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On Chinese Supers and other NPCs
On Chinese Supers and other NPCs
#1
Spun off from the timeline thread, where I started talking about Chinese supers and how I see them:-

My own personal design for a national-grade Chinese superhuman has always been a giant growth guy named Great Wall. I've said that. And I'd love to see a giant growth guy by that name be included, whether it's my interpretation or someone else's. Doesn't matter. But the NAME is amazing, you know?

I figured I'll talk more about how I see Chinese supers being characterised, though. And why I think that way. Both government types, and non-government rogues.

Great Wall:

My own take on the subject is a burly broad-shouldered, somewhat hirsute man. A big guy even before his powers fully manifested. Formerly a farmer, he discovered his powers saving people from flooding - this is pretty much just for the mental image of a giant man wading waist or thigh-deep through what are actually torrential waters. Following which, he'd have volunteered to join the PLA - which is just as well, since there would have been no way the government would let him go about his own business to begin with.

At least in my mind, the character's intended to be a decent and regular guy - basically an ordinary joe, a natural-born 'mutant' who's signed up on his own accord...because it's the right thing to do. But at heart, he's just a farm boy, you know? A guy who's not quite comfortable with fame, a guy who's idea of a good time is to relax and have a few beers. Thing is, he's ended up a big deal, a big celebrity - because that's how it rolls.

Chinese Government Supers: 

There's a massive range of possible characterisation for Chinese characters, though. My thinking is that deliberately-bred Chinese "programme supers" must be some sort of mix between how China tries to groom real-world Olympic athletes, and the very real social and economic class divisions between regular folks and the country's elite.

I figure that China's leaders must know they're walking a dangerous path by breeding increasingly powerful supers. Plus, with that large a population, there's any number of powerful supers who could spontaneously emerge. Thus things must be engineered so that people with powers must genuinely believe the best thing for them is to serve the government. You don't want angry oppressed supers deciding they're better off going rogue, or worse, defecting. 

So being a successful powerful super in China must come - to some degree - with wealth, celebrity, and inclusion in the Party's elite, the highest echelons of the military, and so on. There's obviously thousands of supers who aren't...impressive enough to make that cut. But they can dream, they can think, hey, that could be me. 

On Chinese Supers as Antagonists

There's always the possibility of playing a Chinese superteam - but I wager for most IST-setting games, Chinese supers are likely to be antagonists. Or awkward allies at best. 

It's a spectrum. There's some Chinese supers who'd be genuinely decent folks, they just happen to be working for Beijing. That's my Great Wall. These are ordinary men and women, many of whom wouldn't have been products of the government's efforts to deliberately breed and train superhumans. Again, a population that large is going to result in many many naturally-emerging superhumans. 

But, yes, there's also going to be...egotistical entitled sociopaths who revel in the fact they were bred for incredible power. Power is their birthright, power is China's destiny. That sort of logic. It's not hard to imagine - a quick Google search will find you tons of examples of horrendous abuse of power by senior Chinese officials, and the sons and daughters of party elites. Communism is nice in theory, but...

To be fair, the folks at the absolute top in Beijing probably take a very dim view of any excesses, both in the IST context and the real world - especially since they know it makes them look bad. But these are the realities. 

Also, to be clear, nationalism is a very real thing in our real-world China, and it's not all under the government's control at this point. A lot of folks think that China's leaders certainly have tried to encourage nationalism for their own purposes. Nobody really believes in Communism anymore, so nationalism's become the primary driver keeping support for the Party intact...the Party being characterised as the best people to defend China's interests. The trouble is, when you have people genuinely rioting in the streets because of perceived foreign meddling in Chinese affairs, it starts to severely limit your own decision-making options as a government.

So some Chinese supers are going to be real ultranationalists.

Then there's the pragmatists. They don't believe in Communism. They don't have any illusions about their government. They're disillusioned...but they don't care. They have a good deal, a better deal than their countrymen. Some of these people would certainly defect, but others may be happy to stay where they are. They're well-paid, after all. It's this last group that I see a lot of other superhero settings fail to address, for instance DC, Marvel, or other RPGs like Champions.

On Rogue Supers

The interesting thing about Chinese folklore is that it's overwhelmingly about outlaws and anti-authority figures. Sure, there are heroic generals and princes in folk tales, respected nobles and judges. But China's most famous heroes, from the Monkey God Sun Wukong to the 108 Stars of Destiny are...more akin to Robin Hood than King Arthur. They're criminals, they laugh in the face of authority...

Sometimes, legitimate authority isn't worth respecting.

Yes, the Chinese people are ultra-nationalistic. But at the same time, they also love the idea of a vigilante sticking it to the man.

If the USA can cheer on both Captain America and the Punisher - the same logic applies to China.

It's a relatively common thing for superhero settings to have a few 'rogue supers' who don't answer to the Chinese state, at large in China. It makes sense, when you have an authoritarian government. But what most writers don't realise is how deeply rooted this idea of a vigilante rogue is in Chinese literature and culture. 

And I'm not talking about a kind and fluffy Batman vigilante either, who doesn't, you know, actually killificate people.

My favourite Chinese folk hero is Wu Song. He's a true hero! You know he's a true hero, because he gets drunk and beats the hell out of innocent wildlife. Then his brother is killed by an adulterous wife, he goes ape, messily kills his sister-in-law (DISEMBOWLING FIST) and his sister-in-law's lover. Actually, according to some versions, he messes up and kills the wrong woman first, but it's okay, because he's a hero. Then he ends up in jail! Amusingly, for a crime he didn't commit, as opposed to the ones (see above) which he did. But it's okay, because he busts the hell out of jail, and then kills the corrupt policeman who sent him to jail! And the policeman's entire family. Then he gets drunk and...

Look, I'm just saying, China loves rebels. China really loves rebels. In the IST world, there's almost certainly a few independent Chinese supers out there who have ridiculous levels of popularity and notoriety...to the desperate and bitter chagrin of the authorities.

One of them may well call himself Wu Song. I like to think his power is getting drunk and punching through people.
-- Acyl
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#2
Oh, my, the Chinese version of the medieval Lancelot...

Okay, Acyl, Great Wall is in. Wu Song is probably in, too, despite his anger-management issues, because you made me laugh.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#3
These are great resources for IST Seoul as well. I'd been wondering, for years, if we can have "The Russian Bear" why don't we have a Chinese super named "Great Wall?" So, great minds think.

Now, a good question, Acyl, is how many people would call themselves Wu Song? Is it likely that any metahuman who regularly gets drunk and beats people up might call themselves that? I could see, humorously, the Wu Song company or such: A bunch of alcohol-powered supers that they get good and liquored up then drop on an unsuspecting enemy unit.
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#4
Or perhaps a bunch of unconnected individuals all claiming the name and fighting among themselves (while drunk, of course) over who has the right to use it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#5
Now you've got me thinking about "National-Icon Superheroes"... but that's something for another thread. Later.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#6
Well, living with a large, hirsute, Asian, that’s not something I usually aim for.  But, the large, burly, friendly farmer was my main inspiration as well.  I didn’t want to give him Gigantism as, to me, that’s just not interesting.  “Oh, look, the man-mountain can get bigger.”  As a pre-gen for my IST LA game, I had a Mexican Dwarf Luchador with Growth. 

Keep in mind that version of Great Wall was just my original plan.  Being as he hasn’t beaten IST Seoul down yet, (nor has that game even started), I can make changes to him.  Buying shrinking as an alternate ability of his growth wouldn’t be difficult.  If Bob wants him statted out for the book or just wants to mention him.  I can give him a Code of Honor (only uses his powers against targets that can “take it”), Pacifism (Will not start fight) or (Cannot harm innocents). 

(MonkeyFist is half-Korean, half-Irish—he’s a six-foot-tall, 250 pound, Korean man [who used to be over 350 lbs].  While I haven’t shaved in a month, my “beard” looks like a nineteen-year-old drive-thru attendant’s desperate attempt to grow facial hair; if MonkeyFist goes more than a week without shaving, he’s got about a two-inch beard.  We’re probably going to shave his head soon, for summer, and he’ll have a full head of hair again in less than a month.)

Great Wall (1100 points)Metahuman

ST 14 [40]; DX 11 [20]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 14 [40].Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14 [0]; Will 11 [5]; Per 11 [5]; FP 14 [0].Basic Speed 6.25 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 7 (DX); Dodge 10; Parry 9 (DX).

Social Background TL: 8 [0]. CF: Eastern (Native) [0]. Languages: Chinese (Native) [0]; English (Broken) [2].

Advantages Combat Reflexes [15]; Damage Resistance 100 (Growth Size; Super; Tough Skin) [100]; Enhanced Move (Ground) (3) (Growth Size; Super) [18]; Extra ST 86 (Affects ST; Growth Size; Super) [258]; Great Wall (Crushing Attack) 16 (Area Effect (64 yd); No Knockback; Extended Duration (x100); Melee Attack: Reach C,1; Persistent; Super; Wall: Rigid (Any shape desired)) [279]; Injury Tolerance (Accessibility (Only when grown to SM +2 or more) (+1); Damage Reduction (Extended) (/5); Super) [100]; Military Rank 4 [20]; Patrons (CHINA!) (Equipment: more than starting wealth; 12 or less; Special Abilities: extensive social or political power) [150]; Reputation (National Hero) 4 (All the time; Large class) [10].
Size Control [77]-Alternative AbilitiesGrowth 6 (Reduced Time (+1); Super) [65]; Shrinking 11 (Reduced Time (+1); Super) [60].
Disadvantages Chummy [-5]; Code of Honor (Gentleman's) [-10]; Duty (CHINA!) (15 or less (almost always)) (Extremely Hazardous) [-20]; Fanaticism (CHINA!) [-15]; Lecherousness (12 or less) [-15]; Overweight [-1]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Sense of Duty (Weaker comrades) (Large Group) [-10]. Quirks: Likes Western Women; Proud [-2].

Skills Animal Handling (Equines)-9 (IQ-1) [1]; Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms)-9 (IQ-1) [1]; Farming/TL8-11 (IQ+1) [4]; Gunner/TL8 (Cannon)-13 (DX+2) [4]; Guns/TL8 (Pistol)-11 (DX+0) [1]; Guns/TL8 (Rifle)-11 (DX+0) [1]; Karate-13 (DX+2) [12]; Knife-11 (DX+0) [1]; Lifting-14 (HT+0) [2]; Public Speaking (Oratory)-12 (IQ+2) [4]; Savoir-Faire (Military)-10 (IQ+0) [1]; Sex Appeal (Human)-14 (HT+0) [2]; Soldier/TL8-9 (IQ-1) [1]; Sumo Wrestling-14 (DX+3) [12]; Swimming-15 (HT+1) [1]; Writing-9 (IQ-1) [1].

His enhanced stats, based on his SM are:SM -6 (and below) DR/ST are 1, Move 1, Thrust/Swing 1d-6/1d-5SM -5 DR/ST are 2, Move 1, Thrust/Swing 1d-6/1d-5SM -4 DR/ST are 3, Move 1, Thrust/Swing 1d-5/1d-4SM -3 DR/ST are 5, Move 2, Thrust/Swing 1d-4/1d-3SM -2 DR/ST are 7, Move 3, Thrust/Swing 1d-3/1d-2SM -1 DR/ST are 10, Move  4, Thrust/Swing 1d-2/1dSM  0 DR/ST are 14, Move  6, Thrust/Swing 1d/2dSM +1 DR/ST are 15, Move  9, Thrust/Swing 1d+1/2d+1SM +2 DR/ST are 25, Move 12, Thrust/Swing 2d+2/5d-1SM +3 DR/ST are 35, Move 18, Thrust/Swing 7d/9dSM +4 DR/ST are 50, Move 24, Thrust/Swing 15d/17dSM +5 DR/ST are 75, Move 36, Thrust/Swing 27d/29dSM +6 DR/ST are 100, Move 48, Thrust/Swing 40d/42d
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#7
Wikipedia: Wu Song
Wu Song's one of the 108 legendary heroes of Liangshan Marsh, from Shui Hu Zhuan. That's considered one of the four greatest works of Chinese literature, so we're talking the highest level of status in Chinese culture. It's actually a collection of folktales and older stories, much like the famous works based on Arthurian stuff. The direct translation of that title is 'Water Margin', literally referring to the geography - the border of the marsh that the heroes hid out in. But a commonly used English title is "Outlaws of the Marsh".

It's a Robin Hood tale. With Wu Song and his buddies. If you've played the Japanese Suikoden RPG series, that's loosely based on these guys. There's historical evidence that indicates at least one of these guys actually did exist, and led a band of outlaws - that's noted in the Wikipedia article. So it's quite an easy grab for non-government (or even particularly puckish government) supers to take names from that story.

After all, any number of Western archer superheroes use the Robin Hood motif, and the King Arthur thing is equally common.

On Classical/Mythological Themes for Chinese Supers

Beyond that - it's likely at least someone would try to emulate Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, from Xi You Ji, Journey to the West, another of the four big classical novels. By nature, Sun Wukong is a rebel, but then for most of the narrative of Xi You Ji, he's got a slave control collar on his head and is forced to be the retainer for a Lawful Good monk. No, really. But he's a sufficient cultural icon that a character using his motif could well be a government super.

The most memorable superhero I personally recall based on Wukong was a short-lived independent thing distributed in Asia, but despite Asian origins, a Western-style comic book in colour. It wasn't brilliant, but I remember it for very specific reasons. If I remember right, the character was a thief that broke into a museum, during an exhibition of ancient Chinese artifacts. But something more serious ends up going down, something more violent - he's not the only late night visitor there, and these other guys are killing guards. So he grabs the nearest weapon-like thing, this old staff...

...and ends up with a costume, hairy hands and arms, permanent five-o'-clock shadow. Monkey King, yes?

With that said, Wukong's full powerset is something incredibly broken, since in the tales, he's immortal, nigh-invulnerable, can duplicate himself into hundreds or thousands of independently-acting clones, has perfect shapeshifting, super strength, size shifting...

As an aside, the other two great Chinese literary classics - again, these are all works based on legends in the style of the Arthurian chronicles - are Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Hong Lou Meng (Dream of Red Chamber). I'd wager everyone's at least passingly familiar with the gist of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it's a historical epic in a time of warfare and empires. It's possible supers could draw inspiration from this, but it's rather more about clashing militaries and famous generals - hence the kind of video games and pop culture stuff it's inspired today. Hong Lou Meng is a somewhat slow-paced tale, it's effectively a soap opera about the lives of the nobility, so totally unsuitable for inspiration.

There are other famous bits of Chinese folklore from where supers could draw inspiration - people themed after the Eight Immortals, or perhaps a female shapeshifting mage that calls herself White Snake...though as in most mythology, shapeshifting is a ridiculously common power in Chinese myth.

Of note is Nezha, who appears - among other things - in the epic Fengshen Yanyi. There's a very good anime and manga based on this, Hoshin Engi. Their version of Nezha is a ridiculously heavily armed and destructive, yet child-innocent cyborg who keeps accumulating city-busting magitech weaponry throughout the story, whose first solution to a problem is always MOAR DAKKA. He's like Data from Star Trek. If Data was constructed by SkyNet. I described this version of Nezha to my dad and some of his friends, who were Chinese-educated and studied Chinese literature through all their school years. They thought about this for a while, and then agreed it was a perfectly accurate and faithful depiction of the legendary figure - because the guy in the legends totally is a one-man armory of magical artifacts and destructive attacks.

Other Themes

DC's used the theme of armoured Chinese heroes done up in the style of armour best publicised in the Western eye by the Terracotta Warriors - though I've always figured this is a bit of a copout, and clearly there has to be an earth-elemental or stone-themed guy who actually is a Terracotta Warrior. Admittedly, this may be a bit silly...

The Champions Worldwide sourcebook, from the Champions RPG, has a guy who wears a Lion dance mask, which also makes complete sense in cultural context - but it's been done. What may be possible is a super who wears a Chinese opera mask - you know the ones, the elaborately painted things, most commonly in red, white and black. 

Naturally, it's to be expected that a great number, possibly most of China's supers wouldn't use classical themes and motifs. Obviously there's going to be ones pitched towards the secular-Communist nationalist image. I wouldn't be surprised to see a teleporter named Long March, for example, or a particular superteam named Five Stars (think the Chinese flag). 

Then there'll just be ones with standard superhero, culturally-agnostic imagery. There's a 1990s Chinese comic that was made into a Jet Li film, about a Chinese superhero - who went AWOL from a government supersoldier unit. He's Black Mask. In mainstream comics, Marvel's Radioactive Man is an example of a character whose Chinese origins come up a fair bit in narrative, but his appearance and motif aren't culturally specific at all.

I figure that such characters are easy to create, though - it's the mythological and classical context that I felt I could elaborate on here. You don't need to know your mythology and history to make Captain America, but you do need it to make Thor - and characters like Thor are an equally important part of the mythos.

I'd also like to see it done well. I like Grant Morrison, but Marvel's Great Ten manages to both amuse me and annoy the hell out of me at the same time. Mostly because of the names, actually - it's true that a lot of Chinese character names, titles and so on become these really long and flamboyantly convoluted things when translated into English. But that's translated into English - in Chinese, they're much shorter and make more sense. That's not the case for the supposed 'original' Chinese names for Grant Morrison's characters, as their names are still bombastic and ridiculous in Mandarin.

On National Superheroes

On Rob Kelk's note about national heroes - I've always felt it's really important to nail it right when trying to write about another country or culture, in these things. It doesn't pay to be too clever. 

As an example, I actually really like the writeup on Silverwing in the Champions Worldwide sourcebook, Singapore's most powerful superhero. It's reasonable, they've got a number of contextual details right...

...except he's said to be ethnically Malay, but his real name is ethnically Chinese. Now, mind you, he has a very common Singaporean Chinese name, which isn't nearly as common in China. But either way, it's not a Malay name. There's nothing in the bio to suggest he's of mixed race. It's a small thing, and ultimately not an important thing - but it's the sort of thing people may notice.

Similarly, I remember reading an issue of Commando - that's a British war comic book, if you're not familiar with it. And I just cracked the hell up, because I could tell exactly which non-fiction book the author had used as a reference - Spencer Chapman's 'The Jungle is Neutral', about Chapman's experiences as a guerilla fighting the Japanese in WWII. 

I enjoyed the comic, it was great. Because I loved Chapman's book, it's one of my favourite non-fiction books ever. But the comic was truly a case of doing the research just enough to get yourself into trouble.

I admit, I'm probably paranoid about this - it's probably why when I wrote up background stuff and created NPCs for my own superhero setting...well, there's a reason all the super NPCs I had coming out of South Africa and so on had generic themes - because I don't know enough about the area to create something more specific and convincing.

Hence why I'm rambling on here about Asian-specific stuff, because I figure it might come up in IST, and it would make it a lot more awesome for Bob's book if things were well-crafted. 

I can probably do some noodling around with how supers might possibly be characterised for other Asian countries; whether included or not, it might be useful as a background thought exercise for contextualising conflict in Asia. A lot of Asian countries are also big real-world contributors to UN Peacekeeping missions, as a simple product of population size and professional militaries - Indonesia, for instance, and Thailand, so they probably have quite a few supers serving with IST. 
-- Acyl
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#8
Quote:Mark Skarr wrote:
Keep in mind that version of Great Wall was just my original plan.  Being as he hasn’t beaten IST Seoul down yet, (nor has that game even started), I can make changes to him.  Buying shrinking as an alternate ability of his growth wouldn’t be difficult.  If Bob wants him statted out for the book or just wants to mention him.  I can give him a Code of Honor (only uses his powers against targets that can “take it”), Pacifism (Will not start fight) or (Cannot harm innocents). 
I totally wasn't suggesting that you should necessarily change your version, for your game. I was just presenting, well, this character under the name that I'd thought up for my own stuff. If that makes sense. Though I truly appreciate the suggested stat-sheet that takes on board elements of my character into yours, especially if Bob chooses to use something like it - I'm awful with generating character sheets, and I've never actually run anything in GURPS.
(Yes, I have GURPS sourcebooks - for lore, concepts and ideas, not the stats.)

The shrinking thing is largely flavour, not something core to my concept.

It exists in my version mostly because a) I like the narrative idea of a character's actual powers being more than what they visibly use it for, and b) I play a version in the Champions Online MMORPG, who does have a couple of powers to suggest he's doing more drastic mass-stealing and shifting, not just growing. As an aside, I'm constantly amused by the fact you can build a character that grows truly ridiculously large in Champions Online - large enough to cause glitches in some indoor maps - if stacking the right powers.
-- Acyl
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#9
I note this in the hopes it will be amusing:- I had a several minute-long completely deadpan conversation with two colleagues about how the secret Singaporean eugenics programme to breed a superhero is clearly not working out, because standards in the field have slipped since WWII Germany.

("What we really need is someone with expanded lung capacity, for super-breath. To blow away all the forest fire smoke in the city." "Yeah, focusing breeding efforts on super-intelligence and gadgeteers was clearly a mistake...")
-- Acyl
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#10
Acyl Wrote:I totally wasn't suggesting that you should necessarily change your version, for your game. I was just presenting, well, this character under the name that I'd thought up for my own stuff. If that makes sense. Though I truly appreciate the suggested stat-sheet that takes on board elements of my character into yours, especially if Bob chooses to use something like it - I'm awful with generating character sheets, and I've never actually run anything in GURPS.
But, Bob likes your character, and, since it's his world that he's letting us help hammer out, I'm perfectly happy to get your version of the character down so, if Bob decides to, he and use the character as an example.
So, what do you want him to do?  I'm pretty good at figuring GURPS out and building just about anything.
Come on!  Gimme a challenge!
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#11
Acyl Wrote:I note this in the hopes it will be amusing:- I had a several minute-long completely deadpan conversation with two colleagues about how the secret Singaporean eugenics programme to breed a superhero is clearly not working out, because standards in the field have slipped since WWII Germany.

("What we really need is someone with expanded lung capacity, for super-breath. To blow away all the forest fire smoke in the city." "Yeah, focusing breeding efforts on super-intelligence and gadgeteers was clearly a mistake...")

That gives the UN a chance to win this war, actually... If the Chinese change focus every three to five years (as bureaucracies around the world tend to do), they aren't going to be concentrating on any one type of power set for long enough to reliably create a truly powerful example of that power set.

So, yes, the IST world's China has thousands of metahumans - but they're relatively weak metahumans. While force of numbers is on their side, sheer power is more likely to be found on the other side of the battle lines.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#12
robkelk Wrote:So, yes, the IST world's China has thousands of metahumans - but they're relatively weak metahumans. While force of numbers is on their side, sheer power is more likely to be found on the other side of the battle lines.

This is my "Chinese Method"

The way the Chinese “manufacture” metahumans is fairly straight-forward. Out of one-million test subjects, just over 250,000 survive to become metahumans. Current Chinese infrastructure allows for 40,000 subjects to be given the treatment every month (or 10,000 a week). 2,500 metahumans enter their accelerated basic training every week.

In the first stage, the subject is given a gene therapy treatment to splice in metahuman genes. This is the most dangerous phase as 2/3rds of the recipients do not survive it. The subject makes a HT-1 roll with failure resulting in death within a week. On a critical failure, death is instantaneous.

After the week, survivors are given the second stage, which is a tailored cocktail of drugs and hormones determined to bring out general types of metahuman responses. Not quite three-quarters of those reaching the second stage survive. The subject makes a HT+2 roll with failure resulting in death within hours of beginning the second stage. On a critical failure, the death is accompanied by a runaway metahuman response.

It takes a further week to recover from the cocktail. After that, the metahuman genes and powers have taken hold. The alteration to the subject’s intelligence mixed with the cocktail has left them in a mentally plastic, suggestive state, similar to a child, for about two months. The next two months involve military and metahuman basic training and indoctrination. After the two months, the subject’s mind “matures.”

The subject gains a +1 to IQ [20] and 100 points of super powers, plus 100 points times the margin of success of the HT roll for the first stage. On a critical success of the first stage, the character gains a full 1,000 character points of super powers.

If applied to a metahuman with existing powers, they do have to make the HT rolls, however, even if both are successful, no additional abilities are gained. It cannot improve or increase power levels on existing metahumans.
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#13
Quote:AcylAnd I'm not talking about a kind and fluffy Batman vigilante either, who doesn't, you know, actually killificate people.

My favourite Chinese folk hero is Wu Song. He's a true hero! You know he's a true hero, because he gets drunk and beats the hell out of innocent wildlife. Then his brother is killed by an adulterous wife, he goes ape, messily kills his sister-in-law (DISEMBOWLING FIST) and his sister-in-law's lover. Actually, according to some versions, he messes up and kills the wrong woman first, but it's okay, because he's a hero. Then he ends up in jail! Amusingly, for a crime he didn't commit, as opposed to the ones (see above) which he did. But it's okay, because he busts the hell out of jail, and then kills the corrupt policeman who sent him to jail! And the policeman's entire family. Then he gets drunk and...

Look, I'm just saying, China loves rebels. China really loves rebels. In the IST world, there's almost certainly a few independent Chinese supers out there who have ridiculous levels of popularity and notoriety...to the desperate and bitter chagrin of the authorities.

One of them may well call himself Wu Song. I like to think his power is getting drunk and punching through people.

Name: (Real Name Unknown) "Wu Song," Modern-Day Anti-Authoritarian Folk Superhero [750MM]:

Culture: TL 9 [0]; Familiarity: Eastern [0]; Languages: Mandarin (Native / Native) [0];

Attributes: ST 12 [20]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 16 [60];

Secondary: BL 29#; Dam 2d / 4d (12d / 14d); Spd 7.0 [0]; Mov 7 [0]; HP 16 [8]; FP 16 [0]; Perception: 12 [5]; Willpower: 11 [0];

Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15]; Fearlessness x2 [4]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Reputation +2 ("Anti-Authoritarian Populist Antihero," Chinese People, Always) [5]; Talent x4 (Probability-Alteration) [20];

Perks: Alcohol Tolerance [1]; Brave [1]; Clinch (Brawling) [1]; Drunken Fighting [1];

Powers: Daredevil x1 (Probability-Alteration -10%) [14]; Enhanced Punches (Double Knockback +20%) [15]; Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction: 1/10) (Probability-Alteration -10%) [135]; Luck (Ridiculous) (Defensive -20%, Probability-Alteration -10%) [42]; Serendipity x6 (Probability-Alteration -10%) [81]; Striking ST +10 (Super ST +400%, Probability-Alteration -10%) [225]; Wild Talent x3 (Probability-Alteration -10%) [54];

Disadvantages: Bad Temper (9-) [-15]; Impulsiveness (12-) [-10]; Intolerance (Authority Figures) [-5]; Overconfidence (6-) [-10]; Pacifism (Can't Harm Innocents) [-10]; Reputation -4 ("Anti-Authoritarian Populist Antihero," Authoritarians, Always) [-6]; Social Stigma (Criminal Record) [-5]; Wealth (Poor) [-15];

Quirks: Incompetence (Diplomacy) [-1]; Mild Trickster [-1]; Populist [-1]; Proud [-1]; Responsive [-1];

Skills: Area Knowledge (E) (China) IQ [1]-11; Axe/Mace (A) DX [2]-12; Brawling (E) DX+8 [28]-20; Broadsword (A) DX [2]-12; Carousing (E) HT+2 [4]-18; Detect Lies (H) Per [4]-12; Driving/TL9 (A) (Automobile) DX-1 [1]-11; First Aid/TL9 (E) IQ [1]-11; History (H) (Chinese) IQ-2 [1]-9; Philosophy (H) (Marxism) IQ-2 [1]-9; Public Speaking (A) IQ+1 [4]-12; Research/TL9 (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Stealth (A) DX [2]-12; Streetwise (A) IQ-1 [1]-10; Tactics (H) IQ-2 [1]-9;

Notes: Probability-Alteration powers with emphasis on hitting things just right (and being hit just wrong), as well as general good fortune (particularly in evading authority). Things just go his way, generally. He is very tough in melee, but helpless at range beyond throwing things, and vulnerable to the "Death of a Thousand Cuts," much better against an individual other super than automatic weapons and prone to surrender when surrounded by gunmen and then just escape later unless tremendous and draconian resources (ideally including a power-nullifying super 24/7) are devoted to containing him.
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