Why is Blue about to jam his finger up Green's nose?

>>331896
Nothing gets you healthy like a good nose picking.

>>331895
motives? AVENGING FATHER! for no particular reason.

I mean he had a moon base he had to be pretty cool

>>331895
His motive is being less bored and collecting those encounter checks.

His behavior is genial, police, and considerate, but people are out to stop him because he keeps doing things that are annoying as fuck.

First plan: Use half of that encounter check to pay aspiring young garage bands to play on street corners soliciting tips, and split the tips with them 50/50.

Second plan: Go onto the internet and start packaging free software with a "Vuvuzela Ambiance" application that can't be removed and runs on startup. Charge people $50 for one-time-use codes to make it go away.

Once the moon base is accessible, sell advertising space on the dark side of the moon.

Additionally, start creating OSHA-compliant death traps. Since nobody ever dies to the fatal variety, the heroes will never know these are harmless. If anybody ever does find out then they're going to be incredibly pissed at the heroes.

>>331899
Also, save up the FX so you can get a very competent right-hand-woman with whom your interaction will cause people to argue over if you're actually involved or not, and never actually do anything to prove it one way or the other.

Anonymous 2010/08/21(Sat)20:33 No. 22108 ID: 932552
File 128244801982.png - (18.98KB , 265x265 , VILLAIN.png )

His motive is obviously money and power(FX)!

>>331897
Avenging his dad seems like a pretty cool Freudian Excuse though. Or furthering his father's goals. Or just being better than he was.

Maybe we should find out what his dad actually did.

>>331899
I am all for this plan. Our evil plot shall be to ANNOY. ANNOY THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF THE CITIZENRY and be a MILD IRRITATION.

We need him to keep his job because he is a respectable adult. And because it's funny.

>>331914
Yup, this plan is clearly the best.

>>331914
Prodding their pets with sticks in the night!
Giving candy and soda to small children just before car trips!
Making devices that make cell phone noises and leaving them in theatres!
Ensuring Uwe Boll gets more movie deals!
Creating devices for 3 AM Ding-Dong-Ditch!
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

His plan as of now is to create the perfect brunch. Of which his Nemesis's will most certainly try to capture for their own culinary research.

>>331914
This.

Anonymous 2010/08/22(Sun)04:22 No. 22148 ID: 932552
File 128247616555.png - (12.06KB , 180x150 , Blackwicks.png )

>>/quest/220923
> Since we're doing the discussion here instead of the thread
ITT: we mostly talk about hypothetical stuff, long term goals and motives we don't want to bog down the thread with.

In the main thread people started mentioning all these required secondary powers we'd need to take into account for an actual moon base. I was thinking we could just build a base somewhere on earth and use that. Maybe with lava pits or something. You know, because obsidian.
When teleporting to the moon base is actually doable at all, we can pop in and start dragging back anything portable dad left behind. Actually moving there seems like more and more of a high end villainy type deal, which we are too poor and weak to do yet, and probably will be for some time. When we are actually powerful enough to pop back and forth casually and/or have all the required secondary powers, we can just drag anything we took back and move in proper.
Besides, until we can port around all easy type, it makes it kindof hard to go shopping or anything, right?

>>331914
So, Rastin Style Villainy, then? I support this.

People are already coming up with so many long term goals and fixating on Blacwick's father.

Really I think the focus should be on getting Blacwick some cool villain friends and a hot girlfriend who doesn't mind wearing tight black leather clothing and joining in on the villainy business. Villainy in itself doesn't really GO anywhere. I mean Blacwick's dad had a moon base with ninjas, but he abandoned his son and got killed using up all his resources.

with all this fire and teleporting you might say that we'll go out like a candle.

Also he should get some more martial arts training to go with his flames and poofing around.

>>331954
>Really I think the focus should be on getting Blacwick some cool villain friends and a hot girlfriend who doesn't mind wearing tight black leather clothing and joining in on the villainy business.
I fully support this endeavor.

>>331959
No, we save up 10FX and get a BOSS.
That boss will be a woman with an are-they-or-are-they-not-dating cloud of mystery around them.

>>331954
>>331959
>>331963
No way, we need a superhero girlfriend.

you guys are so obnoxious! Crash alocal concert? minor diversions for FX? The only villain that'd go for those is a classless villain!

>>331980
We should take over the local wax museum, clearly.

>>331980
Look, man, these are our early issues. We don't have to really develop our definitive character for a while yet, and once we have it they'll retcon everything that we did in the early days anyway.

>>331978
So we spend 10FX on what I describe then have her register as a hero so she can fight other villains, and the two of them look out for each other - her by helping him quietly slip out the back, him by betraying his fellow supervillains when it would help her out.

Blacwick!94Ud9yTfxQ 2010/08/23(Mon)00:40 No. 22204 ID: a6008c
File 128254925070.png - (28.25KB , 576x720 , Black Wick copy.png )

Character sheet! He bought one extra FX to spend, as well as some unlisted supplies that will be put to use when I next update.

New sheets will be posted as he powers up.

Can we get some more specifics on the teleportation power? How does the charging work? Can Blacwick do other things while charging up a teleport? Does the destination have to be fixed or can he start charging the teleport and then go anywhere reasonable within the charge range? How much can be teleported (people, items etc.)? Is momentum conserved while teleporting? Does it require line of sight or just some sort of reasonable knowledge of where he wants to go?

So far we know that 1) The flames are purely decorative. 2) Blacwick can't change his orientation during a teleport.

>>332068
I made this quest so I would have a quest that does not require too much thinking, or rules lawyering, or any of that gunk. It will make it easier on me, and make it easier on you, the reader. This is not a quest that requires overthinking, and if you keep overthinking it, it will probably die in the same way How To Raise a Princess did.

So, shut up, stop trying to break it, and have fun. Limits will only be imposed on things as you people keep trying to break them wide open. Stop trying to break things, and you will be able to get away with more shit.

So, no. You can't get more specifics on teleport, because Blacwick doesn't know anything about the power yet either. He is learning as you are, and you will have to discover your limits on your own. What those limits end up being is not yet set until Blacwick discovers them.

>>332097
YOU ARE GREAT AUTHOR

Reka 2010/09/06(Mon)00:09 No. 22677 ID: 44d67c
File 128375698911.png - (64.52KB , 342x513 , Count_Baron_Blackwick.png )

So I did a mockup of various possible flight powers in the thread but then people chose something else. So I made a new one.
Since it's no longer aiding suggestions I thought it more suited to be posted here!

The idea of Blackwick with a thin aura made me think of Castlevania and the way supernatural characters often have a pixel-wide aura.
I support turning him into Dracula.

>>332477
hahaha, well maybe a little thicker, with whisps of fire coming off of him. it's still fire based after-all just thin.

>>332477
You never cease to amaze me.

http://quest.lv/wiki/Earth_Defense_Force

So I maded you an article, Gnome. I even put up some basic info.

I've noticed that people don't really seem to CARE about the character sections and such, but I thought we could pin up established plot points and stuff we'd want to frequently reference. Hence the 'Notes' section. It's sort of an experimental design for a wiki article, based more around player and author needs than giving a plot summary.

Blacwick!94Ud9yTfxQ 2010/09/06(Mon)03:38 No. 22688 ID: 2dd0ba
File 128376950061.png - (31.11KB , 576x720 , Black Wick copy.png )

Updated character sheet.

>>332484
Thank you, Adept!

>>332477
Reka you might as well be official co-author at this point, with all the helpful images you post.

>>332488
Lets try to conserve FX. We don't get any bonuses for winning, so lets instead focus on having a lot of encounters where we don't even worry about properly defeating the heroes.
Cause chaos, annoy the heroes, leave.
Spend no FX, just save it up so we can get the high-cost important things.

>>332493
well, some things are worth spending it on. such as doing something really cool taht earns more FX back. like that guitar thing. that totes got us extra.

>>332493
>>332494

Yeah, taking this into account, I think we need to think in the complete opposite way. We have little to lose unless we go overboard on FX spending, and alot to gain in awesome and cool factor by spending. Plus, no matter what after a battle its pretty much guaranteed we are going to get enough money for 2/3 FX.

Love this adventure so far though I must say.

>>332506
Spending money on actual stuff for an encounter requires time and planning. Just having a bunch of FX works anytime, anywhere and usually more effectively. Spending FX on upgrades works out even better, as long as you hold onto a few FX for encounters.

Speaking of which, we need some actual fire attacks next chance we get.

>>332513
>Speaking of which, we need some actual fire attacks next chance we get.

We should work out a power that lets us manifest a sword made of fire into our hands to use as a weapon. Fireballs are nice and all, but we need something flashy and awesome.

>>332515
If we're looking for a close-range weapon, a continuous flamethrower ability would probably be better than a sword made of fire. And, frankly, more awesome. A guy with a burning sword is something that people can fit into their minds as a slight twist on a mundane threat; a guy with a five-foot jet of scorching flame blooming from his palm is not.

Obviously, we need a gun. A gun that shoots swords. Swords made of fire.

>>332517
Is the gun also on fire?

>>332518
That depends on how over the top we want it. What about smoke? Smoke can be nicely dramatic.

>>332519
A smoke belcher gun

That shoots very very hot smoke

>>332515
No, we need a sword that LOOKS like fire, but actually freezes on contact.
All our powers must appear to be fire based, but actually have nothing to do with fire at all.

>>332521
So... a sword that... WICKS away heat?

Maybe a ranged attack that it powers up with said heat?

>>332521
You mean like the Amaranthine Annihalator in Golem Quest? It pushes heat out so hard it makes a WAVE OF FIRE?

>>332530
Dunno.



I don't read Golem Quest.



Huge fireball that gets more huge or normal fireball that burns hotter, I was thinking.

hmm, when the EDF show up again i think we should call a time out and tell them sorry for ruining it the first time they showed up, the fact that they signed up as your nemesis means they really care about this thing. then say "okay then, now that is taken care of, time in, in three, two, one!" and then start fighting. would make them feel better as well as making it fun. makes them feel like they deserve to have that nemesis slot.

>>332523
No, just a ice sword.
Although, come to think of it, cryokinesis and hydrokinesis would completely trump any kind of sword; people see the fire theme and trap him in a block of ice... which he then turns into Ice Armor and activate his fire aura around that.

However, what we should get right now is a healing power. Following that we should upgrade our fire aura so it can encompass another person.
If we can get both of those in one shot - the ability to extend the aura and have it heal everybody inside it - then that is obviously what we must do.

My only concern here is that $200 might not be enough for a date, so lets hold off on spending any cash or FX until after the date.

>>332532

Also: Teleport breakdown:
Upgrades:M/S:Time(Avg distance to moon):FX point cost:FX point total cost
1:10:444d21h51m40s:6:6
2:100:44d11h47m10s:3:9
3:1000:4d10h46m43s:3:12
4:10000:10h40m04s300ms:3:15
5:100000:1h04m04s030ms:3:18
6:1000000:6m24s403ms:3:21
7:10000000:38s440.3ms:3:24
8:100000000:3s844.03ms:3:27
9:1000000000:384.403ms:3:30

>>332534
nice, according to this then lvl 5 is when we can check the place out, with lvl 6 being when it is somewhat practical to get there.
now figure out how many upgrades we need to get to alpha centauri

>>332534
Glad that someone already crunched the numbers. This is a pretty important thing to keep an eye on, since we'll get a goodly amount more resources. With a little luck, there might be some stuff up there to recoup the cost of all those FX, or at least pay for the space suit we needed to make the teleport safe (unless we spring for the 'can breathe in space' superpower).

As for our more immediate concerns, healing seems like it could be useful, but not useful enough. I'd rather put the two points into invulnerability than start down a fresh healing path.

A good solid weapon would be a really good thing, from what we've seen so far. I'm thinking big, heavy, and slow. Speed is what FX are for. To continue the whole theme, how about a big obsidian sword that is also on fire?

...Or, if you wanted to be a complete, teleporting-sneaky-bastard, how about a Baron's Obsidian Blackjack?

>>332535
That's about 40112640400000000 meters.
Teleport level 14 would get there with less than 10 minutes of charging, and would require spending 39FX to get that speed.

>>332537
then it's decided. we upgrade our moon base to a out-of-system base. for double points we put it in a volcano on planet.

>>332538
What? No. That's dumb. We have FAR better uses of FX than sticking our moonbase in another solar system. Can you imagine how much invulnerability that would buy?

>>332536
Weapons? Too practical. Instead lets invest in an indestructible stereo that plays our theme music while we're in battle.
Our theme music shall be the song that doesn't end.
We will spend FX to make the tune a mindvirus so it will ALWAYS get stuck in people's heads for several days afterward - unless we extend our healing fire aura to them to clean it out of their minds.

Next encounter, how about we just turn the fire aura on and teleport into an enemy's leg?

probably a 'can't teleport into solid matter' thing to keep us from getting fused or scrambled.

It might actually be cheaper to buy a spaceship than to blow all that fx on teleport. Or maybe we could just upgrade the base with an 'instant teleporter' upgrade. Limited to just from earth to there, and from there to Blacwick's apartment or something.

>>332544
Not really, FX cost 300$ dollars, and we need 21 FX, so that only brings it to 6300$ if we had no FX. Now STEALING a spaceship might be a nice alternative though.

I think we should focus on what is needed at the moment. A) a way to get to the moon base and B) defense against ice. I say that for now we get a reduced impact upgrade VS ice/cold. Seeing as how we have fire powers, it's only natural that our foes will attempt to use ice and cold based attacks against us. We need to strengthen ourselves against this as soon as possible, even if we can't remove that weakness immidiatlly. As for the moon base, we I think that will be a long term investment requireing alot of time and money. Perhaps we could get instant teleport to certian locations, such as Blackwick's apartment and the moonbase? The enviromental shield power is also a must for the moon base in order to shield us from the vacuum of space. Most of that other stuff seems like it would be of use, but we dont exactly have lots of resources on hand at the moment. Lets stay practical for now.

>>332555
First:
Forget reducing the effect of ice attacks. Instead go for Cryokinesis so he can control ice himself. Why reduce the damage from an attack when he can just turn it into ice armor?

Second:
Get the environmental shield for oxygen-lacking environments first. That would let him breathe underwater, in a solid block of ice, in space, and in low-oxygen environments inside a burning building. Vacuum resistance is far less important.

>>332554
Space ships are worth $Lots.
If we stole one, then we would be better off selling it for the cash and buying FX.
Or ransoming it back to the owner for a price low enough that they'll pay it just so it won't be endangered by a hero fighting to take it back. This tactic is very effective in real life; a botnet owner will DDoS a site, then threaten to do it again at a worse time if the site doesn't pay them a nearly-trivial amount of cash. When somebody demands ~$10k, the expected lost business would be >$1m, and the cost of building a system to scrub the DDoS so you can ride out the attack is >$100k, people will just pay the botnetter.

The same thing applies here. Steal a multi-million dollar craft, hold it for ransom for $10k-$20k, take the money and leave. A superpower enhanced fight inside the craft would do far more than $20k in damage, so the owner would be very likely to just pay it.

Also? Next crime: Stealing the guns from liquor stores and selling them to gun shops for cash. (Or participating in one of those toys-for-guns programs that the police run, then pawning the toys.)

This is something I posted in thread, because I was posting there when I thought of it, but it really belongs here.

We should get some sort of fire blast or flamethrower type thing some time in the future. If we get Fire Shield, we could likely do this by moving our fire aura at our enemy instead of wearing it, thus costing us 3 FX instead of six, but preventing us from doing it while flying, and making us not invulnerable while using it. This also makes us more interesting by giving us a significant weakness (thus adding potential for more FX at some risk).

>>332535
Um, no. Four is when we can get there. Five is when we can get there quickly enough that we could live there and commute to work. Six is when such travel becomes trivial.

As long as we're discussing powers, here's my current "to buy" list.
-Regeneration (no more facial bruises the next day)
-Increased speed/reflexes (would help a lot with our mobile fighting style)
-Danger sense (we've been hit with trick attacks twice now)
-Flamethrower (short/medium range fire attack)
-Fire blast (medium/long range kinetic blast with fire flavor; actual fire optional)

Those are new powers. Upgrading existing powers is of course desirable as well.

>>332573
Lowering our defenses whenever we use a certain attack seems like it couldn't possibly be worth the tradeoff of a few FX. Unless it would be far more powerful than simply buying a new power, this seems like a silly idea. We're not so powerful that we need to give ourself new weaknesses to remain interesting.

>>332567
Our fire aura has a weakness to water (>>/quest/226826), apparently. I don't think it could ever let us breathe underwater.

>>332583
>Lowering our defenses whenever we use a certain attack seems like it couldn't possibly be worth the tradeoff of a few FX. Unless it would be far more powerful than simply buying a new power, this seems like a silly idea.
I'm not really trying to minmax here. It seems like a particularly interesting way to grant ourselves a ranged offensive benefit, so I want it.
>We're not so powerful that we need to give ourself new weaknesses to remain interesting.
We will theoretically escalate in power as time goes on. Preserving an ounce of mortality for later seems wise to me.

>-Regeneration (no more facial bruises the next day)
I like that things can have an effect on us.
-Increased speed/reflexes (would help a lot with our mobile fighting style)
I like this idea.
>-Danger sense (we've been hit with trick attacks twice now)
Good, but it could remove some of the interestingness of combat.
>-Flamethrower (short/medium range fire attack)
>-Fire blast (medium/long range kinetic blast with fire flavor; actual fire optional)
These are the same thing as each other, and also the same as the aura displacement I suggested. There's no reason to use too many names for the same thing.

>>/quest/227910
Aye, a valid point. I doubt it would take much effort to avoid lighting everything on fire.

>>/quest/228513
We're positioning him to be an affably evil punch-clock villain, even without my pushing to make him more annoying than evil. This makes it completely acceptable for him to be dating a hero and for a hero to be dating him due to the fact that he's not bringing a lot of evil baggage into the relationship.
Everything he has done so far has been less total evil than your average tragic back-story hero, he's nowhere close to the evil of a reformed villain, and only people with insanity-level obsessions would accuse him of anything even close to an unforgivable act ("Interrupting a concert? SACRILEGE!").
Right now he's doing the 'noble demon' bit, and heroes have a hard time keeping a grudge against that kind of villain.

With all that said, it's perfectly fine to manipulate people who you don't know, don't care about, or dislike, as that's just part of the job. However, you never manipulate people you like.

Take this example: Blacwick has a date, and people are considering using mind control powers to make her fall in love (or lust) with him.
Completely aside from the implications of rape (one of the few things that always lands straight in the middle of "unforgivable acts"), that's a betrayal of trust, and nobody likes a backstabber.

Grah... I'm ranting.

TL;DR: Don't mind-control friends and loved ones.

>>332629
i agree.

>>332629
>TL;DR: Don't mind-control friends and loved ones.
She's neither, yet. The whole POINT of getting the power is to make her one or both of the above. It's the sort of will-come-back-to-bite-you-in-the-ass act that villains excel at, as she'll eventually break free and declare that she would have liked him if only he hadn't tried to force her to do so.

Draft of overly-dramatic back-story:

"Perhaps you're wondering how I got to be here?
My father abandoned me so long ago that I can't even remember his face. Mother tried her best to raise me properly alone, but it was hard enough supporting herself. I wasn't the greatest kid, but I was pretty good. I didn't get into much trouble, and I got decent grades, at least. Sadly, with my father offering no support college was an impossible dream. I graduated high school and got a job at a grocery market.
I've always wanted to find my father and ask him why. Why did he leave? Why did he never write? Why did he leave mom to raise me alone? So many questions for him; so very many questions...
Not too long ago, some of those answers I sought found me when three so-called 'heroes' attacked me from behind while I worked.
They didn't care that the place was full of innocent people, let alone property damage. They didn't care that I knew nothing of their quarrels. They didn't care that I was just an ordinary person leading a normal life. All they wanted to do was murder me because of a man I never even knew.
They bragged, you know. They told me with relish how my father's death failed to sate their hatred, and that they and those like them would devote their every waking moment to hunting me down and slaughtering me like an animal. It was then I knew why my father left, and why he couldn't have anything to do with his wife and child.
I did the only think I could do; I fought for my life. All it took was one good solid kick, and the cowards ran like the jackals they were.

It was then that I met the mayor. He offered me the power I needed to defend myself and to fight back, and told me the bastards responsible flock to chaos like flies on rotting meat.
But I'm not going to sink to their level, I'm not going to stoop so low as to kill them for what they've done, no. Instead, I'm going to make them miserable. I am going to be their sins given form; I am going to drive them mad until they destroy themselves, and then the world will be free of their bloodlust.
I do regret that I often find myself in conflict with people who have noble intents, but such conflicts bring me closer to my goals."

>>332633
Yes, and I'd rather see the hero/villain romantic interplay work out on its own.

>>332629
I agree with the sentiments expressed here. The mind-control stuff is unnecessary.

>>332629
Damn, we're not talking overt mind control. Just some emotional influencing. A little increase in lust. Why does it matter if it's something Blackwick can do with fire or something I can do with my fingers? That doesn't make it heinous. Manipulative, maybe, if we use it in a situation where her intent is not already determined, but not particularly evil. Furthermore, my suggestion that it be a dual-faceted thing (lust/rage) prevents us from going "hey you're cute. Magic lust attack!" and causing people to fall in love with us, because that sort of thing is more likely to piss folks off than anything else. At the first level, it'll practically be something relatively unobtrusive to get a girl extra worked up when we've already got her going. Not really heinous.

>>332636
That post did not express the sentiment that it was unnecessary, but rather that it's unethical. I agree that it's somewhat unnecessary, but really, there's nothing that's strictly necessary. It would be useful in bed, as a supernatural supplement, and in battle, to cloud the wits of our opponent and thus put ourselves in a position of greater control.

>>332634
I really like this. It's a great speech. It displays us as a villain, but a well though out villain, and hugely overplays the way shit actually went down. Really, quite perfect for a villain.

Side note:
>Instead, I'm going to make them miserable. I am going to be their sins given form; I am going to drive them mad until they destroy themselves
kind of goes against your earlier point. Though I wouldn't care to see an emotional influence related to madness, sin, or misery, in particular. I don't think that fits our theme too closely.

>>332651
you can influence people without mind powers.

Being able to drive our minions to awesome feats of stupidity bravery is awesome and I wholly support it.

>>332653
I don't think we have the right glasses for it.
Besides, might get us sued.

>>332655
>might get us sued.
By who, our minions? Minions don't have rights. Besides, induced bravery is an enhancement, and as such is protected by our status as a Villain.

Random idea: The moon is a pretty long way away. With just a couple of upgrades, though, we could be zapping across borders with ease, and a few more would let us carry hundreds of pounds of whatever we wanted.

We should turn Blacwick into a drug kingpin! The minions can handle distribution, and it ought to be profitable enough to let him go into villainy full-time, even without dealing in hard drugs.
Plus, think of all the great confrontations! D.A.R.E.Devil comes after us, and almost wins, but then we force him to choose between bringing us in or stopping our robots from dumping LSD into the reservoir! So thrilling! Tune in next week for more of the third-eye-opening adventures of Baron Obsidian!

>>332714
Hmm. I'm liking our current grocery store employment. On the other hand, Drug Lord is an entirely respectable state of employment. Perhaps this is a goal for when we inevitably outgrow our current employer. But first we'll need to successfully take down some of his opposition, and position him to become a monopoly, and become a consultant for his growing business. Then, with consultancy fees secured, and plenty of free time, we can move into drug running.

Also, the LSD plot is gold. Similar things have been done before, but it's still gold.

What, drugs! No way, man! Drugs are for, like, C-rank villains! People who don't even wear costumes!

Sure you get supervillains who are on the periphery of drug-running, but if they're anywhere near the big leagues then either 1) it's only a small part of how they get their funding, and managed locally by stereotypical mob boss #36, or 2) they're someone like the Scarecrow and they're actually making fear gas or supersoldier chemicals or something. Certainly no-one who has a moon base should sully themselves with lording over regular drugs.

Hiring out assassins, selling weapons - now those are proper supervillain revenue sources. Plus some shady "legitimate" businesses, of course.

>>332718
We don't actually have our moon base now. But we could make a whole lot by moving things. Obviously, most of the infrastructure would indeed be delegated to an underling (who might or might not be stereotypical) and possibly we could delegate some of our teleportation power to runners under our command (somewhat like the Sorcerer Kings) but there's no real reason why we couldn't spend a few hour every day during harvest season moving shipping crates.

We don't have assassins, and the human resources required would be expensive, and would scale poorly. We can't use civilians for that, bud drug distribution can probably be handled by a boss (maybe even miniboss) and whatever associates he sees fit to employ.

Arms dealing requires manufacturing capabilities which we currently lack. It also has the notable downside that arms get distributed, and become more widespread than we might like. It essentially requires us to put most of our technological advantage on the open market. And that's unwise.

Of course, if California legalizes marijuana in November (all Californians, remember to vote!) then the available funds from drug running will shrink. A lot. But Gnome may or may not choose to reflect that change in-game, and if he does, well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

>>332718

The drug thing could be just for short term financial independence - Blacwick's boss is a cool guy and all, but real villains work for no one but themselves.
We'd still need a schtick, be it petty annoyance, destroying country music, sky pirates, whatever. All this drugs and gun-running stuff is too serious and impersonal to be our chief focus - we want to attract colorful superheroes, not international outrage.

No no guys wait, I've got it! DASHING MASTER THIEF.

It goes with the black, night theme, we can pull off heists easily with teleportation and flight, and so long as you leave a classy calling card it'd count as being for the purposes of luring out heroes, to search for you! Plus we can totally pull off that roguish charm that enchants the ladies, and be a villain while still having certain morals - we can do stuff like save babies from fires, refuse to kill and junk and STILL be a villain because we still steal stuff and fight heroes and probably get hired by other villains now and then. We'd just be one of those classy scoundrel villains.

Plus we don't have to deal with dangerous underworld types, actual criminals, in order to find and sell drugs; we just need to find some fences, much safer, or even better, sell the stuff we steal to other villains.

>>332732
Drugs are a good, solid business. Nothing wrong with them. But if we want a greater goal... dominating the world was suggested in-thread.

>>332738
Thieves are small-time. We don't want to be thieves. We aren't small time. Well, we are, but we won't continue to be.

>Plus we don't have to deal with dangerous underworld types, actual criminals, in order to find and sell drugs; we just need to find some fences, much safer, or even better, sell the stuff we steal to other villains.
Let me just greentext at you a bit, this is too silly for me to feel like composing a proper response
>fences and villains are not "actual criminals
>kids that sell pot at the local high school are
>for our own protection, we should avoid associating with people who work hard to turn a profit, and are not in the habit of screwing their coworkers over, and instead we should get into a business built around treachery

>>332739

Dearest sir, do you imply that the likes of catwoman, carmen sandiego and lupin are "small-time"?

Now, you are talking about people who sell pot at high schools. That is not the kind of thing that leads to the big time. That is the kind of thing that leads to a hero delivering a Special Message to children. Remember, our crimes have to be designed to lure heroes out. Now, if we started there and tried to move up - where do we move to? In the drugs business, the only up to move to is harder drugs, and more dangerous suppliers. And from the likes of Captain Planet up to Batman.

It's controversial, anyway, even if we stick to the soft drugs. People are gonna start disliking us on principle. As a master thief, though, we can be charming. You don't get charming drug-runners, not in the supervillain world.

Now, selling stolen goods is a better deal especially when you sell to other supervillains. One, you can sell them stuff no-one else would take - a villain will take grasscutter or the declaration of independence or the crystal dice of the old ones just to have it (or make use of it in some scheme). They will, of course, betray us sometimes, but that will allow us to team up with their heroic enemy to earn more money and FX - win-win! Plus it gives us contacts in our industry, very important in any profession.

Looking back on what I said, a proper fence probably wouldn't take stolen goods from someone who is on fire, but we should probably stay away from the real criminal underworld anyway.

>>332744
I like this idea.

I also like whoever it was who proposed the concept of our abilities all appearing to be fire-based but actually having nothing whatsoever to do with fire beyond the visual, just because that seems kind of hilarious.

>>332744
>Dearest sir, do you imply that the likes of catwoman, carmen sandiego and lupin are "small-time"?
Catwoman is. Carmen Sandiego isn't, but only by virtue of things just happening to work out right for her. For us to mimic that, we'd spend FX out the metaphorical wazoo. I don't know lupin.

Now, I'm not saying we would be doing street work ourselves. That would be stupid, and, indeed, small-time. I'm suggesting that we assume an administrative capacity. And underling of ours can manage the kids selling. I brought them up merely to highlight their relative harmlessness as contacts.
We do not need to move onto harder drugs, as we can merely spread our influence wider. We need not associate with unsavory suppliers, as we can establish our own institutions to grow for us.

People disliking us on principle is an unfortunate possibility, but let's face it, that's true of any decent villain profession.

Working for other supervillains is an unwise bet all around. Sure, they're good buyers for specific trinkets, but they hold significant control over us.
Contacts in our industry are good, but only when we meet them as equals, or better yet, as their superiors.
Working with heroes is not necessarily advantageous, and being betrayed by someone with a sizable advantage over us is not a good situation even when soliciting help from the vigilantes. Furthermore, doing so overmuch is liable to reduce our standing among other villains, thus making contacts less useful.

And no, we wouldn't want to interact with a proper fence anyway. It would be better to act through an agent in that situation.

>>332746
Too late for that, our aura now is fire in fact as well as appearance.

>>332748
Oh well.

Still overwhelmingly in favor of stealing things for other villains versus dealing drugs.

And I'm (pretty?) sure Lupin is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupin_III .

>>332750
Yeah, for some reason the drug trade seems unpopular. I don't know why, it's a very respectable business, and a good way of attaining revenue.

Side not on the thief thing, that I'd not considered: The quest is thus far not working well in that direction. We have immunity from the law, and we can teleport, so we could just teleport in somewhere, grab the goods, and teleport to our base or our buyer. Hardly an engaging tale. Which would be fine if it, like the drug thing, was merely intended to be a source of cash (actually the drug thing would also be a source of influence and prestige, but...) if this state of employ is intended to be thematically driving, thievery will not work well.

>>332751
Then we shall have to make it interesting.
Leave notes naming the date and time of the robbery.
Choose only the most high-profile targets.
Dress in an absurd costume while doing the job.
Pose extravagantly, possibly invoke pyrotechnics to draw even more attention.

Anonymous 2010/09/11(Sat)06:58 No. 22963 ID: 66014f
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>>332751

It's a matter of public opinion. When you think "drug trader", in the context of a superhero setting, what kind of person do you think of? A cigar-smoking mob boss? A sideways-gunned, beblingéd gang leader? Woah, like, a scruffy hippy? A sleazy guy in an alley? A pink-eyed, slightly trembling guy at a nightclub? We don't want to be any of those.

We've already shown an inclination to be a punch-clock villain, someone who can hang out with people who are his professional rivals in the off hours. But the key factor of the punchclock villain is to be forgivable. To perform crimes that are "just a job". Thievery, by some quirk of how humans think of things, is one of these - possibly to do with mythological trickster heroes or something. But the only way a drug-pushing villain ever gets redeemed is if they're a drug user themselves.

Making robberies more interesting? They don't necessarily have to be. We seldom see, say, The Riddler actually performing his crimes; just the clue that he left, the chase and the showdown. That's the interesting bit, and so too can it be with the Baron Obsidian.

Plus eventually we can do stuff like, steal mount rushmore and stuff. Maybe transplant it to the moon. A little decoration for our moon base. Impress the ladies.

Finally, do we really want any closer relation to guys like this?

<=

>>332755
That's silly just for the sake of being silly. I disapprove.

>>332763
>When you think "drug trader", [...] what kind of person do you think of?
A man with significant money and influence. Not the sort of fellow you cross, if you can help it. I don't think specifically in terms of the superhero genre, though. I can think of like, one dude who deals drugs in them. A minor Batman villain, the name of which I don't recall. He's more of an Al Capone clone, but with drugs.

>But the only way a drug-pushing villain ever gets redeemed is if they're a drug user themselves.
Two things:
1. We don't want to be redeemed. Heroes make less money.
2. We're not a pusher. We're just an honest businessman doing what we can to make ends meat. Sure, they're big ends, like dominating the world, but that's just the sort of thing you have to do when you're a Villain.

>the chase and the showdown. That's the interesting bit, and so too can it be with the Baron Obsidian.
So they chase us to our moon base and we have a showdown there? That gets real repetitive real quick. The Riddler is interesting because of the nature of his attention whoring, and because you see him from the perspective of the guy tracking him down, so you get interesting puzzles and whatnot.

>Plus eventually we can do stuff like, steal mount rushmore and stuff. Maybe transplant it to the moon. A little decoration for our moon base. Impress the ladies.

>Finally, do we really want any closer relation to guys like this?
He is certainly rather unsavory, but someone of that nature could prove a useful blunt instrument.

I do feel I should point out that I don't care that much about the drug trade specifically though, even though I probably came off that way. I've merely been refuting flawed arguments as I've noticed them, because that's just the way I am. I support it because it's a good job that provides wealth and influence for very little work, but if someone has a better idea, I could roll with that just fine.

I am against being a thief, though. Being a contractor is an ambition well below our means. We should aspire to be the one in charge, of a vast empire... a Barony, even.

>>332793
>We don't want to be redeemed.

I wasn't saying we were; however, it should look like we could be redeemed. Despite being a villain, we should have fans - and more importantly, we want to give heroes a reason to go easy on us. For example, if we killed people, we'd attract heroes that may be willing to kill us. If we get involved in drugs, we may get the kind of heroes who'll call us "dirtbag" and punch us in the face a lot. Which brings me to:

>We're not a pusher.
Doesn't matter. What matters is that we're in the drug trade. Doesn't matter if we do it honestly, or stick to drugs that don't really harm people: there's a stigma to the drug trade, a brush to be tarred with.

We want the possibility of corrupting heroes to our side, of hiring "noble dark knight" minions, of delivering not-so-different speeches to our enemies. Drugs, moreso than thievery or ransom or even killing in some cases, is a trade that will disgust people. As a supervillain, as someone supposed to be putting on a show with each confrontation, we need a good reputation, even as the "bad guy". We want to be one of the cool bad guys. Bad guys who are involved in drugs tend to be way down on the coolness scale, with only occasional, rare exceptions. Even then, the most prominent example I can think of is Jabba the Hutt.

Consider: who do we want our villainous role models to be? Let's look at Dr Doom, Lex Luthor, Ra's al Ghul - do any of these most noteworthy villains ever show sign of being involved with the drug trade? Not really. Would you rather we follow the slimy path of Jabba, or the eldritch machinations of DOOM?

As to showdowns, it doesn't always have to be to our moonbase. They could track us to our meeting with our client, or chase us as we fly away, or lure us into stealing something else to ambush us.

It is not for us as players to worry about such things, anyway. If we attempt villainy, drama will be provided.

So, people don't like the drug trading idea. I think that's dumb, but I'm clearly outnumbered in this. What other options are there for a respectable villain? I can think of two.

Protection Rackets
Protection rackets are the mainstay of funding for the mafia, and work okay for them. The benefit is that it's simple: We turn muscle into money. The flaws here are unfortunately manifold.
To effectively protect, we must have folks with an ear to the ground, and folks ready to fuck shit up at a moment's notice. Our teleportation means we can do more of our fair share of actual protection, but it does nothing to help our awareness of attacks against our interests.
This is an operation that is easily threatened by law enforcement, since our boys will not share our immunity from legal prosecution, and will be highly visible and legally offensive.
It is also easily usurped and invalidated by security systems.

Politics
Politicians get good pay for (depending on office) infrequent work, and have influence paralleled only by those in the upper echelons of the corporate world, and more relevant to our own interests. It does require a significant investment of time when congress is in session, though.
More importantly, it's tough to get into politics. We'd most likely have to get elected. Perhaps a more direct route to power would be to declare the moon to be a sovereign nation, with us at the helm. Obviously, for this to mean anything, we'd have to populate it. This is viable, because the moon is considered international these days, America gave it up in some UN meeting or other. We could just sit up there and be King of the Moon, or we could become a member state of the USA, which would expand our power, and not likely be to our detriment considering that people don't want us to actually be very evil. To do that, we might have to have a minimum population. I'm not sure if that applies to existing states or just to territories, and those requirements are a congressional law, not part of the constitution, so looking it up would be a huge pain.

>>332797
Jabba was entirely successful, if you don't count the part where he tangled with Jedi, and even the Emperor succumbed to that threat. His tastes were rather vulgar, and his practices were often unnecessarily brutish, but as a gentleman, we would not succumb to such vices.

>It is not for us as players to worry about such things, anyway. If we attempt villainy, drama will be provided.
Perhaps not as players, but as considerate folks, we should acknowledge that Gnome does this for his own enjoyment, and started it largely because he wanted a less serious quest. From the point of view of an author, that means that it should not require him to deal heavily in plotting and planning, as he does in Apocalyption. We should be so kind as to avoid driving this quest into a place where that is not possible. Merely a courtesy.

>>332793
>silly for silly's sake
How so?
It emphasises the confrontations that make us money and FX, and there's the villain archetype to consider.
Only problem I can see is fire aura mucking up the targets.

o 2010/09/11(Sat)17:34 No. 23015 ID: 45be60
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I really don't understand this insistence on having a villain-job as part of our persona anyway. Just being a super-villain IS a job. We can get our income from epic-level dickery. We don't need to sell drugs or rob banks or hold the mayor ransom. (Though that last one would be entertaining from a logistics standpoint) What we need are impressive capers.

We can make money by, for instance, finding the straightest skyscraper in town, drenching it in black paint, and building a giant fire on the roof. Boom, giant black candle, heroes come running, we get richer.

well i actualy enjoy the quest but i dont want to go all fanboy on this so ill just poast what i think as a moralfag.

we shouldnt tempt the law, we will use that protection enought as it is with property damage. consider that the MAYOR gaved us power, he must have control over it as well. i would not be surprised if things get too rought and he will lift the protection or turn off our powers.

that being said: if we can make a drug that gives superpower im all for it.

>>332818

You may be right. Maybe we should ask our boss what kind of stuff villains have gotten away with in the past?

>>332814
If we want to steal shit, we should steal it efficiently. If we don't want it, then the thief charade is utterly pointless.

>>332815
We have power, and immunity from Law. We should use this to increase our personal wealth and influence. As long as it doesn't take up too much of our time, we're golden. Running a criminal empire of the (drugs or protection, or even more heinous stuff such as sex trafficking) would do this very well. Politics would take up some time, but would be extremely advantageous in other ways.

>We can make money by, for instance, finding the straightest skyscraper in town, drenching it in black paint, and building a giant fire on the roof. Boom, giant black candle, heroes come running, we get richer.
Fuck yes, we should do this. Of course, first we must liberate copious amounts of black paint or ink or something from an appropriate factory, and an immense piece of fabric to wrap around a spire/antenna, forming a wick, and probably some lamp oil, so it will burn for longer, because sky scrapers aren't actually made of wax.

>>332818
I don't think it works like that. I think he'll just call on more powerful heroes to beat some sense into us.

>>332814
If we want to steal shit, we should steal it efficiently. If we don't want it, then the thief charade is utterly pointless.

>>332815
We have power, and immunity from Law. We should use this to increase our personal wealth and influence. As long as it doesn't take up too much of our time, we're golden. Running a criminal empire of the (drugs or protection, or even more heinous stuff such as sex trafficking) would do this very well. Politics would take up some time, but would be extremely advantageous in other ways.

>We can make money by, for instance, finding the straightest skyscraper in town, drenching it in black paint, and building a giant fire on the roof. Boom, giant black candle, heroes come running, we get richer.
Fuck yes, we should do this. Of course, first we must liberate copious amounts of black paint or ink or something from an appropriate factory, and an immense piece of fabric to wrap around a spire/antenna, forming a wick, and probably some lamp oil, so it will burn for longer, because sky scrapers aren't actually made of wax.

>>332818
I don't think it works like that. I think he'll just call on more powerful heroes to beat some sense into us.

Anonymous 2010/09/12(Sun)00:22 No. 23033 ID: 56dc25
File 128427613593.png - (11.88KB , 311x556 , terrible artistry.png )

>>332587
>These are the same thing as each other, and also the same as the aura displacement I suggested. There's no reason to use too many names for the same thing.
Incorrect. Pic related. The details of range and what have you aside, there are serious differences in their application in even a simple scenario.

>>332815
>Just being a super-villain IS a job. We can get our income from epic-level dickery. ... What we need are impressive capers.

The problem with this is that we're paid on a per-encounter basis. Impressive or dramatic jobs don't scale our pay. They give us additional FX, yes, but that FX can't be turned into money (except by buying something of use in some sort of moneymaking scheme). If I may conjure a few hypothetical figures:

If we stage one really awesome encounter a week, fight with personality, and get a whopping 10 FX per encounter, we end up making around $70,000 ($35,000 personal) and 520 FX a year.

If we do petty crime that nevertheless manages to attract at least low-level heroes every single day, making enough of a nominal effort for 2 FX per encounter, we make $475,000 ($237,500 personal) and 730 FX a year.

Since I don't particularly want to fight on a daily basis, not in the least because at some point we'll probably lose and get handed over to the police, it's more than worth taking a shot at making up the difference in income by ensuring that our jobs are lucrative, as well as flashy.