antagonist or a social antagonist? They emphasize different things.
2. Decide on a general level for the antagonist. Maybe you're using Mutants & Masterminds and it's PL, maybe it's the ICONS or FATE chart. The level represents the difficulty for the heroes to defeat, outsmart, or avoid the obstacle. I tend to think in terms of a relative level for combat and an absolute level for social things, but you do you. An absolute level is easier to explain here, so I'll use that in this list.
3. For combat, decide if the character is primarily a melee fighter, a ranged fighter, or a mentalist. Then you want to set the primary abilities for that kind of combat to the difficulty level you've chosen. Maybe it's fighting ability or high martial arts; maybe it's willpower.
4. For combat, pick the power or ability that causes the damage. Maybe it's mind control...this antagonist can take over anyone; maybe it's strength; maybe it's a finely-honed set of concussive beams coming out of the// mouth. Up to you.
5. Again for combat, decide on one of three types of defense: The character has a glass jaw (hard to hit but easy to damage), is average (hard-to-hitness and damage absorption are set to the difficulty level), or is tough (easy to hit but damage absorption is really high).
6. For a social antagonist, you're looking for a character you can't hit, probably because they aren't obviously a villain. This is the area of your crime lords, your unwitting romantic interests, your crippled relatives, or your crusading bosses. So pick a reason that the hero can't use violence to solve the problem--it might be as simple as being in the other non-hero circle of life, or it's the government's representative, or the hero loves the person because it's Aunt April.
7. Socially, I've come up with at least these four types of opponents; pick one.

   Fly in the ointment

   This character interfere's with the hero existence. This is the cub reporter who wants a ride-along to do "a day in the life"; this is the enthusiastic fan; this is the protester (who might shade into the publicist); this is the government official who needs to see the hero in action before he approves the hero.

   Speed bump

   On the opposite side, this obstacle has perfectly reasonable expectations of the hero's secret (or not so secret) identity. This is the girlfriend who expects the hero at her folks' place for her mother's birthday, the boss who wants the hero to work overtime, the hot guy who has decided to give the hero a date but only tonight, the cousin coming into town, the blind date who won't go home.

   Publicist

   The character who speaks out for or against the character and influences them. For best results, the hero should have a personal relationship with the publicist in some form. This is the crusading newspaper publisher, the crime lord who wants to shut the character down, the protesting blogger with the ear of government, the columnist, the mayoral candidate who has made destroying the character part of his election campaign, the Twitter spambot, the fake news articles.

   Investigator

   The charact trying to find out more about the character. This might be incidental to something else ("What did happen on the pier on the night of July 12?") or it might be about the character ("Who is Megaguy?")

8. Given the type of antagonist, you want to improve the appropriate ability/skill to the difficulty level, or provide a quality to provide the motivation, or both.
9. Do that naming and description thing.

The Antaeus League

The heroes are opposed by a mysterious organization that seeks to nullify and capture the powers of each super-powered individual, and do with them...what? Create a super-powered army? Grant powers to their own members? Infiltrate governments?

Or save the world?

(Idea brought on by late night watching of The Librarians; name from The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers.)

Not that the agents don't have powers: they do. The powers are oddly restricted, often earth-style powers: great strength, invulnerability, turning people to stone, growth, and more, but nothing that involves leaving contact with the ground: no flight, gliding, or teleport. They can stretch, but not throw.

Some very rare members know a little bit of magic (so they say) but that's always kept a low level, and those agents can be recognized by the chains hanging from their boots.

With luck, they'll stay in the background enough that the heroes won't have an opportunity to learn that the members of the League have no powers when not in contact with the earth, either through a chain or by standing directly on it. Asphalt is okay, but up in a building is not. (That means that their attacks always happen in open areas: on the field of a stadium, in a parking lot, a park, a nature reserve.

The heroes first come across them when they steal the powers of a fellow hero, rendering him normal, even though he didn't have the kind of powers you'd think of as removable: tech skills, perhaps, or something inborn. The next time, they might help, depowering one of their foes during a climactic battle that the heroes would have otherwise lost. The powers are imprisoned in a small urn with Egyptian hieroglyphics, most like a canopic jar.

Then the Antaeus League (still unnamed) comes after the heroes. (If you have a player who is going to be absent for a while, depower that character, but otherwise don't; it's not fun to be the unpowered hero in a superhero game.) There are close calls. Maybe the heroes manage to capture one of the League.

Why are they doing this? To save the world.

They have been responsible for thousands of years for keeping magic in check. Superpowers are nothing more than magic given a particular expression. If there is a clearly-defined start to the superpower age, someone got into their hideout and broke a thousand of the magic jars. (If there isn't, then the Antaeus League has its own enemies, who sometimes manage to free some of the magic.)

They are certain that if all the magic were freed, it wouldn't be superheroes any more; it would be a full-on Tolkienesque post-apocalyptic fantasy world.

And the Antaeus League member pleads with them to give up their powers.

Now, in your campaign, they might be deluded, or they might be right.

So try throwing that into your next superhero campaign.

Today's notion

A Tulpa -like monster called "The living cliché" -- it can't be killed and although it has infinite powers, they're limited and guided by its current cliché form. (It has the weaknesses of its cliché form, too.)

Perhaps it starts as a person who gets a wishing ring and who wants to be a, I dunno, vampire. The ring turns the host into one until the ring is removed. 

You can't store the ring: it melts into mist if it isn't worn for a week and it re-forms near someone with a hunger for a different (clichéd) form. 

Stopping it forever is left as an exercise for the players. 

Think of it as an excuse to run something classic as an opponent: vampires, kaiju, creatures from the black lagoon, pirates, gangsters, dragons...

Today's NPC: Justine Mastema, Paranormal Paralegal

SYSTEM: ICONS

Justine Mastema

Fallen angels have children (doing what often leads to angels being fallen might cause that), and one of them wants to be a lawyer. Oh, there was a whole adventure where the forces of Light and Dark fought for her soul (Lucifer also being a fallen angel) and the end result is helping people as a paralegal. (She has lots of reasons why paralegal is the choice right now instead of lawyer.) Her sweetie is an ambulance attendant and paramedic, so "para" stays in the house, so to speak.

Justine is short and petite, with long black hair that's usually braided down her back.
She is an information source: through her, heroes can hear about this evil corporation or that bad guy who is cheating innocent people out of their belongings.

Justine Mastema

Origin: Unearthly

Prowess	2	Intellect	5	Determination	–
Coordination	4	Awareness	3
Strength	4		Willpower	4	Stamina	8

Specialties: Law Expert

Powers

3	Aura (flames)
3	Element Control (fire) — Telekinesis (can create and control flames)
5	Fire Resistance

Today's NPC: Harry Crewswater

SYSTEM: Any supers game

Harry is a commercial real estate agent, dealing for the most part in warehouses, offices, and factories. He worships Donald Trump while being critical of him, he is a Tea Party conservative, and he donates to all political parties. Harry is kind of a creep, loud and obnoxious, but Harry does have his own code of ethics and a sense of survival.

He needs them.

Harry rents property to supervillains.

Ever wonder where those bases come from, those wonderfully recondite underwater lairs, those abandoned warehouses with the Coming soon: Condos, fall 2007 signs out front? Harry rents them.

It started with his cousin, David, who's serving life in a certain maximum security prison. David made Harry's name known to certain supervillains who were passing through the prison. Now his reputation is self perpetuating. Whenever supervillains hire on thugs, someone is sure to mention Harry's name, and Harry's rules.

• Harry never meets with a client under the client's real name or known aliases
• He insists on the first month's payment up front
• He refuses to know anything about the client's real plans
• Everything has to be discussed according to the fiction. This is important, because the feds have several times gotten a warrant to bug Harry's phone and office. If a client uses a known name, Harry refuses to do business with him--the tapes are full of him saying that he cannot do business with the Subtle Squid, or Doctor Faux, or the Bomb Cats. 
• He refuses to eat or drink with the client. 
• He conducts most business by phone, except for the final signature, for which he sends his duly appointed representative, Ernesto. Or Claude, or whatever his name is. Harry's on his fifth one. (Most of them quit, not being as tough as they thought they were.)

Harry also can't be swayed by threats to his cousin David (of whom he is not that fond, anyway), nor by threats to his wife, Marissa (of whom he is definitely not that fond anymore), or by threats to his kids, who in his eyes are mostly a tool for generating tax deductions and spending his money.

A threat to one of his mistresses might slow him down, but instead he would probably call the cops. Because if these guys had resources, they wouldn't be dealing with him.

Now, one might wonder how Harry actually makes money off supervillains, because most of them stiff him for subsequent rent or get caught by superheroes. One might suspect an organized crime connection, and one would be right.

Organized crime owns the construction and demolition companies that get called in, and Harry receives a nice kickback from them by letting them know that a property has been rented, and will probably be available soon in a damaged condition. The mob does the demo job or, if the villain is caught elsewhere, cleans out any equipment left behind and sells it at a profit. Harry's kickback doesn't have to be declared on taxes, and brings Harry up to the almost-lavish lifestyle he enjoys.

How do the PCs get involved with Harry? Mostly, they don't. Harry is a reason, rather than a gaming opportunity. However, he might come to the attention of the PCs in several ways.

First of all, a PC who has an obscene streetwise ability might know about him. Certain police officers do, and they know that Harry works very hard to be clean legally. They also know that if they really, really need to find a supervillain hideout, there's a thirty per cent chance they can do it by pointing concerned citizens who are not burdened with search laws (that is, certain heroes) at Harry.

Second, a PC who likes data crunching might well notice that six of the last twelve supervillain hideouts were rented by the same company. This could lead to a visit to Harry, and a return visit from the Mob after Harry complains.

Third, a PC might actually be investigating violence against David, in prison.

Fourth, it's a reason for a mob member to know things he shouldn't, if a PC leans on him.

Here's how Harry might look, in ICONS:

Harry Crewswater, Real Estate Magnate

Prowess	2	Coordination	2	Strength	3	Determination	–
Intellect	3	Awareness	4	Willpower	4	Stamina	7
Specialties	Business Expert Law (real estate) Expert					Powers	None
Qualities	Deeply connected with the underworld Cares about the appearance of honesty Wants more stuff, more power, more leverage

Today's NPC: Magda Berlioz, CPA

Magda Berlioz, CPA

SYSTEM: Any

Magda first comes to the attention of the PCs because she's a tax accountant, working for a firm hired either by one of the PCs (in secret or hero identity) or for the team, if there is a team. Magda is young, unmarried (to the displeasure of her father), and has a bright future ahead of her. She's built rather like an Olympic shot-putter, but she has a cheerful disposition, and she's pretty sure her boyfriend will propose very soon.

And she's just been handed the job of handling the taxes of the PC|team, now that old Mr. Courtemanche is retiring.Things are looking good for Magda.

The PCs soon get to know the way that Magda is frustrated by their inability to keep proper receipts, and their tendency to claim things like "extradimensional mileage--work expenses" (if she's the accountant for a hero identity or identities). Magda is very happy when her boyfriend proposes (he's an insurance underwriter). They might even get to know that her mom was a serious granola-crunching hippy who raised Magda on a commune after she split with Magda's father, and cast "good luck" spells on her every full moon. But they certainly know that she's a good accountant who finds every allowable deduction for them.

That's when Magda gets possessed.

It probably happens on a trip to the hero HQ to discuss some deductions, triggered by accidentally brushing against some mystic object, but it might happen when she shakes hands with a magical hero or, frankly, the stars might just be right.

She becomes temporary housing to a powerful extraplanar deity, maybe one that calls itself a god, maybe an Elder Thing, but one with a mission of conquest.

I'm sure that the heroes can defeat the entity and send it back to its home dimension; that's what heroes do.

Except that Magda isn't really the same after that. Not that her personality has changed, but her fiance breaks it off for fear that some night he'll be sharing the bed with Czernobog, and she's put on notice by her company. Yes, possession is one of the risks of associating with superheroes, but it never happened to Mr. Courtemanche.

Magda can probably rebuild...except that first possession has wrought one more change: it's given her the Quality "transient housing for the incorporeal". If there's an entity in search of a body, it will probably get Magda, which means that the PCs will see her outside of tax season.

Magda tries to make this work...she puts the heroes on speed dial, except of course that once she's possessed she doesn't want to dial. Proactive heroes probably have her on a list. "Weird clouds over city? Check Magda and other usual suspects." She gets fired, tries to open her own business. She probably has the heroes as clients, maybe other exceptional individuals. ("Well, I think that as a werewolf, you can reasonably deduct the cage and manacles. Can we get some kind of affadavit from a recognized sorcerer?")

The Quality cuts both ways. If someone else is possessed, the players can try to encourage a helpful spirit into Magda. However, they might get something inimical. Also, if she's possessed by something relatively weak, like a revenant with unfinished business, it might get ousted halfway through by Zargox, Eater of Souls, which would mean that the current fight against Earl of Evil over there just got to be a fight on two fronts.

It's possible that one use of the Quality is that she retains bits and pieces of the god like abilities of the possessors. That will be handy when Paul is trying to kill her.

Paul, you see, is one of the previous hosts and possessors of the Quality. But he's old now (it would awful but telling if his last name were Courtemanche), and powerful extraplanar entities no longer try to possess him. (He's the shabby and dilapidated motel when compared to the bright new building that is Magda.) Paul's thing is that after he gets possessed, he feels better. A little of that life force gets left behind, and sure, he might die sooner, but he feels better. His joints don't ache, he can sleep better, and he can work small bits of magic.

The PCs can get involved with Magda through their taxes, the incidents created by one of Magda's "tenants", through the police catching Magda as she's possessed and creating an incident, or through the death attempts that Paul makes. She's a gateway to get them involved in the unfinished business of a revenant, and possibly a romantic interest for a character.

Here's how she might be written up in ICONS as the PCs first meet her:

Magda Berlioz

Prowess	2	Coordination	3	Strength	4
Intellect	4	Awareness	3	Willpower	3
Determination		–	Stamina		7
Specialties	Business Expert
Powers	None (yet)
Qualities	Darn good tax accountant and CPA Dad's traditional, mom's a granola flake, I don't want to be like either of them Transient housing for the incorporeal