Some nut in a cornball costume

I recall the Hero System big blue book included
campaign planning worksheets, where the
GM and players could work out what kind
of campaign they were interested in. Some of
the details included how serious the campaign
would be, what kind of morality could be
expected, how common superheroes were,
their power level, that kind of thing.

A new campaign detail that came to mind while
perusing character origin stories: how much
pressure is there on a PwP (person with powers)
to don a costume and take part in the struggle
between good and evil?

In a campaign with low pressure, you'd see
a lot of PWP's living quiet lives, perhaps
using their powers to subtly make their
work and home lives easier. If Michael
Chu can fly, but has no other superpower,
he might decide to just make his daily
commute to work easier and cheaper
instead of going through the effort and
risk of donning tights and robbing banks
or stopping bank robberies. Only PWP's
with really top-notch power combinations
would usually take on the role of superhero
or supervillain. If friends and family
discovered a PWP's superpower, they
might not think anything of him not roaming
the city in a colorful costume.

One effect of a low-pressure campaign
is that more "civilians" will be encountered
that are actually low powered (or even
high powered!) superbeings. That crime
boss with invulnerability and magic
fear powers might go around in a
three-piece suit and be called
"Mr. Ortega" instead of "Fearstone".

A high-pressure campaign and you'd
see people with any kind of power
donning tights. When taken to
ridiculous extremes you'd have
PWP's like The Proboscis (enhanced
sense of smell, that's it) and
TimeMaster (always knows what
time it is, really good at making
schedules) out there in costume. I
can even see a situation where so
many mediocre people don superhero
costumes that normal people - even
normal criminals - get very blase
about it.

Pressure could be simply a matter
of social norms - "everyone knows
that if you've got a power, you need
a costume to go with it" - to situations
like the Marvel Universe mutant stories,
where having a power puts you in danger
so you are impelled to develop that power
and throw in with other powered people.

--
Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet

firelock_ny.DeleteThis@hotmail.com wrote:
> I recall the Hero System big blue book included
> campaign planning worksheets, where the
> GM and players could work out what kind
> of campaign they were interested in. Some of
> the details included how serious the campaign
> would be, what kind of morality could be
> expected, how common superheroes were,
> their power level, that kind of thing.
>
> A new campaign detail that came to mind while
> perusing character origin stories: how much
> pressure is there on a PwP (person with powers)
> to don a costume and take part in the struggle
> between good and evil?
>

There's also a consideration of what the official status of superhumans
is. In some settings super humans of any sort might be drafted either
into the police force or actualy into the millitary if there's a war on
and have no choice in the matter. Alternatively you could take a page
from what Marvel is doing now with there Civil War story line and have
the government require any superhuman who wants to fight crime be
registered with the government. That sort of thing will have a major
impact on the amout of presure on PwP and how they respond to it. If
there's a super human draft some people who wish to avoid the draft
will be forced to keep the very fact that they have powers a secret.
OTOH if you have athorities who treat super human crime fighters as
good samaritans and more or less encorages them then regardless of the
presure to put on a costume any super human will be likely to help out
if they run across a crime in progress even if they aren't a formal
super hero.