Here I will present how I foresee the team dynamic working in this game. I am doing this in hopes that it will prevent people from building characters whose concept is at odds with what I envision for this game.
The characters are a team and need to be team players. Some loner mentality might be okay but when it comes down to it the characters need to be willing to work together and hopefully be friends. XSWAT does not take applications, they recruit their members. You did not go to them, they came for you. Your character needs to be someone who would be receptive to recruitment. They may have been reluctant but in the end they have voluntarily accepted the offered position within XSWAT for whatever reason; even if it was an “or else” situation.
The characters may be of varied backgrounds and may have had any reasonable outlook on life. Your character could be the life of the party, or the outsider who for the first time is going to find people who accept her. You could be the compassionate type or the thrill seeker.
You all came to be part of XSWAT in roughly the same way. You were special enough and exceptional enough that you came to their attention. It doesn’t matter how secretly you led your life, they have ways of finding the people that meet their criteria. XSWAT recruits from all over the world, not just from the people of Angelus, this means you character can be of any nationality or ethnic origin. Odds are that if you were a citizen of Angelus you are willing to accept the call to join XSWAT because they are generally held in good regard by the public. There is also a possibility of a civic sense of duty.
If you came from outside Angelus then the opportunity to be accepted in to a freer society may have been your initial lure. Even if you grew up in a freedom blessed society the opportunity to live in the city of tomorrow, the shining beacon of hope for mankind is a powerful inducement. Presented below are a couple of highly condensed examples of back stories.
Example Case 1: Malachi Brogan was a member of the regular Angelus Police Force. The Brogans have always been cops, first New York, then Chicago and now Angelus. The Brogans have never been rich cops. He joined the bomb squad for the hazard pay, looking for a chance to get ahead. One day he responded to a call to disarm a bomb that Cultists had placed in the subbasement of a high-rise apartment complex. Examining the bomb he realized just how complex it was, he ordered the building cleared while he attempted to disarm the devise himself. Unfortunately the he wasn’t alone in that basement, the Cultists has summoned something dreadful. His gun proved to be useless against the thing. He confesses that he went a little insane in the face of that advancing slimy horror and did the only thing he could think of. He rammed the still armed bomb into the creature’s maw as it lunged at him.
He woke up in the hospital a mess. The monster had been vaporized but Malachi was as good as dead. Four useless limbs, face burned beyond recognition and blind to boot. Director Cadbury visited him in the hospital and offered him a chance at revenge against the forces that had done this to him, a chance to matter against the Entities that threatened the city. That is how the Cyborg Malachi Brogan came to join XSWAT.
Example Case 2: Jamadagni Renuka (Jama to her friends) comes from a long line of Balinese sorcerers (she’s from Bali). She was trained in the traditions of magic by her grandfather who was quick to recognize her potential as a sorceress. Initially Jama was unsure about becoming an XSWAT officer, but eventually agreed after several consultations with her grandfather over the nature of XSWAT and its purpose (not to mention casting certain divination rituals). Now a young, fresh graduate of XSWAT academy, Jama looks forward to what promises to be an exciting adventure (as well as a place where she can practice magic freely). Little does she know she is about to realize the true potential of that mythical Chinese curse: “may you live in interesting times.”
As the present clan sorceress, Jama tries her best to live up to the expectations of her family and ancestors. She feels her service with XSWAT is the perfect way for her to learn how to use her magical talents to the fullest, as well as experiencing different forms of sorcery.
Return to Shadows Angelus II