(Another) World of Superhumans

[fchase8]

If superpowers came from an insecticide, then the distribution of powers worldwide would be uneven. If it was invented in the U.S.A., then supers would be concentrated there (like in classic comic books - and The Boys), then other developed Western countries, but far less in the Communist Bloc & Third World.

How long did it take until the insecticide was linked to the development of powers? And what was done with the insecticide after the discovery? Governments and even corporations would love to develop their 'own' supers - regular people might be willing to be sprayed if it means they/their children develop super powers.


And does developing superpowers including possibly alterations/deformities? I'm think of jokers in Wild Cards, but even many mutants in X-Men no longer looked 'human', and some had disabilities.


Schooling of supers could be tied into schooling of children with disabilities, at least from a government perspective.

[David Johnston2]

Given that we're talking about a substitute for DDT, we'd see a huge number of cases in tropical nations. India. Africa. South East Asia. You'd also see a higher rate of use in southern states.

[AlexanderHowl]

The insecticides triggered latent super genes, so dosing a human without the right genes with the insectides will just poison them. The latent super genes were not discovered until the 90s, and the connection to the insecticides took a few years longer. The genes are nearly ubiquitous among Australian Aborigines, fifty percent of their population awakened in the 1950s, which greatly changed their status and wealthy in Australia, since they ended up being a third of the supers in Australia (1.5% of Australia is super). Otherwise, the genes are fairly evenly distributed.

Supers do not suffer from disabilities at a rate different than the general public, though those that do suffer from disabilities before awakening almost universally develop compensatory abilities in addition to their normal allotment of innate abilities. For example, a super with Blindness would likely develop Discriminatory Hearing, Discriminatory Smell, Discriminatory Taste, and Sensitive Touch and may develop new senses like Detect or Scanning Sense. In general though, supers are better than mundanes, stronger, faster, smarter, healthier, and more attractive (supers average ST 12, DX 12, IQ 12, HT 12, and Appearance (Attractive)).

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

I think a lot of these suggestions are derived from the notion that the bulk of super-abilities will be useful or practical.

If the majority of powers are of the "Spot-On-The-Wall" (no practical use) or "Monkey's Paw" (liabilities outweighing utility) types, then a lot of the perceived superiority of superhumans will just vanish. If 1% of the population has powers, and 1% of those are both practical and without significant drawbacks, then only one person in 10,000 would be a true "Super".

The vast majority of superhumans would be considered to have an odd physical aspect, like a birthmark or my own immunity to the toxin in poison ivy and sumac. Hardly needing separate schools or special education.

The true superhumans would be more like people with exceptional talent in sports or academics - they might profit from special education, might get scholarships or recruited young by employers. That's scholarship talk, not segregation.

My home state of Arkansas has an average of 444.2 students per school. At 1% and 1% supers, that would be about four or five students per school with a minor or useless ability, and one true super per 2.5 schools. That would be 430 superhumans in this state's school system, but hardly be enough to shake the pillars of heaven.

[AlexanderHowl]

The previously stated numbers are 80% 1-100 CP of abilities, 16% 101-200 CP, 3.2% 201-300 CP, and so on. The useless abilities population would likely make up less than 10% of the super population, and even low powered ones could be useful.. For example, a super with Intuition (Inspired, +100%; Reliable 10, +50%; Super-10%) [36] would almost never make a bad decision and would likely make the best decision when faced with any situation of less than ten choices.

[ericthered]

Any thoughts on how that 80% breaks down into people in the 25, 50, 75, or 100 point range?

Any thoughts on how common "psionic" type abilities are compared to more classical powers built for brawling? Psionic powers are often useful at low values, and psi-style powers show up in a lot of supers stories.

[Phantasm]

If you had to break things down by categories - Brick, Blaster, Controller, Scrapper, Shapeshifter, Support, etc. - what percentages of the superhuman population would you say fills each category?


Brick == primarily physical enhancements granting superhuman strength and durability (Hulk, Colossus, Steel)

Blaster == primarily ranged damage capability (Cyclops, Firestorm)

Controller == damage is secondary compared to battlefield control (Storm, Jean Grey)

Scrapper == primarily a melee combatant, often relying on reflexes rather than armor for survivability (Daredevil, Spider-Man, Sara Lance/White Canary of DC's Legends of Tomorrow)

Shapeshifter == the ability to alter one's body in various ways (Mystique, Reed Richards, Plastic-Man)

Support = provides buffs and debuffs (Leech, John Constantine)


(there are likely other categories I've missed)

[AlexanderHowl]

I really do not see those as the relevant categories of supers in a world where supers are merely uncommon rather than rare. In the case of the majority of supers, the people with 100- CP in innate abilities, physical abilities are going to be the less useful than mental abilities. At TL7+, I am not sure that many combat physical abilities are going to be terribly useful due to the utility of technology.

Among the 80% of supers with 100- CP in innate abilities (which I will call Level Ones), the distribution of innate abilities is fairly uniform (1% will have 1 CP, 1% will have 2 CP, 1% will have 3 CP, etc.). When it comes to power talents, Level Ones might only have one power talent and, within each point category, 20% will have Level 0, 20% will have Level 1, 20% will have Level 2, etc. (the power talent does not count against the points in their abilities), so you would have an equal probability of a character with Power Talent 4 and 1 CP in innate abilities as you would of a character with Power Talent 0 and 100 CP in innate abilities. Level Ones can develop further abilities through training and practice though, and a number of them become equivalent to Level Twos (101-200 CP in innate abilities) or even Level Threes (201 CP-300 CP in innate abilities).

Ability distributions are probably 45% mental, 45% physical, and 10% social (mainly Summonable Allies and Highly Accessible Patrons). Some supers will be all mental, some will be all physical, and a few will be all social, but most will be a mixture of two or three categories. The lower utility of physical abilities will probably mean that the majority of supers will not develop their careers around them, though there will be some exceptions. For example, a super with innate DR 12 (Flexible, -20%; Force Field, +20%; Super, -10%) [54], Doesn't Breathe (Super, -10%) [18], and Temperature Tolerance 20 (Heat; Super, -10%) [18] (for a total of 90 CP of innate abilities) would almost certainly become a firefighter.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Varyon

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).

That would run into all kinds of constitutional problems. Of course, if the Supreme Court of the day thinks that supers operating outside of control by the government and other 'reputable' organisations (i.e. corporations that lobby well) are bad these constitutional challenges can be put aside fairly quickly.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

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.

That's a very short travel time between schools, testing four per day. And how many have that level of Reliable? Is that trainable, or do they have to train their Talent (a much more expensive and therefore presumably slower process)?