TASK FORCE Universe

What were the characters originally like when you played them?
Starforce was the first character I ever designed and played. His original gimmick was a magnetic-monopole based suit of flexible power armor. Reinvented, I went with a forcefield-based battlesuit almost identical with Lady Blue's, which allowed them to share an origin. Magnetic monopoles work into his reimagined origin as something he detected while at college, leading to his eventual winning of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991. The original gaming universe had him as Doctor Destroyer's grandson; reimagined, he is one of two illegitimate offspring Destroyer sired. Personality-wise, I usually tell people to imagine Tony Stark if he had been Victor von Doom's illegitimate son and raised from infancy by Jonathan and Martha Kent.
Julie Dormyer was originally designed by my first GM as a DNPC (Dependent Non-Player Character) for Starforce. I never liked that particular formulation, so reimagined she is the ninja Ladyhawk with a massive danger sense explained away as a latent mutation for temporal visualization. I usually tell people to think of her as "Black Widow with Spider-man's Spider-sense."
Ranger was originally conceived as a NPC Martial Artist/Batman clone for my subset of the shared world. The Batman skillset ended up migrating to Ladyhawk, so I made him a speedster with a military background, getting his powers in an accident involving a failed conversion into a Champions Universe Silver Avenger. Even back then, he was always the team leader.
Minuteman was a brick with stretching I built and played at a pickup game in a convention in Indianapolis in 1984 (InConJuntion, IIRC). He's pretty much unchanged from that design.
Mr. Bassman was an NPC hero for my subset of the shared world. As originally conceived, he was blind and made up for it with a hellacious passive sonar. As reimagined using 6th edition rules, I don't need the disadvantage points.
Have you invented any characters since then?
Spiritual Warrior is a character I designed but never played. Redone under 6th Edition rules, he is probably the most abusive character build I have ever attempted in any version of Champions. His sword is bought as a 350-point Follower/Artifical Intelligence which contains a Hand-to-hand Killing Attack and OCV/DCV boosts, both usable by its wielder. Though legal, no sane GM should ever allow this build in their game. For visual shorthand purposes, I tell people to imagine Thor as a Christian, with Mjolnir replaced by a BFS.
Sage is lifted bodily from the 5th Edition 'Galactic Champions' supplement and moved back in time 1,000 years solely for purposes of the current reimagining. I really liked the conception of the Varanyi as an aggressive psionic race (with a lot of similarities to the Zhodani of the old Traveller RPG). And yes, if I'm borrowing Sage from that supplement, I'm also borrowing Tlokon. Spoilers... ;)
For all intents and purposes, Powerfist was an expy of Goku from the Dragonball franchise, designed for purposes of this reinvention. His personal background also gave me an opportunity to stretch as a writer and explore some issues I had never done previously.
Biomaster was actually somebody else's first player-character in the same campaign that premeired Starforce back in 1982. All I remembered was the name (and his inadvertant defacement of Indianapolis' tallest building at the time), so he basically got rebuilt from scratch as the lovable mutant neurokinetic manipulator and master geneticist that terrorizes the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He is a guy who would, after reading the first draft of Jurassic Park, go out and clone his own dinosaurs so he could sue Michael Crichton for infringment of prior art once that book finally got published ("Jurassic City"). For some reason, I always hear him speak in Kelsey Grammer's voice...
David 'Grandfather' Kayami is an original character for purposes of this reinvention. He has a medium-sized Cosmic Power Pool for his various spells, supplemented with PRE-based mental powers, a skillset which comes from being an 200-year old ex-Navajo shaman, WW2 Marine veteran, biker, and ordained Christian minister, ultimately capped off with stealing borrowing the 'Vandaleur Terror' multipower from Adrian Vandaleur's 6th Edition writeup (CVV2).
Ghostbane is also an original invention for purposes of these stories, built when I realized that TASK FORCE in the first decade of the 21st century had no brick. As a great-grandson of David Kayami, I also gave him the power to absorb or neutralize magic. In later years, he joins the Secret Service and serves on Julie's protective detail during her Presidential campaign and the first year of her administration.
Thelambra is my contribution to the Empyrean sub-species of Humanity as conceived for the 5th and 6th edition Champions Universe. She gives the 21st century TASK FORCE the psionic abilities that Sage gave the original team, augmented with luck-based psychokinesis (which is actually fun to write)
What are the general power levels of everyone?
The table below is a rough guide to the number of points I built TASK FORCE members on. I assumed an average experience point accrual throughout the 1980's of 1/week, which is based on the further assumption that the various members of TASK FORCE had solo or group adventures too boring to tell in addition to the published stories. Given the presence of Doctor Destroyer, Mechanon, VIPER, DEMON, Biomaster, and various other regular and mercenary supervillains in the DFW area, it's not that much of a stretch.
Years Story Range Base Disadvantages Experience Comments
1982-1984 'You All Meet in a Lab' through 'Reign of the Destroyer' 500 75 0 15 damage class limit on attack powers, with defenses designed to protect against that
1985-1987 'Escalation' through 'Heart of Darkness' 500 75 100 Still a 15 DC attack power limit. This level shows the payoff of "Newbie Loans" and obvious small upgrades.
1988-1992 'Piranharecho' through 'The Varanyi Civil War' 500 75 250 Attack power limit is now 18 DC
1992-2002 "The Battle of Detroit" through "Return of the Destroyer" 500 75 500 Ranger actually switches over to his 1992 sheet in 'O Little Town', while Spiritual Warrior and Mr. Bassman switch in "Yeoman's Work". What I found interesting is that both Sage's and Mr. Bassman's builds topped out significantly under 900 points. I tried to stay to an 18-20 DC attack limit, but Starforce had other ideas about that...
2002-2011 'Black Ops' through 'Cliques' 650 100 varies 500 points for Ranger, Ladyhawk, and Starforce. 700 points for Grandfather. 250 points for Thelambra. 150 points for Ghostbane
2010-? Hawkins Children 500 75 varies 50 points for Relativity and Chrona, none for Firewall and James
2011-2017 "Resistance is Futile" through "World War VIPER" 650 100 varies 540 points for Ladyhawk, and Starforce, and 250 for Ghostbane. Ladyhawk gains enough extra XP in 2017 to pay for the extra perks and skills that come from being President of the United States
Also, as a general rule of thumb I tried to limit supervillains to around 20 DCs of attack. My Doctor Destroyer builds are actually fairly restrained compared to any of his official 5th or 6th edition builds provided by Hero Games.
Why do you list them in the order which you have them in the 'Dramatis Personae' block of each story?
I list Ted first because he's the team leader. Julie gets listed second because she's second-in-command of the team. The only two times in which neither one of them were available to plan a mission ("Reign of the Destroyer" and "The City That VIPER Built") Bob took command of TASK FORCE -- which is why he gets listed third. After that, I go by total points on which the characters are built until "The Battle of Detroit". I'm not sure why I didn't follow that algorithm for the stories between "Black Ops" and "Leap Day", because I should have listed Olivia last had I followed it.
Listing order gets flushed down the toilet after "Leap Day", except to list Julie first once she starts running for President. There's a reason even Ted's deferential to her from "Coup d'Etat" on...
Why do you have them based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area?
If my heroes were going to start as part of the larger Champions Universe, I wanted them to be in a large city that didn't already have a superhero team in it. A listing of superhero teams across the United States in the 5th edition settings book "Champions Universe" had no teams listed for the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
The chosen metropolitan area also had to be interesting enough on its own merits to justify a superheroic presence. DFW isn't just cows and oil in Real Life; it's also a hub for high tech (specifically aerospace and electronics) and transportation. The aborted Superconducting Supercollider particle accelerator is also under construction just south of there throughout the 1980's, which makes it good for the occasional name-drop -- and one battle scene ("Expedition to Earth"). For my needs, DFW was perfect for TASK FORCE.
What's this Allston Scale that keeps getting mentioned all the time?
In-universe, it's a measure of a superhuman's raw strength established by PRIMUS researchers back in the 1970's. Normal baseline human strength is pegged at 10 on this scale, and each 5 points represents a doubling of strength.
Out of universe, it's the STR stat on a Hero Systems character sheet, named in honor of the late Aaron Allston.
How did you come up with the various birthdays, anniversaries, etc. that you have used?
In general, I tried to use event dates which I was likely to remember without too much of a problem. For instance, Bob is born on my birthday, Julie on my late sister's birthday, Tara Lemick on my ex-wife's birthday, and Bob and Julie's wedding ceremony is on the same day as mine was in Real Life.
Did you have any inspiration or models for the other people which appeared?
Some people I wrote were modeled after people whom I have known in my life:
  • Nichols Research executive Marcia Anders (name-dropped in "The Paradox of Doctor Destroyer" and met in person in "Land of the Free") is patterned more or less directly from a Public Affairs Officer assigned to Kirtland AFB while I was stationed there in the 1980's.
  • Kevin from IT ("Masquerade") is based on a friend of mine from college.
  • Carl Madison ("Land of the Free"/"Home of the Brave") starts out based on an individual I was forced to live with my freshman year in college.
  • Glerick, Paula, Don, and Paul ("The First Dimensional War") are directly based on co-workers from a job I had at Wright-Patterson AFB.
  • Jan the Radio Operator ("The First Dimensional War") is based on a classmate of mine from High School.
  • Bruce and Jerry (also "The First Dimensional War") are based on men I knew at a church I attended in Ohio.
  • Graham Jeffrey (most Shadow Destroyer-related stories between "Black Ops" and "Leap Day") started out based on a civil servant I knew at a computer center on Wright-Patterson AFB in the mid-1990's.
Do you have a definitive list for Jameson's Rules of Superheroic Combat?
The currently-known rules are as follows:
  1. If it was good enough for Sun Tzu, it's good enough for you (alternatively, me).
  2. Reconnaisance and intelligence are your friends. Use them.
  3. If you're in a fair fight, you've done something wrong.
  4. Know when collateral damage is a force multiplier.
  5. You have team members for a reason. Rely on their strengths.