A Question on Liaisons

[Zeropoint]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

Special Agent Trent IS the FBI liason to the local super team, to his continuing disgust. His duties include getting relevant information from the federal databases to the team, getting information FROM the team TO the federal database, smoothing the team's interaction with various law enforcement agencies, and trying in vain to keep the team from causing more problems than they solve.

 

He hates his job.

 

Zeropoint

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

ow about this?

The DOSPA sends two people to liase with the team. John West, a middle-aged lawyer and bureaucrat, is the official liaison. Denise Dumont, a former CIA operative who did a lot of black bag jobs, is his assistant. He stays at the headquarters, keeping his fellow bureaucrats happy while she joins the team in the field.

Since they agreed to have a superhero team in the city, the mayor appointed David Masterson, a mid-level functionary, to act as the city's liaison with the team. While John and Denise live in the team's base, David doesn't.

I'm going to do this with an added twist. A number of agencies have representatives that sometimes stop by to drop things off or pick stuff up. The only person they touch base with is Carol, the team's legally-blind secretary and receptionist.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

I recently thought this up and would like your opinion. Instead of having a DOSPA liaison, John Wells, and his assistant, Denise Dumont, we have one agent, John Masters, who has Denise's skills doing black bag jobs.

 

Instead of Keiko being the technical manager, we have April and Christine as the team's athletically-inclined technical experts. April, the computer expert, was on her high school and college swim teams. Christine, the electronics engineer, is an Olympic-level gymnast. Both women rollerblade and April crews for Christine when she races her car.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

I know we've kicked around in this thread, but please stay with me.

 

We know the basics. The federal government's Department of Superhuman and Paranormal Affairs has assigned the team's official liaison to a superhero team that has its own public base.

 

Since the various law enforcement and intelligence agencies (FBI, PRIMUS, UNTIL, Homeland Security, and the Secret Service to name a few) don't always feel they're getting what they need from the heroes, they've sent their own people, mostly bureaucrats, to either "facilitate communications" between the heroes and their agencies or get rid of someone who is, for some reason, out of favor in Washington.

 

Add to this mix the fact that the Vice President's 17 year old daughter is one of the area's three Vampire Slayers and staying with her aunt, the team's physician, instead of her parents, who want to keep her out of the spotlight.

[sinanju]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

Yes, there are jackazzes who know their branch managers and can get the cherry assignments. There are the kiss ups that brown nose the Sergeant Major enough to get the easy staff nco position.

But no matter how many strings you pull or butts you kiss, you aren't going to have a junior Captain commanding an infantry battalion, or a 1st Lieutenant as the military liason to Beijing, it just isn't going to happen. Particularly on the Officer side of the house when promotions/manning is so centralized and ticket punching driven.

 

And consider that even if the military is full of people trading on who they know to get the best assignments, that just means that the senior officer with the most pull will get the best assignments. So it's the CAPTAIN or MAJOR with connections who gets the neat assignments, not the 2nd LT with the connections.

[Wanderer]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

Just a side remark: I find it quite unrealistic that you didn't give the team a liason from the Department of Defense. Realistically, the Armed Forces would be as interested, if not more, as law enforcement and intelligence organizations in having their own direct contact with any individual superhuman or team with powers and abilities relevant to national security (any solo hero or team who has the capability to fight [or become: the name of the game in national security is contingency: no matter how saintly and law-abiding a powerful superhero or team may seem, surely national security has a plan somewhere for the eventuality they go rogue] an Omega or Delta menace, or whose powers are relevant on a global or national scale surely fulfills the criteria). Apprehending the likes of Grab isn't going to interest the top brass, but when alien or interdimensional invasions appear, or the likes of Takofanes, Mechanon, Eurostar or Dark Seraph show up, it's the Armed Forces' business. So they will want a good handle on supers of comparable power.

[CBikle]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

Just a side remark: I find it quite unrealistic that you didn't give the team a liason from the Department of Defense. Realistically' date=' the Armed Forces would be as interested, if not more, as law enforcement and intelligence organizations in having their own direct contact with any individual superhuman or team with powers and abilities relevant to national security (any solo hero or team who has the capability to fight [or become: the name of the game in national security is contingency: no matter how saintly and law-abiding a powerful superhero or team may seem, surely national security has a plan somewhere for the eventuality they go rogue'] an Omega or Delta menace, or whose powers are relevant on a global or national scale surely fulfills the criteria). Apprehending the likes of Grab isn't going to interest the top brass, but when alien or interdimensional invasions appear, or the likes of Takofanes, Mechanon, Eurostar or Dark Seraph show up, it's the Armed Forces' business. So they will want a good handle on supers of comparable power.

 

Dude, this guy's universe is a collage of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Batman and The West Wing (yes you heard me right) and this is the part that doesn't make sense ?

[megaplayboy]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

Well, for a low-level team, a single Police Detective/Lieutenant might be sufficient.

For a moderately experienced/powerful team dealing with national type threats, add a PRIMUS officer.

For a nationally prominent team, replace the Police Detective with a Police Captain, replace the Primus officer with a Silver Avenger, add an UNTIL officer, and season to taste with non-combat bureaucrats(contacts with mayor's office, governor's office, FBI/DOSPA/DHS/DOD/State, but not actual liaisons)

For the campaign's JLA/Avengers type team(i.e., the pre-eminent supers on the planet), assume they have one top level liaison for every major campaign org(e.g., PRIMUS, UNTIL, NATO, et al). But in practice, don't bring them all up at once.

[Wanderer]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

Dude' date=' this guy's universe is a collage of [i']Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Batman [/i]and The West Wing (yes you heard me right) and this is the part that doesn't make sense ?

 

Nope, just the tiny part re: liasons (really, I found it funny everybody focusing on the law enforcement part, when realistically the military would be the ones most interested in any super of decent power). Buffy + Batman + West Wing ?? Say in what part does this differs from the usual Marvel or Wildstorm setting ??

 

Useful genre sources re liasons: Avengers (where the very concept originated; inspirational for a Bronze Age/"four-color with shades of grey" setting), Supreme Power (inspirational for a Iron/Modern Age setting), and Invincible (for a thorough four-color setting).

 

Well' date=' for a low-level team, a single Police Detective/Lieutenant might be sufficient. [/quote']

 

Agreed.

 

For a moderately experienced/powerful team dealing with national type threats, add a PRIMUS officer.

 

I'd also replace the Police Detective with a Police Captain.

 

For a nationally prominent team, replace the Police Detective with a Police Captain, replace the Primus officer with a Silver Avenger, add an UNTIL officer, and season to taste with non-combat bureaucrats(contacts with mayor's office, governor's office, FBI/DOSPA/DHS/DOD/State, but not actual liaisons)

 

I mostly agree, except a nationally prominent team IMO should have a DOD stable liason too (if they are dealing with national type threats, they are very relevant to national security and the brass would want a handle on them) and a direct contact with the major (if they are based in a big city) or the governor, not a mere police chief.

 

For the campaign's JLA/Avengers type team(i.e., the pre-eminent supers on the planet), assume they have one top level liaison for every major campaign org(e.g., PRIMUS, UNTIL, NATO, et al).

 

Well, for THE most prominent superteam on the planet, it is realistic to assume they have the ear of the US President, the other major powers, the UN secretary, and the heads of all major international organizations (PRIMUS, UNTIL, NATO). They are the equivalent of a superpower by themsevles, after all.

 

But in practice, don't bring them all up at once.

 

In game terms, I'd treat all the various liasions as either individual Watcher Hunteds, all with a 8- frequency, or grouping them in a collective Hunted pool (much like a Rogues' Gallery Hunted), with the GM chossing which one to use from time to time, with a 8- if the team is having a good relationship with the authorities, or 11- if there ongoing troubles.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Question on Liaisons

 

The basic idea I had was that there is one official liaison, from the DOSPA, and a number of agency representatives, mostly because the agency heads don't trust the DOSPA. These representatives have no power over the team.They're just there to keep their agency up to date on everything.

 

If they live in, the liaison, and representatives, could easily bring their families with them and arguments between liaisons could escalate into fistfights, causing the heroes to have a laugh at their expense, medical team to patch them up and the DOSPA liaison to yell at them.

 

In addition to the DOSPA liaison, a middle-aged African-American man with a law degree, we have an assortment of characters.

 

One representative, Ralph Fox, is a combination of comic strip characters Ralph Drabble and Roger Fox.

 

A second, possibly the only former agent, was a cat burglar until (s)he was "recruited" by an intelligence agency. ("Either work for us or go to jail.")

 

A third is a woman who recently converted to Islam and is covered from head to toe, usually in black.