(Another) World of Superhumans - Page 6

JulianLW · 09-09-2020, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I would disagree. But then I rarely combine Appearance and Voice with Charisma and would almost never give a celebrity a positive reputation with more than a narrow group. The wide spread reputation of celebrities tend to be negative.

Here's the "Movie Star" template advantage options from Pyramid 3/112:

"Advantages: Status 3 [15]. • One of Born Entertainer 2* [10], Charisma 2 [10], or Reputation +2 (Famous; Everyone; All the time) [10] – or select Appearance (Beautiful/Handsome) [12]"

If you count the reaction modifier from Born Entertainer (crowds), all of these together (I know they're supposed to be choices, but a maxed out Movie Star would end up with all of these and more) add up to +11 from Status 0 fans in a crowd who don't see the Star as a potential sex partner - +15 from those who do. This is 57 points, which seems pretty reasonable. I think big stars at the height of their careers - can have higher reaction modifiers than this.

AlexanderHowl · 09-09-2020, 09:23 PM

Reaction bonuses are relatively cheap for what they give. I have often had PCs reach +16 with their reaction bonuses without any supernatural elements. For example, I have had PCs with IQ 16, Appearance (Handsome), Charisma 4, Reputation+4, Talker 4, Voice, Diplomacy-20, and Fast-Talk-20. For 208 CP, they are geniuses that have a +16 to +22 to their reaction rolls.

Otaku · 09-10-2020, 01:18 AM

So, having read through the thread just now to get caught up, I'm still pretty fuzzy on several things. Shocking, I know. ;) This could get long, so answering part of it is just fine, unless another part needs to be explained for the answer to make sense. First, how much of the setting is open to debate, AlexanderHowl? "An exercise in group creation" is different from "Help me polish my baby... er... setting!"

Second, with what we've been told so far, starting back in the 1950s, exposure to certain insecticides triggered the "superhuman genes" of the human population. The gene is an on/off switch; it doesn't directly control your powers, it basically unlocks this superhuman capacity to adapt to your life circumstances. So, it is not a matter of some dude with flame-based powers marrying a woman with ice-based powers to create children with a mix of fire and ice powers, or a superhero with increased strength and durability joining with a superheroine who has flight powers to create a flying brick. Instead, what happens is supers beget other supers or latents? Or is there still some chance of a Super having completely non-super offspring (not even latents)?

Third is related to all of this. The hypothetical campaign for this setting is 2020, but back in the 1950s, those exposed to the insecticide had a 1% chance of gaining powers. You also said that it took until the 1990s before the "latent" supergenes were discovered, and then another few years (mid-90s? Early 2000s?) before the connection between the insecticide and the genes were finally understood. So... does that mean this insecticide was being used for 40-50 years before people realized it was the catalyst for unlocking super powers?

I actually have at least enough to double the length but... that's already more than enough for one post.

DangerousThing · 09-10-2020, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

In general though, supers are better than mundanes, stronger, faster, smarter, healthier, and more attractive (supers average ST 12, DX 12, IQ 12, HT 12, and Appearance (Attractive)).

Have you been reading GrrlPower? The supers are all tall, ripped, and built. Into this community comes Sydney, a short thin tomboy geekette who owns half a comic store and happened onto something this gives her superpowers.

AlexanderHowl · 09-10-2020, 07:24 AM

It is more of a fun project for a collaboration. Like any collaboration, there has to be a starting point, so I gave the starting point for people who benefit from the Supers modifier. If people want to add additional sources and discuss how they would interact with the supers community, that would be welcome. If people want to discuss changes in the world from 1950s on, that would also be welcome.

For example, I already stated that Australia has been changed because 50% of Australian Aborigines awakened because they had latent super genes, meaning that they ended up being 1/3rd of the Australian super community. That means that they are likely much wealthier and much more influential as a community than IRL, and they may have had corresponding reproductive success (or they could be outcrossing at such a high rate that they might go extinct as a distinct genetic group). In any case, their existence has allowed Australia to punch above its weight in the supers community for decades.

The latent genes are inhereted, but power talents and abilities are not inherited. They are also recessive, so a lot of supers are born to normal folk (strangely enough, supers born to normal folk tend to have stronger innate abilities because they unconsciously believe that they have more to prove). Some communities of supers have experimented with selective breeding and/or shaping the environment where latent supers are raised, but that does not seem to matter for the strength of the innate abilities or the types of powers.

The insecticide is still being used in the developing world while it has been banned in the developed world because it triggers latent super genes in nonhuman species as well as the human species (thought to have been transmitted through viruses over hundreds of thousands of years), though nonhuman supers are only as common as human supers. Often nonsapient (though around 10% of them are sapient), they are capable of causing massive problems for humanity. Even so, the sapient ones can often be negotiated with and many of the nonsapient ones end up in zoos.

Edges · 09-10-2020, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JulianLW

Here's the "Movie Star" template advantage options from Pyramid 3/112:

"Advantages: Status 3 [15]. • One of Born Entertainer 2* [10], Charisma 2 [10], or Reputation +2 (Famous; Everyone; All the time) [10] – or select Appearance (Beautiful/Handsome) [12]"

If you count the reaction modifier from Born Entertainer (crowds), all of these together (I know they're supposed to be choices, but a maxed out Movie Star would end up with all of these and more) add up to +11 from Status 0 fans in a crowd who don't see the Star as a potential sex partner - +15 from those who do. This is 57 points, which seems pretty reasonable. I think big stars at the height of their careers - can have higher reaction modifiers than this.

Note that the words "One of" mean that the template does not give all go those advantages to a given character. It is 37 points rather than 57. The reaction modifier for this template is high, but not that high

Gold & Appel Inc · 09-10-2020, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otaku

So, it is not a matter of some dude with flame-based powers marrying a woman with ice-based powers to create children with a mix of fire and ice powers

Their baby is a sapient puddle, of course. Diaper time is a challenge.

JulianLW · 09-10-2020, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edges

Note that the words "One of" mean that the template does not give all go those advantages to a given character. It is 37 points rather than 57.

Note that I said "all of these together (I know they're supposed to be choices, but a maxed out Movie Star would end up with all of these and more)."

Otaku · 09-10-2020, 02:36 PM

Thanks for clarifying a little more, Alexander. I have more questions, but not enough time to properly lay them out. There is a smaller one I can ask:

How married are you to the baseline Super template being

ST+2, DX+2, IQ+2, HT+2, Appearance (Attractive), and at least 1 CP into abilities? Or am I wrong and it truly is ST/DX/IQ/HT = 12+ and Appearance = Attractive or better?

Regardless of the answer, I am thinking ST and HT should be +4 (or equal to 14). ST14 is twice as about strong as ST10, right? While p. B14 says that a score of 14 in those Attributes would mean bulging muscles and glowing health. That sounds a lot like iconic superheroes and villains, doesn't it?

Due to how many skills they affect, as well as what they mean in game, supers typically having at least DX and IQ scores of 12 is already very significant. The traits alone may be less noticeable, but with all the Skills that are based on them, especially in an academic setting, it'll be noticeable. Plus, DX and IQ cost twice as much as ST and DX for a reason.

If quantities figured from ST and HT are now too high, we can adjust them back down. Though I could see leaving them as is and buying up Base Speed to an even 7. If we lower Basic Speed, FP, and HP back down, the value for the template now becomes 145+ points. If we leave them as is (relative to the proposed Attribute increases), it would be 145+. If you make all the positive changes suggested, it would be 155+.

Oh, may as well also address

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Their baby is a sapient puddle, of course. Diaper time is a challenge.

Well, that's one way to describe him. ;)

As MHA came up earlier, I am curious how well the USA's handling of supers is elaborated on there. I've only seen the anime, and that does not include the films or OVAs. Well, maybe one OVA... the point being, My Hero Academia is set in Japan. The Japanese government, the Japanese people, and their laws are not the USA; while I could see similarities emerge in how Supers are handled.

AlexanderHowl · 09-10-2020, 04:30 PM

The stated Supers template allows for maximum flexibility. At +4 ST and +4 HT, you cannot have superhumans with below human average ST or HT, as -30% (9.8) would round to 10, which removes a lot of character types from the setting. At +2 ST and +2 HT though, -30% (8.4) rounds to 8, so you can have a wider range of supers. In addition, strength above 12 does not really matter all that much in most TL7+ campaigns, especially for characters that are not melee specialists, so ST+4 would be wasted points for most supers.

When it comes to MHA, I have watched most of the series, and the USA is rarely mentioned (though the names of All-Might's attacks, like Detroit Smash and United States of Smash, suggest that the original possessor of One For All may have been from the USA). The setting is also different than the one that I am proposing, as MHA is 80% supers, so supers are than in MHA (they are, however, much more common that in the vast majority of super's settings).

Since supers are widely distributed in (Another) World of Superhumans, they will likely have caused some major changes in history. For example, the USA might not have escalated its involvement in the Vietnam War if the USSR had threatened to send superhuman support to the North Vietnamese, as a super augmented conflict could have quickly scaled to a nuclear conflict. Of course, the South Vietnamese would have had their own supers, as would the North Vietnamese, so there would have been super-on-super battles, but it would have been contained.

Of course, a lot of military strategies would be different. While the 2000+ CP supers that can punch out tanks do not exist in this setting, it takes less than 200 CP of abilities to design a character that can phase through tanks and drop grenades in the them. It would require Insubstantiality (Can Carry Objects, Light Encumbrance, +20%; Super, -10%) [88] and Invisibility (Affects Machines, +50%; Can Carry Objects, Light Encumbrance, +20%; Super, -10%; Switchable, +10%) [68]. The tactic would involve phasing in, turning solid, dropping the grenade on a three second timer, turning insubstantial, and phasing out (while remaining invisible during the entire time).

09-09-2020, 09:23 PM	#52
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: (Another) World of Superhumans Reaction bonuses are relatively cheap for what they give. I have often had PCs reach +16 with their reaction bonuses without any supernatural elements. For example, I have had PCs with IQ 16, Appearance (Handsome), Charisma 4, Reputation+4, Talker 4, Voice, Diplomacy-20, and Fast-Talk-20. For 208 CP, they are geniuses that have a +16 to +22 to their reaction rolls.

09-10-2020, 01:18 AM	#53
Otaku Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: South Dakota, USA	Re: (Another) World of Superhumans So, having read through the thread just now to get caught up, I'm still pretty fuzzy on several things. Shocking, I know. ;) This could get long, so answering part of it is just fine, unless another part needs to be explained for the answer to make sense. First, how much of the setting is open to debate, AlexanderHowl? "An exercise in group creation" is different from "Help me polish my baby... er... setting!" Second, with what we've been told so far, starting back in the 1950s, exposure to certain insecticides triggered the "superhuman genes" of the human population. The gene is an on/off switch; it doesn't directly control your powers, it basically unlocks this superhuman capacity to adapt to your life circumstances. So, it is not a matter of some dude with flame-based powers marrying a woman with ice-based powers to create children with a mix of fire and ice powers, or a superhero with increased strength and durability joining with a superheroine who has flight powers to create a flying brick. Instead, what happens is supers beget other supers or latents? Or is there still some chance of a Super having completely non-super offspring (not even latents)? Third is related to all of this. The hypothetical campaign for this setting is 2020, but back in the 1950s, those exposed to the insecticide had a 1% chance of gaining powers. You also said that it took until the 1990s before the "latent" supergenes were discovered, and then another few years (mid-90s? Early 2000s?) before the connection between the insecticide and the genes were finally understood. So... does that mean this insecticide was being used for 40-50 years before people realized it was the catalyst for unlocking super powers? I actually have at least enough to double the length but... that's already more than enough for one post. __________________ My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :)

09-10-2020, 07:24 AM	#55
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: (Another) World of Superhumans It is more of a fun project for a collaboration. Like any collaboration, there has to be a starting point, so I gave the starting point for people who benefit from the Supers modifier. If people want to add additional sources and discuss how they would interact with the supers community, that would be welcome. If people want to discuss changes in the world from 1950s on, that would also be welcome. For example, I already stated that Australia has been changed because 50% of Australian Aborigines awakened because they had latent super genes, meaning that they ended up being 1/3rd of the Australian super community. That means that they are likely much wealthier and much more influential as a community than IRL, and they may have had corresponding reproductive success (or they could be outcrossing at such a high rate that they might go extinct as a distinct genetic group). In any case, their existence has allowed Australia to punch above its weight in the supers community for decades. The latent genes are inhereted, but power talents and abilities are not inherited. They are also recessive, so a lot of supers are born to normal folk (strangely enough, supers born to normal folk tend to have stronger innate abilities because they unconsciously believe that they have more to prove). Some communities of supers have experimented with selective breeding and/or shaping the environment where latent supers are raised, but that does not seem to matter for the strength of the innate abilities or the types of powers. The insecticide is still being used in the developing world while it has been banned in the developed world because it triggers latent super genes in nonhuman species as well as the human species (thought to have been transmitted through viruses over hundreds of thousands of years), though nonhuman supers are only as common as human supers. Often nonsapient (though around 10% of them are sapient), they are capable of causing massive problems for humanity. Even so, the sapient ones can often be negotiated with and many of the nonsapient ones end up in zoos.

09-10-2020, 04:30 PM	#60
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: (Another) World of Superhumans The stated Supers template allows for maximum flexibility. At +4 ST and +4 HT, you cannot have superhumans with below human average ST or HT, as -30% (9.8) would round to 10, which removes a lot of character types from the setting. At +2 ST and +2 HT though, -30% (8.4) rounds to 8, so you can have a wider range of supers. In addition, strength above 12 does not really matter all that much in most TL7+ campaigns, especially for characters that are not melee specialists, so ST+4 would be wasted points for most supers. When it comes to MHA, I have watched most of the series, and the USA is rarely mentioned (though the names of All-Might's attacks, like Detroit Smash and United States of Smash, suggest that the original possessor of One For All may have been from the USA). The setting is also different than the one that I am proposing, as MHA is 80% supers, so supers are than in MHA (they are, however, much more common that in the vast majority of super's settings). Since supers are widely distributed in (Another) World of Superhumans, they will likely have caused some major changes in history. For example, the USA might not have escalated its involvement in the Vietnam War if the USSR had threatened to send superhuman support to the North Vietnamese, as a super augmented conflict could have quickly scaled to a nuclear conflict. Of course, the South Vietnamese would have had their own supers, as would the North Vietnamese, so there would have been super-on-super battles, but it would have been contained. Of course, a lot of military strategies would be different. While the 2000+ CP supers that can punch out tanks do not exist in this setting, it takes less than 200 CP of abilities to design a character that can phase through tanks and drop grenades in the them. It would require Insubstantiality (Can Carry Objects, Light Encumbrance, +20%; Super, -10%) [88] and Invisibility (Affects Machines, +50%; Can Carry Objects, Light Encumbrance, +20%; Super, -10%; Switchable, +10%) [68]. The tactic would involve phasing in, turning solid, dropping the grenade on a three second timer, turning insubstantial, and phasing out (while remaining invisible during the entire time).