Teenage Supers. X-Men

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by JakeEscherRoels

No not as yet. Money can buy protection and since this project is funded by private and government backing, angering the wrong people could be bad for business. However, I image the PCs will become PMCs of sorts at some point and employing the PCs to fetch (or something...) an imprisoned child of a wealthy individual could be a lot of fun.
Thank you for that!

So, what, if anything, has actually happened with mutants in the recent past that has caused the widespread public opinion against them and passage of the registration (and internment) law? A few minor incidents, or mutant rampages that have caused death tolls to make 9/11 or anything short of a major ground war look minor?

And does the government have mutants of their own, whether motivated by patriotism (after all look at the performance of Japanese-American units in WWII, even while their families were interned), money, or explicit or tacit threats to their families and selves? Or do they rely entirely on experimental new technologies and ignore the potential for use of mutant powers as an instrument of espionage and warfare? In the latter case, any country that does recruit rather than imprison mutants gains an immense sociopolitical advantage, as they become the only players on the field with invisible or teleporting assassins or spies, telepaths, etc.

It almost seems more likely that the government's approach would be to automatically induct any known mutants that are 18 or older into military service (where they can be loaned out to intelligence agencies, natch), placing younger ones in special schools at undisclosed locations until they reach their majority, and only placing the most recalcitrant and uncooperative mutants in their Genosha/Guantanamo/Leavenworth equivalent. They could have have a small cadre of cherrypicked 'mutant heroes' that promote registration while being paraded around for public appearances and (mostly) staged encounters with 'rogue mutants'. Still not a life most teenagers would like the prospect of leading, but maybe something that would fool the more naive into willingly signing up.

[JakeEscherRoels]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

So, what, if anything, has actually happened with mutants in the recent past that has caused the widespread public opinion against them and passage of the registration (and internment) law? A few minor incidents, or mutant rampages that have caused death tolls to make 9/11 or anything short of a major ground war look minor?

And does the government have mutants of their own, whether motivated by patriotism (after all look at the performance of Japanese-American units in WWII, even while their families were interned), money, or explicit or tacit threats to their families and selves? Or do they rely entirely on experimental new technologies and ignore the potential for use of mutant powers as an instrument of espionage and warfare? In the latter case, any country that does recruit rather than imprison mutants gains an immense sociopolitical advantage, as they become the only players on the field with invisible or teleporting assassins or spies, telepaths, etc.

It almost seems more likely that the government's approach would be to automatically induct any known mutants that are 18 or older into military service (where they can be loaned out to intelligence agencies, natch), placing younger ones in special schools at undisclosed locations until they reach their majority, and only placing the most recalcitrant and uncooperative mutants in their Genosha/Guantanamo/Leavenworth equivalent. They could have have a small cadre of cherrypicked 'mutant heroes' that promote registration while being paraded around for public appearances and (mostly) staged encounters with 'rogue mutants'. Still not a life most teenagers would like the prospect of leading, but maybe something that would fool the more naive into willingly signing up.

I've thought a lot about that as well. Mostly I'm nervous of the PCs reading this thread and don't want to give anything away but you are totally right. It would be much more likely that the government or top men are handpicking certain mutants out to train them. And who knows when or if the PCs will run into something they didn't expect. Some "X Factor", they couldn't possibly have predicted.

Anyways, the justification for now is that the mutant phenomenon's public prevalence is fairly recent. Even though top men would have been analyzing and at least talking about it for years. The unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of much of these mutants has made the public scared. The mutants that do know what they are doing have done some terrorizing business. Nothing to the scale of 9/11. Mostly it's just rumours and internet talk.

It's tricky because X-men universe doesn't account for too much logic.
Thanks again! Really great thinkingz.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by JakeEscherRoels

I've thought a lot about that as well. Mostly I'm nervous of the PCs reading this thread and don't want to give anything away but you are totally right. It would be much more likely that the government or top men are handpicking certain mutants out to train them. And who knows when or if the PCs will run into something they didn't expect. Some "X Factor", they couldn't possibly have predicted.

Anyways, the justification for now is that the mutant phenomenon's public prevalence is fairly recent. Even though top men would have been analyzing and at least talking about it for years. The unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of much of these mutants has made the public scared. The mutants that do know what they are doing have done some terrorizing business. Nothing to the scale of 9/11. Mostly it's just rumours and internet talk.

It's tricky because X-men universe doesn't account for too much logic.
Thanks again! Really great thinkingz.

If it's mostly just rumors and Internet talk, I'm not sure how a law gets passed... you need at least one or two dramatic public incidents, I would think.

Maybe even a mutant attack on a diplomatic conference held on Ellis (or was it Liberty?) Island.. just because there weren't any casualties beyond a few security guards and the 'mutant terrorists' seem to have fumbled things with whatever WMD they were planning to use and so fled the scene after it destroyed itself, doesn't mean nobody would argue it was a wake up call to the need for anti-mutant legislation.

[JakeEscherRoels]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

If it's mostly just rumors and Internet talk, I'm not sure how a law gets passed... you need at least one or two dramatic public incidents, I would think.

Maybe even a mutant attack on a diplomatic conference held on Ellis (or was it Liberty?) Island.. just because there weren't any casualties beyond a few security guards and the 'mutant terrorists' seem to have fumbled things with whatever WMD they were planning to use and so fled the scene after it destroyed itself, doesn't mean nobody would argue it was a wake up call to the need for anti-mutant legislation.

Ah bang on.
That'll definitely do. Thanks for that. Yeah I guess if questioned I can just reference an event like that. Thanks again!

Now on to explaining the Shadow Land...

[Johan Larson]

Originally Posted by JakeEscherRoels

ANTAGONISTS:
The Department of Human Security:
government funded operation with mystery private backing. Mostly guys in riot gear with stunners and mutant suppressing collars. There are sentinels but the sentinel project isn't too well funded. As the mutant problem becomes more apparent funding increases and sentinels become more developed.

Collars that suppress mutant powers sound like pretty odd tech to have around if the government is only beginning to get a handle on the mutant problem. It might be better to have suppressors appear later in the series. Alternately, you could let the mutants come up with a way to defeat the suppressors.

Also, what are "sentinels" in this context?

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by JakeEscherRoels

Ah bang on.
That'll definitely do. Thanks for that. Yeah I guess if questioned I can just reference an event like that. Thanks again!

Now on to explaining the Shadow Land...

Not sure if you caught the specific reference or not...

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Johan Larson

Collars that suppress mutant powers sound like pretty odd tech to have around if the government is only beginning to get a handle on the mutant problem. It might be better to have suppressors appear later in the series. Alternately, you could let the mutants come up with a way to defeat the suppressors.

Also, what are "sentinels" in this context?

Good points - although he could always have it that the government has been aware of (and experimenting on/using as secret weapons) mutants for some time before they really broke through into public awareness much, and therefore actually has had the time to develop some countermeasures.

For nullifier collars, I'd suggest saying that it's not a case of an actual Neutralize gadget, but rather that pretty much all mutant powers require a modicum of concentration (even if they don't involve actual Concentrate manuevers). Therefore, the collars work by electrically, sonically, or perhaps with injectable meds disrupting a mutant's ability to concentrate, making power activation take -5 to -10 on an IQ or DX roll, and penalizing all kinds of other actions too. If they've identified a particular EEG pattern that corresponds to trying to use a power, they could even be set to tase you every time.

For Sentinels, I don't know that the classic giant robots make a whole lot of sense for the tone of the campaign. Maybe go the reverse of the comics route and have them start out as human-controlled mecha designed by a mutant gadgeteer under duress to enable some government agents to match some mutants in combat - so more Mandroid than Sentinels, really. Of course, there's nothing saying that a coerced mutant couldn't come up with pretty good AI, either...

Other thoughts - if they've identified the genetics behind mutant powers enough to have blood tests and scanners, then they may not be restricted to using coopted or coerced mutants in order to have superpowers on the side of government, because identifying the gene(s) may open up the possibility of... mutant gene therapy! A series of treatments could result in an agent or soldier getting either the specific powers of the mutant from whom samples were taken and cultured, or random powers, depending on how mutant genetics actually work in the campaign. This could be either temporary or permanent, depending on how well the therapy takes, whether there are rejection issues, whether it drives the recipients bugnuts homicidal crazy or not, etc....

Or if the use of mutant powers depends largely on neurological changes and exotic neurotransmitters, they could instead be extracting cerebrospinal fluid from captive mutants to provide booster treatments to the agents and soldiers.

[JakeEscherRoels]

Originally Posted by vitruvian

Not sure if you caught the specific reference or not...

I did get the reference. :)

Yeah Sorry I should have said. The sentinels and collars are in their development stages. The sentinels are just human controlled mechs at this point. They are slow & clumsy right now. The collars only kind of work. Anyways, I haven't introduced the mutant nullifiers or collars yet. The PCs aren't ready for that and haven't gotten reckless enough to initiate them. I do really like the idea that they just inhibit rather than remove like their mutant powers are at a significant - to use. Maybe have their powers at -8 to work. Their skills are about 10 so only critical successes work. Definitly the PCs should work out ways to beat the nullifiers but I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

I also really like the idea that they have developed the mutant inhibitors, scanners etc. by experimenting on mutants, willing or not. I'll tinker with having them investigate this.

The tone is a big issue. As is the overall arc. I want the tech to progress as fast as the PCs are gaining XP. The Department of Human Security's big guns have to overpower the PCs. So keeping it "realistic" and logical is important. Even though I wanna take these kids to the shadowland and the Mojoverse.