09-06-2020, 02:37 PM | #21 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
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And, of course, with roughly 1 out of every 100 students having powers, parents would be hard-pressed finding a school without any supers in the roster (indeed, many schools are going to have one or more staff members with powers). Quote:
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09-06-2020, 02:40 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
The Supers modifier allows for widespread detection. After all, Detect (Awakened Supers; Precise, +100%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Super, -10%) [24] would probably be a fairly marketable ability. The federal government could have 'sniffers' going to middle and high schools every month to detect newly awakened supers. After recording the names of the newly awakened supers, the 'sniffer' would travel to the next school.
The typical 'sniffer' could monitor eighty schools a month, meaning that the federal government would only need a single sniffer for every 500,000 residents, meaning that a federal department with 1,000 super 'sniffers' (and 1,000 mundane supporters) would be capable of catching 95% of supers in adolescence. The remaining 5% would include homeschooled children, children who are being trafficked, and children with powers that conceal them from detection. Strangely enough, the potential threat of homeschooled supers might turn the American public against homeschooling. |
09-06-2020, 03:20 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
I think technological means of detection are probably a better bet (and I'm pretty certain that's also included in the Super modifier, as a subset of mundane countermeasures). 1,000 sniffers would be around 0.1% of the total population of supers in present-day USA, which doesn't sound like a lot until you consider that not all sniffers are going to be inclined to work in this manner, and of those that are the private sector is likely going to give them far more lucrative offers (for security jobs and the like) than the government can. Unless power detection is one of, if not the, most common superpowers, the government is likely to have trouble getting those 1,000 sniffers (plus the ones they need for security details and jobs other than constantly having to deal with kids; I'd imagine they're in high demand amongst the Secret Service). Perhaps a system where the students are scanned as part of mandated regular health checkups, and those that give a positive are required to go to a specialist (who could be a sniffer, or just someone with better detection equipment), would work. The specialist would be able to confirm the cheap school machine's reading (or determine it was a false-positive) and possibly analyze the student to determine the nature of his/her power.
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09-06-2020, 05:06 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
TL8 genetic tests would likely be capable of identifying latent supers, so they would just need to keep an eye out for those individuals to awaken. The real problem is the 5% of children who would fall through the cracks. Requiring homeschooled children to come in for mandatory medical testing as a requirement for states to receive federal funds would capture 3/4th of them, and the licensed supers would likely make a dent in the trafficking cases, but there would always likely be a minimum of a quarter percent that fall through the cracks. While that does not sound like a lot, that would represent a pool of 8,000 potential supervillains that are not registered with the federal government.
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09-06-2020, 06:48 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
Sounds like a great way to double the number of people that want to become supervillains.
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09-06-2020, 07:07 PM | #26 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
Requiring the kids to be taken from their homes to big cities where they can be educated away from the influence of their parents is not going to go across well with a notable chuck of the population.
That is not to say that its unrealistic that someone would try to get the program to work anyways. They'd face political resistance, but in the end they'd have a controversial system of rewards for compliance with soft penalties and burdensome hoops for non-compliance. I am interested in what the proportions of abilities look like. That has some strong effects.
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09-06-2020, 07:23 PM | #27 | |
☣
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
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Even aside from staying in familiar schools with an established group of friends, some students would prefer to simply learn how to keep their powers from messing up their normal life. Edit: On the other hand, what about always on powers? They can't exactly be restricted, but there isn't anything to train...
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09-06-2020, 07:40 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
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People with more problematic Always On abilities, like Lifebane or a flaming aura, would be unable to live normal lives anyway. I expect they'd be required to get a license, and restrict themselves to staying in designated areas; otherwise, they'd basically be stuck in some sort of super-jail. That or, technology permitting, would be required to wear a power dampener at all times, keeping their ability forcefully switched off.
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09-06-2020, 08:07 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
Technological suppressors would probably be the solution for always on abilities (as opposed to passive abilities like DR). As for the proportion of abilities, I would go with a relatively low proportion of physical abilities due to their low utility in a TL8 environment. The physical abilities that will probably manifest will have great utility for their cost (such as Duplication or Extra Attacks). I would imagine that high levels of DR and Super ST will be quite uncommon because of the ability point distribution.
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09-06-2020, 09:58 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: (Another) World of Superhumans
It's more likely that special abilities that have the possibility to inflict significant physical injury or mental distress are what specifically have to be licensed for use outside of testing and training facilities. Always on powers of that nature are the kind of thing that would call for containment if they can't be suppressed.
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