"Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

[OddHat]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Well, i'd argue that rules on petty crimes are in place to prevent an escalation of illegal activity from those that do not know better, and that those who actually gain wisdom learn how to tell the (sometimes) subtle differences.

 

But...that's a debate for another topic.

 

In other words, that your moral judgement tells you which laws are important and which are not, and that the crimes you choose to commit aren't "really" crimes.

 

Almost everyone thinks that, from the guy who goes 10 mph over the speed limit to the guy who kills someone who (the killer believes) had it coming. Reason is a wonderful thing; we can use it to justify anything we want to do.

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

In other words, that your moral judgement tells you which laws are important and which are not, and that the crimes you choose to commit aren't "really" crimes.

 

Almost everyone thinks that, from the guy who goes 10 mph over the speed limit to the guy who kills someone who (the killer believes) had it coming. Reason is a wonderful thing; we can use it to justify anything we want to do.

 

Well, regardless, some laws really are frivolous.

[OddHat]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Well' date=' regardless, some laws really are frivolous.

 

Sure, and sometimes even some of the non-frivolous ones need to be broken.

 

And most of us will break the law in the course of our lives, in small ways or large. It only gets tricky when we're asked to accept the label "criminal", because of the emotional weight of the term. But you were right; this is really a thread for talking about Super Powers and Normals first, everything else after. Sorry about the thread drift.

 

I'd mostly use Invisibility to avoid people I didn't want to deal with.

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

How likely is it that some people will be humbled _by their new-found powers?

[dmjalund]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

How likely is it that some people will be humbled _by their new-found powers?

or scared s#!+less

[Dr Divago]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

This one is pretty much the power everyone wants' date=' but few know what to really DO with.[/quote']IMHO apart from thief or voyeur there is very few appliance

the only thing you can do is being a spy, but it depends on various condition:

- if you need to be naked (ie cannot make clothing/equipment invisible) is almost useless for spying/thiefing

- if you are visible to different radiation you are not really invisible

etc

 

btw i can't think about anything useful not criminal for invisibility :\

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

IMHO apart from thief or voyeur there is very few appliance

the only thing you can do is being a spy, but it depends on various condition:

- if you need to be naked (ie cannot make clothing/equipment invisible) is almost useless for spying/thiefing

- if you are visible to different radiation you are not really invisible

etc

 

btw i can't think about anything useful not criminal for invisibility :\

 

Surgery?

[OddHat]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Surgery?

 

Maybe if you can make other people invisible, and if you can do it layer by layer. Then you could help out in a hospital. For classic "You can't see me" invisibility, the only legal stuff I could see you doing would be hiding from people you didn't want to deal with, or working in law enforcement.

[Dr Divago]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Maybe if you can make other people invisible' date=' and if you can do it layer by layer. Then you could help out in a hospital. For classic "You can't see me" invisibility, the only legal stuff I could see you doing would be hiding from people you didn't want to deal with, or working in law enforcement.[/quote']well, technically speaking also spying could be legal

and of course scouting

 

if you are invisibile for animals too (and i speak about total invisibility to sight, hear, smells) you can also work in zoo or reserve; think about getting closer to lions or other animals without worrying about being eat.

ok ok it's silly but it's the only thing i can think right now

 

btw, nice topic

and i just discovered this trailer:No Ordinary Family seems like they are about to airing a series on "normals" gainining superpowers (btw, super strenght and super resilience is cool but super intellect is pretty lamer if you did'nt couple with... dunno... gadgeteering, chance calculating/alteration or like...)

they are copying your topic?

[Doctor Agenda]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

super-intelligence can take you a long way, unless you also have the cliche' of it making you unstable.

 

Invisibility would be 'handy' in any profession where it would be helpful to be able to see through your hands for a moment now and then while you work...I know it isn't much, but it's something.

[Doctor Agenda]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

well, technically speaking also spying could be legal

and of course scouting

 

if you are invisibile for animals too (and i speak about total invisibility to sight, hear, smells) you can also work in zoo or reserve; think about getting closer to lions or other animals without worrying about being eat.

ok ok it's silly but it's the only thing i can think right now

 

btw, nice topic

and i just discovered this trailer:No Ordinary Family seems like they are about to airing a series on "normals" gainining superpowers (btw, super strenght and super resilience is cool but super intellect is pretty lamer if you did'nt couple with... dunno... gadgeteering, chance calculating/alteration or like...)

they are copying your topic?

 

I'll watch it, but possibly only because I can't help myself.

[dmjalund]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

well, technically speaking also spying could be legal

and of course scouting

 

if you are invisibile for animals too (and i speak about total invisibility to sight, hear, smells) you can also work in zoo or reserve; think about getting closer to lions or other animals without worrying about being eat.

ok ok it's silly but it's the only thing i can think right now

 

btw, nice topic

and i just discovered this trailer:No Ordinary Family seems like they are about to airing a series on "normals" gainining superpowers (btw, super strenght and super resilience is cool but super intellect is pretty lamer if you did'nt couple with... dunno... gadgeteering, chance calculating/alteration or like...)

they are copying your topic?

They look like 'The Incredibles' meets 'HEROES'

[AnotherSkip]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

So a singing, dancing, Kung fu master 9.95 lb. computer/robot that can predict the stock market and all sporting events past present and future is perfectly ok?

 

 

Gold bricks? not very useful. The Govt is allready looking for these abuses. However going to the free gem mine in the U.S. and then paying taxes on your haul....

[AnotherSkip]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

a few mundane uses of the listed powers:

Laser eyes: Laser writing/art. in addtion to never needing a writing utensil but being FASTER at drawing or being able to create those 3 dimensional images in plastics.

 

X-ray vision: finding cancers and hairline fractures before they get worse.

 

addiction to gambling would be the last thing that would happen with probability control. *bored voice* oh, look... I win, again.... *Yawn*

 

 

 

 

Invisibility: IMNSHO this is the same as uber stealth, frankly it isn't that great.

 

 

The weird thing about this list is that most of the powers technically wont allow you to collect the reward from the Amazing Randi for passing his test to prove there are psychic powers.

[薔薇語]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

They look like 'The Incredibles' meets 'HEROES'

 

I was thinking "The Incredibles" meets "Fantastic Four" but "HEROES" is a nice add on, too.

 

La Rose.

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Gold bricks? not very useful. The Govt is allready looking for these abuses. However going to the free gem mine in the U.S. and then paying taxes on your haul....

 

Just sell steel...problem solved?

[StormK]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Don't think in terms of what you would DO with your powers. Think about who you would BECOME because of your powers. First imagine the fame you would achieve. Now with that fame comes the need to be insulated from the millions of people who are curious or obsessed with you. Money would no longer be an obstacle after optioning your life story/ doing the talk-show circuit/ late-night/ book signing/ publicity tours, etc. Now that you live apart from the common people you will start to view life through a different filter. No longer worried about survival, your thoughts will be occupied by other things. Maybe you take up a cause like Brad Pitt, or try to affect positive change in the political system like Sonny Bono (don't laugh, it's true). Ultimately, though, you would start to ask questions; why did this happen to me? are there others like me? will I always be alone with my powers? who are my peers now? Whatever the answers, these questions will lead you down the path to your new self.

My opinion? I think suddenly gaining powers would lead to a disassociation from normal people and a detachment from society in general. Within a few years I see a super-being declaring himself above the law, and maybe even thinking of himself as a god or as more than human.

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

That is an exceedingly optimistic outlook of what would happen, were you to become famous due to superpower(s) in a world not known for them.

[StormK]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

I now need perspectives on the following powers:

 

6. The ability to read minds.

 

Someone who could read minds might spend a lot of time exposing the truth about people and their hidden agendas. Imagine this person going to a political rally and telling the crowd what the candidate is really thinking about. Exposing a scandal, or a massive conspiracy to the public. At first he would have no credibility, but as he successfully demonstrates his powers, he would gain trust as being infallible.

 

 

7. The ability to conjure permanent items that weight up to ten pounds.

 

Aside from the various possibilities as a magician or trickster, consider a thief who could conjure the exact device needed to defeat an alarm system at a museum? Even better, why not just visit a museum and conjure yourself a perfect replica of a nice, expensive piece? How about an assassin who can get through security and then conjure up any pistol needed? Another application; summoning stacks of cash, or ten-pound blocks of gold? Yeah that one has tons of possibility.

 

 

8. The ability to regenerate from even mortal wounds and ignore illness.

 

 

First you would have someone who is completely relaxed. This person would never stress about anything. Nothing can kill him. Nothing can make him sick. The ONLY type of suffering he would have to endure is from emotional bonds he may have with the people around him. He would not look down on people with illness, maybe he would become a Christ-like figure of compassion? On the other hand, maybe he has a eugenics style philosophy of those around him; Lesser beings who suffer from physical ailments are not worthy of life and so must be eliminated. Only perfect specimens of the human race deserve to live. (This is very much the philosophy of the National Socialist Party that took over Germany before WWII).

 

 

9. The ability to teleport (closely related to flight, but it differs significantly).

 

I think the movie "Jumper" explored this possibility perfectly. This ability gives someone the absolute freedom to do anything they want. Money is no obstacle and is completely unnecessary. Who needs to pay for food when you can just teleport out of the grocery store? No need to buy a ticket to watch the new movie. No need to fly on a plane. Vacation requires no luggage, you can hit the clothing stores when you get to the Bahamas, France, Tibet, Argentina, Australia, etc...

 

 

10. The ability to selectively enhance your senses at will: see vast distances, hear ordinarily inaudible sounds, function in the dark as if it were day, track by scent, and so forth.

 

First and foremost! You would NOT want to be around people. Large population centers would drive you insane. If not then describing what you sense would make people THINK you were insane. Your reactions would be quick too. Imagine hearing someone pull up in front of the bank where you are conducting your business and you hear them loading a firearm. You could calmly go over and lock the door and alert the security guards before the incident even becomes an incident. This ability would cause fear to disappear from your psychology. You would not get creeped out when you take the garbage out at night because you can see and hear everything. You may even make a decent living as a tracker/ bounty hunter/ detective who specializes in finding things that are lost. Think of the the Sentinel.

[OddHat]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

A telepath exposing political lies would make no progress at all. Real world politicians get caught smoking crack with prostitutes and still get re-elected. We vote based on identity; on which group we think we belong to. We don't give a damn what our leaders actually think or do, at least not when our only other choice is someone not in our group.

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

We don't give a damn what our leaders actually think or do' date=' at least not when our only other choice is someone not in our group.[/quote']

 

One reason I detest the Democrat/Republican system.

[David Blue]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

1. The ability to shoot lasers from one's eyes.

2. The ability to see through objects (X-Ray vision).

3. The ability to become invisible.

4. The ability to fly under one's own power.

5. The ability to alter luck to their benefit.

My reply is based on having spent years playing a young teenager (who is now up to nearly 16), and has had X-Ray eyes and no other powers, and having seen super-luck in action. This is in a soap opera teen champions game, with more emphasis on relationships and psychology than combat missions and hunteds.

 

Super-luck generally makes a teenager lazy, useless and blissful. There's no need to work at school, as mega-luck takes care of everything. Sports are easy, as the ball always bounces your way. The feelings of the hard-working former top students and athletes that you effortlessly outshine are not your concern. Relationships are a non-issue. Mister Lucky doesn't necessarily respond well to friendly overtures, because he knows someone just as good or better will be along soon. Everybody around Mister Lucky knows that they can be replaced in his life without effort on his part, so Mister Lucky will have no friends who need to feel needed and irreplaceable. If there's a bloody, terribly upcoming mission, Mister or Miss Lucky will be unavailable due to having won a free around the world expenses paid luxury trip or something like that. But if Mister Lucky does come on a mission that turns violent, don't stand next to him, because he's not the one any stray bullets are going to hit. Mister Lucky will probably be fine with that.

 

X-Ray eyes have a lot of complicated effects on a teen. One is that he becomes aware of a world of cruelty, horror and death of which most people are oblivious - intellectually aware perhaps but emotionally blind. Most people never see dead people, but X-Ray Eyes kid sees all the bodies in the cemetery rotting, and what happens in hospitals as things go wrong, and inside factory farms, and what happens in animal pounds that children shouldn't see, and abuse behind closed doors, and so on. To get the difference this makes, remember how the life / choice debate is being changed by ultrasound: even lousy pictures can completely change a person's mind about whether there's someone real there. X-Ray Eyes kid gets that effect all the time, not just with unborn babies but with all sorts of things. This can lead to a great sense of responsibility and heroic motivation. It can also lead to anger and contempt for non-powered people, who seem morally blind.

 

Architects put a lot of effort into "true lies": facades that make the scary-slender but (hopefully) well-calculated structures they build look comfortingly solid to the people walking over the bridge or under the ceiling. X-Ray Eyes kid doesn't get the benefit of any of those comforting illusions. Having his power activate for the first time when he was forty stories was up was terrifying. (He learned engineering and got over it once he was able to "do the math" himself.)

 

Everybody around you acts stupid. They set off for long trips with gas tanks you can see are near empty, they wait for buses that have broken down a few blocks away, or give up and walk away just when the bus is about to round the corner. They smoke, and you can see what that's doing to them. They get lost, which you need never do. They're mostly oblivious to vermin, or human predators. They wake up at night, hearing sound, and they can't see anything, so they guess whether they have to get up or whether it's OK to go back to sleep. They don't know who's at the door. If he's the intelligent, strong-willed, responsible type, X-Ray Eyes Boy is likely to decide that he should be running everything, for everybody else's own good.

 

Sex is a huge issue. Deciding to look at everything always is one logical option, but I can't comment on the effects. Deciding not to look can be the foundation of incredible willpower, and there are lots of reasons for it, ranging from moral responsibility to not wanting to accidentally see one's parents ... well eww! But the desire to look is always there. The effect of that was that the first girl to give X-Ray Eyes Boy permission to look her over any time it might be necessary (like to check for possible cancers) could show off to him any time, in public. (They're getting married soon.)

 

Another issue is cheating, e.g. at cards. Again, there is a fork in the road. I don't know what happens if the character decides cheating is efficient and morally OK, but if he decides it isn't it can lead to him becoming an obsessive athlete in a sport where he has no advantage, to prove himself without an edge. (For my character, this was swimming. He's just finished his short career, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.)

 

Telescopic N-Ray Vision lends itself to the development of a young character with a huge sense of vision and no limits. My own character certainly considered the possibility of using his power for blackmail. He rejected the idea with contempt. Why should he steal his neighbor's secrets and make hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars, when he can study mining geology, steal Mother Earth's secrets and make trillions? (And then be much better off for having no skeletons in his closet.) From a fairly early age my X-Ray Eyes Boy, aware that he had this power, was regarding himself as the rightful future owner of all the world's unclaimed marine salvage (the wine-dark sea would hold no secrets from him!) and then all the world's thus-far unclaimed mineral deposits.

 

There are a lot of problems a rich person who sees issues that other people can't see can solve with money. There are other problems he can't solve with money, if only because he can't prove anything. If you think about what morally responsible, arrogant-to-megalomaniac, super-fit (swimming star) X-Ray Eyes Boy would be like, rich and grown up, as a laser-tag opponent, you can see where this is going. Of course the first thing he wants to build is an "Eraser" gun for shooting through walls.

[David Blue]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

Thank you guys for the answers so far, and for those that haven't answered, please do so!

 

I now need perspectives on the following powers:

 

6. The ability to read minds.

7. The ability to conjure permanent items that weight up to ten pounds.

8. The ability to regenerate from even mortal wounds and ignore illness.

9. The ability to teleport (closely related to flight, but it differs significantly).

10. The ability to selectively enhance your senses at will: see vast distances, hear ordinarily inaudible sounds, function in the dark as if it were day, track by scent, and so forth.

Again my reply is based on the experience of watching psi-kids with one power only grow into these powers. I've seen telepathy, regeneration and hyper-senses, so that's what I'll focus on.

 

For good-hearted young teens, the main use of telepathy is giving permission for their true loves to read their minds, and ideally it is (and was) mutual. How many songs have been sung about love, and if only the beloved could know how much they are loved! With telepathy it is possible, and everything else is much, much less interesting. This can lead to young lovers hooking up as soon as they see each other each day, and just letting the link run till they have to go to sleep, letting the world pass them by.

 

Telepathy can also lead to startlingly un-subtle behavior, as Kid Telepath realizes how much other people's complicated rationalizations for self-interest etc. are just that. Kid Telepath wound up with quite a "cowboy" attitude (after he outlived his obsessive love). A lot of people are no damn good, and even if you can see why, so what? They're still going to rob you, or shoot you, or whatever they've decided to do. Nobody knows better than a telepath that a goon with a gun is not looking for understanding, just money and no surviving witnesses. All that matters is to have a gun of your own and draw faster. Conversations with a telepath who's gotten tired to the point of not caring about sensitive egos and the lies people tell to cover up crass motives can be short, and hard to live with.

 

Telepathy works on you too. If you want to know "why did I do that?" you can find the answer. But do you want to know? Maybe not, the answer might point to callousness or laziness or other things you'd rather not believe about yourself. On the whole though, in game, telepaths have been people who do know their own minds. Trying to talk them out of anything is fairly pointless. They know what they're in this for, or if they're going to leave there's nothing to say but goodbye.

 

Based on experience in the game, most people don't want to hear the truth about what other people think. They put a lot of work into their patchwork of guesswork as to what is going in in other people, and they're reluctant to give up the answers they've arrived at. Their interpretations of others' motives can be hostile and self-serving, and this can make them reluctant to believe the truth about other people's good intentions. Over time, a telepath may just stop talking about such things.

 

The other way to go is that a telepath may become a gossip. There was a player character like that. I don't know where that leads if it doesn't lead to the telepath being murdered, which it did.

 

Regeneration is the best power for cheating at sports, because you don't use it in competition, you use it in training, where you practice every maniac maneuver till it works or till you've broken your neck dozens of times and it's obviously never going to work. Impressing girls with your dauntless courage is easy, as most of the time you can get away with moderately wild stuff, it's just that normal people have to refrain because that remaining time will have life-altering (or life-ending) consequences. For Regenerating Boy, all that bad luck means is the need to lie. (No, you didn't see me break a bone, look, it's fine.) Life becomes a casino where the more and the bigger you bet the more you can win - and if you lose you get your money back straight away. That's not necessarily an unmixed blessing. It can lead to antagonizing people you'd be better off not to pick fights with. Regeneration plus pain may not lead to restraint; it may instead lead to full exploitation of the power, plus self-pity, and disdain for others who are cowards unlike your manly, risk-taking self.

 

"Daredevil" level senses has different effects depending on whether you think other people are entitled to secrets. Omni-Senses Girl came into conflict with X-Ray Eyes Boy over this (though with mutual respect and goodwill). Basically if you think God wants a world of light and truth, without secrets, you step into a room and take them all. (And then anyone with extreme super-senses of their own and a code of restraint has a fit.) The effect is that every latent potential becomes actual. If a machine doesn't work, but it could with some tweaking, with your help it soon will. And if everybody can get along with Irene as long as nobody (especially Irene) realizes Irene is a dyke, everybody will soon have the opportunity to learn tolerance in an atmosphere of complete truth, as Satan loves lies. (And if tolerance and forgiveness don't come easy at first, they may after everybody is forced to confront their own issues and buried secrets.)

 

I don't know what kind of personality development that might lead to in someone who wasn't killed young.

[David Blue]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

11. The ability to time travel under one's own power.

12. The ability to foresee the future (Precognition).

13. The ability to view the past (Retrocognition/Psychometry).

14. The ability to summon creatures to do your bidding.

15. The ability to exert far more force than is normal (Super-Strength, which would include straight up damage).

16. The ability to manipulate things from afar (Telekinesis).

Again, only commenting on the powers I've seen affecting characters as they grew in the game over the years...

 

Precognition / postcognition can have corrosive effects on the sense of life and morality of the person who has it and everyone aware of it, as they gradually find that there is one timeline and it is unalterable. No matter what you do to save people whose fates have been seen, it makes no difference or actually causes the event you are trying to stop. (In the style of the Terminator timeline.) Whether the Young Prophetess saw the event as "past" or "future" makes no difference as far as averting it is concerned. So why try? If you're the Young Prophetess and you're in a love relationship but you see yourself making love to another handsome young man, why fight it? It's destiny! And if that breaks up the relationship, it was fate. When your downfall is assured anyway, why not bring scented oils and have a really good time? There are no important decisions, no turning points that have not already been decided. It's too late, always has been too late, always will be too late. The only issue is how much fun you have.

 

The guy with the ability to summon and command creatures is shockingly uninterested in the power, compared to everyone else, mostly because he is interested in Jesus, who is not his to command. His only idea so far (after years of play) was to summon a flight of birds and make it fly around in formation to (of course) impress a girl. She wondered if that worked on all creatures, including homo sapiens. Yes of course it does. She thought he might be able to mind control her to kiss him. He said presumably it would work like that, and got back on the topic of Jesus, completely missing the hint. And he never found another use for the power to command all living things. (Except as required by self-defense, as needed on law enforcement missions and so on.) If you have that power, and are that nice, and that unworldly, you will either find yourself in bad company soon and come to a terrible end, or if you are surrounded by good people you may not need to use your power, because other people will gladly make your moves for you. As long as you just want to be a Jesus-loving, tolerant, even-tempered sweetheart, kind to your friends and girlfriend and good to your mother, everyone else's interest in allowing you to live the life you've chosen and remain the kind of guy you prefer to be is overwhelming. Whatever might make you bitterly unhappy should be removed, preferably before you ever see it.

 

For a ladylike and ethical young woman in a nigh-intolerable situation, super-strength can be a disadvantage. It means you can't have a five-star crockery-throwing rampage even in a situation that fully justifies it, because that would lead to injuries and likely deaths. You just have to choke on your rage, or blot yourself out with sedatives, or do whatever you can to not lash out. Over time, that can be very destructive.

 

Telekinesis with advantages that let it act like "proper" TK is a mother-beautiful power. If you like to make things, titanium will probably soon be your favorite metal. Basically, everything that has great qualities once it's worked into the proper form but that is unreasonably difficult to work is yours to play with. New adventures in engineering and art beckon! The only real negative is that it's easy to be a couch potato.

[Ragitsu]

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

 

David Blue, thank you VERY much for your contribution! I have not read through all your points of address, yet, but I will do so.