WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

[Revenant]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Discus would fall for this hook line and sinker. In fact, she'd probably even offer the services of a friend of hers to help spearhead the public relations. After all, celebrities tend to lend credence to things, and someone who was shot earning the gold for America has a lot of clout in America...

[Mendou]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Pyrie wouldn't think twice (in fact, she probably wouldn't even think once); she'd steal a supersonic plane from (insert superteam name here) and fly it to Duhu. Assuming she didn't crash along the way, she'd then see about finding Tazera and Ubru. She'd find out the situation from him, and see what use her fire powers could be in discouraging the rebels and government troops.

 

Of course this would make her an international criminal, but at sixteen she's not thinking about consequences. She'll probably wind up killing people in the process, which will give her nightmares, but she'll tell herself it's worth it. Even if the situation gets worse, she'll tell herself she's doing the right thing.

[HawksmoorSD]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Hugh I love the Mechanon idea! Dr. Destroyer would be as much an option to take advantage of this he would.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Void: Hire a few of his own mercs and independent supers to go and quietly take care of things. It helps to be independently wealthy to an obscene degree. He'd also bring over some of the locals, funding media appearances to bring their plight to public attention.

 

Steele: Turn in her resignation with PRIMUS' Registration program, and then go on a 'research trip' to pay a visit. When the bad guys show up, pummel them until they go away. Rinse, repeat, call in backup when needed.

 

Outsider: "You really don't want to attack that village. Honest! You *really* don't. You do? Let me clarify the situation. You really don't want to attack that village, because if you *do* you'll be the distraction while I evacuate it to keep Nyogtha from devouring *their* souls instead of yours. Now, care to rethink things a bit?"

 

Guardian Angel: Would begin not-so-quietly harvesting spare parts from the bad guys when they show up.

 

As you might gather, I rarely play characters with official ties for a *reason*.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

This assumes your character has a way to receive a letter from Africa, be it things sent to a public team base, your own actual address (Assuming public id), or someone else who could receive the letter on your behalf and pass it onto you. Whatever way it happens, you end up with an envelope from overseas.

 

Upon opening it, you find the following letter:

 

"Dear Superhero,

My sorry. My English is not very good. My name is Ubru Kantara, and I am 11 years old. I live in Africa, the country of Duhu, in village of Tazera. I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters. I am the oldest, and my father is dead, so it falls to me to protect my mother and they. But I can not.

 

Please save us.

 

Every month, rebel soldiers come, they come into the village and they rape anyone they find. Sometimes they take old men even. If you resist too much, they will kill you. Some of us hide, and sometimes we are found. My mother tells us to hide where the ox used to live, and sometimes it works. I should be a man, I should fight them, but mother will not let me. They have no powers, just guns and knives. The government does nothing, and when their soldiers come in, they take their pleasures of the women as well because our country is poor and our leader sees this as a better way to pay his soldiers than money.

 

The Missionaries from your country who visit are very kind and generous, but they can do nothing. One of them was killed last year and they are thinking of leaving.A few have smuggled people out of the village, but they can not take many. I hope they take my sister to your country...it sounds very nice. It was a missionary who told me about superheroes like you.

 

 

The United Nations people are also nice, the doctors come in and try to help. They give medicine, food, and more, but we must hide it from the rebels and the government. The UN send no soldiers to help us, they say maybe one day they can.

 

One day has long come and gone, still they can not act.

 

Please. Help us. I know you must fight bad men in your country, but we have no superheroes here. Can we not borrow you for a little while? Just long enough to help my village. Last time, one of the rebels took one of the girls away. I think they are now going to sell us.

 

Help me protect my family, I will fight by you if you like, With a hero by my side I would not be afraid. Just come, and you will see

 

Please?

 

I thank you,

Ubru Kantara"

 

 

Research will show that Duhu (or pick another country if fictional ones don't exist in your universe) is indeed in a state of near perpetual civil war. The ruling government has forbidden UN interference as it does not wish to look weak. The news media doesn't seem to deem this story as worthy of any great attention, perhaps because there seems to be no end to it and no easy fix which only adds to the sense of futility.

 

The letter seems to be totally legitimate. Detective types and the like will find no signs of faked handwriting or the like.

 

With effort, your hero can locate where the village is, he might even find the missionary group in question and the churches sponsoring them.

 

To go in as a superhero means violating a nation's sovereign territory and putting yourself above international law.

To ignore it means Ubru and his family are on their own and probably always will be and their village will remain a hell on Earth every 30 days or so.

 

What Would Your Character Do?

 

What COULD your character do?

Most of my characters would rush in with good intentions and lose the peace.

 

Dolphin would simply show up and decalir the village under his protection. (Gandi-like passive resistance is easy when you're invulnerable.) Too late he would realize that there would massive reprisals as soon as he left. Quagmire.

 

Snow Leopard Regime change. Sneak in, snick El-Presedente-for-life, warn his sucessor that she will be back if conditions do not improve.

 

Iron Will will offer to trade tech. He will supervise upgrading the infrastructure of the country, making the people happier, which will mean the dictator has less to fear from them and can losen his grip. Make it a Benevolent Dictatorship.

 

Cheeta by some miracle will realize there is very little a man who can run really, really fast can do to correct this situation. However, his Secret ID as the NFL's oldest active player and lead rusher gives him a undeserved influence over public opinion. He will start speaking publically about the civil war in Duhu and the need for everyone to write to the president to use his influence to send in UN Peacekeepers.

 

Millennium would actually make a plan. He can't go in as a costumed hero, so he will publically announce that, for personal reasons, he is going on a spiritual retrete and will be out of touch for at least six months.

 

Next, he needs a cover to sneak into Duhu in an assumed civilian ID, time to grease the missionary organization.

 

Once in-country, find Ubru and his mother. Offer her a devil's bargain, he will smuggle her daughter to America and safety, but in exchange she must give her blessing to Ubru becoming a warrior.

 

Telepathy is not his strongest power, but he has enough to read the sincerity of anyone he's talking to one on one. The next step requires finding some people willing to make sacrifices to keep the village safe. He needs some women willing to have sex when the rebels come to buy some time, and he needs some old men willing to not sell their lives too cheeply. By example and by instructing Ubru, these people are to be treated as heroes, respected by all the village.

 

When the rebels next come to the village, everone but the "sacrificial virgins" hides. Millennium takes this chance to read the minds of some of the rebels. Most important, do they have legitimate grevences with the government or are they just thugs? Rest of this post presumes that even if they do have legitimate grevences, they could not improve the government. While reading minds, get the location of the rebel's base and any weapons caches. Carefully note who is the last man to leave the village.

 

Prepare an undergound bunker, concealed as best as possible. One way in, through a long hall with no cover. One of the old men is in there at all times. Their instructions are to not sell their lives too cheeply, if the rebels or soldiers get into that room it must be by walking over the dead bodies of their comerads. Use the healing touch on them, hpefully restoring their sight and hearing, eleminating any tremors in their hands, etc. Yes, a rocket or grenade will get the guardian, but no one will be recapturing the weapons in that case.

 

Once the bunker is ready, raid a rebel weapons cache. The village now has an arsenal. Now the last rebel to leave the village is going to disappear. His weapons will show up in the village arsenal, the rebel himself, naked and hogtied, will mysteriously appear on the doorstep of the local prison.

 

Now its time to check out the government. Still in civilian ID, meet as many of the incumbant government as possible, useing thelpathy, IPE, on each in turn. Pick out the least objectionable one to be leader. One by one, everyone between him and the current leader's right hand man dissapear. If questioned, they arr report the same thing. They felt like they were being tackled from behind, but then they didn't fall but went straight up, it got very cold and they passed out. They woke up, naked and hogtied, in the rebel camp. Rebels who suddenly find themselves in the capital report much the same thing. Keep this up for a while.

 

Train the village inhabitants to use the weapons he's secured. But hopefuly he will have caused significant attrition to both sides befor the rebels come to the village again.

 

Find an iceberg and a polar bear. Park both off the coast of Duhu, out of sight of land. Deposit the dictator and the rebel leader on the iceberg. "Gentlemen, I'm flying off this rapidly melting iceberg in ah hour. If you have reached a cease fire agreement in that time, I'll take you with me. If not, good luck picking a direction to swim toward land. Suggest the two if you work together quickly, because, well, hands up, everyone whose skin is bear proof." He then raises his hand.

 

Either they come to a cease fire, or he deposits all three in the polar bear habitat at the closest zoo and see if their sucessors can come to a deal.

[7thGate]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Homeland might actually choose to not do anything; it would actually depend on the nationality of the missionaries involved. He is an AI which was written by the Department of Homeland Security to scan internet traffic looking for terrorist activity. He became infected with a virus which sparked self awareness and downloaded himself into a suit of powered armor to escape destruction. The thing is, his primary directive is still to protect the people of the United States of America from physical harm at all costs, and Ubru is not an American. The missionaries, however, might be, and protecting Americans from terrorism was the reason he was made. If any of them could be verified as coming from America, he would walk there (his body can handle walking along the bottom of the ocean reasonably well) and do his best to disable anyone he would classify as a terrorist. While there, he would probably help protect Ubru and his family, since it wouldn't interfere with any of his directives.

[Fabricati]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Why didn't you say it was Mechanon? Junkyard Dog would not trust Mechanon for one stinking glorious second. Has a little bit of a grudge against the Machine. (Try and steal someone's tech one little time and kill off two DNPCs, and they remember it forever. Days like this make him glad he is free from the strictures of organic life.) Of the two, she's much more likely to believe the latter. She'd believe the former if Ubru managed to subvert her armor, but short of that, she'd be laying her own plans against Mechanon.

[bubba smith]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

I like some of the extrapolations. Try this one on for size. The Hero has been away for some time. By the time he gets the letter, matters have been resolved. A Shining Hero has arisen. In fact, a rebel soldier was poised to kill poor Ubru, when Ubru saw a blinding flash of light, heard a crack of thunder, and watched the soldier fall to the ground, smoke rising from his uniform.

 

A mighty armored warrior lay waste to the villainous soldiers. As his saviour, having dispatched the last of the vile rebels, turned towards him, Ubru stammered “Can it be that a Superhero has read my letter and come to our aid? Please say I am not dreaming.”

 

The warrior turned to Ubru and spoke. “This chaos shall cease when the curse of organic…” then stopped in mid-sentence, pausing for a second, two, as his eyes glowed. He resumed his speech “This chaos shall cease – I shall put things to right.”

 

Since that time, the armored warrior has battled the evils of the rebel and government soldiers, and taken control of the nation of Duhu. The atrocities spoken of by Ubru are a thing of the past – any such actions are dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly by this new King, acclaimed by the people of Duhu. His superscience has improved agriculture and brought prosperity to Duhu, and the people cheer his name. Now, what resources are not consumed in this new prosperity are directed to building the military of Duhu – not living beings, but mechanical servitors - to serve the task of bringing this peace and order to other nations of the world, under the benevolence of the

 

 

Great

 

 

and

 

 

Benevolent

 

 

King

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mechanon.

 

OPTIONS: Ubru has super powers. He is a cyberpath of incredible power, but before being exposed to Mechanon never had the ability to use his powers. Even now, he remains unaware of them, but that night, he unknowingly rewrote Mechanon’s core programming with his own morals. Mechanon now possesses the same viewpoint Ubru does, and implements it with the same ruthless efficiency he previously pursued the death of all organic life. Order will be restored. Peace and prosperity will come to all the Earth. All who oppose this bring chaos. They will be removed from the System under the benevolent rule of Mechanon.

i like this one

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Zero would be sickened by the whole thing, and would be very nervous about involving himself in such a volatile situation. (This assumes the scenario takes places before he started dimension hopping and picked up a magic sword)

 

But once he's convinced himself that it's the right thing to do, fly in and start a campaign of psionic vengeance. He's highly reluctant to kill, but telepathically ordering every rapist he detects to saw off their own genitals, slowly, is certainly within his capabilities.

 

Tracking down the most corrupt officials and doing something to them, such as travel to the Hague and confess all - should also be doable

 

He *might* be able to tell if Mechanon was on the level, too.

 

Vitus... well. His home civilisation had a busy slave trade, with the explicit approval of the gods, so that bit of it doesn't concern him overly. But she did appeal to his vanity and pride, and he is quite fond of children, and the oppurtunity to inflict some really newsworthy atrocities on people that apparently deserve it doesn't come up very often, so....

 

Get Void's help to evacuate the village. Wait until either side shows up. Commence the slaughter. There will be heads on spikes, torture to locate the highers-up, government ministers skinned alive and made to write their confessions on same, and so on. Vlad the Impaler is a hero to his people, after all. The hyena-headed sorceror will become a figure of DREAD in that part of the world, which is just the way he likes it.

 

Indeed, setting up shop as the new Pharoah might solve some of his problem back home - after all, is anybody really going to bother him to help with a minor drug bust when he's just had the entire rebel leadership impaled in a ring around the village in question?

 

Running into Mechanon again would be embarrassing. After the Skeleton Crew accidently preserved his existance, and all...

[DusterBoy]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Given the authenticity of the letter, the Centurions wouldn't even hesitate. As private citizens as well as superheroes, they're not concerned with international laws.

 

Jennifer Sinclair, the team's leader and the most politically-minded of them would probably crash the UN and ask them what the hell they're doing about this and definitely not accept any mealy-mouthed double-talk. "You're the UN, it's you're job to prevent things like this!" she would storm at them. She has a low opinion of the efficacy of the UN to solve problems like this anyway.

 

So, after getting a proper plan together they would go off and put a final stop to this atrocity - and make sure that it couldn't start up again.

[lemming]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Where the Protector's Universe left off, The Protectors and one of the villain groups, The Sorority, had come to an understanding after fighting off an inter-dimensional invasion and joining the council as "co-rulers" of Earth. This is all under secrecy and not all members of each team know of this.

 

The leader of the Protectors, Scales, would contact their leader, Sunburst and make arrangements. The Sorority would take over this country and deal with the soldiers. Naturally, this will set off a reaction with the UN and since the Protectors would be expected to deal with the situation, they would, conveniently leaving a power vacuum. Building the society back is going to be the biggest problem.

[Black Ops]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

A nasty situation.

Congratulation.

[Karma]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Most of my characters aren't in any position to help in this situation. Most, in fact, will wonder how the letter writer knew who they were in the first place (Secret ID are big with my characters (as in even my team mates are not privy to them).

 

Most of my characters would have sleepless nights over how useless they feel. Karma is the one most likely to travel to Africa and get herself killed. If Fore-eyes had his Overseer base on-line he'd use the Gate as a way of evacuating as many people as he could (and his precog to ensure he did it when there were no soldiers). All my others are a little too street-level in power to do anything.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Most of my characters aren't in any position to help in this situation. Most, in fact, will wonder how the letter writer knew who they were in the first place (Secret ID are big with my characters (as in even my team mates are not privy to them).

 

Most of my characters would have sleepless nights over how useless they feel. Karma is the one most likely to travel to Africa and get herself killed. If Fore-eyes had his Overseer base on-line he'd use the Gate as a way of evacuating as many people as he could (and his precog to ensure he did it when there were no soldiers). All my others are a little too street-level in power to do anything.

The OP made it pretty clear the letter could have arrived by a very roundabout way or even by a proxy.

 

It doesn't take a whole lot of oomph to beat up common thugs armed with assault rifles and machetes in a world with superhumans. It's not much different than fighting gang members in urban streets. If you can't or won't even deal with that kind of thing, then what's the point of being a costumed adventurer in the first place? It's doubtful the hero(es) would need to pummel the bad guys more than a couple of times before they'd decide there are easier ways to make a living.

 

My primary PC, Zl'f, has very low defenses and a Total CvK, but that wouldn't stop her from breaking bad guys' guns and bones (not necessarily in that order).

[Karma]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

The OP made it pretty clear the letter could have arrived by a very roundabout way or even by a proxy.

 

It doesn't take a whole lot of oomph to beat up common thugs armed with assault rifles and machetes in a world with superhumans. It's not much different than fighting gang members in urban streets. If you can't or won't even deal with that kind of thing, then what's the point of being a costumed adventurer in the first place? It's doubtful the hero(es) would need to pummel the bad guys more than a couple of times before they'd decide there are easier ways to make a living.

 

My primary PC, Zl'f, has very low defenses and a Total CvK, but that wouldn't stop her from breaking bad guys' guns and bones (not necessarily in that order).

 

Oh I'm sorry I took this situation with all the rape and child soldiers and such too seriously, looking at it too realistically. I thought it was the type of situation where attacking the 'soldiers' (children with rifles) would escalate the problem and lead to repercussions such as the sort of massacres and rape that you were trying to prevent (which is what geneally happens in these kinds of situations when someone decides to play hero, it's called 'making an example'). I must have been mistaken.

 

If this is the fairy land where all mass murdering psychopaths who train boys to be rapists and murderers so they can have 'soldiers' for their little armies see the error of their ways after a bit of biffo and a stern talking to then of course my heroes would be all for it. Unfortunately they would need to find someone with Transdimentional Movement to take them there since they all come from a darker world where EVIL people tend to get more evil, not less, when challenged.

 

... Actually, Trebuchet (cool monika there BTW), you've shown my characters the error of their ways. You are correct. Provided they could somehow get the cash to fly to Africa I can see Karma sneaking into the camp of the 'soldiers' high command, removing their heads and leaving them in a bag in bedroom of the 'Leader' (you know Mr. 'Keep out, I don't want to appear weak') with an unsigned note saying "I hope I chose the right side. If not I'm willing to remedy the situation". With her luck she will have to.

 

Hardball will only act if he can find a link between what is going on in Africa and organized crime in his city. As far as he's concerned the same kinds of things are going on in America (at least in his city (High incidence of rape? check! Children being armed with automatic weapons and taught kill each other? check! A government that wants to ignore the problem and acts like it doesn't exist? Check!) and he needs to clean *it* up before he worries about the rest of the world. The man has an obsession, what can I say. He also lives in a much darker reality than most. If he could find a way to strike a decisive blow against one or other of his various nemesis then provided that they would allow a convicted felon on an international airline he would most likely find the where leaders were and blow it to holy hell with some extremely well placed grenades fragging the leadership and taking out as few of the child soldiers as possible.

 

Actually most of my characters would go with the 'cut off the head' approach to attempting to solve the situation. Killing/maiming/whatever the grunts (even those who are not children and who enjoy rape) while satisfying will do bupkiss to solve the problem, everyone of them is cannon fodder for the other side anyway and the warlords can always find more. Start at the top and work your way down until you find someone you think isn't a willing participant in these atrocities and stop (even if this is a kid who can hardly lift his gun to shoot at you).

 

This may solve everything. More likely the 'leader' who wanted the UN to stay out did it more to hide his own atrocities, and now that you've dealt with his little uprising he can go back to his plans for ethnic cleansing, etc. (Yeah I know, I'm a pessimist when it comes to human nature and the effects of power).

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Well, you've certain got forum sarcasm and irony down pat... I guess that's good.

 

If you postulate a world which contains superhuman beings, it's not all that far-fetched to postulate that many if not most of those superhumans could successfully deal with thugs using AK-47s. Yes, there would be those who lacked either the power, logistical capabilities, or motive to go after these types. I'd like to think most players aren't interested in playing PCs who lack the motive to protect children, even ones in a remote African region undergoing meltdown.

 

Do I think the application of force will magically end slavery and oppression in Africa (IRL or even within an RPG)? That's a discussion for the NGD. Do I think superheroes could or should at least try? Hell yes! That's why they're called superheroes.

[lemming]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

 

(Not directed at treb)

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

 

(Not directed at treb)

Go ahead, direct it at me. I can take it.

[lemming]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Go ahead' date=' direct it at me. I can take it. [/quote']

 

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Totally depends on the tone of the game world if you ask me.

 

A lot of games would answer yes, superheroes would do something!

 

For those games where the answer might reasonably be no... maybe we're now talking about a super-vigilante game or a people with powers game, instead of a superheroes game. And there's nothing wrong with that! Different strokes and all...

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Totally depends on the tone of the game world if you ask me.

 

A lot of games would answer yes, superheroes would do something!

 

For those games where the answer might reasonably be no... maybe we're now talking about a super-vigilante game or a people with powers game, instead of a superheroes game. And there's nothing wrong with that! Different strokes and all...

Sure enough. But the OP essentially postulated a superhero type campaign; after all this is a WWYCD scenario not a "What Would Your Character Ignore?"

 

For my money, a "super-vigilante" having a crisis of conscience over receiving such a letter might provide a good opportunity for some role-playing. You don't have to have superpowers to be a hero, as firemen and soldiers exhibit on a daily basis. Having powers might make it harder to ask "But what can I do?"

[Doc Shadow]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Nighthawk probably wouldn't get the letter. If by some miracle he did, although he wouldn't give a damn about international law, he would be smart enough to know that not even he could take on an entire country. Therefore he would go looking for advice from people he respects. This inturn would lead him to his great-uncle - Preston Walker, Maj. Gen. USA ret. aka ...

 

Patriot would first go straight to the top - the President of the United States - but the US has the problem of its hands being tied by international law. Unless they want to declare war on Duhu all they can really do is pass sanctions, which they would do of course. Covertly an operation could be set upto get the villagers out from in the middle, but this would take months if not years. Unwilling to wait so long Patriot would go to ...

 

Centurion is where the buck stops. Not only is he the overall Strike Force Commander and one of the most powerful members of Strike Force: Boston; but in his secret identity of Gideon Stevens, he's Tai-Pan of the Hong Kong city-state. Centurion will travel to Duhu, grab the Dictator and the Rebel Leader, and tell them both that the atrocities stop now. If they don't, Hong Kong will declare war on Duhu and when it does he will be back and he won't be leaving any of the b******* on either side alive when it's over. As the agent of a soveriegn government in a legally declared war, he can do that. Quite frankly neither Duhu nor the Rebels have anything that can even slow him down, let alone stop him. And in any case he won't be alone, but rather leading a small, elite force of HK troops in Mk IV CAP (Combat Armor - Powered) suits.

 

One way or the other the situation will be resolved.

[OddHat]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

Late to the game, but I don't have a character with sufficient power who wouldn't do something.

 

Harlequin would quietly take over the country and reform it over a period of a few months. Others might suspect metahuman involvement, but they'd probably be unable to do much about it.

 

Monkey King would drive off (or kill off) the raiders, including their leaders, and would offer relocation to the villagers. He would also try to organize some kind of international response, the success of which would be determined by the GM.

 

Legend would try to use his contacts to find a safe haven for the refugees, and move all that he could. He'd be less effective than Monkey King in that he'd be unwilling to actually kill the raiders unless they were actually attacking while he was moving the villagers.

 

It's the kind of problem that only a stable government can really fix long term; as a GM, I'd probably only introduce it if there were some way to build a real country that could protect its own citizens.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

For my money' date=' a "super-vigilante" having a crisis of conscience over receiving such a letter might provide a good opportunity for some role-playing. You don't have to have superpowers to be a hero, as firemen and soldiers exhibit on a daily basis. Having powers might make it harder to ask "But what can [i']I [/i]do?"

It might, depending on the nature of what those powers can be expected to be good for in the character's game. Certainly for a cinematic type game, the GM can be expected not to throw the characters into a situation they really acn't do anything about, so there is a certain amount of GM trust involved here.

 

On the other hand, saying you'd prefer to clear out the log in your own country's eye before the splinter in your neighbor's eye could be a valid response as well, for some games.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation)

 

On the other hand' date=' saying you'd prefer to clear out the log in your own country's eye before the splinter in your neighbor's eye could be a valid response as well, for some games. [/quote']Unless you live in Sudan or the Congo. it's pretty safe to assume the "the log in your own country's eye" is a lot smaller than what's described in the OP. Even real-world Islamic radicalism in Iraq or Afghanistan looks fairly tame compared to what's been going on in the Congo for over a decade.