guide gab Freedom League lineup and role

[Ari]

As has been mentioned in the Going Green thread, enough time has elapsed and enough has changed that an overview of the setting's premier superteam is necessary, both in what characters it's made up of and what its purpose should be going forward.

 

At present the idea is that the Freedom League Auxiliary is the PCs, while the League proper is the NPCs. That fit the old paradigm where the heroes were by and large the types who dealt with smaller problems that wouldn't catch the League's attention, but that has not been the case for years. 

 

A number of Claremont Academy alumni and others, PC and NPC, are available along with plenty of room for new characters to fill the gaps.

 

For the first matter I say we resolve who's on and what their relationship is with each other.

 

So to that end we first-first need to figure on who makes sense to have moved on or dropped out.

 

We already know that the Raven and Lady Liberty are out, former to manage Claremont Academy and latter to focus on her newly-expanded family.

 

Bowman's in unless I missed something.

Daedalus has no real reason to have left, unless the situation in space has gotten him to gallivant into the stars with Pseudo again.

 

Captain Thunder, as mentioned, is really getting on in years. With his son Raymond on the League I suggest he step down, trusting that after about eight years of doing this on his own Thunder believes Bolt's ready for bigger responsibilities.

 

Doc Metro is, as Knight puts it, a fixture and a huge tie to the city. Being an immortal construct, no reason for him to leave the team.

 

Pseudo is a bit of a wild card. On the one hand he(supposedly) has a strong affection for humanity and wants to learn more about and from them, not to mention how his relationship with Daedalus et al might ground him. On the other there is, as also mentioned in the other thread, suddenly a very large number of 'rogue' Grue attempting to form communities and establish quasi-independence without the all-consuming will of the Meta-Mind, and R'ik could easily see sharing what he's learned with his kindred as more useful and a better path than hanging around a bunch of weird aliens. The wormhole's right there, too.

 

If we do decide that it would make more sense that he leaves, I'd suggest swapping out him with Changeling(Alterniteens alt-dimension Grue, not the Fey illusionist). Both are from very, very different places than Earth-Prime, have unique perspectives, shape-shifting powers and Changeling has a Starfire-esque exuberance.

 

La Siren I really don't know. We could change her cheval, but that's the only substantial shift that would make very much sense given how her and Baron Samedi's metaphysical war over humanity isn't nearly over. With Seven around, she at least has a little more room to breath outside of being the "magic member".

 

Sri Montoya of Earth doesn't seem like the type to quit unless something massive changes. Though she might have left to focus on her Star Knight duties given the staggering death toll of the Incursion War and the loss of hundreds of other Knights. That and the recent insinuation of the Light of Truth cult-militant.

 

Thoughts, questions, suggestions?

Edited September 8, 2016 by Ari

[Raveled]

I'm not sure what the current status of Megastar or the alt!Thor that was on the AlterniTeens, but either of them joining the League would give them some heavy-hitters.

[Avenger Assembled]

Do any seem disposable? Like one could kill them off and no stories would be lost? 

Asking, uh, for a friend!

[Heritage]

Personally I like the idea of Daedalus and Psuedo off in the Black together, which Changeling joining the League. Not sure if my non-Green status allows me to post here, but I just felt like chiming in.

 

BTW, how does one become a Guide?

[Raveled]

55 minutes ago, Avenger Assembled said:

Do any seem disposable? Like one could kill them off and no stories would be lost? 

Asking, uh, for a friend!

 

It could actually be an interesting story to have Daedalus 'die' in a very public manner and then have him retire from public life for a few generations. IIRC that his standard operating procedure, and it would be a way to clear another slot if it's needed.

[alderwitch]

Here's my thoughts on the canonical characters and such. I don't really think that keeping the book NPCs in as important roles for the setting is all that important and I think there's a lot of good arguments against doing so. In opening Emerald City, and Bedlam, there have been a lot of talk of the space and settings feeling constrained and to be honest, I think some of that impression comes from having a full roster of roles filled with NPCs. A lot of the time it leads to having to hand wave why 'X' character is not involved in something they would be around for. 

 

The Freedom City setting is really designed as a tabletop setting where a GM will remove canonical characters if there's an overlap with an intended PC. We have eight years of play here and, honestly, characters like Fleur or Edge or Jack of All Blades have more gravitas because they have established their own roles. Being the leader of the Interceptors is a more interesting statement because the Interceptors have been active and engaged in events while Freedom League NPCs have not so much.

 

Plus, it provides more reasons to have interactions. Rather than have a Ref have to run an NPC for this or that conversation; such as Eldritch, having an established mystic PC take on those duties means that its another player getting to take on the mentor role with new PCs instead. I don't think there's any NPC 'role' that we don't have many good PC contenders to take on.

 

Anyway, I know that I'm probably in the minority on my feels on this subject. My two cents. 

[Thevshi]

I think you are bringing things back to the question you raised in the other thread Alder, namely whether the PC League member should take center stage (rather than just being the auxiliary to the book NPC League).  How that question is answered is likely to have a significant impact on what the NPC lineup on the League might look like (whether the NPCs become the auxiliary members and/or serve to flush out the core League roster).

So, I think the first question is do we want to continue the paradigm where the PCs were focused on the more "local" threats while the NPCs were more globally focused, or do we want to flip it around? 

As Alder notes, at this point we have several PCs who have been members of the League for several years (just focusing on League PCs here), Velocity joined over 8 years ago.  It would certainly make sense that those PCs would start to take on a more central role in the League, and could help recruit other PCs to expand the roster.

I agree with Alder that arguments for an NPC focused League are not particularly strong after so many years as an active site with long running characters (and even new PCs!).  Although I do not feel we need to jettison all the NPCs on the League, I do think we should make it more PC focused.

[Ari]

@Heritage Being a Guide right now is restricted to the people who are Guides right now. Ref team isn't sure this will work, so it's a trial run.

 

Also like the idea of Daedalus and Pseudo on another hyperspace trek. Which could easily coincide with one of Daedalus' public """""deaths""""". 

 

And agreed Alderwitch and Thevshi, that's my thinking too. I think of it like the Avengers. Not like the actual super-team or nothing, just its general reputation and style as a massive pile of folks of whom a few hold center stage. The world is a big place and there being plenty of backup doesn't make sending the PCs off on the big-time missions any less interesting.

 

The whole reason for why all that delegation and relegation happened was because people wanted or thought other people wanted to play characters overlooked, overshadowed or devoted to parts of the world the major players didn't think much about. That hasn't been true since the beginning, but now that is even less so. We can do away with it easily.

 

(Though that's news to me. Our ECs, crowded? I excised all the public heroes and villains specifically to avoid that.)

 

I agree with Knight, Megastar and Magni would be pretty good for "muscle" types. Though I think we should bring in as well somebody from "outside" that pipeline. 

 

There being a network of NPCs with existing relationship dynamics also goves GMs who don't have League PCs something to work with. They can serve as mouthpieces and supporting cast without diminishing the role of the PCs. 

 

But first, we need to decide who is NOT on the team. I like Daedalus and Pseudo's departure in the wake of the former's apparent death, any other ideas?

[alderwitch]

If you're interested in becoming a guide, I'm pretty sure that its like refs and such; being available and helping out with threads and ideas and concepts. Feel free to take part here in the discussions, of course, and pitch in; thats what these forums and threads are for!

 

Ari, in terms of the creation EC, I more meant that the arguments for it was the 'crowding' of FC, which I think is not helped by having a full line up of NPCs. 

 

I think, what Thevshi and I are trying to say, is that rather than try and flesh out the Freedom League with NPCs and create all their backgrounds, we'd be better served by letting PCs take over those spots. Like, for example, Magni was in the same Claremont years as Young Freedom 1.0 and Wander or Phalanx could easily take on the 'muscle' role of the League and have the advantage of being PCs. I don't think we need Freedom League NPCs for much of anything these days that a PC can't easily fill and, in some ways, makes it significantly easier since only a Ref can write for one of those NPCs. 

[Ari]

It's an aesthetics problem, I feel. To me having a solely-PC organization that is also the effective summit of social and otherwise success on the board has unfortunate implications of excess cliquey-ness. It's called the Freedom League, on Freedom City Play by Post, and it's readily apparent what "kind" of characters are being presented as most suitable. The PCs being the most prominent face of a world-protecting supergroup, backed and leavened with supporting cast NPC super-folk(who, unlike the static persons of before, have their own dynamics and relationships), strikes me as a better balance between the former absentee landlords and what I think is a swing too far the other way.

 

If the other guides and Refs would rather it was a Justice League/The Authority-style "brawniest & brightest" aggregate of the most powerful and influential PCs, then of course I can hardly argue otherwise, but it being more like the Justice League in seasons 3-4 or the Avengers seems to me a more flexible and interesting avenue.

 

And there being League NPCs, again, gives a handhold for people who want to GM League adventures who aren't already in such elevated circles with their own characters.

[angrydurf]

Frankly the whole NPC league is disposable minus MAYBE Callie Summers Raven.  Due to the reasonable desire to have PC's be front and center in the big events on the site it has been years since the NPC league did anything as a team on screen.  Even when the individuals have shown up it hasn't been to save the day it's been to pass word on to the PC's who do the actual heroing.  Callie still runs Claremont and there are ongoing relationships between her and a few PCs that would be harmed if she was removed entirely though as mentioned she's also pretty ripe for retirement at this point.

 

Which brings me back around to Alders point.  We have alot of NPCs sitting on the books that are supposed to be the experts and masters of this that or the other but it's been years since they have been used as such and we certainly have the PC base to not have to at this point.  The big fear about putting PCs on the Freedom league historically has been that if the Player leaves the setting would suffer.  IMHO all it really did was devalue the league as an entity.  The big names on the league at this point are the aux and even they are often overshadowed by non-league individuals and teams in part because the Aux is inherently undervalued by being B team to a bunch of NPCs that never see play.

 

Honestly at this point so many stories for the high PL active chars have been built around explaining why they are not on the league I don't even know if there is a good way to bring them in.  Edge's storyline has contorted itself from the natural progression to league membership into being basically the whole of the UN Superteam (kinda with monsoon?)  No paragon has been let near the league because that would be tacit acknowledgement of them taking on the Centurion Legacy which (Admittedly to my own frustrated bias) is perhaps unreasonably sacrosanct so most of the potential muscle for the league has been sidelined into either a holding pattern or more rarely other teams.  Ms. Americana easily could fill both the leadership/muscle and daedalus roles but has tied in to Archetech instead so it wouldn't now make sense.  Honestly even filling in the Freedom League with PC's would take some doing given the narrative contortions used in the past to keep reasonable candidates off.  

 

The most reasonable recruitment would be from the Auxiliary but it's a little bit of a tough sell.  Half of them live primarily in Sanctuary now,  the most prominent and trusted member is really primarily involved with that "project".  Comrade Frost is intentionally distasteful and technically on loan from the mostly defunct Russian national team.  Like overall the site has kinda passed the main Freedom League by while it sat in NPC land.  I think there would need to be some kind of meaningful shake up to change that.  More than just a wave of retirements.  As has been mentioned there are still LOTS of NPCs that can fill those roles too and because of the nature of setting NPCs have a more natural relationship with the existing league.  

 

Welp this has gotten longer and more rambling than intended.  I'll put in further thoughts later but the TL:DR is I think PC's > NPCs for the League but we probably need a bigger reason to shake up the roster than a wave of retirements to make that work.

[Vahnyu]

5 minutes ago, angrydurf said:

Welp this has gotten longer and more rambling than intended.  I'll put in further thoughts later but the TL:DR is I think PC's > NPCs for the League but we probably need a bigger reason to shake up the roster than a wave of retirements to make that work.

 

I smell a site mega event coming...!

[April]

Freedom League Unlimited?

[Tiffany Korta]

Actually I was going to suggest the same thing .

 

We could have the core NPC stay as thoae in charge of the League with some of the PC as the alpha team working alongside them.

 

Then we can have the League reach out to ask PC's to help them with a temporary problem, but like how we tend to use AEGIS.

[Heritage]

I always assumed the NPC League was international in focus and based on the Lighthouse while the Auxiliary (PC) team was based out of Freedom Hall and handled local stuff.

 

It would be kind of cool to have some kind of mega event shake up the League to open up spots for more PCs.

[angrydurf]

30 minutes ago, Ari said:

And there being League NPCs, again, gives a handhold for people who want to GM League adventures who aren't already in such elevated circles with their own characters.

 

Not really as if they are top tier NPCs it needs to be refs running them which is why the current/last batch of FL NPCs never get face time.  There are alot of reasons of consistency and such that we maintain that rule.  We don't need a new version of Daedalus or johnny Rocket every time someone wants him to make a cameo.  NPCs are static because they are NPCs not played actively and engaged in broad storylines.  If they are getting that much play they are basically PCs (We already skirt that line alot with sidekicks anyway) 

 

But Perhaps the most telling thing here is what role we want the Freedom League to have in the sites canon.  It has been from its inception int he books the JLA/Avengers style Earths mightiest heroes.  That is defacto no longer the case with the advancement of PCs into more power and narrative weight.  So if that is supposed to be maintained then PCs are the logical choice for those roles.

 

If we want it as some kind of clearing house handing out assignments like some kind of MMO questgiver, or to represent some kind of social club NPCs work fine sure.  But frankly we have almost a decade now of NPC Freedom league and they year by year get less and less relevant.  I don't see that changing with all new NPCs.

[Thevshi]

Well Durf, I think a part of the problem with how the League has been handled here over the years is the changes in Ref staff that have taken place and different visions for the site that have resulted. 

The very first PCs to join the League were Velocity (me) and Envoy (MarkK) back in mid-2008, and they were full League members.  Of course, both of us eventually leaving the site (at least for a time in my case) could well have resulted in those in change being gunshy about more PCs on the League.

But I agree that the way the League has been handled and how the site has developed has pretty much has resulted in the League being undervalued and just ignored for the most part.  We put a fair bit of effort in during Incursion to write the NPC League members out of threads by shunting them off-screen to deal with other stuff to leave PCs at the center of things. 

I am not so sure that an initial recruitment from the Auxiliary to the main team is such a tough sell, given the length of time many of them have been part of it (although there is the issue with many of them focused on Sanctuary).  Also, as I mentioned above, Velocity was a full League member, and has mainly been in some threads with Aux members since I came back in last 2012 because that is where the only other PC members of the League were at the time. 

I am not opposed to running it as a Freedom League Unlimited, but there is no reason that could not mean lots of PCs (and maybe a small handful of NPCs).

 Heri, that is pretty much how the NPC (main) and PC (Aux) League has operated, although the Aux has broadened some in scope in the last few years.  We are talking about just changing that altogether.

[alderwitch]

41 minutes ago, Ari said:

It's called the Freedom League, on Freedom City Play by Post, and it's readily apparent what "kind" of characters are being presented as most suitable.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this? I tossed out characters that I thought would fit and am familiar with but the entire point of clearing space is so that more PCs can be involved with the Freedom League. If things are shaken up then characters from Aux who make sense can move forward and there can be space for up and comers that also make sense for the league, which mostly means having an impeccable reputation in the super hero community and having a heavy batting weight, which is why I mentioned Phalanx and Edge. There are certainly people who are not 'my friends' who would also make just as much sense but I did use the names of characters I am most familiar with. 

 

I don't personally have characters that make sense for the FL and I'm not angling for any position on it. What I would like to see is a Freedom League where its an attainable goal for new characters to be a part of it during their play arc and for older characters who have wanted that role for a very long time to be able to achieve it. Velocity has been in the Aux for seven years now. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Here are some thoughts: 

 

Ari wrote:

Quote

 

 

A number of Claremont Academy alumni and others, PC and NPC, are available 

If you think there's a story to tell from a given setting NPC being on the Freedom League, just go ahead and do it. I don't think we need to hash out the fate of every Claremont alum/older NPC - if there's a reason for them to be there, just put them there. 

 

Raveled wrote: 

Quote

 

 

Daedalus 'die' in a very public manner and then have him retire from public life for a few generations. 

 

That does sound interesting - though I would want a suitably worthwhile story to go with it. 

 

Alder wrote: 

Quote

 

 

Rather than have a Ref have to run an NPC for this or that conversation; such as Eldritch, having an established mystic PC take on those duties means that its another player getting to take on the mentor role with new PCs instead.

 

I absolutely agree - let's encourage people to work with PCs rather than NPCs-  as long as we're not breaking any toys in the process. 

 

Durf wrote: 

Quote

 

 

No paragon has been let near the league 

 

I...don't think anyone has actually asked, have they? I certainly wouldn't have said no! 

 

Ari wrote: 

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To me having a solely-PC organization that is also the effective summit of social and otherwise success on the board has unfortunate implications of excess cliquey-ness. It's called the Freedom League, on Freedom City Play by Post, and it's readily apparent what "kind" of characters are being presented as most suitable. 

 

Yes, the powerful characters with a strong connection to the site's history - with players with a proven track record. 

 

TV wrote: 

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Also, as I mentioned above, Velocity was a full League member, and has mainly been in some threads with Aux members since I came back in last 2012 because that is where the only other PC members of the League were at the time. 

 

I'll be honest with you, TV, I have generally treated Velocity as an Aux member because it didn't feel fair to the other players to have her be 'ahead' of them because she was approved during an earlier generation in our story-telling history. 

 

Heritage wrote: 

Quote

 

 I always assumed the NPC League was international in focus and based on the Lighthouse while the Auxiliary (PC) team was based out of Freedom Hall and handled local stuff.

My thoughts have always been similar. 

 

I agree with the issue of opening up more narrative space - that's why I've sent at least one PC out to the Emerald Cities, and I encourage other people with similar concerns to do that (or send them off to Bedlam). I'm making a point to push for Citizen as the Superman of the Emerald Cities because that's a niche it's tough to fill in the homeland. 

 

So I suppose I don't really disagree with anybody - sure, let's put more NPCs on the Freedom League if that serves somebody's story, but let's make sure we're keeping the focus on the PCs. Let's keep the NPCs around, because they make handy story tools. I don't really have an issue with opening up some variant of the Freedom League to more people, but I would definitely want a hard veto on any particular PC joining it based on how well that PC fit. The days of the really bad players are mostly gone - so I'm not too worried about that. 

 

I always rather liked the Aux designation - it amused me that the Aux team was actually much more powerful than their NPC predecessors. I don't really have an issue with the designation essentially fading away, however. 

 

Just one guy's thoughts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thevshi]

48 minutes ago, Avenger Assembled said:

I'll be honest with you, TV, I have generally treated Velocity as an Aux member because it didn't feel fair to the other players to have her be 'ahead' of them because she was approved during an earlier generation in our story-telling history. 

 

 

Well AA, she would still be technically "ahead" by virtue of seniority, having joined before they did.  In any event, she likely became Aux when she went on reserve status (when she was part of the Interceptors).

[KnightDisciple]

Hm, lots of thoughts thrown out today!

 

-I'm not in favor of completely axing the NPCs, but I do think I'm on board with shifting them to a background role. I think there's value in having some semi-static background characters "just in case".

-As far as some characters not being "allowed" on the FL, I'd agree with AA that I don't think that's really the case. Edge, Midnight, Wander, they all went and helped form the Liberty League, with others, Partly this was because of the low-level antagonism between them (especially Edge) and the League (mainly Captain Thunder, via Bolt). This concept's been evolving organically since then. Other non-FL teams have sprung up pretty organically, as well.

-One thing I like about the Freedom League NPCs is the idea of legacy. We've got several heroes who are 2nd or 3rd to hold the name, or in the case of Captain Thunder and Bolt, likely to pass on the name. Now, I'm obviously biased and benefiting from this, because I'm Batman playing a character who, before long, will pick up the mantle of Raven. But I can see value in having at least some possible links for another Bowman or Archer to come into play. We saw it with Foreshadow, as well. I think it's one of the more exciting aspects of our game here, but it also requires keeping an eye on the "open" legacies such that they can be available for "pick up" after a certain point.

 

One suggestion regarding Freedom League vs Freedom League Auxiliary is to make both PC options. The FL slots would, by and large, go to the existing FLA members; regardless of how much they may spend time on Sanctuary, they're clearly well-respected In and Out of Character, and the PCs are all maxed-out or nearly so. Few can question their might! Meanwhile, this opens up the FLA to be a place for newer PCs to come into, or to attach "part time" members (Comrade Frost could be technically FLA because he's weird he's not technically eligible for full membership). As time passed, PCs could become FL members, and both the FL and FLA could grow.

 

Meanwhile, we do our best to give room for other teams, like the Liberty League, the Castle Ladies, and so on to have adventures and flourish, too.

 

In light of that, I don't think having a perfectly-rounded "roster" is critical for the NPCs, but I do think having 6-10 (or so) for-sure members isn't a bad plan. Plus this could give us an easy place to draw from in the future for Legacies (have I mentioned how I think those are cool?). We can leave the question of who else might be on the roster in flux. 

 

It also gives us some flexibility when AA gets his Itch For Murder (c) on. 

[olopi]

Lots of things to respond to! Most of the things I’ll mention here were said already, but since I’m both a Guide, and also one of the newest active players, I’d like to put my opinion here too.

I’m generally in favour of keeping a few NPCs around. There’s the obvious issue of how you were to remove them, but also I like having a few characters around that can be used as ways to introduce plots or just spice up the background a bit, even if as a non-ref I won’t be using them myself. I’d probably handle it as suggested above, where the NPCs stay around in various roles, but with the PCs dedicated to most things.

 

I’m also actually in favour of a “Freedom League Unlimited” as suggested above. This primarily comes down to personal tastes, but I quite enjoy having something along the lines of that, or maybe, in a slightly different manner, a variety of teams all operating for the same people in charge, where you have a bunch of somewhat independent teams that are all still tied together due to who they associate with. Both of these offer more spots for players, and also for threads, but in the end it’ll come down to everyone’s preferences on the matter.

 

I also see the various concerns, especially the ones about a few player’s characters being the designated “Top Dogs”, as it’s something I’ve seen (and heard) a lot of horror stories about. But, on a site like this one it should not be as much of a problem, so long as it’s handled correctly, which should be possible. Besides, there’s already a few characters that are this de facto, and so long as there’s control on who gets to be a member, hopefully few problems should arise.  Obviously, with the “Unlimited” and “Semi-Independent Teams”-concepts this would be somewhat avoided directly.

 

I think most of us so far agreed on giving more power to the PCs, so I think one of the most important things to iron out should this come through would be how it is handled. Each approach offers a variety of pros and cons, and I’ll gladly summarize all of them once a few things have been worked out.

Edited September 9, 2016 by olopi

[angrydurf]

I've personally been shot down for the league twice with Phalanx OOC, first because they didn't want a centurion legacy later after Thev was on her break and HK left because them leaving made the admins nervous about FL PCs, Darkstar also wasn't allowed to join back when he was around nor was Fulcrum, I imagine there has been others that discarded the idea without asking because it was open policy that PCs were not allowed on the league for a long stretch.  The current administration has obviously been less walled off in that regard but as I was saying the historic blocks on full league membership and the FL Aux being a group with a bit less four color flair has meant that people that might have gravitated to league positions have now found other places to play the characters making bringing PCs on piecemeal a trickier narrative.  

 

We at this point have almost ten years of site history showing that as NPCs the league don't really do much of anything which personally is a tough sell for the supposed preeminent super team of the setting.  Having PC "backup" or "Auxiliary" teams doesn't help that.  PC teams actually get to do the thing and save the day and that makes them the defacto "Top Dogs" anyway.  Trying to prop up NPCs in that position seems an exercise in futility and doomed to just make the FL more of a joke in the end as groups like the Interceptors, DuTemps, and Liberty League step in to actually be the on screen heroes.  

 

All in all I think the main question is what we want the league to be in our setting and work towards that and worry less about the NPC vs. PC worries about cliques and power dynamics etc.  Cliques and Power dynamics are going to happen or be perceived regardless and really are the responsibility of the Staff to manage in a way that keeps things productive and fun for everyone. So What should the league be?  Should it be the Best and Brightest team of high PL superstars?  Should it be a collectivist clearinghouse of heroes without other ties forming short term team ups for individual threads?  Should it be a gatekeeper organization handing out priority assignments?  What is the vision of the role of the league in the setting?

[Avenger Assembled]

 

So What should the league be?  Should it be the Best and Brightest team of high PL superstars?  Should it be a collectivist clearinghouse of heroes without other ties forming short term team ups for individual threads?  Should it be a gatekeeper organization handing out priority assignments?

 

 

Wild card - why can't the answer be yes to all these questions? 

[KnightDisciple]

1 hour ago, Avenger Assembled said:

 

 

 

Wild card - why can't the answer be yes to all these questions? 

 

Another thought that's come to me is that the NPC members of the Freedom League can serve as a sort of...hm. "Mouthpiece" feels a bit awkward, but essentially they can be the in-character justification for some of the rules and restrictions that might exist for the Freedom League (and similar groups). I like the idea of broadening the scope of the Freedom League to FLU; perhaps instead of all being Freedom League *Something* members, various existing teams could come to associate with the League overall in time. 

And if that happens, there are likely to be rules and stuff (which is to say, the general rules and standards for Hero Behavior we set here on the board). To place a level of "insulation" between that process and PCs, we offload the "responsibility" to the NPCs. The "senior members" are the RefTeam, as it were. 

 

It's not a 100% perfect point but I hope the idea is getting across?

 

I'm definitely not in favor of completely sweeping away NPC membership in the Freedom League. There's always going to be more going on than just what we see in threads with our PCs; there are so many potent groups and villains and threats out there that it's inevitable. The world, the universe, the multiverse, is populated with more than just the few dozen characters we've created here. I don't see why that can't be reflected in the Freedom League as it is elsewhere.

 

Also I'm not comfortable with implicitly opening up the entire FL NPC roster for AA-style murderizing. :-[p>