Minority Report - NonLethal weapons

[Boll Weevil]

The little lady and I finally saw Minority Report. If you haven't seen it yet, my wife and I BOTH liked it which is rare and ,IMO, a glowing endorsement.

I didn't like everything, but it is a very watchable movie. What I was most impressed was the cadre of non-lethal weapons employed by the police department. Jetpacks and flying cars are futuristic movie must-haves if not so realistic. The non-lethal police gear though was absolutely believable. As a resident of a city rife with anti-police brutality sentiment, I thought the "sick-sticks" and what I can only describe as a Knockback cannon were truly inspired.

Has anyone attempted to write up such weapons or have any homespun non-lethal police weapons you would like to share?

[TheEmerged]

The Cincinnati Police: Condemned if they do their job, condemned if they don't. I understand we're already over 16 homicides this year.

Seriously, though, the most wonderful invention for police in the NeoChampions Universe is the SPAM Gun (Serve/Protect/Assault Mechanism). Basically a 4-slot multipower: 8-shot RKA, 16-shot NND, 4 Shot Force Wall, 1-shot entangle.

[Lord Liaden]

I've gotten a lot of mileage over the years out of the old Gadgets supplement for 3rd Edition Champions, which included a fair-sized selection of non-lethal weaponry. My favorite is the "Hyper-Velocity Pellet Gun", which fires an .11 caliber "soft" pellet which flattens on impact, for high stopping power with low lethality. It was written up as a 1D6 RKA with +6 STUN Multiplier. (The point totals for that came out higher than they would under current 5E rules.) That was the basic pistol version; the assault rifle version added Autofire.

Another cool one is the "Flash/Smoke Dual Action Pump Shotgun", which fired rounds of Flash and Darkness to Sight ammo. The shotgun is double-barreled, with each barrel feeding off a separate clip. It was written up as a Multipower with Charges in clips for each slot.

[Boll Weevil]

TheEmerged, are any of your campaigns set in modern Cincinnati? Is this Spam gun yours or is it published?

I had forgotten about Gadgets. My favorite was the rocket skates. Gadgets read like the Acme catalogue. I would buy a FrEd Gadgets book.

[Lord Liaden]

Then you are in luck, friend Weevil! The HERO publication schedule includes the Gadgets and Gear supplement, tentatively scheduled for early 2004. The description reads like the original Gadgets (which was one of the most useful of the old Champs supplements to me), raised to a higher power. Definitely on my "buy" list. :)

[TheEmerged]

SPAM Gun: Mine. Feel free to steal it :)

As for my campaigns, the PC's (villains in the current one) generally operate out of Butler County (just to the north of Cincinnati) but tend to move around a lot. Next adventure session takes place in Paris Kentucky for example...