Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

[clsage]

I'm curious as to the assembled Herophiles opinions on the

following:

 

I have a character from the (sadly) now defunct Viper

agent campaign on Herocentral. And I am considering

using the chars background for a potential DC talented

normal character (or maybe even a low powered super..

..maybe). And while it wouldn't take much to just drop

any reference to Viper from the build (or re-build) I

like the idea of the char snagging some advanced tech

when they and the Washington DC nest parted ways.

But that leads to the question: In most peoples

world builds, how much does Viper hunt it's entry level

agents who go AWOL ? What I'm looking for is a general

concensus....I'm suspecting that, to be consistant with

the Champions Universe, it would be an 11-, potentially

to kill.

 

Thoughts ?

 

Thanks.

 

-Carl-

[Psylint]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Hmmm....

 

Depends on how big Viper is, and how far up the chain the character got.

 

I had a character who was involved in an isolated cell of a Viper organization, and doesn't have Viper as a hunted at all. The cell structure prevented his identity from "going up the chain."

 

Alternatively, you can have a mid level cut-out, where sure the guy had access to sensitive data, but to take him out, would validate any information he gave to an opponent, whereas "scrubbing the data" is more effective an easier. This character had an 8- Hunted, operationally defined more as "If Viper shows up, they'll kill him on sight, but they're not really looking for him."

 

Or you could have someone like Revenant who was deep in Viper, but went postal on the station chief, and everyone else, when he learned they were selling kids into slavery. He is hunting Viper with a near paranoid obsession (he's got "issues" with folks what are abusive to kids) but only the biggest and baddest of Viper operatives are sent after him, because he's proven so effective at bouncing anything less. Hunted by Viper 8-

 

Zilara, a gifted engineer and weapon designer, built weapons for Viper for years believing that they were helping liberate her country from foreign invaders. When she finally discovered that Viper was merely reselling the weapons she designed for insane profits, she donned her power suit, smashed the lab and headed straight for the U.N. providing them with all of the "backdoors" she designed in all of the weapons. Hunted by Viper 11-.

 

Psilint. The rogue psychic has a nasty tendency to "convert" agents, causing them to provide governments and intelligence services with names, dates, places, code names, ciphers, etc. Using his telepathic and other abilities he has compromised more missions than any government, law enforcement, or supergroup combined. He even caused, or so it is "official holy writ" the defection of King Snake's own son. Hunted by Viper 14-

 

As far as hunted less than "to kill" there are probably justifications for it, but the character I make tend to "burn their bridges as they jump off of them."

 

Peace

[Doctor Agenda]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

On an 8-...the AWOL super villains have to take priority, unless you're VISIBLY an ex-viper agent. Might want a new paint job for the armor and weapons.

[gojira]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Well, depends. He parted ways, but the nest is still fully operational? I'd say any nest leader who lets his minions swipe gear and walk away wouldn't be a nest leader for very long. Viper higher ups wouldn't like it or tolerate such sloppiness for long, and I'm sure the leader's other minions would see it immediately as a sign of weakness.

 

The roll: 11- would depend on how close he was to the original nest, geographically speaking, and how good Viper is at finding him. As a nest leader, I'd make a big sweep with the whole nest looking for the guy as soon as I found out he's AWOL. Then I'd give the whole assembled nest a big speech about how taking off with "my" stuff is a stupid idea. I'd then appoint my biggest, baddest, nastiest covert op to find the guy, right there in front of everybody. Set a good example and put the fear of the Serpent in the troops.

 

Behind the scenes, I'd tell the covert-op guy that it's really a low priority. Stuff gets broken or captured all the time. Unless it was some really sweet items, then the priority goes up, maybe way up.

 

The severity: possibly kill? Only if he's lucky. As a nest leader I'd say definitely kill. If this guy gets captured, he's in for the most horrible genetic and snake venom experiments you can imagine until he IS dead.

[braincraft]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

If this guy gets captured' date=' he's in for the most horrible genetic and snake venom experiments you can imagine until he IS dead.[/quote']

 

Or, you know, until he gets awesome superpowers and busts free.

[clsage]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Hmmm....

 

Well, the gear would be primarily defensive (armor, etc) and

commo/surveilance/computer stuff. The character was the

teams computer/systems op nerd, someone who would feel

a bit naked without having their laptop nearby. And since the

only active assignment that the team undertook was a raid

on a farmhouse to recover some data he wasn't too far up the

"food chain"...

 

I'm thinking an 8-, with Viper seeking to kill - or submit for

experimentation...which is probably a death sentence too.

Since I doubt that he would hang around the same city the

nest was in, but he'd probably be on the same coast.

 

-Carl-

[Badger]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Since you said he came from a defunct campaign. Maybe you could just say the nest got effectively wiped out on a raid. ANd maybe he managed to escape taking advantage of the chaos to snag some of the stuff and start a new career in another town. Maybe arrange with GM that it wouldnt even compe up for 5-6 sessions. Then, pop it out where his allies learn about his secret and then have it ongoing as hunted.

[BoneDaddy]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

In skimming the thread, I don't think it's been mentioned, so I'll refer to one of the great tropes:

 

"No one could possibly have survived that explosion!"

 

His Soc. Lim. becomes a pretty heavy duty Secret ID and Harmful Secret - if Viper gets the idea he isn't dead then they'll fix that ASAP, with a lot of clean up of surrounding witnesses, DNPCs, etc. Additionally, in most superheroic universes, massive explosions of radioactive/ toxic gasses usually involve either fatality or superpowers.

[Zed-F]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

At most 8- if he was a Joe Agent. Really, VIPER has bigger worries.

[Vondy]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

It would be totally dependent on how important he was and how much damage he could do to the organization as a whole. Your average viper agent probably wouldn't merit much attention unless he had done something revenge-worthy in the process of leaving. The local nest might go after him if they realized who he was and got a shot at him, but unless you were high up the food chain, had some special ability to hurt them, or absconded with huge amounts of money and/or tech why would they bother? It would be more trouble to take them out than to let them be. Now, if Viper had a local vigilante who was proving to be a real thorn in their side and they were to find out he was one of their former agents then they might be particularly annoyed and make a special case out of him even if - as a viper deserter - he would otherwise be "not worth their time." And bonedaddy has a good point - do they even who where he is or if he's alive?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

If he were a run-of-the-mill agent, I'd expect VIPER to leak his info to the FBI...they'll put him away for a long time, he doesn't have any valuable info to give them, and it's no effort on the part of the local Nest.

 

If he does have valuable info to give away (not just weapons and armor...supers recover those all the time) they'll try to kill him. Maybe they'll leak his info to the FBI and then keep tabs on their investigation through insiders. When the Feds find him and are setting up their bust, VIPER moves in for the kill before they get organized.

[Markdoc]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Or' date=' you know, until he gets awesome superpowers and busts free.[/quote']

 

Which, funnily enough was the background of one of my heroes

 

cheers, Mark

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Entry level agent, without any unique (and expensive) equipment and little info about VIPER that outside sources would find useful? I'd think Hunted at 8- would be fine. They'd want to make an example of him, if for no other reason than to keep others from doing the same, but they're not likely to commit huge resources to the hunt unless there's some other compelling reason.

 

Now, if you wanted to justify an 11-, he could always have taken something of critical value, but doesn't know it (i.e. somehow someone put a file on his laptop on police and PRIMUS agents that VIPER has in their pocket). Or VIPER thinks he has the Critical Plot Device, but he really doesn't have it.

 

For instance: I'm running a Champions game where one hero's origin says he regenerated from the dead and dug his way out of his grave. He's hunted by the shadowy criminal organization that "killed" him, because someone slipped him a St. Christopher's medallion concealing a data disk listing a slew of the organization's covert members in high government positions. The medallion slipped out when he was digging his way out of the grave, and is now lying somehwere in the grass of the graveyard.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Hey Max!

 

Depends on circumstances of leaving. If he just disappears during an Op gone bad, they'll probably just assume he's dead and not worry about it. If he sneaks away in the middle of the night and the next day the Nest just HAPPENS to get raided, and someone who knows he bailed escapes to tell the tale...he may have a Hunted.

 

For entry-level agent, I'd probably just say make it a 'Secret' that could foul his relations with other heroes/authorities instead of a Hunted. If something big that VIPER has reason to trace back to him, go with a Hunted. Of course, if he's since made a habit of messing with VIPER, he could pick up a Hunted for reasons unrelated to having been an agent.

[clsage]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

For entry-level agent, I'd probably just say make it a 'Secret' that could foul his relations with other heroes/authorities instead of a Hunted. .

 

Excellent idea !! Thanks SS and BoneDaddy.

 

If something big that VIPER has reason to trace back to him, go with a Hunted..

 

Hmmm. Well, since the op we went on was to recover a

flash drive...and given Max's penchant for "incursions into

data systems"....If we assume the nest got raided while we

were on the op, that would leave the drive in Max's curious

little hands.....Oh my, that could work too! Decisions, decisions.

 

 

-Carl-

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

Before the campaign officially went kaput, the mission was not going so well for our newbie agents. Even if Max got the goods, the rest of the mission (no kills, no attention) most likely failed miserably. Before it even began, our rogue agent went and knocked on the door and screwed the pooch, possibly alerting them to our intentions.

 

After the spectacular failure of a mission which was meant as a slow-pitch to prove our mettle, it is possible the surviving agents could not return to the nest without facing the messy punishment of the agent who messed it up (sorry, i can't remember his name). I say take the loot and run, Max, run.

[Kirby]

Re: Opinions On Being An "Ex-Viper Member"

 

I have a character from the (sadly) now defunct Viper

agent campaign on Herocentral [...] What I'm looking for is a general

concensus....I'm suspecting that, to be consistant with

the Champions Universe, it would be an 11-, potentially

to kill.

 

Thoughts ?

Before the campaign officially went kaput, the mission was not going so well for our newbie agents. Even if Max got the goods, the rest of the mission (no kills, no attention) most likely failed miserably. Before it even began, our rogue agent went and knocked on the door and screwed the pooch, possibly alerting them to our intentions.

 

After the spectacular failure of a mission which was meant as a slow-pitch to prove our mettle, it is possible the surviving agents could not return to the nest without facing the messy punishment of the agent who messed it up (sorry, i can't remember his name). I say take the loot and run, Max, run.

Heh, I was in that squad. IMHO, I'd say an 8-; HOWEVER, if he is blatantly weilding the VIPER tech, then it could be a justified 11-.