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Old 09-06-2020, 02:37 PM   #21
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: (Another) World of Superhumans

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
The supers as stand in for persecuted minorities in the real world always fell flat to me. Because those with supernatural powers are literally very different to all other people by definition.
It's quite silly, IMO, to start yelling about pitchfork wielding mobs when you have children with equivalent destructive power to those carrying guns.
To be clear, I'm not advocating that supers get such a treatment in the setting. However, particularly given the time frames involved, the debate on whether or not to require supers to be educational segregated from "normals" is going to be indelibly tied into the debate over desegregation, particularly where low-powered (by which I mean actually low-powered, not "I figured out how to break the world for only [25]") supers are involved.

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
It is more like parents would withdraw their children from schools with known supers, so concentrating supers in specialized schools would be required to prevent social disruption.
On the other hand, using the suggestion that certain schools would be super-compatible (rather than just having dedicated super-schools), the higher budgets of said schools may well result in them having better overall academic quality, meaning parents may well want their kids rubbing shoulders with supers, for the combination of forming useful connections and having a stronger academic background. Also, plenty of parents (and kids) will already be fans of superheroes from the comics, and may actively want to associate with them for this reason.

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).

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
A licensed hero system may evolve to keep the supers that wanted to be 'do-gooders' or just wanted normal careers properly registered, with the US government providing wages, benefits, liability protection, etc. as incentives for registration (unregistered supers who engaged in vigilante action would not have the benefits).
I'd suggest taking a page from My Hero Academia here - unlicensed use of superpowers in public is typically a crime (some exceptions - like defense of self and others - may apply), so anyone who wants to be able to use their powers would need to get an appropriate license (the nature of which would dictate under what situations use of the power is acceptable).
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Old 09-06-2020, 02:40 PM   #22
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default 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.
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Old 09-06-2020, 03:20 PM   #23
Varyon
 
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Default 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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Old 09-06-2020, 05:06 PM   #24
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default 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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Old 09-06-2020, 06:48 PM   #25
dcarson
 
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Default 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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Old 09-06-2020, 07:07 PM   #26
ericthered
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Default 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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Old 09-06-2020, 07:23 PM   #27
RyanW
 
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Default Re: (Another) World of Superhumans

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
I'd suggest taking a page from My Hero Academia here - unlicensed use of superpowers in public is typically a crime (some exceptions - like defense of self and others - may apply), so anyone who wants to be able to use their powers would need to get an appropriate license (the nature of which would dictate under what situations use of the power is acceptable).
If you go that route, those super-schools would have teachers with instructor licenses, allowing their students to use their powers under supervision. Both having more opportunities to practice, and earning credit toward getting their license. Other schools would probably just have periodic visits, possibly focused on keeping powers from going out of control.

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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Old 09-06-2020, 07:40 PM   #28
Varyon
 
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Default Re: (Another) World of Superhumans

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Edit: On the other hand, what about always on powers? They can't exactly be restricted, but there isn't anything to train...
My guess is that people with such powers would be held to higher standards than normal people. Someone with high DR would be at risk of getting charged with unlicensed power usage if he or she gets involved in any violent encounter, for example. These would be more add-on charges when someone was already in trouble for doing something else (so Battery and Unlicensed Power Usage, rather than just Battery), although there may be cases where they do something that normally isn't quite enough for a charge, but they end up charged with UPU. Depending on the circumstance, the UPU charge may be lessened in the same way someone who accidentally used their power would have the charge lessened (if that's a thing).

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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Old 09-06-2020, 08:07 PM   #29
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default 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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Old 09-06-2020, 09:58 PM   #30
David Johnston2
 
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Default 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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