SOTF Supers: Setting Information!

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This thread contains all the important setting information for SOTF: Supers! The world of SOTF: Supers is much like our own, except every human in the world has their own, unique superpower.

Table of Contents

1. Summary
2. The Powers
3. The World

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Summary

• SOTF: Supers takes place in the United States in an alternate universe where every human being has some kind of unique superpower.
• The world was completely identical to the real world until the year of 1973, at which point an event called The Emergence occurred.
• After The Emergence occurred, every human being alive gained a unique superpower of their own, and every human being born afterwards had their own unique power as well.
• These powers manifest in an incredibly wide variety of ways, from new and supernatural abilities to physical changes to the body, and came to be known as Gifts.
• Once the initial chaos of the event died down in the following years, society quickly normalized the new, strange powers that everyone had, and the world proceeded almost as if the event had never happened.
• As fantastic as these superpowers were, they would eventually come to be treated for the most part as nothing more than unique traits and banal facts of life, with rare exceptions for those that possessed uniquely dangerous Gifts.
• For children born after The Emergence occurred, their powers usually become evident around the ages of 2-5, though more dangerous powers or powers that alter the child's appearance would often become obvious in infancy.
• Despite the fact that everyone in the world has superpowers, what we would call superheroes and supervillains are not present. While criminals do use their powers for nefarious ends, and there are (illegal) vigilantes that take action using their own powers, nobody has that kind of world-shaking impact on their own, and anyone running around in brightly colored tights or performing feats of power in public are generally thought of as being lunatics.

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The Powers

• These powers are called Gifts by the population at large, due to their usually beneficial or at least benign nature, and the inherent uniqueness of each and every power.
• Approximately 55% of the population have Gifts that would be described as beneficial or useful to them, 40% of the population have Gifts that would be described as being benign, and 5% of the population have Gifts that would be described as being harmful to them.
• When coming up with your character's Gift, there are a few guidelines that you should keep in mind:
  • No two Gifts are ever wholly identical, each one being unique to the person who has it. While many Gifts are similar to one another and can often achieve the same ends, the exact specifics of how they work and their various limitations differ from individual to individual.
  • Each Gift only ever encompasses only one power. While these powers can have varied applications, they are never a package deal. For instance, a Gift might allow someone to shoot gouts of flame out of their palms, but it won't make them inflammable, or able to endure the resulting heat better than anyone else.
  • No single Gift ever has world-changing power, and the ends that most Gifts can achieve are almost always capable of being done through mundane means, even if the Gift is (significantly) more convenient.
  • All Gifts come with drawbacks or limitations of some kind, and more powerful Gifts generally come with the worst drawbacks of all. These limitations are often as unique as the Gift themselves, varying from the Gift backfiring on its user or being hard to control, to the power only working under specific conditions, to having specific situations that nullify its usefulness.
  • Make sure to carefully consider how your character's Gift would have impacted their life, especially in the cases of very dangerous or unusual Gifts. Your character will have had their Gift since early childhood, and if it is anything greater than some mild change in appearance or a mild convenience, it will likely shape their development one way or another.
  • Note that Gifts are a part of a character's very being not dissimilar to how your own arms and eyes are. They are fundamental to their existence, and as such every character has some intuitive understanding of how their Gift works. However, actually utilizing their Gift in a practical manner will usually take practice (provided it's not an entirely passive effect), just like practicing any skill. Unless they have actively trained their abilities in a way not dissimilar to training their mind, dexterity, or strength, most characters will be inexperienced at using their Gift in a fight.
  • Finally, keep in mind that your character will most likely die as a result of rolls, no matter how powerful or unkillable their Gift makes them in-character. As such, characters who have Gifts that make it so they have no means of feasibly being killed (such regeneration without any strings attached) will be denied and have changes requested. If you want your character to have a purely defensive Gift, make sure to include built-in weaknesses (eg. maybe they can regenerate everything except their brain, maybe their skin is bulletproof but their eyes are not, etc.).
• Power suppressants exist in the setting as conventional medication. Specifically, nervous system depressants cause use and expression of powers to be dampened (though, they do not get rid of them, and have no effect on changes in appearance caused by one's power). Benzodiazepines, commonly prescribed for anxiety and epilepsy, are the most commonly prescribed medication for this purpose.
• Despite significant scientific study, not much is understood about the true nature and inner workings of Gifts, and how The Emergence occurred. A few details, such as the effects of sedatives suppressing or weakening Gifts suggest that it is some kind of neurological phenomenon, but scientists are not sure.
• The details of every person's respective Gift in the United States is documented in a government registry not long after their power initially manifests. This information is not publicly accessible, but is sometimes used by law enforcement to identify criminals.

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The World

The-World-At-Large

• Overall human history hasn't diverged very much from the real world. The same wars, social upheavals, and changes in leadership all remain the same.
• Various world leaders that came to power after 1973 usually differ from their real world counterparts as a direct result of The Emergence, but serve the same function and historical role.
• Always make sure to seek permission before mentioning any significant world leader (such as the president of a country) by name. Established leaders (and their Gifts) will be added to this document in this section as they are created.
  • The current president of the United States is a man named Tom Reynolds, a conservative Democrat that was elected in opposition to his opponent. Known for his safe rhetoric and lack of desire to disrupt the status-quo, he serves as the game's analogue to Joe Biden. His Gift is "Sparks", and allows him to produce small streams of firecracker-like sparks from his fingertips.
  • The president of the United States immediately prior to the current one as of the time of the game is a man named Jeffrey King, a wealthy business magnate who was elected to office using a wave of right-wing populism. Known for his inflammatory statements and nationalist rhetoric, he serves as the game's analogue to Donald Trump. His Gift is "Megaphone", and allows him to speak very loudly, as if amplified by a megaphone.
• No permission is required to mention leaders prior to the year of 1973, as they are exactly the same as their real world counterparts.
• Superhero comic books do exist, but mostly went out of style after The Emergence due to hitting too close to home for the general public's taste. Almost all superhero comics made before The Emergence were discontinued in its aftermath, and superhero media nowadays is limited to mostly underground indie works, and is generally unpopular and frowned upon by greater society.
• Most non-superhero media that exist in the real world do also exist within the world of SOTF: Supers, including those that focus on non-powered individuals, reflecting a reality where The Emergence never occurred. The overall genre of works centered around this non-powered reality is referred to as Verisimilism in-universe (the individual works being referred to as Verisimilist), from the word verisimilitude.
• Various death game works (such as Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, etc) do exist within SOTF: Supers, unlike SOTF Main and several Minis.

The Town & School

• Your characters live in the town of Bend, Oregon, the fifth largest town in the state located roughly near the center, with an estimated population of a bit over 100,000 residents.
• Your characters go to school at Duniway High School (named for Abigail Scott Duniway).
• The school's principal is an older man named Louie Price, known by the student body as being a stickler for rules and generally being uptight. He tends to be fairly quick to punish students who misbehave, leading to disdain, though students who have no behavioral issues typically don't think much of him. His Gift is "Exceptional Hearing", and allows him to clearly hear sounds too quiet for normal human ears, something that tends to annoy students who want to talk bad about him behind his back.
• The biology teacher and organizer of the field trip is the middle-aged Alyson Duffy. She is a friendly, warm individual who's passionate about teaching and generally beloved by the student body for her attitude and very forgiving grading policy. Her Gift is "Frosty", and causes a thin layer of frost to form on her skin, especially when her emotions (positive or negative) are running high.
• The School Resource Officer is Hayden Phelps. He is a gruff, older man who isn't very sociable, and known around the school for his short temper and general disdain for the children around him. His Gift is "Goat Horns", and it causes him to have a set of goat-like horns growing out the top of his head.