Real Life Super Powers/Sandbox

Power can take many forms. When fiction is Like Reality Unless Noted, any power is something that requires Skill, Knowledge, Resources and time limited to quantities only possible in Real Life. The more of these things a person lacks without sacrificing power, the more unrealistic their power becomes. At the other end of the spectrum, abilities with NO grounding in reality will be a super-power. Often, these abilties are fantastical, and take forms such as Magic, Telekinesis, Super Strength or Flight.

Somewhere in the middle, there are superpowers which are still considered "mundane". In theory, any human could possess them, but most of us don't except in small quantities. For this reason, people that have them in abundance can be considered "superpowered": having the ability to influence the world several times greater than the average person. However, the source of these powers still comes from a Real Life skill, knowledge, or resource acquired over enough time to make it plausible.

As an example, let us take a character who is known for using her beauty to get her way. If said character is beautiful to anyone, in spite of any circumstances and variables that can affect how beautiful she is, then she has a fantastical superpower called "Glamour". On the other hand, let's assume her beauty requires upkeep, modification, cosmetics, or skill, with the risk of being ruined by something as simple as a scar or a person of the wrong sexual orientation. Now, she has a Real Life Super Powers.

A more complete list of Real Life Super Powers include:


 * Beauty: Their good looks alone change the way others react to them.
 * Intelligence: Intelligence tends to be used as a justification for just about anything in fiction.
 * Skill: Essentially, the person is a Badass.
 * Political Influence/Leadership/Charisma: A person who can inspire, trick, or motivate almost anyone to do anything.
 * Fame/Infamy: Not the same as charisma; this is when a person's reputation alone carries tremendous weight.
 * Money: Especially in cases of Fiction 500 or Crimefighting with Cash.
 * Physical Presence: Usually used to threaten rather than attack.
 * Superior Arms: Same as Physical Presence, except using weaponry or munitions to intimidate or neutralize threats.
 * Luck: Sometimes known as the Right Man in the Wrong Place. (Less frequent than the others as it's often a case of supernatural forces or, at worst, can seem like an Ass Pull.)

Demythtification thrives on this and it often overlaps with Badass Normal.

Compare with Charles Atlas Superpower, when justification for the demonstrated abilities is so flimsy that they officially cross over into Magic and Powers territory.

Thanks to the Anthropic Principle, these abilities are often used as a Hand Wave, and in turn, how they got these abilities is often Hand Waved to preserve Law of Conservation of Detail. If we never see them use them, even in situations it would be relevant, they are an Informed Ability.

'''Please limit examples to characters who really stand out in the work. If all the characters are Badass Samurai, we can skip that work.'''

Anime and Manga

 * Spandam in One Piece is weaker than an ordinary footsoldier but has a high position in the World Government forces, thus allowing him to influence his underlings in ways to give our heroes just as much trouble as any other villain, if not more. He is also a fairly competent strategist, though a total jerk.
 * The protagonist of Darker Than Black is so skilled he was known for being able to kill Contractors even without using his powers.

Comics

 * Batman has absolutely ALL of these. In a way, leadership is his weakest attribute. But regardless of this, he still practically runs his own private militia of bat-and-bird themed vigilantes in Gotham.
 * Likewise, Nightwing as well, except he has the leadership part covered. In fact, that's arguably his greatest attribute, although it's hard to tell since he's good at ALL of them.
 * Black Widow's beauty lets her gain the trust of people she wants to manipulate.
 * The Punisher has the kind of skills you'd only expect from people in fiction, namely the ability to kill numerous (evil) people in limited time...and his way of pulling off such feats includes (but is not limited to) skill with blades, knowing how to physically break people, the ability to murder a man with his bare hands, and LOTS of guns, bombs and bullets. And all of this comes from his extensive military training, the kind you could realistically get as a Navy SEAL or Marine. (The MAX series, which is far Darker and Edgier and is steeped in greater realism than the Marvel-616 universe, takes this and runs it Up to Eleven.)
 * Originally, Captain America was supposed to have peak human speed and strength, though whether or not intelligence is included depended on the author. He has since gone onto superhuman territory, but this original Cap was not meant to be capable of anything more than a human could realistically do.

Film

 * John McClane from Die Hard is the Trope Codifier for film.

Live Action TV

 * This is the premise for the reality TV series, Stan Lee's Superhumans.

Western Animation

 * In Justice League Unlimited Lex Luthor (intially) doesn't posses any supernatural power like the Justice League does. However, he becomes more dangerous than the superpowered villains when he manages to discredit the League.
 * David Xanatos from Gargoyles is smart and charismatic enough to become the Gargoyles' greatest foe through indirect manipulation.
 * General Malaise in Ozzy and Drix has no physical prowess by himself, but instead attacks immune systems en masse with his private army of Red Shirts. The rest of this series's Rogues Gallery is either superpowered or supernatural.
 * Princess Morbucks in The Powerpuff Girls can spend as much money as she needs; her plots are Screw the Rules, I Have Money in their purest essence, from buying top engineers to produce weaponry for her to buying the local government altogether.

Video Games

 * Master Chief from Halo is stated to be the "luckiest" of all the Spartans many times throughout the franchise. He is also the only known Spartan to survive (as the player-controlled hero).