I want to explore the subject of helplessness and hopelessness in the common human when faced with the existence of superheroes.  Do they (heroes) inspire common people, and if so what do they inspire; fear, awe, hope?  Do they have rights or are they just puppets and the toys of the godlike few?

I'm picturing a city with massive skyscrapers reaching impossibly high, with streets that are vibrant and densely packed at a stark contrast with the alleys that are long and impossibly dark.  A place where everything you sense is just a bit brighter, darker, larger, smaller, faster, slower and just faintly overwhelming to the normal people that live within it.

My key villain at the moment goes by the name Dr. Zombie and he has the ability to make minions of anyone nearby unable to resist his influence.  He makes puppets of them even going so far as to starting riots to mask his true activities.  He's a puppet master of the worst kind and when the strings are cut in his wake, his still living subjects often find themselves trying to live with the memory of whatever terrible things they've done under his control.  He directly embodies the theme completely confident that humanity are no better than tools to be used and discarded.  His power is even addictive to the particularly weak willed explaining his minions that can venture out of his sphere of influence but still effectively remain his slaves.

How Power May Effect the General Populace
All powers will have some sort of negative effect on the general public creating anywhere from minor discomfort to pain and very rarely death.  These effects could be anything from headaches, joint pain, to annoying static buildup that sparks everytime you touch a metal object or even a loved one.  Most of these effects can be categorized as annoyances and discomforts at worst.  No matter how detrimental these effects are they only effect those without superpowers.

Perhaps a character has the power to draw moisture from the air to create ice, however doing this can cause a nose bleed or even dehydration in nearby normals as the air becomes uncomfortably dry all of a sudden or the moisture for the power is drawn from their very bodies.

These need not have any basis on science or reality, after all when magic exists and robots from the future appear to save the day, who's going to argue the realism when your telekinesis power causes migraines.

Heroic Origins
Attempts to nail down what makes someone superheroic have been fruitless and the results varied.  Somewhere a mutant rises up from the slums carrying the traits of an animal or perhaps a fictional entity.  A sentient robot goes rogue and decides to champion the cause of a soup kitchen on 9th street.  A circle of witches meet up in the basement of a local night club and begin to exibit superpowers in the form of magic when they're together.  The sky isn't even the limit here as all sorts of shapes can be seen soaring, hovering, flapping and gliding through the cityscape.  The only hard and fast rule (so far) is that time cannot be broken, sure it can be bent a little for short periods of time but day by day what's done is done.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Ideas?  I could use more villains or even NPC heroes who populate the world.

Consider the fact that not all people will have the same reactions. Someone who has witnessed the violence of superheroic battles and lost by that conflict may be fearful. While someone whose daughter was returned from a kidnapping may be in awe. The public perception may shift back and forth over time thanks to the influences and successes or failures of their heroes.  One thing that always seemed to be a problem was the fear of mutants in Marvel. I mean i understand its an analog, but mutants themselves weren't as terribly frightening as the fact that some random accident could turn someone you know into a rampaging monster in my opinion. At least mutants were born that way and had little choice, but some people perverted science to try and change their births--that is truly against God and country! At least it would seem that way to some.

Consider long term outcomes of the discomfort people create. A villain won't care except if it impairs a subtle plan. A hero will work to protect people. "My powers irradiate the area enough to sterilize people and maybe give you cancer..please evacuate the area before I engage this villain."

I would consider adding in some religious sorts who believe that all powered people are damned at best, or demons at worst. I'd add in a whole revival of religions centered around the seals being broken and these the champions of hell.

I'd also consider the opposite, cults cropping up to worship a hero or villain who shapes the world.

Political enemies are also fun--seeking to do away with heroes or force them into the military to serve the country. Others seeking to deputize them and make them official law keepers.

Your big issue it to create conflict amongst these things, amongst the people themselves, so that their views can change, warp, and be impacted as the wind shifts--because that keeps the heroes on their toes.

I'm also thinking about trying for less of a "humanity outnumbers supers" approach and more of a symbiotic relationship "for better or worse" scenario.  Perhaps Supers cannot reproduce together and require a normal human partner for conception.  The prolonged survival of humanity and supers alike requires normal people.

Humans on the other hand suffer in a world where supers don't where garish costumes unless they're insane, trading in traditional lines of behavior for superhuman CEOs, Managers, and business owners.  It's hard to climb the ladder of success at a construction company when one of the workers can lift a house onto the foundation by himself.  Likewise it's hard to become head of a company when the current CEO has an off-the-charts IQ.  That's not to say we don't see superhero uniforms though, just not quite as blatant as spiderweb patterned blue and red or yellow/black with a giant logo.

I don't necessarily want to focus on these kinds of scenarios in game, just using this as a backdrop which colors the way supers and humans often interact and treat one another.  One big often disfunctional family.

There will still be "racism" against supers, as well as worship but I'm not exactly aiming for an XMen level of persecution.  Humans are perpetually at the bottom trying to scrape a living beneath a huge shadow and only the truly exceptional standout ever excell without a power to aid them.

For those familiar with Wild Talents here's my notes pertaining to that particular system.  I'm using the 2nd edition rules found in the Essential Edition.

Theme: Cinematic (with the slightest dash of full on four color)
Starting Point Total: 250

The Four Colors
Red - 1 (Talents alter history all the time.  The world is like ours but so very different at it's core.)
Gold - 2 (Supers can try to blend in but will inevitably impact society.)
Blue - 4 (The world is weird and we deal with it.)
Black - 3 (Right and wrong is an endless debate in many circumstances.)

Dice Options
Fixed Dice (fd) - All hard dice may be set to always come up a number of your choice.  This decision must be made during character creation and never changes from that point on.

Squishy Dice (one step) - All dice sets may be squished by one step either lowering the width by one to raise the height by one or vice versa.  This may never reduce the width below two or the height above ten.

Skill Options
Skill Specialties - Spend one point per die to have a narrow specialization in any skill.  Ranged Weapon (Desert Eagle) 2d (3d) for example would cost 7 points and allow you to roll 2d for most ranged weapon rolls, and 5d for any rolls using a Desert Eagle.

Occupations - Instead of purchasing a combination of skills you may purchase dice in an Occupation which allows you to roll in any circumstance where your occupational training would come into play.  You can even create a supercop by buying a hyperskill in the Police Officer occupation.

Contacts - Contact pools cost 2/4/8 per die and details can be found on WTEE pg. 48.

Damage Options
Wound Shifting- During the recovery phase spend willpower to change height for the purposes of figuring hit location.

Four Color Recovery - Heroes heal faster.  See WTEE pg. 62 for details.

Here are my villains, so far there are no stats as I've just been brainstorming this lately at work.

Dr. Zombie - He has the ability to make minions of anyone nearby unable to resist his influence. He makes puppets of them even going so far as to starting riots to mask his true activities. He's a puppet master of the worst kind and when the strings are cut in his wake, his still living subjects often find themselves trying to live with the memory of whatever terrible things they've done under his control. He directly embodies the theme completely confident that humanity are no better than tools to be used and discarded. His power is even addictive to the particularly weak willed explaining his minions that can venture out of his sphere of influence but still effectively remain his slaves.  He represents helplessness.

The Ogre - A dumb brute of enormous size with a temper that would dwarf him were it a material object.  He's prone to fits of rage and rampant destruction.  The tattoo on his left arm says "The Oger" in stylized script; a spelling error which caused the levelling of two city blocks before he was restrained.  The tattoo artist's crumpled body was found across town after it collided with a city bus.  When in the vacinity of normals he often causes nearby people to drop what they're carrying, become hungry or even stumble with their own weight as it's believed perhaps his large strength is drawn from the environment around him.  He represents hopelessness.  An uncontrollable near mindless danger to humanity that seemingly cannot be stopped.

Godhead - A self labelled "god" who lords his powers over those weaker than him, including other supers as he is quite powerful.  Few can face him and walk away, and none have yet defeated him.  His powers mirror Superman although his temperment is quite the opposite.  He pretends to care for all of humanity and the world buys it hook line and sinker.  In truth we are cattle here to worship him at best and fear him at worst if need be. Early on I'm picturing a fall from grace and a less silly homage to Mystery Men wherein the world finds itself "god"less and even more desperate.

...and another NPC.  Now I'm going to stop and let all this sink in for a while.  I'd hate to get ahead of myself but this is pretty fun so far.  Supers is a new genre for me as a GM so I'm really flexing my creative muscles.

The Orphan - A young girl with an as yet unheard of power.  She carries within her the ability to dampen the powers of those around her.  As she grows older this sphere of influence grows.  She is potentially a weapon in the wrong hands or a tragedy in the right ones.  Her power is also the only one with no discernable effects on normal people, although she herself suffers greatly for it.  Her memory is fleeting and she generally forgets specific details of everything she experiences including her own name.  A child without a childhood.  She represents hope.  Hope for supers who wish to be normal, hope for humans who wish to take the top of the totem pole for themselves, and even hope for villains who wish to destroy their enemies.

Quote from: Idinsinuation;296775I want to explore the subject of helplessness and hopelessness in the common human when faced with the existence of superheroes.  Do they (heroes) inspire common people, and if so what do they inspire; fear, awe, hope?  Do they have rights or are they just puppets and the toys of the godlike few?

You know I'm going to steal this : How Power May Effect the General Populace, for my own campaign, which has similar themes.

Here's my idea concerning the origins issue. 365 is a supers campaign I have been developing for some time, now. There's no such thing as law enforcement of any kind in this present day setting. All enforcement issues are handled by indivuduals who sign up for  a mysterious programme which grants them super powers (biotech, pyschic powers, cybernetics, etc), for one year. In that one year they act as cop, judge and sometimes executioner.

Anyone can sign up and after a screening and orientation process (where they test out their about their powers) , the rookie is dumped on the unsuspecting public. Their tour last for one year.

Envy the country that has heroes, huh? I say pity the country that needs them. - Denton Van Zan "Dragon Slayer" - Reign of Fire.

Hope this was helpful

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David R;296807*snip*

Envy the country that has heroes, huh? I say pity the country that needs them. - Denton Van Zan "Dragon Slayer" - Reign of Fire.

Hope this was helpful

Regards,
David R

Great quote!

Actually this is some great food for thought.  In a world where supers are common not every city will rely on traditional law enforcement.  I have some ideas in mind that mesh with this.  I'm going to let this spin around in my head tonight over a pint and see what comes up.  Thanks!

That's a pretty cool idea.  Are the powers temporary?  Are they taken away if the officer retires?  I was just picturing law enforcement being supplemented by tech developed bya think tank of justice minded hyperbrains.

Well in my campaign the "powers" only last for a year (and you can only go through the process, once). 365 (the title of the campaign). So, you would get scenarios like, former "officers" entering the witness protection program after they "retire" because some criminals hold a grudge. New officers investigating the cases of former officers - think of it as either Heroes meets The Sheild or Heroes meets Homicide: Life on the Streets.

What I really, really dig about your idea of powers affecting the general population is that it adds a whole new depth to the game. Added scenarios, former officers leading/organizing protest against the Corp that created the "powers" program because they are aware of the negative effects it has on society. Former corporate types gone rogue, who give powers to former cops who become vigilantes or give them to individuals who become master criminals.

I'm toying with the idea, that the program infects the hosts with some kind of genetic virus which is the cause of the effects felt by the general public.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David R;296943I'm toying with the idea, that the program infects the hosts with some kind of genetic virus which is the cause of the effects felt by the general public.

Regards,
David R

Cool!

I was just looking for a way to have superpowers effect the general public no matter how hard a hero tried to avoid it.  Just having powers causes these effects and overall makes life that much more uncomfortable and/or overwhelming for normal people.

Generally the effects will be annoyances at worse but in the case of my major villain his power will be addictive to particularly weak-willed subjects.  This allows him to have a small group of "die for you" minions at his disposal even if his powers fail.  It also creates a future plot of his, where he will try and figure out a way to amplify the addictive property so he can create many more permanent slaves.

EDIT:  Speaking of the devil himself, here are his stats:

Dr. Zombie

Point Total: 250
Loyalty: The Homeland
Passion: Torture (He loves using archaic remedies for mental disorders to torture and break his victims.)

Stats
Body - 2d
Coordination - 3d
Sense - 3d
Mind - 4d
Hyper-Command - 8d+2hd
Charm -1d
   Base Will 11
   Willpower 16

Skills
Athletics 2d
Block 2d
Brawling 3d
Endurance 2d
Dodge 2d
Driving 2d
Interrogation 4d
Intimidation 2d
Knowledge: Psychology 4d
Leadership 3d
Ranged Weapon (Pistol) 3d
Research 2d
Perception 2d
Scrutiny 3d
Stability 2d
Stealth 2d
Survival 1d
Tactics 3d

Powers
Hypercommand - 8d+2hd
Zombie Master - 2hd (20 points)
Puppet - 2hd (12 points)

Power Descriptions
Zombie Master (5/10/20)
Dr. Zombie can control the mind of any subject he touches effectively turning them into zombies.  This can be resisted with stability like the Mind Control power.  This power can spread like an infection allowing him to dominate more subjects by bringing them into contact with any of his existing zombies.  To maintain control of his zombies he must stay within the range of his power.

He often uses his Puppet power to occupy the mind of one of his zombies so that he can keep in sight of them even though his physical body is elsewhere.  This allows them to travel further than they normally could from his body but should Puppet end, he loses control of all out of range zombies.

His power does not allow him to individually control each subject.  He could order the whole group to riot, tip over a car, or chase down a victim but he could not order them to split up and do all three things at once.  They also can't perform any action more complex than fighting, running, and smashing things.  They can use weapons although complex ranged weapons suffer a -2d penalty.

Side Effect:  The effects of zombie master on the exceptionally weak willed can have an addictive property.  Dr. Zombie has found that some of his "zombies" come searching for him later creating a small cadre of willing zombie minions he can count on even if his power fails.

Useful - Range (2) 200yds
Extras:  Endless (+3), Subtle (+1), Infectious (+2), Side Effect: Addictive (+1), Booster (Range) (+1)
Flaws:  Touch Only (-2), One Simple Command (-1), Stay Within Range (-1)

Puppet (3/6/12)
Useful - Range (2)
Extras: Endless (+3)
Flaws: Attached (Zombie Master) (-2)

Here's the power stats so far for The Ogre.

Basically I want him to weigh 800 pounds, be 9ft tall, hit 10 total dice (including 2hd) in Body, and have hardened skin becoming really hard to kill.  His hardened skin plagues him with perpetual dull headaches which keep him forever irritable.

The Ogre's
Hyperbody 8d+2hd (including his normal body of 4d)
Cost: 60 points

Size Shift (Triple Mass) 3hd
Cost: 18 points
Added Flaws: Attached (Hyperbody) (-1), Always On (-1)

Invulnerability 2hd
Cost: 60 points
Added Flaws: Attached (Size Shift) (-2), Always On (-1), Mental Strain (-2)

Quote from: Idinsinuation;296798The Four Colors
Red - 1 (Talents alter history all the time.  The world is like ours but so very different at it's core.)
Gold - 3 (Talents spend much of their lives living just like the rest of us.)
Blue - 4 (The world is weird and we deal with it.)
Black - 3 (Right and wrong is an endless debate in many circumstances.)

What's all this colours stuff then?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;297090What's all this colours stuff then?

It's from Wild Talents (full version) written by Ken Hite.They're not actually rules for building just levels you set which are arbitrarily chosen by the GM.
They don't explain how those changes might impact the rules mechanics either.

 They are things you should consider when supers world building anyway. It's just not all that innovative or new. Not that it is bad either if you don't think about those aspects of a superhero setting already.

It's a system for helping you figure out how you want your superhero world to work.  I thought it was a cool article and if anything players can read it and compare my thoughts on the four colors to their vision for how the game will play.

Red measures how much supers can change history.  Do they effectively cancel each other out keeping the world pretty much as it is or do they actually get to assassinate Hitler or stop the planes from hitting the World Trade Center?  The closer you want your world to mirror our own the higher the red level.

Gold measures how mutable your world is and how often things change.  Low gold is a world always changing, hero on Sunday villain on Monday, loved today, hated tomorrow.  High gold are worlds where no matter what happens, everything stays the same.  Hulk smashes things, the XMen are feared for being different, and everyone generally remains oblivious to Superman's dodgy disguise.

Blue measures how weird the world is.  Low blue worlds are ones where the general populace is ignorant of supers, magic, miracles or what have you.  High blue worlds have seen alien invasions, dragons ripping through the fabric of reality to devour zoo animals, flying cars, talking robots, etc.

Black determines morality and how it's effected (if at all) by the presence of supers.  Is right and wrong black and white or are gray areas a big deal?