Mastermind Monday - Marxman

My goal for Mastermind Monday is to slowly build up a roster of npc's for my own Mutants and Masterminds universe, the New Punverse (don't ask). I feel like starting with a retired hero/villain (depending on your nation of origin), the Marxman. 

A younger, angrier Marxman

Marxman

Anton Maksimov was born shortly after the end of WWII, the son a of a sniper. He inherited his father's strong build and keen eyesight. As a teenager he left home to be trained as a part of the Molotok [Hammer] (and its secret sister team the Cepn [Sickle]). He served the teams in a scout and support capacity as the adventurous archer, Marxman. Active primarily through the Silver and Bronze Ages, Anton served in his Motherland for many years before becoming disillusioned with the USSR and its brutal methods. With the help of his former foes in the Guard, he defected to the United States, settling in NYC. 

Despite his desire to retire in peace, Anton has had to take up his bow a few times and aid the heroes of Earth. 

Marxman - PL 8

Strength 3, Stamina 2, Agility 2, Dexterity 5, Fighting 5, Intellect 1, Awareness 6, Presence 2

Advantages: 
Accurate Attack, Assessment, Benefit (Ambidexterity), Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 6, Fearless, Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Bow), Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Language (English), Leadership, Uncanny Dodge


Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+8), Athletics 8 (+9), Close Combat: Unarmed 6 (+11), Deception 6 (+8), Insight 8 (+13), Intimidation 8 (+10), Investigation 6 (+7), Perception 8 (+13), Ranged Attack: Bows 8 (+13), Stealth 8 (+13), Treatment 6 (+7) Vehicles 6 (+11)

Powers

Acrobatic Training (4 Points): Movement 4 (Safe Fall, Swinging)

Bow and Arrows (1 Points) - Device: Easily Removable
Blast 5 (Ricochet 2) - 12 Points
Alternate Power: Exploding Arrows: Damage 5 (Burst)
Alternate Power: Net Arrows: Snare 5 - 1 Point
Alternate Power: Ghost Arrows: Blast 5 (Affects Insubstantial) - 1 Point

Offense
Initiative +6
Arrows +13, Damage 5
Exploding Arrows +13, Damage 5 (Burst)
Ghost Arrows +13 Damage 5 (Affects Insubstantial)
Unarmed +11, Damage 3

Complications

Rade Šerbedžija my Marxman fancast

Retired - While he is still a capable soldier and mentor, Anton desires little more than to relax and enjoy old age

Sins of the Past - Anton has done things in his past that he's not proud of and made more than a few enemies during his time serving with the Hammer and Sickle.

Languages: Russian, English

Defense
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 8, Toughness 8/2 , Will 8

Power Points
50 Abilities + 19 Powers + 19 Advantages + 42 Skills (84 Ranks) + 17 Defenses = 148

Succubus Sunday

art by Todd Lockwood

Succubus for Talisman by feliciacano

Succubus... Demon... Thing by theboyofcheese

Her Ghost in the Fog

This is the first of two npc/monster posts based on the Cradle of Filth songs, Her Ghost In The Fog and Swansong for a Raven. Also, I am familiar with the Women in Refrigerator trope, the story below (while embellished is taken straight from the song).

Clarissa's story is a sad one. Orphaned as a teenager she had to struggle to take care of herself. To make matters worse, she was a beautiful and intelligent follower of the old ways in a village of self righteous Christians who thought a woman's place was in the home, subservient to her husband. The men of the village lusted after her, and the women envied her. Chief among these men was the village priest.

Her only respite came in the form of Dani, the son of the local blacksmith. The two young lovers  planned to elope and leave the village. Unfortunately their dreams were not to be. One dark eve, the priest and a few of his "pious" spied on her gathering herbs, by the light of the moon. Mad with lust the men forced themselves upon and killed Clarissa. They left her body, laid bare in a clearing. They might possibly have gotten away with their crime, had the church bell tower key been trod into the earth...

The crimes committed against Clarissa caused her to rise as undead spirit. Her once bright flame, is now darkened by the specter of death. Clarissa would have her revenge against those that wronged her so, but it would not come from her spectral hands, but rather those of her dearest Dani...

Clarissa, the Ghost in the Fog
Armor: as leather
HD 4
HP 20
Move 120' [levitate]
Attacks: 1d4 cold with touch plus they must make a save or be paralyzed for 1d3 rounds
Special Abilities: 

Jealous Heaven Holds No Power - If a Christian cleric attempts to cast Turn Undead on Clarissa her HD are considered to be 4 higher. In addition, any damage dealt to Clarissa by weapons is halved (unless the weapon is made of cold iron or enchanted).

Mastermind Monday - Omega, Lord of Terminus

 
Omega, Lord of the Terminus

PL: 23

Quote: "Let your universe howl in despair, for I have returned."

Strength 23, Stamina 20, Agility 1, Dexterity 1, Fighting 5, Intellect 4, Awareness 5, Presence 4

Advantages

Assessment, Benefit 10 (Lord of Terminus), Diehard, Fearless, Improved Initiative, Takedown

Skills

Close Combat: Unarmed 15 (+20 ), Deception 8 (+12), Expertise [Tactics] 8(+12), Insight 8 (+13), Intimidation 16 (+20) Perception 6 (+11), Ranged Combat: Cosmic Energy 19(+20) Technology 8 (+12)

Powers

Cosmic Energy (Ranged Damage 23[Homing], Alternate Power: Blast 15 [Ricochet, Split], Alternate Power: Dazzle 23 [Visual], Alternate Power: Transform 9 (Any Matter) ) - 49 Points

I Am Oblivion (Immunity [Life Support, His Own Powers]) - 11 Points 

Omega Armor (Protection 4 [Impervious 12], Comprehend 2 [Languages],  Flight 7 [250 MPH])  - 20 Points (due to Removable)
The Terminus Touches All (Teleport [16 Million Miles, Portal]) - 128 Points

Offense

Initiative +5

Unarmed +20, Close Damage 23
Ranged +20, 23 Ranged Damage (Homing)
Ranged +20, 15 Ranged Damage (Ricochet, Split)

Complications

Weakness: If Omega's armor is damaged his stats will decrease by a cumulative -1 every five rounds.

Arrogant: Omega refuses to acknowledge that anyone is as powerful as he is. This overconfidence has led to his defeat in the past.

Defense

Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 20 , Toughness 24, Will 20
30

Power Points

Abilities 126+ Powers 208 + Advantages 15 + Skills 44 (88 Ranks) + Defenses 30= 423 Total  points.

Background: No one knows the true origins of Omega, and those that even know of his existence whisper his name cautiously, lest they draw the attention of the Lord of the Terminus. He has ruled over his dimension, the oblivion outside of reality for untold eras. His ultimate goal is to bring all of creation under the sway of the Terminus.
_________________________________
Omega is a beast. He's basically Thanos/Darkseid. I'm not sure I statted him out properly, but I think my conversion is close. The teleport power is the thing I'm really not sure about, seems a bit off, but I'd use it for plot purposes anyway.

And there you have it, the return of Mastermind Monday. 

Lusus Naturae Update

As I mentioned in a post the other day, Lusus Naturae has met it's goal. As of the time I'm posting it, it's half way to the stretch goal and has 18 days to go. If you liked the Teratic Tome, you should really check this out.

Rafael has a released a pdf previewing three of the monsters, Bilious Grub, Shadhavar, Vitiator. The first two are pictured above. The bilious grub is simply vermin on its own world, but it large size and intelligence makes it a deadly predator in our world. The shadhavar is a murderous beast that poses as a noble unicorn. Finally the vitiator can take the form of a child (whose heart it must consume) to sow sin and chaos among the populous.


Of the three, I think the Shadhavar is my favorite. The slow impalement ability is totally insidious.

Succubus Sunday

Today's devilish divas come to us from Deviantart.

Succubus: red roots by Maevachan

Succubus by Zaza-Art

Succubus by eloyh19

Succubus by inshoo1

The Beginning is the End Is the Beginning

I want to start by saying how excited I am that Lusus Naturae has been funded! It still has 23 days to go and it would be great to see it reach its stretch goal and get the full color treatment. Rafael has posted a pdf sample of one of the monsters on the Kickstarter's page.

I will be taking part in the April A-Z Blogging. I hope to nail down my theme and prep some posts soon. I'm leaning towards supers. Which leads me to an announcement.

This blog started out as a place for me to post my ideas for my own Mutants and Masterminds setting. If you look at my posts, I think I have more M&M posts than anything else. For a long time I did a regular M&M feature, Mastermind Monday. Starting this coming Monday, I plan on bringing that back. And this new start, will begin with the ultimate ending... Omega, Lord of the Terminus!!!

After Omega makes his appearance, I plan on posting original characters, gadgets, and minions. 

Succubus Sunday - Reaper Miniatures

Reaper has a fine selection of Succubus minis. Many are variants of their poster girl, Sophie the Succubus. I've posted pics below. You can check out their full selection of succubi here. 

She's not a Reaper, but I really like this Heresy succubus too. It's not a "battle ready" pose, but it's one that seems fitting for a succubus.

March (Kickstarter) Madness

Screw a substantial post with lots of great content for my 300th post, that's not my style (please note the tongue planted firmly in cheek).

So there are two kickstarters that have caught my eye in the past two days and that I've backed.

The first is Dwarven Forge's Caverns. The project was backed in less than five minutes. I've been wanting some of the "dwarvenite" terrain. My friend Wirty and I split one of the 5 Unpainted Dungeon Grey sets. He's paying for 3 and I'm getting 2. At 65 dollars a set and free shipping, sounds like a nice deal to me. I may get another set or two. I know they won't come out til later this year, but I'm really excited.

The other kickstarter that I'm psyched about Lusus Naturae: A Gruesome Old-School Bestiary by Rafael Chandler. I pledged 35 bucks (I want a digital and print copy). The book will use Lamentations of the Flame Princess rules and is being billed as the spiritual successor to the Teratic Tome. If you aren't familiar with the Teratic Tome, you should check it out. It's a dark, disturbing monster manual that fucked up in all the right ways.  The monsters mentioned of Lusus Naturae (Freaks of Nature) sound great.

Updates

I'm going to be honest, I'm disappointed in myself for the lack of new content on this blog. I know I've went longer without any posts, but I want to be better. I am planning on taking part in the A-Z April blogging challenge. I still can't decide if I want to focus on supers (M&M particularly) or Cinematic Unisystem. Those two systems tend to be the ones I have the easiest time coming up with material for.

I mentioned a few days ago that I have a few games in the works. While this is still true, there's a hitch in the plan, so while I know they'll happen, I'm not sure when they'll start. That whole situation is a bit frustrating, but there's nothing to be done about it now and things will work out.

In other "news," I recently attended a great show at my favorite comic book shop, Super-Fly Comics & Games. Chiptunes artist Danimal Cannon, Youtube comedic musician Brentalfloss, and the fantastic nerdy rapper Random (aka Mega Ran) performed and they all did an amazing job. The shop was having a 25% sale that evening so I picked a few things up... mainly a bunch of heroclix singles, a used copy of Grand Theft Auto V (which only cost me 30 dollars after the discount), and three copies of Hall of Bones (which only cost me 1.50 a piece after discount). I already own a copy, so I'm not positive what to do with my extras. I don't know any new gamers, so I don't really have anyone I know personally to give them away. I was thinking about having a contest on here, but considering how the last one went, that seems like a waste of time. I'm up for suggestions.

I also saw that Dwarven Forge has a new tiles Kickstarter that begins tomorrow. I really hate that I missed out last time, but I'm going to make sure I get in on this one.

My next post will be my 300th, so I hope to make it something special and/or substantial.

My Next Campaign?

Okay, maybe not, but somebody needs to turn this into a movie and make a table top rpg.

Succubus Sundays - My Ladies

For today's Succubus Sunday I thought I'd show off "my ladies." I've been collecting McFarlane "action" figures for a while. The sexy (and often twisted) female figures are my favorites. What can I say, I like beautiful women and I have strange tastes. None of these are actually succubi, but a few of them are really close.  The pride of my collection is my Elizabeth Bathory, Dorothy (from the Twisted Land of Oz), Red Riding Hood, and my newest Camille Noire.

 

New Games on the Horizon

I've been hanging out with an old friend and I'm pretty excited about two games that she and I have in the works. The first game is a yet to be titled cinematic unisystem game. While I'm technically using Buffy as the core rulebook, the setting will be an amalgamation. I'm pulling things from Ghosts of Albion and Army of Darkness as well. I'd like to get a hold of Eldritch Skies too. The game will be set in the fictional town of Brouillard Rouge (Red Fog). Blame it on my recent addiction to True Blood and the movies I've watched recently. It's just a one on one games, and my player is super psyched. She created a outcast/new girl high school student returning to her hometown after years of living in the big city. She's a gypsy by nature (and blood) and has some unknown ties to the supernatural. The character's been made and she has unspent quality points. Her powers/abilities are up to me. I have some interesting things in mind...

I want to include some southern monsters and legends, so the skunk ape and a few other creatures will be making appearances. I'm going definitely include some of the things I've learned studying voodoo as well. I'm expecting to use werewolves, zombies, vampires, and deep ones. I may even include a mermaid or two.

The other game we're working on (again another one on one) is a revival of our favorite characters. Ulic is going to reunite with his tiefling wife (after many years). I will be the player for the first part of the game (which will use 3.5 rules). However, we're giving the characters another go and after a few sessions they will get a reboot and start as level 1 characters on Golarion (using Pathfinder). I'm even taking his wings away. I will be running the early sessions of Pathfinder and then we'll switch off. This may seem lame to some. Why not just make new characters? I will tell you why. We love these ones and want to give them another shot.

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop - Day 28

It's a day late, but that's kinda my thing...

What's the single most important lesson you've learned from playing D&D?

art by Michael Dashaw

I know this sounds strange, considering what D&D is, but the most important lesson I've learned by playing Dungeons and Dragons is to just be myself. I feel like I should elaborate on this further, but it would be forced. Playing D&D helped me break out of my shell. It gave me the confidence to be myself and say what was on my mind. By escaping to fantasy, I learned how to handle my reality.

Also, don't split the party...

I hope you lords and ladies enjoyed these posts. I'm looking forward to making more significant posts soon, plus I'm prepping for the April A-Z Challenge. Not sure my theme, but I'm thinking supers or maybe more specifically Mutants and Masterminds 3E.