Okay, keep in mind that I’m not saying that every embassy has to be playing reveille at 0500 every morning. I’m keeping an over-view. The ISTs have a lot of jobs to fulfill. Each Embassy will be different, but, at their heart, they have to be aware that they’re all military units deployed in, potentially hostile, foreign lands.
It’s not to say that Bob can’t change all of this as a matter of course, but the original book was much more “International military supers keeping the peace” than “super diplomats smoothing things over.” It may not have been Bob’s intent, but that’s the way the book came out. Sure, they’re about the most laid-back military on the planet (once you get out of Basic), but they’re still a military. They still have to act professional.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of people who play supers don’t play it to sit around a table and negotiate a peace treaty and talk someone out of a fight. They play to wield phenomenal powers, roll a lot of dice and yell out obscene amounts of damage. (And then turn crestfallen when the GM says “they made their dodge.”)
There’s nothing wrong with playing the diplomatic game, but, really, you wouldn’t send a SEAL team in to negotiate (unless you’re doing Bruce Willis/Fifth Element, or Anakin’s “aggressive” negotiations). You’d send in a group of people who are trained to do that. That could be quite a fun game, but, it would be set in the IST world with the ISTs as a backdrop. The IST’s job would be to provide security and remove “obstacles” to negotiations—not to do the actual negotiations.
IST LA was set up more like a fire department: you have places to be at specific times, but, if you’re not on duty, you’re out, schmoozing it up, and being a celebrity (it’s freaking LA!). But, the moment something hit the fan, they were all back to military precision and acting like a military unit. Because that was their job.
IST Seoul will be, pretty much, a full-time military unit, standing ready and patrolling the DMZ for incursions. They don’t have much time for niceties, they’ll defer people to the exaggerated diplomatic staff for that.
I wish I had made the Star Fleet reference before Bob did (he beat me to the punch). But, that’s really how I see the IST. They would dearly love to solve problems without resorting to violence or even harsh language. They know not all problems can be resolved peacefully, but, by FSM, they’re going to try. Yet, at the end of the day, when all other options have been exhausted, they look to the IST commander and see the nod.
“We’ve done all we can. Raise shields. Arm phasers and photons.”
It’s not to say that Bob can’t change all of this as a matter of course, but the original book was much more “International military supers keeping the peace” than “super diplomats smoothing things over.” It may not have been Bob’s intent, but that’s the way the book came out. Sure, they’re about the most laid-back military on the planet (once you get out of Basic), but they’re still a military. They still have to act professional.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of people who play supers don’t play it to sit around a table and negotiate a peace treaty and talk someone out of a fight. They play to wield phenomenal powers, roll a lot of dice and yell out obscene amounts of damage. (And then turn crestfallen when the GM says “they made their dodge.”)
There’s nothing wrong with playing the diplomatic game, but, really, you wouldn’t send a SEAL team in to negotiate (unless you’re doing Bruce Willis/Fifth Element, or Anakin’s “aggressive” negotiations). You’d send in a group of people who are trained to do that. That could be quite a fun game, but, it would be set in the IST world with the ISTs as a backdrop. The IST’s job would be to provide security and remove “obstacles” to negotiations—not to do the actual negotiations.
IST LA was set up more like a fire department: you have places to be at specific times, but, if you’re not on duty, you’re out, schmoozing it up, and being a celebrity (it’s freaking LA!). But, the moment something hit the fan, they were all back to military precision and acting like a military unit. Because that was their job.
IST Seoul will be, pretty much, a full-time military unit, standing ready and patrolling the DMZ for incursions. They don’t have much time for niceties, they’ll defer people to the exaggerated diplomatic staff for that.
I wish I had made the Star Fleet reference before Bob did (he beat me to the punch). But, that’s really how I see the IST. They would dearly love to solve problems without resorting to violence or even harsh language. They know not all problems can be resolved peacefully, but, by FSM, they’re going to try. Yet, at the end of the day, when all other options have been exhausted, they look to the IST commander and see the nod.
“We’ve done all we can. Raise shields. Arm phasers and photons.”