The Skeleton Crew
INS: Special Situations Control, Containment, & Cleanup

The Skeleton Crew is a Silver Age Sentinels campaign seed that focuses on the lives and work of the members of one unit of the INS Special Situations Control, Containment, and Cleanup squad.

Background

Underfunded and overallocated, the Skeleton Crew, as SSCCC came to be called, is sent into situations after the nation's supers have saved the day, or where they can't be bothered, or when it's simply too weird -- so it must be a case for the government. Their jobs -- often thankless -- are to make sure that the common man is unaffected by the fallout from these situations, that the integrity of the United States is upheld, and that things which should stay out of the media stay as out of the media as can be managed.

Working for or with the government is a time-honored superhero tradition that dates back to the time of FDR, who originally expanded the charter of various government agencies to cover certain unusual circumstances (alien and extradimensional threats). This was focused, later, on the INS, in the mid-1970s, which became "a dumping ground for any person, creature, or thing which could be labelled 'foreign.'" (SAS, p.245), and solidified by certain subsections of the Metahuman Crime Control Act of 1979.

The problem with all this, of course, is funding. The new charter for the INS did not significantly expand its share of the government's budget, nor did it provide significant incentives to metahumans for signing up. No, the best and brightest of the patriotic meta set gathered together to work in government-sponsored teams such as ELITE and The Patriots. This resulted in the "leftovers" joining up with Special Situations, when they could be convinced to work for government wages. The motley appearance of Special Situations owes its origins, in part, to a budget that doesn't even provide uniforms.

The end result has been the assembly of a small number of crews, each seeing to the burgeoning INS workload that only they can, composed of metas and masks with the odd-man-out powers, the talents that don't make the cut, the history that removes other options. They are the Skeleton Crew; in the world of superheroes and supervillains, they're close enough, for government work.

Campaign

The Skeleton Crew is an adaptation to the Sentinelsverse setting of a pet concept of mine that dates back to high school, originally conceived as a comic book which I plotted and a friend drew and which went not much of anywhere. Later, inspired by Grant Morrison's run of The Doom Patrol, I made several attempts to turn it into a game, which also went not much of anywhere. The concepts that came up were always pretty interesting, though; the rules went something like:

1. Come up with your strangest superhero concept ever.
2. That's not weird enough. Make it more so.
3. If you are not going to play a strange character, your character must be so normal that that is in and of itself weird, in the context of the game.

I'm not going to be as strident about this sort of thinking in this incarnation of the game, but powers do need to be at least a little oddball to justify your concept as a member of the "dregs" that tend to settle into working for the INS, in this setting.

The person that is the character is going to be the most important part of this game. Strange and weird events and powers are certainly going to be a strong theme in the game, but in the end, the story will rest most firmly on the personalities involved, and how those personalities interact with the challenges presented.

Characters

Your reasons for being on the Crew form a foundation for your character, and must be identified clearly and, preferrably, in advance to working up the actual sheet for the character. You'll need to write this reason down as a part of it, when it comes to that, too.

Here is a sampling of reasons. Your character should have one (though it doesn't have to be from this list, if the GM approves), and may have more.

Accidental Recruit

You got sucked into working for the INS due to the circumstances of a Special Situation from times past.

Captain Mediocrity

You're working for the INS because it quite literally is the best work you can get. Normal jobs don't open up for you, and you're laughed out of the bigger supers outfits. This is where you've settled.

Indentured

You are obligated to work for the INS for a certain period of time. Perhaps you were a supervillain in the past (or at least a mask who made some bad choices) who committed minor supercrimes, but now as part of your sentence, you've been brought under the wing of the government. Perhaps there are other circumstances.

Oldtimer

While you may have started with the Crew for another reason some time in the past, now you show up more out of habit -- or due to the withering of other options -- than anything else.

Subversive

Your goals within the INS are something other than you represent them as; your position as part of the Crew gives you access to things you need to pursue that goal.

Tin-plated Patriot

You are a patriot, loyal to the ideals of the U.S. of A., but for whatever reason, you don't cut the mustard for the higher-profile, higher-end government superteams.

As far as points and powers go, points will be towards the lower end of the spectrum (potentially sub-150; plan for 125, if you work on your character in advance), and most powers will have an effective level cap of 5 or 6, or a damage cap of 100, however it works out; these limits of course can be sidestepped with GM approval.

Every character must take at least 1 level of the Red Tape defect, unless their background specifically indicates a reason why they might not get caught up in the paperwork of the job. Dependent upon your reasons, background, and powers, the Conditional Ownership, Famous, Owned, Skeleton in the Closet, and Wanted defects may be useful for describing the nature of your relationship to the job.

Organizational Ties: INS (1 point/level) will represent your "rank" within the Crew. The player with the highest level of organization ties will, at least nominally, be the one in charge of the particular squad made up of the PC's. No one should buy Organizational Ties higher than level 6, in this way. If there is a tie, it will be broken by whomever has the greatest amount of Red Tape; if that is a tie, some other method of determination will be arrived at.

There is an assortment of various other perqs and penalties for being a member of the Crew, but those will be applied to your sheet after it is finalized -- this will be how you'll acquire your team gadgets, but also how you'll acquire your team nemeses, and the like.

Other Crews

The PC segment of Special Situations is just one of several crews. Here are some of the members of the other ones:

Joe Inhalo, the lung-powered vacuuman.

The field team leader. He has phenomenal lungs. He can suck anything. He gets a lot of ribbing at the SSCCC HQ.

The Yesterday Man

He has the amazing power to fully divine and plumb the depths of details of everything he has seen, heard, felt, tasted and dreamt in the past 24 hours, 24 hours after it happens. The Yesterday Man typically goes in, stands there, and leaves. 24 hours later, he spouts all kinds of information at HQ.

Reno Lizardbrain, the Pre-Primate Wonder

He is a normal looking guy who's able to tap into the so-called "lizard brain" within him and unlock significant instinctual powers.

Uberunter

Gerhard Deitz is Uberunter, gifted with the ability to displace his body up to fifty feet up or down, vertically from his location, and back again.

Nails

Nails has psychokinetic control over all pointed metal objects, although due to lack of skill and training is usually limited to those on the smaller end of the spectrum.

Pawn

Pawn is a somewhat shy individual with a low sense of self-worth, which ironically powers his superhuman abilities. When put in a position where he is told exactly what to do and without his own initiative coming in to play, he possesses superhuman strength and endurance. When he's not in the presence of authority or has to decide for himself how to act, he's weak and fragile.