"Down-to-Earth" special powers

[BobGreenwade]

Admittedly, this is for the novel I'm working on rather than for a game -- though I may eventually (once said novel is published) write up the characters I create for this part in Digital Hero.

 

In the course of this novel, the lead character is on her way to becoming a New York City police officer (in the year 2090). She's a "regen," able to regenerate lost body parts due to a medical procedure required for her to have received a whole-body transplant.

 

While there are other regens on the NYPD at this time, she's the only WBT, so she's invited to help found a special team of cops all of whom have unusual abilities.

 

So far I've only come up with two teammates. One is a big guy with the same form of gigantism as Andre "the Giant" Roussimoff; medicine by this time has come up with a treatment to stop the kind of growth that caused Andre's premature death, but he's still just as big and strong as Andre. The other is a cyborg with copious superhuman enhancements.

 

I'd like to work up at least two more individuals, each with unique or superlative abilities, that are just as down-to-earth and based on real-life technologies that are somewhere in development or, as in the case of the big guy, actual human abilities and characteristics.

 

I'm considering someone along the lines of the 1996 TV series "The Sentinel," but I'm a bit uncertain. If I do, it'll be about as far down the psychic/mystic road I want to go for this.

 

Any suggestions will be appreciated -- even silly-sounding ones (within reason).

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Well, there are certainly plenty of popular programs these days featuring low-level psychics: clairvoyants, precognitives, mediums. Some of this stuff is taken seriously by reputable authorities and organizations in the real world, so I'd say there's enough justification to include at least one.

 

There's also real-world precedent for the "organic computer mind" character: eidetic memory, able to pull up obscure facts related to almost any subject on demand; can perform complex computations and statistical analyses in his head. Current procedural crime dramas on television have more than one of these.

 

There have been quite a few cases of people who, for one reason or another, have had their ability to feel pain diminished or eliminated. Since pain is one of the limiting factors in human physical performance, such a person could in theory push him or herself beyond normal capabilities. (Combine that with your regenerating character, and she'd be nearly unstoppable.)

 

Some individuals are simply born with extraordinary physical ability in a particular area: exceptionally fast reflexes, remarkable eye-hand coordination making them extremely accurate shots, naturally low heart rate and/or efficient respiratory system giving them unusual stamina, notable coordination and balance so that they can perform acrobatic stunts easily. Why not one rare individual who was born with all of those, and who for whatever reason has had access to the training to make the most of them?

 

There's always the classic pheromone tactic. As a result of natural mutation or some experiment, a person has begun to produce various pheromones far beyond normal human capacity, which can dramatically affect any nearby humans. As a result of therapies and biofeedback training to learn to control his/her production, this person can now consciously and selectively release pheromones to cause particular effects.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Some individuals are simply born with extraordinary physical ability in a particular area: exceptionally fast reflexes' date=' remarkable eye-hand coordination making them extremely accurate shots, naturally low heart rate and/or efficient respiratory system giving them unusual stamina, notable coordination and balance so that they can perform acrobatic stunts easily. Why not one rare individual who was born with [b']all[/b] of those, and who for whatever reason has had access to the training to make the most of them?

Now, this one sounds interesting! (It'd go particularly well teaming up this individual with the "big guy.") Do you know of any Web links where I can find out some specifics on the phenomenon, or will I be relegated to guesswork?

[OddHat]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Joeseph Greenstein had very thick bones and an absurd ability to recruit muscle fibers. At 140 pounds, he pulled fully loaded busses, pulled trains, survived a direct pistol shot between the eyes with only a mild concussion, bent horse shoes, broke police issue handcuffs even with his arms behind his back, drove iron spikes through boards with his fists, fought large gangs of much younger men, etc, etc. He performed some of his tricks into his eighties. Well worth reading up on. Someone with a similar level of neural control wouldn't need to be a giant to be frighteningly strong.

 

For that matter, you can do amazing things to a human body with the right cocktail of bodybuilding drugs. Steroids only scratch the surface today; in a century I'd expect something like Neil Stephenson's Nano-Muscle Sculpters at the least.

 

A friend with an interest in neurology mentioned the other day that stage magicians do know some practical things about human perception that most scientists don't, which explains why so many scientists can't spot a magic trick even under (loose) lab conditions until it's explained to them. A stage magician cop is an old pulp staple, but its still worth doing.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Well, I can't say that I've seen any specific medical studies of the phenomenon. I've simply come across references to such notable ability regarding various individuals renowned for their physical accomplishments. For example, the WW I Allied air ace William Avery "Billy" Bishop had always had remarkable eye-hand coordination with guns, from the time he was a boy hunting squirrels; he was said to have "one shot, one squirrel" accuracy. NBA star John "Hondo" Havlicek possessed legendary endurance, and I remember reading an article pointing out that one contributing factor was his efficient cardiovascular system represented by his low heart rate. Similarly, Muhammed Ali was examined while in his prime and found to have exceptional lung capacity and oxygen utilization.

 

I'm just extrapolating from examples like these.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Joeseph Greenstein had very thick bones and an absurd ability to recruit muscle fibers. At 140 pounds' date=' he pulled fully loaded busses, pulled trains, survived a direct pistol shot between the eyes with only a mild concussion, bent horse shoes, broke police issue handcuffs even with his arms behind his back, drove iron spikes through boards with his fists, fought large gangs of much younger men, etc, etc. He performed some of his tricks into his eighties. Well worth reading up on. Someone with a similar level of neural control wouldn't need to be a giant to be frighteningly strong.[/quote']This is definitely something worth looking into! Thanks!

[BobGreenwade]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Well, I can't say that I've seen any specific medical studies of the phenomenon. I've simply come across references to such notable ability regarding various individuals renowned for their physical accomplishments. For example, the WW I Allied air ace William Avery "Billy" Bishop had always had remarkable eye-hand coordination with guns, from the time he was a boy hunting squirrels; he was said to have "one shot, one squirrel" accuracy. NBA star John "Hondo" Havlicek possessed legendary endurance, and I remember reading an article pointing out that one contributing factor was his efficient cardiovascular system represented by his low heart rate. Similarly, Muhammed Ali was examined while in his prime and found to have exceptional lung capacity and oxygen utilization.

 

I'm just extrapolating from examples like these.

I kind of suspected as much... well, I'm a research dynamo anyway, so now that I have something to grasp on to I can find out plenty on the topic. Thanks!

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Essentially, we're talking Captain America.

[OddHat]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Audie Murphy is another one of those real-life almost superheroes. He'd have made a heck of a cop.

[BNakagawa]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Ted Williams started his military career in WWII and returned to the pilots seat in Korea. He set accuracy records during training and flew many combat missions. He probably had some of the best hand-eye coordination and reflexes of anyone of his generation.

[Cancer]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Indeed. IIRC Williams claimed he could discern the stitches on the baseball as it crossed the plate, which some folks say is impossible, but who knows?

 

Part of Edgar Martinez's warm-up drills involved a tennis ball serving machine. The balls had numbers painted on them. He'd stand so the balls went by him at about the right place for pitches in the game. He was "on" when he could read the letters on the tennis balls as they went by.

[GreyGuardian]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

x-ray systems for looking through cars, trucks, cargo containers, trains, and peoples' clothing (while they are wearing it) exist today. As do passive and active millimeter wave systems for doing similar things. possible cop gadgets or cyberware would make sense... as would nightvision gadgets etc.

 

And I heard about a recent idea to use nano tech to effectively make things invisible by diverting light around an object sort of the way a water fall diverts around a solid object in it's stream.

 

tracking scent perhaps? people's noses can be more discriminating than current chemical sniffers... FDA still had someone tasting tea to grade it up until a few years ago.

[JDHMorgan2003]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

You mentioned that you were basing one of your characters on Andre the Giant using medicine to have corrected what killed him...you should also check out autism.

 

The character of Rain Man was built on an autistic individual...using medicine perhaps you could have him maintain a much more normal social interaction level but retain his incredible mental abilities.

[Edsel]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Here is an article on the Science of Lance Armstrong that explains why he excells in bicycling.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Good links and suggestions, all. GG's ideas will be especially helpful in working out the cyborg character.

[Basil]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Someone who can, for short bursts, essentially live at high speed. That is, he can move, think, react, etc. much more quickly than normals; the real world seems to him to be like a slo-mo movie.

 

Someone with a "computer in his brain." This could be a true mind/machine interface, with a computer inside him (not necessarily in his skull). However, I find more appealing (and less hyper-tech) the idea of a mind/radio interface, with the radio being a link to a fixed-location computer. Either would allow faster contact with the computer, without being a cyborgian/robot-like "machine mind." That is, he'd access the computer's memory, programs, etc. just as you or I, but at a much higher speed.

 

 

BTW:

While there are other regens on the NYPD at this time' date=' she's the only WBT,...[/quote']

What's a "WBT"?

[OddHat]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

There's a Kung Fu movie about a guy who eats a special diet in order to use his own digestive juices as a terrible weapon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What?

[gojira]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Part of Edgar Martinez's warm-up drills involved a tennis ball serving machine. The balls had numbers painted on them. He'd stand so the balls went by him at about the right place for pitches in the game. He was "on" when he could read the letters on the tennis balls as they went by.

 

I believe this was used by the trainer for the US women's Olympic softball team as well.

 

The trianer wrote numbers on practice balls in two colors, red and blue. Then he dumped the balls into a pitching machine and let women try to figure out which balls went past.

 

At first, he only had them call out the color of the number, which was hard enough. As their eyes became acustomed to watching the balls go past, however, it became possible for them to distinguish the actual numbers on the ball.

 

Training the eye to follow this movement is important, because it allows them to see the spin on the ball, and therefore determine whether the ball is a breaking ball, slider, curve or a straight pitch and adjust their swing accordingly.

 

What I find amazing here is that an individual can be *trained* to see things like this. What would happen if you took someone who already had far above average hand eye coordination, speed, etc. and then added special training like this? Could be interesting...

[The Monster]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Perfect pitch, perfect voice mimicry, and perfect movement control (Marcel Marceau, for example of the latter)...combined, you have at the very least a minor Shapeshift power, with major bonuses for Acting and Disguise. Throw in Ventriloquism as well, and a little creative use thereof...

[BobGreenwade]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

BTW:

 

What's a "WBT"?

Whole-body transplant (mentioned just before the abbreviation popped up -- though possibly a bit quickly for notice).

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Perfect pitch' date=' perfect voice mimicry, and perfect movement control (Marcel Marceau, for example of the latter)...combined, you have at the very least a minor Shapeshift power, with major bonuses for Acting and Disguise. Throw in Ventriloquism as well, and a little creative use thereof...[/quote']

 

Now that you mention it, the old Justice Incorporated HERO pulp game was full of "weird talents" like those, which would fit the premise of this thread. IIRC the HERO System Almanac I converted them to 4E HERO.

 

Bob, how about raiding the various genre books for their Talent lists, as well as the "Super-Skills" in Dark Champions? There ought to be plenty of ideas and usable examples in those.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Bob' date=' how about raiding the various genre books for their Talent lists, as well as the "Super-Skills" in [i']Dark Champions[/i]? There ought to be plenty of ideas and usable examples in those.

I might do something like this. A guy whose brain is full of "exact measure" abilities like Absolute Range Sense, Perfect Pitch, and so forth might make for a good member of this team -- maybe not as a charter (with the giant, the cyborg, and the main character), but probably somewhere along the way once it's established.

[Frenchman]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

There is a rare (in humans, Belgian Blue cattle all have this trait) genetic disorder in which the body in unable to produce any fat, except for that used in the nervous system and the linings of some organs. Theres a young boy on the east coast somewhere with this, I can't recall his name or the name of the disorder, but I'm looking through my notes for it.

The big, obvious advantage is that a person who has this abnormality is able to put on tremendous amounts of muscle by being a couch potato. The downside is that infants tend to be very large and muscular, and their mother's often don't survive. Also, their stamina is directly related to what and how much they have eaten recently - they have no fat to store energy in and their lungs don't always work very well. They may suffer from starvation more rapidly too (this is just conjecture from me)

 

Edit: After googling around for this Joseph Greenstein character, it seems he may have had this - powerful bone structures and incredibly hard hair & fingernails, as well as respitory problems stemming from a lack of fats are some of the traits of this condition.

[OddHat]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Edit: After googling around for this Joseph Greenstein character, it seems he may have had this - powerful bone structures and incredibly hard hair & fingernails, as well as respitory problems stemming from a lack of fats are some of the traits of this condition.

 

I dunno. Greenstein did have respitory problems (which he dealt with through yoga and daily training), and his hair and nails were freakishly strong, as were his teeth. One of his tricks involved holding on to a post while a small airplane attached to his hair attempted to take off. He only performed it twice. The plane failed to take off both times. His hair didn't brake and his skin didn't tear, but both times he needed medical attention afterwards and the bruising was severe.

 

Very interesting guy.

[Frenchman]

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers

 

Very interesting guy.

Yes. Too bad there's not more info available on the internet. I'll have to ask Stan Bennet - our slightly friendly local gym owner who used to be in the circus and has kept a picture of our Governator next to his bed since the 80's. He probably has his autographed biography somewhere or something.