Hypercompetent 'Average' Citizens

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Shiny hair, clear complexion, white teeth, symmetrical limbs and features, and a waist-to-hip ratio of two to three — indications of health and good nutrition.

And she was going through puberty at about 14 when he "noticed" her, IIRC. Period "romances" are just too creepy for modern me to read.
So many interesting things like Gavroche being Eponine's brother were omitted. It was to reduce complexity, I imagine, in the admittedly amazing musical.

[Proteus]

Will this general-issue genome be designed with the idea of "multiple intelligences" in mind, or will it boost some while neglecting others? Perhaps musical talent will become the new distinguishing mark of random genius.

And how will those outside the "neurotypical" range respond to the project? Will Asperger’s or other low-autism expressions be written off as "undesirable traits"?

[Pbuckley]

https://www.wired.com/2005/05/flynn-2/
https://www.exposingtruth.com/iq-sco...etting-dumber/

Though apparently as of late they have been going down. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/13/healt...ntl/index.html well according to CNN at least.

Regardless their was a massive uptick in average IQ after the decline of of lead based paint. This is because during the period in which it was being used, Lead poisoning was decreasing the overall IQ. Considering that you can actually soft map GURPS IQ to real world IQ 10 in GURPS would be 100 real life IQ, pretty safely. This would actually be worth one level of IQ. That's pretty nuts. So GURPS may assume no change for a very good reason (Game Simplicity) but this would be historically inaccurate, very inaccurate. People in different time periods would have different base attributes. So if your going for some kind of immersive game, you might want tot ake that into account.

Hell I'd argue people with different body types might have slightly different stats, an Endomorph being stronger, but less healthy, on average.

There is a strong argument to be made that a universe genetic template like you are suggesting would reduce genetic diversity in some undesirable ways, you'd get less biodiversity for one actually causing issue with natural pregnancy in birth making everyone biologically "Inbred", as well as reduce genetic outliers who's unique talents benefit society as a whole and grant a richness to the human experience.

[AlexanderHowl]

Low IQ could be justified by lead exposure, but the average human IQ is 10 regardless of the timeframe. Honestly, it would have been Rome during the Ran Empire that would have had the worst IQ. Bad nutrition, massive lead exposure, parasites beyond number, etc. should have had them averaging 8 in all of their attributes.

[Pbuckley]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Low IQ could be justified by lead exposure, but the average human IQ is 10 regardless of the timeframe. Honestly, it would have been Rome during the Ran Empire that would have had the worst IQ. Bad nutrition, massive lead exposure, parasites beyond number, etc. should have had them averaging 8 in all of their attributes.

Oof, that's terrible. Great place for a survival game though...

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Starting at TL7, medical and social advances allow for healthier and more intelligent populations, resulting in statistically significant increases in health, intelligence, etc., in young people, though this is probably balanced by the maintainance of a larger population of disabled and elderly people, so the average likely does not change that much. By TL9 though, genetic engineering offers a chance at widescale improvements in average capabilities, meaning that the 'average human' could easily start with a 100 CP template at TL9, a 200 CP template at TL10, a 300 CP template at TL11, and a 400 CP template at TL12. While the people at TL11 and TL12 are technically a different species than the people at TL9 and TL10, they would probably still consider themselves to be humans.

Since genetic modifications are transferable across generations (at least within the same upgraded group), society would only really need to pay for improvements during the first couple of generations that it is available if it decides to subsidize universal adoption. Baseline humans would likely result from unplanned pregnancies, meaning that society would likely discourage such reproductive events, though baseline humans might be functionally extinct by the end of TL10. By TL10 though, proteus viruses would allow the transformation of unmodied embryos into modified embryos, so unplanned pregnancies would probably not be that significant of a source of baseline humans.

So, how would you run a campaign in a TL10 setting where the 'average' human possesses a 200 CP template? Is it just a matter of increasing PC point totals by 200 CP or would you just give it to them as a 0 CP trait (with unmodifed humans receiving a -200 CP racial template)?

0 pt traits e,g ST10, HT10 etc are really just GURPS short hand for you get this much capability in this area for free. So if you want a setting where the majority of humans are HT14, IQ14 or what ever it will cost points. But points cost is a relative term.

I.e. if you have everyone with basic IQ of 15 than everyone spends 100 cp to get it. Even if IQ15 isn't very special in terms of comparison to the group it still gives you the advantages of IQ15 in the game system so it costs 100 cp.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

How would you represent unmodified humans? Would they be a protected group, would they suffer discrimination and/or would they flee the realms of the modified humans in search for a place where they could be average again?

Depends on what kind of game I want to run, which would in turn inform how this kind of change came about and how it was implemented in the setting.

[khorboth]

Originally Posted by Pbuckley

Oof, that's terrible. Great place for a survival game though...

I don't have a good source, but I remember reading that until antibiotics came along city growth was due to immigration not breeding. The mortality rate was too high to be sustainable without a constant influx of new people.

Villages work, but not cities. Not without sanitation & decent medicine.

[Pbuckley]

Originally Posted by khorboth

I don't have a good source, but I remember reading that until antibiotics came along city growth was due to immigration not breeding. The mortality rate was too high to be sustainable without a constant influx of new people.

Villages work, but not cities. Not without sanitation & decent medicine.

Yeah that is true of all cities up until the modern age. I mean the country boy in me thinks it should still be that way... but I digress.

Personally I would have a set of 6-7 (One for each possible combination of 2 attributes, and 1 for your Ubermench) different templates, with most costing around the same amount of points and one being a bit more expensive. Your liable to have different civilizations with different goals, so you can still have one of those factions function as you describe.

It's always better to give your players some choice. If your worried about munchkins just be clear and concise about what parameters you want starting characters to be in or around. Build a foundation, Set boundaries, and let your players run wild within that set up.

[martinl]

Firstly, RPG setting design overlaps futurology but is not the same. So if someone wants to make or emulate a setting with universal government-supplied wholly benevolent genetic upgrades that's fine. Ditto the dystopian version. Normally I wouldn't bring something this obvious up but a lot of folks seem to be posting as if they have forgotten this.

Note that education has a similarly large effect on the assumed template of a setting, and improvements on educational or psychiatric science and investment could have similarly large effects on the implied template of folks in an RPG setting. A group of 250pt Eloi with no skills or experience with aggression would be meat for a bunch of grotty 50pt Morlock PCs.

Agemegos has played around with this a lot if you dig into the links in his sig. He has a planet where all citizens are optimized along genetic, educational, and psychological axes for their social role, and another where the politicians are all unironically honest and public spirited.

However, this is not actually something most GMs spend much effort on.

• Cultural familiarity exists but is usually (IME) ignored.
• Some skills have a /TL, and sometimes the GM makes it matter.
• Different groups may have differing assumed capabilities like literacy or standard skills or defaults, but this sort of thing is rarely written down.
• A GURPS game is often specified along the lines of setting / CP/ disad CP / what unrealistic options are allowed. Possibly a list of templates where species matters but not culture.

This is not because these things are not important to humanity, but because they are not important for gaming. PCs are usually badly socialized attack moppets. Average folks NPCs are rarely given detailed character sheets. Extreme cross-setting gaming, despite being GURPS's specialty, is not very common. Statting it out is a lot of work. And to top it all off if you speculate in game that some human culture is worth more points than another you are risking make some players very uncomfortable and perhaps attracting players that will make you very uncomfortable.

So while there's a LOT of interesting stuff you could do with this sort of thing, it has very limited utility. If your future setting is full of gene-fixed and augmented para humans who would make me feel stupid and inadequate, but does not spend any time interacting with TL-8 wild human savages, it is probably best to just ignore everything that is not "Don't take these traits" and assume difficulties etc. are re-normalized around the new norm. Statting it out in meticulous detail is probably not a good investment in terms of fun/work.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by khorboth

I don't have a good source, but I remember reading that until antibiotics came along city growth was due to immigration not breeding. The mortality rate was too high to be sustainable without a constant influx of new people.

Villages work, but not cities. Not without sanitation & decent medicine.

I recall it from William H. McNeill – Plagues and Peoples (1976). This review agrees with me.