The Justifiers

PC Hero Team (GM: Bob Greenwade)

The Membership (so far):

Ms. Steele (leader)
Cyberbug
Bob Ramsey*
Rattler
Target X
Zuunal*

*Note that Chris Goodwin in Clinton Chard have chosen to keep Bob Ramsey's and Zuunal's pages (respectively) on their own websites, and so there may be some (mostly minor) glitches in formatting and continuity. Where there are conflicts in the latter case, use the information found here.

Origin/Background

When Cassandra Steele resolved to form a superhero team, it was only natural that she (being an attorney and all) would go about it the most legal and above-board way possible. She began by registering herself with the Oregon Paranormal Activities Board so that her activities would be within the law. Her next problem, however, was in gathering teammates.

Her first encounter was with Starr Edwards, who was already active as a superpowered bounty hunter, using the nickname Rattler. Since she and Starr have offices in the same complex, she thought that him joining her team would be a natural. However, while he did agree to help out whenever he was in town, his job would keep him from becoming a regular member. He also suggested the group's name, based on the principles that she said she wanted to uphold; she liked the Justifiers name enough to use it.

The next member-to-be that she spoke to about her plans was her cyberneticist, Dr. Antony Bartocimus. The young prodigy was, at first, shocked that "his creation" would be put at such risk, but then decided that it would provide a perfect opportunity to test out the reliability of his equipment, to say nothing of using it to help people other than the patient. However, he wanted to keep an eye on Cassandra (both out of a sense of protectiveness of his creations and a sense of responsibility for her as a patient), so he built the Cyberbug battlesuit, registered with OPAB, and joined Cassandra's team.

Soon afterward, Bob Ramsey, a client of Cassandra's came up for parole, and she proposed a new parole subsystem to apply to his case: in exchange for an early and reduced parole, he would serve Oregon as a superhero, under her close supervision. With reservations and some relatively tight restrictions, the Oregon Parole Board agreed, and Bob became the newest member of the Justifiers (though with no code-name).

As a part of Ramsey's parole agreement (among other things), the Portland Police Department (in cooperation with OPAB and other law enforcement agencies) assigned a liaison officer to simultaneously work with the Justifiers, act as Ramsey's parole officer, and specialize in crimes committed by superhumans. This officer was Sam Weber. After some discussion between Sam, his superiors, and Cassandra, it was agreed that, since Sam had a skill that could be classified as a paranormal power, he could be equipped well enough to be competitive with supervillains (thanks to a contribution from local hero Captain Glory) and made a member of the team. So Target X joined the Justifiers.

Most Recently, the alien scientist Zuunal heard of the Justifiers' formation, through connections with Orrad at METE (who had himself gotten the news from a contact at the Atlanta US Marshal's Office, who in turn had heard from Rattler). Seeing an opportunity to make an important contribution to this society he'd learned to love, he made his way to Portland to request membership in this new group, and was accepted.

The team is still a brand-new one, and has done little more than make press announcements about their existence. As a team, they operate out of Cassandra's law office; any decisions about building a separate base have yet to be made.

Reputation

As noted above, the Justifiers are a brand-new team. Ms. Steele is known in the legal community as a "legal dynamo," and the story of her injuries and rebuilding is well-known in the area, while Rattler is a well-known bounty hunter who specializes in bringing in dangerous, well-known supervillains from around the country. On the other hand, Bob Ramsey's criminal conviction for murder, made the more widespread the now-notorious discovery of his mutant ability on live national television, can act against them at times. Only time and experience will truly tell whether they will be seen as a positive or negative force in the area.

So far, however, they have worked well in their initial contacts with other superteams in the region, and with local and Federal law enforcement, thanks in large part to Sam Weber's efforts to that end. In particular, Captain Glory, who has long since "graduated" from the "street-level" investigations that marked the beginnings of his superhero career and which the Justifiers now conduct, has given them support in the form of computer equipment, encouragement, and professional recommendations, to say nothing of Target X's shield.

Relations

The Justifiers are a relatively new team, still trying to feel their way through one anothers' personalities. Because of his bad past experiences with the police, Ramsey is understandably wary of Target X, but Target X has expressed his doubts about the results of Ramsey's case, and that's helped softened Bob's view somewhat (especially since that would be a rather unpopular view around the Department). When Rattler drops by, he tends to sit around and "talk shop" with Cassandra and/or Target X. Other than Rattler, though, Cassandra sometimes feels like a den mother for the other Justifiers, trying to keep the peace and make sure that everyone behaves in a responsible manner.

Team Resources

Thus far, the Justifiers have no base, vehicles, or any other equipment that they can think of as a "team resource." They meet in Ms. Steele's law office, use her computer system, and drive around in their own private vehicles. However, that will probably change with time.

Campaign Use

The Justifiers are a PC team that I'm going to be running in a game soon. However, they could serve a variety of functions as NPC heroes in your campaign.

For one thing, any one of them could appear to act in their professional functions. Rattler is a bounty hunter; Cassandra Steele is an attorney; Bob Ramsey is a private detective (albeit a beginner, working for Ms. Steele's office); Cyberbug is a cyberneticist, with medical and technical skills; and Target X is a police specialist in paranormal crime. Any of these people could show up (the latter two in either their civilian or super identities) to perform these functions in your campaign. You could even "tone down" the characters, or depower them altogether, to make them normals who call on the PCs for help.

As a team, the Justifiers make a good Oregon encounter. In the high paranormal population of the four-color Champions Universe, they would probably be mostly limited to the Portland area and the north Oregon coast, but there's not much reason that they would necessarily stay in Portland (after all, if your PCs can track a villain to Portland, why couldn't the Justifiers track one to your area?). In that respect, they can serve the same function as any NPC superhero team, that of rescuer and allies in need of rescue.

If your campaign actually takes place in the Portland area, then the Justifiers can act as a sort of "excuse" for the PCs to not handle a certain type of adventure. For example, if you want to run a game where the PCs are all superpowered mutants who spend most of their time fighting Genocide and IMAGE, but you want to have groups like the Ultimates and VIPER in the background so they can occasionally influence your campaign, then the Justifiers can be the team that "usually" handles all that pesky non-mutant stuff.

Design Notes

This campaign was to take place in a universe molded as closely to the official Champions Universe (the old one from Champions Universe, not the one described in the recently-released Champions: The New Millenium) as possible, so most Hunters and other character connections are in that context. You will also find several unfamiliar names in the write-ups; these are local figures that I've devised, and will try to get published at some point in the not too distant future (if not in a Hero Plus product, then here on my Original Hero Stuff website).

Of course, since virtually any campaign takes place with a melánge of published and original characters, and nearly all GMs (myself included) have some sort of house rules they use, you're going to have to do some adapting for your campaign if you want to use them as NPCs (in addition to whatever editing you may need to do to fit them to your campaign setting). This is to be expected. The main thing with these characters is their background and function in the campaign, and I think you'll find something interesting for everyone to do.

Also, You may notice that each character has, in addition to the five basic sections given to all of Hero Games' published characters (Background, Personality, Quote, Powers/Tactics, and Appearance), each character has a section on Daily Life, Associates, and Personal Tastes. This is to better define each character, and how he or she fits into the world around him or her. It's information that I requiring for each player character; I recommend that you do something similar in your campaign. I'm also using a section titled Design Notes to clear up any unusual design practices, house rules, and similar issues on the character sheet for the individual characters.

Maps courtesey of Vicinity Corporation's MapBlast! Logos and other special graphics courtesey of Pixelsight. All other material on this page and its subsidiary pages is © 1996-97 by Bob Greenwade, except where noted otherwise. E-mail me if you have any comments or questions.