Der Psychology of der Super Human

[Hermit]

Mystics "know things man was not meant to know" , and often see or sense the supernatural while others are just going about their mundane lives. For some, this might lead to a sort of 'academic snobbery' supressed by varying degrees. Imagine having read the works of Homer, Shakespeare, and more... in a world full of people who claim never even to heard of the guys? One could feel somewhat isolated by that knowledge, or slightly superior to them.

 

Since magic in comics traditionally requires focus and might respond badly to your emotions, many mystics would try to temper themselves. When getting angry leads to strong winds forming, and misprounced words lead to barriers crumbling, 'Control' becomes a keyword in your life.

[Karma]

Originally posted by Highwayman

No need to imagine, I've been there.

 

As far as mentalists go, in an instant they can learn things about a person that it would take most people years to find out. Since their first impression is so much deeper, it must have a profound affect on how they deal with people.

 

They would also be getting 24-hour, instant, and completely honest feedback from everyone around them about everything they do and say. The privileged, charismatic, and good looking could end up with megalomania, while the ugly, unpopular, and victims of prejudice could end up with a desperate need to please or bitterly reject the entire human race. Or a mentalist could swing between the extremes, acting more and more arrogant when things are going well until the negative feedback from those around him sends him crashing back into “need to please†mode.

Mentalists would probably learn to 'mind their own business' real fast no matter how goodlooking, popular, or privileged they were.

Goodlooking? Half your 'friends' would hate you cause your beautiful.

Privileged? "I wonder if I can get him to buy me a new car?"

 

Mentalists would soon learn who their real friends were and even then do you think good things about your friends 24/7?

[TheEmerged]

Originally posted by FenrisUlf

For that matter, while I like Fenris as a villain, his 'the wolf = sociopath' seems bogus to me. Might be he was always murderous on some deep level but now he know he can act on it, because after all, he's part predator now, and all predators are blood-crazed killers.

 

Anybody got anything they can add to this?

 

Eh, common stereotype. Goes along with that whole "you have to be irrational to be a criminal" monologue. People take solace in the idea that a criminal is insane or listening to "baser instincts" because the idea of a rational murderer just creeps people out.

[AnotherSkip]

heh, wolves in their society are not sociopathic. I would be hard pressed to think (of course i might be wrong) to think of any animal that is truly sociopathic.

 

some of the critters humans have been combined with _should_ have resulted in better social understandings than depicted.

 

an insect man hybryd might have problems with individuality and not necessarily unlawful behaviors but self destructive ones for no benefit to society. but self destructive activities for the benefit of society (ie Superheroing and Super villany) would be reasonable.

 

reptilian critters might not be motivated much either way, maybe territorial defense or accquisition of food. and lots of sunbathing

 

Wolves are pack animals, it just depends on how big a hunk of society you consider your pack. (hunh, racists?)

 

wolf men being violent and the whole werewolf thing are definately the result of either cursing twisted people or the theory that if you strip away society from a man, you have a sociopath.

 

besides old legends have werewolves as being a curse. if you really wanted for society to end your suffering, destructive rampages would be the way to go.

 

I think if you strip away empathy you have a sociopath, society tries to teach empathy.

 

and no i don't buy that all predators are blood crazed killers. all blood crazed killers might be predators but not all predators are blood crazed killers. subset problems.

 

all is IMNSHO

 

On mentaslists

read some Mercedes Lackey (typically Arrows Fall) for a good example of an untrained empath losing control of her powers. Mental Shields are gods gift to mentalists.

 

 

Brightly Burning by Mercedes Lackey has good example of a Human Torch kind of character (Pyrokinetic)being really pushed to his limits of self control as his powers come to fruition during puberty..... it's pretty scary especially to a medevil (sp) world.

 

on superpowers I usually try running around pretending I have superpowers but i need to keep my secret identity. nothing ever finds me doggonit, but the constant state of readyness is interesting.

 

and on Golden Age Flash wasn't he pretty smart before he got his powers?

[Chuckg]

Before he became the Flash, Jay Garrick was a grad student in chemistry. Barry Allen was one of the seniormost forensic scientists for the local police department. So yes, both of them were quite intelligent and educated even prior to becoming the Flash.

[David Blue]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

This is a fascinating old thread. I love this kind of stuff.

 

OK, some takes that I have used (or applied to use, but had the character concept rejected):

 

First, a mentalist: The Tutor

 

A bright (20 INT) mentalist was obvious when you looked at his path through school, because everywhere around him all the slow kids turned brilliant: the ideas would just pop into their heads, often over and over till they picked up a new skill permanently.

 

Why? Did you ever see a cow that's not smart enough to open a gate try over and over to do it? And these (your childhood peers) are human beings, and you can feel their (needless!) frustration so keenly. Anyone whose temperament inclined to empathy and compassion is going to go: "Here! It works like this! Take it, use it: from my head to yours!"

 

Keep doing that, and you could have a lot of grateful, loyal, formerly stupid followers and contacts further down the road. Any agents who work for this guy will have shocking skill lists. But if they started out stupid, they will all think things out one way, his way. If the boss has a plan with a flaw that's not obvious to him, nobody else is likely to see it either.

 

Any of those beneficiaries: if they are in trouble at school because they are being abused at home, that will be fixed if at all possible. If they don't have the courage to report what they are suffering to the authorities, courage can be supplemented. Sometimes motivating people to get up for a confrontation can be for their own good, even if they're too browbeaten or too slow to see it. (And courage-boosting, like INT-boosting, is a useful skill to develop.)

 

Anyone with problems about children who need help starting to make it could just forget it - literally. Teachers or parents who thought it was a good idea to make an outcry about disadvantaged pupils doing so well should just think something else, forthwith. "My Johnny has caught up. I feel great about him doing so well. There is no problem here. No problem." - How much resistance is an average parent going to have to a suggestion like that? All you have to do is nudge people, if you're quiet about it.

 

Moving this freak to an environment where he'll only interact with his fellow super-bright kids is not going to happen. They don't need him. He's not going to let the people who do need him relapse before they're solidly confirmed in the right (INT 20) way of thinking, or as near to that as they can physically get. Compassion: it's a powerful motivator.

 

The same guy, so compassionate to his peers and to the vulnerable, may read his teachers like books. You're supposed to be teaching. Your knowledge is supposed to become his. If you mumble, if you are inept, if you explain poorly, he'll just take his intellectual property that your incompetence is keeping from him. Forget cheating, that will be beneath him. His circumvention of the system will occur at a much more fundamental level.

 

Someone like this will likely be offended at how the stock market too often works, with the predators feasting on the gullible. Is there any ethical reason for him not to take would-be thieves to the cleaners? He would be most unlikely to think so, especially if he had charitable uses for at least some of that money: help the handicapped!

 

He'll gladly help his followers to read his mind, when they're ready. Why not? They'll only see the little flaws everyone has, and that they'll have been trained (in his way of thinking) to forgive - as he forgives them - and the basic purity of his intentions, and an absolute determination to win that should reasonably add to their confidence.

 

- So now you have a guy with brains, plans and a cause, someone who is totally sure he's right, whose hordes of (genuinely, un-coerced-ly) fanatical followers agree that he has the right answers, and who is ready to start implementing a better tomorrow, backed by billions liberated from unethical uses and owners.

 

And that's a good guy mentalist. I thought so anyway. The GM did not agree.

 

In retrospect I can see his point. But, if you were brilliant, deeply compassionate and a powerful telepath - could you let people around you just fail and fail and keep failing?

 

As the twig is bent, the tree grows.

 

Helping people is an appetite too. It can grow with the eating.

[RDU Neil]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Another take, you grow up being the strongest guy around. Football star material so everyone in your school likes you cause when you play they win. Then you get into the bigger world of superhumans and find out that your 20-25 STR is peanuts to the TRUE Powerhouses out there.

 

Might be an Ego testing moment the first time that happens to you. But then again, you'll always have football teams that want you, and fame, women and money....

 

This also brings up another point... how would certain aspects of our lives... like professional sports... be utterly changed and perhaps non-existant in a super-world.

 

What keeps Power Man from being the worlds greatest boxer? If you have laws and such about "metahumans not competing" what you'd get was people like Jerry Rice and Michael Jordan accused of being low level supers... "Cause nobody could REALLY be that good!" tearing down their careers.

 

What about awards for research/accomplishments? How can Hawking compete with Reed Richards? What about employment? One brick could take the place of an entire road crew, and do the job in a fraction of the time.

 

What about someone succeeding at work... and then being called out as a mutant mind reader... "'Cause there is no way he got that idea before me! He must 'ave read my mind!"

 

 

I play around with concepts like this... but for fun's sake, don't take them too far in my games. IMO... society as we know it would utterly collapse if paranormal populations were as large and as varied as they are in the comics. What grew out of that collapse... well... that could be a really cool campaign... but very hard to pull off.

 

The psych lims of characters are only the beginning. The psych lims of SOCIETY would be where the real chaos reigned.

[starblaze]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

This reminds me of a character from San Angelo Enemies. He is called Mastermind. He was originally a superhero who one day decided that society needed help and he started to use his mental powers to eliminate criminal impulses in their minds. He eventually had his own followers who were all reformed criminals who felt they were in his debt for making them productive citizens.

 

Then there was a social reformer type in underworld enemies called the Hanged Man. He really didn't have any superpowers except for a really high intelligence.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Interesting posts, and I think very insightful. I'd disagree with the assessment of narcissism/antisocial tendencies as being common for the mentalists however, unless the power manifested in early childhood or latency age. Both of these disorders tend to grow from situations of abuse, and the lack of self-worth exhibited is central to the devaluing of others. And since empathy typically develops by age five or six (at the outside), a mentalist whose powers manifest after this time will at the very least be able to empathise with the suffering of those around him/her... probably much better than your average person. Maybe to the point where they had to avoid their company though...

 

I think it's more likely that these sorts of powers would change the actual behaviors of people, but not the underlying psychology, unless they existed from a very early age. Your revenge minded villain types would exist, likely would be diagnosible with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, a Personality Disorder, or some type of Adjustment Disorder. Mentalists who were repeatedly traumatized by the thoughts of those around them might exhibit characteristics of Agoraphobia or some sort of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (although as the anxiety is based on a "realistic concern or fear" maybe this would be a poor diagnosis).

 

The funny thing is, lots of these things are "super treatable"... with very low relapse rates (like PTSD, most Mood Disorders, and pretty much all "phase of life issues" like Bereavement or Adjustment Disorders), and for many medication for mood management isn't even necessarily an issue. The ones with formal Personality Disorders, Bi-Polar Disorder (Type I), and Psychotic Disorders would be the ones I'd worry the most about. Barring some new super-formulary, there's not much you can do in terms of "curing" those at this stage. Best bet is to go for "in remission" with some nice atypical anti-psychotic or mood stabilizer, and expect periodic lapses for the Bi-Polar or Psychoses... the Personality DOs are probably the worst prognostically for a superhuman, as it's fundamental to their world view. At least the Anti-Social Personality Type Supervillain will decrease their negative behaviors in middle-age as they realize that the negative consequences of their actions (including years of time in Stronghold, lack of satisfying interpersonal relationships, and nothing to show for a lifetime of effort). Anti-Socials tend to modify their behavior in response to what they get out of things, just like most other folks... it reminds me of a joke I heard from a patient when I was working in Griffen Memorial Hospital (State Psychiatric Hospital in Oklahoma).

 

This guy's car gets a flat tire on a deserted country road in the middle of the night. Cursing, he gets out in the middle of the night and finds he's standing alongside this 15' tall fence with the words "State Hospital for the Criminally Insane" on a large metal sign. Moving quickly, and more than a little freaked out, he gets out his spare and starts changing the tire. Just as he puts the last of the lug nuts into the hubcap, he looks up and sees this guy standing on the other side of the fence and watching him silently. "Holy CRAP!" and the lug nuts go flying into the night, gone forever. The guy is really freaked out at this point, but the patient on the other side of the fence just calmly states "Why don't you just take one lug nut off of each remaining tire and use that to get you to the nearest gas station?". In response the man thinks briefly, agrees and is ready to head out in minutes. Turning to the helpful psychiatric patient, he asks "Wow, you're pretty smart fella. What're you doing in there?".

 

"I'm crazy, not stupid" is the response.

[Guest Witch Doctor]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Think of a self made hero who has gone to Tibet to learn ancient martial arts, travelled to Afghanistan to learn guerilla warfare, traded services for tutoring in computers from a Professor at Kent, and basically paid a far greater price to be a far greater man than everyone else.

Now, imagine that everyone else around him is complaining that he never does enough and that they need so very very much. But, comparatively, they are doing nothing to get it for themselves.

[BcAugust]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

This is... interesting. I've actually been thinking over my own characters while reading this thread. One thing I didn't see brought up (except vaugely with power armor characters) is what people who "shift" from normal to super might be like.(aka, someone with a lot of their powers in OIHID)

 

There tends to be sort of a seperation, almost a changed personality. (Of course, when one form can take two or three anti personal rockets with a bit of stun, and the other can get killed easily by a bullet...) Actually, I can see their friends doing some encouragement on that. If your friends are other supers, they likely feel most comfortable around you when you are a super. Why would you want to be fragile?

 

And it's hardly easier in normal form. After all, you still have the reflexes for your powered form. If you're used to, say, being able to leap across the hood of a car, or fly, or even seeing in the dark, wouldn't it be frustrating to have that gone? How do people react around you when you keep messing up because you're used to another body, or greater whatevers?

 

I can imagine that going a few ways... Like someone trying to seperate their two "lives" completely(aka, Captain Marvel), or trying to live just one (The Hulk), or even just completely splitting the personalities and acting different while staying in the same area(Thinking Iron Man, here)

[BcAugust]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Actually, add on enhanced senses to something interesting to think about. How does art look when you can see in the infared or ultravoliet spectrums? How does music sound when you can hear each misflubbed note and the electronics behind it to? Would you have lightbulbs in your house if you see perfectly well in the dark? And let's not even talk how you would describe how red tastes, or what color the gravity of Earth is. Or even the more exotic stuff, like seeing souls or detecting demons. Heck, even imagine how fashion would look if you could tell the differences between colors most people don't even suspect. Would you be entranced or repeled at listening to people talk or sing if you could hear the working of their heart and lungs as well? How many times do you have to stop and remember people don't see or hear or notice that?

[Fredwidge]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

I can easily see the blasters being insomniacs. Ever had twitchy nights where you were kicking or jerking sporadically? This behavior kinda happens when you had a troubled day or when you recently experienced something disburbing. How many times does that happen to a superhero? Imagine having a nightmare only to wake up after with the roof and the three apartments above your bed blown to oblivions... "Uh... oops!"

[David Blue]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

RDU Neil: "This also brings up another point... how would certain aspects of our lives... like professional sports... be utterly changed and perhaps non-existant in a super-world."

 

You could have Olympic-style drug testing, down to gene scans. After all, you already have to decide whether female athletes really are female, and if they aren't they are banned. So a rule that says your genetics have to be right is no new thing.

 

Athletics, portraying an image of mankind physically ascendant, with mutation excluded as cheating a priori, could be more popular than ever.

 

If you choose to be an athlete you are choosing high rewards at the cost of zero privacy, as testers can arrive at any time to examine everything from your blood cells to your excreta to what you are having for breakfast.

 

Of course the hunt would be on for the best mutant talent - the ones with powers that let them be superior at their sports and also very good at cheating the tests. Or just good at cheating.

 

A mutant former sports star (that is a successful cheat) might be a cynical, frustrated person, less interested in money and other rewards that they had already tried than in using their powers full blast and to Hades with what normals considered fair, safe, ethical or otherwise acceptable.

 

RDU Neil: "What about awards for research/accomplishments?"

 

If you want the money, you have to accept the rules.

 

Or for villains, not. Suppose you stop worrying about whether some cretinous normal gives you a little less pocket money on degrading terms, or a little more. Address the real issue, which is whether you or he decides who gets rewarded, who gets excluded, and who gets punished. It's all about power.

 

Of course with Earth X type mutant populations, or long before then, all that changes.

[Guest Witch Doctor]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Imagine a character with mutant luck powers and everybody knew it. No matter what accomplishments he'd make, other people would just dismiss it as the result of his power. Most people would feel that he never really accomplished -anything-, he was just fortunate enough to be born with a mutant power that made sure he'd do well.

Would anything motivate him to do anything? No matter what he did, he'd succeed and nobody would give him credit. He'd probably become a dropout and dread getting lucky. Think about it. The sense of victory you feel is always directly tied to the risk of defeat. If there is no risk of defeat, you might never feel a sense of victory. Your life would become an endless expanse of grey. You might even try to commit suicide but find your luck power prevents you from succeeding.

[David Blue]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Witch Doctor: "Think of a self made hero ..."

 

Yes. But some of those might also have concentrated on self-discipline and self-control with such success that they just calmly accepted that situation. That's how people are.

 

Others not of course.

 

I think the main issue here might be romantic, particularly for women and for men who didn't have an exception that it's all right to make demands based on being a girlfriend/housewife/mother and nothing else.

A straight answer to the question "do you respect me?"

would often be: "No."

"What do you really think I'm entitled to?"

"Suppose you get something for yourself for a change."

That's not a great basis for true love.

[RDU Neil]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

RDU Neil: "This also brings up another point... how would certain aspects of our lives... like professional sports... be utterly changed and perhaps non-existant in a super-world."

 

You could have Olympic-style drug testing, down to gene scans. After all, you already have to decide whether female athletes really are female, and if they aren't they are banned. So a rule that says your genetics have to be right is no new thing.

 

Athletics, portraying an image of mankind physically ascendant, with mutation excluded as cheating a priori, could be more popular than ever.

 

If you choose to be an athlete you are choosing high rewards at the cost of zero privacy, as testers can arrive at any time to examine everything from your blood cells to your excreta to what you are having for breakfast.

 

Of course the hunt would be on for the best mutant talent - the ones with powers that let them be superior at their sports and also very good at cheating the tests. Or just good at cheating.

 

A mutant former sports star (that is a successful cheat) might be a cynical, frustrated person, less interested in money and other rewards that they had already tried than in using their powers full blast and to Hades with what normals considered fair, safe, ethical or otherwise acceptable.

 

RDU Neil: "What about awards for research/accomplishments?"

 

If you want the money, you have to accept the rules.

 

Or for villains, not. Suppose you stop worrying about whether some cretinous normal gives you a little less pocket money on degrading terms, or a little more. Address the real issue, which is whether you or he decides who gets rewarded, who gets excluded, and who gets punished. It's all about power.

 

Of course with Earth X type mutant populations, or long before then, all that changes.

 

All of what you say is valid... and opens up even more cans of worms.

 

So, you have to pass gene scans... well what if metahumans began appearing decades ago, before genetic testing was even remotely a possibility? The whole path of human endeavor would have changed over the past century.

 

"I was the first to reach the top of Mt. Everest!"

 

"Yeah, but you fuckin' FLEW up there!"

 

Does special power make your feats any less special? If you are "tested out" of participating in society... how does that affect you? In a world where the biggest and brightest and the "NOW" is all that gets noticed... are normal humans striving to break the four minute mile going to be noticed when you can have "WORLD SPEEDSTER RACES 2005" on every night as a reality show.

 

Who is going to care about slam dunks in the NBA, when you have "Semi Tossing!" on TNT?

 

Not to mention, where is the "break point" for testing. When does a really smart or really strong guy become "superhuman" and therefore disqualified. Jerry Rice plays great ball over 40. Almost unheard of in the NFL. He MUST be a paranormal!

 

What about people who have trained in esoteric martial arts who can create a massive glowing "Iron Fist" but have ZERO genetic difference from other humans. In fact, they claim that anyone can learn the Iron Fist technique if they just commit and train hard enough. Are they disqualified because they truly have achieved super-HUMAN development?

 

As for rules on research and awards... what do those rules say? "Sorry, you are TOO SMART to compete for the Nobel Prize." At what point does a genius become a mutant freak!

 

The problem here is that such societal nuances as this are almost impossible to truly extrapolate... and even more impossible to play out fully in an actual game. Touching on them... playing with the notion... using isolated cases of characters and villains... that can work.

 

The issue here is that EVERYTHING we take for granted in our real world, we do so because there is an unconscious accepted concept of "human" we all operate from. We get really uncomfortable when something like cloning, or transexuals or psychopaths deviate from the norm of human. Look at racial issues and issues of sexual orientation and how devisive they are... now extrapolate to "people who can shoot lasers from their eyes vs. people who can't" and it becomes crazy to even speculate.

 

IMO, the most likely societal structure that would develop out of a metahuman world, would be a feudal style system. Cities, states, spheres of influence would develop around a single powerful metahuman, or group of likeminded metahumans... with lesser powers ringed about them... normal humans on the outside, as you have to choose allegiance to one power or another to survive. Micro-societies would live and die as did the metahuman they were spawned around. Long lived, powerful metahumans would aggregate power over time... maybe even create stable, participative governments that invest even normals in the structure... but in the end would still be dependent on the benevolent dictatorship of the strongest ruling metahuman.

 

Sport would always look for the biggest and the best... so the premier sports people would be metahuman. Not to say that lesser humans wouldn't also do the same, but it wouldn't be professionally. (As in, just because Michael Jordan exists, doesn't mean I don't shoot hoops in my driveway.) People would gravitate to like people at "their level" and you'd get a distinct caste system (not disimilar to current society, caste based on wealth) but more rigid, as it is based on empyrical ability.

 

In my long running Champs game... such a society was glimpsed in the future by some characters, and at least one of them has spent his career trying to avoid such a society... aware at every step that his very efforts may be bringing it about.

 

Great discussion!

[Fredwidge]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

...

 

IMO, the most likely societal structure that would develop out of a metahuman world, would be a feudal style system. Cities, states, spheres of influence would develop around a single powerful metahuman, or group of likeminded metahumans... with lesser powers ringed about them... normal humans on the outside, as you have to choose allegiance to one power or another to survive. Micro-societies would live and die as did the metahuman they were spawned around. Long lived, powerful metahumans would aggregate power over time... maybe even create stable, participative governments that invest even normals in the structure... but in the end would still be dependent on the benevolent dictatorship of the strongest ruling metahuman.

 

...

 

I sense a taint of Magneto in your words... He would be proud. Has thou joined the Brotherhood?

[David Blue]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

RDU Neil "I was the first to reach the top of Mt. Everest!"

 

That's a very good example. (And good posting in general: bravo!) From the flying character's point of view, maybe he's doing what he's made to do, and being obsessed over lame work-arounds for not being able to fly is silly. From the point of view of the climber, the flying character may be irrelevant or a cheat.

 

The non-flyer in this case is not necessarily a normal either. Climbing is a satisfying activity for some martial artists, bricks (well, the sorts of bricks I generally like best anyway: Giant-Man or Goliath I) and others (such as mentalists who might want an objective challenge). It's dangerous, it's intense, it can extend you. (See the remarkable movie "Touching the Void" for how far and how hard climbers may wind up pushing themselves.)

 

How would you feel about losing out in the Olympic steeple-chase or the triple-jump to a flyer why just tapped a foot against the ground from time to time in a meaningless gesture at complying with the rules? You might not feel the same envy mixed with admiration you could feel for a faster runner, rather you might feel that the flyer is not really competing in the same event as you at all, just taking the glory as though he had.

 

A different example: I do not think Hawkeye and Green Arrow, competing at what obsessed them both, would be amused if Flash and Quicksilver entered the competition, fired all their arrows, and just carried them down-range and stuck them in the target. Flash's arrows would arrive first and be perfectly placed, but it wouldn't be the same.

 

I think there is at least one general way for supers to compete, though it wouldn't appeal to all tastes. If I am Superman, you can't be as strong as me, as fast as me, etc. But you can be as upright as me, whether you have similar powers, different powers, lame powers or no powers. Supers who regarded Mother Teresa, when she was alive, as their competition could be very pleasant company.

 

Just one super could have a huge influence on how the others chose to compete, if he was strong enough (in a broad sense of "strong") that he was clearly the guy to beat, and the terms he set were your best chance to draw near to him or sometimes even beat him.

 

Go go, the big blue boy-scout! : )

[sinanju]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

In my case, being tougher than normal, I would of known by the time I learned to talk. But then I was the type of kid that seemed to try to disprove Darwin.

Now let's say I was nigh-invulnerable. I probably would of done more and more insane stunts as I got older and probably wrecked more bicycles than I actually did.

 

Hence Jackass, an NPC I created for a "Smallville" style game. He had 75% Physical & Energy damage reduction, slightly superhuman STR (25), and low level armor. He could do almost anything and not be seriously hurt.

 

So he did do almost anything, attempting ever more dangerous and stupid stunts to impress his friends. He took his nom de guerre Jackass from the MTV show. When you're virtually invulnerable to harm, why not do crazy-stupid things to impress your friends?

[RDU Neil]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

I think there is at least one general way for supers to compete, though it wouldn't appeal to all tastes. If I am Superman, you can't be as strong as me, as fast as me, etc. But you can be as upright as me, whether you have similar powers, different powers, lame powers or no powers. Supers who regarded Mother Teresa, when she was alive, as their competition could be very pleasant company.

 

Just one super could have a huge influence on how the others chose to compete, if he was strong enough (in a broad sense of "strong") that he was clearly the guy to beat, and the terms he set were your best chance to draw near to him or sometimes even beat him.

 

Go go, the big blue boy-scout! : )

 

Heh... I read the above as "...you can be as upTIGHT as me..." Heh...

 

Actually, this piece dovetails nicely back to the initial discussion of Psych Lims. Someone may have "Aspires to be a great as Superman" while another may have "Thinks Superman doesn't do enough to make the world better!"

 

IMO, it is much more likely that supers would have psych-lims that drive them to use their abilities to make the world "right"... but that would inevitably generate the world I talked about above, which is fractured... most likely among different camps of supers who have a general agreement on what "right" means.

 

I personally would compete with Superman to counter his protection of the status quo, by using my power and influence to create a better world, rather than protect the status quo.

 

No matter how you look at it, though... the competition of supers would so dwarf that of normals... that things like professional sports and academic awards and achievement awards would have vastly different meanings in a metahuman world.

[Speedball]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

Someone may have "Aspires to be a great as Superman" while another may have "Thinks Superman doesn't do enough to make the world better!"

 

I personally would compete with Superman to counter his protection of the status quo, by using my power and influence to create a better world, rather than protect the status quo.

 

There's a JLA graphic novel that deals with precisely this issue called "Superpower," in which a man radically alters his physiology to become more capable of helping people and ultimately comes to blows with the Justice League over proper methods.

 

No matter how you look at it' date=' though... the competition of supers would so dwarf that of normals... that things like professional sports and academic awards and achievement awards would have vastly different meanings in a metahuman world.[/quote']

 

Agreed. It would give a whole new meaning to the "X Games."

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

There's a JLA graphic novel that deals with precisely this issue called "Superpower' date='" in which a man radically alters his physiology to become more capable of helping people and ultimately comes to blows with the Justice League over proper methods.[/quote']

 

That was a pretty fun read actually... I thought the guy was kind of deranged with the whole voluntary cybernetic replacement stuff, and it didn't work out so well for him in the end as I recall.

 

Speaking of ways in which graphic novels / comics have treated the psychology of the superhuman, what about "the Nail"? I enjoyed Amish Superman as a concept vs. "raised with wholesome Kansas values ". The villain in that one was an interesting statement on the jealousy of the non-super.

 

Bah... I must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Speedball again. Foiled again.

[David Blue]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

BcAugust: "Actually, add on enhanced senses to something interesting to think about."

 

(nods-) A completely different perceived environment could produce huge changes in behavior/psychology. And you raise a lot of valid points.

 

Among other things, super-senses can make you much, much more aware of people who need your help, and how badly they need your help. (Maybe even when what you need is to sleep.)

 

 

"Would you have lightbulbs in your house if you see perfectly well in the dark?"

 

I think you would, for pets and visitors.

 

 

Here's another potential nasty issue with super-senses, especially detects: lots of moral quandaries get definite answers.

 

"Terry Schiavo: are you in there?" Lots of supers could answer that question. Easily. Now suppose your esper gets a definite "yes!" and "help, help, they're going to kill me!" - and the court rejects that testimony and says "death by dehydration!" anyway. What's your next move, hero?

 

A game that addresses issues like that could get way grimmer than it was supposed to be, and there might be bad feelings between players, or some players and the gamemaster. Not good. Not a place to go.

 

When are the unborm people in some meaningful sense? (Before I go on: please, please, please, I do not want to debate pro-life/pro-choice issues here! Tenk-yew.) The Man of Orgone could easily sense that, and should have reacted to it given his psychological limitations. But I felt that it was better to leave this as out-of-scope for a superhero game.

 

(I had a huge problem with it in In Nomine, where you specifically are supposed to be doing things related to religious standards of right and wrong. But comics are different.)

 

If your super-senses tell you that respectable people are killing innocents all the time, then you may not react to that externally (because you are pledged not to interfere in the laws and customs of mankind or whatever) but shouldn't it affect your feelings? If Orgone Man, or your favorite mentalist, can see little lights go out, and the blackened auras of some of those around him, isn't that significant information?

 

Or if his orgone powers can detect that definitely personhood only begins after birth, is that not information he should be doing something with?

 

No, I don't think so (either way).

 

I think that often psychological exploration is great, and yet at some points it's better to completely turn reality off and get back to four-color Silver Age conventions about what you don't discuss, and this is one of those points. Champions (does not equal sign) morality plays regarding anything where there is a fundamental lack of moral consensus.

 

I don't think you even want to be mucking around the edges of this stuff, like Winter (daughter of Miracleman) doing telepathic stunts from inside the womb. Just leave it out entirely.

[David Blue]

Re: Der Psychology of der Super Human

 

sinanju: "So he did do almost anything, attempting ever more dangerous and stupid stunts to impress his friends. He took his nom de guerre Jackass from the MTV show. When you're virtually invulnerable to harm, why not do crazy-stupid things to impress your friends?"

 

(curious) Did he warn everybody strongly, seriously and sufficiently convincingly on every occasion never to try to do what I do, because you are different from me and you can't? Or what did he do the first time one of his friends got injured/maimed/killed doing the same sorts of stuff the Jackass was always doing to show off to them? How did he react to that?

 

I'm thinking of a weightlifter who learned how to train (with good results - for him) by using extremely heavy poundages, dropping into the bottom squat position and bouncing up out of it. He must have had invulnerable knees, because he never came to any harm from this. But those who imitated mister big, strong guy frequently suffered terrible injuries till everyone figured out that this is a Bad Idea.

 

It's sort of a variation on the brick problem of the world being made of wet clay and tissue paper. All you've got to do is collect your boiled eggs for breakfast thoughtlessly in the obvious way (by scooping them out of the boiling water bare-handed) in front of a child, and the next thing you know you're dealing with screams, tears and serious scalding.

 

I thought one of the more touching moments in Unbreakable (which I >love!<) was when the kid tells his father that he had tried to be an unbreakable hero, like his dad was, and it hadn't worked. ("I'm not like you!" - Ouch!)