WWYCD: Wonder Drug

[Metaphysician]

In the setting in which your character resides, a medical breakthrough hits the media. A group of biotech researchers* has discovered a drug that triggers metahuman power development in humans, with "minimal" side effects**. Also, they announce that, thanks to the generous support of their "patrons,"*** the research expenses are mostly payed off, so that they are now putting the drug on the open market for the comparatively low starting price of about $100 thousand for a single course of it, with suggestions that the price will go down over time.****

 

What does your character do??

 

Note ( highlight to view ):

 

* Investigating the researchers reveals that they are not members of any secret or villainous organization. Some of them have a fascination with the idea of making or becoming superhuman, but none suffer from any serious psychological problems, nor do any have any particular ulterior motive, beyond making gaining fame and possibly superhuman powers.

 

** If you investigate the drug in more details, it turns out that known side effects consist of relatively minor gross physical alterations, such as skin color change or size increase; ultra-advanced research tricks reveal more serious health consequences occuring only about as often as with typical vaccines. The drug is, in fact, non-addictive, and the effects are permanent, enough to turn the average mundane into a 350 point superhuman, give or take. The exact results are unpredictable, however.

 

*** Investigating the patrons reveals that they consist mainly of a mixed bunch of wealthy individuals, who have contributed large sums of money to the goal of becoming superhuman in a safe manner ( and not just to this project either ). While individuals members might be sketchy, the group as a whole is exactly what it appears to be.

 

**** Checks at the FDA reveal that somehow, they researchers and their patrons managed to fit the drug into an exception to the normal lengthy approval process. Attempts to turn the FDA or other government agencies against the drug result in serious resistance from the wealthy patrons, barring strong and supportable justification.

[sinanju]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Hell's Angel, currently engaged in an adventure against an anti-metahuman organization, quietly snickers to herself at the thought of the anyeurism those guys will be having now. Otherwise, she does nothing. The backers seem to be exactly who and what they say they are. The wisdom of taking a drug that will cause unpredictable changes to your body (and your life) seems questionable...but she won the genetic lottery for free, so who is she to say others shouldn't have the chance if they want it badly enough?

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Uncle Slam would have a tough call. He's for freedom of all kinds. At the same time he understands why guns are registered and drugs controlled. To him this is like giving out weaponry. Also, it pretty much assures that the rich are the only people with superpowers. He'd contact some congressional allies and see about possibly requiring that much the way that guns are controlled so too would be this drug. And if this led to superhumans having to register as well, he'd not like it, but he'd compy with the law.

 

Anthem would fear this, but she would feel like there was nothing she could really do about it, having no pull with anyone and feeling a hypocrite if she says it shouldn't be done. If a bill like the one Uncle Slam suggests above came about, and essentialy required superhumans to also register if they already have powers, she would not do so, under right to privacy reasons. She'd see that as a road toward persecution of people who happen to be born different.

 

Audra Blue would try to get a hold of some. She'd work every avenue of information she could and eventually would try it out on herself. She'd love to no longer feel vulnerable (which she basically is, in a fight). There would be a great risk, because a size change could cause her cybenetic implants to kill her.

[Bengal]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Great WWYCD!

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Lessee...

 

Rook would be torn. One the one hand, more superhumans helps prevent his timeline, right? On the other, maybe it doesn't. He'd probably err on the side of legality and do nothing about it, and try to keep his 'fellows' out of it. Still, the ability to manufacture superhumans could well end up with a future like his...

 

Estatua would probably be positive. Where some people are seeing the superhumanity as the main benefit of the drug, he sees it as a possible cure all. As someone given superhuman powers thanks to medical science, he understands.

 

On the other hand, if his opinion matters, this breakthrough will be based in South America, so there will be a lot of concern about WHO is using it. Then again, creating a non-brandname version could be interesting... (someone else doing it, not E) - a world where everyone was super would be interesting.

 

Ghost, Silyione and Sludge are in non-appropriate worlds.

 

Division, as a cop, would take no actions over it unless directed, but he'd be worried. 350 is more powerful than he and his, and the rich aren't always the most stable people. Still, not enough reason to do something... unauthorized.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Eve, being child like would think it was great people could get superpowers. She wouldn't likely do anything the rest of the team made a move.

 

Shidoku would mutter something about about **** hitting the fan and wait the inevitable chaos when dozens of new freaks hit the street. She'd use her contacts to see if there was some underworld connections and try like hell to keep the stuff from hitting the black market. Likely with little success.

 

Tao would immediately try to assess the potential impact on crime rates the influx of new superhumans would create. But as the substance is currently legal would take no direct action against its distribution.

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Badger-doesnt care, if he does care would see it as "maybe I can get more exciting fights more often".

 

Another member of the team

Weasel- "Well humanity is screwed."

[Bucky]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Bucky would establish an academy of some type, charging large tuitions to help train the folks in their new found super powers. Or figure out some other way to make a ton of cash off the idea.

[OddHat]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Style - Would be very concerned. He'd assume that this sort of drug would quickly fall into the hands of criminal cartels, terrorist groups, and the world's governments, and that the results woud be catastrophic. He'd use every divination spell he could t find out if it was possible to stop this, and would be willing to mind-wipe all those involved if he had to.

 

Flesh Gordon - Flesh is an optimist, and he has seen worlds with technology advanced enough that most citizens had access to amazing powers. "No hunger, no sickness, no poverty. Every man with biceps like bowling balls, every woman with buttocks of living steel. It will be paradise. Then the world will blow up; they always do."

 

Legend - Will see that this means the deaths of millions as soon as Islamic Jihad or Al Quaeda pays to have a few dozen supers legally created. He will speak to any mystic with precognition he can find about possible ways to stop it. Unlike Style, he would not be willing to strike at the creators of the drug, so long as he knew that they were innocent of any wrongdoing.

[teh bunneh]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Myrmidon, who is a conspiracy freak, would be very worried about this -- especially given its price, meaning that only large organizations and really wealthy people would be able to afford it. He would do as much research into the drug as he could -- probably even using team funds to buy some to study. If he could stop it, he would, but he knows that once you let the genie out of the bottle...

 

Blur got her powers through a similar circumstance, but she would be worried that someone who didn't have as strong a moral compass as she did would take the drug. But if the drug is perfectly legal, there wouldn't be anything she could do about it.

 

Chevelier would be very upset at this development. "You mean, I spend my entire life honing my body to ze state of perfection, learning ze esoteric martial arts, studying science, creating my weapons and armor, and now someone comes along with a pill zat anyone can take to be super? I zink not!" She, too, would stop it if she could, and might even quit the superhero business in a huff if she couldn't.

 

Bill.

[stmichaeldet]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Captain Saturn - Would wait patiently for the whole thing to blow up in their face. Eventually, someone - either an existing supervillain or, more likely, a group of their own creations - will decide that they want to be the ones controlling access to the drug. At that point, Saturn will be there to save their asses, and give them the ol' Stern Superhero Lecture.

 

The Comet - Would make certain (in his Mercer Davis, TV News Reporter persona) that every step along the way takes place with as much public scrutiny as possible. The pressure on the FDA would be of particular interest. After all, pressure by wealthy corporate interests on a government regulatory agency is unethical. Effective, but still unethical.

 

Gideon Swing - A weathly cabal funding research to provide the upper classes with superpowers? Jeez, this just pushes all of his buttons. He'd be doing anything he could think of to bring these guys down.

[incrdbil]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Hmm

 

Ranger I (Silver age)

Would shrug, prepare for the insanity.

 

Ranger II (Iron age) would probably take covert action to sabotage the drug, create false horror stories about side effects, with or without help from his governent contacts, (preferably having the drug stopped as a security risk) knowing the incredible damage to society to result as villainous groups buying up/steal the drug inventory. He'd naturally try to beat them to it, for use on recruits/agents that have passed the groups screening process. He'd pull about any dirty trick he could to put the screws on the wealthy patrons who succeeded in getting government backing, seeing the inevitable damage to society justifying whatever lengths he had to go to to stop the drugs distribution.

 

Hornet (Silver age)would do exhaustive studies, and wonder who mind controlled the FDA to go along with this idiocy, then explode in frustration seeing it was just the usual assortment of bribes. He'd develop a reversal drug/process to be ready to use. He'd attack the drug through a PR campaign since his tesam is pretty well liked.

 

Blaze (Bronze age) would stealthily use his cosmic power pool to sabaotage the drugs production and shipments making the drug relatively inert, then see if other opponents of the drug could get it taken care of. Failing that, the production facility would just..disappear..overnight. Repeat as needed. Blaze would even show up afterwards, trying to investigate the 'mystery', to make sure it wasnt the work of villains.

 

A villainous NPC I used as a GM, Blacksmith, (Bronze Age)would probably help fund this drug, even make a cheap copycat and distribute it widely, freely.--only because he'd be working up a tailored virus to affect those who use it, a form of communicable super-rabies (that is fatal over the long term), watching the inevitable damage to the world and the superhero population occur so as to make his inevitable world conquering plan a surefire success.

 

Shaister (Comedic Silver/Bronze age) would set up a company and sell placebo knock offs offs in a Internet Viagra type scheme.

[nightbringer256]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Tempest (as a hero)

he would be very up set. he would immediatly notify the galactic conncel and at the same time accurire and test the drug

 

Paper

would sigh. more work cleaning up bad guys mean less time to read her books.

 

Zorro

probably would try to use his influance in secrect Id (he won the silver medal in 2000 for fencing) to hold up the drug so his team mates could investigate.

 

Tempest (as a villian)

he would be the one making the drug, or he would make a cheap knock off and distribute it around to gangs for a price.

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Rock Bottom: Will assist with research on the drug by Johns Hopkins scientists, if a sample can be obtained. Prepares for the inevitable rampages by spoiled rich kids who suddenly have powers.

 

Calculus: Is astounded the military hasn't already made this drug a government monopoly. Will ask his friends with federal connections to look into why that didn't happen, even allowing for the bribes. Puts the company at the top of his "likely to have shipments hijacked, so make sure you know what's going on" list. "And why weren't they doing something useful, like curing that new disease, what's it called? Oh, yes, AIDS."

 

Mask of Justice: Checks to make sure none of his old enemies, especially the ones with mad science skills, are behind this. Back in the Golden Age, $100,000 *really* cuts down on the number of people who can afford the treatment. "And why didn't they give that drug to the war effort? Are they really American patriots?"

 

Kira Midori: Braces for the inevitable rise in powered idiots, good and bad, hitting the street. If she gets any bad premonitions, will follow up on them.

 

Talion: Checks his stock portfolio to see if he owns any part of the company producing the drug. If not, purchases some. He isn't too worried about the extra superpowered people hitting the streets, as his abilities can still take them. (Now if it turned them into robots, Talion would be worried.)

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

The whole thing seems a little far fetched even for a comic book:

 

1. The patrons decided to funnel a ton of money into what would normally be a pipe dream: creating supers. There's many other ways to make money that are less risky.

 

2. That the thing even works. In a campaign where there is some reasonable explanation (all people have powers innately but needs to be activated on some manner). Otherwise, a pill that can permanently give someone powers? Kinda out there.

 

3. FDA approval: powerful backers or not, this is not the type of drug that would get pushed through. For one, it's not really a medicine since being non-powered isn't a disease. Second, this is such a pandora's box that it would be studied forever.

 

4. Those who don't want to see this on the market: the government has laws against people owning AK-47's because it's dangerous to the general public. NO WAY it's going to allow a drug that gives someone super powers. It would be a destablizing affect on the goverment. If you didn't have the money, you could always steal it and imagine a bunch of gang bangers suddenly boosted to 350 pts.

 

5. Lots of villain groups like VIPER and DEMON have people in the government who would seek to block the product as well.

 

Sorry... just too far fetched.

[Dust Raven]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Zectron: Would start preperations for the GREAT SUPERHUMAN EXIBITION, which is really nothing more than a big party for everybody who gets new powers and offers programs for becoming superheroes.

 

Vantage: Would begin a propaganda campaign speading rumors about harmful side effects and addictive nature (regardless of the truth) and try to uncover the heinous plot behind the FDA's willingness to approve a drug that would effectively be handing anyone (with the money) leathal weapon that can't be confiscated or disabled, and might even call the IHA for help.

 

Cobalt: Would do the same as Vantage, but without the lies about the drug. Would also make a point of mentioning that the wealthy are already an elite class and don't need to be granted superpowers to make them even more elite.

 

Neovest: Would laugh and go back to his ball of yarn (he's a normal cat. well, a normal cat who used to be a familiar and knows a lot of magic).

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Just adding my characters (some of them anyway):

 

Lady Silver: would argue passionately and publicly against the whole thing. She'd cite that her own powers came from years of training and discipline and that it gives her a basis to use them responsibly. By contrast, these opens up powers to anyone with money: hardly the means to distribute such abilities. She's a little left and politically astute enough to note that this is more power into the hands of the few, elite, and wealthy. On a personal note, she'd see if her uncle's drug company was involved in this since she KNOWS he isn't doing this out of the goodness of his heart.

 

Sentinel: smacks his head into the wall repeatedly before calling his government contacts to find who why the heck no one is stopping this. Why not just let people buy Apache choppers while you're at it? It's hard enough keeping a small group of well-intentioned supers (the Silver Knights) in line. How the heck is the country supposed to deal with this crap?

 

Nova: more evidence that humans are nuts and unaware of the consequences that their actions have on their people and planet. Not comfortable with her new home, she'd stay quiet in public while resolving to battle anyone who would abuse their new powers.

 

Titan: would also rally against it and use his position as a billionare CEO to influence as many as he could to keep the formula on ice. He'd be vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy since he bought and built his own powers: powered armor. Still, he could point out that he uses it only for the public good and within the law. Also, while he does sell power armor it's either an open framed, lumbering civillain model for construction (like the walker from Aliens) or one for law enforcement with non lethal weapons and less powerful than his anyway.

 

Starknight: would remind the nation loudly that she'll be there to beat down anyone who tries to mess with the Knights with their new powers. She's not violent, just REALLY overconfident.

 

Phantom: would be very worried: as a non powered vigilante (he's also only an associate of the Knights), his job just got harder. Instead, he'd tried to sabotage the project covertly.

 

Speed Demon: freaking out since his acting career is based on being one of only a relative few supers in the world. A lousy actor, he REALLY doesn't need the competition.

[Southern Cross]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Southern Cross:Would not approve of such a wonder drug being marketed,especially as only "rich people" could afford it at first.Would try to Transform suitiable candidates who can't afford it into 350 point supers,but as the Transform requires a blood transfusion (as he's injecting nanites from his bloodstream into the person) it's going to be a slow process.

[dbsousa]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Golden Eagle would use his vast corporate empire to buy out the parent company, and then sit on the drug. He would then set a team of scientists to come up with a weaker form that turned people with crippling infirmities into able-bodied people. He would then put immense pressure on the FDA to restrict the drug to such legitimate uses. He would also study the drug himself to see if the powers it generated could be suppressed by a common phenomenon. If so, he would build a gadget that exploited this weakness into his suit until the new villain crisis was over.

 

Bouncer would pitch a new reality show to whomever would take a meeting, where he would take 20 contestants and pick one finalist to receive the drug and become ...The Sidekick.

[David Blue]

Re: WWYCD: Wonder Drug

 

Orgone Man: "At last!"

 

Orgone man would have been totally in favor of this, and he would have volunteered to use his Orgone Powers, with or without pay, to ensure that any reactions and mutations would be favorable, and to help the newly altered adjust. He would have been perfect for that.

 

Orgone man was worried about Mechanon, and robots overtaking organic life. Technology that would put organismic power way ahead of machines again was exactly what he wanted.

 

 

Gladiatrix: "Bring 'em on!"

 

I the player would have been delighted. New supers were desperately needed. The "worst" likely result of adding lots of them would have been that in sufficient numbers they might crush the player character team. Unless the new supers were consistently, remarkably evil, that would have been an improvement.

 

(The game had entered a typical Iron Age death-spiral where everybody was competing to be the worst, bloodiest, most callous gun-bunny, death-Ninja, Wolverine clone or whatever.)

 

So: "Bring 'em on!"

 

 

Chain Lightning: "Uh-oh!"

 

Chain Lightning would have regarded this with great suspicion. Now the rich will be able to be practically a superior species? Oh boy. He would try to find out who was going to get these treatments, and sort out the likely villains from potential allies. He would also assume there was going to be a big robbery directed at the super-formula, and he would try to be on hand to bust his enemies, if only so as not to have to deal with suddenly super tong assassins.

 

 

Last Hero: "Good!"

 

Last Hero perceives predatory and piratical aliens as the problem, and a humanity that can defend itself as the solution. If Earthlings are about to be more of a handful for any potential raider or invader: "Good!" But the setup didn't indicate anybody felt the need to have Last Hero participate in this, so it would be nothing to do with him.