Acontecimiento y la relación con la pedagogía

32 ^■ UNTIL Structure And Organization Hero System 5^thEdition Revised right up to the Field Marshall himself. He reports

directly to the Security Council.

In the history of UNTIL, there have only been two Secretary-Marshalls: Juan Alfonso Martinez de Casarez, affectionately known as “Major” Marti-nez because of his former rank in the Paraguayan military; and the current Secretary-Marshall, Wil-helm Carl Eckhardt of Germany. Eckhardt replaced Martinez as Secretary-Marshall upon the latter’s retirement in 1990. Martinez currently holds the honorary position of “Secretary-Marshall Emeritus”

and serves as advisor to Eckhardt.

WILHELM CARL ECKHARDT SECRETARY-MARSHALL OF UNTIL Movement: Running: 6”/12”

Cost Powers END

30 U-SHL Blaster Pistol: Energy Blast 8d6, 2 Clips of 32 Charges each (+½);

OAF (-1) [32]

Martial Arts: UNTIL Combat Training Maneuver OCV DCV Notes

16 Fringe Benefit: Secretary-Marshall of UNTIL

5 Fringe Benefit: International Police Powers 1 Fringe Benefit: International Driver’s License 1 Fringe Benefit: Passport

2 Fringe Benefit: International Weapon Permit 60 Well-Connected and 57 points’ worth of

Contacts

Skills

6 +3 with U-KTF Assault Blaster Rifle 3 +1 with UNTIL Commando Training 3 +1 with UNTIL Vehicular Weapons 5 Bureaucratics

14-3 Combat Piloting 12-5 Criminology 14-3 High Society

13-4 KS: International Law And Law Enforcement

14-3 KS: The Superhuman World 13-5 KS: UNTIL

15-3 KS: The United Nations 13-3 KS: World History 13-3 KS: World Politics

13-2 Language: English (fluent conversation;

German is native)

2 Language: French (fluent conversation) 2 Navigation (Air)

13-3 Oratory 13-3 Paramedics 13-3 Persuasion 13-4 PS: UNTIL Agent 14-5 Riding

13-3 Stealth 12-3 Tactics

13-6 TF: Combat Aircraft, Helicopters, Large Planes, Basic Parachuting, SCUBA, Small Planes

8 WF: Small Arms, Blades, Shoulder-Fired Weapons, UNTIL Grav-Tank

Total Powers & Skills Cost: 243 Total Cost: 317

75+ Disadvantages

5 Distinctive Features: Secretary-Marshall Uniform (Easily Concealed)

15 Hunted: VIPER 8- (As Pow, NCI, Kill) 15 Hunted: Eurostar 8- (As Pow, NCI, Kill) 10 Hunted: UNTIL 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Watch-15 ing)Psychological Limitation: Loyal To UNTIL,

The UN, And Their Ideals (Common, Strong) 15 Psychological Limitation: Paternalistic

Towards Underlings (Common, Strong) 167 Experience/Bonus

Total Disadvantage Points: 317

Background/History: Wilhelm Carl Eckhardt was born in 1955 in what was then known as West Ger-many. His father had fought for Nazi Germany in World War II, but had renounced his past affiliation with the Nazi Party and decided to work to make the new Germany a good place for his children to grow up.

Eckhardt’s childhood was more or less normal;

he was neither a troublemaker nor a top-notch student. As he became older and realized what had happened to Germany in the wake of the war, he grew angry at the stupidity of the world powers and the silly Cold War games they were playing. He had just about decided to join the German army

after finishing school, but then he read an article about UNTIL. Now this sounded like a group that knew what was going on in the world! Somehow, it made more sense to Wilhelm to have a single world government instead of so many little states running around fighting wars and splitting each other up.

The presence of supercriminals didn’t help matters;

Wilhelm had read about some of the ones who’d fought in the war, and realized World War II would not be the last time superhumans posed a threat to the world. After finishing school, he applied for and was accepted into UNTIL.

Eckhardt slowly worked his way up through the ranks, receiving training as a UD Combat Pilot.

During a posting in a combined UD/OAD squad in Spain, he learned SCUBA diving and parachuting.

Eventually he became a Sergeant, then a Lieutenant, then a Captain, and finally joined the upper ech-elons of UNTIL.

The early 1980s found Major Eckhardt serving as an attache to “Major” Juan Martinez, UNTIL’s Secretary-Marshall. Eckhardt respected Martinez tremendously and considered him a role model.

Martinez, seeing in Eckhardt a responsible, com-petent officer, began giving him more and more duties. When the time came for Martinez to retire, he decided he could have no better replacement than Eckhardt. Although several persons ques-tioned this decision strongly, arguing Eckhardt was too young for the position, Martinez was adamant.

On July 16, 1990, Eckhardt became the second Secretary-Marshall in the history of UNTIL. Since then, Eckhardt has reorganized and streamlined UNTIL to improve its efficiency; he’s looking forward to leading UNTIL into the twenty-first century.

Eckhardt has a wife, Clarice, to whom he’s been married for 25 years. They have four children, three boys and a girl, all adults or teenagers.

Personality/Motivation: Eckhardt is a career UNTIL officer who takes his job very seriously. UNTIL and its ideals mean everything to him, and thoughts about improving the organization are never far from his mind. He realizes just how important UNTIL is, and how dangerous some of its foes are, and is determined that UNTIL always be ready to perform its mission. He often works 20-hour days;

his wife jokingly refers to herself as an “UNTIL widow.”

Unlike the more easygoing Martinez, Eckhardt is something of a stickler for military discipline.

He expects his underlings to obey his orders quickly and precisely... but his sometimes-prickly demeanor hides a strong paternalistic attitude toward those in his employ. He is slow to anger, but his aides and commanders have learned that goading him is a very, very bad idea. The only time he truly seems to soften up is around his various beloved pets; he has several dogs and keeps horses at his estate in Offenbach.

Eckhardt works hard to live up to the image of his predecessor, and to dispel the lingering doubts about his age making him unprepared for the job.

Martinez left some big shoes to fill, and even after 13 years Eckhardt often feels the strain of trying

to measure up to the expectations of the organiza-tion. He has continued most of Martinez’s poli-cies, including ones regarding cooperation with superheroes, but unlike Martinez knows when to delegate.

Quote: “All right, this meeting is concluded. I want that report from Project Snakecharmer concern-ing VIPER operations in the Pacific Rim within two days. Lieutenant Borgas, please set up a video-conference with the regional commanders for one week from today to discuss current supercriminal activity.”

Powers/Tactics: Wilhelm Carl Eckhardt has the strength, endurance, and agility of a man in his late forties who has engaged in strenuous physi-cal activity for all of his adult life. He has received extensive UNTIL training in the areas of hand-to-hand combat, small unit tactics, and piloting, among others. Even today, when he hasn’t been in the field in years, he is considered an excellent com-batant by UNTIL standards and could easily hold his own in a firefight.

Ordinarily Eckhardt carries no weapons other than the standard UNTIL sidearm, but of course he can quickly obtain any sort of equipment he needs.

His daily dress uniforms and other clothing are all made of UNTIL’s special ballistic fabrics; while they look like ordinary clothes, they are capable of stop-ping most low-caliber bullets.

Campaign Use: Secretary-Marshall Eckhardt is likely to play the role of major NPC in most Cham-pions campaigns. Depending upon the PCs and their relationship with UNTIL, he may become something of a patron, providing information and assistance when they need it and expecting their help in return... or he may become a thorn in the PCs’ side, insisting they stay out of the way (because their “amateurish” actions aren’t helping) or even trying to capture them if they’re considered outlaws.

Eckhardt doesn’t Hunt anyone directly, but of course he’s just one of thousands of UNTIL per-sonnel on the lookout for anyone who’s Hunted by UNTIL itself.

If you want to tone Eckhardt down a bit, decrease the points he has in Contacts and change some of his more physical or combat-oriented Skills to Familiarities (he hasn’t used them much in recent years, so they’ve atrophied). If you want to improve him, give him more UNTIL gear or raise his Characteristics some.

Appearance: Wilhelm Carl Eckhardt is a German man in his late forties. He has blonde hair (slightly thinning and just beginning to gray), blue eyes, and what the press often describes as “rugged good looks.” He typically has a “neutral friendly” expres-sion, but can become stern or threatening if neces-sary. He wears whatever UNTIL uniform is appro-priate for the occasion.

34 ^■ UNTIL Structure And Organization Hero System 5^thEdition Revised