My favourite type
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Agreed
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Iâm not entirely sure I understand the premise of the question, TBH. I hadnât realized we were supposed to be obsessing over our nemesis.
To me, it was just âthis is the person that is getting in our way the most.â Maybe that just means I should pick the option for you to write them, since I didnât expect to need to care.
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In general⌠Heroes/Villains kinda are obsessed over [usually in defeating/destroying/capturing] their Nemesis and on top of that thereâs Intimacy route 
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Huh. My relationship with a nemesis tends to be annoyance rather than obsession.
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Either way you want to destroy/defeat/capture [or torture] them, so it still kinda counts. Obsession can be perceived in many ways.
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I mean. The very premise of the story has the MC performing an hour-long monologue starting with their origin story just to rub their victory in the face of their nemesis. That certainly seems like something you wouldnât do if you didnât care at all about the guy/gal or just wanted them out of the way.
As for the question⌠Hmm. In an ideal world, of course itâd be nice to be able to customize the hero, but when it comes to it, Iâm always a little afraid that the options would come at the detriment of the characterâs depth. I think Iâd be fine with the nemesis just being theirn own character, and having the MC react to it.
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Hm, yeah, actually thatâs a very good point. Guess I need to decide why Iâm obsessing then.
And since Iâm having trouble figuring that out myself, a fleshed out premade hero may help me decide.
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What about sort of a middle option? The player can choose the really important things about their characterâs nemesis, but that doesnât necessarily mean every little detail needs to be customizable. Perhaps their name and uniform could be determined by the kind of personality the player chooses for them, for example.
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Iâll keep checking the poll and comments for the rest of the weekend. Perhaps a middle ground might be the right call.
Maybe something (very rough here) likeâŚ
âI had watched you on TV. Read about your in the newspapers. But it was the first time I feasted my eyes on you in person. There you stoodâŚâ
- The invincible powerhouse from another world, incorruptible, a beacon of truth and justice. (Alien)
- The brooding enigma, a human fighting alongside gods and robots, always prepared and always victorious. (Human)
- The wise-cracking punk whose bravado masks her insecurities; she never backs down and never gives up. (Experimental)
- The snarky billionaire inventor who constantly upgrades their state-of-the-art battle suit, always the smartest person in any room. (Tech)
- The egotistical magician, who wields immense power and plays their cards close to their vest. (Magic)
(And from there you could customize some, including their gender, name, etc. But the template approach would let me write the character, give them some personality, etc.). No matter what, your arch enemy is the leader of the Originals and they clearly have plot armor until the very bitter end.
So basically templates for Supes, Bats, Spidey, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange. And since each potential origin is covered, that gives players a lot of flexibility for match-ups. Lex Luthor versus Superman? Covered with Human MC versus Alien Hero. Joker versus Batman? Covered with Human MC versus Human Hero. Green Goblin versus Spidey? Covered with Experimental MC versus Experimental Hero.
As I keep spitballing, Iâm wondering if tossing in some quick character bios would be interesting for players. It might also help me develop the characters better. For example:
Gold Fox
Origin: Human
Powers: None
Skills: Explosives, Computers, Wine & Spirits
- Genius: 3
- Deception: 5
- Charisma: 4
- Precision: 5
- Speed: 3
- Might: 2
- Durability: 3
- Energy: 0
Putty Meister:
Origin: Tech
Powers: Putty Balls, Entangling Putty, Glow Putty
Skills: Chemistry, Acrobatics, Toy Collector
Attributes:
- Genius: 5
- Deception: 3
- Charisma: 3
- Precision: 4
- Speed: 4
- Might: 2
- Durability: 2
- Energy: 4
Shade
Origin: Magic
Powers: Possession, Demonic Flame
Skills: Too numerous to mention; retains information/knowledge from host minds.
- Genius: 6
- Deception: 8
- Charisma: 6
- Precision: variable
- Speed: variable
- Might: variable
- Durability: variable
- Energy: 7
31 Likes
This is sounding awesome, but if I may make a suggestion, making the race of the alien hero have something to do with the race of the alien villain would be cool, like our race conquered hers, or we were part of the same race, but she didnât follow âthe conquer the worldâ orders ( like general zorg-Superman), or making her part of a race who competed with ours, hers bringing peace, our conquering. Just an idea.
Besides⌠Am I the only one who imagines the alien villain like omni-man?
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That would definitely make my MC very obsessed with taking her down. Also very confused why she didnât just tell all the humans about the plan.
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I think it might be cool to add a little extra flavor to the MC/Hero relationship if they are both the same origin (like a âMagic Warsâ element if they are both Magic Origin) but I donât want to overpromise. Let me keep outlining and figure out whatâs doable.
Itâs funny you mentioned that! I just started watching the show on Friday and Iâm really enjoying the ride. Still have like 3 or 4 more episodes left. The voice work is really strong IMO. (Love Gillian Jacobs and JK Simmons in particular, they really bring their characters to life). No spoilers though! 
I hope to finish it by tomorrow night.
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Good eye. This IS a bug and itâs been bothering the crap out of me for over a week now. I canât figure out how to fix it. Iâve done everything short of rewriting that section of code. It looks fine, so Iâm stumped. Iâll come back to it eventually.
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Really excited to meet our arch enemy!
Will they be an RO at some point?
At the very least, the arch enemy will be named in Module 2. Iâm running out of ways to describe the hero in the present scenes without referring to a name or even a gender. Itâs getting awkward!
But no, the hero wonât be a RO option.
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The MC is not just âthe villain,â the MC is a psychopath. The MC is not some relatively harmless cat burglar or someone forced into crime to pay for their kidâs cancer treatment. Thereâs nothing wrong with those tropes, but thatâs not what the MC is about.
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To me, RO means an actual romantic option, complete with mutual consent, mutual respect, etc. None of that is present here. There could possibly be some level of physical attraction/chemistry (hence the âIntimateâ approach your MC can take) but even that is a very, very warped way of expressing the MCâs obsession with the hero.
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There are lots of fantasy/YA stories where the baddie turns out to be not quite as bad as thought, someone who lives in the grey area, you have all of the tropes where hero gets all hot and bothered (like the villain slips the tip of their sword under the heroâs chin to coax their gaze upward, stuff like that), but thatâs not whatâs going on here. The relationship between the MC and hero will be intense but decidedly toxic.
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It would make the hero lookâŚI donât know, really horrible IMO. I mean, what hero is going to battle some villain for decades, striving to stop them from doing all sorts of terrible things, and then be like, âWell, they are kind of sexyâŚâ?
Note: none of this means there wonât be opportunities for the villain to flirt with the hero or even lust after them. Your MC might have a sexual obsession with the hero, but again it canât be a true âromance optionâ because it wonât be a mutual feeling.
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The ones from The boys lol.
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It seems like you really have your head on straight regarding telling a true villain story. It is very reassuring to hear. No one is saying you canât be a formerly empathetic character or a character that used to be a âgoodâ person. But the author is aiming for your character, currently, to be a true evildoer, even if in their eyes theyâre committing necessary evil.
Edit: @Eric_Moser Just got around to testing the Shade route, which was much anticipated. I have to say, it did not let down.
While I still loved taking on a bunch of Z-listers in a fun and humorous superpowered scuffle, Shadeâs route met my expectations in brutality and risky villainy. I believed she really was a demon, mentioning mere boredom as the perennial motivator for herself, and having us openly murder her host body, a random, unnamed, undefined person, really set the tone for this choice of sidekick. Of course, I have to mention the satisfying displays of power we can perform during this opportunity. My favorite, not to anyoneâs surprise, once again being the Super Speed option. A real Finger Poke of Death. I got a chance to show off Linusâ abilities and willingness to go extremely far in order to enact his ârevengeâ on all self-identifying heroes. Everything here was fun and well-written, and it really pushes you morally, as a literal demon sidekick would and should. The choices for Shadeâs new host were fun for me. I chose the one who instantly reminded me of DG from CCH. It was tough because I considered going for the muscular male as that vessel might come in handy in a later mission for obvious reasons.
Geez, see what I just said? This game has been delightfully evil so far, looking forward to Module 2!
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Have you heard about the high elves? the saying "Every villain is the hero of their own story? Got me thinking here about potential tension between nemesis and MC⌠Try treating nemesis as MC of the story and MC as the BBEG of it. Play through the plot in your head (cos its kinda your character, so you have the outline of who theyâre gonna be) and try to treat âBBEGâ as potential RO (with red flags (obviously)) and see if itâs possible for nemesis to fall in love (define âloveâ here (maybe treat it as rival-mance or 1-night stand or several(with masquerade, and not true persona?)) with MC. Play with possibilities (in your head or some drafts) to make a coclusion between âitâs totally gonna workâ and âitâs not gonna work at allâ.
