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Special Needs Super Heroes


Anaximander

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I am working as a substitute teacher while finishing college and do a lot of work in special needs children and may be getting a promotion to teaching assistant in a special needs classroom this upcoming school year.  This makes me no expert in dealing with special needs or even a great champion of special needs, but I am knowledgeable of special needs and sympathetic towards those who have special needs, and I am wondering how a special needs super hero might be built.  It seems to be more than just simply giving a character a low Intelligence besides since Intelligence as I understand it per Hero is an indication of how perceptive and quick on the uptake a character is not necessarily a reflection of smarts, some special needs might technically have a high Intelligence but may be limited in its usage.

 

It seems to me that special needs should be physical complication in most cases to reflect it being an actual brain impairment, but in some cases, it might be a social complication also.  An example might be a higher function MR with slurred speech and a dull expression being mistaken for being drunk or high.  I have notice that many children with signs of learning disabilities (LD) and mental retardation (MR) also come from highly dysfunctional backgrounds sometimes having experienced negligence and abuse at extreme levels, and I hypothesize that some LD and MR might a psychological response to trauma.  In which case, a psychological complication might be more relevant.  (If anyone has come across any research regarding the issue, I would appreciate letting me know about.)

 

Does anyone have any ideas on how they might create a special needs character.

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A long time ago we ran a campaign where everyone was a "mental patient ", in a mental asylum. "touched " if you will. The heroes are a bit different mentally but it's mostly because of the mental strain of having powers. You guys have a lot more knowledge and experience with the game than I do you will come up with better answers I'm sure.

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A Physical Complication for the actual disability itself seems the correct choice.

Also, a Social Complication to reflect the prejudice that such a person experiences would certainly be justified.

For cases where there is an outward physical manifestation (including speech patterns/difficulty) Distinctive Features would be appropriate.

 

Beyond that, though, such a character needs to be handled pretty carefully in how they are handled and depicted.  Working with special needs children, however, I'm certain you're already well aware of that.

 

BTW, good on you for teaching special needs kids and watch out for that burn out right.  I taught high school (briefly) and my ex-fiance was a special needs teacher.  It can get rough, as I'm sure you know.

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Disabled superheroes aren't a new thing. Daredevil is an excellent example and also points to a fine balance. He's blind, but his other senses are enhanced to compensate. So the question is, at what point do those enhancements shift over to making him something better than sighted? And does this matter to the blind people who might look at him as a role model? In the TV series, Matt is definitely a better fighter because of his senses and notwithstanding his disability; but as a lawyer, he is overcoming his disability by persevering in reading Braille. 

 

I've played with this, although in fan fiction, and not in campaigning. The character, the Dark Ninja, is mentally challenged, but has a vaguely defined phone-with-client-AI to help him out. (Well, vaguely defined in terms of its function. In Hero System terms, its additional INT bought through a focus.) I have no idea whether the phone takes away from the reality of his disability or not.

 

Frankly, I just liked the dynamic of having a teen speedster supehero who is one of the smartest people on Earth fall in love with him. After all, from her point of view, every normal person is "mentally challenged."

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One of our characters was very unstable and would go into a rage granting him physical characteristics. He was also a fan of professional wrestling, you can imagine how it went from there.

 

Another was a mentalist who also had Danger Sense and Clairsentience although her abilities weren't totally in her control.

 

A pyrokinetic, a telekinetic and a summoner rounded out the party.

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The Complication "Dependence" is for a superhero with some special need that causes damage or weakness if the need goes unfulfilled.

 

Otherwise, can you define what "special need" means?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

A special need for a palindromedary

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I am going to take such a beating on this, but sometimes in our desire to use the most delicate language we sacrifice clarity.

While I have the utmost respect for what you do, and compassion for your students and the difficult road they must travel. I can't quite make out what it is that you want.

Are you looking for examples of superhero characters who have physical and emotional disabilities like, Daredevil, Oracle or Hawkeye? To present your students with ideas for their own characters.

Are you seeking advice on how to write up characters with such disabilities? If so, I don't think you have to go much further than the dis-ads Phys Lim & Psych Lim and Enraged. Done of course with much more care and detail than the usual one or two word description.

The actual write ups would be easy, describing the real world is the tough part.

What ever help you need, I feel sure you'll find it here.

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League of Superredundant Heroes has one Special Needs Villain, the Evil Savant:

http://superredundant.com/?comic=meet-the-gang

Plus 3 useless heroes and tons upon tons of Marvel and DC expies (the uselessness of the main cast has been lessened in recent stories; they might actually be able to be valued above the regular cub scouts soon).

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I think the concept would be a difficult one to do respectfully.  At worst, it's going to feel like you're making fun of people with special needs (not that I think you're trying to do that).  At best, it probably will feel like an after school special. "Everybody can be a hero!"

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When I was coordinator of the Haymaker! APAzine and was putting together our Haymaker! High supplement, one of the writers submitted a student NPC with cerebral palsy.  She had Distinctive Features (Conceal with major effort), Physical Complication (tremors, movement problems, occasional speech problems; Infrequent, Greatly), and Social Complication (Physically handicapped; Occasionally, Minor since she had TK Flight to allow her to move more freely than normal when using her powers).  She also bought down a bit of her Running (-6m), Leaping (-2m), and Swimming (-2m).

 

Her INT was 13, and she had +1 w/ all PER.

 

I think it can be done respectfully without coming across as an after-school special, but that depends a lot on the players as well as the GM.  I'd imagine if you kept the LD or MR from being the defining trait of the character, and instead kept it as simply one of many significant factors of the character, you'd be fine.

 

For instance, I wouldn't continuously act out a character's speech impediment in-game except in times of extreme stress for the character or if it was specifically important (e.g. the hero giving a speech to students on overcoming adversity), and even then I'd try to minimize it so it doesn't come across as overdone and potentially hurtful.  The GM might require an occasional EGO roll for the character to try minimizing speech problems or other physical effects.

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I worked on a build for a teen super named "Rainbow Girl" who suffered from mentally retardation before she and her cat were accidently struck by the experimental "Oooh" Ray satellite weapon. She was never played because her player decided it was just too sensitive a topic to actually play.

 

The weapon was struck by a small meteor, or pushed by a superhuman or something. Instead of hitting the target point in the testing field, the ray crossed dozens of city blocks and covered entire buildings with waves of rainbow light. The "Oooh" Ray caused no property damage, the incident happened late at night, and there was next to no evidence; so the cover-up of the accident was successful.

 

Soon after everyone exposed to the "Oooh" Ray started developing all kinds of different superpowers. Almost everyone exposed to the "Oooh" ray also became smarter. It actually only raised the victim's intelligence to a set level, so some grew more than others, and a rare few got stupider. Those with powers from the "Oooh" Ray always glowed distinctively while their powers were in use, and everyone with rainbow powers was immune to other direct rainbow powers (almost all of the powers were required to buy Personal Immunity).

 

The teen girl became a pseudo Magical Girl (complete with a transformation that made her taller, more slender, her hair floated as if she were in Zero-G and reflected her rainbow aura), and the cat became a her Familiar. Most of Rainbow Girl's "Rainbowkinesis" powers (standard light blaster fare) were actually granted by her Cat; who had spent it's entire life watching sailor moon from the foot of the bed, and had similar powers. The girl's own powers were limited waking up one morning with super intelligence (INT 25, Eidetic Memory, and Cramming) and a psychic bond with her now talking cat.

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There is a fun Novel on that subject THE ABLES by Jeffrey Scott it's about teen superheroes in training in a town run by the superhero community all of the members of the team have some form of disability the main character is a blind telekinetic. Another novel on a similar theme is Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld all of the members of the team in that suffer from some complication from their powers.

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A lot of people have pointed out that Sherlock Holmes is a good example of a high-functioning member of autism or Asperger's syndrome (in the most recent British series, he describes himself as a "high-functioning sociopath", which I think is an exaggeration).

 

An example of a true heroic sociopath is James Bond. MI6 has channeled his violent behavior so well that he gets depressed when he's not on a job.

 

For physical limitations, you need look no further than Professor Xavier of X-Men fame.

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A lot of people have pointed out that Sherlock Holmes is a good example of a high-functioning member of autism or Asperger's syndrome (in the most recent British series, he describes himself as a "high-functioning sociopath", which I think is an exaggeration).

 

An example of a true heroic sociopath is James Bond. MI6 has channeled his violent behavior so well that he gets depressed when he's not on a job.

 

For physical limitations, you need look no further than Professor Xavier of X-Men fame.

The TV show Monk is a version of Holmes in this way, the whole show is a subtle updating of the tropes.

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