What happens when you're above the law because you've got superpowers? When you're powerful enough to ignore governments and police and even the military? Does it even matter what they think? Are you the same species as those poor suckers born without your superhuman abilities?
Now let's turn it around. What do you do when you live in a world where there are superhumans, and you're not one of those? Maybe you're an average person, hell, maybe you're an exceptional one, but you're not one of THEM. How do you feel when superhumans ignore the law and get away with it because they're untouchable? Because the law ignores that it's been shredded because it recognizes its weakness in the face of superhumanity? What do you do when they fuck with your family, or your country, or your people?
Do you sit there and take it? Or do you do something about it?
Loosely based on the HBO TV show "The Boys" (and the comic of the same name) and other deconstructed superhero stories such as "Stormwatch," the players will take on the roles of members of the Posthuman League and/or the Resistance.
In brief, the Posthuman League members are superhumans who have joined together under the informal leadership of the Board of Directors. There aren't any superheroes or supervillains, per se, but merely superhumans and the League is open to all of them. It provides community and support for the superhuman community.
On the other hand, the Resistance is a group of "normal" (though often highly qualified) people who think that the Posthuman League is something between organized crime and a terrorist organization. But the League has all the cards. Their members are all superhuman and almost universally physically superior to any human in nearly all ways, the League is wealthy due to the ease with which superhumans make money, and the world's governments are terrified of the League, so they don't enforce laws against them (with a few rare exceptions). Thus, the Resistance is an underground organization, existing in the shadows. The goal of the Resistance is different for different people. Some want superhumans to submit to the law like everyone else, while others believe they should all be killed to save humanity itself.
Superhuman members will be brought into the League, usually by voluntarily joining. Membership has its privileges.
Resistance members will belong to the same cell, brought together by codename Argent.
In both cases, characters can be as "good" or "bad" as they want. Neither the League nor the Resistance judges their members that way. The League is for all superhumans, and the Resistance is driven by opposition to superhumans and is quite willing to deal with the worst humanity has to offer to kill or otherwise defeat superhumans.
Building a Superhuman
Superhumans are generally physically superior to humans. Regardless of their main powers, superhumans tend to be much stronger and tougher than people. Most can flip over a car and are bullet-resistant to the point of being able to take a .50 rifle round to the chest, with the main effect being the wind knocked out of them with moderate bruising.
Some are far, far more durable than that.
However, their powers are physical. There has yet to be a single superhuman with superhuman intelligence or who can, in a broad sense, "control technology." There might be a slight negative correlation between superhumanity and brains - but such studies would likely piss off superhumans, so there isn't any research on it. There are superhumans with psychic abilities, but they're pretty rare.
No superhuman has ever been able to see the future, either.
Other than that, superhumans can be almost everything - though as a GM, I'd prefer it if not every character was a Superman.
Building a Resister
Resisters are people. They range from ordinary people who have a deep desire to get revenge or justice applied to superhumans to highly-trained government agents and mercenaries who have joined because superhumans are the Most Dangerous Game.
What they do not have is superpowers. But otherwise, they need only a powerful desire to be the underdogs in a violent confrontation with superhumans.
About the Posthuman League
The Posthuman League - usually just called the League or the PHL - is run by a mysterious Board of Directors. As a legal entity, it has its headquarters in the Cayman Islands, where they have lenient laws about corporations. However, it has branches in most major cities - and many medium-sized ones, particularly in rich nations.
It bills itself as a social club for "posthumans," their fancy word for supes. The members pay dues (which are notional given what they get) and have access to the League's chapterhouses. The supes can stay at the chapterhouses, receiving room and board. There is also a social club aspect, where the supes can mingle "with their own kind," and it forms a good ol' boy's network for superhumans.
The League has extensive job-placement service, too, apart from the good ol' boy's network. Some highest-profile supers are placed as adjuncts to law enforcement in major urban areas. The highest-profile supers, though, are part of the UN Rapid Superhuman Task Force. The UN might not be able to afford an army, but it appears the League is sympathetic to its cause and has joined with the UN to create a task force to deal with international law violations. This is highly controversial, particularly in the US.
There are also conspiracy theories about the League, that it's a clearinghouse for super-inspired terrorism, that the leadership of the League is the Illuminati who runs the world, stuff like that. If any of that is the case, it is not known to characters at the start of the game.
About the UN Rapid Superhuman Task Force
Mostly, the UNSTF is used to support relief efforts in the case of natural disasters. Military use of the STF is limited to ongoing genocides... which have ceased since the STF started intervening. It is presumed that the STF will continue to grow its resume, though.
About the Resistance
The Resistance was formed by disgruntled law enforcement, military, and intelligence personnel. The advent of superhumans made all of their jobs very hard, and there has been social and legal tolerance for the crimes of superhumans. Arresting much less convicting a superhuman of a crime is nearly impossible. As superhumans take more military and police functions, it grows increasingly hard to hold any of them accountable.
They have since expanded their operation to include almost anyone who has useful skills or position and a deep desire to see supers brought to justice or even killed outright.
Its structure is cell-based, and they're pretty paranoid about it since some supers can read people's minds, possess superhuman senses, ESP, or other abilities that make hunting people easy. Much of the intercell communication takes place on encrypted networks on the darknet, and the people in charge of things are a bunch of crypto-guys who use social network analysis and AI deep learning to keep the supes penetrating the network. They exist in the space between the limitations of superhuman powers and the expression of superhuman arrogance.
Character Skeleton
I wouldn't mind images, though I don't prefer anime ones, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule.
Name: Your character's name here.
Code Name: Your character's code name here.
Six traits. A trait is what makes a character different and special. I could be powers, skills, even disadvantages. I'd like to see up to six of them. If the character has a destructive power - like an energy blast - I'd like to know something it can destroy (let's say, an armored car) and something it can't destroy (a main battle tank). If the character is super-strong, what's that mean? Can they pick up 10 tons or a mountain range (assuming they could find a place to hold it)? Do they run very fast - how fast and for how long?
History. What's the character's backstory?! Everyone wants to know, especially the GM.
I'm not a picky GM, so that's it!
Threads
NPCs
I'm going to try to keep brief track of all the NPCs here. Wish me luck!
Now let's turn it around. What do you do when you live in a world where there are superhumans, and you're not one of those? Maybe you're an average person, hell, maybe you're an exceptional one, but you're not one of THEM. How do you feel when superhumans ignore the law and get away with it because they're untouchable? Because the law ignores that it's been shredded because it recognizes its weakness in the face of superhumanity? What do you do when they fuck with your family, or your country, or your people?
Do you sit there and take it? Or do you do something about it?
Loosely based on the HBO TV show "The Boys" (and the comic of the same name) and other deconstructed superhero stories such as "Stormwatch," the players will take on the roles of members of the Posthuman League and/or the Resistance.
In brief, the Posthuman League members are superhumans who have joined together under the informal leadership of the Board of Directors. There aren't any superheroes or supervillains, per se, but merely superhumans and the League is open to all of them. It provides community and support for the superhuman community.
On the other hand, the Resistance is a group of "normal" (though often highly qualified) people who think that the Posthuman League is something between organized crime and a terrorist organization. But the League has all the cards. Their members are all superhuman and almost universally physically superior to any human in nearly all ways, the League is wealthy due to the ease with which superhumans make money, and the world's governments are terrified of the League, so they don't enforce laws against them (with a few rare exceptions). Thus, the Resistance is an underground organization, existing in the shadows. The goal of the Resistance is different for different people. Some want superhumans to submit to the law like everyone else, while others believe they should all be killed to save humanity itself.
Superhuman members will be brought into the League, usually by voluntarily joining. Membership has its privileges.
Resistance members will belong to the same cell, brought together by codename Argent.
In both cases, characters can be as "good" or "bad" as they want. Neither the League nor the Resistance judges their members that way. The League is for all superhumans, and the Resistance is driven by opposition to superhumans and is quite willing to deal with the worst humanity has to offer to kill or otherwise defeat superhumans.
Building a Superhuman
Superhumans are generally physically superior to humans. Regardless of their main powers, superhumans tend to be much stronger and tougher than people. Most can flip over a car and are bullet-resistant to the point of being able to take a .50 rifle round to the chest, with the main effect being the wind knocked out of them with moderate bruising.
Some are far, far more durable than that.
However, their powers are physical. There has yet to be a single superhuman with superhuman intelligence or who can, in a broad sense, "control technology." There might be a slight negative correlation between superhumanity and brains - but such studies would likely piss off superhumans, so there isn't any research on it. There are superhumans with psychic abilities, but they're pretty rare.
No superhuman has ever been able to see the future, either.
Other than that, superhumans can be almost everything - though as a GM, I'd prefer it if not every character was a Superman.
Building a Resister
Resisters are people. They range from ordinary people who have a deep desire to get revenge or justice applied to superhumans to highly-trained government agents and mercenaries who have joined because superhumans are the Most Dangerous Game.
What they do not have is superpowers. But otherwise, they need only a powerful desire to be the underdogs in a violent confrontation with superhumans.
About the Posthuman League
The Posthuman League - usually just called the League or the PHL - is run by a mysterious Board of Directors. As a legal entity, it has its headquarters in the Cayman Islands, where they have lenient laws about corporations. However, it has branches in most major cities - and many medium-sized ones, particularly in rich nations.
It bills itself as a social club for "posthumans," their fancy word for supes. The members pay dues (which are notional given what they get) and have access to the League's chapterhouses. The supes can stay at the chapterhouses, receiving room and board. There is also a social club aspect, where the supes can mingle "with their own kind," and it forms a good ol' boy's network for superhumans.
The League has extensive job-placement service, too, apart from the good ol' boy's network. Some highest-profile supers are placed as adjuncts to law enforcement in major urban areas. The highest-profile supers, though, are part of the UN Rapid Superhuman Task Force. The UN might not be able to afford an army, but it appears the League is sympathetic to its cause and has joined with the UN to create a task force to deal with international law violations. This is highly controversial, particularly in the US.
There are also conspiracy theories about the League, that it's a clearinghouse for super-inspired terrorism, that the leadership of the League is the Illuminati who runs the world, stuff like that. If any of that is the case, it is not known to characters at the start of the game.
About the UN Rapid Superhuman Task Force
- The UNRSTF is about thirty superhumans who are tasks with supporting UN resolutions. The Security Council does not control it - though the Security Council can ask for its assistance, though that rarely happens because the permanent members often veto it - but the General Assembly under the Secretary General's office.
Mostly, the UNSTF is used to support relief efforts in the case of natural disasters. Military use of the STF is limited to ongoing genocides... which have ceased since the STF started intervening. It is presumed that the STF will continue to grow its resume, though.
About the Resistance
The Resistance was formed by disgruntled law enforcement, military, and intelligence personnel. The advent of superhumans made all of their jobs very hard, and there has been social and legal tolerance for the crimes of superhumans. Arresting much less convicting a superhuman of a crime is nearly impossible. As superhumans take more military and police functions, it grows increasingly hard to hold any of them accountable.
They have since expanded their operation to include almost anyone who has useful skills or position and a deep desire to see supers brought to justice or even killed outright.
Its structure is cell-based, and they're pretty paranoid about it since some supers can read people's minds, possess superhuman senses, ESP, or other abilities that make hunting people easy. Much of the intercell communication takes place on encrypted networks on the darknet, and the people in charge of things are a bunch of crypto-guys who use social network analysis and AI deep learning to keep the supes penetrating the network. They exist in the space between the limitations of superhuman powers and the expression of superhuman arrogance.
Character Skeleton
I wouldn't mind images, though I don't prefer anime ones, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule.
Name: Your character's name here.
Code Name: Your character's code name here.
Six traits. A trait is what makes a character different and special. I could be powers, skills, even disadvantages. I'd like to see up to six of them. If the character has a destructive power - like an energy blast - I'd like to know something it can destroy (let's say, an armored car) and something it can't destroy (a main battle tank). If the character is super-strong, what's that mean? Can they pick up 10 tons or a mountain range (assuming they could find a place to hold it)? Do they run very fast - how fast and for how long?
History. What's the character's backstory?! Everyone wants to know, especially the GM.
I'm not a picky GM, so that's it!
Threads
NPCs
I'm going to try to keep brief track of all the NPCs here. Wish me luck!
- Follicle - A man with prehensile hair. It's a thing. Prehensile hair.
- Gustatory - He can eat "anything."
- Laserlight - Image - She controls light, performer, has a residency at a Vegas casino, "international sex symbol."
- Lead - A "freak" who looks like he's made out of rough-hewn lead. Strength and toughness, maybe something else, Cosa Nostra mobster who has a gang of freaks.
- Molecule - She can shrink down to "any size."
- Mariko Hasegawa - A slim Asian woman in her late thirties, working for the League in some capacity. She was called "Ice Queen," but that might be metaphorical.
- Strontium Man - Unspecified powers - probably something radioactive, at a guess - and he publicly gropes girls, so he's classy.
- Swarm - Image - President of the League's offices in LV. Insect control, maybe made up of insects. "Swarm, the president of the local League chapter. Swarm controlled insects. How many were in dispute, but easily millions, and over some range - perhaps miles, perhaps more. People thought that she was, in fact, an insect colony that had grown a skin and if one cut her, she would bleed bugs. No one was willing to try it, though. She spent most of her time in the lounge, hobnobbing with guests - both posthuman and otherwise - in a dramatic blue silk dress that showed off her spectacular figure. If she was a bug under it all, well, the bugs were well put together."
- ZeroZeroZero - She can make things very, very cold.
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