Super Societies in GURPS - Page 2

Michael Thayne · 02-19-2013, 05:51 AM

This post isn't about groups like the Justice League... well, I want to talk about, but it's not what "society" means in the post title. Rather, I'm interested in fleshing out the rules and social structures that might govern a world's entire community of super-humans, as well as their interactions with normals. This covers social advantages and disadvantages, Code(s) of Honor and related rules.

One particular source of motivation for this is the thought that it's often considered more "realistic" if superhero stories are violent and bloody, which is true up to a point, but realistically people are also going to want to avoid that as much as possible. So part of the goal is to design a super-society that has methods of keeping the body counts down even though they're not benefiting from four-color combat rules.

From this point of view, combat that superficially looks like four-color combat can be justified as the product of how supers choose to fight. Supers can afford to stand around making speeches because they know their opponent won't go all-out, and find it worthwhile because the goal is to force a surrender or retreat, so psychology matters! Similar logic justifies an emphasis on flashy feats over what will dispatch the foe the quickest. This all might be covered by a Code of Honor of some sort, or else Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents). The latter might have the limitation Supers Only, -50%, especially when used for villains: they don't care about "normals," but are careful about fighting other supers for fear of reprisals.

It would be nice to have some combat mechanics covering this, things like rules for various skills, ways to make it obvious when you're pulling your punches or using Innate Attack (Variable) on a low setting. But I'm not sure how to do that. It occurs to me that you could have an entire martial arts style dedicated to this form of combat.

(Speaking of justifying genre conventions: could masks/costumes serve the social role of heraldry?)

A "pecking order" among supers could also help avoid fights. Some of this could be formalized in-universe. If the Superhero Society only ever appoints one of the world's top badasses for its president, other supers are likely to defer to him or her even if they don't particularly like the Superhero Society. Now it could just be part of the setting that, "being president of the Superhero Society is worth a +4 Reputation unless word gets out that the current president is unusually weak," but it would be interesting to represent this with Rank (or even Rank that also acts as Status).

Finally, a standardized system for what social advantages a super is likely to have might smooth interactions with normals. Even the weakest super might have Social Regard +1. It would also be helpful for a setting to have guidelines for what it takes for a super to have Legal Enforcement Powers and/or Legal Immunity (possibly with Informal, -50%). Actually... looking at Legal Immunity, that may even be the key advantage here, since the 5 and 10 point versions require following rules different from those followed by normal people.

Note: I'm aware of the similarities to WHS' Sovereignty campaign, but am hoping to flesh out something more extensive, where supers form a parallel society rather than being incorporated into existing structures through the legal hack that the most powerful supers are sovereign states. Though if WHS has details on how things worked in Sovereignty, it might provide ideas here.

02-19-2013, 05:51 AM	#1
Michael Thayne Join Date: May 2010	Super Societies in GURPS This post isn't about groups like the Justice League... well, I want to talk about, but it's not what "society" means in the post title. Rather, I'm interested in fleshing out the rules and social structures that might govern a world's entire community of super-humans, as well as their interactions with normals. This covers social advantages and disadvantages, Code(s) of Honor and related rules. One particular source of motivation for this is the thought that it's often considered more "realistic" if superhero stories are violent and bloody, which is true up to a point, but realistically people are also going to want to avoid that as much as possible. So part of the goal is to design a super-society that has methods of keeping the body counts down even though they're not benefiting from four-color combat rules. From this point of view, combat that superficially looks like four-color combat can be justified as the product of how supers choose to fight. Supers can afford to stand around making speeches because they know their opponent won't go all-out, and find it worthwhile because the goal is to force a surrender or retreat, so psychology matters! Similar logic justifies an emphasis on flashy feats over what will dispatch the foe the quickest. This all might be covered by a Code of Honor of some sort, or else Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents). The latter might have the limitation Supers Only, -50%, especially when used for villains: they don't care about "normals," but are careful about fighting other supers for fear of reprisals. It would be nice to have some combat mechanics covering this, things like rules for various skills, ways to make it obvious when you're pulling your punches or using Innate Attack (Variable) on a low setting. But I'm not sure how to do that. It occurs to me that you could have an entire martial arts style dedicated to this form of combat. (Speaking of justifying genre conventions: could masks/costumes serve the social role of heraldry?) A "pecking order" among supers could also help avoid fights. Some of this could be formalized in-universe. If the Superhero Society only ever appoints one of the world's top badasses for its president, other supers are likely to defer to him or her even if they don't particularly like the Superhero Society. Now it could just be part of the setting that, "being president of the Superhero Society is worth a +4 Reputation unless word gets out that the current president is unusually weak," but it would be interesting to represent this with Rank (or even Rank that also acts as Status). Finally, a standardized system for what social advantages a super is likely to have might smooth interactions with normals. Even the weakest super might have Social Regard +1. It would also be helpful for a setting to have guidelines for what it takes for a super to have Legal Enforcement Powers and/or Legal Immunity (possibly with Informal, -50%). Actually... looking at Legal Immunity, that may even be the key advantage here, since the 5 and 10 point versions require following rules different from those followed by normal people. Note: I'm aware of the similarities to WHS' Sovereignty campaign, but am hoping to flesh out something more extensive, where supers form a parallel society rather than being incorporated into existing structures through the legal hack that the most powerful supers are sovereign states. Though if WHS has details on how things worked in Sovereignty, it might provide ideas here.