Teen superhumans but no adult ones

[Steve]

What would the world be like if the first superhumans were not adults, but only teenagers? The numbers involved would be about one in a million, so about 6000 superhumans at first.

 

I had a couple of options I was thinking about on this idea.

 

1) The arrival of superhumans occurred in the last few years, but only teenagers gained powers. The source of powers were natural/internal (mutants). How would governments react? How would parents react?

 

2) Superhumans have been occurring for a while, but the downside to gaining powers in your teens is having them burn you out by the time you reach your mid-20s. No one has survived past age 25 or so.

[Greywind]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Fear and loathing initially. Some of the numbers would drop off if they were made public. The government would look to collect them for "study".

 

2 is a statement and doesn't really leave a lot of room for comment beyond "that sucks".

[Checkmate]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Strikeforce Morituri most certainly did not suck, and it resembles number 2.

[Greywind]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Maybe the comic didn't, but being on a timer just because you're special? That sucks.

[Clonus]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Personally, I'd just prefer the Bizarre Baby Boom option. All superhumans are 15-16 because only people who were in their mother's womb 16 years ago got affected by the plot device radiation.

[Alibear]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Young people, full of angst and hormones ruling the world with nothing anyone over 25 can do about it. :scared:

[wick]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Makes me think of control. Often minors are taken into custody for their own "good" with little recourse to their wishes. The young can also be more easily manipulated. On the plus side, there should be plently of supervillians and powerfully groups to hunt you.

[Certified]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Makes me think of control. Often minors are taken into custody for their own "good" with little recourse to their wishes. The young can also be more easily manipulated. On the plus side' date=' there should be plently of supervillians and powerfully groups to hunt you.[/quote']

 

I was thinking along these same lines. As teens you can institute government control easier if people don't know, this isn't right or that there are other options playing on the child ignorance and dependence on a parent. At the same time you have those rebellious teens and this might be where the story is at, pulled from different sides the government, possibly other groups that want to control them these are the teens that ran away. Their number much lower they ca nmore easily find each other than the average runaway to for effectively a super group. More so stories can range from conspiracy to romance and survival. Also if you have time to establish friends in their non-powered life these can make some great lingering doubts about their past lives or possibly enemies of circumstance,

[RexMundi]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Strikeforce Morituri most certainly did not suck' date=' and it resembles number 2.[/quote']

 

Agreed. Still ranks as one of my top 10 series.

 

~Rex

[greenbriar]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Another take could be the Miri episode of TOS

[Cygnia]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

I vaguely recall an MTV series with a similar premise called "Dead at 21". Never did find out how it ended...

[megaplayboy]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

"Only teenagers have superpowers" is a campaign that could be set with almost any kind of tone--golden age, silver age, bronze age, iron age, comedy, romance, etc. Now, if their powers tend to reflect their personalities/desires, then that could prove to be interesting. Lots of other questions pop up:

1. How powerful is the average teen superhuman(30-40 AP(new mutants level)/50-80 AP(x-men level)/90+ AP(justice league/avengers level)? Do their powers tend to increase with age?

2. What sort of tech/resources do governments have to deal with it? How "realistically" do the governments respond(golden age/silver age: warm, friendly, supportive/cooperative-->mildly distrustful/occasionally hunting the superhumans; bronze/iron age: highly distrustful, coopting some for their own ends/rampant paranoia, suspending civil rights for most teens, trying to wipe them out or get them under complete control)?

3. Are there any common powers or traits--e.g., all of them have some rDEF, or minimum 15-20 stats in the "core 6"(STR/DEX/CON/INT/EGO/PRE), most with 1 or 2 levels of Striking Appearance, life support(immortal--will never look older than about 19 and a half), rapid healing(regen, 1 body per week or day or hour), etc(or even "all of the above", if the storyline is that these are the next line in human evolution)?

4. Are normals more susceptible to superhumans(ie., 2x effect from everything superhumans do) while superhumans are less affected by the real world(half reduction vs. real weapons, e.g.)?

5. What does the average teenage superhuman want, aside from spending money for clothes and video games, dates with Robert Pattinson or Hayden Panettiere, beating the tar out of the school bully, and becoming "popular"/getting revenge on former tormentors while scoring good weed?

[Blue]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Kneel before Miley!

[Steve]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Everyone raises good points for consideration. I tend to favor the Silver Age/Bronze Age in my preferences, so the feel would likely be influenced by the X-Men mythos (although I also liked some elements from the more recent Runaways series from Marvel). I'd run such a campaign with the power levels ranging from 250 points with 60 points in Complications to 400 points with 75 points in Complications. Active points in attack powers would be in the 50-75 point level.

 

Megaplayboy raises some interesting things to consider.

 

The technology of a recent emergence of teenage superhumans would still be guns and other normal technology. If they've been around for a while (option #2 in my original premise), there would have possibly been a few super-geniuses to raise the tech levels. A registration and draft of superhumans seems a likely possibility, but how to enforce it against unwilling teenagers would be the question. Threaten to jail parents for non-cooperation? Calling any resisting teenagers terrorists?

 

One variant I was considering (with either option in my original premise) would be to use the Empyrean package from Hidden Lands as a basis for building a world with new superteens. Averages of 20s in most core stats, a level or two of Striking Appearance, regeneration, but Immortality would only be allowed if I went with option #1. Power emergence would be due to stressful circumstances combined with teenage hormones. I suppose some teenagers who had the power gene could emerge earlier and some later.

 

Option #2 was inspired by my faded recollections of Strikeforce Morituri, but without the alien invasion menace. To have great power at the price of a shortened lifespan has a lot of angst built into it. Combine that with a fearful/wondering adult population, and it strikes me as having interesting story potentials.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Maybe the comic didn't' date=' but being on a timer just because you're special? That sucks.[/quote']

 

The one time I did something like this, it wasn't that having superpowers guaranteed an early death, there just came a point where using the powers put too much wear on the body. (You had mostly teens, because they bounced back better. Kind of the way some gymnastics careers end at 20.) The warning signs were pretty clear, though, so the answer was to just stop using the powers. This had the advantage of giving me a couple of mentor characters with "one last shot" in them. (Part of the heroic arc is losing your mentor, after all.)

[Dr.Device]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

The idea reminds me of A Coming of Age, by Timothy Zahn. The book takes place on a colony planet, a few generations after a diesease caused all children between five years old and puberty to develop immense telekinetic[1] powers. Their civilization was wrecked, and they lost a lot of knowledge/technology before the adults managed to get back in charge.

 

It's a good read, and might give you some ideas about how a society might handle such things.

[Greywind]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

I vaguely recall an MTV series with a similar premise called "Dead at 21". Never did find out how it ended...

21 Down was similar in concept.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_Down

[Arkham]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Makes me think of putting together a world where people only get superpowers during puberty, and then it wears off between the ages of 18-25 about the time they stop growing.

[Querysphinx]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

It's sounds like somewhere between Strike Force Morutori and Logan's Run. It would be sort of a horror vibe if, as the kids got older, they got more powerful until their powers grew to be too much for them to control and the died as a result of catastrophic power overload. The story where the young heroes have to hunt down the older changeling before he detonates and takes out half the city would have to be gut wrenching. "For where you stand now, I must stand some day."

[Steve]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

Based on comments, I see a couple of ways I could handle the end of a superhuman's abilities.

 

1) Powers slowly grow as a teenager matures into an adult, but then begin growing beyond their control. Burnout and death are the end of the road, maybe by detonating with catastrophic overload as Querysphinx suggested.

2) Powers slowly grow as a teenager matures into an adult, and then they fade away by mid-20s. Child Star Syndrome? How would you handle the rest of your life when you were once able to bounce bullets off your chest?

[Peregrine]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

All I know is, if you set it in the modern day, the Baby Boomers in the setting are gonna be soiling their Depends...

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

the powers could start to diminish in time, like hourmans miraclo pil or T.H.U.D.E.R. agent dynamo's power belt charge leaving the former supers frustrated as hell

[yamamura]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

atures into an adult' date=' and then they fade away by mid-20s. Child Star Syndrome? How would you handle the rest of your life when you were once able to bounce bullets off your chest?[/quote']

 

I can see a guy sitting in a bar telling stories of his glory days.

[yamamura]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

This has inspired me for my own campaign. I though plan to have teens maintaining their powers into adulthood. I can see the campaign a few years down the road, where the powered teen are now adults dealing with their own kids with powers.

 

It also inspired me for a wicked END Reserve. The reserve has about 84-85 points of END that do not recover. Each points of END represents a year of life and is used to power a single powerful attack. So every time the character uses this power attack, he shortens his life span. If the END the reserve ever reach zero the character dies, as he no longer has any more years to live. Also each year he lives also reduces the reserve by one. Of course an interesting pot hook may be a search to refresh his years to live.

 

Anyway attached is my campaign ideas. This is in its infancy and have not been proof read. Now I have my computer back working, I need to continue to work on a project for Susano.

[SKJAM!]

Re: Teen superhumans but no adult ones

 

You might still be able to find on the Web a round robin story I started, called "Fireworks Season". Psionic powers tend to kick in around puberty, are spectacular, but the human brain can't take the strain and eventually the mutant burns out. Our heroine is a young pyromaniac named Hanabi who is disappointed when she develops cryokinesis.