Super Agents?

[assault]

I was thinking about "The Incredibles Problem", aka, "What happened to the Supervillains?", and that led me to consider the other people who fight supervillains - the super-spies and super-agents.

 

Obviously the official CU has SHIELD-homage agencies like UNTIL and PRIMUS.

 

Other possibilities are Men In Black style agencies, with a more low-key approach, but with similar ultra-high technology.

 

Then, of course, there are the James Bond types. Bond, of course, routinely deals with mastermind type villains, and the occasional near-super thug, but doesn't fight actual superhumans. A slightly wilder variation on the theme is of course, The Avengers (John Steed and Mrs Peel, etc), who actually did deal with the odd robot and so on.

 

And finally, there are the "just plain tough and smart" cop types - basically non-powered action heroes. In comics, they would include Dan "Terrible" Turpin (famous for arresting Kalibak the Cruel, the son of Darkseid(!)), plus, I suppose, Commissioner Gordon, at least on those occasions when he is allowed to use his own brain, rather than being totally dependent on Batman.

 

So there are actually models for filling the gap in cases where superheroes aren't around, as long as the supervillains aren't that numerous, or that, well, super.

 

These are, potentially, quite playable situations. This is not a new idea, of course, since The Great and Powerful Aaron Allston wrote Super-Agents twenty years ago, and it has been referred to in several publications since.

 

Still, just because it has been written about doesn't mean that many people have actually played in such a game...

 

I suppose what I am asking is: has anyone here actually played in such a game? How well did it work?

 

For my part, I am vaguely considering such a game as a mini-series, to be run as a side-show to an Incredibles style game.

 

I'm a bit torn between the idea of it being Cops versus Supervillains, or Spies versus Supervillains. Either way, it would have more in common with Champions than with Dark Champions, being, essentially, a four-colour superhero game where the superheroes just happen to be absent this week.

 

(Hmm... another possibility... Doctor Who and UNIT...)

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Super Agents?

 

Shelley Chrystal Mactyre (author of the PRIMUS sourcebook) has participated in two extended superagents-type campaigns for Champions, which she has turned into pretty cool mini-sourcebooks on her website: Chessmen, patterned after the "Checkmate" organization from DC Comics; and Armitage Investigations, a private paranormal investigation agency.

 

Michael Surbrook has done the same thing for his campaign setting, The Phenomena Department, revolving around an agency dedicated to combatting supernatural menaces. Very nice stuff.

[boomer]

Re: Super Agents?

 

I've actually played a "normal" Street Cop in a Supers Campaign.....my friend and I wrote up two Street Cops to play in a Con game that was very 4-color themed. One was the young hip cop and I played the Danny Glover "I'm too old for this s**t" type named Det. Vincenzio Soprano...and yes he had a throw down gun and evidence to plant....the GM gave us some body armor to help us survive but that was it....alot of fun to play and different at that.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Super Agents?

 

And here I thought this would be a public request for a new edition of the old Super Agents genre book.

 

Not that I wouldn't be behind such a thing 100%, of course!

[austenandrews]

Re: Super Agents?

 

Cool idea for the Incredibles "interim period." Quite in keeping with the movie's style, as well.

 

Is "Dan Turpin" a descendant of the famous highwayman?