WWYCD "super" registration

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

How exactly did mass nuking kill everyone? Quite a few of the people you listed can plink nukes.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing where you get your 'plink' data from, but I won't debate it instantly. Sure, some of them can 'plink' A nuke, and I'd expect that to be restricted to 'only a hundred kiloton' nuclear device. There are roughly ten to twelve thousand active nuclear devices in the world -- and another fourteen thousand or so that COULD be 'activated'. Those that were active, or could be made so within a day, were ALL ToT'd -- Time On Target -- so that they'd all arrive and detonate within microseconds of each other. Now, if I remember correctly, even if you can (for example) survive flying through the center of a star, the core explosion heat and radiation of a nuclear weapon is several times that of the sun -- so you're screwed. Even if you can take one hit of that, you aren't going to be able to take thousands; can't survive the blast of a supernova. I may be incorrect, but that theory is what forms the core of the argument.

 

So no, sorry, neither Superman nor Phoenix can survive that. Ra's Al Ghul will be totally disintegrated, as will Apocalypse; no resurrection for them this time. The only people who survived the Purge just weren't there.

 

(Okay, maybe Jean Grey will be 'resurrected' some time, some where, but she doesn't really count.)

[Cinniuint]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Am just starting in a campaign which will have had such a law (or at least a lot of government opposition to paranormal activity) for a generation or two. I am building characters who grew up on the moon where a paranormal colony has been established. Am building that history into some of the character histories.

 

One of the characters I am building for that campaign could possibly dispose of all the incoming nukes with a from the above mentioned strike on Mexico city. Just teleport them all away.

 

No individual targeting, just megascale TP gate over the city. Of course unless he somehow Knew about the strike...

which come to think of it, with all those supers present with danger sense and whatnot, he might.

[fiducia]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Iron Alloy - Works for a Federally funded super team already so she would probably automatically be 'registered'.

 

Darkness - Tells them to suck off in her blandest yet most intimidating voice possible and fades into the darkness. Her thoughts, if they can FIND me...they an register me.

[assault]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Those that were active' date=' or could be made so within a day, were ALL ToT'd -- Time On Target -- so that they'd all arrive and detonate within microseconds of each other.[/quote']

 

within microseconds of each other? Right...

 

More likely, the first one to go off would destroy the others, preventing their detonation.

 

So no, sorry, neither Superman nor Phoenix can survive that.

 

Depends which version of Superman. The Silver Age one could survive it, I think. His invulnerability was precisely that.

 

I wouldn't rule out Phoenix, either.

 

Of course this is a classic example of a silly fanboy argument, so I'll just say that you could be right and leave it at that.

 

---

 

Oh, right, registration....

 

This is one of the most done to death topics on the boards.

 

None of my characters would register.

 

This particular version of registration seems particularly draconian, and likely to be vulnerable to legal challenges.

[Lord Fyre]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

I have not seen any thread like this, but if there is - ooops! If this does not aplly to your campaign, ignore as you see fit.

 

For whatever reason (depends on the campaign) a law is being proposed to regisgter all supers. If you do not register with the government, giving secret id (if one), address and powers, off to prison you go. "Super" is defined somewhat fuzzy; some Olympic athletes could be "super" in their field according to this law. You do not have to act on your powers, just have them and be caught. They have no way to tell right now if you lay low.

 

Does your character approve or dissapprove of this law? Do they state it publically? If so, how much? Do they obey the law if passed?

 

Darkstar would campaign strongly against the law, feeling that it is a violation of the civil rights of many of the metahumans in the nation. However, since he does not maintain a secret identity, he would feel compelled to obey the law if passed, while continuing to oppose it.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

I wouldn't mind seeing where you get your 'plink' data from' date=' but I won't debate it instantly. Sure, some of them can 'plink' [b']A[/b] nuke, and I'd expect that to be restricted to 'only a hundred kiloton' nuclear device. There are roughly ten to twelve thousand active nuclear devices in the world -- and another fourteen thousand or so that COULD be 'activated'. Those that were active, or could be made so within a day, were ALL ToT'd -- Time On Target -- so that they'd all arrive and detonate within microseconds of each other. Now, if I remember correctly, even if you can (for example) survive flying through the center of a star, the core explosion heat and radiation of a nuclear weapon is several times that of the sun -- so you're screwed. Even if you can take one hit of that, you aren't going to be able to take thousands; can't survive the blast of a supernova. I may be incorrect, but that theory is what forms the core of the argument.

Let's see if I can follow the logic: In order to force registration of metahumans, Earth's governments are collectively willing to nuke their own cities and non-meta citizens? Or do you assume supers for some reason avoid cities like the plague? (That explains why there are all those superhero/villain bases in Death Valley and Outer Mongolia).

 

I think the cure is pretty obviously worse than the supposed disease. Lord knows governments are often not all that bright, but I think this scenario might raise a few red flags even in the hallowed halls of bureaucracy.

[Kaeto]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Well Shimmer would fight this in the senate. But if it was passed she would refuse to register. And (The Diety of your choice) help anyone who came after her or her family as she is the latest generation of a long line of superpowered people and she is arguably the most powerful of the line.

One of her ancestors was powerful enough to turn main battle tanks into limpid pools of chicken fat (and he did in one fight) with just a thought.

Then there is her boyfriend who is a Warhammer 40K space marine. And she has given him through her powers access to the entire arsenal of weapons and armor of the space marine.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Let's see if I can follow the logic: In order to force registration of metahumans, Earth's governments are collectively willing to nuke their own cities and non-meta citizens? Or do you assume supers for some reason avoid cities like the plague? (That explains why there are all those superhero/villain bases in Death Valley and Outer Mongolia).

 

I think the cure is pretty obviously worse than the supposed disease. Lord knows governments are often not all that bright, but I think this scenario might raise a few red flags even in the hallowed halls of bureaucracy.

 

 

At least they got rid of the nukes. Probably Post apocalypse HERO should be pulled out after that description anyway. Actually the whole scenario wouldn't work for my players. I could never get them to play in that campaign but different strokes for different strokes. Its apparently working for them. If I got my group to play NOTHING would get done until the govt was overthrown or they died. Modern treatments have just left to much bile in our group's mouth about such things If the latter we wouldn't revisit it.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Tao: She’s already been “registered” in a sense but would see no issue with such a law .It only makes sense to monitor and control potential tactical and strategic resources. Human rights and freedoms would seem like illogical emotional arguments from her perspective. She would be willing to apprehend renegades if ordered and would report metahumans that did not as potential security risk.

 

Ivy: While she thinks anyone that wants to use their powers in a official capacity should be registered and trained to some degree, simply registering because you have powers is going to far, in her opinion though there is a selective service registration that’s mandatory for men. She’d be torn and would probably end fence sitting on the matter, neither for or against it publicly. She’s already on an officially sanctioned team.

 

Velocity: April would probably be pressured by her mom, who’s quite the radical liberal, to oppose the act vocally and publicly and would feel it was overly restricted personally as well

 

Valkeyrie: Is extremely law abiding and would register as required but would be very uncomfortable about the situation and definitely wouldn’t “narc” on any superhumans that didn’t.

 

Shidoku: Works covertly for the government anyway as an undercover operative she’d oppose the act as part of her cover and on general principles. Since her setting is more Iron Age and lower powered (Street level) so the registration would probably be more sinister.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Let's see if I can follow the logic: In order to force registration of metahumans, Earth's governments are collectively willing to nuke their own cities and non-meta citizens? Or do you assume supers for some reason avoid cities like the plague? (That explains why there are all those superhero/villain bases in Death Valley and Outer Mongolia).

 

I think the cure is pretty obviously worse than the supposed disease. Lord knows governments are often not all that bright, but I think this scenario might raise a few red flags even in the hallowed halls of bureaucracy.

 

The nukings at Mexico City in the After the End gameworld were not a consequence of failure to register, they were a consequence of (a) increasing escalation of collateral damage on the part of heroes and villains, ( a general inability to control and contain supers and superbattles on the part of governments and government agencies, and © a general shift in public opinion against superhumans as a result of the above.

 

The world basically went over time from a silver age one to an iron age one (as part of the campaign backstory, not in-game) and the supers that didn't adapt well to the transition and lower their profiles got nuked. That said, you're right that there is definitely something rotten in the state of Denmark (and the US, and pretty much every other country) as there are a number of ramifications to governmental policy at the time and since that time that range from impractical to downright suicidal. Partly this is typical government shortsightedness, but there seems to be more to it than that. Likely, figuring out what's going on behind the scenes will be a significant plot thread going forward.

[Cold Steel]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Shadow-Hawk= will tell the pro-regs where to stick their registration act.

 

Nautika: will comply with the act but with certain reasonable limits.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

The nukings at Mexico City in the After the End gameworld were not a consequence of failure to register, they were a consequence of (a) increasing escalation of collateral damage on the part of heroes and villains, ( a general inability to control and contain supers and superbattles on the part of governments and government agencies, and © a general shift in public opinion against superhumans as a result of the above.

 

The world basically went over time from a silver age one to an iron age one (as part of the campaign backstory, not in-game) and the supers that didn't adapt well to the transition and lower their profiles got nuked. That said, you're right that there is definitely something rotten in the state of Denmark (and the US, and pretty much every other country) as there are a number of ramifications to governmental policy at the time and since that time that range from impractical to downright suicidal. Partly this is typical government shortsightedness, but there seems to be more to it than that. Likely, figuring out what's going on behind the scenes will be a significant plot thread going forward.

If the campaign's PCs and villains are of that level of power and destructiveness, perhaps nuking might be justified as a last resort. I suspect in most campaigns the characters are simply not that powerful (I know they aren't in mine.) to be worthy of that kind of overkill. Even most dictatorships would have as hard time pulling something like that; in democracies I can't see it at all. Even if every superfight knocked down a skyscraper or killed dozens of people, it's still nothing compared to the destructiveness of applying nukes in an urban environment to take out supers.

 

Of course, if there's some campaign metareason that governments are overreacting this way (such as some kind of mind control or the like) then that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Still sounds like a bad mix of Kingdom Come and Aberrant to me.

 

( and any setting that has *Superman* getting killed because of too much collateral damage and an inability to control supers is a setting that misses the point of, um, Superman )

[Silverswirl]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

You have some interesting characters.

[Silverswirl]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Blade: "I gave up French citizenship for *this?* [bronx cheer.]

 

Gem: "Well, I can go back to normal life and give up the suit to whoever wants it. I have a family to consider. Being a hero's nice, but I'm a scientist at heart, and unfortunately, most scientists work under government contract at some time or other."

 

Raptorian: "I ain't much of a lawyer, but I don't think this sounds right. I normally follow the law, but there are times when laws should be ignored."

[quozaxx]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Cornerstone would register immediately since he already has a public ID. But would concentrate on capturing or erraticating larger evils - like demons.

 

Silver Speedster (also Public ID) would oppose "forcing" people to register. People have families they need to protect. He would probably use his Actor status to publically oppose it. - Oh, while looking good, of course.

 

Mark IV (Public ID), would register, but question why others have not registered. "We are supposed to obey the law. Is that not correct? If you do not register, is it not my civic duty to bring you in?"

 

Super! Absorbant! Sponge!!!!! (secret ID) would push up his glasses, adjust his spongy stomach, shake his -always wet finger- at a congress person and use his best Presence attack yet.

"You know, we, like, have loved ones to protect. So you should really, kinda, um, not force people to do that sort of thing."

He would not register and continue to change from his secret ID (blue tie) to his Super ID (brown tie).

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Sir Johnstone wouldn't need to register as he's not that powerful, not American, and can go back to his dayjob as butler if he needs to. However, with his employer's blessing, he would take a few days off. Then one of two things would happen. Either A.) The law is repealed, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, we all get back to work. B.) The president is visited in a locked office by a shadowy figure with a grating voice, demanding that the law be repealed or else there will be consequences. Then when he doesn't repeal it, every superhero -and- every supervillain who dislikes the law, suddenly gets British Citizenship and a job that gives them diplomatic immunity (I.E. a royal pardon for all past crimes). Then, if the law still hasn't been repealed, Britain declares war on the 'upstart colonies of America'.

[hfergus]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

The president is visited in a locked office by a shadowy figure with a grating voice' date=' demanding that the law be repealed or else there will be consequences. Then when he doesn't repeal it, every superhero -and- every supervillain who dislikes the law, suddenly gets British Citizenship and a job that gives them diplomatic immunity (I.E. a royal pardon for all past crimes). Then, if the law still hasn't been repealed, Britain declares war on the 'upstart colonies of America'.[/quote']

First, unless your world is different, the president cannot negate laws. He can veto them, but could get overridden. However, he could decide not to enforce the law- which could lead to his impeachment and removal from office. He could also use his leverage with the American people to get the law overturned.

 

As to the war - WOW! Over that? Your world must be very different. I do kinda like the Brits giving citizenship to people here, but that would mean the people who accept would be deported to the UK... But is that part of your plan? Hmmm...

[drunkonduty]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Knight Rider: would shake her head and then go into a long (boring) polemic about how this is the perfect example of how national governments are too short sighted and parochial and need to give more power over to the UN. As she doesn't live in the US she would have no need to register.

 

Striker: would probably be excused from registering. He's already on a super-secret government data base and the government would not want one of their more secret (and illegal) assets listed on what would amount to a public data base. Striker would assume that this was all part of the the latest phase of Project:WIDEAWAKE and secretly work against it. He considers WIDEAWAKE to be a private corporate project that has illegally taken over (aspects of) the legitimate government.

[Wanderer]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

First, unless your world is different, the president cannot negate laws. He can veto them, but could get overridden. However, he could decide not to enforce the law- which could lead to his impeachment and removal from office. He could also use his leverage with the American people to get the law overturned.

 

As to the war - WOW! Over that? Your world must be very different.

 

If his character manages to be very influential in UK, and/or supers are very popular there, it might happen. I concede it seems quite unlikely in present geopolitics, but things change. A generation ago, Iran was one of the most strong Middle East allies of the US, and Poland was a sworn enemy.

 

Anywa, if UK manages to absorb the vast majority of the US super population as refugees, they will win any such war with ease. Remember, in any such settings with (decently powerful) supers exist, the are the decisive weapon.

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

"First, unless your world is different, the president cannot negate laws."

 

Firstly, sorry for the misunderstanding. Being British, I have no idea how a registration law in America would work. I intended for a threat to the president to be enough of a threat to illustrate the need for whoever created the law of registration to repeal it, so as not to get anyone killed. The president wouldn't be the only target, just the only one who gets a warning.

 

Secondly, yes, deportation of the supers to Britain was a part of the plan. Sir Johnstone has no actual powers, but to compensate, I have made him very influential among the British government. The idea was that, with his guidance, the British government would declare war on the USA using it's own supers against it. Anyone who doesn't want to fight, doesn't have to, but then they still get to patrol Britain.

 

Even without the war on America, if we've offered amnesty to all unregistered supers, that means that a) we have hundreds more superheroes, and that (hopefully) any supervillains we have offered amnesty to will be willing to target people in other countries, looting American banks, then spending the wealth of another nation in Britain, making us wealthier. Although they would first need to launder the money into pounds sterling, not American dollars.

 

America loses about half of it's superhero defenses, Britain gets a superhero population boom and a bunch of patriotic supervillains, willing to spare the country that let them go free.

 

The supervillain recruitment might sound somewhat evil, since we let them keep commiting crimes/fighting a war against the US, but Sir Johnstone always did fight dirty. Once you repeal the registration act, of course we'll stop the assaults etc. But not till then.

 

The supervillains might turn on us instead, but by now, we'll have hundreds of superheroes too.

[Great Beyond]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Natasha is pretty close to registered anyway - no secret ID, open relationship with the cops of her town (who all know where she lives), pretty open about her tanker powers - so all someone has to do is just fill in the blanks on her form. That said, she's probably in the best position to do something about the screwy law. Being a super genius with a not-too small invention pool to draw on, she'd take the easy way out: level the playing field.

 

She'd build a one die persistant penitrating megascale transform: "give out one minor superpower to anyone who doesnt have one". A couple of twists of a dial and suddenly everyone has the ability to hover one inch of the ground, turn their skin blue at will, summon 3-day-old milk from their fingertips and other such fun party tricks. Then of course she'd set off the Powermogratron in Washington DC first, to get all the lawmakers in the first blast.

 

Scarlet Arrow and Great Beyond would just both lay low until this really unconstitutonal law blew over. Heck, as slow as the courts move, they could keep on heroing while the judges sort out matters.

[DataPacRat]

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

 

Mike the Demoness: "I've got a goat's legs, hooves, tail, udder - don't ask - and horns, bat's wings, and red skin, and I tend to burst into flame when annoyed. Go ahead and write all that down, if you want to. I could hardly stop you if I tried. However, I will point out that the law, as written, violates the rights of the country's powered citizens, and thus goes against the very purpose of having a government in the first place. How does that saying go? 'There are four boxes - soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.' Armed revolts have started with scanter justification."

 

She will also simply fail to mention that she is quite capable of reshaping her demonic flesh into various mortal-appearing shapes (the one of which she spends the most time in being her Secret ID), and so she can evade just about any non-mystical search for her, if she tries hard enough (and is able to keep any strong emotions from activating her Accidental Change). If the local bureaucrats get too annoying, she'll probably take this as an opportunity to take a tour of the other continents' various supernatural sites and peoples.