'Registration' as training card

[JusticeZero]

In the campaign i'm running, all supers who plan on dooing any heroing need to be registered.

 

This isn't the scary 'mutant control' sort of registration, though. It's more akin to a CPR card. To get one, you have to attend a week-long class. There is a fee, but there are scholarships available to cover it.

In the class, attendees learn:

Police Procedure: How to make legally binding arrests, protocol and legality of appropriate use of force and collateral. (Yes, you can throw a car to keep Doctor Bleak from killing people. No, you can't throw the car at him when he's flying away from the scene after being foiled, because it's not defense anymore, etc.) How to gather the information needed by law enforcement. What sort of evidence is permissible or not permissible. How to preserve the crime scene and not destroy evidence.

First Aid: How to stabilize the injured until ambulances can arrive. How NOT to help the injured. (His back might have been broken! Pick him up and fly him to the hospital? Bad idea!)

Search and Rescue: How to locate the injured in collapsed buildings. How to extricate people from things like collapsed buildings without making things worse and without needing to be able to lift semi trucks. How people respond in disasters. Where is Little Timmy probably going to go when he gets lost in a strange place?

Disaster Psychology: Affects of adrenaline on people. How to recognize and avoid psychological overstress in disasters. Things not to say to the people affected by disasters.

Fire safety: How to recognize stable and unstable buildings. How do fires spread in buildings and the wild, what happens, engineeringwise, when a building is damaged, or when a car is smashed?

 

Once students check out on all these skills, they get a certificate and a laminated card that they can show to emergency personnel on a scene which protects them from some liability (because they're trained). The training classes are actually quite popular with non-supers as well, and most of the attendees are normals who want to be better prepared for disasters; schools, for instance, encourage their staff to take the classes.

 

Any suggestions on exactly what skills and perk level would be needed for this?

[Ice9]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

At minimum, a knowledge skill at the 11- or better level, plus a few relevant skills like first aid at the "familiarity" level.

If the training is more in depth, then bump the secondary skills to the full 3-point level. This could be multiple KS skills (police procedure, fire safety, etc), but it doesn't have to be.

For the perk, probably 1 or 2 points.

[Pizza Man]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Would the heros need to reveal their secret ID?

[JusticeZero]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

So what would that be, Paramedics 11-, KS: Heroic Procedure 11-? That seems like it might get hazy in some cases, considering that it covers a cross section of several skills.

[JusticeZero]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

No; there's no contact requirement in it; it does require a photo for ID purposes, but the photo can be in costume. (If you change your look, you'll need to update the card.)

It's modeled after the real-life CERT program, that has a somewhat similar training program for citizens to be able to self-mobilize in case of disasters in the area, and is similar to (though significantly more in-depth than) keeping up to date on one's CPR-AED-First Aid certification; legal proof that one has been trained on how to keep things nice and tidy and legal.

[Sketchpad]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

It's kind of pricey, but here's an idea on the subject:

 

Registered Hero • 41 points

Conversation 11≤

KS: Crisis Management 13≤

KS: Law 11≤

KS: Police Procedure 11≤

Paramedic 11≤

Tactics 11≤

Teamwork 11≤

Contact: Local Law Enforcement (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has very useful Skills or resources, Contact limited by identity), Organization Contact 11≤

Fringe Benefit: Registered Hero License

Search & Rescue: +2 PER Rolls (Hearing & Sight)

 

As the heroes are taking the class, maybe they have to serve with the police force and do ride-along missions until they gain a full license. During this time, XP could be shaved to pay for some of the template and allow the hero to make more substantial contacts.

[Pizza Man]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

41 points?!!

OK. I'm an unregistered hero then. Ain't paying that.

1 or 2 points for a fringe benefit is one thing. 41 points for everyone to have the same exact skills is something else.

This just means no other skills will be taken by the players.

[Sketchpad]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Well, keep in mind that a good chunk of that is the contact ... but I figure if you were registered, you should know your local boys in blue, you know?

[Patriot]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

In My opinion: Drop conversation, decent role-playing should cover that. Lose the contact, that needs to be built up thru a relation ship , not just dropping 10 points and there it is.

I would also drop paramedics and tactics and replace it with 6 open-ended points: that way if you group has 4 members, one could use those 6 points to be a combat medic, another can use them to be the teams face man, another could be the vehicle specialist, and another could be the resident mech/tech person .

 

But thats just me.

[Sketchpad]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

I actually toyed with most of the skills being 8≤, but then I figured they should be effective

[Alverant]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Perk: Government Approved Superhero(ine) 1pt

Skill PS:Superheroing 11- 2pt

 

Professional skills IMHO are meant to cover all the skills you use as part of a profession and what you described sounds like being trained as a superhero. The perk is showing you passed and you can increase the perk and skill as gaining "rank" in the organization. Perhaps at a high enough level, teaching the course yourself.

[tylorsama]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

This seems like the perfect time for a Professional Skill.

 

PS: Superhero and an associated perk for the liability coverage.

[Lucius]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

In the campaign i'm running, all supers who plan on doing any heroing need to be registered.

 

Why "need?" What happens if they're not?

 

This isn't the scary 'mutant control' sort of registration, though. It's more akin to a CPR card. To get one, you have to attend a week-long class. There is a fee, but there are scholarships available to cover it.

 

There are definite limits to what one can learn in a week.

 

In the class, attendees learn:

Police Procedure: How to make legally binding arrests, protocol and legality of appropriate use of force and collateral. (Yes, you can throw a car to keep Doctor Bleak from killing people. No, you can't throw the car at him when he's flying away from the scene after being foiled, because it's not defense anymore, etc.) How to gather the information needed by law enforcement. What sort of evidence is permissible or not permissible. How to preserve the crime scene and not destroy evidence.

First Aid: How to stabilize the injured until ambulances can arrive. How NOT to help the injured. (His back might have been broken! Pick him up and fly him to the hospital? Bad idea!)

Search and Rescue: How to locate the injured in collapsed buildings. How to extricate people from things like collapsed buildings without making things worse and without needing to be able to lift semi trucks. How people respond in disasters. Where is Little Timmy probably going to go when he gets lost in a strange place?

Disaster Psychology: Affects of adrenaline on people. How to recognize and avoid psychological overstress in disasters. Things not to say to the people affected by disasters.

Fire safety: How to recognize stable and unstable buildings.

 

If there are horses, it's probably a stable building.

 

How do fires spread in buildings and the wild, what happens, engineeringwise, when a building is damaged, or when a car is smashed?

 

Once students check out on all these skills, they get a certificate and a laminated card that they can show to emergency personnel on a scene which protects them from some liability (because they're trained). The training classes are actually quite popular with non-supers as well, and most of the attendees are normals who want to be better prepared for disasters; schools, for instance, encourage their staff to take the classes.

 

Any suggestions on exactly what skills

 

3 Pts in Paramedics (only because Familiarity is an Everyman skill, so to be meaningful you probably need to set it at the 3 pts full skill)

 

Beyond that, I agree with those who say it sounds like a Professional Skill. Maybe call it “First Responder.” A minimum 1 pt Familiarity to get certified. Or you could set the minimum at 2 or 3 pts, but that's a lot for a 1 week course.

 

and perk level would be needed for this?

 

No “perk” is needed at all. Most perks are totally unnecessary. If a character has the required skills at the levels you set, and does not have a Disadvantage or something in their background that suggests otherwise, then they have the certificate, just as a character with at least Transport Familiarity is assumed to be a licensed driver without having to pay points for “Perk: Driver's License.”

 

Lucius Alexander

 

PS: Palindromedary Rider

[Naanomi]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

On the cheap, for 2 points, I'd go with Familiarity with PS: Superhero, and a 1 point contact with whatever police desk-jockey manages such things in the city. Paramedics is an everyman skill in a super setting, and while the week may cover refresher courses (or justify the everyman to begin with), I don't see it pushing it into 'employable paramedic' levels.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

I'd make it a 6-week class instead of 1 week, and include these:

Hero License (the character's costume ID is known to the police, and they know he's trained) - 1 point

Arrest Authority - 1 point

KS: Police Procedures (gathering evidence, booking suspects, crowd control) - 2 points

KS: Emergency Safety - 2 points

Paramedic - 3 points

 

9 points total, which seems about right.

[Yansuf]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Perk: Government Approved Superhero(ine) 1pt

Skill PS:Superheroing 11- 2pt

 

Professional skills IMHO are meant to cover all the skills you use as part of a profession and what you described sounds like being trained as a superhero. The perk is showing you passed and you can increase the perk and skill as gaining "rank" in the organization. Perhaps at a high enough level, teaching the course yourself.

 

This one gets my vote.

[megaplayboy]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

I'd suggest a minimal package deal, with "option packages", one of which would be "Corporate sponsored registered hero", which would include a 1 point perk: Trademarked ID. IOW, your hero name and costume design can't be used for commercial purposes(and possibly heroic/villainous purposes) without express written consent. There's a whole lot of stuff that could be justified under becoming an "official" superhero.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Most of my players would complain about having to spend a lot of points on a registration card, so I think I would keep it simple.

 

I think you just about have to have Paramedic at 3pts if that sort of thing is covered, but Paramedic is a useful skill so I don't see anyone griping about that.

 

The rest of it I would put as KS:Basic Police Training or PS:Basic Superheroing or whatever you want to call it. Depending on the length of the class and the dedication of the student, the hero might have that at the 1, 2, or 3 pt level.

 

Other stuff, like perks or more in depth criminology/psychology/legal/medical stuff I would let the player purchase if they wanted it, but I wouldn't make it mandatory in order to get a registration card.

[JusticeZero]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Why "need?" What happens if they're not?

Then they will have an adversarial relationship with the police, to a large part because criminals would love to be captured by an unlicensed hero because there will probably be so many legal mixups and problems that they can easily walk out of the courtroom free. Remember Lex Luthor in Superman returns? "Great at stopping crime, not so great at things like miranda rights or showing up to testify.." Such an ID can be used as a witness ID, but only regarding the events that they witnessed before and immediately following identifying themself and passing the scene to the emergency crews.

 

There are definite limits to what one can learn in a week.

Two weeks might be more appropriate, but I learned a little more than half of that in a 20 hour class..

 

If there are horses, it's probably a stable building.

Wiiilbur, you pain me..

[Clonus]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

It's kind of pricey, but here's an idea on the subject:

 

Registered Hero • 41 points

Conversation 11≤

KS: Crisis Management 13≤

KS: Law 11≤

KS: Police Procedure 11≤

Paramedic 11≤

Tactics 11≤

Teamwork 11≤

Contact: Local Law Enforcement (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has very useful Skills or resources, Contact limited by identity), Organization Contact 11≤

Fringe Benefit: Registered Hero License

Search & Rescue: +2 PER Rolls (Hearing & Sight)

 

As the heroes are taking the class, maybe they have to serve with the police force and do ride-along missions until they gain a full license. During this time, XP could be shaved to pay for some of the template and allow the hero to make more substantial contacts.

 

They're not going to learn all that from a week long course. I'd say you're looking more at 8s. Or maybe just KS: Police Procedure, Paramedic, and Crisis Management. Drop Conversation, Law, Tactics and Teamwork. The characters just catch the guys, they don't prosecute them. I doubt the average cop knows the law that well. He just knows police procedure.

 

 

Then they will have an adversarial relationship with the police, to a large part because criminals would love to be captured by an unlicensed hero because there will probably be so many legal mixups and problems that they can easily walk out of the courtroom free. Remember Lex Luthor in Superman returns? "Great at stopping crime, not so great at things like miranda rights or showing up to testify.." Such an ID can be used as a witness ID, but only regarding the events that they witnessed before and immediately following identifying themself and passing the scene to the emergency crews.

 

Actually if an unlicensed hero stops a criminal there's less of a problem. Not being an agent of the state means that violating people's civil rights no longer becomes an issue at trial. While the unlicensed hero can't testify, if there are other witnesses to what was going on, they can.

[JusticeZero]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Ah, but the ones with hero cards aren't state actors. They are not paid, or directed; they are just given a lot of information so that when they are running around doing vigilante stuff, they will do so in a less destructive manner. People with CPR cards are not state actors if they stop to give first aid.

[Yansuf]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Ah' date=' but the ones with hero cards aren't state actors. They are not paid, or directed; they are just given a lot of information so that when they are running around doing vigilante stuff, they will do so in a less destructive manner. People with CPR cards are not state actors if they stop to give first aid.[/quote']

 

In our "real world" universe it is likely that the courts would consider them at least partly "state actors", like a police auxiiliary.

[lapsedgamer]

Re: 'Registration' as training card

 

Yeah, I would say about two or three weeks for a bare bones course. The course that Sketchpad lays out is more like a six-month basic academy, which might be a required option for state or federally sponsored heroes. Say you could get in on the ground floor with the two-week course and have a license, but to actually have an official charter, you would have to go to FLETC in Georgia or Quantico and stay for about six months to pick up the 41 point list. At that point you are like a federal agent, with all the perks and headaches, and possibly ego, that come with that.