What if the Justice League was really a league?

[casualplayer]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

So you could have scab heroes? It seems this would develop much along the lines of the labor unions, for both good and ill.

[rjcurrie]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

That's what _I_ was looking for - some reasonable explanation of how the system came to be.

 

Oddly enough I can see it working once all the elements are in place, what I have a hard time envisioning is how it got started.

 

Of course, I'm also very ignorant about sports - is it actually illegal to play baseball if one isn't licensed? I mean, assuming I had the money to build or rent a baseball diamond, and recruited enough players for two or more teams, would I or they get arrested if I put them in uniforms of my own design and said "Play ball!"?

 

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary is still chewing it over.....

 

 

Given that pretty much all my thought on this has appeared in the thread, I hadn't really thought about how it came to be. But thinking about it for a second, I'd say that due to some event early in the history of supers, it was decided to set up a system of licensed superhero teams -- teams, because teammates serve as a form of checks and balances for individual heroes. Having these teams financed by local businessmen (with perhaps some government funding) was a way to defray the expense of such teams. From there I would say, the governent ended up putting someone in charge of the system who decided to pattern it on the structure of professional baseball.

[assault]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

My idea for how it started would be like this:

 

Early on in the history of supers, provision was made for the training of the next generation. Over the decades since, the teams composed of graduates of the Hall of Justice have become accepted as the only legitimate professional teams, with other, unofficial, teams being seen as unwanted amateurs, with no legitimate status.

 

All the legitimate teams are, of course, ultimately offshoots of the original team.

 

Note that this system is not necessarily global, although there are likely to be "international" teams associated with it.

 

The system probably acts as a kind of registration system too, of course.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

 

Of course, I'm also very ignorant about sports - is it actually illegal to play baseball if one isn't licensed? I mean, assuming I had the money to build or rent a baseball diamond, and recruited enough players for two or more teams, would I or they get arrested if I put them in uniforms of my own design and said "Play ball!"?

 

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary is still chewing it over.....

 

I believe sports leagues are self-contained; they're self-policing and exist independently of the government. for example, the current football league in america was originally two separate leagues, up intil a couple of decades ago. That's what the Superbowl originally was - the two leagues battling it out, to see which one was the best. While some leagues are large enough to have significant political clout in cities to the point of pressuring local government to grant them tax breaks and whatnot, I don't think there's any specific laws regarding a given league having a monopoly on a specific sport.

 

That's also why people sometimes set up competing leagues: you can see this happening a lot more in martial arts and boxing than in (say) baseball, though.

[Cardinal]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

I believe sports leagues are self-contained; they're self-policing and exist independently of the government. for example, the current football league in america was originally two separate leagues, up intil a couple of decades ago. That's what the Superbowl originally was - the two leagues battling it out, to see which one was the best. While some leagues are large enough to have significant political clout in cities to the point of pressuring local government to grant them tax breaks and whatnot, I don't think there's any specific laws regarding a given league having a monopoly on a specific sport.

 

That's also why people sometimes set up competing leagues: you can see this happening a lot more in martial arts and boxing than in (say) baseball, though.

 

Actually, there is a legal basis for the NFL, MLB, MLS, NHL, etc. The U.S. anti-trust laws (i.e. the competition laws the prevent companies from conspiring to fix prices, etc.) have a specific exemption for certain sports leagues. Without that legal framework things like the salary cap, etc. would be illegal (price fixing). Those laws do not give the sports leagues a monopoly, but do give them the ability to develop one.

[Hainted]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

That's what _I_ was looking for - some reasonable explanation of how the system came to be.

 

Oddly enough I can see it working once all the elements are in place, what I have a hard time envisioning is how it got started.

 

Of course, I'm also very ignorant about sports - is it actually illegal to play baseball if one isn't licensed? I mean, assuming I had the money to build or rent a baseball diamond, and recruited enough players for two or more teams, would I or they get arrested if I put them in uniforms of my own design and said "Play ball!"?

 

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary is still chewing it over.....

 

My world is a little more fantasy/western in those conditions.Besides the I.B.P.C,who handle emergencies and legitimate crimes you have Reiters.

Reiters is a group of mercenaries who have been the I.B.P.C.'s rivals for years.Their symbol is a black horse's head in silhouette,from their beginnings as a mounted group and all their uniforms and equipment is black.They tend to take jobs based soley on profit and have been known to put operatives on every side of a conflict to try and squeeze every dime out of it.

 

You also have the Free Companies or independent groups that work as adventurers for hire/bounty hunters/private eyes.Most of these guys specialise in one thing and tend to handle jobs that people don't want brought to the I.B.P.C.'s attention and can't afford Reiters.

Example Free Companies:

1.Gun Bunnies-All female group specialising in Bodyguard,and Bounty Hunting services.

2.Manly Man's Manly Squad-Former I.B.P.C. member now running a bounty hunter team.Stars of their own reality show.

3.Bunko Squad-Specialise in Occult and supernatural cases.

 

I'm trying to work up a background I can use to run a game and post on the boards to share with others,when I have the time.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: What if the Justice League was really a league?

 

I feel obligated to point out that this actually happened in the Global Guardians Universe* several years ago. At the time the GGU had many different campaigns going on under the GG banner. IIRC, due to some major events that were happening in RL it was decided that the universe needed a ‘reboot’ which would restart all of the campaigns two years in the future. We decided that a draft of characters would be in order, so all of us GMs chose lots and proceeded to draft the characters into our teams. It was a very interesting situation that was actually a lot of fun. Characters that went first: leaders. Not every character, or player, was cut out to be a leader in the GGU so GMs grabbed their team leaders asap. Most everyone drafted for a broad range of archetypes, too. Players often had multiple roles; leader in one campaign, character in another campaign, GM in another campaign was not unusual. Sadly the GGU went the way of most pbems, but having so many people it was even harder to keep everyone involved. I understand that it’s starting up again, but it’s on a much smaller scale now.

 

Surely I am not the only one around from this event?

 

 

 

 

*(For those not familiar, Global Guardians was a shared universe series of pbem games. The global Guardians themselves were a UN sanctioned group and several of the campaigns were GG campaigns by city. Frex: GG Austin, GG Rio, GG Atlanta, etc.)