[Doctor Xaos] Lesser villains in recent playtests

[Ron Edwards]

I played three playtests in four days, partly at Forge Midwest, and one of them over hangout and (at last!) including the estimable James E. Shields, esq, artist, and creator buddy. Rather than narrate the storyline for each, I decided to choose a playtesting variable to examine.

Based on much painful experience, I decided a while ago that the Lesser Villain should always be played by someone who's played the game before, or failing that, the person who's introducing the game to everyone else. For these playtests, that was me.

Since I was sort of rules-managing and social-teaching at the same time, plus in a playtest watch-it-from-above mindset, I had little mental space to spare. So I made sure not to second-guess myself, and went with exactly the first thing that occurred to me.

In the hangout game with Chris Chinn, Alexander Cherry, and James Shields, we had a techno Doctor Chaos, a masked, tentacled alien, all about terraforming the Earth and heavily into Control. I made up the Profit-obsessed cosmic-powers supervillain Starhammer, who when I described him, one player laughed and said, "This like Starbrand with the mindset of the Rhino!" Pure lemon-yellow cosmic zap outfit, little star-sparks in his flight-path, and all he cares about is getting very rich, preferably through extortion and forcible extraction. (this story included the Retrospectre, Bandolier whose name became plural later, and Prophecy Girl, who when developed became Prophecy)

In the first Forge Midwest game with Matt Strickley, Willow Palecek, Jason Dettman, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Tim Jensen, we had a smoothie deceptive Doctor Chaos, a blue-skinned, silver-haired alien woman who initially wore a mask to seem human, also all about Control but through manipulation and "it's all for peace." I made up Mandala, a sorceress clad in a black robe-cape, wielding glowy red magical portals and demonbolts, naturally all about Power. (this story included Destiny, Plymouth Rock, the White Knight, Tog the Guardian of the Universe, Hivemind, and Radiohead, who became the Voice of the Free World)

In the second Forge Midwest game with Jeremiah Frye, Jamal Brown, Dave Michalak, and Eric Ahlgren, I made up ... and I really had go with that "first idea" despite an internal WTF ... Passion Flower, a male supervillain with wraparound visor goggles, hiking boots, lots of pockets, and a lilac in his lapel, all about Respect. (in this story, Alayna the extradimension elf babe became the Goddess, MucusMan became Electroplasmic, Rakshasa became the Ashura, the Chameleon became the Reptron, the Swarm became the Locust, and the Void Knight became the Void Templar.)

The good news is that each one became a powerful plot-figure tied tightly into the situations of the heroes, developing relationships with some of them or at least opinions. Passion Flower mated with the Locust actually, and it was very beautiful, but never mind that.

The bad news is that the rule about a hero helping the Lesser Villain to break free is a bit too easy ... or maybe that's OK, and the problem is that there simply isn't enough incentive for the Lesser Villain not to stick with Doctor Xaos. The more I think about it, the more that seems to be the issue.