Jane's Superhumans

[Blackjack]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

"Find a way to harness the powers of these paranormals in the service of the government. End of discussion."

 

Actually, that precise sentiment was the basis for the last game I ran for our Midguard group: a rogue element of the US government captured and brainwashed several known superhumans (heroes and villians alike) as the first stage of a project designed to insure that, when it came down to it, the government could usurp control over said supers. Each victim would then help capture more supers for the process, and so on - the end result being control over msot known supers.

 

Fortunately, Midguard stumbled onto the plan before the collected supers, or their controllers, were ready for the "big fish." They were able to free the brainwashed supers and cripple the operation...

 

... or at least, what they know of it so far... BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

[Kristopher]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Kristopher, do you really think that the military and other agencies are going to tell the government:

 

"Well, these paranormals are really powerful, but as they don't pass the battery of IQ tests and psychological exams, plus the fact they don't really want to work for us, so we can't use their powers and we're just going to let them go run around loose."

 

Wrong answer. The fact of the matter is that the powers that be are going to give orders to the military and other agencies:

 

"Find a way to harness the powers of these paranormals in the service of the government. End of discussion."

 

You're forgetting with special ops types that the main reason that we screen for patriotism and mental stability and so on is because there's a wide pool of candidates available and its cheaper/simpler/etc. to simply find people with the Right Stuff rather than taking people who fall short of that ideal and training them up to that level.

 

When you're dealing with a lottery and you get a random sample of types who hit the jackpot, then you don't get the luxury of picking and choosing who you get to work with from a vast pool of candidates. Instead you get a small pool of candidates and if none of them are up to spec, passing them over isn't much of an option.

 

So a housewife who tends to freeze up in a crisis gets the power to teleport. You don't have the option of having a vast range of teleporters to choose from, and your superiors in the government aren't going to be happy if you tell them that you can't use the powerful teleporter because they don't pass a few stress tests. They're going to tell you to train her until that isn't a problem anymore.

 

Yes, people with weaker powers but scoring high on traditional qualities the government looks for in agents are going to be favored, but for the folks with the strong talents, they're going to get a lot of attention from a battilion of psychologists finding the levers to persuade them to work for the government and to build them up to be proper agents.

 

Yes, it's a lot more expensive to give that teleporter all that training and conditioning on top of other sorts of training, but the question is, how much is a teleporter worth? Especially compared to what might happen if that teleporter fell into non-government hands. Compared to the amount of money the military spends on fighters, bombers and so on.

 

The question isn't whether the military finds it all that cost effective to train high power paranormals (and one can make an interesting study of that), but the question of whether the government can afford to let these folks run around loose anyway and whether or not the government really has a choice in not trying to make these folks into usable soldiers/agents.

 

A) There's a limit to what training can do, despite what the true believers will tell you. You can't make certain people into good soldiers, end of story.

 

Some supers will just be more trouble than it could ever be worth. Example: as it stands, Omega Girl is a fairly patriotic young woman who would step up to the plate for America in its hour of need, but has no interest in being a soldier or agent, or in taking orders. Is it really worth it to risk alienating her? Is it worth the damage she might do if you screw up? She's a 1000-point redhead with a Cosmic VPP, and you've just made her view the US government as a threat? Real smooth, General...real smooth.

 

C) I don't happen to think that the US government would get into the habit of dragging off housewives (such as you mentioned) and forcing them to become assassins and spies, even if they could teleport. I also don't think that most Americans would be all that comfortable with the idea of a certain group of their fellow Americans being drafted against their will simply because of an accident of birth (or whatever) that happened to grant them superpowers.

 

After all, today it's a teleporting housewife in Iowa, tomorrow it's your kid's friend who turns out to be bulletproof, and then what? Do the humorless men in cheap suits come get you the next day because you're really good with computers, or a crack shot with a hunting rifle? Where do they draw the line? (I'm already thinking of the ACLU's ad campaign.)

 

D) Assuming that the government did engage in such activities, and that the majority of Americans supported it, the result would be a lot of superhumans doing everything they could to hide and suppress their powers, which leaves the government with 1) fewer candidates and 2) a bigger PR problem if the agencies involved start trying to detect superhumans and drag them out of hiding.

[Publius]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

After all, today it's a teleporting housewife in Iowa, tomorrow it's your kid's friend who turns out to be bulletproof, and then what? Do the humorless men in cheap suits come get you the next day because you're really good with computers, or a crack shot with a hunting rifle? Where do they draw the line? (I'm already thinking of the ACLU's ad campaign.)

 

D) Assuming that the government did engage in such activities, and that the majority of Americans supported it, the result would be a lot of superhumans doing everything they could to hide and suppress their powers, which leaves the government with 1) fewer candidates and 2) a bigger PR problem if the agencies involved start trying to detect superhumans and drag them out of hiding.

Two excellent points among excellent points. These are some things I have not necessarily thought of, and would form the basis of a very neat role-playing setting.

 

One of the things I have long wondered about was the use of secret identities. Poo-poo it if you will, lawsuits are an excellent reason unless some shield law is developed (the likelihood of which is pretty-much dependent on the feelings that the public has towards Supers in your setting).

 

But this sheds a different light on the "Secret ID" issue, and an additional good reason: to avoid government pressganging you into service as an "official super". You want to help people and perform heroic acts using your paranormal abilities? Well heck, if that is the case you'd either better not be public about it or you'd better do something to cover your identity. The only problem here is that it would only be a matter of time before blood left at the scene of a titanic battle or something would allow the government to "CSI" you out in the open.

 

This may be something to consider even if it is only in the history of your setting. If the government was irradiating soldiers in the 1950s, why not trying to pressgang or brainwash supers? What would the reactions be to this among the public and the supers? (Shock, relief, hatred, distrust of government, etc.) What are the counterreactions of government to this? (a protest movement fostering greater distrust of government giving rise to official disavowal of further pressgang programs et al.)

[Trebuchet]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

D) Assuming that the government did engage in such activities' date=' and that the majority of Americans supported it, the result would be a lot of superhumans doing everything they could to hide and suppress their powers, which leaves the government with 1) fewer candidates and 2) a bigger PR problem if the agencies involved start trying to detect superhumans and drag them out of hiding.[/quote']Not to mention the probable result if other metahumans who haven't yet been scooped up in the government's schemes decide to take active measure against that governmental agency.

 

"Mr. Secretary, there's a Clark Kent here to see you. No, I don't know what he wants, but he's with the press. And he insists on speaking with you."

[Chuckg]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Yes, there is a certain measure of futility involved in taking draconian measures to guard against the /possibility/ of supers that might decide to turn against the government...

 

... when those policies themselves are such that they would /guarantee/ supers turning against the government.

 

I mean, the words "self-fulfilling prophecy" were /born/ to describe this.

 

As were the words "Greek tragedy".

 

Not to mention the words "very foolish people".

[Mutant for Hire]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Kristopher:

 

A) True, but we never let that stop us before when we've had the draft. Now admittedly, there's a question of whether people who are drafted will ever become top of the line mentally, and the answer is probably no. On the other hand, the objective here is not to achieve perfection but to get paranormals who are usable in government service in some fashion. You have this mentality that if you can't train a paranormal to special ops level, they're useless, which I don't feel is the case.

 

Well, there's a problem with just leaving Omega Girl from walking around. You see, what if Omega Girl ever blows her lid and causes some devistation, or there's some sort of incident involving Omega Girl and property damage and/or people being hurt. Will the government be let off the hook for letting her go walk around. People are going to demand an explanation as to why the government let a walking nuclear warhead go around loose.

 

And there this little problem of foreign recruitment. Sure the United States is a sweetheart and leaves her be. The question is, will foreign governments seeing her power let her run around loose, or will they start trying to find ways to leverage her power, taking her family hostage and applying other pressures to secure her cooperation by any means necessary.

 

The fact is, when you're a 1000 point super, all of a sudden you're an important person, period. You can't pretend to be normal and you can't do what you please independent of and ignoring the existing power structures. That's not how the world works. Anyone or anything of any existing power has to be fitted into the existing power structures. You can't lead a normal life and you have to start taking sides.

 

This issue incidentally also applies to more weaker supers. Even if the government leaves that teleporting housewife alone, what happens if some terrorist group nabs her kid and demands she start planting bombs if she wants her child to stay alive?

 

You're viewing this strictly as the individual versus the government. I'm seeing a war between various power factions over the paranormal population. In the end, these people are going to have to ally themselves with a faction unless they're powerful enough to stand on their own, and that means going rogue.

 

C) Given the dangers above of terrorists and organized crime recruiting paranormals by force, as well as some paranormals secretly abusing their power, I think a "Paranormal Security Act" which requires the government to take paranormals into government service wouldn't be that difficult to pass. The families of the paranormals would be given government protection in return for the paranormal serving their country loyaly, and the government would use said paranormals to fight terrorist paranormals as well.

 

And of course this act only affects paranormals. The rest of the public would not be affected. This isn't like the search and seizure acts of the War on Drugs or all the draconian measures of the Homeland Security Act, this just covers dealing with an inherently dangerous category of individuals who form only a very small minority in this country.

 

D) There are going to be anonymous tip lines and people with the power to detect paranormals, assuming there isn't any equipment to do so. If the government is using extreme measures to flush out potential terrorists, I don't think they're going to be exceptionally stymied at underground paranormals.

 

And there's another thing to: one of the things the government wants to do is to keep paranormals quiet and from using their powers against the common good. If they're paralyzed by fear, that works just as well as anything else. If the government can't find them, neither can anyone else, and that means there's a reduced danger they'll fall into the wrong hands.

[Chuckg]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

> A) True, but we never let that stop us before when we've had the draft.

 

I might point out that the idea of the draft is no longer considered viable by the US Military. Our entire structure is now built upon the postulate that service members will be volunteers, self-motivated, and of at least slightly above-average quality as compared to the general population.

 

> Well, there's a problem with just leaving Omega Girl from walking around.

> You see, what if Omega Girl ever blows her lid and causes some devistation, [snip]

 

Your proposed paranormal security measures only increase the probability of that, no? I mean, there's nothing like some good anti-meta persecution tactics to take otherwise "neutral" metas and kick 'em straight over into "hostile".

 

As the man once said, 'Never do an enemy a small injury.' If Omega Girl is truly so dangerous, you have only two choices: a) work to stay on her good side, or make sure she's dead before she even knows you're coming, much less what just hit her. There isn't much room for a middle ground.

 

[snip]

> And there this little problem of foreign recruitment. Sure the United

> States is a sweetheart and leaves her be. The question is, will foreign

> governments seeing her power let her run around loose, or will they start

> trying to find ways to leverage her power, taking her family hostage and

> applying other pressures to secure her cooperation by any means

> necessary.

 

This presumes that said foreign governments can operate freely in the Unitd States.

 

This also presumes that as soon as said foreign government tries it, she doesn't receive a visit from some nice government official going 'Jeez, didn't Bananaland just do something truly horrible? (Thought balloon: Not to mention pretty fucking dumbass.) Don't worry, our best hostage-rescue people are on it. (And boy, do we hope they don't miss.) Oh, and as soon as your family is safe, if you should feel the urge to do something completely horrible to Bananaland (who we've been praying for a meteor to fall on for the past ten years anyway, but the political capital of nuking their dumb asses would have been way counterproductive...) -- well, you're a private citizen, world public opinion will surely understand that you had just cause, and *coughcough* the US government will decline to take a position... (in public. In private, it's break out the champagne.)"

 

"What do you owe us for helping you out? (Hopefully lots, but this is the /soft/ sell, so I'm going to smile and lie.) Nothing, really." (Because, after all, you're a lot more likely to feel good towards us if we act like people who want to help, instead of like slave dealers trying to make a mercenary trade.)

 

> The fact is, w hen you're a 1000 point super, all of a sudden you're an

> important person, period. You can't pretend to be normal and you can't do

> what you please independent of and ignoring the existing power structures.

> That's not how the world works. Anyone or anything of any existing power

> has to be fitted into the existing power structures.

 

Yes. However, there are better ways for existing power structures to attempt such fitting than hostage-taking, the draft, or other such things that only guarantee that said 1000-point super will hate your ass even worse than she might have already.

 

And any reasonably intelligent power structure would already know this.

 

[snip]

> You're viewing this strictly as the individual versus the government. I'm

> seeing a war between various power factions over the paranormal

> population. In the end, these people are going to have to ally themselves

> with a faction unless they're powerful enough to stand on their own, and

> that means going rogue.

 

Then the obvious smart thing for the US government to do would be to act like the power faction that everybody wants to ally with the most -- friendly service, no waiting, and no gun to your head.

 

Flies. Honey. Vinegar. Do the math.

 

If the world is such that supers will *inevitably* be looking for a side to join, or else make their own, then what you want to do is look like the *BEST* side to hook up with -- not the worst.

 

The draft? Mutant registration? Marvel-Universe-style crackdowns? That's pretty down close to 'worst'.

 

> C) Given the dangers above of terrorists and organized crime recruiting

> paranormals by force, as well as some paranormals secretly abusing their

> power, I think a "Paranormal Security Act" which requires the government

> to take paranormals into government service wouldn't be that difficult to

> pass.

 

See above. *IF* we accept your arguments, then coming down as *hostile* is the *least* optimal strategy for the US government. The idea is to make 'going rogue' look like the *less* desirable alternative, right?

[Publius]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

There are a lot of cool ideas in this thread. Most of them are erfectly reasonable under given types of circumstances and with some advance thought.

 

Lets change gears, maybe a separate thread altogether would best handle this, kind of a version of the WWYCD stuff.

• Paranormal humans have emerged. You are a government official. What are you going to do? you perform action "x"
  
• Now flip around. You are a paranormal human (or a terrorist organization, or a foriegn government etc.). The government has performed an action "x". What is your reaction "y"?
  
• Flip Repeat.
  
• Flip Repeat.

...And so on. I actually think that this would be very instructive. There have been a lot of issues on both sides that have been brought up that I would not have necessarily thought of myself.

 

The only thing is that it will be hard is to keep it organized in one thread. Please assign the various Options a designation (A, B, C, etc.) so that we know which one you are starting/continuing. Also clearly state any underlying assumptions that you are making; other folks who disagree with those assumptions (or simply want to see another set of assumptions in operation) may want to start a new option with different assumptions (you may want to designate these A2, A3 etc.).

 

Option A:

 

Paranormal humans have just emerged. I am a government official, say someone running for the Presidency. I immediately press for the conscription of all parahumans; in fact I run for office on this premise. "Save humanity" and "Paranormals who have no cause to give us fear have no reason to hide" become my slogans. (Assumption>) A worried public, following one or two nasty dust-ups between powerful parahumans (see Wilder Napalm for details) votes in my favor. Claiming a "mandate" I proceed to whip congress into serving this up in the form of the Paranormal Registration Act.

 

Next person can either take on the role of a Parahuman or someone else (the ACLU protesting or another Lobby affirming, the Military using this list to 'recruit' from or conscript, a Foreign government using this to their advantage etc)...

[Mutant for Hire]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Here's more or less the pitch I see the government using on ordinary folks with powers:

 

"You think you can lead a normal life now? Sorry. You're not a normal person anymore. You're a paranormal. Paranormals don't lead normal lives. They can't lead normal lives. The fact is, there are forces out there that won't let you lead a normal life. Period. And I'm not talking about the United States government. You think we're the only game in town? Try the Mafia. Italian, Russian, you name it. Not to mention that there are terrorists who would be perfectly willing to kidnap your family and keep them hostage to make sure that they had your cooperation as well. We found you, other folks can and will find you."

"Fight them? These folks employ paranormals already. They are not nice paranormals. A lot of these folks were trained killers before they were paranormals. You haven't had a fraction of the experience they've had. And they're working in teams now. They'll have you flanked and brought down in minutes. I can promise you that first they'll take your family hostage and will start torturing, maiming and yes, killing them to secure your cooperation. If that fails, they will kill you. Why? To make sure you're never used against them. "

"That's the fact of life for a paranormal. We're willing to let you walk out that door and return to a normal life, but the fact of the matter is there are too many bad people out there who won't let you live that way. I'm really sorry about this, but blame fate, blame God, blame the bad guys, but that's the way things are. We can't undo what was done to you. However we can try to make this as easy as possible on you. We can't give you a normal life, but we can give you the next best thing to one."

"We can protect your family. We can protect you. We can teach you how to protect yourself. We can make sure that you earn a good living for you and your family. Government service. You'll earn a good paycheck with full benefits for you and your family. We'll give you the best training the government can give and believe me, we've got more people working on how to bring out the very best in you than anyone else. All we want is your help and cooperation. I won't promise you that it will always be an easy life, but the fact of the matter is that you'll be making a better world for you and your family."

"So you have a choice, you can walk out that door and condemn your family and yourself to either slavery or an early grave, or you can work for us and build a future for yourself and your family. What is it going to be?"

 

For a really powerful paranormal, like Omega Girl, the pitch is going to be more personal, but in general I think it will hit all of the same points. If you're a paranormal, you're not going to lead a normal life period. Everyone's going to hound you until you pick a side. Pick our side and we can make things very nice for you. Seven figure salary (for a thousand point super, that's fairly cheap), every benefit the government can give.

[Chuckg]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

I devoutly hope you never try for a career in advertising.

[Lightray]

A) True' date=' but we never let that stop us before when we've had the draft. Now admittedly, there's a question of whether people who are drafted will ever become top of the line mentally, and the answer is probably no. On the other hand, the objective here is not to achieve perfection but to get paranormals who are usable in government service in some fashion. You have this mentality that if you can't train a paranormal to special ops level, they're useless, which I don't feel is the case.[/quote']

Since I've been reading WWII history a lot recently, I know that it is possible to get top-of-the-line recruits out of a draft -- they're the draftees who volunteer for special duties (e.g., Airborne in WWII, etc.). The majority of the remaining draftees are far sub-par in performance. Another reason that the US Armed Forces abandoned their draft-based stance.

 

Well, there's a problem with just leaving Omega Girl from walking around. You see, what if Omega Girl ever blows her lid and causes some devistation, or there's some sort of incident involving Omega Girl and property damage and/or people being hurt. Will the government be let off the hook for letting her go walk around. People are going to demand an explanation as to why the government let a walking nuclear warhead go around loose.

This is a very weak argument in the US, where there are powerful lobbies who need to support the rationale that it's not whether people are armed, but what they do once they're armed that is of concern.

 

So, realistically, if someone in the US government decides Omega Girl can't be allowed to walk around, she'll have the ACLU and NRA on her side (plus any number of politicians either for or against).

 

Of course, these arguments could go completely different in, say, England.

 

Here's more or less the pitch I see the government using on ordinary folks with powers:

 

"You think you can lead a normal life now? Sorry. You're not a normal person anymore. You're a paranormal. Paranormals don't lead normal lives. They can't lead normal lives. The fact is, there are forces out there that won't let you lead a normal life...

Worst. Pitch. Evar. That wouldn't even read as realism in a Marvel X-book. Not only would it be dismissed as screamin' hyperbole, but it's entirely too evocative of "blacks are slaves and that's just the way things are" or "God hates gays and that's just the way things are".

 

"We can protect your family. We can protect you. We can teach you how to protect yourself. We can make sure that you earn a good living for you and your family. Government service. You'll earn a good paycheck with full benefits for you and your family. We'll give you the best training the government can give and believe me, we've got more people working on how to bring out the very best in you than anyone else..."

Now this is a good sales pitch. Cooperation is going to have to rely on the soft touch; heavy-handedness and demagoguery is only going to lead to the trigger-point you seem to think every government will go to any means to prevent.

 

I think governments are stuffed full of idiots, but they're not that stupid (unless they're living in a Marvel X-book).

[megaplayboy]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

I think there are other possible responses to government attempts at conscription/coercion:

1. lobbying and litigation--the ACLU and various civil libertarians inside and outside of government balk at such draconian measures--supers might even form their own lobbying group/PAC; after all, a lot of them are rich

2. coalition--supers and their supporters form groups to resist such measures--several dozen supers rallying on the capital steps before tens of thousands of cheering supporters would intimidate some politicians.

3. active covert resistance--leaks to reporters about illegal government coercion(it'd be pretty damn easy for a group of supers to document that kind of stuff); action by supervillain mentalists to influence bureaucrats and politicos one way or another; etc.

 

compelling supers to serve in the military might be a war in and of itself

[Metaphysician]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Treat dragon scales as heavy ceramic/composite armor' date=' or even equivalent to carbon nanofiber in strength. The fire breath is intense enough to melt mild steel, and the teeth and talons can rend thick plate horse barding, so an F-16 shouldn't be too much of a problem And of course the dragon can cast magic missile and automatically hit the pilot [/quote']

 

While dragonhide may well be that durable, for older dragons, the problem the dragon has is that his speed and range are ludicrously inferior to the F-16. He has no way to close distance, or to attack at sufficient range.

 

As for Magic Missile, even if it had range in the tens of miles, dragons don't, IIRC, have good enough eyesight for it to matter.

 

Edit: That, and I don't recall their being any ruling on how MM responds to transparent barriers. . .

[Chuckg]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

IIRC -- MM, being a force effect projectile, has the same requirement as any other projectile -- the target cannot be in total cover from you.

 

And while a transparent canopy isn't concealment, it *is* cover.

 

Not to mention, of course, that the maximum range of Magic Missile is way, way, way shorter than the distance F-18 ever needs to -- or ever will, unless it's being piloted by Mr. Magoo -- come to the dragon.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Ah, okay.

 

And for added enjoyment, you can't even bust the canopy and hope for blowthrough, because magic missile has precisely zero effect on inanimate objects.

[Lightray]

Ahem. d00ds. I must point out that the dragon + F-18 in question is from the cover of Dragon magazine #143.

 

Well, well before magic missile being a "Force" spell, partial or complete coverage rules, or dragons in general being very kick-ass at all.

 

All of those came with D&D 3.0

 

Dragon #143 is Old Skool D&D.

 

Please, go and reformulate your pedantry accordingly.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Even back in 2nd Ed, Magic Missile still had nowhere near sufficient range, nor did it have the ability to damage inanimate objects.

[Lightray]

Much better.

[megaplayboy]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Well, dragons don't have radar, that's for sure, but they are supposed to possess keener-than-human senses: hawk like eyesight, infrared vision, acute hearing, etc.

They'd also have a much tighter turn radius than an F-18. Not sure whether or not they could magically augment their flight speed; what kind of magical bag of tricks would be useful is a matter of debate. Any kind of weather summoning might make a difference...

[TheEmerged]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

So the general consensus is that most PC level supers are pretty useless against Military forces and in a realistic superhuman world that operated by Champions rules supers would mean diddley to the military?

 

Huh...our gm has definately been pulling punches or using alternate rules or something.

 

Informative thread...

 

Like Gewing said, "useless" is too strong of a word. Like Gary said, some powers would have a bigger effect than others.

 

Take my character, The Disruptor, as an example. His straight-up powers and defenses would do okay against an M2 or three as long as he was functioning intelligently -- but if he weren't functioning intelligently he'd run out his END Reserve after a couple of turns and then things get really dicey really quickly.

 

However, his 20d6 Dispel vs any one technological power (bought at +1/2 instead of +1/4 because it's so broad) allows him to do some absolutely evil things against powers bought with the Focus limitation, and he possess enough PSL's vs Range to make some use of them (not enough for aircraft or artillery though). Against aircraft his Invisibility vs Radar helps -- and he could rig up Invisible to Infrared with his small VPP. He also has some slots designed to hurt the "meat element" of vehicles, bypassing their defenses. Finally, he has a number of slots dedicated to "flight", and I ain't talking the power -- this means he has a very good chance of escaping when it gets too hot for him.

[Mutant for Hire]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

People, pay close attention to the government statement, the nasty part. The government didn't make any threats, they even said they could let the person go. The thing was, they'd be taking their own lives and the lives of their family into their own hands in those cases. They were giving people a choice, and simply making the choice of independence look bad. And frankly I don't think they're going to need to rely on propaganda for too long. In my opinion, they'll have plenty of documented cases before too long.

 

My own personal feeling is that the more ruthless elements of society would try some nasty things. As for foreign agents, America has plenty of foreign operatives working on American soil, counter to American interests. There has been a long history of recruitment and entrapment of people turning them into spies, moles, double agents and so on. Of course to be fair the United States does the same thing overseas. And even if we discount foreign agents there are criminal operations homegrown which are going to be an issue.

 

And so before too long, you're going to have plenty of documented cases of paranormals who were captured, had their families taken hostage or even were simply killed out of hand for being too stubborn. The government might even be able to give these folks survivor stories from people who turned down the government offer and ended up in a hole. After being bailed out by government agents they accepted the government's offer because they learned the hard way that they were a target and in danger, as were those closest to them.

 

And frankly I don't think it's going to be too difficult to get a Paranormal Registration Act passed, the NRA and ACLU notwithstanding. Where was the ACLU when the Homeland Security Act was passed? Sure, something like that may be challenged, but do you think the average citizen isn't going to want to know whether or not someone is a telepath? Especially in something like the financial market? Should precognatives be allowed to buy lottery tickets or leak information about lottery values to anyone.

 

The fact is that the bulk of society is not going to want to allow paranormals to hide themselves, and once flushed out, they're going to be attractive targets to a whole bunch of ruthless people. There's going to be a lot of pressure on them from various directions to use their power for someone. The government can offer protection from the more exploitative elements in return for government service.

[Kirby]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

The fact is that the bulk of society is not going to want to allow paranormals to hide themselves' date=' and once flushed out, they're going to be attractive targets to a whole bunch of ruthless people. There's going to be a lot of pressure on them from various directions to use their power for someone. The government can offer protection from the more exploitative elements in return for government service.[/quote']

I think you're really stretching here. In my opinion (and these are all opinions since we don't have any instances close enough to relate to) supers/paranormals would be more likely to become celebrities than feared. The government doesn't go force-recruiting men and women from the Mr. & Ms. Universe contests, nor do they subvert Olympic athletes. Maybe 50-60 years ago this might be a feasible theory (considering the panic War of the Worlds created). But in today's society where you can become a household name for being voted off (SHE BANG!), imagine what a person with talent or capabilites can become.

 

There still would be those that feared paranormals simply because they're different, and there'd be those who'd fear them because a few might commit crimes, but overall I don't see your situation becoming a reality, unless the vast majority of supers/paranormals were tempted by their powers to abuse society.

[Kirby]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

Super celebrity powers:

 

STR: Like, oh my gosh, can you lift that car over your head? Ooooh.

 

SPD/DEX: Guess what else I can do fast? Who needs a motorcycle, baby?

 

Stretching: My tongue has special talents, along with something else.

 

Shapeshift: I can be anything you want me to be.

 

Energy blast: Dude, watch me light the beer pyramid up. Oh, man, I blew it up. Cool!

 

Flight (Simply impressive)

 

Gliding: Go for a joy ride.

 

Transform: What do you want? I can make it. Here's a bigger diamond for you.

 

I'm sure others can think of powers that would grant pseudo celebrity status. Then, think of TV and Hollywood. Both would come a calling. "Bruce Lee? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Nah, I got this guy that can run 50 mph and lift 5,000 pounds without sweating."

[Guest bblackmoor]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

But in today's society where you can become a household name for being voted off (SHE BANG!)' date=' imagine what a person with talent or capabilites can become.[/quote']

 

William Hung can't blow holes in a schoolbus by squinting at it. Considering how worked up people get over a normal, law-abiding citizen carrying a simple sidearm (I have a concealed carry permit from the state, I have a Secret security clearance, I have been throughly background tested and screened, and it's still illegal for me to walk into Pizza Hut or a Chili's carrying a pistol under my jacket), I shudder to think what it would be like for people who can shoot fire from their fingertips.

[Mutant for Hire]

Re: Jane's Superhumans

 

I think you're really stretching here. In my opinion (and these are all opinions since we don't have any instances close enough to relate to) supers/paranormals would be more likely to become celebrities than feared. The government doesn't go force-recruiting men and women from the Mr. & Ms. Universe contests' date=' nor do they subvert Olympic athletes. Maybe 50-60 years ago this might be a feasible theory (considering the panic [u']War of the Worlds[/u] created). But in today's society where you can become a household name for being voted off (SHE BANG!), imagine what a person with talent or capabilites can become.

Obviously, we've hit the point where we disagree. And I should add in my sample pitches the government is not force recruiting. They give people the choice of walking out the door. They just tell them that the consequences of that, through no fault of the government will not be to their liking.

 

We're also living in a society where people get paranoid about nail files brought onto airplanes. Where we have hunters who go around gunning down fellow hunters one by one. My own feeling is that society is going to react a lot more harshly than you might think.

There still would be those that feared paranormals simply because they're different, and there'd be those who'd fear them because a few might commit crimes, but overall I don't see your situation becoming a reality, unless the vast majority of supers/paranormals were tempted by their powers to abuse society.

My own feeling is that a few are going to abuse their powers and then everyone else is going to get paranoid. Again, people get all freaked out about nail files and pocket knives brought onto airplanes. Why? Because in a few cases they've been abused badly.