Super humans populations in cities

[BlackSword]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

I use the "random manifestation" as a part of the reason for superpowers' date=' so there are many, many superhumans in China (and India too). [snip']

Hmm, hadn't thought of China and India yet in my world (fortunataly the heroes haven't asked ). I might steal some of the ideas, perhaps use that part of China is now a super-villains hold-out and he has attracted some like minded asian super-villains to him. I might add an underwater population to the lake that is being formed by Three Gorges Dam.

[assault]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

There are very few supers anywhere in my campaign world.

 

I'm not sure if there are any in India. There are at least a couple of Chinese ones, but these are mainly outside China. In particular, my world's version of VIPER originated in southern China in the 1950s, but were pretty much driven out by 1960.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

to steal from the authority cities are sentient and they wish to be protected so they create super heroes as antibodies.

[Guest C--]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

China and India don't have a lot of supers, because Americans invented the comic book, and we publish a billion times more comics than China or India do. Thus, we get more supers. You think they give America credit in, I don't know, whatever... crappy mystic legend or something that they have? No way. When they're huddled around the fire and making cave paintings, they don't tell of Americans coming in and killing the tiger that was eating their village. So we don't have to give them superheroes.

 

I like a super game that conforms more to a Silver or Bronze Age sort of comic. So supers don't appear just according to population. Supers appear where they're needed, and where people are willing to step up and sack up. The radiation is just a catalyst--you need a specific type of person to actually get the powers. People in Marvel comics should wear t-shirts that say "I got bit by a radioactive spider and all I got was this lousy tumor." In a society that values conformity (China), you don't have enough of the sparks of individuality that are needed to be true superheroes. And in a society that says "life will be better when you're not a member of the untouchable caste when you next reincarnate", there's a complacency and an acceptance of one's status in life. That isn't superheroic.

[Guest C--]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Superheroes want to help people. They go to cities because there are more people to help. I live in Oklahoma City. The OKC area is a bit over a million people. It's also about a thousand-plus square miles. The chance of stumbling across a burning apartment house or something is pretty darn slim. You need to go to a place with a higher population density.

[OddHat]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

I run it similar to Iuz. My game-world's China is overflowing with Supers, most in the Chinese tradition as seen in Wuxia films. The result is a China where the government only really holds power in Beijing and Shanghai, while the rest of the country is broken up among superhuman warlords. Hong Kong and Taiwan, having the highest concentrations of Supers, are effectively fully independent, though the United Nations only recognizes the Beijing government. Similarly, India has a huge Super population, and has benefited from it far more than China, becoming an even more serious player in world affairs.

 

Chinese films and comic books are full of people who wear distinctive costumes, fly, move faster than bullets, throw blasts of energy, and have unique superhuman powers. The claim that they don't qualify as Supers doesn't impress me.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

I (obviously) agree with the Chinese angle. My Indian supers are impacted to a large degree by the "style" of their powers. Lots of spiritually-oriented or ascetic power based type powers (it can be hard to be a superhero when you have your points tied up in wierd extra-dimensional movements or transforms that affect people's spiritual state or multiforms that serve primarily to look wierd and be a personification of an idealized state). They've also got a bunch of social norms which impact the ability of their citizenry to be active superheroes, such as a caste system (more rural than urban, but still a factor) and very rigid gender roles (again, more rural than urban). All those factors together reduce the Indian "active superhuman" population to slightly less than the United States', and they're considerably less "active" being tied up with their country's internal difficulties of famine and frequent military conflicts with nearby Pakistan (who has their own supers). All told, this effectively greatly reduces the role of the Indian superhuman in world affairs in my world.

[OddHat]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

I (obviously) agree with the Chinese angle. My Indian supers are impacted to a large degree by the "style" of their powers. Lots of spiritually-oriented or ascetic power based type powers (it can be hard to be a superhero when you have your points tied up in wierd extra-dimensional movements or transforms that affect people's spiritual state or multiforms that serve primarily to look wierd and be a personification of an idealized state). They've also got a bunch of social norms which impact the ability of their citizenry to be active superheroes' date=' such as a caste system (more rural than urban, but still a factor) and very rigid gender roles (again, more rural than urban). All those factors together reduce the Indian "active superhuman" population to slightly less than the United States', and they're considerably less "active" being tied up with their country's internal difficulties of famine and frequent military conflicts with nearby Pakistan (who has their own supers). All told, this effectively greatly reduces the role of the Indian superhuman in world affairs in my world.[/quote']

 

Very valid approach. These days I go with the "India as World Power" angle, but that's mainly because I wanted a chance to contrast how I saw Supers working in a developing democracy as opposed to a dictatorship.

[casualplayer]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Supers go to the cities because otherwise all their points spent on Swinging were wasted. Without a tall building to leap in a single bound, you may be accused of bragging. Magnetic powers in the big city can throw girders; in the country you have to throw monster trucks and bass boats. Without skyscrapers to get in your way, megascale knockback puts you into the next county and out of the fight. No one likes losing their headquarters to a tornado. If you think inner city youth go armed, try living where baby strollers come with gunracks.

[Guest C--]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Bass boats are made of fiberglass.

[TheEmerged]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Actually, for NeoChampions I use a "genre convention no-prize" I originally created for the Emergence campaign: novadom is 'contagious' -- the chance of any particular person become a nova (person with superpowers) is directly proportional to the amount of contact they have with novas, and how powerful those novas are.

 

For example, my fictional city of Michtendorf was home to Hyperion (campaign equivalent of Superman/Captain Marvel), in his prime one of the 5 most powerful novas on the planet. Over time, Michtendorf has become the 'nova capital of the world', at least in part because of his presence there. As more novas arrived there, there was more nova contact going on...

 

To put it another way; on a global average about 1 in 1,000,000 people are novas. However this is skewed greatly from place to place; in Michtendorf (population roughly 2 million) it's about 1 in 20,000. Cincinnati Ohio (which is still in the Top 10 cities in America size-wise in the campaign world) has about 30 novas of various power level in the area (including the PC's).

[tusaboss]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Since in the superheroic genre every incident is likely to give superpowers to someone, the majority f superheroes/supercriminals will be located where the rate of annual incidents is higher...So big cities should be on the top of the list. Also, since superpower-generating incidents seems to preferably involve high tech devices (irradiated spiders, toxic wastes, generic lab explosions) the total should be further biased in favor to big cities...However, speaking of mutations, rural towns could be preferred...

 

Lana: "Clark! You just lifted that truck bare handed! Are you an alien, perhaps?"

Clark: "Well...I...Uhm...No, you see...I am just an inbred."

Lana:"Oh."

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Since in the superheroic genre every incident is likely to give superpowers to someone, the majority f superheroes/supercriminals will be located where the rate of annual incidents is higher...So big cities should be on the top of the list. Also, since superpower-generating incidents seems to preferably involve high tech devices (irradiated spiders, toxic wastes, generic lab explosions) the total should be further biased in favor to big cities...However, speaking of mutations, rural towns could be preferred...

 

Lana: "Clark! You just lifted that truck bare handed! Are you an alien, perhaps?"

Clark: "Well...I...Uhm...No, you see...I am just a cropsy"

Lana:"Oh."

 

What the heck is a cropsy?

[tusaboss]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Mhh...Perhaps I used a wrong word...I heard the term in the "Downtown" animated serie from MTV, but perhaps they invented it or I misunderstood the word.

Anyway, how do you call those (mythical, I guess) yokels that marry between cousins or between brothers and sisters and as such have things like six-fingers, extra or missing eyes, displaced facial features and so on?

(like Custer's friend in Preacher, for example)

[Foxiekins]

Cities and the West...

 

In my campaigns, I've gone with the Hybrid Vigor model... Basically, someone is more likely to manifest extranormal abilities if their genetic parents have genetic diversity between them...

 

The notions of 'racial purity' and a 'master race' fly in the face of this, and thus the Third Reich kind of shot itself in the foot as regarded supers...

 

And the West, being nations of mostly immigrants, has a much larger ratio of extranormal incidence... And the trend is highest in the cities, where larger populations mix...

 

After all, look at how many heroic characters in myth, with enhanced ability, were half-breeds...

[input.jack]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Ive been running a long-time campaign called "Metaworld", where alot of the paranormals are....you guessed it...called Metas.

 

While occult masters and living avatars and accidents of science -do- exist, along with incredibly strong-willed normal Humans who put on costumes -anyway- and play in the big leagues, at least half of the known paranormals have recieved their powers through the Metavirus, which can only be carried by about 7% of the population. Everyone else is immune, and the virus dies out in their systems. And of that 7%, only about 1% of -them- actually manifest actual, full-blown super-powers, although the carriers usually gain some secondary benefits (better overall health, stronger bones and teeth, etc).

 

The kicker here is that...the Metavirus is transmitted through fluid transfer.

 

Its like an STD.

 

So, naturally, Metas are more prevalent in areas where sexual attitudes are more open-minded.

 

(It's also -very- important to note that attitudes toward sexuality in Metaworld resemble the 1960s-1980's more than the 1990s-present, since their advanced science, due to having super-scientists around since the 1800's, has allowed them to find a cure for things like AIDS and HIV, which we havent in -our- world because we dont have the advantage of Metaworlds medical technology base).

 

So far, only a few people have figured out how the Metavirus works; that its a DNA-altering retrovirus, and that its transmitted thru fluid transfer. No one has figured out -where- it came from, or why it is that those individuals capable of manipulating magic are immune to the virus, and those individuals with the active Metavirus are -totally- incapable of manipulating magic...

[Guest C--]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Mhh...Perhaps I used a wrong word...I heard the term in the "Downtown" animated serie from MTV, but perhaps they invented it or I misunderstood the word.

Anyway, how do you call those (mythical, I guess) yokels that marry between cousins or between brothers and sisters and as such have things like six-fingers, extra or missing eyes, displaced facial features and so on?

(like Custer's friend in Preacher, for example)

 

They're called "inbreds".

[Guest C--]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Supers are more likely to be created around other supers. You're more likely to get dropped in a vat of chemicals if you hang out with people who have combats in such areas. Witness the anime Ranma 1/2. There are a high number of people in a fairly small area who change form when doused with water. That's because you're more likely to get exposed to that kind of weird crap if you hang around Ranma. Continuously interacting with weird crap can get you weird powers.

[tusaboss]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

They're called "inbreds".

 

Thank you. I edited the post :-)

[Guest C--]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

For those of you who may wonder about the term "cropsy", there's an old New Jersey campfire legend about a gardener named Cropsy. One night, the kids at a summer camp tried to play a trick on ol' Cropsy, but ended up setting him on fire. Cropsy ran into the lake to extinguish the flames, but his body was never found. Legend has it that he still haunts the lake area to this day, seeking vengeance for the horrible burns he suffered.

 

This campfire tale is also the plot of the early 80's horror movie The Burning, and was one of the inspirations for the movie Friday the 13th.

[st barbara]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

To "Iuz The Evil" What sort of powers do your Indian Supers have ? I placed seven super heros in India in my "all the worlds heros list", ranging from a super strong wrestler (one of the worlds best) to a green skinned girl with different powers depending on whether it is day or night.

[Superskrull]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Bass boats are made of fiberglass.

 

Don't they use aluminum for structural support. Yeah, I know it's also a nonferrous material, but still...

[McCoy]

Re: Cities and the West...

 

In my campaigns, I've gone with the Hybrid Vigor model... Basically, someone is more likely to manifest extranormal abilities if their genetic parents have genetic diversity between them...

 

The notions of 'racial purity' and a 'master race' fly in the face of this, and thus the Third Reich kind of shot itself in the foot as regarded supers...

 

And the West, being nations of mostly immigrants, has a much larger ratio of extranormal incidence... And the trend is highest in the cities, where larger populations mix...

 

After all, look at how many heroic characters in myth, with enhanced ability, were half-breeds...

Caused or effect? Were the historic metahumans hybreds, or in a culture without the concept of mutation were metahumans explained as being children of the Gods?

 

Or both?

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

To "Iuz The Evil" What sort of powers do your Indian Supers have ? I placed seven super heros in India in my "all the worlds heros list"' date=' ranging from a super strong wrestler (one of the worlds best) to a green skinned girl with different powers depending on whether it is day or night.[/quote']

 

Well, I don't detail most of them... have only run one adventure in India in my entire GMing career, though the old UNTIL group I ran in the early '90s did a couple humanitarian aid missions there. I've got one named Guru, who has massive clairsentience and transform "mortal to state of higher consciousness" that the PCs interacted with briefly (wasn't terribly helpful, as he's pretty unintelligible to people who don't share his state of "higher consciousness") - he's pretty incredibly powerful within his limited scope, but reclusive and spends most of his time contemplating the nature of existence, that butterfly over there, his navel, or whatever (so the PCs don't run off to consult with him all the time as a deux ex machina). Has a following that believes him to be an Avatar of Brihaspati. Another, Puchan, exists on multiple levels of reality and travels extradimensionally, sometimes without meaning to. I've sketched out a couple others as well, but haven't statted them out (mostly around spheres of influence attributed to various Vedic Powers in AD&D, and ideas that I had related to rather stereotypical ideas about Indian culture and history: Yama (who transforms the dead into their next incarnation - Transform: dead body to living creature of different species), Singh (from Kingdom of Champions... who's a Sikh), Sultan (with persuasive mind control - follower of Islam from the Punjab region), and Trishul (martial artist w/ psychic trident that disintigrates matter... Indian government operative). There are many, many others in "my" campaign universe... most as I mentioned make no appearance (due to caste constraints or gender in the rural areas, odd power builds or lack of interest in 'superheroics' in urban areas mostly).

 

Anyway, that's pretty much all the effort I put into the Indian region. Just wanted a rationale so that the superworld wasn't overrun by massive numbers of Indian superhumans and I could keep a western feel to the campaign (same reason I destabilized China).

[Basil]

Re: Super humans populations in cities

 

Well, all the 'mundane' explanations for supers-in-cities have been covered, and a few interesting ideas re. non-mundane explanations as well. I've got an idea for a non-mundane explanation I'd like to toss out.

 

It's because of belief. Superpowers exist because people believe they're possible. It's not the belief of the possessors, mind you, but of everyone around them. Further, all superpowers are powered by this belief. It doesn't matter what the power-source seems to be, the real source is generalized belief. This applies even to techno-gadgets; the reason comicbook-y "super tech" gadgets, gadgets that far exceed known and expected tech is they aren't really run by "undiscovered principles" but by being believed in by folks.

 

Obviously, the denser the "field" of belief, the more power can be tapped. Thus, the tendency of supers to congregate in cities. Interestingly, this also explains why there are fewer supers outside "western civilization" --- belief in and understanding of superpowers is a lesser part of the culture.

 

Of course, that's just one (silly) idea; use, alter, or ignore as you wish.