The indispensable team member

[Hermit]

What niche in the super team do you find indispensable?
Who do you most regret not having?

The guy strong enough to hold up the crumbling building...
The detective type who can actually tell you what all the clues mean...
The Science wiz who knows how to shut off the Mastermind's "Doomsday Device"
The "man with the van" , whoever owns the vehicle or other method of group transport
Mr. Moneybags- Because even heroes need cash
The intrepid Leader
Heck, the intrepid Follower (Someone has to take orders)

Every find yourself short one of these in a campaign?

[MarkusDark]

Recently, my group has found itself short of someone with medical training/skills. I would say that most missed are the characters that are liguists or broad range scientists so that you can get clues from various angles.

[slaughterj]

Originally posted by Hermit
What niche in the super team do you find indispensable?
Who do you most regret not having?

The guy strong enough to hold up the crumbling building...
The detective type who can actually tell you what all the clues mean...
The Science wiz who knows how to shut off the Mastermind's "Doomsday Device"
The "man with the van" , whoever owns the vehicle or other method of group transport
Mr. Moneybags- Because even heroes need cash
The intrepid Leader
Heck, the intrepid Follower (Someone has to take orders)

Every find yourself short one of these in a campaign?

The first 3 are big - transportation isn't much of an issue so far as I've seen, since players like supermovement.

[misterdeath]

Most often it's been the leader.

Normally, if I'm playing, I'll take that position. My wife will too, if she's not running.

But, it's a PINTA to have to see your very much not leader type character get pigeonholed into the role.

"I'm playing a semi-autistic idiot savant with Instinctive Combat skills? You want me to be the leader?"

Sigh.

If nobody wants to take some sort of coordinating role, then things can fall apart as Neil runs off to check this lead, and Jeff runs off to talk to that contact, and Joe runs off to get into a barfight because he's bored and everyone does their own thing.

I can work around not having a scientist, or a medic, or a brick.

D

[mattingly]

I agree with Mister D. The Leader is hard to to without. I can do without someone to lead the team into battle, but the team needs a purpose. Sure, that can be provided by an NPC mentor or employer, but when that figure isn't around, who makes the decisions?

The other team member that's hard to do without is the team conscience. Besides a head (the leader), every team needs a heart. That's the person who gets the team to do the right thing, and stops them from doing the wrong thing.

[MarkusDark]

When I GM, I tend to pick the leader whether they want it or not. I wait for a couple of sessions to go by, then based upon what the public witnesses - they choose the leader. No matter what the team says, "Really, we have voted this guy the leader, not me!" the media and public has already branded him a leader. Sometimes, that is enough of a push to help get the usually 'non-leader' type into the roll.

[TheImperialKhan]

I have to go with the trend here. The leader is the one role that you really can't do without. I've seen what happens when you try to run a hero team by committee and trust me on this one it just doesn't work.

You want examples look at The Avengers; pre Cap they were individually powerfull, but after Cap took over as team leader they became just that, a team. And consequently far more effective.

Also look at the JLA; with all that power no one should be able to offer them much more than token resistance. But they have no real leader and so do not achieve their potential. And sorry but no, Batman is not a leader. He tries hard but he's too much of a loner to be able to inspire his teammates the way Cap does. Superman could but he doesn't want the job and hasn't had the training for it.

In any case I go with the Leader as the indispensable one.

[Ghost Archer]

Oh, yeah, the Leader is the major sticking point in my campaigns too. even when I have a vict . . . er . . . volunteer nobody listens to them. When I play, I always end up being the leader by default, even, as misterdeath says, when the character isn't a leader type.

The other type I have trouble with is the detective when I GM. Most of my players have no idea what detective work is and couldn't deduce it was raining if they were soaking wet so I tend to shy away from deep investigations. Again, when I play, I am the detective, but since two of my main characters ARE detectives, it works but then my Co-GM has to work hard to keep the detective in me happy.

[Beetle]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but a good leader is indispensible. The problem in my circle is that one GM's campaigns were so bloody that nobody wanted to be leader (high guilt when your decisions lead to the death of another player's character).

In the monthly Champs game that I'm in, we don't have an official team leader. The other players are looking to me to do that, since I've got the most experience with the system. The problem is that I'm playing a character with all the fun speedster disads (mega impulsive, highly overconfident). Last session, we were called to a hostage situation. The team wanted to get all the details from the police. Bolt said "Bleep that! We can take these clowns!" One totally destroyed building and three dead hostages later (Who knew the hostage takers had bombs? Not us, we didn't ask.) and they still want Bolt to be leader.

[Trebuchet]

In our current campaign my character has become the leader since she has the most seniority, was deputy team leader, and the original leader/founder is taking a year long leave of absense. That's been an interesting role-playing challenge for me, because I am not a leader type myself.

So far she's done OK.

[BlackCobra]

Actually, it was the case in a galactic defense (Cosmic-level power) super team that every character but one on the team were the ideal support characters. One was a galactic-level teleporter to get the team there, one the people person, one the tech person, etc. But those characters were all a little light in the combat. One character wasn't (see the Invulnerability discussion thread for specifics). As a team, we were (could be) really gross. The support team did everything it needed to do to get the Gross Guy up next to the bad guys and then he took them out. (I guess he was the Brick)

And when we had scenarios without him, we really really missed him. We had to actually think!

[JmOz]

Not quite indespencible, but I enjoy playing and quite uesful in some campeigns is the agent smasher, the guy with abunch of AE and AF attacks, usualy not a heavy hitter but still tough as anything

[Syberdwarf2]

Following the broken record treend, I'd also say the the Leader is the most indespensible. However, in most Champs game sI've played in, the money has to come from somewhere. Anybody that has lots of money and is self-motivated enough to put his life and fortune on the line on a regular basis probably has good leadership qualities. The Mony Guy usually ends up as the leader. After all, how did he get all that money if he can't at least reasonably lead people?

[st barbara]

I can empathise with "Trebuchet". "St Barbara" was sort of "dragooned" into being team leader over my objections because no-one else wanted the job either. I have trouble thinking tactically so she made a poor fist of it. Things have improved lately because the team has added a member who was specifically designed to be a tactician. However, in a few months we will be moving from one "alternate world" to another, with "St Barbara" being the only continuing character ! What's the bet she gets stuck with the job again, on the grounds of "seniority" .

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by st barbara
I can empathise with "Trebuchet". "St Barbara" was sort of "dragooned" into being team leader over my objections because no-one else wanted the job either. I have trouble thinking tactically so she made a poor fist of it. Things have improved lately because the team has added a member who was specifically designed to be a tactician. However, in a few months we will be moving from one "alternate world" to another, with "St Barbara" being the only continuing character ! What's the bet she gets stuck with the job again, on the grounds of "seniority" .

Let's hear it for the rule of the super-gymnasts!