Supervillain quest
Hi this is my first time doing a quest so I'm not a hundred percent sure of what I'm doing. Nevertheless I want to try and do my best on this. This quest is heavily inspired by Latveria Quest (go check it out it's awesome) and I wanted to try and make an alternate company equivalent. I'll try to post once a week and I hope the quest will be a fun one for people to enjoy. Please give me feedback on what I do well and what I do poorly so that I can improve in the future. I'd also appreciate any and all help with how to threadmark stuff as I'm still figuring things out.
Options:
[] Joker: The clown Prince of crime, the harlequin of hate and the ace of knaves. A man with a multiple choice past and a hatred of the humdrum existence of the status quo. Playing as the Joker has the endgame be convincing others of your philosophy. As such money and resources are no real object since your goal is to prove a point. Because of this, the Joker has the most flexibility in how he reaches his end goal. However this flexibility comes at a cost. The Joker starts out with virtually no real support structure and he will be regarded with hostility by those who support the status quo. The Joker must take a supervillain action every so often in which he will directly confront Batman in some way shape or form. Furthermore the Joker gets an insanity role which may cause him to take a random action, replace one of the selected choices or misinterpret the world around him. This makes playing the Joker with any long term plan incredibly hard but isn't chaos part of the fun?
Starting stats
Martial: 12
Diplomacy: 5
Stewardship: 5
Intrigue: 19
Learning 14
Starts at the rise of supercriminals
Starts with Batman as a Nemesis
Starts with one hero unit no base and no followers
May take up to ten actions per turn
May have any action be interrupted by an insanity roll
Must prove to Batman that heroism is nothing more than a joke
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Unknown (dependent on actions)
Villains: Disliked (Who is this freak muscling in on our territory?)
Law Enforcement: Disliked (Great another costumed whackjob)
Heroes: Neutral (will reserve judgement until further interactions)
[] Oswald Cobblepot: An up and comer in the newly expanding world of super crime. Oswald can be both a semi-legitimate businessman and an out and out supervillain with a wacky umbrella gimmick. Oswald starts off with a lot of resources but lacks personal combat prowess making him reliant on others to get the job done. He is regarded neutrally by most of the players in the underworld and can work with virtually anyone provided they don't push him too far. Penguin's end goal is to make as much money as possible by any means necessary to set up a nice little nest egg and an umbrella for when it inevitably starts raining blood in Gotham
Starting stats
Martial: 2
Diplomacy: 17
Stewardship: 16
Intrigue: 15
Learning: 11
Starts at the weakening of the old crime families after Batman declares war on them
Starts with no Nemesis
Starts with one hero unit and a base (The H.M.S. Supply and Demand) as well as a small crew
for a gang and weapons to sell
May take up to six actions per turn
Must make enough money and gain enough power to survive in Gotham when things inevitably go wrong
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Neutral (not really a public figure and lacks charisma to quickly turn people to his side)
Villains: Liked (He is useful for supplying goods. The Penguin does good business)
Law Enforcement: Disliked (this is a criminal who doesn't have anyone's protection and thus is the ideal target to take down)
Heroes: Disliked (Oswald is an unrepentant criminal)
[] Carmine Falcone: The old guard. The man in charge of all of the crime in Gotham before the Batman and his Rogues emerged. The Roman cares little for freaks especially since the Batman directly targets his businesses. Carmine and his organization will be deliberately by Batman from the very start and every up and comer will try to take Carmine's crown as the criminal kingpin of Gotham. As such when playing as Carmine the goal is to retain control of the city regardless of how many costumed freaks show up. Playing as Carmine nets the largest organization in Gotham at the start but it will lead to betrayal down the line and everyone will target you if they see the slightest hint of weakness.
Starting stats
Martial: 7
Diplomacy: 13
Stewardship: 22
Intrigue: 12
Learning: 4
Starts about a year before Batman begins to fight criminals
Starts with no nemesis. Cannot gain a Nemesis
Starts with 4 hero units (Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone and Johnny Vitti) a
base (Carmine's building), a good amount of money and the entirety of the Falcone Mob (which is the largest gang in Gotham) as followers
May take up to six options per turn
Must maintain control of the Gotham underworld until retirement and select a suitable heir to take over afterwards
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Feared (the known head of the Falcone family is an intimidating individual who controls much of the criminal underworld)
Villains: Envious (Everybody wants to take down the king and steal his crown)
Law Enforcement: Disliked or Bought Off (has a lot of control over law enforcement through bribes and dirty cops but those who aren't on the take dislike Falcone)
Heroes: Hated (Batman personally views him as what is wrong with Gotham and wants to take him down to send a message)
[] Lex Luthor: The head of LexCorp and the man who repeatedly goes toe to toe with Superman. Lex is a self made man who cannot stand the idea of anyone being viewed as superior to him. Lex views himself as the peak of humanity and refuses to be overtaken by extraterrestrials and metahumans. With his vast intelligence and incredible resources Lex repeatedly challenges and aims to defeat those who would stand above humanity. Playing as Lex gives the user massive amounts of resources and generally good PR. However once Superman shows up Lex must take a supervillain action to try and defeat Superman in some villainous scheme. Going up against Superman is one of the hardest things you could possibly do but if anyone can defeat the last son of Krypton its Lex Luthor.
Starting stats
Martial: 6
Diplomacy: 24
Stewardship: 27
Intrigue: 21
Learning: 25
Starts about five years before the appearance of Superman
Starts with Superman as a Nemesis
Starts with two hero units (Lex Luthor and Mercy Graves), a base (Lexcorp tower) and all of the resources of Lexcorp at your disposal
May take up to eight actions per turn
Must defeat Superman and prove that Lex is the true savior of the human race
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Liked (Lex has so far avoided scandal and as a self made man who has helped bring up Metropolis he is currently very popular
Villains: Unknown or Feared (Lex is not well known to be a criminal. Those who do know of his criminal activities are terrified of his wrath)
Law Enforcement: Neutral (Lex is viewed as a perfectly legitimate business man)
Heroes: Neutral (Heroes are initially unaware of Lex's criminal endeavors)
[] Brainiac: Brainiac is a twelfth level intellect and an alien supercomputer originally designed on Krypton. Picking Brainiac means starting on Krypton and having to escape before the planet blows up but not alerting the council of elders in order to make sure everything goes smoothly. Once Brainiac has escaped from Krypton Brainiac's goal becomes the collection of all knowledge. Brainiac is undoubtedly the most powerful option available but he will regularly go up against interstellar organizations and will have to cultivate relations from scratch.
Starting stats
Martial: 31
Diplomacy: 14
Stewardship: 26
Intrigue: 19
Learning: 37
Starts on Krypton at the time of the birth of Kal-El
Starts with Kryptonian council of elders as a Nemesis
Starts on Krypton with all the resources of a planet based AI but will only keep whatever resources you manage to take off planet
May take up to eight actions per turn initially (the number of actions taken per turn will later be determined by how much was taken off of Krypton)
Must escape the imminent destruction of Krypton
Must collect all knowledge in the universe
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Trusted (The people of Krypton see no reason that the supercomputer that helps run the planet as anything but a useful tool)
Villains: Unknown (Brainiac is not well-known off of Krypton although his robotic nature may put off organic beings)
Law Enforcement: Beneath Notice (The council of elders on Krypton doesn't truly consider Brainiac to be capable of thinking for himself and having his own agenda)
Heroes: Suspicious (Jor-El distrusts Brainiac although he can't quite place why)
[] Sinestro: Sinestro is a former green lantern dedicated to preserving order by any means necessary. Thaal was kicked out of the green lanterns when his extreme method for maintaining order on his homeworld was discovered. Beaten by his former student Hal Jordan and exiled to the far reaches of space Sinestro learned how to tap into another part of the emotional spectrum, the yellow light of fear. Using this knowledge Sinestro has formed his new lantern corps that will cow the universe into submission. Playing as Sinestro means forming a large organization from scratch to combat numerous other organizations. In darkest day in brightest night, beware your fears made into light. Let those who try to stop what's right burn like your powers, Sinestro's might!
Starting stats
Martial: 24
Diplomacy: 18
Stewardship: 21
Intrigue: 14
Learning: 9
Starts on Qward shortly after exile and upon formation of the corps
Starts with no Nemesis
Starts off with one hero unit, a base (Qward), a planet of followers (Qwardians) and a yellow central power battery
May take up to eight actions per turn
Must form a corps
Must bring order to the galaxy and replace the green lanterns as premier law keepers
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Disliked (Sinestro is viewed as a tyrant by the galaxy at large, everywhere but Qward this is not a good thing)
Villains: Wary (Sinestro's history as a Green Lantern makes intergalactic criminals distrustful of him but his banishment has allowed him to move in that world freely)
Law Enforcement: Despised (Sinestro is viewed as a traitor to the Green Lantern Corps and is considered a terrible individual by virtually all of the Corps)
Heroes: Betrayed (Hal feels personally betrayed by the actions his mentor took in attempting to maintain order)
[] Atrocitus: Atrocitus hails from the infamous sector 666 which was nearly entirely wiped out by the manhunters, a precursor to the green lantern corps. Atrocitus learned to channel his rage and hatred and slowly refined his power over time. Eventually Atrocitus learned to tap into the red energy of rage. Playing as Atrocitus gives the end goal of exterminating the Guardians of the Universe and everything else is incidental to that goal. Forming a corps is possible but is ultimately optional and has the downside of playing into many of Atrocitus' weaknesses. However if played well the whole universe will burn in the wake of Atrocitus' rage.
Starting stats
Martial: 29
Diplomacy: 6
Stewardship: 6
Intrigue: 6
Learning: 24
Starts hidden in the depths of sector 666 at around the time Abin Sur (Sinestro's mentor in the green lantern corp and donor of Hal's ring) began investigating the emotional spectrum
Starts with no Nemesis
Starts with one hero unit, no base, no followers and a red central power battery
May take up to five actions per turn
Must kill all guardians of the universe
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Unknown (the rest of the universe is unaware of what happened in sector 666 and there is little communication in the sector)
Villains: Unknown (the rest of the universe is unaware of what happened in sector 666 and there is little communication in the sector)
Law Enforcement: Disliked (the Guardians of the universe reject the idea that they helped created Atrocitus and see him as a mad dog to be put down)
Heroes: Unknown (the rest of the universe is unaware of what happened in sector 666 and there is little communication in the sector)
[] Gorilla Grodd: The simian psychic who seeks to subjugate society to his cerebral oversight. Gorilla Grodd hails from Gorilla City and seeks to dominate the entirety of the world. This killer gorilla regularly mind controls others to make up his army and wants to prove that he is the top banana. Gorilla Grodd is quite capable of working well with others but often is enraged when he perceives others to be looking down on him. At the start of the game Gorilla Grodd must take a supervillain action every so often against Solivar, the leader of Gorilla city, who he seeks to overthrow. From there Grodd can go about his plans to take over the world however he wants to.
Starting stats
Martial: 17
Diplomacy: 14
Stewardship: 8
Intrigue: 12
Learning: 17
Starts in Gorilla city before it is revealed to the outside world
Starts with Solivar as a Nemesis
Starts with one hero unit, no base and a decent amount of followers (Gorilla city insurgents)
May take six actions per turn
Must conquer the Earth
Starting Relations (Initial reactions)
Public: Ambivalent (Grodd is viewed as an overly ambitious upstart but he isn't out and out disliked and some citizens of Gorilla City even agree with a few of his points)
Villains: Liked (Grodd leads the insurgent movement in Gorilla City and as such is liked by his minions. Outside of the city he isn't taken seriously because he is a gorilla)
Law Enforcement: Distrusted (Grodd's radical views on gorilla supremacy leaves law enforcement leery of him but he hasn't been caught breaking any laws)
Heroes Unknown (The world at large is unaware of Gorilla City)
Rules
This is a 'Crusader Kings'-style quest. You play as a villain in the DCU (a version roughly based on the comics with a lot of inspiration from the DCAU) who gathers an organization behind them in order to accomplish their goals, generally starting in the first days of the age of superheroes (some options start even earlier).
Each turn, which is (tentatively) three months in-universe, you have access to a number of actions, as chosen from five categories: Martial, Diplomacy, Stewardship, Intrigue, and Learning. You have a set number of actions every turn and can freely pick where to spend each action with the exception of supervillain actions. Each action is associated with a DC; after voting, the basic system is that I will roll a d100 for each action, and if the roll at least equals the DC, the action succeeds to some extent; otherwise it fails. The higher the roll, the better. Following this, you may get one or more reactive arcs in response to some threat or other.
Heroes
Heroes (some of which might be better described as Villains, but whatever) are particularly prominent people in your organization. Recruiting Heroes is done by taking Diplomacy actions although your history and alliances may close off certain options for you and some heroes will become unable to work well with others.
Each Hero has a value in each of the five statistics, hard-capped at 70:
0-10 Human
10-20 Heroic
20-30 Planetary
30-40 Galactic
40-50 Cosmic
50-60 Multiversal
60-70: Singularity
When rolling for an action, most bonuses decrease the DC. Hero bonuses are the only bonuses that actually improve the roll. Specifically, the hero's value for a certain stat is added onto the d100 roll. This may sometimes cause the roll to exceed 100; in this case only (a roll of 101+), you get a re-roll to add to your current total. The same hero bonuses also affect this roll, so that you can get a prolonged chain of hero bonuses. The chain of hero bonuses is capped at 5 minus the number of heroes assigned to the action or if the heroes have a bonus exceeding or equal to 99 are caped at one reroll.
Each hero can participate in one action a turn. If multiple heroes are participating in the same action than a primary hero is chosen either by having the highest stat in the area of the action or by being Lex Luthor. Multiple heroes on one action, is calculated as follows Hero A + (Hero B*AB cooperation score) + (Hero C*AC cooperation score) and so on. Hero A is hero assigned to be a leader.
A, B and C are the heroes stats while cooperation score AB is the cooperation between hero A and B and cooperation score AC is the cooperation between hero A and C. As many heroes as you want can be added to an action although there can only be one primary hero assigned to an action. The cooperation score between heroes is rated on a scale of -2 to 2 and will usually be available to the thread to see although sometimes things will be hidden (surprise betrayals are a thing).
Assets
Money is highly limited in its potential when interacting with a lot of entities, and this isn't the sort of quest where you have trouble staying afloat in Earth's economy. As such, I won't be tracking money numerically. Instead, plot-relevant assets are tracked individually. This takes one of two forms. Some things - artifacts and corporations, for instance - are owned by your organization as a whole (directly or indirectly), and are listed as such. Immobile assets, by contrast, are organized into Bases, each of which has a number of Slots that represent its capacity to contain (military, industrial, research, etc.) facilities. Bases themselves might be mobile and can always get expanded to house even more stuff. You can create and own multiple bases but there is an upkeep element to having more than one.
Supervillain actions
This is a supervillain quest and as such a nemesis can be gained. A nemesis is either given upon selecting a character or if you get thwarted three times by the same hero. Upon gaining a nemesis supervillain actions must be taken against them every so often in place of a regular action. Supervillain actions are a variety of schemes that will attempt to damage the nemesis in some way shape or form. Successful supervillain actions will hurt the nemesis and benefit you while failed actions will do the reverse. The amount of time till the next supervillain action is determined by the success of previous actions and that heroes current state. Upon defeating a nemesis a reward will be given. You can have multiple nemesis' at once but one of them will be designated as the primary nemesis. The primary nemesis gives the most rewards upon their defeat.
Voting
The procedure is as follows:
1. Action options for the turn are posted. (Write-ins are very welcome, but subject to QM approval.)
2. By-line approval voting among the actions, to determine which actions are undertaken this turn.
3. A second round of voting, by plan, to determine which bonuses, particularly heroes, go on which action.
4. Turn results
5. Possible reactive mini-arcs, with smaller votes within them
