Steve Posted May 12, 2014 Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 I'm looking for ideas on abilities for a superhuman who uses their powers in more subtle ways than your average superbattle, aimed at gaining elected office (Mayor, Congress, the Presidency, etc). Telepathy and Mind Control abilities are useful, but what other abilities could be used to defeat political opponents and win elections that aren't so obvious? Enhanced senses are one thing I've considered. Unusual sources of wealth might be another, such as using Transformation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted May 12, 2014 Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 http://wildcards.wikia.com/wiki/Puppetman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted May 12, 2014 Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 Hero or villain? A Public ID hero could gain popularity serving their community, and then run for office. A popular enough hero could endorse a candidate, who may or may not be their civilian identity. Presence is a key thing here. It also helps non-super candidates. High levels of PRE based skills are really handy, both in winning over voters and in building campaign teams. High INT is useful for identifying and analysing campaign issues, voting patterns and so on. Then there are dirty tricks - more the province of villains rather than heroes. Most of these work best with stealth related abilities - whether skills or powers. Shrinking, invisibility, desolidification... all handy in getting into places your opponent doesn't want you to, and discovering things they don't want you to. "But don't get caught", says President Nixon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 The version I am thinking of is a heroic one that would be working against a corrupt political machine with powerful resources. A 50 INT would definitely be a subtler approach. PRE-based abilities are a good idea too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legatus Posted May 12, 2014 Report Share Posted May 12, 2014 Technopathy... like Micah Sanders used in Heroes to manipulate the election machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 That's definitely villain territory. It also requires a machine based electoral system. That's probably not an issue in this case, but it would be interesting in Australia, where votes are on paper and are counted by hand. The totals end up on a computer eventually, of course, so they could be doctored then, but it would be tricky to do it in such a way that nobody would notice. Hmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 Perks are extremely useful for anyone looking to attain public office, superhuman or not. Contacts, Favors, positive Reputation... published official Champions characters who are supposed to have political clout have a truckload of these. You may not be able to defeat a superhuman opponent in a straight battle, but you can in the court of public opinion, or at least throw lots of societal obstacles in his way. Clairsentience with Precognition and/or Retrocognition would be a tremendous advantage. Know what your opponent's going to do in advance, or find clues to evidence of what he's already done. I would just caution you to keep in mind that using superhuman powers secretly to advance one's political agenda, even for the noblest of motives, would in a real sense be subverting the democratic process. In practical terms your hero would probably suffer a public backlash if his actions were made known. From a roleplaying perspective, he'd also be on an ethically slippery slope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 Clairsentience with Precognition and/or Retrocognition would be a tremendous advantage. Know what your opponent's going to do in advance, or find clues to evidence of what he's already done. That's what I was thinking, especially the Precognition part. Being able to state to the electorate exactly how and how badly your opponent's economic and/or diplomatic and/or social programs will go wrong would be a huge help in boosting your own poll numbers and making him look bad in the TV debates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 What would be intriguing from a power perspective would be the ability to record Precogntive or Postcognitive images and audio to a video recording device. Imagine something like that getting posted to the Internet. It wouldn't be fake, but it would put people into a tizzy trying to figure out where it came from. Backing away from the candidate notion, imagine someone who is able to use Precog and Postcog to record audio and video. They may not want to be an elected official, but they would certainly be the worst nightmare of any elected official. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
megaplayboy Posted May 13, 2014 Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 "Ambient" mind control, operating at so subtle a level that even mentalists have difficulty recognizing it. Some simple single command, like "Like Me", with an area effect and some persistence, could influence thousands to support a candidate based on little more than a "gut feeling". Even 3 or 4d6 could be effective. Even "touch only", so it only happens when the candidate shakes hands with people, could be highly effective in a local campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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