Superhumans changing the course of history

[Steve]

I've recently become a fan of the M&M supplement Paragons as I work on my Icons campaign. It also got me to thinking about campaign worlds where, unlike comic book universes, maintaining the status quo is not a premise.

 

I've recently been wondering how the real world would change if superhumans emerged during the past two to ten years, and so I thought I'd take a poll for opinions on that question. I'm looking for ideas on how the superhuman world would impact the real world when it comes to recent historical events.

 

For example, here is one of the timeline changes that I am considering. Suppose the first superhuman to reveal himself was powerful enough to save one or more of the planes on 9/11? In the post-Crisis rebooted DC universe back in the 80s, Superman saved a crashing spaceplane as his first public appearance. What would have happened if a superhuman had saved one or more of the targeted flights?

 

How about the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami? What if that was the first public appearance of a superhuman, one who emerged and saved thousands of lives?

[OddHat]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

I've never used the "Supers can't change the world" trope, and usually try to strike a balance between Vast Historical Forces and actual Supermen. So, groovy and rep to you for trying a game without it.

 

If Supers (in a world without known Supers) stopped one plane from crashing on 9/11, the narative would be substantially changed. The Super would become an instant international figure and a major hero in the US, we'd have an even stronger story of how individuals could fight back, and we would probably see that Super used politically. I'm not sure stopping one or both planes would have changed anything as far as the wars we've been in since 9/11 are concerned, or the paranoia and loss of civil rights. Having real Supers around is if anything scarier (as a shift in world view) than the fear inspired by terrorism. The administration would have still had to strike back, and would have still wanted to make a point to Iran by invading Iraq. The loss of civil liberties might have been even worse as the government tried to protect themselves from potential Super threats. "Mutants" could become the new scapegoats instead of Muslims.

 

A Super protecting people during the Tsunami would be a near-mythic figure to millions in the parts of the world where the Tsunami struck. He'd also probably get hit with even worse paranoia from local authoritarian governments. We might write the whole thing off as a hoax in the west until given rock solid evidence.

[kahuna's bro]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

well asked steve,what if the supers had lower level powers like spider-man or iron fist rather than thor or iron man?

[OddHat]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Power level, imo, is much less of an issue than being in a position to effectively use force. Batman can defeat any bad guy Superman can handle. So can Squirrel Girl with the writers on her side.

 

There are probably a few thousand people in the USA (our population is over 300 million now) who could have stopped the 9/11 hijackers had they been on the planes in question. But life isn't an action movie, and in 2 out of 3 cases there was no one both in a position to act and aware that action was needed.

 

The most useful Superpower is to be in the right place at the right time.

[Clonus]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Power level, imo, is much less of an issue than being in a position to effectively use force. Batman can defeat any bad guy Superman can handle. So can Squirrel Girl with the writers on her side.

 

There are probably a few thousand people in the USA (our population is over 300 million now) who could have stopped the 9/11 hijackers had they been on the planes in question. But life isn't an action movie, and in 2 out of 3 cases there was no one both in a position to act and aware that action was needed.

 

The most useful Superpower is to be in the right place at the right time.

 

Which is why Superman has enormous super senses and the ability to fly across the world in no time, Spider-Man has Spider-Sense, and Batman is a Sooper Genius. So they can be in the right place at the right time.

 

I actually posted kind of WWYCD a while back, in which the question was, what would the respondent actually think in a situation where during 9/11 a supermanlike (but of course less powerful) hero showed during the action, started flying people out of the building (saving hundreds) and then when the second plane showed up, tried to stop it and accidentally destroyed it. There were hours in which a superhuman could have swung (or flown) into action. In an actual comic book universe the death toll would have been much smaller just from superhumans using superior mobility powers to rescue people. The Tsunami and the New Orleans flood are similarly situations where there would have been oodles of time for a superhero to arrive on the scene and do some lifesaving. Any massive catastrophe offers plenty of opportunity for superhuman heroes to show up and do something useful, although the only divergences from recorded history would usually be butterflies unless you have the kind of hero who can actually stop a Tsunami.

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

It also would depend on what powers they had (and used) to stop the disaster.

You covered Superman preventing part of 9/11, imagine Professor X doing it. A group of terrorists gives control of the plane back to the pilots, then quietly sits down and waits for arrest. (Twilight Zone theme here.)

Or...

One person on the 4 planes is safe, his invulnerability enabling him to survive the crash. A power he didn't know he had until the impact.

 

How about, for the Boxing Day Tsunami... everyone, instantly before being hit by a wall of water is teleported to Shanghai. Anyone who was not actually in danger is untouched. Imagine the chaos as several thousand people disappear as a wall of water destroys thier homes... and the paranoia of the PRC's government as thousands of foriegners suddenly appear in one of thier biggest cities.

OR if the population of one village (50 people) is moved to safety, but no one else.

[hfergus]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

I actually gamed 9/11 once with people I knew would appreciate it. It was not prevented. All the crashes went almost (the Pentagon was less damaged due to an NPC hero sacrificing himself) as our history did, because the people who could have stopped it were in the wrong spot. The difference? Fewer people died because more rescues occurred. More bodies were recovered (mainly due an NPC locating them.) Less collateral damage. Osama Bin Laden captured (actually by US armed forces) about 6 months later (again, due to the same NPC doing his locating thing.)

 

Yes, my campaign is not silver age. Somewhere between bronze and iron. (I call it Bronze age with whispers of iron)

 

So heroes can change things. Anywhere from totally to very little.

[Escafarc]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

I really couldn't do 9/11 in my game since the WTC was desroyed in '84 during an alien invasion and the first Desert Storm didn't stop until after Saddem Hussien was removed from power. Supers influence the course of events quite a lot.

[Clonus]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

It also would depend on what powers they had (and used) to stop the disaster.

You covered Superman preventing part of 9/11, imagine Professor X doing it. A group of terrorists gives control of the plane back to the pilots, then quietly sits down and waits for arrest. (Twilight Zone theme here.)

 

Mentalists aren't generally good at controlling groups of minds they can't see, don't know and are intermixed with people they don't want to control. A blanket command telling everyone to "sit down and do nothing" would be bad when that included the pilots. You'd have to have the good luck (or precognition) to know what flight would be taken over. In 9/11's case, all of the flights that would be taken over.

 

It's very possible that superhumans would be deployed against opponents in the middle east, but the truth is, the existence of superhumans is a net advantage for terrorists because it dilutes the technological advantage of first world national governments. The result would be more catastrophes, not less.

[Balabanto]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Well, I've run into that problem multiple times. In my case, 9/11 never happened, because a Supervillain conquered 70 percent or so of the world in the year 2000, and since he wasn't GOOD, his super minions just went out and killed most of the terrorists in cold blood after a little mind scanning. Add that to the chances of flying two planes over the base of the world's most powerful superteam, and you have a situation that's completely unjustifiable in game.

[Steve]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Balabanto raises an interesting point with his mentioning of mind scanning. One decently powerful telepath would be quite an asset in seeking out terrorists. I would imagine if the government got one or more on the payroll, that would be one of the tasks they would be doing much more often instead of fighting supervillains. Finding enemy positions on the battlefield might be another. Someone with enhanced senses like Superman's would likely be used in a similar fashion.

 

Supervillains might not be locked up as long as one might think, if they are willing to work for the government, but I could imagine that would have to be done very secretly. Or maybe supervillains just "disappear" somewhere instead of getting locked up.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

You might be interested in a comic book called "Ex Machina." There are significantly fewer metahumans than in most superhero universes, but our viewpoint character has the ability to talk to and control technology. He manages to get elected as the mayor on NYC on the basis of having

saved the second tower.

(Not much of a spoiler, it's the last panel of issue #1 IIRC.)

[csyphrett]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Percy Jackson's world moves on Demigods and the gods of Olympus make the history with their cyclical conflicts.

CES

[OddHat]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

You can spin Supervillain storage all sorts of ways.

 

My real world with powers setting has a long timeline, with fluctuations in the Super population, but a standard idea is that Supers are quickly incorporated into the government when they don't actually become the government. "Work for the Government and be rewarded, go your own way and be punished" becomes standard for any Supers who can't hide who and what they are, which gives a reason for masks, secret identities, and even hidden lairs and secret cities. All of those Pulp Era hidden cities of Superbeings? Well, it was better than working for the governments of the times.

 

And in the Ancient World, God Emperors sometimes were.

[Naanomi]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

It cuts both ways, of course... 9/11 would have been a much easier ploy to pull off with one strong mentalist giving commands to pilots from a distance... or a flying brick who could have just carried and thrown the whole plane.

 

In most games I have played, supers were not as American-centric as they often are in comic worlds, so the assumption is that historical things happened about how they did because the actions of supers on both sides sort of canceled each other out in the large scale. In fact, one of the main 'behind the scenes' villains is an ex-Russian spy working with a middle-east terrorist group who's power is to set up day long 'Darkness: Mental, Precognition, Postcognition, Clairvoyance, Danger Sense' fields around individuals to carry out traditional terrorist-type stuff without immediate super intervention.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

My superhero world has had supers around for 1000s of years.The Greek gods were the supers of their day. I wanted to make things different because of this ( and other things like the Mars invasion in the Steampunk era) so my world is an imaginary one so I have freedom to change things and my disbelief isn't strained.

 

I guess the point is. It can be really fun to run with the premise of how supers and these insane events change the world In my world, technology is strange spotty and wonky because modern tech orignated from steamteck people dissecting alien tech for example. The avatars of the Egyptian gods in my middle east area hate terrorists so supernatural forces hunt down terrorists and potentual terrorists for another.

 

If one lets go of trying to ressemble the modern world , one can go anywhere with it. Then the setting is more science fiction/fantasy with superheroes though. Which works for me.

[Steve]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

You might be interested in a comic book called "Ex Machina." There are significantly fewer metahumans than in most superhero universes' date=' but our viewpoint character has the ability to talk to and control technology. He manages to get elected as the mayor on NYC on the basis of having

saved the second tower.

(Not much of a spoiler, it's the last panel of issue #1 IIRC.)[/quote']

 

Repped for the comic suggestion. That looks like the sort of input I was looking for, a feel for how superhumans emerging recently would change things in the real world.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Apparently the modern comic "The Authority" (1999) is concerned with precisely this; a group of high-powered supers setting out to change the world for the better and discovering just how far they can or should go, and what the results are.

 

I recently bought the first two collections of "The Authority" (1-8, 9-16), including all the Ellis/Hitch issues and a few of the Millar. I haven't read them all yet, but the comic synopsis sounds like exactly what you're after, philosophically and practically.

[csyphrett]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Haven also wrote a story about this for this Mutant life. Her character had to make the decision to shoot the planes down.

CES

[Balabanto]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Balabanto raises an interesting point with his mentioning of mind scanning. One decently powerful telepath would be quite an asset in seeking out terrorists. I would imagine if the government got one or more on the payroll, that would be one of the tasks they would be doing much more often instead of fighting supervillains. Finding enemy positions on the battlefield might be another. Someone with enhanced senses like Superman's would likely be used in a similar fashion.

 

Supervillains might not be locked up as long as one might think, if they are willing to work for the government...

 

Wait for Mind over Matter. I promise you it will be worth it.

[Balabanto]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

It cuts both ways, of course... 9/11 would have been a much easier ploy to pull off with one strong mentalist giving commands to pilots from a distance... or a flying brick who could have just carried and thrown the whole plane.

 

In most games I have played, supers were not as American-centric as they often are in comic worlds, so the assumption is that historical things happened about how they did because the actions of supers on both sides sort of canceled each other out in the large scale. In fact, one of the main 'behind the scenes' villains is an ex-Russian spy working with a middle-east terrorist group who's power is to set up day long 'Darkness: Mental, Precognition, Postcognition, Clairvoyance, Danger Sense' fields around individuals to carry out traditional terrorist-type stuff without immediate super intervention.

 

I didn't have that option. The assumption in my game is that larger nations and nation states have disproportionately high levels of technology, and a nation run by the world's greatest supervillain? Well, he has the best technology, and the best weapons, and the most supers. Plus, a lot of these nations bought into a quick tech advancement fix that this particular supervillian neutralized, destroying their armies by rotting them from within.

[Steve]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Apparently the modern comic "The Authority" (1999) is concerned with precisely this; a group of high-powered supers setting out to change the world for the better and discovering just how far they can or should go, and what the results are.

 

I recently bought the first two collections of "The Authority" (1-8, 9-16), including all the Ellis/Hitch issues and a few of the Millar. I haven't read them all yet, but the comic synopsis sounds like exactly what you're after, philosophically and practically.

 

Actually, "The Authority" is far too cynical a view of superhumans for my tastes. What I was referring to in my OP was allowing superhumans to change the status quo once they appear, not be arrogant demigods who have terrified ordinary people into being sheep afraid of being killed at a whim. If a PC wants to develop a cure for cancer, and he has science skills on a Reed Richards level to take a swing at it, I'd let him. That sort of thing.

[csyphrett]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Depending on the power, the nature of the superhumans involved, other things, things can go two extreme ways with shades between those two poles.

 

events in our timeline will proceed like they did with minor changes due to the superhumans cancelling each other out like the WW2 of the All Star Squadron.

 

The world will branch off from the appearance of the first superhuman and change due to playing. Events will never occur, change due to circumstances, be the same, or become worse. That depends on the superhumans present.

 

When Dr Agenda was talking about his campaign, it was suggested that the right superhuman in the right job could make space colonization a viable thing depending on the powers.

CES

[Steve]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Wait for Mind over Matter. I promise you it will be worth it.

 

Is that an upcoming RPG supplement?

[megaplayboy]

Re: Superhumans changing the course of history

 

Well, it seems highly probable that superhumans would change the course of history as we know it. The mere existence of superhumans probably would have a dramatic impact, particularly if their existence was widely known to the general public. Supervillains would scare the living crap out of ordinary people, particularly if they all seemed crazy and homicidal. Superheroes might also scare the crap out of a measurable portion of the public, particularly if one of them goes on a mind-controlled rampage--finding out later they were mind-controlled probably won't soothe their concerns(after all, what if it happens again?) Security for public officials would be first doubled, then tripled, then upgunned, and finally upgraded(with their own supers, and/or exotic super-produced tech). Popular superheroes might become media superstars, akin to Madonna or Michael Jackson or the Pope(or perhaps even bigger than that). If the rules of physics are turned upside down, perhaps even the rules of culture would be, too--someone with hyper-charisma might not hear the word "no" for months or years at a time.

 

My current (dormant) campaign setting posits a world where costumed adventurers have been around for 100 years, and superhumans more than 90. The impact on the campaign history is pervasive--JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, Gandhi, and MLK never got killed, for example; a breakthrough in anti-aging technology means that celebrities who died years ago in the real world are still around, looking better than ever. Even the occasional big screw-up of superheroes can have a lasting impact.

 

I would suggest that GMs who want supers to affect their world should feel free to make any other changes to history that strike their fancy--in my setting, the US lost the War of 1812 and was re-occupied for 30 years, during which time slavery was abolished in the British Empire, the Yankees finally won back the country after a long guerrilla warfare campaign, and the Civil War was between North and South--"North" in this case being Canada, who sought to break away and rejoin the British Empire. To this day there are still Canadians who privately fly the old battle flag and have bumper stickers that promise "The North Shall Rise Again!"