Considering some of the elements in Realism vs Cynicism, I thought a bit about how you *would* create a 'realistic' superhero world. One in which supers are new, not wholly accepted, but not loathed and treated like sub-humans thanks to overly simplistic writing.
Step 1: The source of powers.
Not going to limit this, however, supers are new. There are some folks who've had amazing levels of skill, but not superhuman skills or science. Why is it coming out now? Who knows. But for our purposes, there are now mutants, super-soldier experiments coming to fruition, crackpot scientists pulling off the impossible, and aliens crashing before giving air force pilots magical rings.
Step 2: The origin of superheroes and supervillains.
As this world is like ours, for the most part... of course people know about superheroes and supervillains! They've been in the comics since '38!
Therefore, while most folks with meta-powers (metas or supers) don't bother with costumes beyond a ski mask (if that), others are wearing full-fledged fancy costumes... either because their powers are from a suit of powered armor they built in the garage, or because That's What Heroes Do (capes... and yes, paging Freddy Fosworth... attention, paging Freddy....) Some people will try to stick to superheroic morality, others won't.
Step 3: The World's Reaction.
Let's assume that there *wasn't* some great cataclysm immediately started by supers that wasn't stopped by heroes without serious loss of life.
Odds are that most of the world will realize that there are supervillains out there now, and that we *need* superheroes to counter them. Most people would probably look up to superheroes who behave according to their own morality, be more lukewarm to those who don't, and fear supervillains who don't cater to the public's love of "robin hood" outlaws and underdogs. (Lady Blue would get along well. Leech, not so much.)
In particular, supers who are attractive will be more popular than those who aren't; if there's any fear, it's more likely to be directed at ugly supers than those you think are attractive.
Different archetypes would have different responses too. Speedsters (witty, fast, and not imposing) are likely to be more popular than Bricks (often nice, but intimidating), who are likely to be more popular than Gadgeteers (nerds), and they're all likely to be more popular than mentalists (who would freak most people out badly).
Technology will be one of the first places affected. Not only is there now super-tech, but defenses against supers will be a rapid concern. I suspect that psi-scramblers would be one of the first things developed, thanks to high funding and public demand... it would be possible that within a few years everybody might have credit-card sized psi-scramblers that effectively give everybody a small amount of IAF Mental Defense.
Tech would probably be slower to advance in some other areas... things that can't be reproduced can't, after all, though things that can probably would be *fast*. Blasters with Stun Only settings would be popular acquisitions for everybody, especially the cops.
Legal changes... might be faster than tech, might not be.
There *would* be a registration act in most nations. Let's face it - if you can bench press Rhode Island, the feds'll want to know who you are. I suspect that it would be more like a driver's license system, or gun ownership, than the blatantly antagonistic efforts of Civil War. If you've got powers that you don't use, nobody's going to know. If you start using them though, they'll want you registered (and if you're caught, you'll probably be fined, sentenced to community service, and registered).
Use of a superpower in a crime would be an aggravating factor, like gun use often is.
There would be sanctioned superheroes - and, odds are, non-sanctioned superheroes would be looked down upon, at least by the sanctioned ones and their backers. Training, a (relatively) small salary, police powers, and official backing are just some of the benefits of being Sanctioned.
In response to cyberpaths, the registration system would be kept fairly low-tech (paper, or non-networked PC's), or defended by well-trusted cyberpaths of the government's.
You could register without becoming a superhero... which gives you further options.
Careers for supers wouldn't be all heroes and villains. A super-strong man could take the place of a bulldozer on a job site, if he wanted. There would be meta-league sports, and meta-league Olympics, but known supers wouldn't be likely to be allowed to compete in normal sports. The military would love to get a few good capes, and would offer incredible benefits for them... most companies would, probably. And, of course, somebody like Mentiac could go private and probably make a mint in consulting work.
Politics would become much more complicated. Supers wouldn't be considered equivalent to nukes, but it *would* be a serious concern. Small nations, and parts of nations, would undoubtedly revert to monarchies and dictatorships under the hand of a particularly powerful/charismatic super. Some of them wouldn't be too bad, others would be horrid tyrants, none of them would be popular with 'free' nations barring *very* strange circumstances. Some countries *would* require 'public service' of their supers - China being the easiest example, as well as dictatorships, who would probably make their supers second only to the Big Kahuna in terms of power, privilege, and potential for abuse.
Not everybody would fear supers, but some would - either from legitimate fear of supervillains, or from jealousy/fear of losing "humanity" to the "freaks with powers." Groups like the AHMT - Association of Humans against Metahuman Threats - would probably be some of the larger anti-meta groups, with militant splinter groups and notable political clout... but there would *also* be pro-meta groups (quite possibly with the same).
The XMen are a real possibility; the mutant tendency towards freakish examples (Beast, Nightcrawler, Toad) would mean that they're probably going to get the short end of the political stick, and there would be groups like the XMen, Morlocks, and Brotherhood both, almost certainly... but the hatred wouldn't be universal. Just widespread enough to make some of them *think* it's universal.
Other thoughts probably coming later... if anybody has some they'd like to bring up, feel free.
Looks like you're off to a great start, I like to see how this evolves and solidifies. Would pass you some rep but I'm at the need to spread some around pop up thingy.
"A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every
action."--Samurai Maxim.
I've actually got Gestalt (the color version, yay! ), but I haven't had the chance to read the danged thing through yet. ^^()
Mostly, reading through the Realism vs Cynicism thread again, I wanted to poke at a world that actually considered the realistic concerns in a way that was... well... realistic.
For example, registration isn't inherently evil and flawed as a system - it's only sensible. It's the stupid way most comics handle it that makes it flawed as a system, and introducing it mid-stream.
In this world, it'd be something that came up pretty much from the word go.
Anywho, we'll see if I can pull anything more out for it....
I've actually got Gestalt (the color version, yay! ), but I haven't had the chance to read the danged thing through yet. ^^()
I think you'll enjoy it; Gestalt Earth a great setting.
Mostly, reading through the Realism vs Cynicism thread again, I wanted to poke at a world that actually considered the realistic concerns in a way that was... well... realistic.
Part of the difficulty (IMO) is that super powers would be an unprecedented phenomena. There's almost nothing to draw on to compare so any answer would be supposition and subject to bias.
Much of it would depend on the nature of super powers. Are all superhumans world shakers or are most of them like the characters in Heroes. Capable but a cop with a gun can take them out.
For example, registration isn't inherently evil and flawed as a system - it's only sensible. It's the stupid way most comics handle it that makes it flawed as a system, and introducing it mid-stream.
In this world, it'd be something that came up pretty much from the word go.
Registration would be touchy IMO. Again it depends but it is required citizens to give up freedoms and private information to the government. Look at how much fuss gun control causes and imagine a requirement to register your name, abilities and location with the government because of some thing you are or were even born with so you can be tracked (like a sex offender!) for use as a resource or because you MIGHT commit crimes.
It would definitely come up but it would be hot political issue.
Would there be traditional "superheroes" at all in a realistic supers world? That's debatable. To simply, I think people would definitely try it to varying degrees of success. Super villains? Maybe but there would definitely be super powered criminals. Again this would depends on the power level and nature of powers.
In Germany, where everyone and everything is registered and everyone has an ID card it probably wouldn't be a problem to force through. However in Britain, where a National ID card is often seen as a bad thing and a civil liberty under threat, it would be hell to push through Parliament.
I dread to think what someone like Mugabe would do to his population and neighbours if he had access to Supers and no-one wanted to stop him.
Again this would depend on power level, a Superman clone could wreak havoc on a small country whereas Heroes level powers would make only small ripples. Human tragedies rather than national disasters.
"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
~ Stephen Wright
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.
The main problem with "realistic" anything is that you can't get some people to agree on basic political, social or scientific issues in the real world, let alone what's realistic in a fictional setting.
As to registration, I use it in my default campaign, and base its history on the history of the draft. In WWII it was almost universally accepted that anyone with Superpowers would be required to serve; we needed Supers to beat Captain Nazi and Tetsu Yama. By the end of the Vietnam era it becomes a requirement to register but actually calling up Supers become politically almost impossible, as the public lost faith in the good will of national leaders. The most powerful Supers have always been effectively able to ignore it if they wanted to, though most didn't in WWII and Korea. In the campaign's present day, the government offers considerable financial and legal support to Supers willing to enter government service, monitors where possible but otherwise ignores Supers who register but then refrain from using their powers to break the law, and treats Super Vigilantes similarly to the way they'd treat any armed vigilante; arrest him if you can, and send him through the court system. If he's lucky, he'll end up with community service; if he seriously injured or killed someone, he'll likely end up fighting law suits for the rest of his life, and may end up in prison.
I don't much care if it's "realistic"; it makes sense for the kinds of stories I want to tell.
The whole "Supers are a juvenile fascist power fantasy, and the fans must be enlightened" vibe that seems to dominate the industry these days is shallow as hell, but that's the zeitgeist for you.
Originally Posted by Cancer
The thing is, you often can refute a position with 100% certainty. What you cannot do is make an ignoramus recognize it, especially when that ignoramus is parroting something he read or heard and has never really understood...
Originally Posted by OddHat
People tend to estimate the limits of Human Achievement by looking in the mirror.
On multiple vs single source origins for a "realistic" Supers world, my own preference is for disguised single source or limited multiple source origins. Of attempts at Realistic worlds I've liked, Wildcards came closest to single source (Alien Technology and Alien Life Forms) with a few hints at other sources, and it worked well. (I don't usually count Watchmen; there's only one Super we know of there.) For "realistic" Superhero worlds, the nice thing about the disguised single source for powers is that suspension of disbelief is a bit easier to achieve.
Originally Posted by Cancer
The thing is, you often can refute a position with 100% certainty. What you cannot do is make an ignoramus recognize it, especially when that ignoramus is parroting something he read or heard and has never really understood...
Originally Posted by OddHat
People tend to estimate the limits of Human Achievement by looking in the mirror.
One idea is cascading origins. There is a single source initially, so a comic event that opens up late genetic potential. Some of the new empowered people have high levels of intelligence and develop scientific breakthroughs or their experiments lead to mishaps or discoveries that empower others. Perhaps the event draws attention to the Earth by aliens that formerly found it unimportant or were unaware of it's existence. Formerly crackpot research is looked into again in the wake of these new beings and maybe come to fruition. You could even hidden secrets tucked away come into the light or be discovered by empowered people who are able to do things no one could before.
Great approach, and pretty much the one I use in Wold Newton Supers.
Of course, I doubt many fans would point to that as a "realistic" Supers world.
It might be more productive to talk about "Adult Audience" and "Youth Audience" Supers worlds; unfortunately, Adult Audience has become a euphemism for porn. Not that Porn Supers isn't a popular genre, but it's not really what we're talking about in this thread (and not really something appropriate to the Champions forum).
Also, repped; nice description of the origin type.
Originally Posted by Cancer
The thing is, you often can refute a position with 100% certainty. What you cannot do is make an ignoramus recognize it, especially when that ignoramus is parroting something he read or heard and has never really understood...
Originally Posted by OddHat
People tend to estimate the limits of Human Achievement by looking in the mirror.
The whole "Supers are a juvenile fascist power fantasy, and the fans must be enlightened" vibe that seems to dominate the industry these days is shallow as hell, but that's the zeitgeist for you.
Its sad that they opted out of bigger questions like the ethics of vigilanteeism, whether or not traditional silver age morality is coherent, and the social impact of supers beyond nebulous handwavium. There are a lot of themes that get dumped in lieu of pop-zeitgeist.
Nihil tam absurde dici potest, quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum.
For the sake of the exercise, and using some of the things mentioned here, working on a new world. Title: Wormwood Fallen.
Background as it is so far:
World Notes: Wormwood Fallen
For use with the notes from the 'realistic supers world' thread.
Origin of superpowers: Cascading origin.
In 1997, a large asteroid approached Earth, thrown off of Hale-Bopp. While it was shot down, it was not destroyed. Instead, trillions of tiny fragments rained down over Earth for days. Still, the vast majority of them, with a handful of exceptions, were so small that they all burned up in the atmosphere. Everybody thought that a threat to the Earth had been averted, and went on with their lives.
Then, the first superpowers began to develop.
It began to happen all around the world... it was almost as if some strange mutagen had been released into the atmosphere, and humanity had begun to change. For some it was practically nothing; they became slightly stronger, faster than the human norm, but no big deal. For others, it was more obvious - for example, Viktor Koslov, a young man of Romanian descent whose family had been ruined by the Soviets and the ensuing chaos after its fall. He was one of the first Omega-class individuals to manifest metahuman abilities; in 1999 he used incredible new technology that he had developed against the Romanian military and 'liberated' a small portion of Romania, took the title of Viktor Dracula, and established himself as the new King of Wallachia, ruling from the ancient remains of Castle Dracula. He has since held Wallachia against all comers, nearly single-handedly, though he has been prevented from spreading his territory by the combined threat of the metahumans in his neighboring countries.
Others were less impressive... indeed, it seemed that only a handful of people, perhaps one in a billion, had the potential to match Viktor Dracula's power. It was amazing enough though... people who could lift buildings, people who could control fire or run faster than most cars, crackpot scientists whose pet theories were suddenly beginning to come true.
In 2000, the US passed the Metahuman Registration Act; while it didn't make having metahuman abilities illegal, it did make using them in public an offense punishable by a small fine if you weren't licensed. Obtaining a license was simple enough; a $25 fee every time you renewed your state ID or driver's license, listing your powers and demonstrating that you actually had them, and you got the tag on your new license. While some objected that it was a violation of their privacy, the fact that simply *having* powers didn't require you to be licensed silenced most objectors... especially since it wasn't half as bad as in China, where being a metahuman meant being drafted for the People's Army. It helped, encouraging some people to step forward and admit to their abilities, in exchange for being able to use them freely, and encouraging some crooks to refrain from using their powers, for fear of getting nailed hard during sentencing. It didn't stop them all though. Anti-meta strike forces were developed by most city police departments, though how well armed and equipped they were varied. Metahumans and people against them alike began to agitate against or for the registration act, and its continued implementation. The world seemed to be going insane....
Then, perhaps fortunately, somebody a little bit crazier than everybody else showed up in Madison. A man with superhuman strength and durability, Mark Tanner, went in to rob a bank. He started out with thousands of dollars in illicit gains, only bothering to block shots that risked hitting the ski mask hiding his face. Nobody could stop him....
Until a man who called himself Promethean appeared. He was wearing a bright spandex costume, orange and red with a flame pattern, and he projected a wall of flame around Tanner, holding him there until the police could arrive with the anti-meta-human task force. They weren't sure what to make of the strangely dressed man, and were about to try taking him into custody as well... until he stood down peacefully.
The world's first superhero had shown up.
Some metas had used their powers for good causes, of course... whether their own enrichment, taking part in slowly burgeoning metahuman sports leagues to entertain the masses, or simply for charity work, people had learned over the last few years that metas were good as well as bad. But nobody had yet shown up in a costume, wearing a mask, fighting against crime... particularly the metahuman crime that was increasingly common. Who got their hands on metahuman powers was rarely decided by anything but pure chance, and a disturbing number of people seemed to think that the ability to rip open a bank vault with their bare hands gave them the right to do so.
Now though, there was somebody fighting them... somebody the press could point at and treat like a celebrity, since he didn't hide. And somebody law enforcement could work with, since he actually *offered* to help them, and even to become an authorized deputy so he could do so properly.
Others began to follow in Promethean's example, on both sides of the law. Supervillains followed shortly on the heels of superheroes, though they'd been around since day one. Superheroes began to work together; Promethean was joined by Justiciar, a blind woman who'd been working as a vigilante in Chicago, and Johnny Dragon, a former MMA fighter whose abilities had disqualified him after they manifested... though they hadn't disqualified him from working in Hollywood.
Elsewhere in the country, Glenn Diamond and the Riding Sixguns, a seven-man band, revealed that they all had metahuman abilities to one extent or another, travelling the country and world as a superpowered band that took it upon themselves to stop the criminals they sometimes came across.
Companies began to spring up all around the world, some of them employing supers, others just using their technology. One of them, Corwell Robotics, developed a popular line of security robots... and an android whose brain was more advanced than anything seen before, Lacie 1, who joined Promethean in Madison.
None of this sat well with anti-meta groups. They came together under the guidance of Raymond Tanner, Mark's father, who had disowned his son for being a meta-criminal and founded the Association of Humans against Metahuman Threats, the AHMT. They lobbied against metahumans, and began researching the source of metapowers, with the hopes of finding a way to neutralize them for those who wanted to return to normal.
They are gaining political clout, particularly from victims of meta-crimes... and particularly in the days after a mass series of tragedies.
SPOILER TAGS BECAUSE: The following addresses a proposed alternate timeline for this world surrounding the events of 9/11. Events have been modified as little as possible, with some notable exceptions for the fact that this is a world in which metahumans can, and would have, responded or been involved. I'm quite willing to drop it if folks feel that's best, but it strikes me as something a little difficult to excise from the world's history, and strange that it wouldn't have happened somewhat differently in such a world. Before you suggest dropping it though, I'd suggest reading what my thoughts are... just putting them behind the tags for those who'd like a little, y'know, warning first?
Spoiler:
On that day, a powerful mentalist hired by Al Qaeda took mental control of the pilots of three jets. He forced them to fly two of them into the Twin Towers, though the third was brought down when the passengers overheard the canned speech he was making the pilots deliver and took matters into their own hands. New York superheroes managed to evacuate some people from Ground Zero, but it wasn't enough... the unknown metahuman collapsed the Towers telekinetically while Promethean and his fellows were inside trying to evacuate firefighters and survivors. Only Lacie 1 survived, and only then because her brain was transplanted into a new robotic body. Nobody knew what had happened....
Then, while the President addressed the nation following the tragedy, the Secret Service killed him, in the most public of a series of assassinations brought about by Washington bodyguards. It didn't take long for Al Qaeda to brag about the event. They claimed that they had the power to strike anyone, anywhere, and would use it if their demands were not met....
But it never happened. Nobody knows why not, but people were too busy rebuilding their shattered lives and sense of security to worry about it... except for the niggling worry that it might happen again.
It didn't take long for the rest of the world to figure out that a mentalist had been involved; the exact chain of events had been far too bizarre for many other explanations. The AHMT announced that their scientists had made a discovery; an insight into the nature of metapowers, and psi-powers in particular. While they couldn't negate somebody's metapowers permanently, they had discovered a way to interfere with them... and with psi-powers especially.
The psi-scrambler, as it was called, was an instant hit. Soon, practically everybody had one (game effect: 3 points MD bought IAF is a standard ability, considered Real World Technology.) Power-neutralizing cuffs were available to the police, though they didn't work as well as the psi-scrambers were. Still... the sacrifice of some of the country's most popular heroes didn't go unheeded. While the tragedy could have led to the AHMT turning an entire nation to its line of thought, if not much of the world, instead it only underscored what people had known for four years now... that metahumans, just like regular ones, were capable of great evil, as well as great good.
History has passed, over the last 7 years following that, much as it has in the real world. A young, charismatic congressman named Jefferson Smith took Bush's place as president in an emergency election held after the Supreme Court realized that all people Constitutionally delegated to take the office had been assassinated. He is a popular figure, but not only has he suffered from the nature of his rising to power, but from an unpopular war started because of (widely considered) mis-interpreted intelligence, the civil-rights backlash following 9/11, and economic panic and hardship brought on by a double-blow of tragedy and irresponsible investment decisions. Now, in an election year, there's some rumblings about the possibilities of the United States electing its first female or black President... or, just possibly, its first metahuman President, in the person of (original) Gulf War veteran Colonel Saul Johnson, better known to the public as Minuteman, the country's first flagsuit.
And yet, there are other concerns still out there... Viktor Dracula wasn't the only metahuman to conquer a small nation, and some normal human dictators have taken on their own metahuman enforcers. There are more criminals out there, metahuman and otherwise.
And nobody *does* know what happened to that largest piece of Wormwood... just yet.
For the sake of the exercise, and using some of the things mentioned here, working on a new world. Title: Wormwood Fallen.
Background as it is so far:
World Notes: Wormwood Fallen
For use with the notes from the 'realistic supers world' thread.
Origin of superpowers: Cascading origin.
In 1997, a large asteroid approached Earth, thrown off of Hale-Bopp. While it was shot down, it was not destroyed. Instead, trillions of tiny fragments rained down over Earth for days. Still, the vast majority of them, with a handful of exceptions, were so small that they all burned up in the atmosphere. Everybody thought that a threat to the Earth had been averted, and went on with their lives.
Then, the first superpowers began to develop.
It began to happen all around the world... it was almost as if some strange mutagen had been released into the atmosphere, and humanity had begun to change. For some it was practically nothing; they became slightly stronger, faster than the human norm, but no big deal. For others, it was more obvious - for example, Viktor Koslov, a young man of Romanian descent whose family had been ruined by the Soviets and the ensuing chaos after its fall. He was one of the first Omega-class individuals to manifest metahuman abilities; in 1999 he used incredible new technology that he had developed against the Romanian military and 'liberated' a small portion of Romania, took the title of Viktor Dracula, and established himself as the new King of Wallachia, ruling from the ancient remains of Castle Dracula. He has since held Wallachia against all comers, nearly single-handedly, though he has been prevented from spreading his territory by the combined threat of the metahumans in his neighboring countries.
Others were less impressive... indeed, it seemed that only a handful of people, perhaps one in a billion, had the potential to match Viktor Dracula's power. It was amazing enough though... people who could lift buildings, people who could control fire or run faster than most cars, crackpot scientists whose pet theories were suddenly beginning to come true.
In 2000, the US passed the Metahuman Registration Act; while it didn't make having metahuman abilities illegal, it did make using them in public an offense punishable by a small fine if you weren't licensed. Obtaining a license was simple enough; a $25 fee every time you renewed your state ID or driver's license, listing your powers and demonstrating that you actually had them, and you got the tag on your new license. While some objected that it was a violation of their privacy, the fact that simply *having* powers didn't require you to be licensed silenced most objectors... especially since it wasn't half as bad as in China, where being a metahuman meant being drafted for the People's Army. It helped, encouraging some people to step forward and admit to their abilities, in exchange for being able to use them freely, and encouraging some crooks to refrain from using their powers, for fear of getting nailed hard during sentencing. It didn't stop them all though. Anti-meta strike forces were developed by most city police departments, though how well armed and equipped they were varied. Metahumans and people against them alike began to agitate against or for the registration act, and its continued implementation. The world seemed to be going insane....
Then, perhaps fortunately, somebody a little bit crazier than everybody else showed up in Madison. A man with superhuman strength and durability, Mark Tanner, went in to rob a bank. He started out with thousands of dollars in illicit gains, only bothering to block shots that risked hitting the ski mask hiding his face. Nobody could stop him....
Until a man who called himself Promethean appeared. He was wearing a bright spandex costume, orange and red with a flame pattern, and he projected a wall of flame around Tanner, holding him there until the police could arrive with the anti-meta-human task force. They weren't sure what to make of the strangely dressed man, and were about to try taking him into custody as well... until he stood down peacefully.
The world's first superhero had shown up.
Some metas had used their powers for good causes, of course... whether their own enrichment, taking part in slowly burgeoning metahuman sports leagues to entertain the masses, or simply for charity work, people had learned over the last few years that metas were good as well as bad. But nobody had yet shown up in a costume, wearing a mask, fighting against crime... particularly the metahuman crime that was increasingly common. Who got their hands on metahuman powers was rarely decided by anything but pure chance, and a disturbing number of people seemed to think that the ability to rip open a bank vault with their bare hands gave them the right to do so.
Now though, there was somebody fighting them... somebody the press could point at and treat like a celebrity, since he didn't hide. And somebody law enforcement could work with, since he actually *offered* to help them, and even to become an authorized deputy so he could do so properly.
Others began to follow in Promethean's example, on both sides of the law. Supervillains followed shortly on the heels of superheroes, though they'd been around since day one. Superheroes began to work together; Promethean was joined by Justiciar, a blind woman who'd been working as a vigilante in Chicago, and Johnny Dragon, a former MMA fighter whose abilities had disqualified him after they manifested... though they hadn't disqualified him from working in Hollywood.
Elsewhere in the country, Glenn Diamond and the Riding Sixguns, a seven-man band, revealed that they all had metahuman abilities to one extent or another, travelling the country and world as a superpowered band that took it upon themselves to stop the criminals they sometimes came across.
Companies began to spring up all around the world, some of them employing supers, others just using their technology. One of them, Corwell Robotics, developed a popular line of security robots... and an android whose brain was more advanced than anything seen before, Lacie 1, who joined Promethean in Madison.
None of this sat well with anti-meta groups. They came together under the guidance of Raymond Tanner, Mark's father, who had disowned his son for being a meta-criminal and founded the Association of Humans against Metahuman Threats, the AHMT. They lobbied against metahumans, and began researching the source of metapowers, with the hopes of finding a way to neutralize them for those who wanted to return to normal.
They are gaining political clout, particularly from victims of meta-crimes... and particularly in the days after a mass series of tragedies.
SPOILER TAGS BECAUSE: The following addresses a proposed alternate timeline for this world surrounding the events of 9/11. Events have been modified as little as possible, with some notable exceptions for the fact that this is a world in which metahumans can, and would have, responded or been involved. I'm quite willing to drop it if folks feel that's best, but it strikes me as something a little difficult to excise from the world's history, and strange that it wouldn't have happened somewhat differently in such a world. Before you suggest dropping it though, I'd suggest reading what my thoughts are... just putting them behind the tags for those who'd like a little, y'know, warning first?
Spoiler:
On that day, a powerful mentalist hired by Al Qaeda took mental control of the pilots of three jets. He forced them to fly two of them into the Twin Towers, though the third was brought down when the passengers overheard the canned speech he was making the pilots deliver and took matters into their own hands. New York superheroes managed to evacuate some people from Ground Zero, but it wasn't enough... the unknown metahuman collapsed the Towers telekinetically while Promethean and his fellows were inside trying to evacuate firefighters and survivors. Only Lacie 1 survived, and only then because her brain was transplanted into a new robotic body. Nobody knew what had happened....
Then, while the President addressed the nation following the tragedy, the Secret Service killed him, in the most public of a series of assassinations brought about by Washington bodyguards. It didn't take long for Al Qaeda to brag about the event. They claimed that they had the power to strike anyone, anywhere, and would use it if their demands were not met....
But it never happened. Nobody knows why not, but people were too busy rebuilding their shattered lives and sense of security to worry about it... except for the niggling worry that it might happen again.
It didn't take long for the rest of the world to figure out that a mentalist had been involved; the exact chain of events had been far too bizarre for many other explanations. The AHMT announced that their scientists had made a discovery; an insight into the nature of metapowers, and psi-powers in particular. While they couldn't negate somebody's metapowers permanently, they had discovered a way to interfere with them... and with psi-powers especially.
The psi-scrambler, as it was called, was an instant hit. Soon, practically everybody had one (game effect: 3 points MD bought IAF is a standard ability, considered Real World Technology.) Power-neutralizing cuffs were available to the police, though they didn't work as well as the psi-scrambers were. Still... the sacrifice of some of the country's most popular heroes didn't go unheeded. While the tragedy could have led to the AHMT turning an entire nation to its line of thought, if not much of the world, instead it only underscored what people had known for four years now... that metahumans, just like regular ones, were capable of great evil, as well as great good.
History has passed, over the last 7 years following that, much as it has in the real world. A young, charismatic congressman named Jefferson Smith took Bush's place as president in an emergency election held after the Supreme Court realized that all people Constitutionally delegated to take the office had been assassinated. He is a popular figure, but not only has he suffered from the nature of his rising to power, but from an unpopular war started because of (widely considered) mis-interpreted intelligence, the civil-rights backlash following 9/11, and economic panic and hardship brought on by a double-blow of tragedy and irresponsible investment decisions. Now, in an election year, there's some rumblings about the possibilities of the United States electing its first female or black President... or, just possibly, its first metahuman President, in the person of (original) Gulf War veteran Colonel Saul Johnson, better known to the public as Minuteman, the country's first flagsuit.
And yet, there are other concerns still out there... Viktor Dracula wasn't the only metahuman to conquer a small nation, and some normal human dictators have taken on their own metahuman enforcers. There are more criminals out there, metahuman and otherwise.
And nobody *does* know what happened to that largest piece of Wormwood... just yet.
Very nice! I like it a lot, and I'd play in that game if my GM offered to run it. I actually ran a campaign that was similar to this in many ways. Basic concept was this:
In the early 70s, five superheroes appeared. They were like gods, more powerful than anything anyone had ever seen before. They didn't care about national borders -- they went where they were needed, stopping wars and fending off natural disasters with casual ease. The governments of the world were alarmed, but there was nothing they could really do about it, and for the most part these supers were regarded as good guys. They were called the Whitehearts, and no one knew who they really were or where they came from.
About a year after the Whitehearts arrived, demons began appearing around the world. The heroes mobilized to stop the threat, and eventually decided to stop fighting defensively and instead take the fight to wherever the demons were coming from. The Whitehearts vanished from our world. A year later, the world mourned their loss -- but at least they had managed to stop the demons.
Then something happened -- a burst of light, nearly as bright as the sun, appeared in space. It burned for about 48 hours, then vanished again. Shortly after it faded, two of the Whitehearts returned -- though they never once spoke about what had happened, where they had been, or where the others were. These two heroes now only appeared sporadically, stepping in to help during major disasters, and the world moved on.
Then, about 20 years after, the "next generation" of supers began appearing. They were nowhere near as powerful as the Whitehearts had been, but they still had powers and abilities far surpassing ordinary people. This time, the government was quick to react. Congress authorized the creation of a new Federal agency, called the Bureau of Super-Human Affairs (BSHA for short) and gave them authorization to solve the problems that were sure to come up.
BSHA had its own enforcement branch, called the Stalkers -- a highly trained and well-equiped police/paramilitary force that was authorized to deal with super-human threats. They built a prison (Mount Stalker) specially designed to hold super-humans. They passed a law requiring everyone with super powers to register; failure to do so carried harsh penalties. But for anyone who wanted to use their powers to help the public trust, BSHA created a training/licensing program -- they taught superheroes how to properly enforce the law, and essentially deputized anyone who passed their program.
Eventually, groups of super-humans began to incorporate -- they became their own private companies, much like private security firms. Some of them worked for the government, others had private clients, still others had a wealthy backer that paid the bills but allowed them to pretty much do what they wanted. The law (and the public) looked favorably on groups that did this. Supers who resisted, who wanted to be freelance vigilantes... tended to end up at Mount Stalker.
There are several international treaties that forbid the user of super-humans in a nation's military forces, but everyone is sure that everyone else is using them. The Soviets did (skirting the treaties by calling their Super-Soldiers an "ambassador force").
Most folks who have powers don't use them to go out and fight (or commit) crime. Their powers tend to be fairly trivial (or at least, non-flashy). A super-strong guy or a girl who can fly can make a pretty good living in several industries. But there are "professional" superheroes, for whom battling the forces of injustice *is* their day-job.
Professional supers wear distinctive costumes ("uniforms"), though spandex has been out of fashion since the first generation of heroes. They use code-names, much like fighter pilots or sports stars do. Some wear masks, but not all of them do (especially since it's pretty easy to look up someone's real name on the BSHA database).
Mentallists were almost unknown in this world, as were "high-tech" heroes (which had to do with the origins of superpowers), so a lot of the changes to the world that such things should bring about weren't an issue.
Looks interesting... though I admit, I prefer keeping the super-tech and mentalists around, if slightly limited. It allows for a more interesting set of changes to the world... and, at the same time, a more comic-book/cartoon world in some ways.
For example, in Wormwood Fallen, standard US police forces use blasters, rather than guns. Easier to use, more effective against metas - and they default to a Stun Only mode, reducing the risk of killing a target.
For today's notes, until my ride gets here....
Tidbits/Secrets - spoilers abound, obviously:
Spoiler:
The source of powers in Wormwood Fallen is largely because of the asteroid, but not because of any mystical influence. Something about the asteroid contained an unusual radiation; when the fragments burnt up in Earth's atmosphere, it was released throughout the ionosphere. Humanity's reaction to the alien energy is the source of meta-powers, and has attracted a handful of aliens with interest in this newcomer to the cosmos.
The largest fragment of Wormwood that crashed wasn't actually a part of it at all - it was the asteroid's core, and the reason that Hale-Bopp was created by an alien civilization in the first place. It was created to dispose of a particularly feared creature, imprisoned within a stone prison, suffused with a power that kept it dormant. When the asteroid broke off, it crashed into Earth... the ambient power spreading through the atmosphere as described above. The Render (use the write-up for Shirak the Destroyer) is still dormant, kept weak by the diffused energy and its millions of years entrapped within its prison. But it grows stronger... and, one day, it will awaken to continue its mission of destruction.
The mentalist responsible for the tragedies of 9/11 is still alive and well... but he has taken on a new role. After destabilizing the US with his actions, he decided that his payment from Al Qaeda was insufficient. He has killed Bin Laden, using a shapeshifting ally of his to keep the illusion alive... and begun to take over not only Al Qaeda's network, but terrorist organizations throughout the world, with the intention of using his powers to eventually coordinate a massive outbreak of chaos and destruction throughout the world.
The AHMT and some of its plots will be described in more detail in a later post. However, one particular plot warrants mentioning here. While the psi-scramblers work as advertised, they have a hidden 'feature' as well, that Ray Tanner and his researchers are aware of, but haven't mentioned to anyone. The frequency they disrupt can be changed by wireless; on discovering the exact frequency that needs to be disrupted to neutralize all metahuman powers, Tanner and his highest-ranking cronies intend to use this feature to turn the psi-scramblers into power neutralizers. However, this plot is still some time off... and nobody's sure what will happen when they carry it out.
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Originally Posted by jkwleisemann
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