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Must there be a Green Lantern Corps?


Doug McCrae

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I once played in a combined Marvel/DC universe game where the harm caused by Krona prompted the ancient Maltusian race to divide into two factions; the Guardians, who actively sought to preserve the universe from any more such destructive forces; and the Watchers, who foreswore any further interference in favor of passive observation and recording.

 

My own campaign featured the Star Knights, who had been created in a past age to defeat Lovecraftian Old Ones who had attempted to destroy and supplant all other life in the cosmos. The Star Knights continued to exist to guard against the Old Ones' return, but as long as their members fulfilled this duty and generally protected life as a whole, the Knights were unconcerned about individual standards of morality and ethics. This allowed for wide variation in the conduct of individual Star Knights, including behavior that most on our world would consider "villainous."

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Our big campaign has an "evil" GLC of sorts composed of supernatural Judge Death type guys out to wipe out all life since living things are the only things that can commit evil with big power pools and stuff...

 

Their opposite number is kinda more like space shaolin monks. Wuxia martial artists with weapons.

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For me, the main problem of the GLC was that you always had to come up with some reason they weren't getting involved in the Crisis of the Month. This usually involved some very hackeneyed plotwork (see "The Nail" Elseworld by DC for a typical arrangement). The running joke becomes the GLC always showing up late for a crisis...

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Originally posted by Lord Liaden

I once played in a combined Marvel/DC universe game where the harm caused by Krona prompted the ancient Maltusian race to divide into two factions; the Guardians, who actively sought to preserve the universe from any more such destructive forces; and the Watchers, who foreswore any further interference in favor of passive observation and recording.

 

My own campaign featured the Star Knights, who had been created in a past age to defeat Lovecraftian Old Ones who had attempted to destroy and supplant all other life in the cosmos. The Star Knights continued to exist to guard against the Old Ones' return, but as long as their members fulfilled this duty and generally protected life as a whole, the Knights were unconcerned about individual standards of morality and ethics. This allowed for wide variation in the conduct of individual Star Knights, including behavior that most on our world would consider "villainous."

Hey! We did that too. The thing with the Watchers and Guardians I mean. Was Superman a Kryptonian Eternal by any chance?
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Originally posted by Agent X

Hey! We did that too. The thing with the Watchers and Guardians I mean. Was Superman a Kryptonian Eternal by any chance?

 

Not explicitly brought up, although I suppose his heritage could be considered proto-Eternal. His background was essentially the same, except that he was launched from Krypton to escape the planet's judgement by the Celestials. ;)

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Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Not explicitly brought up, although I suppose his heritage could be considered proto-Eternal. His background was essentially the same, except that he was launched from Krypton to escape the planet's judgement by the Celestials. ;)

You know, Supes qualified as an Elder of the Universe in our campaign. :)

 

We had Skrulls figured out this way:

Skrulls were Deviants with a twist: the original race didn't make it.

Dire Wraiths were really nasty Deviants.

Martians (as in J'onn J'onnz) were Skrull Eternals.

 

Hawkeye was the original Speedy before the real Speedy from the comic books.

 

Thor replaced Superman as an original member of the Justice League because we started the JL 15 years before Supes was active.

 

We just did some wierd things.:)

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Logical suggestions, Agent X. For the record, our group used the same background for J'onn J'onnz; however, IIRC it's now Marvel canon that the Skrulls are indeed Deviants, who used their shapeshifting to subvert and destroy the Skrull Eternals and "normals."

 

Our version of the Manhunter could more accurately be called "skrullhunter"; he'd been fighting the Skrulls for nearly a million years, and they had a planet's ransom in bounty on his head. But even that paled beside their hatred for the only other surviving Skrull Eternal, the more obsessed and vicious Drax the Destroyer.

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Originally posted by Lord Liaden

Logical suggestions, Agent X. For the record, our group used the same background for J'onn J'onnz; however, IIRC it's now Marvel canon that the Skrulls are indeed Deviants, who used their shapeshifting to subvert and destroy the Skrull Eternals and "normals."

 

Our version of the Manhunter could more accurately be called "skrullhunter"; he'd been fighting the Skrulls for nearly a million years, and they had a planet's ransom in bounty on his head. But even that paled beside their hatred for the only other surviving Skrull Eternal, the more obsessed and vicious Drax the Destroyer.

Heh, great minds think a lot alike.:cool:
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My opinion, if I might be so bold, is that if you want a GLC-equivalent, and you are not playing in the DC setting, then at least give it a different, original name and motif. Same with WW and any other published character.

 

Make your own world, not some confused mishmash of some new stuff, and some familiar stuff. Creative reasons aside, doing what you are talking about leads to erroneous expectations about what is the same as familiar material and what is different.

 

If the players are like "Oh, the GLC", they are going to make certain assumptions that may not be true about YOUR version of the GLC. But if you call them the "Universal Defense Legion", the players know better than to make assumptions by default.

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Originally posted by Acroyear

Our big campaign has an "evil" GLC of sorts composed of supernatural Judge Death type guys out to wipe out all life since living things are the only things that can commit evil with big power pools and stuff...

 

Their opposite number is kinda more like space shaolin monks. Wuxia martial artists with weapons.

 

Darn those Boans. And their lackeys the evil Mr. Bones Corps!

 

I hates 'em. Hates 'em all!

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