Tied in with the Goblin Formula thread what things are scattered around the MU that can be reasonable justifications for new heroes and villains to benefit from. As we saw with Hobgoblin Osborne has a number of abandoned lairs around NYC at a minimum that are just waiting for someone to run across and acquire the basic gear at least along with notes on the Goblin Formula to make use of. With some retooling they could have a completely new look while still using his gear (including amusingly enough to make your own homegrown Batman).

The Enforcer, who didn't last long against the Ghost Rider, had a hidden lair somewhere in or around Hollywood that had been funded by mysterious foreign powers (seems like they're always unlisted foreign powers) it was quite high-tech and what happened to it is unknown. While it might have been stripped by the authorities it could have gone quite differently since comics-wise we have no idea. It could have been 'lost' in the police records by someone who set things up to take it over for him or herself and use for criminal or heroic ends.

Doom has a bewildering array of hidden lairs all around the world and more than a few in NYC complete with a number of useful gadgets. Some of those gadgets actually provide super-powers directly rather than being the power to aid in the creation or starting point of a new hero or villain.

Who else can think of other items like this to toss out? Villains who are known for leaving lairs all over the place and what might be found there, as well as misplaced or forgotten technology that should reappear (such as the cell regenerator that healed Water Wizard and gave him his powers). Anyone make use of this kind of technology to create new PC or NPC for their games?

There was a Thor from an alternate universe that got killed a few years back, i dont think it was ever said what the avengers/our Thor did with his hammer.
Tech left behind from the skrull invasion could be a good source for a high tech character or maybe a characer that could modify it and give themselves super skrull powers.

Thinking back to thors hammer, if a character had the means and was brave enough to travel to the asgard realm from the last ragnarok and find any mystical artifacts left behind from when Asgard fell such as all the ura weapons Loki had built.

maybe someone could take advantage of the shiled?hammer switch over and find some top secret files that leads them to some shield tech or even a weapon or artifact that shiield discovered through there howling comandos program or even just files on various super solider attempts.

I imagine those knock-off hammers had a chance to end up drawn to Earth like the rest of the Asgardians were when Thor was reborn and revived Asgard. Wouldn't bring power like Mjolnir but could potentially give some good boosts, perhaps give someone a chance to go standard Asgardian stats temporarily or permanently.

Given the shakeups at SHIELD in the transition from Nick Fury as Director to Tony Stark to Norman Osbourne, and the "left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" nature of super-secret organizations and their undocumented off-the-books black ops and research projects, it's not inconcievable that there are forgotten SHIELD depots and munitions caches out there just waiting to be uncovered by curiousity and accident.

Dig far enough into the ground, you might run across something Mole Man forgot about, or mystical artifacts dating back to antediluvian Atlantis.

I've been working on a villain character that is essentially one of the earlier Alpha Primitives experimented on with Terrigen Mists by ancient Inhuman scientists and forgotten about in cryogenic suspension.

Now that the Montesi Formula is no longer in effect, vampires that weren't in the Earth Dimension when Dr. Strange eradicated all vampires in the Earth Dimension with that spell are "safe" to return to Earth.

Ultron reconstructs itself using artificially intelligent computer viruses that surreptitiously arrange for parts and materials to be gathered together to rebuild a new Ultron when the current one is missing or destroyed. An audacious hacker character might find an old system infected with those AI viruses and tweak them to arrange his own Ultron or accidentally give life to an Ultron-like robot that has no evil persona whatsoever.

Lots of spin-offs from originals that you can work with.

There's always room for more vampires.

At the end of the most recent Blade series, every vampire that ever existed in the Marvel Universe was resurrected - every last one of 'em. That's a whole lot of vampires (dating back to whats-his-face, Varnae, from 20,000 years ago?)

And that even includes the SHIELD helicarrier FULL of vampires that Blade killed off earlier in that same series...

'Course, a bunch of THOSE got wiped out again at the end of that MI-13 series... but keeping them down seems to be horribly difficult these days...

Ugh, I really had no problems with all the vampires being wiped out and the idea one managed to survive the spell because it was being 'stored' cryogenically was pretty absurd given vampires brought in from outside the Earth Dimension instantly vaporized because of the spell. Sounds pretty crazy to have all of them revived, particularly considering the Conan-era vampires were a great deal more powerful than most modern ones. Plus the villain Dr. Sun would return as a 'living' brain after it was destroyed decades ago. I just can't imagine the characters wouldn't end up suffering for it.

Could use more werewolves in that case, they get so dissed compared to the vampires. Although maybe with all the werewolf novels and RPG and the like maybe they'll finally get some better coverage at Marvel. Won't hold my breath though since characters with animal traits never get any respect (Panthra was brought back at DC just to be unceremoniously murdered by Superboy-Prime backhanding her head off of her shoulders).

I ignore the Montesi Formula thing in my campaigns most of the time (simply because I love to have people occasionally encounter Draculae).
As for other alternate origins, one can also be a Space Knight or join with a Symbiote.

@Vrykolas2k

If you have (or want to write up) rules for characters with symbiotes i would love to have them for my book and credit will be given.

majortomsawyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Vrykolas2k
>
> If you have (or want to write up) rules for
> characters with symbiotes i would love to have
> them for my book and credit will be given.


They already have those on Ben Reilly's site, as well as in a Dragon magazine, so I couldn't take any credit; one thing I made a while ago was a Symbiote character who was also infected by the techno-organic virus (and the techno-organic virus is another fun Origin).

I think that a lot of your time traveling types, like the Tomorrow Man, Kang, Cable, etc. probably have all sorts of technological caches in this time that could serve as a springboard for a heroic origin. For instance, have an archaologist who stumbles upon a time-traveling Sphinx from Rama Tut and who knows what kinds of stuff you could extrapolate that person getting their hands on and subsequently turning to heroism.

CapoCastillo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think that a lot of your time traveling types,
> like the Tomorrow Man, Kang, Cable, etc. probably
> have all sorts of technological caches in this
> time that could serve as a springboard for a
> heroic origin. For instance, have an archaologist
> who stumbles upon a time-traveling Sphinx from
> Rama Tut and who knows what kinds of stuff you
> could extrapolate that person getting their hands
> on and subsequently turning to heroism.

Good point, many of those characters seem to have operational bases in the present day, particularly Cable. No telling what you could find that they've brought back from future eras, including items like temporal counterparts of Cap's Shield (I think Cable even has said to have used it in the future or at least some future counterpart of him has). I think Kang had a big thing for scavenging technology from various eras and after that massive invasion storyarc of his years ago there must be scattered equipment and gear at hidden staging areas all over the planet.

Come to think of it that event also revealed the Master of the World having various scattered bases all over the world as well, the Plodex technology he made use of plus what he assimilated once he was released from the original ship likely means there are a lot of potential items around. Maybe even more of his own super-soldier style serum (since he did have a storyarc that featured him creating a formula he drank to provide him physical perfection of his own, one that required a strong will the master the changes). Given he had many biological experiments going on an unfortunate could stumble into one of those abandoned bases and end up empowered in a number of ways.

nanite tech is a good origion and dna testing has become popular n the real world so imagine what it could be like in the comic world. maybe a stim cell scientist finds some research of the high evolutionary

Vrykolas2k Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> majortomsawyer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > @Vrykolas2k
> >
> > If you have (or want to write up) rules for
> > characters with symbiotes i would love to have
> > them for my book and credit will be given.
>
>
> They already have those on Ben Reilly's site, as
> well as in a Dragon magazine, so I couldn't take
> any credit; one thing I made a while ago was a
> Symbiote character who was also infected by the
> techno-organic virus (and the techno-organic virus
> is another fun Origin).


I don't suppose you know what Dragon Magazine issue this was in by any chance?

Edit - found it - Issue 94. Now I just need to contact Ben Reilly....

As for techo-orgainc - I would be interested in it too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2010 12:44PM by majortomsawyer.

majortomsawyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vrykolas2k Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > majortomsawyer Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > @Vrykolas2k
> > >
> > > If you have (or want to write up) rules for
> > > characters with symbiotes i would love to
> have
> > > them for my book and credit will be given.
> >
> >
> > They already have those on Ben Reilly's site,
> as
> > well as in a Dragon magazine, so I couldn't
> take
> > any credit; one thing I made a while ago was a
> > Symbiote character who was also infected by the
> > techno-organic virus (and the techno-organic
> virus
> > is another fun Origin).
>
>
> I don't suppose you know what Dragon Magazine
> issue this was in by any chance?
>
> Edit - found it - Issue 94. Now I just need to
> contact Ben Reilly....
>
> As for techo-orgainc - I would be interested in it
> too.


The site's in the LInks, up there in the upper right corner.
For Techno-Organic, the powers that seem most logical for them (having read the Phalanx Covenant) would be Elongation, Communicate with Cybernetics, Growth (since they can absorb nearby machines, up to large ships), and Energy Path (Electricity).

Vrykolas2k Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The site's in the LInks, up there in the upper
> right corner.
> For Techno-Organic, the powers that seem most
> logical for them (having read the Phalanx
> Covenant) would be Elongation, Communicate with
> Cybernetics, Growth (since they can absorb nearby
> machines, up to large ships), and Energy Path
> (Electricity).

Warlock probably makes the best example of going techno-organic, with the various morphing abilities he had although there are different versions of techno-organic technology most seem centered around the Technarch race that Warlock spawns from. So you also get the ability to manifest electronic scanners/sensors and shapeshifting with the power stunts it can allow such as manifesting ancient and modern weapon limbs. The conversion to being techno-organic of course works best for someone who starts out with a genius that can exploit it fully, like we've seen with some of the evil incarnations of Forge after being infected by it in some what-ifs.

Already shot the webmaster a PM, and made sure I had a copy of the Dragon Magazine in question.

Those are some good ideas for techno organic origins, anyone want to give them a proper write-up, or is this one of the cases where MTS should quit being lazy and do it his darn self?

majortomsawyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Already shot the webmaster a PM, and made sure I
> had a copy of the Dragon Magazine in question.
>
> Those are some good ideas for techno organic
> origins, anyone want to give them a proper
> write-up, or is this one of the cases where MTS
> should quit being lazy and do it his darn self?

I did a version for my Cypher V2.0 character, using a sample of reworked Warlock material but there wouldn't be a default write-up for a techno-organic origin. There's a fair amount of variation possible even with the same starting point (such as we see when Warlock converts someone directly into a TO being like his father did with S'ym and I think N'astyre). It really depends on whether you have it completely converting someone into a TO being or if it just adds onto them in a fashion similar to cybernetics such as we saw with the Extremis version Stark had for a short period.

One path they end up becoming completely techno-organic the other they remain primarily organic with techno-organic fibers infiltrating their body to provide powers. There are also penalties going purely techno-organic, as we saw with Warlock as he'd end up looking like a giant jumbled ball of metallic string anytime his concentration was disrupted and he lost control over his physical shape as he has no default form he can hold to. All body tissue ends up fairly homogeneous techno-organic fibers without any kind of fixed skeletal structure to maintain body integrity if damaged.

demons and gods granting powers Several characters have been created in ths manner such as the Wrecking crew,or Beta Ray Bill and some characters got upgraded such as hobgoblin beng turned into a demon during Inferno

Apocalypse has machines everywhere that he uses to grant and magnifiy powers

dacat75 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> demons and gods granting powers Several characters
> have been created in ths manner such as the
> Wrecking crew,or Beta Ray Bill and some characters
> got upgraded such as hobgoblin beng turned into a
> demon during Inferno

Good point there, the Asgardians have accidentally or intentionally resulted in a number of heroes and villains thanks to bestowing powers on mortals. Loki's done so in the past (and surprising he hasn't done so more recently). Mephisto and Satannish have also been good for creating villains.

> Apocalypse has machines everywhere that he uses to
> grant and magnifiy powers

Another good point, and at least some of that technology is likely to be in NYC. Could even be parts of Ship still around for someone to make use of. While Apocalypse upgrades mutants his tech could easily end up being used to upgrade a normal human instead. There's also the technology and bases the High Evolutionary had scattered around such as we saw during his Evolutionary Wars, one of the machines seen clearly could remove or amplify existing powers and might even trigger super-powered mutations in normal humans.

So trying to put together some of the suggestions here for GM and players looking for in-continuity ways for a new PC to have their origin more tied into the MU (for those using the MU setting) how does this list look?

1-Super-Soldier Serum or some variant (records on the chemical formula known to be in the possession of the CIA since the 50s)

2-Goblin Formula, known to exist in several abandoned Osborne lairs scattered around the city (ended up resulting in the creation of the Hobgoblin as well as empowering his son pre-OMD retcon).

3-The Ionic Ray treatment process developed by Baron Zemo

4-Exposure to some version of the Techno-Organic conversion virus

5-Weapons cache from one of the following characters: Cable, Tomorrow Man, Kang (or one of his temporal counterparts), Goblin.

6-Empowerment by Loki (as happened with Absorbing Man) or other Asgardian god with suitable powers (Karnilla resulted in the empowerment of the Wrecker)

7-Finding possible left-over Mjolnir copies resulting from the Final Ragnarok

8-The Power Broker Treatment as developed for the Power Broker and used to create the majority of his Unlimited Wrestling Class combatants.

9-The Terrigen Mists of the Inhumans (Was shown in the original revelations of Maelstrom that he would give samples of it to unsuspecting scientists to experiment with), can be modified to give specific powers rather than random empowerment (again as seen when learning about Maelstrom, after a sample was used to turn a large collection of normal humans into amphibious scaly Hydromen).

What else?

Could be a number of forgotten or abandoned SHIELD & HYDRA bases and gear around, considering all the upheavals those organizations have gone through.

The Cosmic Cube has been presented as granting/becoming powered characters on a high level of the scale. This combined with other aspects of the universe (Eon, Eternity, Living Tribunial, Galactus, Grandmaster, and infinitely more to be presented under a Cosmic Empowerment Heading.

Just remembered while discussing the Beast with someone that there's also the chemical mutagen that Beast developed while working for the Brand Corporation. He used it to give himself his blue-furred form in place of his original human form and it even provided him for several weeks with a Regenerative factor that rivaled what Wolverine's been upgraded to and put him to shame at the time. While he's supposedly never made any since possible prototype formulas, notes, or even some of the residue chemical survived for them to further study and use to create super-powered humans. In a setting where the GM has the PC group relating to the X-men or even part of the X-men having Beast find out his research had created a group of superhumans (particularly deformed ones) could have some long-term story impacts in a campaign.

Hrm.. Wasn't the blue-furred form when Beast also first evinced his pheromones? If so, that potential aspect of the mutagenic formula could be exploited for character origins involving similar scent-based influence, whether as intrinsic powers or distilled into various aerosols for gadgets.

Redman II Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hrm.. Wasn't the blue-furred form when Beast also
> first evinced his pheromones? If so, that
> potential aspect of the mutagenic formula could be
> exploited for character origins involving similar
> scent-based influence, whether as intrinsic powers
> or distilled into various aerosols for gadgets.

From the issue I remember he was shrugging off shotgun blasts due to rapid healing don't remember any pheromone-related stuff but it's possible he had evinced such powers during that brief settling in period in one of the issues I didn't see before his secondary mutation stabilized. Pheromone powers don't seem to really fit with him anyway, but given the nature of the mutagen the results could be quite wild and random creating people with otherwise unrelated powers.

The Weapon Alpha battle-suit might still be kicking around out there ... or at least the schematics are. And then one has to wonder about ALL of that tech that was shown to reside in Department H in AF vol.2.

Potential mystical origins abound.

Powersurge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Weapon Alpha battle-suit might still be
> kicking around out there ... or at least the
> schematics are. And then one has to wonder about
> ALL of that tech that was shown to reside in
> Department H in AF vol.2.
>
> Potential mystical origins abound.

How about listing at least some of it? Particularly the more common or most likely encountered pieces. Always nice to learn about new seeds for making use of existing items to create new characters.

Remembered another process, the Power Man process. The one that gave Luke Cage his powers. While it was a result of someone tampering with the original medical experiment that was meant to only provide physical regeneration they did a storyarc some years ago that specifically dealt with some criminal organization having decided to capitalize on the process to make it a replicable deal to empower agents. Cage had been captured and there were dozens of empowered victims used as lab animals. So there could be characters like that around with Luke Cage-like stats perhaps weaker or higher depending on the intent from that or as a result of future efforts to refine the process.

There's also the device that gave Water Wizard his powers, as an experimental cell-regenerating device to stabilize vets during the Vietnam conflict when it overloaded it completely healed him in hours and gave him the powers he later discovered. It could certainly be used to provide similar or perhaps completely different powers to others if reused.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2010 01:06AM by Nightmask.

My all time favorite has always been: "Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now, etc..."




"How did that give you super powers?"
"Who cares? I can fly and set people on fire."

Hmmm, just realized that the technology that created the Scorpion has been up for grabs since his creation. The scientist who developed it died attempting to cure Gargan before the irreversible loss of all human emotion and becoming an amoral predator and I don't believe there's been any reference to what happened to it since then. While the actual Scorpion process is only good for creating villains given the scientist in charge explicitly stated he built the device to create someone with 'scorpion powers' as they were a natural spider predator there's nothing to suggest one couldn't recalibrate it to provide powers form a different source, say a tiger or wolf or even an existing superhuman (just have to gather sufficient genetic material presumably to make it happen and they're leaving bits of tissue and blood all over the place after a fight).

There's also Futurian's evolutionary accelerator left behind after he evolved and left Earth (no evidence exists it was destroyed or the design notes either). Same holds for the High Evolutionary's version, especially after the Evolutionary Wars had him displaying dozens of well-hidden bases around the world.

The device that empowered Count Nefaria might also exist. While he killed the scientist who created it so he couldn't be used to revert Nefaria to a powerless state the device was left relatively intact with three power templates available (Eric Josten when he was Power Man, the Living Laser, and Whirlwind). Given the templates just need a willing subject (or unwilling as the case might be but hardly wise to use an unwilling target when the device temporarily increases their power a hundredfold) a mix-and-match of a wide range of supers could go into the creation of a new hero or villain thanks to this device.