Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

[Mark Rand]

Yet another of my tries to come up with cool superhero team liaisons and agency representatives. The PCs are a federally-sanctioned superhero team based in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania house owned by a mage who is also a team member. Of course, it's bigger on the inside than on the outside.

 

Both the DOSPA, who are the team's sanctioning body, and the city government, who provides a small portion of the team's funding, provide liaisons to the team.

 

Additionally, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, PRIMUS, and other federal agencies have assigned representatives to the team.

 

Any ideas about what kind of people the liaisons and representatives are and what kind of skills they have?

[StGrimblefig]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

Government employees in fiction tend to be either blindly idealistic (and thus prime for political manipulation by an evil superior) or professionally lazy (i.e. unwilling to do anything that would risk losing their current position/status). Those two are good starting points.

 

With so many organizations wanting oversight on the team, what if one of them is an agent of VIPER, or maybe Dr. Destroyer (or whoever your mastermind-level villain is)?

 

What if one of the PCs secret identity is a government employee who is assigned as a liaison for the team? Or maybe a follower of one of the PCs?

 

What kind of issues is the team going to have with so many "masters?" I think that DHS is the highest on the org chart right now. Would they trump the requests of the others? Or is there going to be a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking to determine which one really controls the team? Which one does the team trust most?

[wylodmayer]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

I like some of StGrimblefig's suggestions, there, especially the notion of infighting between the agencies for "control." And boy, could THAT be a snarl...

 

After all, DHS may be the highest-ranking dept to have a liaison assigned, but what if DHS isn't backing this guy thoroughly? He's only as powerful as what he can do to/for them - if he can't provide additional funding, or penalize them somehow when they don't take his advice, then they can basically ignore his input. In that case, you may have a DHS guy who has less "pull" with the team than, say, the rep from the local mayor's office.

 

Maybe some of the reps want reports from the team, paperwork to fill out. And of course they don't talk to each other, so the team winds up filling out reams of duplicate paperwork.

 

Maybe ANY of these guys can get funding suspended by putting through a complaint to whatever dept it is that provides it. Egads.

 

My esteemed colleague is correct about gov't workers in fiction, but here's a few other ideas to try:

 

1) The political animal: Could give a crap about superheroes, but this admin job is just a rung on the ladder of political success. He's moving up in the bureaucracy, and fast. Knows nothing about superheroes, supervillains, or super operations, and spends most of his time interested in higher level politics. Smart PCs will recognize this guy is on the fast track and can't be ignored, despite his ignorance of what they do - someday he'll have a lot more power than he does now, and they may need his goodwill.

 

2) The functionary: Related to #1, above, but different. She's a bureaucratic functionary who just wants to serve, and her job is ostensibly in some department that doesn't normally deal with heroes. Say, the DHS by way of FEMA. She's an environmental engineer who is a specialist in, I don't know, hurricane damage management, but when FEMA was absorbed by the DHS, the organizational reshuffling temporarily landed her in THIS job. Like #1, she knows nothing about heroes and the like, but she's actually smart, dedicated, and wants to do a good job... although she'd much rather be working in her specialty. Just for kicks, once the party has decided she's well meaning but useless, have a hurricane or whatever hit and let her shine.

 

3) Resentful: Someone in the FBI or some other "serious" organization who hates, hates, hates being assigned to babysit superheroes when he could be out catching criminals. Compensates by armchair-quarterbacking all their investigative efforts. Is as good at his job as any FBI agent, but unless the team lacks a superdetective, his advice will be redundant at best and a liability at worst.

 

4) Oddball: A rep from some dept that doesn't seem in ANY way related to what they are doing. Maybe there's an EPA rep assigned to them for reasons beyond the comprehension of the team OR the rep. Maybe there's a rep from the local congressman's office to make sure that the gov't funding they are receiving translates at least in part into services for the city such as speaking at public schools, etc.

 

Last observation. I don't know how much realism you inject into your games, but if you have a gaggle of bureaucratic overseers for your team, I guess at least a fair amount. If they are receiving gov't funding and direction from gov't agents, then there are real 4th Amendment concerns with what they do as heroes - they aren't private citizens anymore, they are acting on the direction of the gov't. Maybe they have a rep from the local public defender's office who tells them they CAN'T do certain things... because the evidence would get tossed if they did!

[Mark Rand]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

Officially, only the DOSPA has federal oversight over the team. Other agencies can send people there to "keep the lines of communications open". Of course, other agencies could be involved in the funding in some way.

 

The Defense Department could lend them an experimental aircraft and crew for testing. The National Institutes of Health could, especially someone has something unusual about his health needs, lend them a medical team.

 

The city liaison, who doesn't live in the house, is involved because the city wants the team to, in exchange for services provided, show up at major public events.

 

I'm thinking that one liaison could a combination of Ralph Drabble from the Drabble comic strip and Roger Fox from the comic strip FoxTrot. A second, from an intelligence agency, is a former cat burglar. The agent's file, however, states that the agent's cover was a cat burglar and that the agent was skilled in "black bag jobs".

[Highwayman]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

The city liaison' date=' who doesn't live in the house, is involved because the city wants the team to, in exchange for services provided, show up at major public events.[/quote']

 

Seems like this guy could be either:

 

A.) a shark in a $1,000 suit, always on the lookout for the mayor's image and a constant source of politically-motived suggestions ("Um, Mighty Maid, not to criticize, but we've been getting some calls from church groups about your costume..."), or

 

B.) the screwup brother-in-law of the city councilman who was the swing vote on the team's funding. He has no skills and less competence, but he also doesn't have an agenda beyond collecting his paycheck and bragging to his buddies about the superheroes he works with. He could end up being anything from a mild irritation to sidekick material.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

a shark in a $1' date='000 suit, always on the lookout for the mayor's image and a constant source of politically-motived suggestions ("Um, Mighty Maid, not to criticize, but we've been getting some calls from church groups about your costume..."), [/quote']

 

Hearing this, Doctor Arcane, who resembles Mandrake the Magician, comments, "They're probably the ones who claim I'm promoting devil worship. When they do, I tell them that my rabbi disagrees with them."

[Alverant]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

In politics who gets appointed can depend less on competence and more on connections. This liaison got the job because, while he's qualified, he pulled in a favor. Maybe he thinks it's an easy job. Maybe he likes the location. Maybe he thinks it's a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Who knows, maybe his motives are pure and wants to be an asset to the superteam. In any case, he's not as good as he think he is. Most of his power comes from his friends and if those feathers get ruffled, things can get ugly.

 

One person on the team is going to be this guy's bud. This superhero can do no wrong. His suspicions are facts. The liaison will go the extra mile and even risk getting one of his connections upset to help the hero. Naturally, the hero is the one who matches up with the liaison's political views.

 

Conversely there will be one teammate who the liaison will hate for ideological reasons (this hero is a mutant, alien, minority {religious or racial}, has different views). If you can't think of something logical bring up a failure in that teammate's past that the liaison can bring up again and again justify his dislike. If the group doesn't like it, then the rhetoric will be toned down but the emotions will be bottled up. Whenever the group thinks they've been infiltrated by a shape shifter or is being mind controlled or is a double agent, guess who the liaison accuses first?

[Mark Rand]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

Conversely there will be one teammate who the liaison will hate for ideological reasons (this hero is a mutant' date=' alien, minority {religious or racial}, has different views). If you can't think of something logical bring up a failure in that teammate's past that the liaison can bring up again and again justify his dislike. If the group doesn't like it, then the rhetoric will be toned down but the emotions will be bottled up. Whenever the group thinks they've been infiltrated by a shape shifter or is being mind controlled or is a double agent, guess who the liaison accuses first?[/quote']

 

Doctor Arcane (David Archane, PhD in parapsychology) might fit the bill for this. Besides being Jewish, he's married to a woman from Kyoto, who was a highly-skilled and sought after geisha. She can often be found wandering the large Japanese garden that makes up one of the pocket realities attached to the fastness.

[Captain Emu]

Re: Brainstorming superhero team liaisons

 

When I ran my Codename: Wildstryke game we had two laisons.

 

American Eagle - Field Laison and tactical commander

 

Agent Garcia - Government suit and all around bitchy boss. She had a history that tied into the common origin of all the heroes that she resented but because she was a professional and this was her big break she would back the team as best she could. She was efficient, cool, aloof, but wanted the team to succede so she coulde succede.

 

It made for some interesting RP when one of the more free-sirited characters butted heads with her and was sure he was on his way out, only to find out that he was going to receive a degree of latitude due to his special circumstances.

 

-CE