Harbinger of Justice

"The Harbinger of Justice" is a controversial signature character used as a prominent example in the roleplaying game Dark Champions.

The Harbinger, aka "The Blue Moon Killer", is a vigilante who stalks the streets of Hudson City. In his original version, he had the power to summon any real-world firearm at will in addition to extremely formidable combat and detective skills. The Harbinger waged a personal crusade against crime of all sorts, and had a distinct preference for killing criminals as opposed to turning them in to the authorities, who he viewed as corrupt. He is wanted by the police for something on the order of two thousand counts of murder. His attitude could be described as reminsicent of that of the Punisher of Marvel comics fame.

When Dark Champions was originally released, the Harbinger was considered excessive by many critics, both in terms of his behavior and in terms of his abilities. The extreme efficiency with which the character was constructed is considered by many a prime example of min-maxing taken too far. He had been a former player-character of Dark Champions author Steve Long, who responded to critics by saying "he "earned" every point". Nonetheless, he became the character who represented the setting in the public eye, much as Foxbat has come to epitomize the traditional flavor of Champions.

Adventurer's Club, the Hero Games house publication, published a series of cartoons by Chris Avellone satirizing the Harbinger.

ee also

*Bloodsport, a similar DC character

References

* [http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11198.phtml RPGnet: Review of Hudson City: The Urban Abyss] Mentions the Harbinger of Justice controversy
* [http://pages.sbcglobal.net/theala/harbin.html How It All Began: Chris Avellone's Stick Figure Theatre] Describes the downfall of the Harbinger of Justice