UNTIL Superhero Team

[Brick]

I have finally decided on the details of my new campaign: The characters are part of a second team of superheroes working for UNTIL. They will be part of a two-years-project named UNITY II, after which it will be decided if UNTIL can actually afford a second team of supers - after all, the costs for training alone would be incredibly high... another set of sparring robots trashed etc. Since it is a "test", they are not a full part of UNTIL yet - good excuse for me to wait with the details until the sourcebook arrives (hopefully) in December. They have their own base in New York or Millenium City (not sure about that one yet).

Now, my questions:

What kind of missions would the characters get?

How do I prevent them from calling for help in the form of agent squads when the going gets tough... and when SHOULD they actually get that help?

I am also thankful for any kind of other suggestions, hints, links etc. - it is great to see how creative minds come together at this site.

[Monolith]

Re: UNTIL Superhero Team

 

Originally posted by Brick

What kind of missions would the characters get?

For the most part they should be responding to world-wide distress calls dealing with superhuman threats. One mission might have them responding to a Borealis threat in Toronto, the next has them crashing a major VIPER base in Mexico City, the mission after that might have them infiltrating an ARGENT lab in Berlin. Being in UNTIL means seeing the world, not just any specific city. This is why I probably would not base then in Millennium City (unless UNTIL was secretly trying to build a UNITY team specifically to be used in the US and Canada alone).

 

How do I prevent them from calling for help in the form of agent squads when the going gets tough... and when SHOULD they actually get that help?

For the most part, I think that UNITY II would be the group called in when the agents are over their heads, not the other way around. They are the superheroes and are so vastly more powerful that calling for agent backup should never be an issue. If anything, they would be calling for backup from UNITY I, not the support agents. The players should understand that from the beginning as well.

 

I think at times the team might need help, but that if for the GM to decide. Any UNTIL leader is going to understand that if 5-6 superheroes could not succeed the chances that 2 squads of UNTIL agents are going to be able to help is slim. An average superhero should be able to defeat a squad or two of UNTIL agents. Superheroes are just that much more powerful when built on 350 points.

[Lord Liaden]

Good advice from Monolith, as usual. Here are a couple of takes of my own:

 

The international adventure route makes sense, but requires more work from the GM to research foreign locations. (Boy, I wish Champions Worldwide had been published. ) You might consider a variation on what Monolith mentioned: UNTIL is setting up "regional" superteams to cover specific areas of the world, and now that the U.S. is more open to the idea of an UNTIL presence on its soil, your group is the new team for the United States and maybe all of North America. America's past antipathy toward UNTIL could also justify keeping agents to a minimum in your games - the government might prefer that UNTIL's active presence be confined to a small group of supers.

 

Regarding agents, they would probably serve two functions in a game centered on superheroes: as a source of intelligence and material support, which is under GM control and doesn't have to detract from the superheroes' primary role; and as backups when assaulting villains who are also backed up by agents. In the latter case the UNTIL agents can be used to keep the enemy's troops occupied while the supers go after the main threat, thus leaving them "off-camera" until the end of the operation. Of course, as Monolith pointed out, the supers can also be the cavalry rescuing agent forces that have gotten in over their heads.

[starblaze]

Agents can be useful in being a support group. They can be the ones who get whatever equipment may be needed for a mission or for an excuse to bring in a specialists. The are also good as a balancing act for a villian henchmen/agents. Instead of the supers having to battle legions of agents UNTIL's people can come in and keep them busy allowing the heroes the chance to take down the main bad guys.

[Storn]

I have a lot of experience running International adventures, specifically with a UNTIL team... in fact, tommorrow night, I'm running UNTIL Black Ops Team. In our game, the superteam is called UNITE. Each united nations country *may* have one paranormal on the team. US doesn't have anyone at the moment due to strained relations with the EU, the UN and most of the paranormls on the planet.

 

UNITE at the moment has 19 members, with 2 more coming in shortly, most likely as PCs. I will probably be moving from Black Ops to UNITE in the near future as soon as the Black Ops arc is done.

 

I apologize if you have seen this thread (as I'm sure many on this board have already spotted), but interwoven in my Black Ops thread is advice on running games like this. It is a very long thread, but it does have pictures~!

 

http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1570

 

IBut here is some quick advice: I recommend becoming well aquainted with Google. I do a search for pictures of a city that I might be setting an adventure in (Milan was one recently). I get a map of the city. Usually, clicking on a picture or two will lead me to a site that has some general info... I don't sweat it to much to get tons of details, I tend to paint in broad strokes. Having a map will generate lots of ideas for myself... fight scene areas, hotels, museums, landmarks etc. I usually only spend about 15 minutes researching... it isn't a huge amount of time.

 

Right now, I'm running an adventure on the Congo/Rwandan border near the Zaire river. A couple of photos of jungle foliage to get the players in the mood.

 

I proposed this adventure to my co-GM on a possible UNITE adventure; picture a rebuilding effort on a Chinese dam (in RDU, China has just gone thru WWIII). Except the engineers and civilians assigned keep turning up dead under mysterious and probably paranormal circumstances. Send in UNITE. So there is the type of mission that I come up with.

 

I model UNITE on a Legion of Super Heroes model. Many members, but usually only 4 or 5 actually go out to investigate a sitiuation. Hopefully, the ones with the best skill/power set for the circumstances.

 

Hope that helps.

[Redmenace]

Re: UNTIL Superhero Team

 

Now, my questions:

What kind of missions would the characters get?

 

I don't know how much more I can offer that hasn't been said above but here goes.

 

1.) Interaction with the locals How do they get along with the local heroes? Considering past history with America, do the Patriotic American teams resent them? What happens when they have to work with them in a crisis? If Grond crosses the border into Canada or Mexico, does the US lose the right to pursue him amd Unity pick up the jurisdiction, perhaps at the behest of the Mexican or Canadian governments?

 

Even more so, how do the American Intelligence and police agencies react to them. It took 9/11 to get them to put down rivalries and start cohesively working with one another. Unity is probably going to be a hard sell. Ultra nationalists like SAT or Primus might be indifferent to actively hostile. This is a good oppourtunity for team vs. team rivalry, particularly so if the US teams feel they dropped the ball with 9/11 or the destruction of Detroit, (the Chmaps univers equivalent). They might feel they had something to prove.

 

 

2.) Different Mandates: If your campaign was to mirror recent real world history, The US goes to war and the UN sits it out. Do your heroes act to fill up the power vacume in the US? Certainly some villain would take advantage of the local military and military supers being abroad.

 

 

3.) Threats to international Peace: In a world with a dozen or so major league supervillains, Dr. Destroyer, Gravitar etc, a UN team would be expected to respond wherever in the world they appear. In reality, the UN is looking soft right now, (or level headed depending on what side of the fence your on), they might step up combatting terrorists, international criminals like Viper, or villains who use the US as a base but commit crimes elsewhere.

 

In the past, numerous groups from Al-Qaeda to the IRA and others have based fund raising and paramilitary training grounds on US soil for actions domestic and abroad. Viper might try to actively recruit US service men and women due to their advanced training. That would be worth breaking up.

 

The US also has a huge techno/corporate infrastructure, maybe the machines, chemicals etc. that a master villain needs are only located here. Until has followed the villains actions and figures out that a master plot to take over the world, he or she only needs one more component and that can only be found at an American Army base or Corporate lab.

 

 

Disaster relief Earthquakes on the West coast, Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast, Volcanoes in Hawai or the Pacific Northwest, Huge wildfires in Colorado etc., any of which could be triggered by a master villain maybe even simoultaneously.

 

 

Invasion Should aliens, extradimentionals, subterrans etc. decide to invade, it might make sense to knock the toughest guys on the block off first and that would be the US fighting machine, particularly if our forces are mobilized abroad.

 

 

 

How do I prevent them from calling for help in the form of agent squads when the going gets tough... and when SHOULD they actually get that help?

 

In reverse order, they are part of a elaborate and extensive agency so yes they should get support but they are also the big boys. Aid should be in terms of intelligence, medical and technical aid and to get the story moving at the beginning or when it stalls.

 

As to agents being called in, let them do so in a support role as well. As an example: call in Airtroops to patrol the local air space after a super criminal gets away, something like an elaborate roadblock. That way the players feel they are part of an extended agency but it doesn't steal the spotlight away from them. As mentioned in Monolith's post it's more effective to have Unity 2 called to rescue agents than the opposite.

 

If the Team calls on agents too often to do the fighting let the agents win

one. How are the supers going to look when the grunts not they win the day. It's much more fun to do the punching and win the glory than to be shown up.

 

You could have a training exercise where the Unity 2 team goes up against Until agents using captured Viper equipment and tactics. Letting them kick the supers hinders might light a fire under the PCs to start proving themselves.

 

I am also thankful for any kind of other suggestions, hints, links etc.

 

Gurps I.S.T., The IST is a cadre of UN sponsored super teams that would act much like Unity. There are NPCs and plot seeds throughout the book and it generally deals with much of what you will.

 

Gurps IST, Kingston, describes the posting of a Unity like team to watch over the Caribean. Hard to find but has many ideas.

 

The author of Gurps IST, Bob Schroek I think, Used to have a web page where he talked about the original campaign the Gurps sourcebook was based off of. It had lots of detail leading up to and past the '93 war in Iraq as well as many details for adventure. It was, believe it or not, run in Villains and Vigilantes. I don't have the URL but I remember using the term IST on Google to find it.

 

Good luck with the campaign, I envy your players.

[JmOz]

I'm at work right now, but I have a great web site on my home computer that has some basic info on a lot of countries, I'll post it later tonight or tomorow

[Enforcer84]

Everything I would have given you has been covered; But I definately want to keep track of this thread. Tell us how things work out.

[Hermit]

Re: UNTIL Superhero Team

 

Originally posted by Brick

They have their own base in New York or Millenium City (not sure about that one yet).

Now, my questions:

What kind of missions would the characters get?

How do I prevent them from calling for help in the form of agent squads when the going gets tough... and when SHOULD they actually get that help?

I am also thankful for any kind of other suggestions, hints, links etc. - it is great to see how creative minds come together at this site.

 

Not sure what I can add that hasn't been said already and better to boot.

 

One thing I would mention is that with Unity 1 based in NYC already (Unless you've changed that), that you'd probably want to go with Millennium City or another area instead.

 

I like the point Redmenace made about Diasaster Relief. Done right, you can have a real 'man vs nature' thing going.

 

I dare say Agents should be kept to a minimum, but UNTIL should be honest about it. It's not unreasonable for UNTIL to say to the team "Look, if something is beating you... it would likely kill our agents, so don't expect that sort of reinformcement too often."

[Southern Cross]

GURPS IST Web Site

 

Bob Schroeck's Website, Access Denied!, is at http://www.eclipse.net/~rms/index.html

[levi]

Second Teams

 

In my game group the Chicago Defenders is a long running campaign that has some really powerful heroes. I recently started running a Bay City Defenders campaign set on the West Coast and I have run into the problem of the BC team trying to call in the big guns from Chi Town when the going gets rough.

 

So I can offer some insights on how to deal with your PCs trying to call in UNITE I when things get rough. UNITE I should always be engaged elsewhere, unless they are being used as a plot device by you (the GM). They are globe-trotting supers and as such will often be out of radio contact or under mission specific radio silence most of the time. If you save the PCs with UNITE I they will feel like they don't really matter to the game world. Also have the UN liazon they report to remind them that UNITE II could be a temporary gig, unless these PCs can prove that they are valuable on their own, calling in the big guns all the time won't prove that UNITY II is viable.

 

Hope that helps.

[Siberian Tiger]

You might also seek inspiration from Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 book. I haven't got my copy to hand but I seem to recall that the Rainbow 6 group were a UN anti-terrorist outfit.

 

Apologies for any spoilers but the main focus of the book was a terrorist resurrecting former KGB agents and other communist groups left over from the Cold War. Maybe a UNITY team could investigate the resurrection of VIPER cells or Terror Incorporated etc

[JmOz]

Sorry about how late this is

 

http://www.countryreports.org/

[DoctorItron]

Storn, what does UNITE mean to you?

 

Originally posted by Storn

I have a lot of experience running International adventures, specifically with a UNTIL team... in fact, tommorrow night, I'm running UNTIL Black Ops Team. In our game, the superteam is called UNITE.

SNIP

 

Storn, good choice on the word UNITE. I use the same name in my campaign - never cared for UNTIL.

 

In my game, UNITE stands for United Nations Interdiction Team Elite. What does it mean in your game?

[Brick]

I never heard of Champions Worldwide (although the idea sounds definitely interesting), but I guess I have enough old sourcebooks (Enemies: The International File, Classic Organizations, Champions Of The North, Kingdom Of Champions and European Enemies) to give my characters some major headaches. Since some of you asked me to give you news about the game, here I come to bore you...:-))

Red Doom, in my campaign consisting of renegades from the People's Legion (see Champions Universe 5E), are planning to acquire some old nuclear warheads from contacts in the Russian Mafia. Since two of my characters are mutant twins that used to work for the Sowjet government in the People's Legion, too, there are some old feuds to settle. In their intro session, Hammer and Sickle managed to capture People's Commando who was a bodyguard for Colonel Vasalov while he was talking to a mob boss in Moscow. Vasalov escaped, and there are still more members of Red Doom...

Plot idea: Zuvembie and Rashinda Etienne are battling a final, bloody war in Haiti for control of the land and the zombies. Only the characters can prevent a terrible massacre.

Plot idea: Cayman and Los Asesinos are giving the Colombian government major headaches, so who you're gonna call to take those baddies in?

Plot idea: Archealogists found a strange door under an old temple which is definitely thousands of years older than the ruins above, and it's made of a material which is not from this world... It's an Elder Worm hideout. And the Slug is not too far away while the characters enter the "dungeon".

Also, Joseph Otanga (originally from Creatures Of The Night), the shape-shifting dictator, sounds like a good nemesis...

 

That's it for today. And thanks to all of you for your help and thoughts.

[Storn]

Re: Storn, what does UNITE mean to you?

 

Originally posted by DoctorItron

Storn, good choice on the word UNITE. I use the same name in my campaign - never cared for UNTIL.

 

In my game, UNITE stands for United Nations Interdiction Team Elite. What does it mean in your game?

 

I did not come up with UNITE, RDU Neil did, although I was running it at the time. And to be honest, it has been in use so long, I'm not sure of the acronym anymore, but something close to what you have.

[Hermit]

Does anyone know if we'll be getting stats on the UNITY members when the Until Organization book comes out?