One of the strengths of the S85 world from a gaming
perspective is that the villains outnumber the heroes, and the heroes aren't
that strong or well organized. The 'problem' of stories set in Superman's
Metropolis is that Superman is there - you don't really need anyone else when
he's around. However, in Doc's Meridian, there are a handful of heroes, and
they aren't very powerful. Doc himself is basically the Thing's power set with
Reed Richards' intellect. He's powerful, yes, but not in the same league as Supes.
That said, as I move forward, I do so wanting to add more villains to the game
but not many heroes. One of the mistakes that I see supers games making is
focusing on the heroes of the game world. In my experience, people want to play
their own supers in the game world, and don't want to necessarily play the
pre-generated superheroes. So, my focus should be on the villains. Players can
focus on the heroes.
Parenthetically, this is one of the problems I’m running
into with the Public Domain – the heroes outnumber the villains, and the
villains are largely forgettable. I’m struggling to find really good villains
to adapt to S85.
I spent a little time reviewing Doc’s rogues’ gallery, and
it’s a really solid assortment of baddies. There weren’t a lot of gaps. I still
have some iconic archetypes to fill in (there’s no ‘hunter’ villain yet, for
instance; there’s no weather controller), but the biggest gap I noticed was in
teams. I have a handful of both super and villain teams, but the comics are
full of teams that are themed to work together, and S85 doesn’t have much of
that. The good news is that the format of the Stalwart Phile is perfect for
this exact need, so I’m going to devote a few Stalwart Philes to adding
supervillain teams to the game. Here are a few examples of what I’m thinking:
- A Russian team that are ‘heroic’ but also 1980s Russians, so it’s complicated. This could be a team you hold your nose and work with, or that you do battle against. Or maybe both.
- An element-themed team.
- A chess-themed team.
- A snake-themed team that works for Vyperion.
Unlike most of the groups I’ve presented thus far, these are groups that always work together; they probably have matching costumes. They’ve got some team maneuvers that they’ve developed, and which can give them some other options in play. From a GM perspective, they are modular - you can design an adventure where the heroes go against a team of Russians, but you can easily sideline some of the members if needed to balance against your supers.
