Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

So, you and your players want to do a supers game, but you also want the setting to be mostly realistic (genuinely realistic, that is, not grimderp, edgy, 'pessimists tell you to lighten up' pseudo-realism). These are contradictory desires, but they aren't absolutely mutually exclusive. Even in real life, there are people who dress up in silly costumes and act to some degree like comic-book characters - most of them are social activists or neighborhood watchfolk who just happen to wear costumes to call attention to themselves, but some do try actual vigilantism, and are generally regarded as various degrees of insane (though the neighborhood watch and social activists are not always regarded as in great mental health either, if they dress like that). The vigilantes certainly don't enjoy a huge amount of public or legal support in most cases, and comic book tropes are not in effect. So, in a world where large number of people with super-powers of some sort openly exist, there should probably be a few who try to do the superhero thing, or even the supervillain thing... but they won't be common, and most people will still think that they're nuts. Most people with powers will be using them to make money, or to make their lives more comfortable in some other way, or even just ignoring them most of the time. Only a small fraction will be acting like book characters at any one time, and if they aren't bullet-proof, they aren't likely to last long if they offend a serious criminal, or take on the police.

Depending on how much realism you want, that may be good enough, or it may not. If it's not, then you need to have something actively encouraging comic-bookish behavior. In my Five Earths setting (see .sig), I have a lot of spirits that make people luckier and more powerful if they behave in-genre, or have psychological traits that can lead them in that direction. Something similar could be done with faeries, gods, aliens, or other such beings, or just an undefined background tendency, but in a modernish world, you do need to decide what to do about firearms, especially in games set in places where guns are especially common, like New York City. You'll also need to decide how laws and law enforcement deals with the situation (which may be widely different, as not all laws are enforced to the same degree).

In a realistic setting, you're probably not using the rules for GURPS Action to reduce combat deadliness. Instead, my suggestion is that defensive advantages of various types are very, very common, with even 'Super Normal' characters like Batman having luck-based defences. Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction), possibly with Ranged Only or Piercing Only limitations, is a good example of this ('You're lucky you weren't hurt worse!'), possibly with a lower-level version of the same advantage without the same limitations (you can still take a punch better than most people). Enhanced Dodge can also help a lot, but only if you know you need to, and are not restrained. Death-rays and such can be handled similarly. Luck itself, and Serendipity, can be useful in maintaining a secret identity, as well as escaping from traps, or from prison, if captured at all.

How law enforcement deals with all this depends on a number of factors, which will probably be specific to the game:

• How powerful are the top-level supers, and how common are supers at that level?
  
• About how many supers are there in general?
  
• Are there a lot of high-level or top-level supers directly employed by the government with duties that include keeping other supers in line?
  
• How long have supers been publicly known?
  
• What is the attitude of law enforcement to supers in general, and to superheroes, specifically?
  
• What is the attitude of the general public to them, if it's different from the attitude of law enforcement?

If Superman can laugh off an atomic bomb and outrun the speed of light, the government really can't do much to him if he wants to be a vigilante and doesn't want to work for them (or not without shooting themselves in the foot rather badly), whereas if he's 'only' faster than a speeding bullet and can be harmed by a bursting shell, the government has a non-zero chance of giving him orders and making them stick. If Superman chooses to work for the FBI, he serves as a pretty good argument for other supers to likewise take up government service if they want to fight crime. If he doesn't, a lot of others will wonder why they should.


Let's say that supers start out as low-powered pulp heroes and villains in the 1930s, and maybe a few earlier. Apart from the oddity that they aren't getting shot, or aren't getting seriously wounded when they are, they mostly don't seem to have any powers, or don't have really fantastic or impressive ones. These 'heroes' are generally insane to some degree, often quite scarily so (this is consistent with how they behaved in the pulps of the time), and encountering the aftermath of one of their rampages would be disturbing. By the late '30s and into the 1940s, more powerful and obvious supers start appearing, and the government can no-longer pretend that everything is normal. Some of the heroes, and even villains, may join the war effort (if something like WWII still happens, and the country your game is set in gets involved), but not necessarily under military discipline. Police corruption in the era was depressingly common (which was used as a justification for some of the supers in the comics), but even honest coppers didn't have it easy, as the technology and methods we have now simply weren't available. This would allow even fairly low-powered supers to have a good chance at avoiding arrest, unless other supers got involved.

The next generation of supers, those who were mostly born in the 1930s and '40s and came of age in the 1950s and '60s, grew up in an era when supers are simply a fact of life. If you have powers that you think are impressive, putting on a silly costume and going out grandstanding is 'normal,' or as normal as super-powered folk get. This generation of superheroes thus tends to be more numerous, and less insane, as a greater proportion of powered people enter the cape lifestyle. As more people go out and act like comic book characters, attitudes in the public shift, and thus, over time, so do laws. How fast they shift, and in what direction, is a matter the GM needs to think about, but the right to a secret identity being enshrined in the US Constitution is not totally implausible, even if it is generally a significant stretch.


Thoughts?

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

I've been writing about this for years. It's difficult to balance faux 'realism' with too much comic book. Although some comics do sort of do it but you would have to strip out a lot of their extreme stuff.

My quick rough guide is:

• No Cosmic
• No Impervious to kinetic damage
• Limited selection of Powers
• Mooks to be armed to meet their threats
• Insurance for causing collateral damage

I developed a multi polar world going off in different tangents (of course with some tropes, we love tropes).

• Chi Powers are for anti Powers
• Psi Powers that do not do any direct physical damage (too cinematic)
• Bio Engineered fast and tough guys
• Special Op Vampires (they suck blood to get back hp)
• Using Mechanical/Electrical for creating 'battle suits' (no one near like Tony Stark's)

Supers may be treated like pop/film stars. Some are most likely ex-military and end up in Ghettos.

If a player has 'fire powers' they may be prohibited from entering buildings because accidental damage that insurance will not cover.

Talents and some advantages should be kept at a Maximum level of 4.

Authorities may be gun ho and go all Splatter Punk on the Supers if they do not comply to their demands.

These are a few of my ideas.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

In particular, special operations troops, hostage rescue teams, and the like, will probably develop specialised methods for dealing with supers. The individuals in those groups aren't as powerful as supers, but there are more of them and they will have organisation and heavy weapons.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

True. Of course, different types of powers need different specialized methods (e.g. a powerful telepath who is not resistant to bullets and has a range of less than half a mile can be easily dealt with by a sniper, as long as the sniper can get a clear shot; this is not helpful against a powerful 'flying brick' type of super, but the flying brick may be vulnerable to gas attacks, or to certain forms of radiation), and if they don't have sufficiently powerful supers of their own, they're still rather limited, depending on where the top tier is.

In general, though, I suspect that competent SpecOps, or even a competent and well-supplied SWAT team, should be able to handle most supers up to 250 points, and a fair number of them beyond it.

At lower levels of technology, what a team of special forces troops can handle becomes rather lower, so it still depends on when the game is set.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Information gathering and tracking would be the key tactic of authorities, simply because they will rely so heavily on specific plans designed with individual supers in mind.

This will be even more important if supers can develop or increase their range of powers over time or in certain situations, keep some hidden form view etc, etc

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Supers with highly developed Precognition will be quite problematic for authorities because the super will be able to easily avoid capture. Likewise, supers with highly developed Visualization will be able to succeed at most endeavors without appearing to be superhuman. In both cases, the powers are usually undetectable by mundanes, so they will be able to easily fit within a realistic setting.

For example, imagine a super with IQ 12 [40], Will 20 [40], Probability Alteration 4 [20], and Visualization (Based on Will, +20%; No Signature, +20%; Reduced Time 7, +140%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Super, -10%) [32]. Once per turn, they will be able to add an average of +24 to any one non-combat activity (or +8 to any one combat activity), which is pretty powerful for 132 CP invested.

Imagine a super with such an ability, and the appropriate skills af 12, hiding as a stock broker on Wall Street. How much money could they make with an average effective skills of 36? How much damage could they do to the global economy before they were stopped? How would mundane authorities deal with, or even discover, such a super before they owned most of the world?

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

What would even be the premise for 'stopping' such a super from trading to the best of his abilities? As far as I know there is no rule on Wall Street that says you can't just guess better.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Insider trading. If it becomes common knowledge that the super had more information than the general public could gather, then the FTC would hit them hard. Only members of Congress are allowed to get away with insider trading (by law; and they do).

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Wait what?!?!?

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

I'd be reluctant to allow Reliable on Visualization, save at a low level, or where there would normally be a penalty. I prefer to give it 'Requires IQ Roll' or 'Requires Will Roll,' or similar, and let the character buy up the skill, instead.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Visualization already requires an IQ roll to function. Anyway, we are talking about superhumans in a realistic setting. Visualization, especially with the build that I described, is almost tailored for such a setting because its effects can be explained by extremely good luck rather than superhuman abilities. In fact, I believe that the majority of superhumans should probably have such an ability, as it is a cost effective way to differentiate them from supernormals and would explain some extraordinary lucky breaks, especially in high-tech or ultra-tech settings.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

I agree with that. I think that Reliable in other cases is giving an excessively cheap bonus, usually without an adequate narrative justification.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

What is a "narrative justification"? I can say this character is especially good at math type stuff so they have Mathematical ability, why can't I say this character is especially good at Visualization?

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Being good at trading is different from insider trading, which has the specific meaning of trading based on information you have from the inside of a company that the public market doesn't. A person trading based only on public information and making rolls at skill 30 or whatever is doing something perfectly permissible.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

When I plan out high realism supers, the campaign takes one of the following forms:

1) Its a low-combat exploration of what the character does with their abilities. How do they make money? How does it effect their social life? What do they do with it? How long does it take them to figure out the details of their abilities?

2) Its a SWAT or military game exploring powers in combat. If the players aren't government, they are at least interacting with supers who are, and are private investigators, organized rebels, or otherwise fitting into existing paradigms.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

But if it's ever discovered that the person is a precog, at any point in the future, the FTC would lay a smack down on the person. That the information was public, but from the future doesn't really matter. Precogs who start down this path see this eventuality and stop themselves from any sort of betting or gambling. This is why they never get rich.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

But we are discussing Visualization and Wall Street, not Precognition and Wall Street. I mean, you could get a similar effect with Intuition (Based on Will, +20%; Inspired, +100%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Super, -10%) [39]. While you do not get a bonus, you tend to make the best choice, and you are capable of doing so with amazing regularity.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

One thing that anyone dressing up in colorful outfits should do is make sure the outfit has a good amount of armor. The bulk of the bad guys, early on at least, will likely be street thugs with pistols and possibly private security forces with sub-machine guns (if they're going after organized criminal cartels), usually in the 9mm, .40S&W, and .45ACP range. So wearing Kevlar and other commonly available body armor under or as part of their uniforms will be a necessity for their own survival.

Of course, escalation happens. "We start wearing body armor, they buy armor-piercing rounds. And then there's you, leaping over rooftops, wearing a mask..."

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Certain abilities are really useful in that case. For example, Afflictions that deprive an individual of their ST can really be useful, such as the following:

Withering Curse: Affliction 1 (Attribute Reduction, ST-20, +100%; Extended Duration, 100x, +80%; Malediction 3, +200%; No Signature, +20%; Stunning +10%; Super, -10%) [50]. With just a moment of concentration, you bring even the strongest of men to their knees for 100 minutes times your margin of victory, as even the weight of their clothing is too much for them to bear.

Such an affliction could be a wonderful tools for dealing with any enemy that does not possess superhuman ST, and it would force most of them to burn through their FP to keep going during combat. Since any weight over 0 lbs causes a ST 0 individual to collapse and be incapable of moving, their own equipment becomes a liability. It also allows mundane authorities to capture the culprits, as they only know that the individual collapsed and quickly passed out from exhaustion.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

The NPC I created had was just called Mr Prediction. He has wealth due to stock market trading. However, a smart Precog will also know to make mistakes too and therefore divert eyes from attention.

Super SWAT teams were dubbed ESWANT (Extra Special Weapons and No Tactics). The Gunisher can easily use a 20M weapon with his 'army of one' shtick.

Spony Tark's Battle suit is modular and can reconfigure itself with Alternative Abilities (cheapest way of building the character). Spony is only 200pts and his armour is 800pts. There is the General Utility form, Fast, Strong, Armoured, shooty ones. Like many electric vehicles it needs a few hours of recharge each day.

The Tank is in the US military and uses 3 different types of innate attacks: Explosive Ball Lightning, Rapid Fire Chain Lightning and the armour piercing Fork Lightning. The Tank keeps his cool through meditation but otherwise has a reputation of having a short fuse.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

One Supers setting I came up with, inspired largely by a combination of Worm and Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (and probably the way I had a mechanic from a game system focusing on Supers, the name of which escapes me, described to me), had an interesting quirk in the way superpowers functioned. In general, supers and their henchmen are markedly more durable than expected (in GURPS terms, IT:DR, Regeneration, Hard to Kill, and a touch of Serendipity), but those they harm - even indirectly, with collapsing buildings and the like - benefit from the same improved durability, keeping death tolls rather low. Supers can bypass this effect, by a mechanism called Killing Intent. Doing so is rare, for a variety of reasons. First off, a murderous super is likely to have others (even fellow villains) come down on him hard, either killing him directly or, more likely, capturing him and delivering him to the authorities, where execution is likely. Next, Killing Intent reduces one's own durability - to that of a normal human if enhanced durability isn't part of the character's powerset - which is obviously dangerous. Finally, supers who actually use Killing Intent successfully risk losing their minds; there would likely be a few high-priority supervillains who were relatively normal supers before killing somebody made their minds crack. I'll note here that using Killing Intent against supers who aren't responding in kind isn't quite as dangerous - while it does shut down their defenses, the fact they are holding back means you get some degree of benefit from the less-lethal nature of their own attacks. Due to this, some supers will actually use Killing Intent against other supers without any actual intentions of killing the target, simply to effectively increase their own firepower; this is dangerous, as it means a mundane person with a gun can end you readily, or your opponent might opt to use Killing Intent of their own (or you might accidentally actually kill them, with the negative repercussions of doing so). Similarly, you don't have to use Killing Intent to actually cause someone to die - they are more durable, but hardly immortal. Also, an effect that is sufficiently divorced from human action can sometimes bypass the protection (*cough*convoluted deathtraps*cough).

The way I'm thinking it would work, this protection would have a few tiers to it. The strongest, Tier 4, would be in play for super vs super combat (basically, one's own enhanced durability stacking with the enhanced durability from being targeted by a super). Tier 3, a bit less effective, would be what supers enjoy against mundanes, and henchmen enjoy against enemy supers. Tier 2, less effective still, would be what mundanes enjoy against supers, and henchmen enjoy against mundanes. Tier 1, the least effective, would be what mundanes enjoy against henchmen. Using Killing Intent makes a super function as though he or she were mundane, but lowers the level of protection the target enjoys by 2 steps. Most indirect effects (like collapsing buildings) lower the level of protection by 1 step, but it is possible to lower it further with more complicated arrangements (as in the case of the deathtrap clause, above).

Essentially, this would be having a lot of supers tropes be in play as a direct result of the way the powers work, and with people being aware of it. The setting was going to have supers start showing up after superhero comics were fairly well-established, meaning there would be a strong inclination for those who gained powers to go out as costumes. Taking a cue from Worm, there would also be a massive threat (akin to Worm's Endbringers) justifying tolerance for costumed maniacs running around.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

My group is taking a break from the third instalment of our superhero campaign.

Part one saw the PCs go from mundane Australian commandos to low powered supers (thanks to alien technology discovered in the jungle) during the American Vietnamese war.

Part two saw the PCs catapulted into the future experiencing a variation on gurps Reign of Steel where aliens battle killer robots and humanity struggles to survive.

Part three saw the PCs travel back in time to 1968 where they turned up in California. The PCs are now mid-power supers and practically invincible compared to mundane people. They know that are dark future awaits but they don’t know what to do about it as the rules of time travel are unknown.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

I kind of wonder about intuition and say sports gambling and the stock market. Buy, short or ignore are a nicely limited number of options to make the roll reasonable. And they just have good gut feelings.

Yes it could be illegal for them to trade at all but with out something like that I see that build as hard to stop with existing laws.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

Legal enforcement powers covers that, see https://kutv.com/news/nation-world/f...roys-mans-home

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

That depends a lot on what country (or region) you're in, and how judges choose to interpret the law in this context.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

This all assumes a few things, that such ability combos exist, they're common enough to be an issue, and even more importantly for laws that they know they're using supernatural powers.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

'Realistic' superhero settings usually depend on abilities from the subtler powers. For example, the powers of Astral Projection, Body Control, ESP, Machine Telepathy, Probability Alteration, Telepathy, and Vampirism (as well as the relevant antipowers) would qualify as reasonably subtle. They are also suitable for 'realistic' psionic settings that depend on the subtler powers.

For example, imagine a superhero with IQ 12 [40], Will 20 [40], Telepathy 4 [20], and Illusion (Based on Will, +20%; Initiative, +100%; Mental, +100%; No Signature, +20%; Reliable, +10, +50%; Stigmata, +100%; Super, -10%) [120]. While the character is a one trick pony, it is a very effective trick, as they can quickly take over the perceptions of small groups of people. While they have an effective attribute of 34, the rule of 16 prevents them from causing too much harm to every turn to individuals, but they do not really suffer penalties unless they are afflicting more than 18 people simultaneously. The effects are relatively subtle, it would most likely be attributed to a poison rather than a psionic ability.

What could a psionic do with such an ability? How about manipulating the perceptions of a driver of an oil tanker so that they drive their vehicle into the headquarters of a corporation at 55 mph? Heck, with Initiative, their illusions are fire and forget, allowing them to program the perceptions of multiple drivers of multiple oil tankers so they function as living weapons.

Re: Supers in otherwise-realistic settings
 

@ Alexanderhowl,

That is one way of handling things. In my campaign the PCs have flashy obvious and unrealistic powers like lightning blasts, force fields, super strength and flight. Whereas apart from the odd super powered NPC (which are extremely rare) the campaign is realistic and historically accurate.

What prevents the PCs from overreach and fundamentally changing the character of the campaign world is that they are time travellers from the future and they can never be sure of the consequences of overt action.