Cities that need heroes

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Space Cadet

Let's not forget the other Cincinnatians on the list here...

after all, a town can never have too many heroes, right?

 

Space Cadet

Clearly, the ancient snake mounds of Ohio have enfused its population with great power.

 

 

Then again, I've always wanted to run a Tick Ish campaign where the center of all cosmic import (and weirdness) was... Iowa. I want to have some hero actually be able to say

"You don't understand! So goes Des Moines, so goes the world!!!"

[Mutant for Hire]

My take on Hermit's question

 

Going by straight population distribution is a bad idea. It's predicated on two assumptions that when closely examined a case can easily be made that neither one is true.

 

1. The distribution of metahuman origins precisely matches the general population distribution.

2. Metahumans after having their origins will remain in their community.

 

Let's take each of them in turn. First off, origins tend to happen in the presence of violence or weird phenomena, or require some sort of technological, magical or martial arts background. These phenomena tend to favor some areas over others.

 

Take Florida as an example. Due to the drug trade, one expects the rate of origins to be considerably higher there than many much more populated states that don't have the crime problem that Flordia has. You are likely to see a lot of powers woken in a near-death experience or the grim avengers type as a result.

 

Likewise, areas with a low population but a lot of high tech or mystic phenomena are likely to have a much higher rate of origins as well. Sliicon Valley is likely to have a fairly high incidence of technology-based heroes simply because of all the technology there. As for mystic areas, look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Hellmouth for inspiration.

 

Now of course this depends a lot on the origin story for powers in the world, but I tend to think in most cases the origins are going to have an uneven distribution, centering on problem spots of various sorts.

 

Now there are exceptions of course, but that gets us to the second point. Assume for a second there is a town where statistics indicate there will be two supers. Assume for argument's sake one is a superhero and the other one is a supervillain.

 

Now the question is, will the supervillain remain in town? Compare the money to be made in one of those population million towns with the money to be made in the much larger cities. Likely as not, as soon as the villain has mastered their powers and practiced a bit on the local population honing their skills (assuming they are smart) they're going to head off for where the real money is to be made. If they're not so smart, they'll head off direct.

 

So what is our superhero to do? Even assuming he's not the fame and fortune type, will the superhero really feel needed in a town with no supervillain crime? Their powers are to some extent going to be wasted there. Their powers are best used combatting supervillains. Which means when the supervillain leaves town, so does the superhero. And of course superheroes wanting to be famous are going to go where the action is.

 

Again, the areas of Florida that see a lot of the drug trade are really going to see a rise in supervillains as everyone hires superpowered muscle to deal with rivals and with all the superheroes that are going to be attracted to the area.

 

These two forces more or less feed into each other. Supervillains and by reaction superheroes are going to tend to drift to certain areas and as a result those places are going to have higher-than-normal origin rates.

 

In my next post, I'm going to look at the counterforce acting on the two forces mentioned here.

[Mutant for Hire]

Ecological look at metahumans.

 

I'm not a biologist, so take this with a grain of salt. But my basic view of superheroes and supervillains is that of two species of predator. The non-super population can be viewed as a strictly prey species.

 

The supervillain community exists feeding off of the prey species. As I observed in a last post, this species will migrate to where the feeding is best. The superhero community is a predator species that preys strictly on the supervillain predator species. As a result, the superhero population migrates to match the supervillain population distribution.

 

Now there isn't an infinite prey population for the supervillain community to feed on. The more supervillains in an area, the less there is to go around. As a result, there is going to be pressure against supervillain migration to attractive areas by the supervillain population already in place, which has nothing to gain and much to lose by the inclusion of additional supervillains.

 

As a result, there is going to be a weeding effect among the established supervillain population in the attractive areas. There are tactics to counter this, such as the formation of supervillain teams or the additions of superpowered minions for a powerful supervillain. Some supervillains may take hit and run tactics, hoping to get in and out before the local supervillain population notices they've been through there.

 

But on average there is not just going to be a supervillain population distribution showing the attractiveness of the areas to supervillains but there will also be a supervillain power distribution that also echoes the attractiveness of an area. Places like Miami are on average going to have more powerful villains than less attractive places.

 

Incidentally this power spike can work against the population distribution. The more powerful the individual elements are, the more they are going to want to grab and the larger their 'territory' is likely to be. Think of it as the attractiveness of a region forming a sort of character point pool to be divded up among all the supervillains of the region and their minions. The fewer the villains the more powerful they are and the larger the turf they will claim so the more money comes in to them.

 

Now what about our superhero population? The most powerful superheroes will migrate to the areas with the most powerful villains, and they are going to exert pressure on the less powerful heroes to keep out of town as a result. Those that don't may well end up getting themselves annihilated by a supervillain team they end up crossing by accident.

 

The natural place for them to migrate to are the areas where all the weaker supervillains were shoved out to, who are more on their own level. In the end, the superhero population migrates to match the distribution of the supervillain population.

 

Now a lot of supervillains may adopt a nomadic strategy rather than a stationary strategy. That is, find a town where there are no superheroes (or at least known ones) and hit it for all its worth and then move on. This is a strategy favored by low power types that can't even make minion grade for a more established supervillain team. I'm not exactly sure how the superhero community will evolve to deal with this phenomena but someone will come up with something to deal with transient supervillains.

 

In my last post, I'm going to put everything together for a discussion of results.

[Mutant for Hire]

What this all means.

 

In the end, you have to look at the hot spots that will attract supervillain types. Money, political power, technology to loot, mystic power are the basic ones. There may be others but offhand I can't think of any.

 

The most powerful spots of these types will attract the most powerful supervillains and supervillain teams, who will then weed the weaker villains out until they can't drive anyone else out, not without risking being hit by a third party. The population roster will be stable until a stronger outside supervillain or team can muscle in and displace a weaker one.

 

The local population will bring in superheroes until they have enough power to deal with the local supervillain problem, and have superhero teams that are capable of taking on these local threats and coming out alive. Weaker superheroes will be strongly discouraged from coming to the city, for their own survival. Given that the cities the weaker villains driven out of these cities will be in demand of heroes, those heroes are more likely to go to those places instead.

 

The type of supervillain that you find in a region depends heavily on what there is to attract a supervillain to that place in the first place. New York has Wall Street and the NYSE. Washington DC has our nation's capital. Miami has drugs/drug money flowing through it. Silicon Valley has technology. And of course there are whatever areas you deem to have mystic significance. LA will get those supervillains who want to see their names and faces in the media more than anything. Naturally, you tend to get superheroes of a matching type as well in these places.

 

Incidentally, the presence of high tech teams in a high tech region only adds to the high tech attraction factor of the place. Ditto for magic. The more mystic heroes and villains and the artifacts/spellbooks they bring, the more mystic attraction a place tends to have. For that matter, if you're playing the mutant card in your universe, the larger the mutant community in an area, the more attractive it is for mutant superheroes and supervillains. Mutant supervillains can find a civilian mutant population to blend into and the mutant superhero population has greater support from the mutant community. The social factor also affects high tech and mystic heroes and villains, who will find it easier to work together and socialize with each other in their off hours.

 

So to address Hermit's last point in my last point: what the heck are supervillain teams doing down in Texas? What's the attraction down there for them?

 

So to answer Hermit's original question, a GM has to map out where the greatest amount of money, legal or illegal is flowing around, where are the high tech centers that attract the tech types, and where are the mystic sites of power that will attract those interested in the occult. As well as oddball places like LA/Hollywood and sites where civilian mutant communities will form.

 

Not that the straight population distribution is totally useless. People tend to go where the money is and move away from financially impovrished areas. It's a good starting point but in the end you have to start looking at all the other factors to really come up with a good idea of where heroes and villains are going to be found.

 

And in some ways I see the thing being a more granular echo of the baseball system. There are the major leagues and the minor leagues. There are the cities where the heavy hitters live and protect (or loot) and there are the small fry that either work for the heavy hitters or decide to be big fish in small ponds. And due to feedback effect you're going to find a non-even distribution of origin types.

 

So let me posit a question Hermit: what are three or four supervillain teams going to be finding it worth going after in Texas to bring down three or four superhero teams to go after them?

[Hermit]

Excellent posts Mutant for Hire... though in defense of myself, I remind you I said from the start population was only ONE Thing to take into account.

 

As for Texas... well, I'd ask a Texan, but going by some guess work and your own theories...

 

Texas is a gateway between the United States in Mexico. The fact that some of the passage might be illegal (unlawful immigration, drugs, whatever) would only enhance villain hero interaction, akin to Miami for Florida.

 

Texas is still rich in oil/mineral wealth...

 

as for the supernatural side of things... I don't know the Amerind tribes of Old Texas well enough to say, but I think there would be potiential for shamanistic sort of mysticism. On the flip side, the monestaries etc established before Texas gained its indepence could be used by a clever GM ... perhaps there were Infernal forces that needed to be fought.. and might yet rise again.

 

For some specific cities...

Dallas has become one of the Southwest's leading business and cultural centers. The city houses the main offices of major Oil companies. I believe it's one of the nation's main fashion centers, and been involved in the production of comercials and short films. Ft. Worth, nearby, is less fashionable and sophisticated perhaps, but has things like a Muesuem Complex within a four square block area.

(Besides, Six Flags Over Texas is pretty close, and Amusement park superbattles can be a hoot)

 

Houston is not only extremely populated, it is intricately tied to the space program. How's that for 'Tech'? Houston, as of 1996, was ranked 1st in the nation when it comes to manufacturing and distrubution of Petrolium equipment. It is a port city. The Texas Medical Center, near downtown, is a world renowned medical facility.

 

San Antonio, home of the Alamo, is the third largest city in Texas, and while it may not have some of the same super draws as Dallas/Ft. Worth or Houston, it does have history.

 

Really, natives of said state could tell you more.

 

Over all, I think Texas meets all your criteria... the only down side is it doesn't have as glamourous as rep as L.A., NYC or San Fran... but any Super Villain doing his homework would see it as a choice plum waiting to be plucked.

 

I like the sports analogy btw, and have had similar thoughts myself. Then again, the Texans I've met are almost obnoxiously (Sorry guys) into Sports teams. I imagine they'd embrace super hero teams with equal fervor.

[Law Dog]

An home to heroes like Derrick - The human oil well.

 

bwahaha

[Hermit]

What a "Crude" pun...

[Law Dog]

I thought it was pretty "slick". Alas, oils well that ends well.

 

 

Somebody hit me.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Law Dog

 

 

Somebody hit me.

*POW*

 

We're here for you man.

 

(Rats, I continue to derail the thread... stupid instincts)

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by Hermit

Excellent posts Mutant for Hire... though in defense of myself, I remind you I said from the start population was only ONE Thing to take into account.

My apologies. I was just trying to counter the focus on population in some fo the other posts.

As for Texas... well, I'd ask a Texan, but going by some guess work and your own theories...

 

Texas is a gateway between the United States in Mexico. The fact that some of the passage might be illegal (unlawful immigration, drugs, whatever) would only enhance villain hero interaction, akin to Miami for Florida.

Not sure about the unlawful immigration stance. Not a huge amount of money there, I'd think. Drugs certainly. It would also be the corridor for Central/South American supervillains heading into the United States illegally or working the drug trade.

Texas is still rich in oil/mineral wealth...

Yes, but you can't quite rob an oil well or a mine the way you would a bank.

as for the supernatural side of things... I don't know the Amerind tribes of Old Texas well enough to say, but I think there would be potiential for shamanistic sort of mysticism. On the flip side, the monestaries etc established before Texas gained its indepence could be used by a clever GM ... perhaps there were Infernal forces that needed to be fought.. and might yet rise again.

This is better, though we end up getting dangerously close to the stereotyping thread elsewhere. But yes, a lot of non-Native American magicians can enter this area as well seeking to exploit the resources here or deal with older powers buried here accidentally unearthed by developers.

For some specific cities...

Dallas has become one of the Southwest's leading business and cultural centers. The city houses the main offices of major Oil companies. I believe it's one of the nation's main fashion centers, and been involved in the production of comercials and short films. Ft. Worth, nearby, is less fashionable and sophisticated perhaps, but has things like a Muesuem Complex within a four square block area.

(Besides, Six Flags Over Texas is pretty close, and Amusement park superbattles can be a hoot)

I would say that gives it a fairly cosmopolitan superhero/supervillain community. It probably needs a range of types to deal with mystic threats and technological threats as well as those just looking for the money or raiding the museum.

Houston is not only extremely populated, it is intricately tied to the space program. How's that for 'Tech'? Houston, as of 1996, was ranked 1st in the nation when it comes to manufacturing and distrubution of Petrolium equipment. It is a port city. The Texas Medical Center, near downtown, is a world renowned medical facility.

So Houston naturally becomes the place to find heroes and villains with scientific origins, especially ones concerning space. If you have alien supers, they might even tend to congregate here and by the network effect it becomes the place for aliens to live on Earth or at least in North America. And given the more advanced technology you find, the space program in this world probably gives Houston a lot more to do as well. As the coordinating center for American Earth to orbit traffic that makes it a target to hit, especially by those who have ambitious plans for space. I can see Houston actually getting more activity than Dallas.

Over all, I think Texas meets all your criteria... the only down side is it doesn't have as glamourous as rep as L.A., NYC or San Fran... but any Super Villain doing his homework would see it as a choice plum waiting to be plucked.

At first it is, until you hit the equilibrium point. Then you have a steady stream of heroes and villains coming to Texas expecting to find easy pickings and all of a sudden discovering the entrenched superhero and supervillain community does not consider Texas a ripe plum for picking.

 

As a result, in the superhero/villain community, at least those with any time in it, Texas is likely to develop a reputation as the major focus for major league supers activity in the south. In the public eye, it is viewed as minor league and view the Texans claim to major league status as just typical Texan boasting. PRIMUS and those in the know, know that Texas is major league and warn any superheroes going into the area to clear things first with a local team before they get a nasty surprise.

I like the sports analogy btw, and have had similar thoughts myself. Then again, the Texans I've met are almost obnoxiously (Sorry guys) into Sports teams. I imagine they'd embrace super hero teams with equal fervor.

I keep wondering when cities looking to increase their budgets start sponsoring friendly 'superhero showdowns' between different cities.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Mutant for Hire

My apologies. I was just trying to counter the focus on population in some fo the other posts.

Not a problem.

 

Not sure about the unlawful immigration stance. Not a huge amount of money there, I'd think. Drugs certainly. It would also be the corridor for Central/South American supervillains heading into the United States illegally or working the drug trade.

Actually, I saw a show where some unsavory sorts made quite a lot smuggling immigrants in, and contracting the poor guys out like slaves for a time. It may not have been accurate, but I can see some stories cropping up from it.

 

Yes, but you can't quite rob an oil well or a mine the way you would a bank.

 

*L* I doubt very much most Texan cities are lacking banks to rob. Good point though.

However, Oil reserves can be threatened. If a villain threatened to destroy or burn such... a hero team might have a very weird situation where black gold was held hostage.

 

This is better, though we end up getting dangerously close to the stereotyping thread elsewhere. But yes, a lot of non-Native American magicians can enter this area as well seeking to exploit the resources here or deal with older powers buried here accidentally unearthed by developers.

 

Yeah, some research would help flesh that out.

 

I would say that gives it a fairly cosmopolitan superhero/supervillain community. It probably needs a range of types to deal with mystic threats and technological threats as well as those just looking for the money or raiding the museum.

And if you want to make a criminal mastermind , you could use JR.Ewing as a role-model.

 

So Houston naturally becomes the place to find heroes and villains with scientific origins, especially ones concerning space. If you have alien supers, they might even tend to congregate here and by the network effect it becomes the place for aliens to live on Earth or at least in North America. And given the more advanced technology you find, the space program in this world probably gives Houston a lot more to do as well. As the coordinating center for American Earth to orbit traffic that makes it a target to hit, especially by those who have ambitious plans for space. I can see Houston actually getting more activity than Dallas.

 

I am inclined to agree with you. If I were keeping METE for 5th, I might be tempted to put it in Houston.

 

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Houston and Dallas/Ft Worth had something of a super rivalry develop.

 

At first it is, until you hit the equilibrium point. Then you have a steady stream of heroes and villains coming to Texas expecting to find easy pickings and all of a sudden discovering the entrenched superhero and supervillain community does not consider Texas a ripe plum for picking.

True, but the actions of that might help add a bit of glamour and rep on a more national scale eventually.

 

As a result, in the superhero/villain community, at least those with any time in it, Texas is likely to develop a reputation as the major focus for major league supers activity in the south. In the public eye, it is viewed as minor league and view the Texans claim to major league status as just typical Texan boasting. PRIMUS and those in the know, know that Texas is major league and warn any superheroes going into the area to clear things first with a local team before they get a nasty surprise.

Mmm, a bunch of arrogant yankee supers come down South to what they think is the boondocks, only to get their butts trounced. For some reason, this appeals to my Southern Sensabilities.

I keep wondering when cities looking to increase their budgets start sponsoring friendly 'superhero showdowns' between different cities.

 

Ack. Get out of my head. I was actually working on a possible submission to DH regarding this very sort of thing.

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by Hermit

Actually, I saw a show where some unsavory sorts made quite a lot smuggling immigrants in, and contracting the poor guys out like slaves for a time. It may not have been accurate, but I can see some stories cropping up from it.

I just came up with another reason supervillains get involved here: guess where a lot of supervillains get their experimental lab subjects from? I expect to see a lot of origins stories, heroic and villanous here.

 

No doubt those who are willing to become superheroes have an easier time getting their green cards. I don't exactly see the US trying to deport superpowered immigrants who are willing to work for the side of law and order. They might not be put on border patrol due to sympathies but they would probably be put to dealing with supervillains who deal in illegal immigrants in a bad way.

[Mutant for Hire]

Okay, let me go over a few places that don't tend to make everyone's top ten lists but probably should be. Hermit has done a magnificent job with Texas, so let me cover a few other places:

 

Las Vegas:

Minor league in name and perception only. Technically most supers who've been there or study the place conclude that it is major league in terms of threat level to any super passing through. The place is a very attractive target due to all the gambling money there. The casino owners know it and so have hired the very best mercenary supers that money can get (sometimes from Miami) and then back them up with a squadron of lawyers that are very good at getting 'excessive force' charges dropped. Supervillains who try to knock over a casino have a very high fatality rate and most of the rest end up crippled for life.

 

Of course this is done with a view towards minimizing the violence in the eyes of the tourists, so as not to scare them. That is the major reason the casino owners object to outside superheroes in Las Vegas. They are too soft on criminals and often do more property dmaage and scare tourists more. Unsactioned superhero activity in Vegas tends to be strongly discouraged, though usually its more through restraining orders than force.

 

Oh yes, supervillains who think their telepathy, clairvoyance, precogntion or cyber/telekinesis will win them a fortune in Vegas are in for a very bad surprise. Whether its magical, technological, psionic or whatever, most government agencies consider the Vegas casinos to be some of the most secure areas on the planet. In general, supers are not allowed to gamble at those places unless they have been cleaeed with the owners and in general only famous or rich (or preferably both) supers are allowed in to do that, as tourist draws.

 

Atlantic City and most other famous gambling centers around the planet more or less operate along similar principles. These places are in some ways not good places to set up campaigns but they are great places to send heros through, if only to give them a taste of going up against a high power, highly trained squad of supers that can scare the crap out of all but the most powerful teams elsewhere.

 

Universities:

Univerisities are breeding grounds for supers. They also tend to have a lot of resources that are very attractive to various sorts of supers on both sides of the law. The more prestigious universities probably have standing superhero teams, and not composed of undergraduates but rather a regular roster that sticks around and is paid out of university funds to deal with supervillain attacks and any disruptive origins.

 

Of course these days universities all have college superhero teams composed of undergraduates with complicated eligbility rules. Being a high school metahuman, brilliant inventor or mystic type, is a good way to get a college scholarship these days. These teams usually act as backup to the standing superhero teams, working crowd control, making sure that a disruptive event in one spot isn't a distraction for the main team. These teams also compete against other college superhero teams as well. In fact increasingly a lot of the professional superhero teams (or the cities that back them) are paying a lot of attention to would be superheroes on the college circuit. A few supervillains as well.

 

Universities tend to be very annoyed about outside supers coming in uninvited. It isn't too difficult to get clearance to go in to one of these places, especially if its just a scientific consultation, though due to obvious potential complications superheroes have to clear things through the appropriate office first and have their need evaluated against potential liability. Not too many universities are willing to examine a Doctor Destroyer creation.

 

Obviously, university sports are getting increasingly good at detecting genetic/chemical alterations, cybernetic enhancements, and mystic power. Certain advanced forms of 'chi' training are currently being debated on the college and professional level. The results could have a profound impact on college and professional sports.

 

Universities would be a great place to base a superhero team, especially the college team. Origins all over the place, but what brings them together? Their scholarship money. Or they can be the anti-team that didn't make the official team and has to use secret IDs because they're operating in violation of university regulations,

[winterhawk]

Mutant, I really like your explanation for Vegas. I did something really similar in my last campaign. Each Casino had a very public hero, based on their theme (Ceasar's had the Centurion, Luxor had the Pharoh, etc.) that were very 'tourist friendly' and handled the minor crimes etc. Then there was a holdover from the 'Rat Pack' days called Wildcard, who used to work for the Mob, but now plyed his trade for Steve Wynn and Jack Binnion (?). He was one of those "we're not going to kill you, they're just not gonna find you" guys. I also did the "no heroes...unless they're whales" rule you mentioned.

[ZootSoot]

Re: Ecological look at metahumans.

 

Originally posted by Mutant for Hire

Now a lot of supervillains may adopt a nomadic strategy rather than a stationary strategy. That is, find a town where there are no superheroes (or at least known ones) and hit it for all its worth and then move on. This is a strategy favored by low power types that can't even make minion grade for a more established supervillain team. I'm not exactly sure how the superhero community will evolve to deal with this phenomena but someone will come up with something to deal with transient supervillains.

 

Why nothing less than the latest in Police technology, the extremely adaptable, modular Turtle powered armor!

 

Anyone else remember that?

[Hermit]

Re: Re: Ecological look at metahumans.

 

Originally posted by ZootSoot

Why nothing less than the latest in Police technology, the extremely adaptable, modular Turtle powered armor!

 

Anyone else remember that?

 

I remember that. My players had a hard time taking it seriously

[SleepyDrug]

This is one of the best threads i've seen in awhile. I thought i'd toss out my thoughts. I also play vampire a lot and i found an article that suggested population density should be as important a factor as population. I think this holds for HERO because high density areas are also high crime areas.

 

My favorite digital hero article (now lost to the ravages of time) suggested adding other factors to that. My best attempt to reconstuct the list of modifiers gives us:

 

Population (base number)

Population Density (modifier)

Technological Center (modifier)

Research Center (modifier)

Toxic/Radioactive Storage or Source (modifier)

Academic Center (modifier)

Martial Arts tradition (modifier)

Mystic tradition (modifier)

Wealthy (modifier)

Impovershed (modifier)

 

Villains will relocate to where the money is and most super-villains will probably be nomadic. Heroes will base out of the large cities that are crime centers and have the resources they need.

[lemming]

Re: Re: Ecological look at metahumans.

 

Originally posted by ZootSoot

Why nothing less than the latest in Police technology, the extremely adaptable, modular Turtle powered armor!

 

Anyone else remember that?

Ah yes, the Turtle armor. I might incorporate them into my game, but mostly off screen.

 

The Vegas ideas are great. The mentalist portion isn't applicable as much, but I think most of it's very useful.

[Mutant for Hire]

Originally posted by SleepyDrug

Population (base number)

Population Density (modifier)

Technological Center (modifer)

Research Center (modifier)

Martial Arts tradition (modifier)

Mystic tradition (modifier)

Impovershed (modifier)

I abstracted/generalized a few. I took Academia and made it into Information Resource, to cover things like any place that has valuable databases, like the nation's capital. Universities on average are both research centers and information resources. And of course there's more to a superhero world than toxic waste or radioactive waste, so I generalized that as well. As for Monetary Foucs instead of wealthy? I wanted to cover places like Las Vegas, banking areas, and Wall Street which could be called wealthy but that's not the best word to use.

 

Information Resource (modifier)

Exotic/Mutagenic Resource (modifier)

Monetary Focus (modifier)

 

And here are some new ones:

 

Gateway/Port City (modifier)

Cultural/Media Center (modifier)

Political Center (modifier)

Military/Law Enforcement Center (modifier)

Crime Center (modifier)

Exotic Population (modifier)

 

Let me explain the last one. It was something I talked about in a couple of other posts. Houston, for example, could get a bunch of aliens living there because in a superhero universe it turns into a space port. The fact of the matter is that aliens crashing anywhere else could migrate to Houston because that's where other aliens live. A powerful mutant might establish a civilian mutant community somewhere, where mutants could live and work and have their own lives. That place will start accumilating mutants simply because other mutants are living there and often people feel more comfortable among their own kind.

 

Crime center is those places that see a lot of crime. Usually, its the effect of some other cause. Miami is a port city and so a lot of drug traffic flows through there, for example. But if a city develops an organized crime problem, it can magnify matters considerably.

 

And again, I would not get too hung up on base population. In fact I would prefer to ignore it. In general, I just go down the list and ask myself "what are the top cities for category X" and assume that by virtue of that they'll attract attention from certain types. New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC all hit the list more than once.

Villains will relocate to where the money is and most super-villains will probably be nomadic. Heroes will base out of the large cities that are crime centers and have the resources they need.

Few villains are truly nomadic. At best they might have a wide rangeof operations, but few villains don't want/need a base they can rest and relax and prepare for the next mission from. Few supervillain teams will want to travel especially far unless they have a global range teleporter available. Even then there are advantages to working a set area.

[SleepyDrug]

Excellent points.

 

I had worked it out from a national stand point. But you could do it on a city by city stand point.

 

What I was thinking of with the nomadic comment is that a villain will gladly relocate if prospects are poor in his hometown. For example, in Marvel both Pyro and Boomerang left Australia for the US because work is better in the states.

 

Moving on: this now gives us:

 

Population (base number) adjusted for Population Density

< 1 million = 1 per million

1-2 million = 1 per 750,000

2-3 million = 1 per 500,000

3-5 million = 1 per 100,000

5 million + = 1 per 50,000

 

Crime Center (modifier) +5%

Cultural/Media Center (modifier) +5%

Exotic Population (modifier) +5%

Exotic/Mutagenic Resource (modifier) +10%

Gateway/Port City (modifier) +5%

Information Resource (modifier) +10%

Martial Arts tradition (modifier) +15%

Military/Law Enforcement Center (modifier) +5%

Monetary Focus (modifier) +5%

Mystic tradition (modifier) +10%

Political Center (modifier) +5%

Technological Center (modifer) +15%

 

Do these figures work? and are we missing any important modifier catagories?

 

Lets experiment: New York City

 

18 million including metropolitan area = 360 Supers

 

Crime Center, Cultural Center, Exotic Population, Gateway City, Information Resource, Monetary Focus, Political Center, Tech Center = +55% total modifier

 

Total Super Population = 558

 

About right if we're in the Marvel Universe. The Density figures could be adjusted depending on what sort of universe you desire. Thoughts?

[Mutant for Hire]

Well, remember what I said in a previous post about counterforces. The question is whether there's enough loot in the city to support ~279 supervillains (assuming a 50/50 split and that's actually conservative). Most likely there are going to be wars of sort weeding out the weaker supervillains.

 

I'd use 558x as the base character point 'pool' for the superhero population of the city, and then I'd divide it by the hard cap of supers per capita period to give the mean point base for characters in the city. I'm not sure what power curve scale I'd draw around it.

 

What that means is that past a certain point, percentage boosts do not increase the numbers of supers in a city, they just increase the average power level of the supers in the city.

 

Actually there's some feedback effect because the more powerful the villain, the more greater the chunk of the city they're going to want to themselves. A supervillain X times as powerful as the average is going to want X times the take of an average supervillain.

 

It's really even more complicated when you factor in minions and supervillain teams. But the short of it is that there might well be fewer superheroes than you might expect on average in New York City but when you look at the gross power level, it's where its predicted by your formulae.

[MarkusDark]

This is one of those discussions on an idea that I often feel are thought about too much. As witnessed by the WB's Smallville - even a very rural farm community could need even more than one superhero depending upon the situation.

 

In my game, I created the "Big Five" because I wanted to have a "top five crime cities". I chose NY, Dallas, Miami, Chicago and LA just because those are the ones that first came to mind from media and entertainment. Whether or not it was true, I just said, "In my world, they are," and went from there. My game takes place in Philly, about an hour outside of NY so they get the 'spillage'.

 

I have played in other games where geographic regions have been broken down by super teams. I don't bother to do that as I rarely have my heroes or villians operating outside of the area of the game. I figure it is extra work that I could put into other stuff.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by MarkusDark

This is one of those discussions on an idea that I often feel are thought about too much. As witnessed by the WB's Smallville - even a very rural farm community could need even more than one superhero depending upon the situation.

Well, there is that... green rocks from space, or Energy X dropped by an alien ship etc will be a big factor. If the GM wants , the super creating incidnet will occur in an unlikely spot and radiate out from there.

 

Works well for 'Unified origins' settings.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Mutant for Hire I'd use 558x as the base character point 'pool' for the superhero population of the city, and then I'd divide it by the hard cap of supers per capita period to give the mean point base for characters in the city. I'm not sure what power curve scale I'd draw around it.

 

That reminds me of the Sam Bell Protector's. He used the premise that there were a set number of points per world, so on a pararell Earth where there were only 12 supers...

 

Somehow we sort of held our own and managed to get a seat on the council of worlds. Though we shared it with one of the villian teams that we'd had fights with over the years.

[Ranxerox]

Re: My take on Hermit's question

 

Originally posted by Mutant for Hire

Going by straight population distribution is a bad idea. It's predicated on two assumptions that when closely examined a case can easily be made that neither one is true.

 

2. Metahumans after having their origins will remain in their community.

 

 

Bakersfield's hometown hero Roughneck has to remain in the community. His parole officer will not let him leave.

 

It is a long story involving a lot of beer.