Super Societies in GURPS

[Michael Thayne]

Actually, the following system seems obvious in retrospect: Have a new trait, "Super Status," which is Status for your super-identity. A variation on the "classless meritocracy" rules base Super Status not on Rank and Wealth, but total point value: imputed Status 1 for 200+ points, and an additional +1 imputed status for each doubling of point value after that.

Membership in prestigious teams, team leadership, and things of that nature allow supers to purchase an additional one or two levels of Super Status. If the members of the world's premier super-team are built on 32,000+ points, most of them might have Status 6 (5 imputed + 1 for team membership) while the team leader has Status 7. Lower than normal Super Status may be taken as a disadvantage, if a super's talents haven't gotten the recognition they deserve.

Characters with Super Status 0 (whether due to lack of competence or inadequate recognition of their abilities) who try to adventure as supers anyway acquire Odious Personal Habit (Wannabe Super), worth -5 to -15 points depending on how extreme their behavior is. To heroes, such individuals are a nuisance at best, and some villains will take great joy in "putting them in their place"!

[Zarathustra]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I ran a scenario somewhat like that in Sovereignty: The heroes were sent to investigate the Navigator, a Sikh entrepreneur whose technological genius had enabled him to build a solar power station in geosynchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean, making him incredibly wealthy. NATO was a bit nervous about the weaponization of power beams from his satellite! I built him with Multimillionaire 6, Independent Income 3, Status 7, Signature Gear: Headquarters, and Contact Group (Security guards); I also had a fairly substantial number of ordinary employees. Legally they were citizens of various countries, but they had jobs and lodging on his space station, which was legally the soil of the state of Navigator—in effect they were guestworkers/xenoi.

However, it's not clear that a sovereign would have any reason to incorporate. Certainly he could create a corporation and grant it limited liability; but as a sovereign, he would have sovereign immunity already, so no one could bring any legal action against him except by his consent, and he would necessarily be the judge in his own case. That's more immunity than Apple has, or WalMart, or Citibank.

More generally, and not working within the model of supers as sovereign states, I'm still not sure that incorporation confers any great benefits. I would need to see the political and legal model.

Do you know the word for "incorporated" in the Romance languages? The French version is "S.A.," for "société anonyme" or "secret society"—representing the corporate veil. But a lot of supers have secret identities! Before you can take legal action against them you're going to have to reveal who they really are. If society tolerates their wearing masks and using code names, that's sort of an analog of incorporation that works more broadly than just in economics.

Bill Stoddard

Am I the only one who'd happily buy a Sovereignty sourcebook? :-)

[isf]

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Am I the only one who'd happily buy a Sovereignty sourcebook? :-)

No, I'd buy one.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

I need to type seven more words.

Why?

10 character limit!

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Brett

Why?

10 character limit!

Oh, right.

[smurf]

I can think of 3 non marvel/dc versions.

2000AD's Zenith. Zenith is a 'playboy' super hero who does not care much about heroism and more about his pop career. Life unfolds as there are other supers acting behind the scenes in some sort of super conflict.

The Last Airbender II. Still have had not the time to watch it but the premise appears to be those with bending powers and those without are in conflict. That is the former have better options than the latter.

Marshall Law (Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neil). Super soldiers, Super Celebs, Super Surplus, Super Unemployed.

There is of course the usual 'Civil War and Kingdom Come' that deals with how do you control or regulate super powers.

IIRC Hancock went through a bit in jail which is funny because he had to want to be there as he could have broken out any time.

Superpowers just means super mistakes too. A night out on the town could mean drunken super fights or damage to property. Maybe there has to be super insurance to insure against accidental damage or 'collaterall'. None the less destroying property will anger the humans who may demonstrate or attack super heroes.

[Michael Thayne]

Now I'm thinking about what a semi-realistic super code of honor (for heroes and villains alike) might look like:

• Deception is acceptable, but solemn oaths to other supers must be kept.
• Keep the secrets of other supers, especially their secret identities, especially from normals.
• It is forbidden to directly harm a captured or surrendering super.
• When challenging a super to combat, the battlefield and participants must be named. Booby-trapping the battlefield is forbidden. Attacking before announcing your presence is forbidden. Participation of individuals not named in the challenge is forbidden (but the sides need not involve equal numbers of supers).

How's that? Worth -10 points?

ETA: Impersonating another super, or wearing a look-alike costume, without their consent is forbidden.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Brett

Why?

10 character limit!

O Rly?

[Fionn The Otaku]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Now I'm thinking about what a semi-realistic super code of honor (for heroes and villains alike) might look like:

• Deception is acceptable, but solemn oaths to other supers must be kept.
• Keep the secrets of other supers, especially their secret identities, especially from normals.
• It is forbidden to directly harm a captured or surrendering super.
• When challenging a super to combat, the battlefield and participants must be named. Booby-trapping the battlefield is forbidden. Attacking before announcing your presence is forbidden. Participation of individuals not named in the challenge is forbidden (but the sides need not involve equal numbers of supers).

How's that? Worth -10 points?

ETA: Impersonating another super, or wearing a look-alike costume, without their consent is forbidden.

I'd add that heroines and female sidekicks are expected to simply give in when over powered/over whelmed or defeated then wait for a rescue (maybe an old rule that isn't followed as much especialy the last part). In exchange captured heroines and female sidekicks are generaly well treated other than being tied up.

Also avoid getting involved in the problems of supers who are either much less or more powerful than you or deal with a very differnt type of threat, like how the X-men generaly don't fight Avengers villains and neither group deals with the kinds of threats Doctor Strange does or bother with "mere" criminals like street level heros.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Fionn The Otaku

I'd add that heroines and female sidekicks are expected to simply give in when over powered/over whelmed or defeated then wait for a rescue (maybe an old rule that isn't followed as much especialy the last part). In exchange captured heroines and female sidekicks are generaly well treated other than being tied up.

That seems to me to be a four color, and perhaps a cinematic, convention, rather than a semi-realistic code.

Bill Stoddard