Storm vs Gambit

[SomeAsianKid]

There lies a ruby the size of a basketball in the center of a steel maze, surrounded by steel walls with a puzzle combination lock, which can only be accessed through a lazer grid hallway, whose door is protected with a state of the art rotating magnetic/passcode lock, which is protected by three dozen troops, one of which has the key to open the magic box containing the ruby.

Oh, and all of this is underneath a muntain.

So who gets the ruby first??

[Chuckg]

Powerless, Gambit -- Storm's a very good thief, but he's a great one.

Powered, Storm -- she just blows straight through every obstacle with sheer brute force, and flies down hallways a lot faster than he can run down them.

[Twilight]

But Chuck, if it's a test of thier thieving skills, how does blowing through every obstacle prove anything?

[Chuckg]

The primary objective of a thief is to make somebody else's property yours, and all else is secondary to that.

If you can afford to just blow through the vault door with a bazooka -- if noise, weight, and the possibility of damaging the contents aren't a factor, IOW -- then get a bazooka. Stealth is to be used when necessary, finesse is to be used when necessary, grace is to be used when necessary...

... but when it's /not/ necessary, then there's no kill like overkill.

Granted, that's my gaming style talking. YMMV.



Addendum -- one of my favorite scenes is from "The General" SF series by David Drake and S.M. Stirling...



"If you'd told me, sir, we might have arranged a more... elegant solution without extra troops."

Raj sighed, looking around. The civilians were still indoors, apart from a few who'd tried to follow the Brigaderos over the river, and died with them. The fires were burning sullenly, smoke pillaring straight up in the calm chill air. He reached into a saddle bag and pulled out a walnut, one of a bag Suzette had tucked in for him.

"Major," he said, "this is an elegant way to crack a walnut."

He squeezed one carefully between thumb and forefinger of his sword hand. The shells parted, and he extracted the meat and flicked it into his mouth.

"And it can work. However." He put another in the palm of his left hand, raised his right fist and smashed it down. The nut shattered, and he shook the pieces to the ground. "This way always works. Very few operations have ever failed because too many troops were used. Use whatever you've got."

-- _The Steel_, by David Drake and S.M. Stirling, chapter 3

[Twilight]

Actually, I'd say the goal of a thief is to take something that's not theirs and not get caught at it for as long as possible, preferably never. In this case the elegant way leaves as little traces as possible and increases the odds of getting away with it, the direct approach sets off alarms and whatnot.

[Hermit]

I'll give it to Gambit, but both should be glad that Catwoman is in the DC universe ;)

[Chuckg]

Originally posted by Twilight
Actually, I'd say the goal of a thief is to take something that's not theirs and not get caught at it for as long as possible, preferably never. In this case the elegant way leaves as little traces as possible and increases the odds of getting away with it, the direct approach sets off alarms and whatnot.

Yes, which is why most thieves /usually/ use the elegant approach.

However, in a one-off scenario such as this, it doesn't matter -- you listed all the guards that would come running to the alarm,and Storm can just zap-bolt 'em all. And she'll be gone long before the cops arrive. Therefore, guards don't matter.

Strong-arm robbery is just as much a part of thievery as cat burglary, after all, and both of them have their ads and their disads. :)

[Gary]

Originally posted by Chuckg
Yes, which is why most thieves /usually/ use the elegant approach.

However, in a one-off scenario such as this, it doesn't matter -- you listed all the guards that would come running to the alarm,and Storm can just zap-bolt 'em all. And she'll be gone long before the cops arrive. Therefore, guards don't matter.

Strong-arm robbery is just as much a part of thievery as cat burglary, after all, and both of them have their ads and their disads. :)

Guards do matter. The stealthy elegant approach means that the cops have no idea who did the job. The brute force approach means that Storm just got a bunch of 14- hunteds on her character sheet. :)

[Chuckg]

Really? Who'd she rob? :D

(Seriously, if you already have 'Hunted By Cops' on your character sheet, as long as you don't *kill* the guards, you're losing nothing. The 'Ogre Smash!' theory of bank robbery, for example, can't get Ogre into any trouble that he's not in already.)

Subtlety definitely has its place, I will agree.

OTOH, it's not necessarily a religion. :)

[Southern Cross]

True enough-but weather control powers can be used with finesse too.Remember,Storm's weather powers can also be used to control TEMPERATURE as well.Storm can use fog to spot laser beams,and the power room isn't likely to be as well guarded as the treasure room.By increasing the heat in a room,Storm could easily knock out anyone in that enclosed space.

[Gary]

Hey, nothing about this said that it's a criminal that they're robbing. ;)

Since when does Storm have Hunted by Cops on her character sheet? And even if she does, it would only be a 8-.

[Chuckg]

Last I checked, the X-Men's legal status was "outlaw" again -- granted, that's a status that flips back and forth faster than quantum particles...

Besides, if we're assuming that she's robbing somebody /not/ a criminal, she has obviously resumed her old thieving career for reasons unknown to us.

Note -- to try and change the subject *g*, I will agree with whoever said that if Selina Kyle were anywhere near her, by the time they reached that vault, they'd find it empty. :D

[Gary]

Big difference between Hunted 5- by cops (and that's all it appears to be) and Hunted 14-. Not to mention the negative reputation that she'd pick up.

The Ruby could be some mystic gem that belongs to a legitimate owner, but someone else wants to steal it to open the gates of Hell. That would explain why she would steal it from a non-criminal.

[Chuckg]

Then why are Storm and Gambit /racing/ to it, rather than working in tandem? :D

(Besides, a simple meta-powered smash-and-grab isn't a 14- Hunted, save in that local jurisdiction and only for a while -- I mean, jeez, it's the MU. They must get six metahuman bank robberies a week, at least in NYC.)

[Gary]

Yeah, but it's genre convention that "good guys" who turn to evil get slammed much harder.

I could easily see Storm and Gambit's personalities clashing. And it's possible that neither one knows that the other is on the case.