I have an organization called Nemesis. It is in the US and part of the Justice department. It oversees the police training of any super who wants to operate inside of the law. Qualified supers become Federal Marshals with full police powers. Any super without government sanction is considered a vigilante and while Nemesis doesn't hunt these heroes down and lock them up, they will incarcerate them should any be discovered at a fight scene unconscious. 

Nemesis does not employ supers itself. At one time they fielded agents in super armor. But the cost of maintaining the armor and training operatives became prohibitively high. The National Director decided that there were enough law abiding supers interested in mainting law and order that if any went rogue or a vigilante got out of hand, Nemesis had more than enough super resources to handle the situation. This also made it easy to set up "Good Guy vs. Good Guy" fights. The new hero in town is a vigilante and some villain makes it look like the new hero is a blood thirsty kook. Nemesis dispatches a hero or two to "talk" to the new guy. 

I know sanctioned law enforcement isn't in everyone's character concept. It isn't necessary that every member of the superhero team be a federal marshall. Nemesis only requires that at least one authorized marshall be present at every operation. If the team's marshalls were away, they couild call Nemesis and have a field agent sent to accompany the team.

The reason behind all this is that one of my biggest complaints about the superhero genre was the underlying assumption that might made right and all the good guys had to do was show up and beat the bad guys.  If you look at most comic book fights, very little attention is paid to the rights of villains. Don't get me wrong, I don't think villains should be treated with kid gloves or anything. But most of the villains, if they were just found at a scene unconsious and tied up would be released.  Issues concerning evidence and miranda rights are glossed over. Those issues are what keeps villains incarcerated, not the fact that Team Super trashed their butt.

Nemesis has a way to psitively identify super marshalls without determining/revealing their secret identities. The Nemesis badge uses retinal pattern recognition and thumbprint scanner. So if Dr. Good shows you his Nemesis badge, and it flashes green, then the man holding the badge is Dr. Good.  If a hero with a secret id decides to tell Nemesis who they really are (many do) Nemesis is required by law to protect that information the same way the government protects undercover operatives. This helps entice heroes to become part of the law they claim to be upholding.  Of course none of this matters outside the U.S. But that's why I have  U.N.I.T.

-------------- Original message from darkferretsbite <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>: --------------


> I was wondering what you folks do for your games in regards to Law
> enforcement organizations. In the Champions Universe there are all
> the
> regular and real life based police type organizations. There are two
> extras one is called Primus it operates in the United States. It
> acts
> to both aid and possibly even attempts to control super humans. They
> have both high tech weapons and advanced armour. Mainly Primus tries
> to stop super criminals and evil organizations like Viper. Until
> does
> the same it is however focused on a world wide level. Primus has
> developed it's own super powered agents called Silver Avengers.
> Until
> did not have any of it's own super powered agents back in the fourth
> edition of the universe. I have not read the updated version for
> this
> group. I would like to hear all of your own opinions. On what extra
> law enforcement agencies you use in your own games. In my vigilante
> game I just used extra tough swat teams with some cool high tech
> weapons to deal with super powered foes. My current rethink is just
> to
> use Primus in the United States while Canada has created the Northern
> Guard. Both groups will be mostly focused on agents and hi tech gear
> I
> may drop the whole Silver Avenger thing. Each agency will have
> officers
> dedicated to convincing so called super heroes. To work either
> directly for the organization full time. Or to work on as a team on
> a
> case by case bases. Anyway would like to hear all of your ideas.
> Ferret........
>
>
>
>
>
>
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