I am the Crawling Chaos, the Nyarlathotep of legend, but most importantly I am the reborn Witch King of Sokur (BWAH HAH HAH!).
What's a great game of Adventure without villains? In our little corner of In Her Majesty's Name, the great villains that have caused the most problem are The Witch King of Sokur (BWAH HAH HAH) and Fu Manchu. One was completely made up by Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher), the other based on the books and movies (and a little creative imagination) about Fu Manchu (next post).
Now you may say, "What a minute, Fu Manchu is in the 20th Century!" So what? That's the beauty of the game - it's your world. I have moved characters and Adventuring Companies from the Pulp era through time travel, mystical gates, or just plain on ignoring that they are from another era. That's what we did with Fu Manchu. He lives in 1895. Remember - it's your world.
The Witch King of Sokur - both mounted and dismounted. Figures from Games Workshop.
Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher): When designing a great villain, you have to ask yourself, where did he come from and what is their motivation. For the Witch King of Sokur I decided he was an ancient, evil wizard king that has been brought back out of suspended animation by a loyal cult that has kept guard over his body. I decided his original empire was in African and that his opponents was the Island of Atlantis. Fast forward thousands of years he is now ready to start where he left off - conquering the world. Under the auspices of humanity, this sinister man reels in followers with his slick tongue and turn of a phrase.
The Dice of Chance: A Mysterious Arcane object in the possesion of the Witch King that allows him a free re-roll for anything once per game.
Using the figure of my Nazgul as inspiration I gave him heavy, ancient armor, a cursed sword, arcane items that give me powers (my helmet provides me the Mystical Power of Mesmerism) and the most evil mystical powers I could get for 30 points. My favorites to use are Dragons Breath, Spitfire, Water Bullets and then I just fill in the points. Of course having a cursed sword doesn't hurt so the Witch King is an excellent swordsmen. Talents are Dreadful, Terrifying, and Leadership +2. His Fighting Value is +4 while his Shooting Value is +3. Needless to say his Pluck is 2+.
Want to keep that person with the Arc Pistol out of the game: Use Dragon's Breath. All of the evil wizards recommend it.
Since the Witch King uses a lot of points, my minions are expendable but numerous. Depending on whether we are playing a 250 point game or 350 point game I have to be careful in what I choose: another powerful bad guy (Yeti, Troll of The Destroyer), troglodytes and my Rugu-Rugu Guard.
The Destroyer of Men. Basically Muscle.
My troglodytes (Uruk Hai from The Lord of the Rings) have average fighting skills, a sword, a shield and an armor of 9; but, I can get a lot of them. My favorite tactic with them is to run (oh how I love those deductions for firing at a running target) and engage in fighting. They are cannon fodder, but numerous in overwhelming an enemy figure. The Rugu-rugu have an armor of 7, a shoot value of 1 and cause enough of a nuisance that they cannot be ignored.
Lord Greystoke outnumbered by Troglodytes.
Shoot enough and you are bound to hit something.
Nothing like the occasional hit to keep you opponent honest!
Me: Enough of my nemesis. Next time we will look at some villains from literature and movies.
Great series of posts Neil. Although we've been playing Pulp Alley I would really like to play more IHMN. BTW, I was reading up on Fu Manchu and I saw this on the Wikipedia page:
ReplyDelete"At the time of their first encounter (1911), Dr. Petrie believed that Dr. Fu Manchu was more than 70 years old. This would mean he was studying for his first doctorate in the 1860s or 1870s."
So, not entirely 20thC!