I'm actually a bit confused. Since this is an ultra realism scenario, why has Bob not been going the Ultra Realistic Route?
There was mention of Captain Bulldozer and Hitler and stuff, but wasn't Bob's initial goal to become a villian AS A CAREER ie to make money?
That's up to you guys. I'm just the gamemaster. I run the world, but it's up to you to decide what you do with it. But from my point of view...villainy as a "career" in the sense of "making money as an end goal" as you appear to be describing it had never even occurred to me when I started this.
Maybe it would help if we identified what exactly we all mean by "supervillain." There was some discussion of that early on in the thread, not everyone agreed with each other and some people seemed to think that being a proper supervillain was
not possible in a "real world" environment. But there are plenty of examples of both real life and fictional supervillains who have had nothing that could possibly be considered "magic superpowers."
Ernst Stvro Blofeld from the Bond series,
Captain Killdozer from real world Colorado. What about
The Joker? No magic, no superpowers, nothing. On the superhero side, what about
Batman? He's completely unpowered yet he can nevertheless go toe-to-toe with supervillains even who
do have superpowers.
In my mind, the "super" part of "supervillain" indicates 1) power and 2) vision, that is above and beyond that of their contemporaries.
1) PowerNothing requires that that power be incompatible with the real world. For example, if Bill Gates decided to leave a deliberate back door in every copy of windows that allowed a virus of his creation to easily propagate, and that virus logged all passwords, personal information and credit cards numbers, sent it back to him and he used it to destroy the world's financial markets...that would
totally qualify as an act of supervillainy because it would be bringing to bear power that is not part of the common "crime" world, and that law enforcement would not easily be able to counter. If a street thug mugs an old woman the police can have a composite headshot drawn up. They can check surveillance cameras. And they can arrest the guy. What are they going to do about a virus and collapsing financial markets?
Captain Killdozer is an especially good real world example. He took common materials and destroyed part of a town and
dozens of police emptying entire clips of ammunition were unable to stop him. He took common "real life" materials and leveraged them in a way to make himself a "super" threat that his contemporary rivals were completely unable to deal with. And he even picked up a supervillain name: Captain Killdozer.
How is his story any different than that of Dr Doom, Lex Luthor or any other fictional supervillain with no magic, no superpowers, and nothing but technology to work with?
I'm not saying to pursue the technological angle. It is one option, but it's not the only option. Power comes in many forms. Bill Gates could become a supervillain if he wanted. David Koresh could have been a supervillain. Probably most south american drug lords could become supervillains if they wanted. These examples all have sufficient power, but what they lack is:
2) VisionTry to join up with some organized crime. Join a protection racket, or drug selling, or underground fight club betting, or something.
2. Or do some solo criminal cash raising activities. Sell bootleg pirated games/ DVDs.
If you guys want to do those things, they could probably be arranged. But personally I don't think any of these things would make you any more of a "supervillain" than what you've done so far. They'd just make you a criminal.
Is the pirate bay a supervillain organization? Is your local cocaine dealer a supervillain? I would say no. Engaging in petty crime is not supervillainy, and in fact, even in fiction, not all supervillains are criminals at all. For example,
Doctor Doom is the legitimate ruler of Latveria.
Darth Vader is a high ranking member of the legitimate ruling Imperial government. Neither of these characters commit "crime for the sake of being a criminal" and in fact, both of them would probably say that their goals are to eliminate crime.
Supervillains not only have power above the norm, they also have
goals that are above and beyond that of the ordinary villain. They have vision. They have style.
If you mug somebody, that's illegal but it wouldn't make you a supervillain. If you rob a bank, that's "bigger" and still illegal but it still wouldn't make you a supervillain. If you robbed
Fort Knox, that would be huge, and illegal...but it probably still wouldn't make you a supervillain, but it might qualify if you did it while wearing a funny suit with a name and advertised it sufficiently. But what if you were to legitimately buy up a significant percent of the world's gold supply then steal a nuclear bomb, smuggle it
into Fort Knox and blow it up, thereby inflating the value of your personal gold reserves?
That would be the act of a supervillain. (
Goldfinger, in this case.)
But this specific example aside, there's no need for "money making" to be relevant to your goals. Captain Killdozer wasn't motivated by money, and neither was Joker.
wasn't Bob's initial goal to become a villian AS A CAREER ie to make money?
...well, again...I'm just the gamemaster here, but I would say no, it wasn't the goal at all. Making money is a
terribly mundane goal, and not "supervillainous" at all. Money is a legitimate form of power. As is physical strength. As is having an army, or tanks, or lasers. Power is impartial.
Relevant Order of the stick comicAnd that's what I assumed you guys were doing. Simply building power base, with no particular focus or care on the nature of that power. You have investments running. Money is a kind of power. You're working out and getting stronger. Physical strength is a kind of power. You're making contacts and building loyalty. Personal connections are a kind of power. You're learning new skills, lockpicking, climbing, ninjutsu, etc. Anything that increases your capabilities is an increase to your power. Like Xykon says in that OOTS comic, it doesn't really matter what form power takes. Power is power. And to be a supervillain, you do need power. But having power on its own is not supervillainy, and "be a criminal to make money" won't make you a supervillain.
Author
Topic: You are a Suburban Supervillain (Read 61778 times)