The Sutherland Presidency

[GestaltBennie]

I use him a lot, as you might expect. These days he's pretty much Thundrax's arch-nemesis and the thorn that keeps on poking. He's taken a position as the president's special advisor on superhuman affairs, and is running some horrible black box stuff away from the administration's eye (I don't like Trump IRL, and I'm trying to be careful not to use him as a bully pulpit.)

 

But there is a tradition of politics and RL issues in comics, from the X-Men to Captain America to the animated Justice League to early issues of Action Comics, and I'm quite comfortable using that tradition to tell stories  -- if my players aren't uncomfortable with those themes. If they are, then try something else.

 

Besides, these days, punching Nazis is political. So be political.

[Steve]

President David Sutherland has now become a feature of my Champions campaign, and his origin story is a shadowy reflection of one of the PCs (Valient), sort of like how Belloq is to Indiana Jones. Valient is a very popular Public ID superhero and was offered a cabinet position in the Sutherland Administration as the Secretary of Superhuman Affairs. He chose to accept at the conclusion of the session last night, and his getting the position is pretty much a lock after the team had just rescued about thirty senators from imprisonment in Faerie, each of them replaced by fetches of themselves answering to Morgan Le Fay and Black Paladin.

 

A newer, tougher version of the Superhuman Registration Act is being considered by congress and is supported by Sutherland, since he has a Public ID.

[Lord Liaden]

That sounds very cool -- just the sort of use I would have chosen for him if I was using this concept.

 

If you don't mind my asking, was that element in your campaign before this thread?

[Steve]

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

That sounds very cool -- just the sort of use I would have chosen for him if I was using this concept.

 

If you don't mind my asking, was that element in your campaign before this thread?

Actually, that particular element wasn't. I was originally considering Franklin Stone (also from CV1) to be the President, but Invictus worked out much, much better in the role. His Century Corps is also a great way to annoy PCs from numerous directions.

 

My original plan was just to have the PCs rescue the Senators, gaining the team numerous allies in congress. Now they are considering how to act against a sitting President who wants to conquer the world.

 

The PCs are currently poised to take to the world stage as Earth's preeminent superteam, chartered by the UN, although they are being pressured to increase their membership with various superhumans from other nations on the UN Security Council.

[wcw43921]

4 hours ago, Steve said:

My original plan was just to have the PCs rescue the Senators, gaining the team numerous allies in congress. Now they are considering how to act against a sitting President who wants to conquer the world.

 

 

It would be nifty, I think, if his Vice President turned out to be an honorable patriot who the PCs could present with proof of Sutherland's perfidy, and become their ally in their campaign to bring him down.  Just because a Vice President is there to assist the President doesn't mean he's a complete lackey.

 

Hope that helps.

[Lord Liaden]

And we now have a precedent for ending the Sutherland Presidency.

[Simon]

Folks, keep current/real world politics to the Political Discussion thread, please.

[Lord Liaden]

Sorry, Dan. It wasn't my intention to discuss those matters here at all. The whole point of the thread was to provide an alternative.