Superhumans: The Horizon

By Art Hanson (arthurh@utah-inter.net)

Introduction

This is a small supplement to The World of Darkness^TM concerning horror of the superheroes genre. Some Storytellers may find that this is inappropriate for their games or that it may lead to unbalancing within the game system. Superhumans are created in much the same way as any other WoD character. Unlike Vampires, Superhumans don't have disciplines and a blood pool. Instead they have super powers and power. Power is a rating of 1 to 10 that is super power stamina. All superhumans have a maximum of five dots to any attribute, ability, or super power^*. You might want to give thought to how your character has his powers. Is he a natural, in that is to say his power comes innately from him, say as a mutant, or chemical accident victim. Or does he use super gadgets to get super powers: perhaps a powered armor, with hi-tech gadgets, as good as they come. All super powers can come from many different sources. It's up to your imagination. The Sky is the limit.

All supers derive from a single "reality warp-event" in 1895 that occurred on a island in the Atlantic. A steam ship had docked for repairs and to let the passengers off. From those affected, many of the political groups emerged. At that time only about five percent of the passengers even noticed the event, and even fewer made the connection between the event and super-humans. House Nonpareil and Les Mentalis are the only ones who have done any research dating back to that time.

Super humans are newer than any other supernatural. The supers have been keeping themselves secret because if they come out, then they fear the backlash that humans will engender. Super humans do not generally know of the other supernatural creatures within the World of Darkness.

Vampire clans have started to work to destroy these dangerous abominations. The Tremere and the Ventrue are at the forefront of the Camarilla, while only the Lasombra see them as a threat against the Sabbat. Most supernatural creatures think of super-humans as weird oddities that fit into their mythos. Changelings and Garou see them as strange "spirits" lost in this world, and forgetting what they are. And so on.

Due to intermarrying (even between what they term "normals"), any power could show up anywhere. The power doesn't always manifest itself in a predictable way. It may have to be brought out by a traumatic experience. If the power doesn't manifest, the person is referred to as a latent. Latent children are frequently lost and intermarry into normal society. The "latent" gene does not breed out, and will come back to the forefront. This has led to a population explosion among the active super-human population in the last decade.

Super powers don't follow a defined lineage. Most super-humans will join a House or Legion only for their own protection and advancement. Supers are different than most World of Darkness characters in that if you ran into one, he might be totally different than another one from his House or Legion.

However this is not the world of super-beings that are immune to high grade weaponry. These being bridge the gap between pulp and comic books. It is quite possible to make a character hard to kill, put he is as susceptible to death as anyone.

Term for Different Types of Super-humans

Bricks: strength, invulnerability.

Skulkers/scrappers: highly dexterous, invisibility, regeneration.

Movers: speedsters and time-manipulators.

Energy Projectors: ability to generate blasts of energy and fire them at an enemy.

Psychic: mental dominators and mind readers.

Gadgeteers: a person who is normal, except for the special "items" he uses

Powered armor: similar to gadgeteer, but all powers are from a suit of armor, that usually grants great defense on top of all of the other powers.

Shape shifters: shrinking, growing, metamorphing, stretching, chameleons.

The Five Houses

House Nonpareil: The leaders of the houses, or so they see themselves. Based mostly on the east coast of the USA, they were founded in the 1920's. They know quite a bit about the Camarilla and the Sabbat war, having been caught in the middle several times. Unfortunately, they have come under fire from the Ventrue and Lasombra separately recently. Mostly older white males, they have had a hard time finding and recruiting new members. This is a house in decline but many of its members are skilled and powerful. They work to keep all of the houses alive amidst these troubled times. They have just cut a deal with a Brujah, to get help against these unprovoked attack. They are arch conservatives and have a hard time dealing with newer concepts. But even they can change. They have a huge history, and are very scholarly.

House Chevalier: The most protective of the "normals." Founded in the 1930's by a band of super humans, they quickly were able to garner much power and prestige among the super human set. They work to take out the wretched hive of villainy within the bowls of Chicago, and the Midwest known as the mafia. They have only recently started to run into unusual situations that they just don't know how to deal with. The Tremere has been working to eradicate this "new" nest of abominations, as they see them. They are physically powerful, but weaker in the mental areas. They have some of the best skulkers in the business.

House Shantipole: This house is primarily in California, and is a little less worried about protecting humans. They haven't had more than minor contact with any other supernaturals. So for the most part they have dealt with petty criminals, and the drug trade. Usually far out gunning their enemy, they have yet to really grow up, and realize the dark forces within the world. Because of the state of California vampire population, they are relatively unknown by the local vampire population. Changelings on the other hand, have taken a far larger interest. An unseelie group of sidhe plans to unveil these super-humans and shock the world into believing more interesting ideas.

House Daedelus: See the big side of the problem, and solve it with the minimum of fuss. That is Philosophy of these "Schemers." Founded in 1904 in England, they quickly gathered almost all of Europe's super human population together to fight the entrenched vampire population. In the 1950's they had a huge setback as almost half of their population was wiped out or broke off. Since then they have been incredibly conscious as to the damage that can be wrought by just a few infiltrators. They have become paranoid to a maniacal degree. Because of this, they have become reclusive to the degree of uselessness. House Daedelus used to work with their Yank counterparts, House Nonpareil. Vampires in Europe think they wiped out this troublesome group.

House Revanche: Anarchic vengeance-seekers, they have seen too many humans kill and destroy the super-humans among them. They believe their survival is the most important thing. While not actively going out and destroying humans and their property, they do not go out of their way to help either. They have been focused recently against a powerful conglomerate of companies which they have vowed to destroy. They have fought many times against the monstrous creatures that this company spawns, and it seems to have a limitless supply these beings. They do not realize the supernatural forces behind this seemingly benign company. They have no allies against Pentex for they are never in one place long enough to be contacted. This house uses incredible technological developments to stay in touch with each other. So far no one has been able to intercept their 5^th dimensional transmissions. Many of the supers in this group are super-tech oriented. They are spread over most of the western world.

House Ronin: Not really a house or legion, this is the catch all term for super-humans that do not belong to any specific organization. Not all will even learn about the hidden groups of super-humans. They tend to follow their own path regardless.

The Six Legions

Les Mentalis: The so-called leaders of the Legions. Using fear and intimidation, they seek to subvert the governments of the world. They have started to realized that something already controls most of the governments, or at least key figures within them. They have started to work from within the Pentagon. In a few years they will have access to incredible resources. They have started to either neutralize or control certain senators and representatives within the US government to further their goals. They have started to run into serious road blocks, and cut funding, put there by the Kindred. They also seek to absorb several of the legions, but not at the risk of endangering any alliances already made.

Thunder-Strikers: Working with the Les Mentalis, this group has become one of the best a producing crack operatives. Cleaners, and fixers, they specialize in correcting problems violently. Always on the look for people able to manipulate and control natural disasters, they cover their tracks with these abilities when the operation gets too noisy. Hence the name of this German based group.

The Flux: Radical reformers, they have been active in European politics for the last fifty years. They have been working to change all of the human governments to a better system of governments. The top leadership is almost never the same after a ten year period, and when it changes, so to does the focus of what is the better government. Right now they have just recently switched to a more active "Anti-USA" program. Espousing enlightened dictatorships, they have become something of a wild card in the political world. They are not above assassination, or other weapons of terrorism. They believe that they are the new humans, born to lead all lesser forms of humanity. They use many Neo-Nazi propaganda tools, and try to control this group in Europe.

The Web: Criminal masterminds. Although with relatively little overt power, their keenly-developed minds allow them to manipulate others. Having amassed incredible amounts of money through the drug trade, they control and maintain their bases of power in the new world through intimidation and murder. Though small in numbers, they cause untold trouble within most of the western world in their haste for more money, and power. They have run into most of the houses at one time or another, and consider them children who are intellectually their inferior.

Blades of Madness: Serial killers in their past time, and muscle on the side. All of these psychotics are bond to a super-human who leads them in their depravity. Most unusual murders that are discovered are laid at the feet of these maniacs. Most creatures that run into them, attempt to either run or destroy them. Most vampires work to destroy them because of the crudeness that they employ. They cause problems with the Masquerade. But still their madness grows unchecked.

Oblivoid: Nihilistic death bringers, whose original leader sought answers in the mystical world. He left his mind open, and a demon of the netherworlds took possession. This group marks itself with a black circle, and actually attempts to destroy the world. Their latest plan is to infiltrate a military base in North Dakota, where a super bomb was made in the last days of the cold war. This bomb was to be used as the last deterrent, as it could crack the world like an egg.

Neutral Groups

House Minos: This group is mainly determined to survive at any cost. Strict with its own people, they allow no one outside know of their existence. They have successfully thrown off all but one investigator. An agent of the special FBI bureau, has managed to fake his own death. He now seeks the proof of the existence of another shadow organization.

Meta-line: They are primarily interested in money. While not being as immoral as the Web, they will go to great lengths to procure their luxurious way of life. They are not above hiring assassins to eliminate threatening rivals.

The Tetradaine: This is a last days survivalist group. Based solely in Montana, in the USA, they believe that god is going to destroy the world. They of course will not be here, and plan to evacuate to the stars. Using super-humans that they've discovered or that have willingly joined they have come up with the first known Faster-Than-Light space craft. It is known as Icarius.

The Lost House

House Atelier: This is a lost house destroyed during WWII. They were previously based mostly in France and Germany. The last member was embraced by a Toreador to save his mortal friend. This was almost a mortal reflection of that Clan, and all it stood for. It may reappear, as it was very useful, and effective tool for the Toreador.

Character Creation

All super-humans are created essentially the same way as any other Storyteller character. Almost all super powers use a single chart for the number of dice, strength, protectiveness or resistance rating that super powers gives. This may seem like a lot, but all of the other supernatural creatures have magical enhancements that they can use. I would consider it a very bad idea to allow any super human to get his hands on a klaive or a magical faerie sword. So no superhuman can buy treasures or fetishes or whatever. All damage can be soaked at the normal difficulty of 6. I included fire this way too. It seemed strange that all damage except fire had the same difficulty to soak. Fire/heat/radiation's difference made no sense. Especially when a normal person could survive the effects of being splashed with lava (boy that's one tough boy!)! To show the difference in intensities, increase the damage that fire inflicts, as shown below. Attributes: 7/5/3

Abilities: 13/9/5

Backgrounds: 5

Super Powers: 3

Virtues: 7

Power: 3

Fate: 3

Freebie points: 15

Freebie Point Cost

Trait	Cost
Attributes cost	5
Abilities cost	2
Backgrounds	1
Super Powers	7
Power and Fate	2
Willpower	1
Humanity	1

Fire, heat and radiation Damage

Source	Damage (in dice)
Candle:	0
Torch:	2
Bunsen Burner:	4
Chemical Fire:	8
Lava/Molten Metal:	10+

Healing and Damage from Injury

Damage is figured normally. Super-humans can soak aggravated damage with a normal soak roll. They don't have a weakness to any specific substance, or energy. Aggravated damage heals as slowly as any damage to normal humans. Non-aggravated damage heals at one wound level per day. Aggravated damage is fire and the attacks (aggravated) of any supernatural agency.

Power and Super Powers

The Power pool is the rating of how long a superhuman could use and maintain a power. It could be called a super power stamina stat. The only time you would need to spend Power is if you had to continue to use your super power after you had exhausted yourself. Each dot spent would give you an additional round of use of that super power and you would recover this at one point a day. Some powers should not be allowed to last as long; some of these are listed in their descriptions. These could be said to be more powerful or draining Super Powers. Some Super Powers are considered to be up at all times. These will also be noted in their descriptions. Several of the powers list sub categories under them. The super power would have to be taken multiple times to get multiple sub categories.

Power

Power Level	Duration
*	1 turn
**	5 turn
***	5 minutes (base)
****	10 minutes
*****	20 minutes
******	1 hour
*******	2 hours
********	3 hours
*********	4 hours
**********	10 hours

Super Power dice rating chart

Level of Super Power	Dice of Strength or Damage	OR	Resistance (Loss of successes for opponent)	Resistance (Difficulty penalty for opponent)
*	2		0	1
**	4		1	1
***	6		2	2
****	8		3	2
*****	10		4	3

Superhuman Strength

Strength	Maximum weight (tons)
******	.75
*******	1.5
********	3
*********	6
**********	10
***********	20
************	30
*************	40
**************	50
***************	60

Fate and Destiny

Fate and Destiny is a new concept to Super Humans: The Horizon. This is the ability to change the odds, by a little bit. Fate is similar to the Blood pool, Gnosis, Rage, Quintessence, Paradox, Pathos, Angst, Glamor, Banality, and . . . oh yes, Willpower of the super naturals of WOD. It is a pool that causes changes in reality to make it so that the Super Human is a little bit more lucky, a little more durable. A single point of fate can be spent on any of the character's dice roll. This can make it easier to hit someone, or easier to survive a devastating attack. In game terms it gives either a bonus or negative modifier to the difficulty. You may only affect your own Fate, not the fate of others. So you could decrease the difficulty to your dodge ,and also decrease the difficulty to soak damage. You may only change the difficulty by a +1 or -1.

A temporary point of fate can also be spent on negating a single botched roll. (This is a powerful ability, but so is spending blood to increase all of your physical stats! Or Rage!)

A permanent Fate point can also be spent to avert a death trap, or a fatal accident. The only way to recover this is through spending experience. This expenditure results in the character being thrown free just as the car goes over the cliff. Or the explosion sends the character to an unknown sub-basement underneath the warehouse. Or even a creature of the Spirit world stealing him from reality. This is a good opportunity for a creative explanation of why the character should survive.

Fate may only be recovered by following the destiny of the character. Destiny is a character concept; nothing more may regain except for time. There is no skill that allows you to recover Fate quicker.

These can be archetypical super hero concepts (dark crusader, cosmic power, vigilante, idealist terrorist, megalomaniac, idealistic savior, and many more) or something similar. After a character follows his destiny during a scene he recovers a point of Fate up to his maximum. Otherwise a character recovers a point of fate every morning that he wakes.

Listing of Super Powers

Danger Sense: This power allows you to roll as many dice as indicated in the super power dice rating chart, to sense danger before it affects you. The storyteller usually rolls these dice as you may never know if it is working. The difficulty is based on how far away the danger is, and how well masked it is.

Duplicate Selves: Every dot of this power allows you to create a duplicate self. All physical, mental, and social traits are duplicated. The limitation is only in the super powers. Each duplicate only gets some of the super powers of the main form, split as evenly as possible. So if you had flight and an energy attack and one dot in the duplicate selves power, you have two people, one with flight, and one with the energy attack. The only power that is not split up this way is Resilience, which all the selves get the benefit of. This could be a very interesting power with the flaw, multiple personality.

Energy manipulation: (gravity, magnetism, electricity, telekinesis, light, .... ) Each dot of this super power gives the person the dice to use in her pool for strength (gravity, telekinesis, magnetism) or damage (electricity, plasma, laser, etc.) as in the rating chart. This power wears out the character more. Your Power rating is considered one less for any of these powers. You may only pick the strength or the damage, not both at the same time.

You have to abide by the physics of the energy that you are using. (i.e. Magnetism can only affect ferrous metals). Please use common sense. This power does not give any invulnerbilities to the energy that you control.

Enhanced Attributes: Each dot of this power allows you to add one die to a pre-chosen attribute. When you pick this power you must decide which attribute it is added to. This includes stamina, dexterity, charisma, manipulation, appearance, perception, intelligence and wits. Strength is not included because it has its own super power, super strength. This is considered a constant power.

Enhanced strength costs one less point when purchasing, but does not inflict aggravated damage and only increases your strength up to a 10, maximum. It also uses the standard strength chart listed in any WoD rules book. It may not be used in conjunction with any power that gives super strength abilities. Super strength has it's own super power (this power inflicts aggravated damage and has a different chart).

Enhanced senses: Each dot of this power gives you greater sensitivity to your surroundings. You can add this bonus to either sight, hearing, touch or smell and taste activity. Smell and taste are treated as the same group. Perception-based activities are given a bonus based of plus one for each dot. Each dot decreases perception based difficulties by one per dot. This is considered a constant power. You are able to turn it off. The sense that you have enhanced can be blinded for one round for each dot of Enhanced senses. This would be very painful to the owner.

Level	Amount Senses Increased
*	x1.5
**	x2
***	x4
****	x5*
*****	x10**

^*Can see/hear something miles away

^**Don't ask, it's scary. A lupus garou isn't as good as you at this point




Flight: This power allows you to fly without any visible means. The character is protected at sonic speeds from cold and pressure. This power does not allow flight into outer space.

Level	Speed
*	100 mph
**	200 mph
***	400 mph
****	Mach 1
*****	Mach 3

Growth: This power allows you to increase your size and ergo your strength and health. Unfortunately it decreases your ability to manipulate objects dexterously. It does not affect your ability to strike unless it calls for hitting something smaller than your hand. The chart below shows what abilities you have at different levels. They are not additive with Super Strength or enhanced strength. It is considered super strength for inflicting aggravated and which chart you use for strength.

Level	Size Increase	Strength Bonus	Health Level Bonus	Difficulty penalty for Dexterity Rolls
*	x1.5	2	1	1
**	x2	4	1	1
***	x4	6	2	2
****	x8	8	2	2
*****	x10	10	3	3

Healing Touch: This power allows you to heal the wounds of a hurt person. Use the number of dice as listed in the chart, difficulty 7 to heal one normal wound level per success. To heal aggravated wounds requires the expenditure of a willpower point.

Illusions: With this power, you can make images and sounds that aren't really there. You may not use this power to to simulate invisibility for yourself though you may hide others and buildings. The size and quality of the illusions increase as you get more dots.

Level	Description
*	10 foot radius; only still images or very basic sounds.
**	20 foot radius; basic movement with simple sounds; complex sounds by themselves.
***	40 foot radius; almost life-like movements with decent sound; sounds by themselves are indistinguishable from the real thing.
****	80 foot radius; incredibly life-like movements with realistic sounds.
*****	160 foot radius; images and sound cannot be told from the real thing.

Invisibility: This power renders you able to disappear and not be seen. A very useful power for those who enjoy skulking.

Level	Effect
*	Become transparent or shadowy. This increases the difficulty to spot you by 3 when using stealth rolls. Effectively invisible at night.
**	Full invisibility to the visible spectrum of light.
***	Invisible to infrared and ultraviolet spectrums.
****	Invisible to sonar, radar and all electromagnetic frequencies.
*****	Warps reality around you. Increases difficulty to spot you with any means including mystical by 3!

Mind Control: This power allows you to manipulate someone against her will. At low levels it is quite weak. You can not detect if someone is controlling your mind unless you succeed in the opposed willpower roll. You roll your willpower versus the victim's willpower, with the victim's difficulty listed as four plus the level of the Mind Control used. The attacker's difficulty is always 6, unless the victim has a special defense.

Level	Description
*	Influence minor actions and tendencies. It has a range of touch.
**	Able to affect deep rooted tendencies. Still touch range.
***	Able to affect two people as the second dot. Range of 25 feet.
****	Able to actually work against the nature of the target. Range is 25 feet.
*****	Actually able to implant hypnotic type suggestions that can be triggered later. Range is only 40 feet.

Multiple lives: This unusual power resurrects the character after he has been killed. Each dot of this power allows one rebirth, and then a permanent dot of this power is lost. When you have lost all your dots in this power, it costs five experience to re-buy this power. The amount of damage inflicted determines how long you are out. One wound level beyond maximum, about five minutes. Two wound levels beyond maximum, an hour. And so on. When you are "reborn" you are healed fully.

Negate Super Powers (Natural/Technological): This power allows you to negate super powers. Rolling the number of dice you have in this power difficulty six, you can negate the highest level of a single opponent's power. You only use the dots you have in this power to roll. The type must be determined when you pick this power, either natural powers, or technological powers. This power lasts for as long as you can maintain it (based on you Power rating). This power can also be negated, by negate super powers. Which instantly releases the previous used power.

Phasing: This power allows the character to literally walk through matter as if it did not exist. This amazing feat can only affect others when the fifth dot is gained. You are unable to affect the physical world while phased with all abilities except mental powers. Your Power rating is considered 2 less for how long you can keep up this power. It is very tiring!

Level	Effect
*	Walk through wood
**	Walk through stone (makes the character immune to non-aggravated damage)
***	walk through metal
****	Walk through almost anything else, excluding magical barriers. (Becomes immune to aggravated damage!)
*****	Affect others at touch, 1 per point of intelligence, as at all lower levels

Postcognition or Precognition: This power allows you to catch glimpses of the close future and past. Very useful for a detective type character. You roll this power plus perception difficulty of seven for the near past. The difficulty increases to nine when attempting to view the future. It depends on you number of successes on the distance in time you can see.

Level	Duration
*	10 minutes
**	Half an hour
***	One hour
****	Three hours
*****	One day

Regeneration: The incredible ability to heal wounds almost instantly. This is considered a constant power and you do not figure your power pool as being fatigued.

*	Heal an aggravated in 12 hours and 1 regular wound level a minute
**	Heal an aggravated in 6 hours
***	Heal an aggravated in 3 hours and 1 regular wound level in 30 seconds
****	Heal an aggravated in 1 hour
*****	Heal an aggravated in 10 minutes and 1 regular wound level in a turn!

Resilience: Each dot of this super power allows you to add one die to your soak roll. This power also allows faster healing. Normal wounds heal at a rate of 1 wound level per ten minutes. Aggravated heal at the rate of 1 wound level per two days. This is considered a constant power and does not affect the Power pool for fatigue.

Resistance to. . : (Fire, Electricity, Poison, Cold, Mental attacks, Blunt kinetic attacks, Magick^*, Psionics^*) This power reduces the effect of the specific damage being inflicted on you. Use the resistance part of the Super Power dice rating chart. The reduction in difficulty lowers the difficulty to soak damage using stamina. The levels are subtracted from the dice being rolled to damage before they are rolled. This is considered a constant power and does not fatigue power. You might call this nigh invulnerability, but only if you had a sense of humor (e.g. The Tick).

^*Only if the Storyteller allows!

Shrinking: Shrinking allows you to have bonuses to dexterity feats but minuses to strength. Your minimum strength is 1 dot. You of course have the benefit of fitting in small places.

Level	Size Decrease	Dexterity Roll Difficulty Bonus	Strength Dice Penalty
*	1/2	1	1
**	1/4	1	1
***	1/6	2	2
****	1/10	2	2
*****	1/20	3	3

Speed Actions: This power functions like Celerity without the expenditure of blood. It takes no actions to activate this power, and it is always active. You also add this dice to your initiative dice pool. This is considered a constant power.

Super Running: This allows the character to run at superhuman speeds for the time allowed by your Power rating. It does not allow for extra attacks per round. At 2 dots a character may run across water. Turning may be considered a problem at high speed. For any actions that need to be determined by a dice roll, roll Dex +Athletics (i.e. it is difficulty 6 to make any sudden moves at 50 mph).

Level	Speed (mph)
*	50
**	100
***	200
****	400
*****	800

Super Strength: Allow you to add the number of dice, as shown in the super powers table to your strength pool. Punches are considered aggravated! This is considered a constant power. It uses super strength table to show that super humans can lift heavier weights, to more accurately fit the genre of super powered people. You still only inflict your normal dice in damage.

Teleportation: This power allows the character instantly transport himself across space. This power is considered very fatiguing. Your Power rating is considered 2 dots less for how long you could use this power. This power can only be used on the character that possesses this power.

Level	Distance
*	100 ft
**	500 ft
***	1 mile
****	20 miles
*****	100 miles

Time Travel: This power allows you to travel the time stream and visit different eras. You can bring an extra person along with the expenditure of a willpower per person.

*	1 week
**	1 month
***	1 year
****	1 decade
*****	1 century

Transformation: (Metal, rock, liquid, ....) This power gives the character as many dice as rated (in the chart) per dot of transformation to add as attributes; Strength, Dexterity, Stamina. Maximum dice that can be added to any one attribute is 5. Any die added to strength allows the character to inflict aggravated damage as per Super strength. This power may not be combined with Super Strength but you do get the benefit of lifting on the same table. Any dice added to stamina gives the equivalence of one dot of Resilience. Sorry, no bonus for added dexterity other than being dexterous.

The player must chose a specific material, substance or element when the power is chosen. Any different element requires taking the transformation power again.

Weather Control: The ability to control weather, and make moderate climate changes. Each dot of this power allows you to modify the weather by one degree. It also affects how much of an area you can effect. You can always affect a smaller area than your maximum. The first dot gives you control over a one mile area of affect, and each successive dot double the area. Two dots is two miles, three dots is four miles, four dots is sixteen miles, five dots is 32 miles. Unfortunately each change up or down the chart doubles the time too. So to modify the temperature two steps, requires two minutes. You may modify precipitation and wind once a day in a area, and temperature once a day in a area. You are not immune to the effects of your own power automatically.

Precipitation and wind speeds

1	clear
2	cloudy and breezy
3	mild precipitation and cloudy
4	heavy precipitation and windy
5	thunderstorms and gale force winds
6	hurricanes and tornados

Temperature modifiers in Fahrenheit

1	coldest 0 to -30
2	colder 0 to 35
3	cold 36 to 50
4	cool 51 to 65
5	warm 66 to 75
6	hot 76 to 90
7	hotter 91 to 110

Minor Super Powers

These are powers that don't have very good degree of difference in the power. When you have the power, it really doesn't improve, or have changes from another person. Each power cost 4 Freebie points or 5 Experience points. They have no advancement potential.

Claws: This power allows you to have claws (retractable or not depends on the players) that inflict 1 extra dice of damage. This is considered aggravated.

Digging: This super power allows you to burrow through normal earth at 1/2 your normal movement. Harder earth slows you down even further.

Extra Limbs: This gives you a tail or extra arms that allows you to grab somebody and continue to attack with your hands. If used for an extra attack it is plus two difficulty. It doesn't take an extra action for this one extra attack. You may not buy this power multiple times for multiple limbs (or attacks!). Once gives you all of the extra limbs as you need, chosen at the time of gaining this power.

Immortality: Allows you to live forever, as long as you aren't killed. Age and time has no dominion over you.

Immunity to disease: You are immune to normal diseases. Magickal or created diseases are a different matter.

Plasticity: Allows you to stretch up to 30 feet away any part of your body.

Wall Crawling: You are able to stick to walls and ceilings.

X-ray Vision: This power allows you to see through all but radiation proof materials. (i.e. lead, thick concrete, etc.)

Backgrounds

Many of the same backgrounds as other World of Darkness settings. Only two needs to be discussed as specific superhumans background.

Hideout: A place to hide from someone seeking you. Each dot of this background increases the difficulty to find you by one. For some reason you have decided to make yourself a hard to find hidey-hole in some cave or sewer someplace. You of course have discovered the most secretive and hard way to get in and out of your hide out.

Funded by ?: Mostly for high tech superhumans, this allows the character to have resources beyond the reach of most normal characters. You are funded by some sort of agency. This background can have negative impacts if the backers ever come into conflict with the character. Each dot doubles again your effective resource level for resources that would be for repair of equipment or to keep the enhancements of your super powers active.

Virtues

This is identical to the system presented in Vampire: the Masquerade and expanded in the Players guide for Vampire: the Masquerade for humans. I will not duplicate those entries due to copyright restrictions.

Merits

Secret identity: (2 points) You have managed to conceal your identity in some way. This makes it harder for enemies to identify you and be waiting for you at your house. You have some way of disguising yourself, be it a mask or super power.

Instant change: (4 points) Instantly change into a more combat-oriented outfit. (Useful for high tech superhumans or super speedsters)

Support group: (3 points) A group of skilled people who help you out with technical problems (think Micro Chip from The Punisher). Each person has up to a 4 dot skill, and probably specialized with the equipment that is being used.

Flaws

Deformity: (1 to 5 points) This one depends on how hard it is to hide that you are a super human or at least a freak. A one dot would be unusual colored skin; a two dot would be weird eyes; a five dot would be the Hulk^TM or Manthing^TM

Vigilante: (2,3,6 points) Police, State and Federal authorities, respectively. You are hunted by police for taking the law into your own hands. A warrant has been issued for your arrest. You probably have an enemy that has a personal vendetta within this organization. You do have a tendency to take the law into your own hands.

Hunted by Secret Orginization: (5 points) Some secret organization has decided to hunt you down and kill or capture you. This could be something akin to the KKK, the government or maybe a mad scientist (dang those Sons of Ether!).

Uncontrollable power: (4 points) You cannot deactivate your super power at a whim. The power can not be regulated to do less than full damage or can not be used to do fine and minute changes. You have to make a willpower roll difficulty 7 to shut the power off or on. It is only for one of the powers power that the character has.

Addictive power: (3 points) Your power is very enjoyable to use. You will have no compunction to use it at a the drop of a hat. As a matter of fact you have to make a willpower roll difficulty 8 to not use your power whenever you can, but when it might not be a good time.

Painful power: (3 points)One of your powers causes a non-aggravated wound level per turn, unsoakable to the superhuman when in use.

Deadly weakness: (7 points) Some uncommon substance causes an aggravated wound per round of exposure. No soak roll allowed. Green K for super humans!

Purloinlable Focus: (5, 7 points) Your Super Human abilities are in an item that can be taken away from you. The seven point flaw only requires you to make a called shot in combat to disarm you of your item (a +2 difficulty).

Advancement

Experience Chart and Advancement

Trait	Cost
Attribute	Current x 4
New Ability	3
Ability	Current x 2
Super Power	Current x 5
New Super Power	15
Humanity	Current x 2
Willpower	Current x 1
Power	Current x 2
Fate	Current x 2

Super-humans increase in skill. Most have typical types of abilities. Some do learn strange skills such as Awareness, Kenning, and such. Others have engineering skills to "build" their Super Powers in items and bionics. Even with building super powers you have to buy them with character points, if it is not something that can be readily duplicated by current technology. The cost of gaining Super Powers is correct. It is very expensive just to get new powers. Raising a Super Power is just like increasing an ability in any other system. You might wish to allow every superhuman to just be able to buy Resilience and Speed Actions (for a reduced cost of 5 points for the first dot) to balance Rage, Celerity/Fortitude, and Wayfare 2, and similar abilities. Most other powers need a plausible reason of why you just gained a new and strange ability. You might ask for some help from you Storyteller on how to improve your character, and the actions that caused these changes.

Mood and Setting

This section deals with the protagonists and antagonist for the superhumans. Each situation will need to be carefully thought out. Many are the groups in the World of Darkness that need to be given guidelines for how to interact with this role playing supplement.

For pure balance of the game and fairness to other players no Super-humans can be gouled, embraced, awakened, or be werewolves or changelings and keep their Superhuman powers. The way I have set them up Super-humans would become too powerful if allowed access to other supernatural powers. When Super-humans die they do not become superhuman wraiths. When they are embraced they become normal vampires of the clan that embraced them. The vitae can no longer support super powers. This is purely for game balance and for "Player Characters". If the Storyteller decides to come up with a bending of the rules, that's part of his job. If he wants pseudo vampires with strange abilities to spice up his games, that's up to him. He isn't under any obligation to let you play on of them either.

"We're on target, Captain. We have her in sight and are moving in to apprehend her." replied private Madison. Madison still wondered about this. Super people? Yeah, right. Looks just like a scared kid. He stood up in preparation to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart.

In a sudden blur of amazing motion she starts running down the street, much faster than the cars. Son of a bitch! Luckily one of the other groups is already down at that end of the street. They're ready and tranquilize her before she gets a thousand feet. Of course, I get to run and be backup. She didn't struggle much, after the drugs.

So, of course, Captain Brian Brigade gets to look good, and I get stuck putting her in the truck, the grunt work. As he's lifting her into the truck, she looks into his eyes and murmurs some words to him. He leans over to hear her better. Her eyes are huge, and dilated.

"Please, don't let them take me away. I was just sick last week and then, then everything went wrong. I don't know what's going on! I only got better yesterday......." After that she's out cold. Oh, well, not my job. And then Madison freezes. She's only been like this a day. How did Washington know to send in us? We are in the friggin', boondocks of North Dakota. I'm stationed in D.C. Suddenly, looking up, Madison sees Captain Brian J. Bragade watching him. Those cold eyes seemed to bore into his head. Quickly finishing his business and getting ready to move out, he avoids those bright, cold eyes with a fervor that he could hardly believe.

Later that night, he thought about the girl again. With a cigarette in his mouth, he really didn't know how to think about her plea. Or even if he wanted to. He's got his own neck to look out for. He had been in secret operations long enough to now that he could just disappear. But dammit, he was an American. He wanted to work for a better world, a better future.

Then a knock rouses him to attention. Who could that be? Captain Bragade? Why are his eyes glowing? "Oh, my Go..........". The next morning his remains were found, flesh charred clear to the bones. His causes of death was listed as spontaneous combustion. And Captain Brian J. Brigade went back to work on his plans.

These can make some of the best villains, as Captain Bragade shows. Either working for the government or by themselves, they can seek to be humanity's master or even just nihilistic monsters, seeking the death of others for the sake of destruction. They can also be the most help, explaining what is happening by the views, and even being one of those people that you can relate to.

Maliceeme looked out over the people at her run down little bar. Her prey, her only solace in these dreaded times of change. A new girl in her bar? Oh, how so quaint. And no Mr. Gallant to the rescue. The Kindred eyes bored deeply into the mind of one of her ghouls. "Bring her to me, unhurt. She pleases one of my eyes." And the other doesn't care. With a quiet, maniacal chuckle Maliceeme turned to go back to the rooms.

She was almost back to her room when she heard the sounds of breaking furniture. Sloppy, she thought. Her three ghouls should have had no trouble with this one girl. And then she didn't hear anything after a few short minutes. Not even the sound of her ghouls bringing the girl to her, as she expected. How odd. Cloaking herself in shadows of the mind, Maliceeme crept back into the bar. A surprising scene greeted her. Her ghouls where laying on the ground, one with a definite broken neck. All very unconscious. The girl was quietly drinking from a bottle of Red Wolf.

With a quick curse under her breath, Maliceeme looked deeply into the aura of the girl in front of her. Strange, she is not a kindred. The only oddity is a strange glow to her halo, of azure blue. She must have been sent by the Tremere. Maliceeme thought to herself quietly for a few moments about what to do. She did not want to be dragged into the Jyhad at this time. But she dare not leave this girl here. She will have to die. Maliceeme grinned to herself, I may be insane, but not stupid. Maliceeme started to sneak up to her. And then Maliceeme was shocked again as the girl looked directly into her eyes.

With a blinding blur of motion the girl reached over and grabbed a cue stick. Breaking it with a flick of her small wrists, she fashioned herself a crude stake. Maliceeme summoned the full force of her mind to invade this girl and make her a willing slave. Nothing? Impossible as it may seem, this slip of a girl was immune to her mental powers.

It was the last thought of the ancient vampire as the cue stick was buried deeply into her chest.

"Damn, I thought vampires where make believe!" Taking another slug from her beer, she just sat there looking for a moment. And then she threw it to ground, shattering it. Walking over to the bar she lit a match and started the entire building on fire. "I guess that shows me, if I can be strange, the world can be stranger!" Mary pontificated.

Superhumans are an interesting protagonist for vampires, but are very unlikely to make friends among the Kindred. Superhumans have a blue shimmering halo around their aura which can be noticed by Auspex 2. Superhumans heal from the benefits of being ghouled within a half an hour. The blood is destroyed by the immune system and broken down in incredibly short order. They can however be blood bond, in the normal manner.

Superhumans are affected by Dominate and Presence. However Superhumans are able to resist if they have a high enough willpower. This is unlike the V:tM rules which state that humans can not resist dominate at all. In these rules here, super humans are considered to be allowed to soak any damage with a normal soak roll.

"He's not human." snarled Thunders of the Sky. "He might look it and smell it, but he can't be. And unlike the other one, he doesn't reek of the Wyrm." Sneaks through the Grass agreed silently. The two garou watched the Fomori they had been following for the last two weeks as it battled the strange newcomer. This new human was glowing like a bright neon light as energy discharges came from him. The battle was going badly for him though. He had allowed himself to be hurt when he tried to protect an old lady who was nearby. An honorable act. Thunders of the Sky did not like to let an honorable warrior to die. And with Thunders of the Sky, thought was action.

A primal scream ripped from his mouth. In bloody moments later the Fomori was dead, killed by a far superior foe. And then he looked at this stranger. And surprisingly the stranger looked at him, and said, "Thank you, you saved my mother and I. I thought this world was only populated with humans and monsters. I . . ." He wavered and then collapsed, finally succumbing to blood loss. A quick check revealed that he would live, it was only shock that laid him low. Thunders of the Sky looked to Sneaks through the Grass. "I think we had better speak to the sept of this. Gia has sent a new warrior to us, and we must understand this new thing."

Characters could make good friends or enemies very easily in this game system. With the volatile Garou blaming humans for their problems, it could lead to explosive confrontations though. Superhumans would be considered humans by scent of the true form. They are not likely to be considered Wyrm tainted unless actively serving the Wyrm. Superhumans are affected by the Delirium but with a positive shift on the Delirium chart of 4 dots, unless they have three or more dots in a single super power. Most superhumans would think of the typical stereotype of werewolves, from movies and TV shows, until shown better.

Jerry ran down the stairs looking behind him. Behind him the three members of the Grunge gang followed. Jerry stumbles right into a locked steel door. An old one, like the type that they used for in the 1910's. Really sturdy, and very much locked. He could here the boys starting to laugh, and jeering him for taking a "dead" end. With a desperation he didn't know he had, Jerry took a step of absolute terror, through the door.

All of the light washed away from him leaving only shades of gray. It was very dark but he could hear the pounding of baseball bats on the thick cast iron door. Cobwebs littered the area, and cold crept in from the shadows. Jerry stumbled further into the dark boiler room, trying to get away from the Grunge. Unknown to him, pitiless eyes followed him. Marc watches the stranger, waiting for him to wander through the shroud in this area. Who is following him, and what does he fear so much.

Marc was shocked when the young appearing boy disappeared from his view. Marc stared and then noticed that the boy had become solid. He was really there, in the flesh. Could he be a master of Arcanos, and be more than he seemed? Peering deep within the shrouds of his soul he saw the impossible. He was a living soul, that had breached the boundaries of the shroud and traveled the edge of the Dead Lands. It was amazing, and strangely different. The living entering the land of the dead, he hadn't seen its like since he ran into that supposed "mummy" twenty-five years ago.

Jerry jumped again at the banging, and then stepped into the only place he figured he could go. Trying to again control his strange ability, he attempted to step into the main tank of the boiler. He stopped to catch his breath, and to rest. Whatever he had just done drained him like a week-long hike uphill. Then he heard something, just barely audible. A scratching, no a tearing sound. But lower and deeper. It seemed to sink into his head. With a scream of terror he again tried to walk through the wall, and felt a cold tearing. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a figure more there than the walls, who looked like his neck had a jagged tear in it. Jerry's terror increased as it easily followed him through the boiler.

Jerry noticed in the background, that the pounding had stopped. He wished very much for his problems to be ordinary and so easily solved, rather than this gruesome ghost. The ghost stared at him for just a moment longer, and then disappeared, seeming to fade deeper into the walls, further into that strange gray land. Jerry realized with a small shudder, that he was alive, and actually unharmed.

Jerry then decided to do the smartest thing he'd done all day, and fainted.

Wraiths are not likely to have to interact very often with super-humans. Or want too, they are the living after all. Life sight would be able to tell that something would be different about them, but that is all. Wraiths may be driven to revenge themselves on a person for negligence in their death though. As a thought the phase power could allow a super human to enter into the shroud halfway. The living invading the dead's realm. The wraiths would be quite interested in this, of course.

Mary sat next to her friend Amy. It was late Saturday night, and Mary was trying to bring up a serious subject. She had needed some time from her dad, and so had gone into her room to work on one of her "projects". Her father owned a salvage yard on the south side, and she pretty much had free reign. Mary loved her father, but he didn't understand that she just didn't want to go to college yet. Yeah, she was a prodigy, and a wiz at mechanical devices or electronics. But she didn't want to graduate high school yet. That's why she had agreed to go out with her best friend, Amy.

Of course now she had to deal with Amy's strangeness. She seemed to jerk at odd moments, and see things that just weren't there. She'd checked to make sure there wasn't anything there, kit bashing a EM analyzer just to make sure. It had started just recently, only about a week ago. Oh, well, into the jaws of death."Umm, Amy, I'm a little worried about you. Ever since you ran into Will last week, you've been acting really strange. Has he, uh, done anything?" Mary asked.

Amy just stared really hard, and then laughed. "Oh, no. It's nothing like that. I've just got my head in the clouds." she smiled and continued, "Really, it's nothing. " Then she stared out the door, and started to stand. Mary looked over her shoulder, and groaned. It was Will, of course. You mention his name, and poof there he was. It was really infuriating.

"Aminlia, I need to talk to you, it concerns. . private matters." Will spoke quietly.

Aminlia? I don't think Will knows I heard that. Mary got the shock of her life as after just a few moments, Amy got up to leave. "I'm sorry Mary, but I've got to go; it's a, uh, family emergency!" Amy blurted out. And with that Amy and Will left. Mary stewed for all of two seconds before getting upset enough to pay the tab, and run out just in time to see Amy's car driving off.

"She left me at a restaurant, after midnight! I can't believe she just did that." Mary fumed. Oh, well, she was a grown girl now, and had more than a few tricks up her sleeve. Reaching into her overly large backpack, she pulled out a wide belt. It had two strange twelve inch discus's attached, and hummed slightly. Strapping it on, she pulled on a glove also from her back pack. With a quick gesture, she floated into the air at increasing speed. Mary grinned at the heady feeling as she floated into the air after Amy and Will. Anti-gravity is cool.

It didn't take long to find Amy's car. It was headed toward's one of the parks. With a squeal of unforgiving tires, it came to a halt. Both of them hopped out, and ran into the woods at a headlong pace. Mary prudently landed, and reached into her back pack for a cylinder about fourteen inches long. She then crept forward, and watched as an amazing site unfolded. Amy, Will and a couple other people faced off against what looked to be like a gang of Hispanics, mimicking a fight complete with sword thrusts, and "play dead" games. You've got to be kidding? Right? Mary thought almost out loud.

She quickly realized her error as a slovenly kid looked at her and grinned. All of a sudden the world spun, and she saw. This park, it wasn't a park, it was a battlefield, with dragons and unicorns and many other monsters strewn about, and many, many wounded. The kid who had spotted her seemed to be messing with something, and pulled a fireball out of his pocket. He leered as he expected her to cringe in terror.

He was disappointed, for Mary quickly regained her composure, and activated her plasma sword (which looks way too much like a Lightsaber^tm)and charged him. The redcap's eyes bugged out, and he failed to dodge the glowing sword. He was instantly cut in half. Most of the Changelings looked on with surprise at the human. Lady Aminlia saw her opportunity, and rallied to protect her new friends. The fight was just starting this eve. And she would have to have talk with her oldest friend, Mary.

The Seelie are likely to adopt the superhumans for their own benefit. The Unseelie would manipulate them because they can affect the Banal and are immune to Banality's effects. Superhumans can be enchanted just as any other humans. Superhumans have the possibility to reduce the banality of the world, which interests all changelings very much.

745-ACE was being sent in to investigate an unusual sighting: a huge creature that ripped apart a car. Click, vrrr, chnkk. Unusual. Probability of it being a shape shifter is cataloged at 90%. Why the 10% uncertainty? It moved further into the abandoned warehouse, moving cautiously. Its eyes flickered with a red laser, targeting randomly. A sudden noise stopped it and it turned to see a young girl trying to hide behind a broken crate. The HIT Mark IV started to pull out his gun to deal with this possible threat. Even little girls could be shape shifters, after all.

The girl started, and all of a sudden seemed to swell. Instantly growing to huge proportions, a veritable giant at 25'. 745-ACE didn't even blink as he activated his pistol chain gun and gunned the oddity down. With a stuttering sound, his chain gunned deactivated.

She still breathes even as she shrinks down to normal size. A bad sign, in light of the waste of ammunition that it just used. She should be quite dead. Krhhshk, prulk, chik-k-k-k. The progenitors will know what to do with this creature. It is probably a construct of the older betrayers, the Sons of Ether.

Odd, that this did not affect reality. Such blatant magick should have warped the very air in this room

Neither the Technocracy nor the traditions like Superhumans. The exceptions are Sons of Ether and the Virtual adepts. At three dots of super powers Superhumans are considered to be awakened for Paradox and magick. This change in the paradigm could be devasting to the Technocracy's plans. Superhumans do not gain paradox. They are just like vampires and werewolves.

He heard them coming. They were trying to unlock the back door without him hearing. A quick peek out the small, lime-covered window in the bathroom proved it. Strange men wearing combat fatigues and weapons. They must have heard what happened at school, on the playground. He hadn't meant to hurt the other kid. It was an accident, even after the kid had threatened him. But the strange lightning had come out of him and struck the boy. He looked so still, and the stares from his friends. Their eyes, opened wide, shouting, freak! Freak! He wasn't even sure that the kid was alive when he ran home. And here he'd been since then.

And now these guys. They look like government, but why not come to the front door? Or maybe, they are like that T.V. show, X-Files or Millennium. Men in black. The secret government out to use "special" people. Or protect people from freaks like himself. Or worse. I can't let them catch me, or they are going to stick me in a lab. Or something worse.

Hesitation gone, he acted with an unusual sureness. Strange energy started to burst from within him, growing stronger. With a burst of lightning he shatters the wall. Looking down at the stunned agents, he intuitively lifts off the ground. With this new power he thought, they will never catch me now. And then he heard the first shots, and now the real terror begins as pain blossomed in his shoulder. Now he needed to learn how to fight for his life.

In this day and age of paranoia, it doesn't take much imagination to figure a dark group of politicians seeking to gain more power for themselves. Perhaps an invulnerable hit man, or some one who can kill with a thought. Or even their own paranoia, if someone else has one, then they might want to kill me? Dark agendas and secret cabals, with ease these could be the main menace in any chronicle.

Never underestimate the power of hatred. This same power slaughtered jews and gypsies in droves during World War II. What fears that could prey on "normal" people, about a strange freak that can kill with a gesture.

And never forget that the characters don't exist in a vacuum. They have families and friends. Will they support them, or turn their backs on them in their greatest time of need? Or will the willingly throw themselves into danger to keep the super humans alive.