Help: Sniper Syndrome

[DocMan]

Move the combat to a maze of underground tunnels?

LET him move away from the rest of the party when combat begins... where he is ambushed by the SECOND set of villians who have an entangle that is linked to an Armor surpressor.

Introduce him to a flying speedster who makes a hobby of peeling Armor Suits. No TIME to move away!

Doc

[Prometheus]

You could also try putting the characters in a situation where they have to close in- a chase or a hostage situation. A villain that turns corners suddenly, changes direction, or runs indoors would confound your sniper. If the villains take hostages, the sniper may decide that setting up across the street and waiting for a peach shot is a good idea, but what happens if the bad guys are smart enough to draw the blinds?

Move your battles to a more restricted area. A sniper isn't going to have alot of places to run and hide in a cramped and twisting space like a sewer. A game of cat and mouse in a crate filled warehouse would be good, or you could just have a fight at night. These are also good places to amush the sniper and demonstrate how runnning off alone isn't always a good idea.

Maybe have the team save a collapsing building or stop a runaway train. If the team brick can't outrace the train, the sniper will have to get more directly involved- blowing the engine off the track is a Bad Idea.

With some luck the player will slowly realize that there are other options in the middle of action and that running away to snipe isn't always the best solution.

[Blue]

It's pretty bad anytime you have to modify an adventure to deal with a specific PC.

Method #1: SHAME. Newsbroadcasters, bystanders, etc, should not treat him kindly in the "post fight analysis".

Reporter: "What did you think of the heroes?"
Bystander: "They were cool, except for that guy that was hiding while his friends were getting beat up."
Reporter: "And there you have it, folks. A team of valiant heroes and one *ahem*...cautious one defeat a bitter enemy. Back to you in the studio."

Method #2: THE LURKER. An invisible enemy lurking away from the scene can be trouble. Suddenly sniper guy has someone on his back.

Method #3: MY GUN IS BIGGER. Grenade launchers. Rocket Launchers. Anything that eliminates cover. Your foe doesn't have to be as accurate as you if he can hit everything in your area.

Method #4: TOO MUCH COVER. There's smoke, walls, darkness, etc. obscuring line of sight. Gotta move in, like the rest of the team.

[Vondy]

Try a few of the following:

1) a high speed combat that moves through those winding and narrow european alleys - force him to follow the combat - and make sure there's enough twists and turns that he has to follow it fairly closely.

2) arrange for some combats to be inside where there aren't huge, open fields available.

3) put bystanders and obstacles into the combat. innocents running around flailing their arms, or garbage and semi trucks that break down or get disabled, in his line of fire will make the greater distance... problematic.

4) have the villians react the way any one else would when there's a sniper. Have them take cover or move the fight indoors (ugh! now he has to go up to the line of scrimage)

5) can be mixed with four - put an artillery piece on the field - someone with a big energy blast and lots of levels like he has. Oculon is scary these days.

And if the villians know his tactics...

have the artillery piece concealed in a position of cover taking full advantage of the suprise rules to blast him with.

I suspect - once the player realized his tactics are creating trouble for him he'll start looking for new tactics.

[Emerald Mask]

I have had this problems gming in games before the worst being a character I dubbed Mind Guy. He had Mind scan and x-ray vision and a mental blast. At the time I did not forsee the problems- until he started setting 2 blocks away from the action and sniping from inside resteraunts etc. Eventually he spawned his own nemisi including a mentalist with the same powers only more points plus an invisible to mind powers and sight semi-brick semi- martail artist. He hated when these caharacters showed up but their frequency of apperance was tied to his actions. When he stayed with the group they rarely bothered him. I did not do this to punish the pc but to stop a game disruption. The plyer really just wanted to take evey body out in one shot and not be intrested in the game just the fight.

[lemming]

I have had this problems gming in games before the worst being a character I dubbed Mind Guy. He had Mind scan and x-ray vision and a mental blast.

Heh. Chromatic had a similar character, but he made it just to bug the GM into allowing his old character back. it worked.

[ghost-angel]

nuke him frim orbit, it's the only way to be sure.


More seriously... our group mentalist does this kind of thing - sits in the coffee shop on the other side of town and uses Mind Link with powers usable through the mind link on the enemy. No danger to him. yeesh. Let me know if any of the suggested tactics work at all so I can give them to our GM to get our own Sniper Type into the fray.

I liked one of the first suggestions about adding a better counter-sniper.. give them full invisibility and an Inivisible Power Effects Naked Modifier for firearms .. then have the uber-sniper hunt him down.

[Vondy]

nuke him frim orbit, it's the only way to be sure.


More seriously... our group mentalist does this kind of thing - sits in the coffee shop on the other side of town and uses Mind Link with powers usable through the mind link on the enemy. No danger to him. yeesh. Let me know if any of the suggested tactics work at all so I can give them to our GM to get our own Sniper Type into the fray.

I liked one of the first suggestions about adding a better counter-sniper.. give them full invisibility and an Inivisible Power Effects Naked Modifier for firearms .. then have the uber-sniper hunt him down.

The mentalist in my game does this, but the psychic bond they generally use is purchased with feedback, and they can be flashed through the clairvoyance power that allows them to use the other characters senses (and the mentalist takes X2 damage from sonic attacks).

[Half Baked]

I'd steer away from specifically building villains to defeat the sniper and his modus operandi. Players tend to feel victimised when that happens. I'd try multiple strategies with the player:

1. Have a quiet chat about what you expect from characters in your game. Also point out how the villains might use such an obvious MO against his character (see below).

2. Introduce a battle in an enviroment where the character cannot just move, hide and snipe. The interior of a building or a cave, or even an items they have to grab. the fight should be in the characters' favour and be entertaining. Use villains who the players will enjoying beating up on. Bulldozer would be a personal favourite. Run the fight as exciting as you can and let the player enjoy winning a fight close in. It might open their eyes to how much fun it can be.

3. Vilains should start taking advantage of his MO. The first attack might be a feint, while the stronger team waits to locate and beat up on the character. Being isolated from his teammates should make that easy. Allow the other characters to easily win their fight, but be too far away to help our sniper. Have supervillain teams always leave a team member or two spare to search and destroy.

4. Good idea about media coverage being unfavourable. Make sure it is not just superfical, but effects how scenes turn out. FOr example, the child he screams out to all and sunder, "There's Sniperboy. That's him, behimd that hedge." The enemy begin to train their weapons on aforementioned hedge.

5. I like the lower Experience Point rewards idea too. Make sure you explain before hand that it will start to happen and the reasons why.

6. His MO might start attracting rivals who work in the same manner. Laser or Mechanon might start hunting him to prove who is the best sniper.

7. Another strategy is just to encourage the player to take powers that can be used by a sniper, but are more useful. A blast with Double Knockback that he might use to knock an opponent down in front of the brick and provide a tactical advantage. An entangle could be used in the same way.

[Witch Doctor]

Here's an idea I've been thinking about which will work in this case and in others.
After every combat, have the -players- vote on which of their characters had the coolest move. Then give that character an extra character point or some other freebie.
The players will end up competing with one another for the recognition and prize. That will get them into the four-color atmosphere.

[Supreme Serpent]

Superscience can come in handy. Dr. Device builds some stuff, starts equiping villain teams with them.

Large Force Wall generator, that villains activate once fight underway, trapping all in immediate area in the "bubble of combat". Can either do it before sniper has a chance to get away, or do it after he leaves, so that he's cut off from the fight.

Quantum Inverse Force Belts - generate force field that is more effective the further away the attack came from. Attack from a few inches away, no real extra def. Attack from 50" out, basically invulnerable.

Inviso-bombs. Make everyone in the area invisible - heroes, villains, civilians. Villains will have extra device to allow them to see properly, but the heroes, esp ranged combatants, will be at a serious disadvantage. Wonder how many bystanders are between you and where you think your target is?

Have someone remotely control his armor and snipe the heroes. They'll find creative ways to deal with him. Use those ideas.

Dr. Accellerator, Master of Motion, can speed up time in his local area. Anyone close to him is going really fast, anyone far away is at normal time. This allows him to commit his crimes and get away before anyone can respond. The heroes close to him will be acting normally, but those outside will have time progress at the relative speed of 1 turn per segment (ie 2 turns of combat w/Dr. Accellerator for rest of heroes, sniper gets to segment 2).

[Jhereg]

I'd steer away from specifically building villains to defeat the sniper...

Agreed. The real test of a GM in this case it subtlety.

[sbarron]

Most of these posts seem to deal with ways of structuring combat to either 1) hurt the sniper because of his tactics, or 2) make the sniper useless because of his tactics.

But those solutions don't address the problem, IMHO. The problem seems to be that the player is afraid his character will get hurt. Neither of these solutions addresses that fact.

Since it seems that talking to him hasn't worked, first, I think you need to show him that his character is relatively safe in close-up fights. And I know this sounds weak because you are catering to his punk-a$$...but you said he was almost a brick, right? Maybe you should have him attacked by a group of agents with blaster rifles that just bounce off of him. Or have some lesser brick take a shot at him that his character doesn't even feel. Anything that will demonstrate to him that his character is relatively safe, even if he gets hit.

Secondly, how do you suppose his character would react if the rest of the team is taken out, and his character was the last one standing? Would he try to save the others and stop the bad guys by joining the fray? Or head for the hills? Is his character heroic at all? The peer pressure from letting the team down when they needed him most might change him. And on the flip side, by saving the team by getting into the mix, the player may decide the team needs him to be close, because he is so valuable to them. Either way, you are giving him a reason to get into the mix.

A D&D mindset can be such that the player sees it as good to ensure that his character lives, even if the rest of the party dies. That may be what is happening here. He is making sure that his character lives, regardless of the consequences. Trying to hurt his character because of his tactics will only make him bitter. Making him feel responsible for ensuring team survival by being in close is a much better way to address his issue.

I hate catering to wimps, myself. But letting him learn to be heroic rather than forcing him to is the better the way to go.

[BlackSword]

Large Force Wall generator, that villains activate once fight underway, trapping all in immediate area in the "bubble of combat". Can either do it before sniper has a chance to get away, or do it after he leaves, so that he's cut off from the fight.

I like those ideas. This one seems very devious, though I would vote for having him caught inside the bubble. This way several outcomes may occur:
-He realizes he can get in close combat and not be beat to a pulp (so thats why there's a three digit number next PD)
-He screams like a girl and scratches and hits the force wall trying to get out. The front page of the newspaper the next day has a picture of him trying to claw his way out titled, "The new face of Heroes in Century City."

Locking him outside may deliver the hint, but since you still have to fight out a combat it means the player will have a long time of just watching. Having been in games where I've had to sit out for an hour of combat because some weird GM fiat, I try to include everyone in combat or other actions. Just too many bad experiences with GMs forgetting about players.

[Supreme Serpent]

Most of these posts seem to deal with ways of structuring combat to either 1) hurt the sniper because of his tactics, or 2) make the sniper useless because of his tactics.

But those solutions don't address the problem, IMHO. The problem seems to be that the player is afraid his character will get hurt. Neither of these solutions addresses that fact.

(snip)

I hate catering to wimps, myself. But letting him learn to be heroic rather than forcing him to is the better the way to go.

Given the description, and the fact that the GM has tried to address it with him to no avail, makes me think that such tactics won't work. The player will be upset that they agents could actually get to him and *hit* him, regardless of if they did damage, etc. I strongly suspect that this player would merely gloat and point out his own safety if the rest of the team got creamed, not be upset that he "didn't do enough to help."

So, I think that he needs to be retrained. After a few times of his existing tactics not working, he should start trying other things - which the GM can reward. After a while, these new tactics and impulses will become his standard, and become his new habits. The invisible fencing can be taken away, and he'll still stay in the yard.