Hero:UNUsuals
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Contents |
The UNUSUALS: Making the World Safer
The United Nations Unified Super Unit Active Liaison Squad was formed about five years ago under the auspices of the United Nations, but is technically an Non-Governmental Organization with a special charter and private funding. The inaugural UNUSUALS team was made up of an international group of, to be honest, second- and third-string heroes whose local effectiveness was translated to the global stage. The roster was moderately fluid until recently, when the UNUSUALS Special Secretary announced a full roster change and the existing members of the UNUSUALS retired to other duties and a new roster was announced. It is not clear, though a matter of some speculation, why the roster was refreshed, but the official position of the UN is that personnel matters of NGOs are, barring malfeasance, an internal matter.
The semi-mysterious benefactor of the UNUSUALS is Dyson Callahan, once listed as the third most wealthy person on Earth, and notoriously private and reclusive man. As head of Quo Vadimus, a private international holding company with moderate-to-major stakes in assorted public companies, his wealth and holdings are significant and widespread across both the business sphere and the globe.
The History of the World
The 90s were an exciting time. The Internet, grunge rock, the end of the Cold War, and the introduction of supers. No one knows where they came from, or why, or what caused it; no one cares, really. Like cellphones and laptop computers, the world pretty much adjusted, and now it's pretty much normal to think that there might be a traffic jam tomorrow because The Underminer and Team Terrific had a fight near downtown that needs some cleanup.
In a way, supers (and villains) have become like sports teams: if a city is large enough, then one or two show up, and life goes on as normal, except every so often there's a guy in a cape on TV threatening the Mayor and demanding money. It doesn't bear too much thinking about.
It's been a couple of decades, now, and some heroes (and villains) have retired, or died, or switched teams, or all of the above. There's a new generation of supers, and some of the threats to health and safety have gotten big enough that local or regional responses aren't enough. So, thanks to a mysterious benefactor, a team has been assembled under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on Global Peace and Security, to defend Earth from those threats that cannot be dealt with by other means. A crack international team of Supers, Specials, Talents, Gifteds... Whatever the term used, they're the individuals asked to join a very specific club.
The UNusuals.
Notable Supers
The three biggest superheroes on the planet are in fact not on the UNUSUALS team. The three "original" supers appeared essentially at the same time, and seem to be focused mostly on protecting their particular home town (with some sightings in each other's cities). U-Man appeared in New York, and seems to be potentially the most powerful creature on the planet (think Superman). The Shadow appeared in Baltimore and his position as a "hero" or "villain" often depends on the perspective of the person asking the question (think Batman). And Ceto appeared in Los Angeles as a powerful woman defending effectively most of Southern California (think Wonder Woman).
There is some curiosity as to why the first three supers appeared in the United States, but the advent of more heroes soon afterwards meant that no one was particularly interested in investigating. Right afterward the appearance of Excaliber in the UK and Vitesse Rouge in Europe in addition to several others around the globe meant that, like the future according to Bruce Sterling, superheroes were here, but unevenly distributed.
The System Setting
The setting is pretty four-colour, and the team is sort of a cross between Justice League and Avengers. The universe is basically the Marvel-style approach: the world is the same as ours except, y'know, capes. Given this is a short-term game, I'm not really doing any serious world-building.
We'll be using 4th Edition Champions (AKA the Big Blue Book (+1d6 HTH Physical Attack (-1 OAF: Book)))
Character Creation Crunch
Points: 300 points plus 50 points in disads.
Limits: Aim for 60 active points; Anything more than 65 will probably be disallowed (those funky powerbuilds that end up with 62.5 AP are probably OK depending on review).
Skills: nothing is explicitly disallowed, but you probably shouldn't have any skills above 15- without a good reason.
Talents: No Danger Sense, no Find Weakness, no Universal Translator. Don't worry about base points or vehicles.
Powers: No Absorption, No Clarisentience, no Desolid, no Extra-Dimensional Movement, no FTL, no Missile Deflection/Reflection, no Summon, no Transform. I'll probably also get hinky about Skills-as-powers.
Disads: Given that I've reduced the values, it should be easy to build a character that's not crazy/silly. Please avoid Berserk in your build...
The Players
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Auracle Homeland: Australia |
Pinball Homeland: Canada (Ottawa) |
|---|---|---|
| TBA Homeland: |
Hiro Homeland: Japan |
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| Verloren Homeland:Germany |
Major NPCs
Dyson Callahan: President and CEO, Quo Vadimus. The financial backer of the UNUSUALS.
Hilbert de Gaulle: Special Secretary, United Nations Unified Super Unit Active Liaison Squad. Effectively, the director of the UNUSUALS team.
Carolyn Alberts: Freelance stringer reporter currently "embedded" with the UNUSUALS. Has done reporting for MSNBC, CNN, and NPR.
