How Many U S Heros ?

[Mike W]

Re: How Many U S Heros ?

 

That would make the assumption that some super is willing to live in Vegas just to keep it safe. It also assumes the mob or FBI doesn't perform that role. Aside from money' date=' Vegas has little attraction and the casinos are sure to take steps to secure their money whether that involves special technology, hiring their own supers, etc. They couldn't afford to operate if they depended on the kindness of a vigilante or local do-gooder for security.[/quote']

 

Another thing to consider about Vegas is that it is very close to LA, about an hour away by conventional airliner. So an superhero team in LA worth their salt can be in Vegas in 15 minutes or less. For an Avengers or X-men level jet, it would take longer to warm the plane up than fly it there. But I could easily see one or two independents hanging around Vegas for the glamour and the parties. The Champions CU has several good candidates. And actually, to expand on one of your comments about the casinos hiring their own supers, I could see them pooling their resources to have their own agents, or even small team, to handle any casino business. It wouldn't be hard for them to afford a couple people on permanent retainer, and that level of cooperation would not be at all out of line with normal business. Heck, they have slot machine games where machines at several different casinos all play toward the same mega-jackpot. Whether these charactars are "heroes", "villains" or something in between depends on how mobbed up you think the casinos still are. On the other hand, if only SOME of the casinos are hooked up with the mob, you could have the beginnings of a very interesting gang war(or at least some bizarre rivalries if different casino groups hire wildly different security types. Maybe the mob group hires from the villain pool and the "legit" casinos hire from the hero pool.).

[Mike W]

Re: How Many U S Heros ?

 

I came to the conclusion quite some time ago that exercises like this don't really make much sense.

 

For starters, they are inherently an exercise in cooking the data to get the results you want. As such, the "modifiers" that are applied are inevitably arbitrary. Worse, they are often based on wild-eyed stereotyping.

 

But, more to the point, why would you bother? Does it really add anything to a game to know that there are thousands of supers around, when they will never actually appear in your game?

 

Furthermore, numbers like this don't tell you anything about "Hidden Land" type populations. Essentially, it is quite possible that figures like this could underestimate superbeing numbers by 50% or more!

 

There is a more fundamental problem, though, and that is the assumption that superbeings are common enough and regularly enough distributed that statistical methods are actually useful in analysing them.

 

Frankly, I prefer to assume that that isn't the case. My worlds tend to have very small numbers of superbeings, apart from the Hidden Land populations.

 

In some of my settings, most of the "superbeings" lack inherent powers. In most cases, there are usually fewer than a hundred non-Hidden Land "supers" of whatever origin.

 

The setting I am currently fiddling about with is inspired by the very early Marvel Universe. There are (equivalents of) Atlanteans, the Moleman's subterranean lackeys, and probably the Inhumans. There are (equivalents of) Skrulls and various other aliens. Otherwise, there are a bunch of radiation accidents, minor mystics, mad scientists and gadget users. And there's probably an android and a super-soldier around somewhere too.

 

That's about it.

 

I think it depends on the type of superbeing. And personally, I like an attempt at statistical modeling, just to give the universe some coherence and make it seem a little less haphazard. It also helps me to fit characters, both PC and NPC alike, into the world. It may not work perfectly, but still, I find it a useful exercise. For example, you are going to get a lot more heroes based on supertech in the US than in Cuba. And not just because of the population difference. The US has a more advanced tech level and a lot more people with the income to push the envelope trying to develop new technologies. I think that you can make a case for statistical analysis playing a role in the distribution of super tech, mutants, mystic heroes, and martial artist based heroes, at a minimum. Though you may not be able to statistically predict the overall number.(In other words, I may not be able to use statistics to predict how many power armored heroes will emerge, but I can use statistics/logic to assume that the majority will be in places like the US and Japan that have both the technology and the economic development to foster such things.). The overall numbers are left up to the GM. I think that 1 in 1 Million is a good place to start, just to give a baseline. You can always adjust up or down. But 1 in 1 Million leaves you with about 300 supers, total, in the US. I would imagine the number comes from the old Marvel Comics assumption that 1 in 1 million humans were actually mutants, and frankly, it seems like as good of a number as any to use as it makes metahuman level characters suitably rare that there isn't one on every street corner but yet allows you to create a large number of metas to work into a campaign.

[st barbara]

Re: How Many U S Heros ?

 

Well I have just finished writing up my Mexican heros and found myself using a bit of the "Champions Worldwide" background; notably the idea that the Former Mexican super team has broken up and the members have retired or turned to crime. However ,given that nature (and superheroes) abhor a vacuum,new heros have arrisen to protect Mexico ! The ones I have used are "Invictor" ("Undefeated") (I took the villain "Lazer", added a few gadgets and made him the hero of Monterey), "Atonita" ("Thunderbolt")( an Apache indian woman with super speed who protects Cuidad Juarez and the Mexico/Texas border region),"Dragon Volante" ("Flying Dragon") (a man transformed by Neo Aztec cultists into a poweful humanoid dragon who is on the Pacific coast of Mexico)""El Santo" ("The Leapfrog") (taken from "Ultimate Speedster" and turned into a super strong(Str 38) "Luchador" in Mexico City)"La Mortaja" ("The Shroud") (a mysterious woman who has returned from the dead after her murder with ghostly powers to defend Mexico City) and "Los Plumas Brilliante" ("Glittering Feathers") (a sort of twisted version of "Micuatl" with armour made of feathers, an atlatl as well as a Micuatl and the ability to shapeshift to an eagle who operates in Campeche and the Yucatan). Next up the Caribbean and Central America !