Those Horrible Mutants

[Asperion]

Here is a world in which mutants came in and normal humans got so scared of them that instead of simply persecuting them and treating them like another minority race, the authorities have gone to the extreme and unofficially declared a kind of war on the mutants.  They have been rounded up and placed in "control centers".  Of course not all the mutants will go willingly. 

 

1 - How would the mutants react to such a society?

2 - How would we stop this from being an us/them campaign?

 

Thanks for your comments.

[Doc Shadow]

1 - They would fight for their lives, doing anything it took to survive. It would be a total war situation with either normals or mutants going down for good.

 

2 - You can't. That's the campaign you set up. You created an us/them campaign when you had the authorities go to those extremes. Your players will respond in kind. If you don't want to go there, then don't send your campaign there to start with.

[assault]

Have normals who side with the mutants, of course.

[kahuna's bro]

i'm with doc shadow

[Cassandra]

There would need to be a reason for the government to turn against mutants.  The government, in turn, would need public support. This does not mean that mutants would truly be a threat, they could just be made to seem that way.

[assault]

A more detailed response:

 

How common are mutants? I'll assume they are a relatively small, geographically dispersed group, and thus not comparable with minority races or indigenous groups. The latter, in particular, tend to have traditional homelands.

 

Are "the authorities" global, or merely national? If the latter, the pro-mutant underground is more likely to be an Underground Railroad, rather than primarily an "armed" movement. (But even an Underground Railroad will be "armed" in a pinch - the stakes are too high).

 

But hang, I'm still getting too Marvel about this. There are currently Real World cases of substantial numbers of people being locked up in camps in First World countries. The most extreme is Guantanamo Bay. Less extreme, but more widespread, are the various forms of detention used against asylum seekers and economic immigrants.

 

In all these cases there are networks of people outside trying to support those inside. We can take it for granted that this would occur in our mutant case. Note that in most cases this activity is legal and peaceful. Of course, the people in the categories above usually aren't being snatched off the streets. The more that happens, the more likely a backlash will occur.

 

Where I am, "Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment" (VLAD!) laws have been introduced, theoretically against Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, but in practice being used to harass anyone who rides a motorcycle, as well as to reduce the powers of the judiciary versus the government (executive). Even better, these laws were to be designed to be easily extended to other groups, notionally in order to cover any loopholes, or groups that emerge to fill the vacuum. Unfortunately, that means they can notionally be extended to *anyone*.

 

There are few people who are fans of outlaw bikers ("bikies" in Australia), but many people who object to such sweeping laws and power grabs.

 

This is likely to also occur in a mutant scare scenario.

 

One final thing: responses are likely to vary along political lines.

 

"Law and Order" is typically associated with conservative politicians and their supporters, with liberals sometimes trying to upstage them, or, more usually, accommodating them. A liberal response that might occur in the US might be an extension of Gun Control. Different liberal responses might occur elsewhere.

 

But that's just "mainstream" "politics", and media hysteria. Not everyone buys that stuff in the real world, and not everyone will in an even vaguely "realistic" superheroic world.

 

The setting described doesn't have to be simplistically us versus them. It can be if you want, however.

 

Personally, if I did want an us versus them situation, it isn't the one I'd use.

[esampson]

Here is a world in which mutants came in and normal humans got so scared of them that instead of simply persecuting them and treating them like another minority race, the authorities have gone to the extreme and unofficially declared a kind of war on the mutants.  They have been rounded up and placed in "control centers".  Of course not all the mutants will go willingly. 

 

1 - How would the mutants react to such a society?

2 - How would we stop this from being an us/them campaign?

 

Thanks for your comments.

I can't really speculate how mutants would react without some more data. Two really big questions are how common are mutants and how easy is it to detect them. If mutants are only 1 in 1,000,000 then the United States would have a population of around 300 mutants. While this might seem like a lot it is a vanishingly small minority. If it is difficult to detect them then most of them would probably hide as it would be very difficult for the government to find them and it would be nearly impossible for them to find one another. Also, how powerful are they? If the majority of them have abilities like the ability to turn their hair blue they probably aren't going to be trying to fight back. On the other hand if it is 'easy' for the government to detect mutants (e.g. mandatory blood tests to get driver's licenses that exposes mutants) you'll see a different type of hiding going on, with specifics determined by the tests (e.g. people taking underground tests before submitting a blood sample and those who test positive either not getting a license or else figuring out some way to beat the system).

 

On the other hand if you have 1 in 100,000 people be a mutant with Superman level abilities you'll have a very different response. I could see some of them briefly expose themselves in the hopes of joining up with other mutants before the authorities can rally enough firepower to bring them down while others try to hide who they are. The more mutants there are and the more powerful they are the greater the odds are of large groups of powerful mutants building up and openly fighting against the authorities (though you will still have some who prefer hiding).

 

As for preventing an 'us versus them' setting, the main way I can see this is to not have the authorities representing the will of the people at large. Perhaps they are a majority but there are a large number of people who still oppose the policies. Perhaps they represent the minority in this aspect but are still able to maintain power because either not enough time has elapsed for elections to remove the current authorities from office, because 'pro-mutant' politicians aren't able to be elected for various reasons (in the same way that it is very difficult for pro-environment politicians to be elected), or perhaps there is simply corruption and conspiracy keeping them in power (rigged polls and rigged votes that shows that people with 30% approval ratings have 50% approval ratings, then during the election they are able to squeak out a victory, control of the primaries so that the only choices in the general election are between different pro-humanity candidates, etc.)

 

You would have lots of people who think the control program is wrong who would be willing to help the mutants, more who are willing to look the other way, and authority figures who disagree with the policies but feel compelled to obey them because they are the law all before you finally have people who are actively opposed to the mutants.

[Armature]

How did it start:

That's easy enough. Americans are a people who react with emotions first... Years later we might let logic come into the equation... Maybe...

SO...

If you had a political party looking to increase there numbers on the next election... And this political party happened to have a lot of media in there pocket...

So a psycho with powers(see super villain) goes crazy some where and causes a couple $100,000 in damages and kills 20 people before the Hero's even arrive. A super battle ensues and by the end, the villain is down, but there are over 30 dead, a hundred wounded, and a million dollars in damages.

 

This political group screams for laws to protect the people from mutants. The Media backs them. Some people agree, many are on the fence, most disagree.

 

Then you have a super battle in a large city. Over 100 dead, thousands wounded, millions of dollars in damages.

The media edits the footage carefully. Gone are the clips of Hero's saving people, but instead replaced by the footage of there missed attacks blowing holes in buildings, destroying cars, blasting holes in the streets. The Media, doing what they do best, creates false panic and fuels the fires for there political friends. Outrage sweeps across the nation like a title wave. Laws are passed, money is spent on development. During the next 2 and a half years every super battle is edited to show them all as villains. No one gives the hero's a chance to tell there side. Some Hero's start to hide, some minor ones are actually taken down by the government testing there new weapons.

The elections take place and of course the party gains lots of new members in office. They continue to feed the fear to show there protecting the people. With in a year the new government agency that's been hiding in the shadows is now out in the open, and hunting super's. The media of course is there to feed the propaganda machine.

The S.U.I.T.S. (Supernatural and Unnatural Investigations, Tactical Squad.) start kicking minor super butt. It seams they have a handful of very expensive gadgets that detect mutants with in limited proximity. Far to expensive for mass production, the SUITS must do the grunt work, with there soldiers providing back up once engaged with "the enemy."

These American boys who are risking there lives every day to protect us from this new internal threat, of course, have the support of the nation.

 

5 years later, several cities horribly damaged, thousands of lives lost, hundreds of mutants dead, billions of dollars in damages, and a few people have started to think with there brains again instead of there emotions, and have joined with the mutants to help shield and protect them. Some even fight along side them.

You now have a nation split.

Many want the laws changed, but, as we all know politicians are quick to prove there worth by ramming through bad/incomplete/horribly written laws, but oh so apathetic when it comes to fixing those laws.

 

I would "rate" the power level of mutants. 1-10.

From game rules stand point, any points spent beyond these attribute ratings, and on actual super powers, are to be considered "mutation points".

 

Character Stats

18. STR through PRE

05. OCV

06. DCV

03. OMCV

04. DMCV

04. SPD

08. PD

08. ED

08. REC

35. END

15. BODY

30. STUN

 

Once you figure out how many "Mutant points" one has, you can find out there "Classification" here.

(Class1 through 10)

1: 25 to 50

2: 51 to 75

3: 76 to 100

4: 101 to 150

5: 151 to 200

6: 201 to 250

7: 251 to 325

8: 326 to 400

9: 401 to 500

10: 501 to 750

 

Figure 1 out of a 10,000 are mutants,

Percentage by class:

1: 23%

2:18%

3: 16%

4: 12%

5: 10%

6: 10%

7: 5.4%

8: 3.5%

9: 2%

10: 0.1%

 

Should provide an interesting amount of each to play with, but not to many supermen to ruin the world.

The lower powers would be front line troops/specialists, and increase in rank as they gain power. Of course they would operate mostly in "cells". There targets would be the hidden manufacturing plants that make the anti-mutant weapons and detectors, as well as trying to find the hidden mutant prisoner camps. Oh, and simply trying to survive.

 

You would probably have 10,000 to 50,000 "normals" actively helping the mutants. With Thousands more wanting to give support, but to afraid too. (But just might if a hurt mutant was found on there back doorstep.)

 

You could treat the war on mutants similar to the war on terrorist (like the war against the IRA in Ireland at its height., etc.). It's in the media a lot, there are occasional battles(lots of them minor skirmishes, some huge city damaging battles.), but most citizens go about there daily business with out to much conscious thought on the subject.

 

Just my quick thoughts on it.

 

-Armature

[Kraven Kor]

Nazi Germany decided that the Jews "had to go."

Not every German citizen supported this, and many helped hide Jewish families, etc.

 

Nothing - nothing - is ever so simple or black and white as "us vs. them."  You will always have those going along with it because that is just what they do, others going along with it because they agree with the sentiment, and still others who range from silent complicity to rebellious sabotage.

[Ninja-Bear]

Read the story if The Tomorrow Man by Philip K. Dick. Man was searching and destroying mutants cause mutants were the next stage of evolution. And mankind lost. P.S. the tomorrow man is not your typical mutant.

[bluesguy]

I am not trying to start a political argument just provide some historical examples for the campaign.

 

You can also look at how the USA treated African Americans in the south after the Post Reconstruction period thru mid 60's and how people in the North responded. 

 

P.S.  It should be noted that people in the North could be just as racist as those in the south but generally were more subtle.  Also people in the North really didn't care until they saw incidents like what happened in Birmingham Ala on their TV sets - especially when the water hoses were turned onto children and teenagers.

[BTolputt]

I cannot find a "The Tomorrow Man" by Philip K. Dick. Could you point me to what you are referring to?

[assault]

There's a difference between present day and historical versions of this scenario: the Internet.

 

There has always been alternative media, so there can never be a completely uniform presentation/distortion of events. This is even true under dictatorships.

 

In the present day, alternative media is relatively mainstream.

 

Furthermore, even relatively highly monopolised media markets can contain outlets with different political agendas. Without state interference, they are unlikely to all be entirely willing to go along with too big a lie. Little lies are a different matter.

 

To use the IRA analogy someone mentioned before: as far as I am aware all mainstream media in the UK were hostile to them. However, there were differences in how rabid this hostility was. And there were always alternative media, however limited in distribution, who were willing to report on them relatively accurately.

 

This would happen in the mutant case, and thanks to the internet, on a relatively large scale. Pro-mutant groups would exist from day one.

[drunkonduty]

A good modern example of people using the internet is the modern Maya rebellion in the Yucatan. (The ELZN iirc?) They were early adopters of the using the internet to connect with the wider world and gain publicity and sympathy for their movement.

[Cancer]

There would need to be a reason for the government to turn against mutants.  The government, in turn, would need public support. This does not mean that mutants would truly be a threat, they could just be made to seem that way.

Given today's world, if there are few enough mutants, I disagree; the round-up campaign could be clandestine and fall under a general Homeland Security authorization. I'm not sure what the number is where that would no longer work, but I suspect it's something like a few hundred, assuming they are widely scattered across the US and none are already celebrities.

[BlueCloud2k2]

I'd say there would have to be an event to trigger the response necessary for the general public to condone rounding up and exterminating mutants. Either a Stanford Incident (Marvel Civil War), 6 Minute War (Days of Future Past), or from the first two X-Men movies: Magneto trying to turn the world's leaders into Mutants, or Using Xavier to kill all of the humans. Something a Mutant did that was so vile, NO ONE felt safe.

 

Ideas on how internment might work:

 

Heroes season 4 "Fugitives" is a good example, as is Colonel Striker's Team raiding Xavier's Mansion is X-2.

 

That's all I got for now.

[Ninja-Bear]

BTolput it was a short story I found in a book from the library entitled the Philip K. Dick reader. Hopefully I'm remembering the short story title correctly. Anyways mankind is killing off any and all mutants because they will succeed mankind as know. The tomorrow man is a very hansome looking man that can somehow see the future and act on it BUT all he is doing is acting on instinct. He is still acting on an animal level. So if the tomorrow man is succesful then all of arts and sciences ecetera will die too.

[Soleil Noir]

I cannot find a "The Tomorrow Man" by Philip K. Dick. Could you point me to what you are referring to?

 

 

Actually, I believe the Philip K. Dick story being referenced was called "The Golden Man" -- it was adapted (badly) into a movie called "Next", starring Nicolas Cage.

[Old Man]

If mutants were visually less like

 

 

and more like

 

 

or

 

 

then, let's face it, they would be much easier to hate.

[Cancer]

Cue up the Battle Hymn of the Repugnant.

[drunkonduty]

Isn't Jubilee too young to be doing that spread leg pose? Seriously, she's like what, 14?

[Nadrakas]

BTolput it was a short story I found in a book from the library entitled the Philip K. Dick reader. Hopefully I'm remembering the short story title correctly. Anyways mankind is killing off any and all mutants because they will succeed mankind as know. The tomorrow man is a very hansome looking man that can somehow see the future and act on it BUT all he is doing is acting on instinct. He is still acting on an animal level. So if the tomorrow man is succesful then all of arts and sciences ecetera will die too.

 

Actually, I believe the Philip K. Dick story being referenced was called "The Golden Man" -- it was adapted (badly) into a movie called "Next", starring Nicolas Cage.

 

Contents of the Phillip K. Dick Reader:

• Fair Game
• The Hanging Stranger
• The Eyes Have It
• The Golden Man
• The Turning Wheel
• The Last of the Masters
• The Father-Thing
• Strange Eden
• Tony and the Beetles
• Null-O
• To Serve the Master
• Exhibit Piece
• The Crawlers
• Sales Pitch
• Shell Game
• Upon the Dull Earth
• Foster, You're Dead
• Pay for the Printer
• War Veteran
• The Chromium Fence
• We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
• The Minority Report
• Paycheck
• Second Variety

 

I remember reading some (most really) of these a looong time ago.  I'll have to go back and reread them.  Of course "The Minority Report" was turned into a movie (Along with others...)

 

"Sigh"...But then again, I prefer the written word over the movie adaptations in most instances.

 

 

~ M

[Nadrakas]

Isn't Jubilee too young to be doing that spread leg pose? Seriously, she's like what, 14?

Yes.  However, as the old saying goes: "Sex sells."  No matter how repugnant the idea of a 14 year old is (even if she is "just" a comic" doing a spread leg pose), there are -- unfortunately -- quite a few real, live teens who do much worse.  Sad, and disgusting, how our society glorifies sex and then "sexifies" kids.

 

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

 

~ M

[assault]

I remember reading some (most really) of these a looong time ago.  I'll have to go back and reread them.  Of course "The Minority Report" was turned into a movie (Along with others...)

 

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, The Minority Report, Paycheck and Second Variety have all been made into movies.

 

Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and Screamers.

 

All watchable. Only Screamers was a box office dud.

 

Obviously there is no point in mentioning "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" here. We all know about it.

[Nadrakas]

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, The Minority Report, Paycheck and Second Variety have all been made into movies.

 

Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck and Screamers.

 

All watchable. Only Screamers was a box office dud.

 

Obviously there is no point in mentioning "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" here. We all know about it.

Watchable, yes.  Still, curling up with my wife and reading a good book with her.  Even reading a good book on my own is nice too.

 

~ M