Superhero Aftermath Idea

[AndyZ]

I tend to have this idea whenever the CW superhero shows come back into season.  I'm not going to run it, and I don't even know what I'd play, but I like the idea and figure I should post it.  No knowledge of the CW shows required.

This idea deviates from normal reality around the 1930s, when superheroes started to actively become a thing.  The first generation were your standard superheroes and supervillains, perhaps one in a million individuals.

Around the 1960s, you had people actively coming into their powers around puberty, maybe one in a hundred thousand individuals.  They tended to run the gamut, and while many of them opted for the traditional superhero or supervillain route, the government started to take in and accept such individuals for various programs.  Elite training programs were put together not unlike for the astronauts, creating Superspies.  Imagine Mystique with the powers of James Bond.

Cities declared themselves as either Superhuman-Inclusive or Humanity Sanctuaries, either welcoming all those with extraordinary abilities or outlawing them entirely.  Each city ran the gamut of experiences, and while some would use rubber bullets on teenagers manifesting their abilities for the first time, others employed superhumans as part of their police force.

During the 1990s, while perhaps one in ten thousands individuals demonstrated abilities, the Superhuman Registration Program started.  Well before the human genome was fully understood and mapped, every human - super or otherwise - was expected to have DNA on file as part of any sort of public benefits package.  Most people did, though a number chose to flaunt the system and live without public care.

As time moved on, more and more open superhumans became involved in the workforce, using their powers to great effect.  A single superhuman with plant control can feed an entire city simply by growing staple crops much faster than they could ever grow on their own.  The ability to fly can be exceptionally useful in a dance crew, or working construction.  Expensive machinery isn't necessary when you can bend steel in your bare hands.

Not everywhere wanted or appreciated the new workforce applicants, and quite a few unions attempted to ban them entirely from particular jobs.  However, as decades passed and a single superhuman worker could replace a dozen, the rules of economics separated places with "human effort" in the same way as a "union label" and "Fair trade coffee."

By the current year (2017/2018), life has more or less normalized that superhumans are here to stay, and perhaps one in a thousand people is super.  Nearly everyone has met at least one supernatural person, and prejudice is the (occasionally vocal) minority.  Many jobs which used to be part of an entire team are now handled by single individuals or very small teams which rotate shifts, and machines like cranes and bulldozers are going the way of the horse and buggy.

As a necessary side effect, unemployment is at 15% and is expected to continue to rise.  For every one healer, you have over a dozen doctors and nurses whose employment is no longer necessary, and while the middle-aged are simply being phased out by time, the youth without exceptional talents are tossed into a society that has no place for them.

I don't know what would be done with a game like this, I imagine it'd be more a slice of life in the new setting, but I figured I'd share it and see what people thought, and if anyone wanted to run it.