University Superhero Teams

[MoonHunter]

This only works if Paranormals are an accepted part of society and allowed other nitches than crimefighting.

Most super worlds have the metas as somewhat accepted by the populous. Everyone wants to have a paranormal around durring a disaster or crime, but nobody wants to live next to one (the occasional fight, the odd effects that occur around them, etc). Yet there are worlds where Metas are grudgingly accepted, and only when they are dealing with other meta threats or crisis beyond normal expectations. Yet other worlds, people actively hate the Metas (marvel mutants). So a school team would only work in very few worlds.

People would feel more comfortable with their paranormals as crime fighters in colorful costumes. That is the role they expect them to have. They would be wary of those not following the expected rules (You're an accountant and you have ice powers? Umm. okay. Why aren't you fighting crime?) (Or Oh you are stunt man.. okay)

I don't know about you, but I would not feel safe that a corporation had a group under its control that had more firepower than a military division. Do you think others are going to feel safe? If they don't feel safe, will legislators do something about it? Lets not even think about corporate espionage and insurance events.

Corporate sponsorship for a super team would be along the lines of a charitable event, like A sporting event or an art and wine festival. It is all done for the community good will and publicity. And if the team does a "booboo" and gets bad press, your corporation will get dragged through the mud as a sponsor. It would be a balancing trick.

This brings us back to a campus team. Meta college students are just as likely to being villains at one point as they are heroes. And think about the PR backlash if the public found out they got their initial training from the college? Say goodbye to alumni and federal funds...

Now the campus meta team might be something they could set up on the sly. Just like governments and corps might. Schools would be trading scholarships for their help in providing security and for testing their meta abilities.

By the way, this is a good thread. Thank you for pulling it over.

[Peregrine]

Originally posted by BlackCobra
I think you guys are talking two different kinds of things here -- sports-supers and actual superhero teams. One's job is largely entertainment (play games) and the other is largely protective (stop supervillains/crime). If, as MfH's original premise goes, super powers show up regularly on campus (see his post for reasons) and you can expect a certain level of supervillains to show up, you need a protective team. One that's probably at least lead by a full-time professional, if not entirely staffed by professionals (Campus Super-Safety, anyone?). I can see these teams having student members, particularly at the smaller colleges, but at the bigger Universities, I would imagine they're all staffed by professional supers.

If you had a super-hero level game that a superhero team could compete in (super-football, super-soccer, I don't know), then you have the direct parallel with regular sports teams. We just need a sport that seems appropriate (and safe) to the genre and the use of super-powers. This could be really a fun concept, especially with the possibility of the super-sports-team occaisionally helping out the Campus Safety team.

Anyone have a super-sports idea?

Given the highly individualistic nature of powers, it's unlikely that any sort of team sports competition would be practical. Considering real-world sports, the only thing that comes to mind is:

Track and field: Bricks would dominate throwing events, speedsters would dominate running events, and it would be an interesting competition between the two types in jumping events.

And again, unless there's a progression to post-collegiate athletics, I see no incentive to create such teams and hold such events on an ongoing basis.

[BlackCobra]

Ah, you're missing it.

There've been examples of this in the comics and elsewhere, none that I recall, of course, but I'll try a vague sense of what I'm talking about here.

If you want to have a sport where super-powers (of whatever variety) are allowed (indeed, expected), you just need some basic ground-rules to keep the competition interesting.

For instance, say the game is a pumped-up version of sooccer. Positions and normal rules don't matter that much -- just the basics: ball, goals, other team.

So, say the rules are:

1. No powers can be used on the ball itself. This means that players have to pick it up, or kick it, or whatever, to make a goal.

2. No permanent or invasive harm to the other players. So, dazing your opponent with an ego-whammy is ok, but mind controlling him to make a goal for you isn't.

3. No use of powers can harm the audience.

4. No permanent property damage.

That still allows a lot of leeway in terms of what powers can be used, and consequently what kind of supers would be on these teams. Over time, certain strategies would give rise to standard positions on the team. There'd probably be a speedster on every team just to cover they other guys use of one. Think Quidditch.

There'd even be room on the teams for very talented "normals", much as there are on super-hero teams, because of the skills and abilities they have. Especially team captains.

I could really see a major-league sport made out of that, if there's a large enough super-powered population.

Heck, most campains seem to be set in a world where super-heroes are relatively recent things -- but what would such a world look like in 20 or 30 years? When super-heroes become so well accepted into society that they're just another brand of celebrity (but more akin to heroes than pop-stars).

[Mark Rand]

Schools with animal mascots could try and recrute supers that could shape shift into that animal or, if possible, an animal-human hybred.
Being a University of Pittsburgh staff member, I think having a super that could shift into either panther or a panther/human cross would be interesting.
For those who aren't familiar with this cat, Pitt's panther is also known as the cougar, puma, mountain lion and more than 30 other names.

[Space Cadet]

Originally posted by BarryB
Every game is won due to sickness on the part of the opposing team. Mental illness, to be precise.

Oh, yeah... especially if the opposing team's playbook is some-
how replaced with a copy of the Necronomicon.

Space Cadet

[Supreme Serpent]

Make it a collaboration among major universities...maybe call the team "The Big Ten"

And their villainous nemesis is the NCAA - "National Council for the Advancement of Anarchy"

[Dog Soldier]

On a grimmer note, could supers be recruited for 'study'? They would probably form a loose association and possibly have their own dorms.