How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for government

[Querysphinx]

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme

 

 

Can I ask what various GM's ask for when a super registers in their campaign?

 

 

I ran a game once where superhumans had been part of the world for centuries. Society generally tolerated them because societies who expelled their metahumans tended to crushed by societies who found a way to work with them. In America it was generally realized that many superhumans came about by accident and many people with useful powers didn't want to be full time law enforcement assets. One of the most powerful heroes on the planet was a stay-at-home-mom who only came out to kick butt when seriously major bad things were happening.

 

Over the centuries of its existence America devised a system that allowed superhumans to be unattached deputy federal marshals without revealing their personal identities as long as they (a) took training and kept certified ( agreed to respond to code X emergencies © established a positive method of identifying themselves to law enforcement so that no one else could impersonate them. In essence, the superhuman identity was a legal persona that existed to serve a specific societal role.

 

This is not to say the system wasn't occasionally abused by both sides, but it worked more often than not. Superhumans who were convicted of abusing their authority were, in addition to suffering fines and imprisonment, publicly unmasked which really messed with their lives after the fact. An unmasked super was treated with about the same level of contempt as a sex-offender.

 

Conversely, a superhuman who was unmasked by bad guys could actually get a form of witness protection, up to and including a new identity.

[Nuclear Fridge]

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme

 

Or a superhuman 'outed' could follow Peter Parker's totally brilliant scheme from years gone by... Establish 3 or 4 new super-identities, new names, new costumes, exactly the same powers and special effects and carry on bashing heads. Double WTF there!

 

"No way that can be Lightspeed. Okay, Supersonic has the same build and powers as Lightspeed, but come on!"

[archer]

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme

 

I think the way to register with the government is to use a 3rd party private organization. Think of it as the American Medical Association verifying that you are a medical doctor.

 

In the Marvel Universe, take a trusted organization such the Avengers to be the certifying body. They could run a basic training/certification program including some professional ethics classes for any potential hero who is interested. The Avengers could easily run some telephone message center for heroes (or the government) to leave messages for each other. Give an option for voicemail box or talk to the Avenger on monitor duty.

 

If a hero wanted to go further and to register as "approved for government work", the hero leaves his identity and contact information with a non-networked Avenger's computer. The information file with the secret IDs is secretly placed in one or more inaccessible location. If no one unauthorized knows where the information is stored, it'll be very difficult to locate.

 

Examples:

 

1) Blue area of the moon: Inhumans and their enemies and the Watcher's enemies have no desire to learn the information.

 

2) Asgardian realm: Asgardians don't use computers, don't know what a flash drive is, wouldn't care if they did know, and could care less about secret identities of mortals.

 

3) Negative zone: They probably don't use computers and don't care about the information.

 

4) Titan: The people of Titan are highly ethical, have few enemies, and don't care about the information. The enemies they do have don't care about secret IDs of earthlings.

 

 

The only reason for the government to have access to secret IDs and personal contact information which hasn't been voluntarily shared by the hero is if the hero has seriously gone bonkers. If that has happened, the Avengers are probably in the best position to investigate or deal with the situation. Or to be willing to temporarily take the heat from the government for stonewalling on releasing the secret ID.

 

If the Avengers are incapable of dealing with it and they think the hero in question is guilty of something, an Avenger can be given the encryption key, go retrieve the information and release it to the government.

 

The technique could be easily adapted to less exotic locales. With some advanced technology, I could bury a flash drive 20' down in my father-in-law's neighbor's backyard without anyone knowing or ever finding it. And no one would ever think to ask me about the location since I'm a NPC rather than an Avenger.

[Martin2]

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme

 

First I think I will just get a government official drop of the pre registration form at their not very secret secret base. This will indicate that they are willing to start to register with the government. So just the basics of what they want to be called a brief outline of their powers and indicate they will turn up for their finger print or retinal scan. It will be the basics and indicate they want to take things further (as no one is actually saying they are, even though they want the full expenses claims on the British Government tab). They can fill out the more detailed ones later to apply for law enforcement and police powers at a later date.

 

(We do like our paperwork )

 

Currently Oxford where they are based and London has a snake man epidemic so it may take it a bit longer to complete. If they can sort it all out and still have a British Government in its present form at the end of it.