Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

[DataPacRat]

Fiddling around with my current prospective PC (flying energy projector / gadgeteer / power armor), I've just realized that with her heroic-motivation psych-lim of "Protective of Innocents", it's very likely that she'll have been spending most of her on-duty time, not lounging around in the Situation Room waiting for the cops to report the latest supervillain attack, but helping out with another group of emergency first-responders: the fire department.

 

Buffalo, with a population of about 300,000, has over 60,000 fire calls per year... which, even with only a fraction of them being serious, means an interested super can be as busy helping out as they wish to be. Not to mention, rescuing people from burning buildings is one of /the/ prototypical heroic acts, and acting as air-ambulance to fly injured civvies to the hospital only adds icing to the cake.

 

 

So, how much 'firefighting' can be added to a superhero's charsheet? I'm planning on fiddling with her signature handheld weapon, turning it from a generic bar of metal thing into a modified fire axe. Her power armor already provides her with nearly everything a fireman wears - armor, life-support... maybe add a few extra points of ED for Nomex-like fire protection, and some of those high-visibility reflective strips. Explicitly add some sort of fire-dampener grenade to her arsenal of chemicals. Bump up Paramedics by a few points, throw in PS: Firefighter. Maybe a group Contact with the local Fire Department, or a positive Reputation of some sort? What else would fit in well?

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

A lot of supers can do a fine job with fire & rescue type stuff as-is. When you can fly, easy to rescue someone trapped up high/deep in a well/in middle of frozen lake, things like that. Life support allows for quick, safe rescues of drowning folks, etc.

 

A PC in one of our games took it a step further, as it seems like you're planning to. "Crisis" is a firefighter w/a power suit. Super strong, super tough (esp vs fire/heat), life support, life support useable by others (extra oxygen masks attached to suit supply), big axe, water cannon, searchlight, emergency flashers.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

I've long maintained that supers activities resembled firefighting more than police work. I think you're on to something.

A PC in one of our games took it a step further' date=' as it seems like you're planning to. "Crisis" is a firefighter w/a power suit. Super strong, super tough (esp vs fire/heat), life support, life support useable by others (extra oxygen masks attached to suit supply), big axe, water cannon, searchlight, emergency flashers.[/quote']

Funny, I also have a character named Crisis who is a firefighter. Freaky.

[Vestnik]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Funny, I also have a character named Crisis who is a firefighter. Freaky.

 

Maybe it's the same character, two-timing with another player behind your back.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Hmm, once had an idea for a brick based on Joe Magarac named "Furnace" (whould have been Golden or Silver Age, and an ancestor of a current character). He could turn into steel and absorbed fire/heat to make himself even stronger. Seeing as how his personality was the 'Normal Joe' variety, I could see him working as a firefighter after his hero career ended. He doesn't need any life support or firefighting gear, he can just walk into the flames and start absorbing them!

 

Though there is that whole "weighs 16x what a normal human does when powered up".

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Maybe it's the same character' date=' two-timing with another player behind your back.[/quote']

That bastard!

[Cancer]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Rescue, especially in hazmat situations, it a natural for supers. A guy with 20 points of Life Support/Safe Environment could save lots more lives than a guy with 20 points in rPD.

[Vestnik]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

That bastard!

 

Characters can be such sluts.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

One of my longstanding concepts is for a pacifist hero who remains busy with exactly that sort of thing (firefighting, medical evacuation, search & rescue, etc.). She'd intervene in combat to the point of standing between combatants, taking shots meant for others, and rescuing civilians, but not violent action. The character quote was "You'd be surprised how many ways there are to do good in the world that don't involve hitting people."

 

I has an NPC with not-quite fire powers (she really altered the rate of chemical reactions, but fire's one of the more common chemical reactions that come up) who did join the fire department on the grounds that individual heroes coordinate poorly with fire and rescue because neither the heroes nor the rescue personnel drill together or have common training. She saw it as a way of being a part of the community rather than holding herself above it.

[Shaft]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Villainy AMok has a full chapter dedicated to firefighting, including firefighter skills, stats for their equipment, and rules for fire damage on buildings.

[wylodmayer]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

This is a great idea! Just to add my two cents and some game info on this (and yeah, Villany Amok has great stuff in this vein), something from a document I prepared on disasters and superhero games...

 

----

 

In the period 2000-2005, the New York metropolitan region only experienced two truly major building fires – that is, fires that actually killed, injured, or left homeless hundreds of people. However, “serious incidents” are far more common – in 2004 there were just over 3000, or almost ten a day. These “serious incidents” engage the entirety of a single fire company; nonetheless, they hardly ever prove fatal. Generous heroes will always find fires they can help fight, but those with limited resources or interest will be most likely to concentrate on four- and five-alarm fires, which occur at a rate of about two per month in any given year. There were, for instance, only twenty of these fires in 2004, and they probably account for a significant proportion of the 119 fire deaths in NYC that year (or, an average of ten deaths per such fire per year).

 

Summary:

 

Four or Five Alarm Fire:

Weekly Encounter Chance: 10 or less on 3D6.

Requirements: Varies. To rescue civilians, nothing except athletic prowess, courage, and perhaps minor firefighting gear. To put out the fire, advanced equipment or special powers over water or cold, enough to encompass a small building.

Civilians saved: 2d6 or less.

 

Disaster Level Fire:

Weekly Encounter Chance: 4 or less on 3D6.

Requirements: Varies. To rescue civilians, athletic prowess, courage, and preferably firefighting gear would be the minimum required, but given the serious and expansive nature of such a fire, resistance to heat and flame, or general toughness, would be preferred. To put out the fire, very advanced equipment or special powers over water or cold, enough to encompass a several blocks and quell a raging inferno.

Civilians saved: Dozens if not hundreds.

[Kenn]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

In a humourous Champions game, a friend of mine took the concept so far as to come up with a power-armoured hero who worked as a fireman, as oppossed to the usual trope of the power-armoured cop. He was called Hydrant. His suit was red, and shaped like a giant fire hydrant. He didn't like dogs.

[Korvar]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

I've often thought it would be something for the Avengers to do - actually get trained up to the level of a volunteer firefighter. Also firefighters, especially fire chiefs, could probably do with some training with respects to what supers can do, and how various superpowers can help (or, indeed hinder) fighting fires.

[Certified]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

A slippery slope...

 

In our last campaign one of the characters had a healing power for Body. After healing a downed officer at the scene of a burglary she received no end of bad press for not living at the Hospital healing everyone that walked through the door.

 

When the GM wanted to twist the screws he mentioned the Children's Burn Ward.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

A slippery slope...

 

In our last campaign one of the characters had a healing power for Body. After healing a downed officer at the scene of a burglary she received no end of bad press for not living at the Hospital healing everyone that walked through the door.

 

When the GM wanted to twist the screws he mentioned the Children's Burn Ward.

 

Heck, my characters have done that when another character shows a healing power. "C'mon man, we gotta get you to the Emergency Room! We'll track down the bad guys, you go save lives!"

[McManus]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Maybe that is the reason there are so few comic book super heroes with healing powers. Characters that have those powers don't put on the tights, they put on the scrubs.

[Kenn]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

This is why I strongly try to dissuade players from introducing players with Healing (others) Powers. They do more good NOT going out to battle villains, and spending more time healing the sick.

 

Good - certainly.

Heroic - possibly.

Super heroic - not really.

[OddHat]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

A slippery slope...

 

In our last campaign one of the characters had a healing power for Body. After healing a downed officer at the scene of a burglary she received no end of bad press for not living at the Hospital healing everyone that walked through the door.

 

When the GM wanted to twist the screws he mentioned the Children's Burn Ward.

 

That's kind of a genre/fourth wall breaker. The Character (not the player) should have known that her power would be generally more valuable in a hospital than chasing muggers in tights, unless the campaign is so dangerous to Supers that she's in an actual field medic role. The GM should have spoken to the player about that before the game began. Functionally, it's not much different than giving the Player grief for not knowing where the Character went to college.

 

Anyway, my few heroic characters with Healing usually have it noted on their sheets that they spend a share of their non-crime fighting time in hospitals.

[Cancer]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Yeah, about the only way Healing fits in a superhero is if the power has a limitation that it can only work if applied within a minute of the injury. Then by construction that character has to be at the fight itself to be of much use.

 

Of course, you can still put the screws on the character by having both hero and villain characters hurt, or especially if the power has an Extra Time limitation in it too. Whom do you Heal?

[Cancer]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

BTW: This idea might belong in its own thread, but I saw this last night. City of two million on the flanks of a very active volcano. Not an explosive volcano, one where the lava is so fluid it can and does come up in fissures and then flow downhill like water. And the fissure fields extend into the city itself. Oh, and the city's on the shores of a lake, which almost certainly is saturated with CO2 at depth, and it's very easy to trigger an "overturn" event (limnic eruption, as in Lake Nyos) that will also wipe out the city silently and without warning.

 

Oh, and not long ago a civil war (in a game-world campaign, it could just be a wave of criminal activity) resulted in the monitoring stations around the volcano and the lake had pieces of their equipment stolen, so the data-gathering abilities of the civil authorities are sharply curtailed.

[BcAugust]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

Heh, I've got one character with Healing(others), but given her time period and setting(Ancient times, she's considered a Goddess), she doesn't get hassled for it, especially as her main power is as a Brick/Scout.(Shapeshifter) And Healing is expensive in terms of power.

 

And that's one reason I've avoided it in my other characters. Crown Princess Cyrande could have healed others, but it never really would have occurred to her. Other then that, it is way too complicated to fit in most games, unless you want to make the game about the impact of superpowers on the world.

 

Now, I do have one character that doesn't mind doing that, she just couldn't deal with fires that well.(Shadow Controller) But she didn't have any trouble being med-vac and tended to be very much "standing in the way of harm" for normal people.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

This is why I strongly try to dissuade players from introducing players with Healing (others) Powers. They do more good NOT going out to battle villains, and spending more time healing the sick.

 

Good - certainly.

Heroic - possibly.

Super heroic - not really.

 

I did have one character with healing. It started out as Regeneration, and once she figured out how to apply it to other people, she did start helping out. There was some concern that it could have a mutating side effect, so it wasn't as popular as option as it might have been.

 

Of course, if you start in on "why would a superhero with healing abilities ever do anything but ER work" you get into things like:

• Why can't Peter Parker who whipped up multiple versions of his web fluid out of a high school chemistry kit (not to mention microelectronics he could bio-synch with) patent any of his many amazing inventions and never have to worry about a job again?
  
• Why do supervillains spend more on the equipment and planning on a bank heist than they could possibly actually steal in said heist?
  
• How can Reed Richards, Hank Pym and Victor Von Doom whip up a cure for any exotic illness that comes by, but haven't even made a token effort at a cure for cancer?
  
• Why doesn't Themiscrya export it's purple ray technology?

[Victim]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

And if you take take a look at more practically applied superpowers, then maybe super science advances in medicine have removed much of need for Healing powers in hospitals. Or the character is worried about negatively impacting medicine if people become overly dependent on powers.

 

There's also the matter of stakes. If you're talking about doomsday weapons and other serious threats to large numbers of people, then staying at the hospital won't do more good than being out fighting - especially if the healer has other good powers. An ounce of prevention and all that. On the other hand, if PCs mostly deal with street crime, then there's less of a reason not to be at the ER.

[Zed-F]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

My character Sylph has healing powers, and in fact the very first thing she did once she found out she had them was to go to a hospital and try to offer her services as a healer.

 

The nurse at the front desk at the hospital thought she was a quack or charlatan, and all but had her thrown out. So she stood outside the doors and started healing people who were coming to the hospital for treatment. That just about ended in a riot -- she's very good at healing injuries and the like, but for most diseases and degenerative conditions, she can usually only alleviate symptoms if that. She eventually got swarmed but a mob of people demanding she help them with their troubles.

 

So whether a PC with healing powers winds up spending a lot of time at the hospital depends a lot on what the GM thinks the consequences of displaying healing powers openly in the game universe would be. Sylph wound up making an arrangement with the hospital wherein she would come in on a regular basis to help deal with the worst cases, or the most critical cases, but she goes in incognito, and the hospital does not advise the public that she's involved with the healing process (though this latter part is probably something of an open secret by now.)

[Kenn]

Re: Superheroes as firemen rather than cops?

 

The web-shooter thing is one of the reasons why I prefer the organic web-shooters from day 1 approach from the 'Spider-Man' films.

 

And yes, it is possible to have a character with healing powers who has enough other abilities that they can still be a worthwhile super-hero. That's why I 'strongly dissuade' rather than flatly disallow.

 

But I've seen too many players who've used healing powers in a "I don't have to worry about collateral damage and people being injured; I'll just heal them after I've stopped the bad guy" manner. And I believe that stopping the villain before the civilians need to be healed is the better, though more difficult, route.

 

And don't get me started on the Team Healer types. ("D&D parties always have clerics.")