Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Challenge: Non-US Patriotic Supers

Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 · 06-30-2008, 05:26 PM

You want to avoid stereotypes? I think you should avoid negative, external stereotypes. A national super-hero is a stereotype - a positive stereotype held by the people of the nation.

Exapmle: Captain America - the perfect stereotype that a mid-20th-century American held about their heroes. Blond, blue-eyed, square-jawed, athletic, intelligent, commanding. In fact, getting away from that stereotype was a major problem - many Golden-Age and early Silver-Age superteams, with all those muscular blond males, looked like recruiting posters for the Waffen SS!

What do the people of the nation consider heroic? A French National Hero would embody all the things that the French consider best in themselves - elegant, refined, courageous, skilled. A Latin American National Hero would be the embodiment of a hidalgo's honor and machismo. A Hero from one of the less-well-off parts of the world might be aggressive and forceful. An Australian National Hero would be more likely to be clever and skilled with weapons. And we see in Anime the type of National Hero that Japan would produce - strong, skilled, with an even blend of ancient strengths and modern firepower, with a powerful Sense of Duty.

Find what the Nationm thinks is best about themselves, and the Hero will emerge, the embodiment of those traits.

06-30-2008, 05:26 PM	#14
Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: The deep dark haunted woods	Re: Challenge: Non-US Patriotic Supers You want to avoid stereotypes? I think you should avoid negative, external stereotypes. A national super-hero is a stereotype - a positive stereotype held by the people of the nation. Exapmle: Captain America - the perfect stereotype that a mid-20th-century American held about their heroes. Blond, blue-eyed, square-jawed, athletic, intelligent, commanding. In fact, getting away from that stereotype was a major problem - many Golden-Age and early Silver-Age superteams, with all those muscular blond males, looked like recruiting posters for the Waffen SS! What do the people of the nation consider heroic? A French National Hero would embody all the things that the French consider best in themselves - elegant, refined, courageous, skilled. A Latin American National Hero would be the embodiment of a hidalgo's honor and machismo. A Hero from one of the less-well-off parts of the world might be aggressive and forceful. An Australian National Hero would be more likely to be clever and skilled with weapons. And we see in Anime the type of National Hero that Japan would produce - strong, skilled, with an even blend of ancient strengths and modern firepower, with a powerful Sense of Duty. Find what the Nationm thinks is best about themselves, and the Hero will emerge, the embodiment of those traits.