Fourth-tier super-teams

[DataPacRat]

Admit it - you like "Mystery Men", the Substitute Legion, and the "Great Lakes Avengers", and other fourth-string teams. Not the first-tier team that takes care of world-spanning problems, or the second-tier team that takes care of the whole East Coast, or the third-tier team that takes care of a single megacity... but the team the next layer down, who have their own little city.

 

 

I've recently proposed to my PBeM GM that my PC had been a member of such a team for a few years, and am trying to come up with suitable background events... things that the higher-class heroes deal with, but scaled down to fourth-tier levels. For example, the classic cliche of Our Heroes meeting some new nonhumans: the first-tier folk deal with all sorts of aliens, the second-tier get to meet Atlanteans, the third tier, well, maybe Bigfoot and Yeti (at least they have some media exposure)... and my fourth-tier fella met a local hidden tribe of... sentient beavers. (I even have a reason for that particular species: a real-world historical document, visible at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Moll_-_Inset_Beaver_Map.png .)

 

When the Big, World-Shaking Event of the Millenium crops up... they have trouble chartering some transport to get there before it's over.

 

In the top-quality local newspaper (published in the nearest third-tier team's city rather than their own), they don't get either "World Saved!" or "Heroes: Threat or Menace?" headlines, just a few column-inches on page six.

 

 

What other cliches can you think of to tweak fun at?

 

 

(In case you're wondering: they're the "Niagara Daredevils", who were legally enjoined to always use 'Niagara' in their name to avoid confusion with someone else's trademark. Sure, with the big power plants as a target, /any/ villain may have shown up, of any power... but more usually it's because they're on their honeymoon. (And yes, they have their own backup group of fifth-tier heroes with powers not quite good enough... and a backup-backup group of sixth-tier people with powers that are almost anti-powers...))

[assault]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

I like the beaver picture.

 

A couple of thoughts: parody teams like the Substitute Heroes and the Inferior Five don't always fight insignificant threats. They just fight bizarre ones, and defeat them in bizarre ways, often because their "useless" powers just happen to be appropriate for the job.

 

Also, "local heroes" can get quite a bit of coverage in the local area, and almost none outside it. For example, here is a quote from my local paper:

Charlton gym has familiar ring to it for world champion

09.03.2007

by CAMERON LESLIE

 

TOOWOOMBA'S world boxing champion Michael Katsidis admits he has never felt more at home than he did last night.

 

The newly-crowned World Boxing Organisation (WBO) interim lightweight world champion re-entered the Charlton boxing gym of trainer Brendon Smith last night, his first steps toward what lies ahead in his boxing career...

 

Neat story, huh? But I bet that outside my local area, only the most geeky boxing fans would know or care about who the WBO interim lightweight world champion was...

 

Of course, local media can always be portrayed as just a little bit unprofessional, and always get a character or team's name wrong...

[OzMike]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

Just grab every Fortean cliche you can think of like investigating cattle mutilation (ok, one cow... but it was mutilated. By a were-cow having a lover's spat. Don't ask.)

 

Give them a suitable rouge's gallery e.g. Randomopolis (a wannabe megalomaniac with one problem - his powers, while reasonably powerful, work in a fully random fashion. Think a Multipower with six slots, with each one corresponding to one side of a die).

 

Mostly, have fun.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

Well, gearing toward your "Niagara" location:

 

The NDs stopped a plot by Captain Canuck to destroy the *New York* side of the waterfall, leaving the Falls belonging only to Canada!!!

 

"Yeah, we know that our big fight with Turbocharge a few years back took place at the exact same time as that big blackout that took out power throughout the northeast US for several days. The two aren't connected in any way. Honest."

 

"This is like when my teammate's battle armor was shorted out by Mist Maid's vapor cloud." (If you don't get where Mist Maid gets her name, the boat that takes tourists to the bottom of the falls is named Maid of the Mist.) "Those helmet eye holes will get you every time."

 

No less than four supervillain groups (granted, that included the sentient beavers) had bases hidden in tunnels behind the falls. The US Army Corps of Engineers estimates that one more base could cause the falls to collapse.

[DataPacRat]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

Well, gearing toward your "Niagara" location:

 

The NDs stopped a plot by Captain Canuck to destroy the *New York* side of the waterfall, leaving the Falls belonging only to Canada!!!

 

Not bad, though I'd add one word to the end of that: "... again." (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dryniagara.jpg .)

 

 

"Yeah, we know that our big fight with Turbocharge a few years back took place at the exact same time as that big blackout that took out power throughout the northeast US for several days. The two aren't connected in any way. Honest."

 

Promptly stolen, along with the note "I should have thought of that first..."

 

 

"This is like when my teammate's battle armor was shorted out by Mist Maid's vapor cloud." (If you don't get where Mist Maid gets her name, the boat that takes tourists to the bottom of the falls is named Maid of the Mist.) "Those helmet eye holes will get you every time."

 

This fits in well with my idea for the powered-armor fellow of the team... who, obviously, could only be named one thing: The Barrel.

 

 

No less than four supervillain groups (granted, that included the sentient beavers) had bases hidden in tunnels behind the falls. The US Army Corps of Engineers estimates that one more base could cause the falls to collapse.

 

I'd already planned on the Daredevils to have a base back there, nicknamed 'Heno's Cave' (or, depending on the reporter, 'Hero's Cave'), based on the real-world tunnels shown at http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5921 , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/tailrace.html , http://www.worksongs.com/archives/2006/11/dear_mom_i_fina.php , http://www.worksongs.com/archives/2006/11/open_up.php , http://www.worksongs.com/archives/2006/11/tourist_trap.php , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/daily/index.php?id=40 , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/temp/sight-of-the-falls.jpg , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/daily/index.php?id=41 (found via http://www.metafilter.com/57757/Daredevils ).

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

This fits in well with my idea for the powered-armor fellow of the team... who' date=' obviously, could only be named one thing: The Barrel.[/quote']

 

Perfect!

 

My wife and I toured the tunnels behind the falls about 12 years ago, and at the time I was imagining a villain base there (as well as plotting out battles over the falls and atop the Minolta tower). Great game setting.

[DataPacRat]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

Perfect!

 

My wife and I toured the tunnels behind the falls about 12 years ago, and at the time I was imagining a villain base there (as well as plotting out battles over the falls and atop the Minolta tower). Great game setting.

 

Ruminations on other local hero-type possibilities:

 

Buffalo Wing: a flying brick (named after the food-thing invented locally)

 

Hydro Guy: An electric-themed super rather than a water one. (Locals call their electric bill the 'hydro' bill, after 'hydro-electricity.)

 

Laura Secord: Some sort of cow/milk/chocolate theme. (after local War of 1812 heroine and chocolatier)

 

Mr. Grape: Local annual Grape & Wine Festival mascot, looks like a never-dried California Raisin.

[Steve]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

Here's one I heard suggested for a Teen Champions game as a villain: The Chessmaster

 

Picture a nerdy guy with glasses, brilliant but a major geek/dork. Spurned by the world (which is obviously jealous of his brilliance at the game of kings called Chess), he has turned to a life of crime.

 

After pushing up his horn-rimmed glasses that keep falling down (complete with tape on the nosebridge), the Chessmaster speaks with a nasally voice, "So heroes, prepare to face my chessboard of DOOOOM!" then laughs loudly, broken up by the occasional snort.

[Narratio]

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

 

And Chessmasters minions are all 16-18 year old nerds who hate wearing the black and white Tee shirts with chess symbols. They're usually swapping them among themselves "'cos, like, I was the Black Bishop yesterday! It's my turn to be the White Knight!"

"No way Man! The White Knight is way cooler than the Black Bishop! Look at this neato light sabre!"

"Wow... my mom's gonna buy me one of those for my birthday. They're only $119.99 from the Wizards of the South Coast... delivered1"

"Oh cool..."

 

With a whole array of tools and weapons bought from army surplus stores and various large second hand stores. If only the minions would stop doing various star wars impersonations and arguming about how to say "Give me a Big Mac and fries with a strawberry milkshake... in Wookie".

 

Oh yeah, All of them will speak fluent Klingon.