Lifestyles of the Metahuman and Famous
I asked these questions on the Player Conspiracy thread. Thrak addressed the basic question on the Q&A thread. The question, and Thrak's reply are copied below, along with Heatwave's reply for ______. Feel free to add your own reply here.
QUESTION: So, Thrak, the New York Knights will be Watched by the Media. Not very surprising.
You've also mentioned that supers are thinner on the ground in this game than is normal, or at least than was the case in the Conquistadors game. So--how much notoriety is a public superhero(ine) going to get? Is anyone with with superpowers going to be stalked by paparazzi (assuming the pests can get there when they turn up in public)? Will they be a nine day wonder in their hometown and then relegated to the back pages of the paper until and unless they do something amazing?
Or is it up to the players? I ask because I've already written about Iron Maiden's fight with that other Iron Maiden-wannabe being posted to Youtube. I'm curious as to what, if anything, the various characters will have read/seen about their future teammates--or can dig up on them, once they find out who they are.
And you other guys--my fellow players--you're invited to reply to this too. How big a splash has your character made? Would anyone outside your home town know about you? Would the man in the street IN your home town know about you? WHAT would they know? What could they dig up on the internets? Do you have fans? Fan clubs? Websites devoted to you? Anti-fans? A revenge squad?
Are you indisputably real, or an urban legend like Batman?
ANSWER: There was a question regarding media attention. Most major news outlets have someone assigned to a metahuman beat. Cable News channels will have a weekly segment with a catchy title to cover the week's metahuman news. Niche media will devote appropriate coverage. A gadgeteer might get a lot of attention from Popular Mechanics, while someone like Mayhem might get more coverage from a fashion magazine, for a couple of examples.
YouTube is rampant with public video, usually from bystanders' smartphones. You might see a Facebook post like, "OMG I was just at the mall and I saw Ballistic chasing down some crook! He was like, "Stop!", and the guy was like, "No!", and then he totally kicked his ass in the parking lot!"
For this reason, a lot - probably a slight majority, conceals their powers from everyone around them. Or at least they try. "Coming out" as a super will make you a celebrity and most people don't care for the unwanted attention, particularly if they aren't choosing to be a superhero and want to just lead a normal life, or if their powers are dangerous or lame, etc. You get the idea.
Leah Wright is a minor celebrity as a popular novelist. If she came out as Iron Maiden her book sales would probably skyrocket, at least in the short term. But then again she's probably have a hard time gong to a restaurant without drawing some attention. Places like New York CIty and Los Angeles, where celebrity sightings are more commonplace and the citizenry is more inured to it, are easier places to live for public supers which is one reason why so many choose to live there.
If you have a specific question about your PC, by all means ask.
Heatwave said: My character [Dreamweaver] is pretty much a nobody which is one of the reasons she was so surprised to get that package.
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Iron Maiden is (or was, once she joins the Knights) Portland, Oregon's best-known metahuman. Her first appearance (as chronicled in my opening post) was when she fought Blackguard in downtown Portland one night. She wasn't intending to go public, and it shows in her choice clothing--all black, but ordinary: sneakers, jeans, long-sleeved turtleneck, gloves and a mask to hide her face and make her mostly invisible in the night sky.
She acquired her superhero moniker from a Portland cop. A reporter also heard it, and used it in his story for the Oregonian newspaper, and "Iron Maiden" stuck.
The next time she appeared in public, she had an actual costume. It's the same one she's stuck with (with very minor variations in detail) since: A black tank top, black leather miniskirt, black tights, black boots, and a black coachman's cloak (knee length cloak with an elbow-length mantle. Plus a black fabric mask tied over her eyes and nose, like a blindfold or occasionally like "The Man In Black" in The Princess Bride.
There are a large number of photos and some (but fewer) video clips (mostly of the amateur sort, though she's done a few public appearances or interviews with local tv news crews) of her to be found on Youtube and similar sites, but nothing particularly dramatic--except the fight with her power-armored nemesis. That is by far the most famous Iron Maiden appearance, bar none. Mostly because it's rare for an entire metahuman battle to be caught on film from start to finish.
Glitch hasn't done any superheroing per se. He has done some behind-the-scenes stuff that a few other hackers know about, and some organizations have tried to follow his trail, but as far as he knows he's kept himself hidden. (Obviously he was wrong.).
Salandra Brandt (secret identity) is probably more famous than any of her hero identities thus far. She was an actress on a teen themed soap opera drama that ran for many years (think 90210). Her father is Warren Brandt who is a very wealthy television producer, and her association with him more so than her raw skill as an actress landed her the role. She had a ton of fans, but wasn't w/o those that dogged hard on her for getting the role through her association with her father, who was producing the show.
As Fury! she had her share of local media attention, but not much at a national level. Her most well known appearance at a National level was an article in Maxim Magazine that featured the 20 hottest heroes/vigilantes.
Coming into the game, though, she will be going by the name Mayhem. Under that name she will have no previous media type exposure. Not to say that people with a high level of super hero knowledge won't be able to place her power similarities to Fury!, or someone that was living in Chicago, etc. I'm not opposed to people figuring that out or knowing it, but I would like for it to be mysterious to anyone that it doesn't make sense to have connect the dots.
Of course, I'm guessing that secret identities may be possible to uphold within the team, but coming into it she will have a SID. :)
Of course, I'm guessing that secret identities may be possible to uphold within the team, but coming into it she will have a SID. :)
I don't think that'll be a problem. Leah's identity as Iron Maiden is a secret too, though I didn't take the Secret ID disadvantage, which means it won't be coming up in-game (as I understand it). It's just assumed that she manages to maintain her secret without a lot of drama of the sort that, say, Spider-man has to endure. (He really has to work for those 15 points....)
Bane was a military asset, and that's the only place he's really used his power. I doubt there's anything out there on him that's terribly mainstream, but digging could ferret it out.
So...
Dreamweaver is "a nobody" with no media profile.
Glitch is a hacker with a very low profile even among hackers.
Bane was a secret military asset.
Mayhem had a moderate, mostly local media presence as Fury! But Mayhem will be a new persona.
Unless Ballistic was a famous superhero, it sounds like Iron Maiden is the most well-known of the six. Huh. Who'd'a thunk?