Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

[Katherine]

The Star Chamber will be a group of superhuman who consider themselves activists and revolutionaries. They call themselves Heroes, but the world seems them as something quite different, namely terrorists and would be world conquerers. The Star Chamber is united by its fanasticism and its charismatic leader a mysterious figure known as "All Father". But the problems is I am stuck for coming up with these would be Gods. They're are arrogant, driven by hubris to the point of being blinded to their own failings and dead set on "improving" the world.

 

Thing is, I'm kind of stumped for powers and personalities. I have no idea, I'm drawing a blank and I don't want to just rip off some old characters of mine. So...any suggestions?

[Metaphysician]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Have you read the Aberrant RPG setting??

[Chuckg]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Well, if you ripped a couple off from the Authority, a couple from the JLA, and a couple from the Fantastic Four, that'd be a nicely blended bunch of homages...

 

(And, of course, also swap a couple -- not all, just a couple -- genders, new costumes, new special effects... the part of CKC where they show you how to quickly retool Anubis' stats to produce a storm god of another pantheon, just by using him as a base and switching a couple of special effects and foci and the costume, is a help.)

[Katherine]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Have you read the Aberrant RPG setting??

 

Oh yeah, most of the players are huge fans of Aberrant so I'd really have to cover my tracks.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

A good candidate would be a Dowling homage ( supergenius who wants to control the world more or less so he can do his research without obstruction ).

 

Perhaps a Superman-analogue who honestly believes that the world would be better off if it were ruled by him.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Reading up on the historical Star Chamber might help too.

 

They'll need some way of getting people to their courtroom without anyone finding out where it is--a member who can do group teleport would be very helpful. (And yes, they'll have a courtroom for their pro forma trials of people they've already decided are guilty.)

[Katherine]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

I should come up with a better name. These guys will be doing more than kangaroom courts. Attacking industries they think are "wrong", claiming technologies that are too "dangerous" to be handled by normal people, that sort of thing. The PCs are going to be made on about 500 points (the highest I have ever gmed!) so these guys should probably be pretty heavy hitters to be a challenge.

[OddHat]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Well, it sounds fun. Since Gods were generally picked based on things that people thought of as impressive or an essential part of life (Storms, The Sea, The Moon, Fertility, Death, Craft, Music, etc.), why not pick five "essential" elements of modern life?

 

1) Information - Cyberpsi and Superspy, illusionist mistress of the media

 

2) Industry - Power Armor Gadgeteer combat monster

 

3) Transportation - Teleporting brick, maybe some speedster and TK powers as well.

 

4) Trade - Mentalist, speaks every language, has contacts everywhere, commands vast legions of mercenaries and lesser villains

 

5) Energy - Energy projector, absorber and drainer

 

For an added bonus, each one plans terrorist actions in their areas of expertise. Trade disrupts world trade summits, Energy blows up power plants, Transportation destroys airports, Industry destroys factories, Information takes over TV networks. You could get as Four Color or as Iron as you'd like.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

They'll have to pull out mostly mundane "shadow world" tricks if they are built on just 500 points. . .

[Katherine]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

They'll have to pull out mostly mundane "shadow world" tricks if they are built on just 500 points. . .

 

just?

[Katherine]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Well, it sounds fun. Since Gods were generally picked based on things that people thought of as impressive or an essential part of life (Storms, The Sea, The Moon, Fertility, Death, Craft, Music, etc.), why not pick five "essential" elements of modern life?

 

1) Information - Cyberpsi and Superspy, illusionist mistress of the media

 

2) Industry - Power Armor Gadgeteer combat monster

 

3) Transportation - Teleporting brick, maybe some speedster and TK powers as well.

 

4) Trade - Mentalist, speaks every language, has contacts everywhere, commands vast legions of mercenaries and lesser villains

 

5) Energy - Energy projector, absorber and drainer

 

For an added bonus, each one plans terrorist actions in their areas of expertise. Trade disrupts world trade summits, Energy blows up power plants, Transportation destroys airports, Industry destroys factories, Information takes over TV networks. You could get as Four Color or as Iron as you'd like.

 

Oh, now that is a neat ideea. I like it! thanks!

[Metaphysician]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

just?

 

500 points is a very narrow budget, for those who believe themselves gods. Especially since mundane "resources" ( businesses, contacts, minions, etc ) cost a fair bit themselves. IMHO, the concept would work better on a 600-900 budget, with perhaps a lower tier megavillain like Menton controlling the organization, but YMMV.

 

OTOH, I really like the "gods of modern concepts" idea.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

500 points is a very narrow budget' date=' for those who believe themselves gods. [/quote']

 

Heh! That reminds me of a long-ago campaign I played in. One of the PCs was supposed to be the son of Hercules - which I guess would make him a demi-demigod. Anyhow, that was a campaign based on 200 pts and up to 160 in Disads (not an uncommon amount back in the day).

 

Let's just say he was probably the least powerful divine character the world has ever seen. That's being charitable. I do remember that some total dork villain like Stinger beat the snot out of him. Essentially, he was an okay, low-level brick with lots of leaping. Imagine Ogre, the way he used to be back in the early editions of the game, but a bit smarter.

 

One of the other players said "Saying this guy is a god is like having a guy who does card tricks and pulls rabbits out of his hat and saying he's like Dr. Fate."

 

 

OTOH, I really like the "gods of modern concepts" idea.

 

So do I. That's a very cool idea.

[Chimpira]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

I guess that generally depends on what you are used to doing with your points. I came from the school of 250 with Disads. I have made characters that have beat the living snot out of 800 plus characters and still had a decent amount of points for skills and perks. If your GM goes with the idea that 500 is big time then for the campaign it is big time as long as the universe reflects that. I shudder at what I can do with 500 points. Usually my villians are built on less points than my heroes nowadays.

 

The Gods of Modern Concepts sounds good and I am going to steal it for myself.

[dbsousa]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

The Star Chamber will be a group of superhuman who consider themselves activists and revolutionaries. They call themselves Heroes, but the world seems them as something quite different, namely terrorists and would be world conquerers. The Star Chamber is united by its fanasticism and its charismatic leader a mysterious figure known as "All Father". But the problems is I am stuck for coming up with these would be Gods. They're are arrogant, driven by hubris to the point of being blinded to their own failings and dead set on "improving" the world.

 

Thing is, I'm kind of stumped for powers and personalities. I have no idea, I'm drawing a blank and I don't want to just rip off some old characters of mine. So...any suggestions?

 

Here are some ideas off the top of my head:

Red Mantis: a corruption of Rhadymanthys, one of the three Gods of the Greek Underworld. All of the gods in my games are incorporeal, and must possess humans to have any effect on the Physical world.

 

Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Judge can compel people to testify, Jury can generate eleven other duplicates, and Executioner has saw blades on his wrists.

 

Chief Justice: a Captain America type, with a robe and a gavel instead of a shield.

[Starwolf]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

And for the super-powered minion to transport the "Guilty", The Bailiff, suggested powers would consist of either teleport or summon, entangle (for restraining prisoners), suppress (for dampening prisoner powers), Mind Scan for locating those being summoned to appear in court.

[Doug McCrae]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

The Authority has cool modern versions of Superman (Apollo), Batman (Midnighter), Dr. Strange (The Doctor), Iron Man (The Engineer), Hawkman (Shen), Aquaman (Jack Hawksmoor) and Lightning Lad (Jenny Sparks).

 

So all you have to do is come up with cool modern versions of some other superheroes. Here's a few suggestions:

 

Ocean (Professor X) - Ocean is a telepath to the Nth power, a 'hyperpath'. Drawing on the thoughts and memories of the entire human race he has the skills of the world's greatest experts, is a martial artist par excellence and knows what the PCs are going to do before they do (by accessing their subconscious minds).

 

The Soldier (Wolverine) - Genetically modified by a secret government project to be the perfect killing machine. Soldier has a battery of biological enhancements inspired by the animal kingdom. She has the vision of an eagle, the sense of smell of a bloodhound, a whole range of extra senses, enhanced strength and speed, electrical discharges, box jellyfish venom, a limited shapeshift ability similar to an octopus and so forth.

 

Adam Farpoint (The Vision) - A quantum computer AI, Adam's consciousness controls a variety of robotic bodies of his own design. None are humanoid, but resemble the animal-like constructions in the Matrix.

 

Gaea (Thor) - A powerful psychic/mystic with control over natural phenomena such as earthquakes and the weather, Gaea is a devout pagan who believes herself to be the avatar of the earth mother. An extreme environmentalist she seeks to put an end to pollution, preserve biodiversity and prevent global warming.

 

Lure (Namor) - Lure is a bizarre looking humanoid resembling a deep sea fish. He has a large mouth filled with enormous teeth, whip-like filaments and bioluminescent patches. He is a representative of an ancient species that dwells on the ocean floor and predates human civilisation by tens of thousands of years. Wearing a protective suit to survive the low pressure environment on the surface, the equivalent of power armour, Lure wields a variety of advanced gadgets.

 

Fortress (Colossus) - Composed of neutron star material, Fortress is practically indestructible and very strong.

 

Shift (Scarlet Witch) - Capable of accessing the other membranes (dimensions) predicted by M-Theory, Shift can transpose locations in our universe with those in another. By selecting specific worlds she can alter the laws of physics in a limited area. For example she could control gravity, making it weaker or far stronger or change the strength of the forces holding atoms together, with catastrophic consequences.

[death tribble]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Look up a couple of threads done by a poster called Etherio. He did a group called the Star Chamber and had one character called Red Mantis in another group. There is artwork and published stats for all of them.

[Vanguard00]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Look up a couple of threads done by a poster called Etherio. He did a group called the Star Chamber and had one character called Red Mantis in another group. There is artwork and published stats for all of them.

 

 

Here's the link for it (I had it bookmarked).

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16247

[death tribble]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Here's the link for it (I had it bookmarked).

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16247

IOU rep

[PoorWandering 1]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

The Star Chamber will be a group of superhuman who consider themselves activists and revolutionaries. They call themselves Heroes, but the world seems them as something quite different, namely terrorists and would be world conquerors. The Star Chamber is united by its fanaticism and its charismatic leader a mysterious figure known as "All Father". But the problems is I am stuck for coming up with these would be Gods. They're are arrogant, driven by hubris to the point of being blinded to their own failings and dead set on "improving" the world.

 

Thing is, I'm kind of stumped for powers and personalities. I have no idea, I'm drawing a blank and I don't want to just rip off some old characters of mine. So...any suggestions?

 

 

Hmm. It appears that you have just described Viper, Eurostar, SPECTER, Deathstroke, The Legion of Doom, Murdoch's Newscorp and/or the Republican National Committee. What role will the chamber be playing in the campaign? Behind the scenes manipulators? Up front seize power, beat up the heroes types? Misguided fanatics as in Genocide? Or something weirder?

 

I suggest that you make them a loose association of like minded neo-fascist supers. The members are not all on a team, they may even belong to competing organizations. They will even fight each other with out qualms as a way to determine who is the most "fit". The organisation simply exists to support and promote fascist/neo-Darwinist ideas in the super community. Something midway between a Super villain union and a political movement. Go to the extreme Ann Rand/ Libertarian fringe and start there. The chambers main concern could be freeing supers form the authority of normals. They would happily campaign/fundraise for "testify while masked" laws while at the same time negotiating contracts between independents and Viper for example, this will make Viper attack them possibly involving the pc's when they are suddenly caught in the cross fire. Once the chambers agenda becomes clear in might spark some interesting discussion in the [party esp.. if there are both super and non super members. That's my idea anyway. Basically I suggest figuring out what you want the Chamber to do to the players and then work backwards to find goals that support those actions. Motivations will flow from the goals and personalities from the motivations. Powers and points will be easy to assign once you know what they want and why.

[Katherine]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Thanks guys, there's allot of good ideas up so far!

[SKJAM!]

Re: Please help me with "The Star Chamber"

 

Another historical bit to be considered: the original Star Chamber had the authority to impose any sentence *except* death. And some of the verdicts that have come down to us indicate a pretty nasty sense of humor/poetic justice as a result.

 

So the Star Chamber might have a member who specializes in transformations/mutilations. "Mr. Greedo, you have been found guilty of harming the environment to enrich yourself. The Star Chamber hereby sentences you to life as a...what's today's endangered species again?"