WWYCD: Flash Mobs Ransack City Stores!

[wcw43921]

Has this happened to you as a player-hero?  Could your character punch over a hundred people in the mouth?  Or could you find a better way to handle the matter?

[Tom Cowan]

Mr Chiller: "OK, Ice cell for each.  Line them up and spit them out one by one to the cops.  Ah, may need some help with a few hundred tons of ice that I made."

 

[LoneWolf]

 My character Devil Advocate that has a 50 PRE would destroy some large object and deliver a good soliloquy and hit them with about a 12+ dice PRE attack.  After that use his persuasion to get them to line up neatly for when the officers arrive on the scene from processing.  It’s been a while since I played the character, but I think I had a couple of skill levels that I can use for persuasion.  That should give me an 11 or less after taking the -10 penalty for extraordinary skill use.  

[Hermit]

Eel aka Fish Guy is a brick, not much in range or land movement (Good leaper though) so he might have some trouble. That said, he could do a ground stomp (A gentle one) and knock a small group of them on their asses. A smarter move might be to lock a few doors and guard the remaining exit. It would take a long while but getting past him would not be easy. Still, I'd be surprised if he even caught a third of them. He would definitely give a 'what the hell is wrong with you, people' speech while sending for back up. Top priority would be to make sure no innocents got stampeded.

 

Pogo- isn't as experienced as some, but if she kept her head and found her groove? She'd bounce around like a fricking pinball and clobber one squad of thieves after the other, chattering the whole time. She'd have a much better capture score than Eel. She might also knock down a lot of merchandise from shelves... but "crime stopped, you're weeelcome!"

 

Aspirant- A telepath, Aspirant would realize he couldn't tag that many minds but then he wouldn't need to. Read thoughts, takes names, plans, and addresses, and either inform the police, or, if he feels particularly cruel, go talk to each individual's mother later that evening.

 

Lady Obsidian - Matriarch of the team with force projecting power armor has this easily. Force domes, entangles for individuals or groups? And yes, if need be blocking the doors. They would not have a chance. And then they'd get that disappointed church lady lecture that would just.. just crush them!

 

Trailblazer - Another speedster (a runner) with fire blazing abilities... she has some anxieties and might be worried she'll mess up and hurt someone. So, it all depends if she makes her ego check so to speak. If she makes it? She hits her playlist for crowd control to find her center (Most likely the song "Riot" by the Dead Kennedy's. It's SUPER Old but Pinprick suggested it and she found she liked it). Speedsters are good at  crowd control, Area of Effect blasting speedsters? I estimate she would get 80 % of them. Now if she failed that Ego roll? She gets maybe 30% herself, and a few of them have some really bad burns and will need medical attention. She's working on it!

 

Pinprick - He would have a blast. He can be a jerk sometimes, and he would go for not just take downs, but humiliating take downs. The diminutive magic archer would shrink folks so they felt the store was a giant maze. He'd target belt buckles for a ranged take away and leave them with pants around their ankles.  You want to leave? Too late, doors are already locked thanks to arrows wedged just right. Oh a few might make it out, sure, but the would be thieves are about to be caught on security cameras and soon will be on the web as laughing stocks.  Actions like this may explain why Pinprick has a decently sized 'hunted' list

 

Valorosa - Another Brick, but one who relies on Density shifting. There are no barriers that stop her, that's for sure. If one seemed to be acting as a ring leader she'd target that one first and then take him down as a demonstration, announce to the others anyone who put their stolen goods down NOW could keep their faces from hitting floor. How well the PRE attack goes varies but it can't hurt. Besides, she now has their ringleader, trusting that detective work (Or a telepathic friend) could help uncover who was arranging these things and how to track down the members. She's not the detective her Uncle is, but she is no slouch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gauntlet]

My Character Continuous has extremely fast regeneration. He was able to defeat a rather nasty brick using it but continuously insulting him while the brick continued to beat on him. Eventually the brick realized what was going on and wrapped him in metal and threw him across the bay. But unfortunately for him by the time he did that the rest of Continuous's team had beaten his team and were able to join up and take him down.

[Tech]

Time for toothfairy to start collecting teeth...

[Gauntlet]

Yea, but Continuous's teeth grew back in a matter of seconds. 😁

[steriaca]

Humm...

 

None of my heros have anything to calm down a crowd.

 

John Roberts (the man who was the teen superhero Sunburn): Will try to use his media skills as SSN reporter and infamous exsuperhero to calm the crowd. And if that fails, help coordinate the heroes. 

 

Elenjar (Tenchi Morosoto): His main focus is to protect his DNPC (she made a wish on the Goddess Help Line for someone cool like Elenjar to protect her forever, and the Ultimate Force WILL enforce the wish, no matter what). Once she is safe (and kept safe), he tries to call his mother Beldandy and his aunties to help calm the mob down.

 

Note: Elenjar is still just a concept, considering his origin as Beldandy's son and how bleeping powerful he should be but probably can't be just yet...

[Tom Cowan]

non-lethal AoE powers, be it entangles, mental attacks or others, may be of limited use till you need to safely remove the mind controlled crowd from the battle, the villain hiding in the crowd that is running away... 

[Pattern Ghost]

I haven't played in foreeeeeever, but I'll play along, with a twist. I'll use my Golden Age themed "team" consisting of my "main" Champions Online (also haven't played in a while) characters:

 

Gigawatt: Electrical Blaster. He probably wouldn't care enough to intervene unless they were in some way inconveniencing him. Giga would try to stun the crowd with a massive NND electrical attack. He'd probably modulate it well enough as to only stun and not kill anyone. Probably. He's a former villain, and a bit callous.

 

Citizen Arcane: Mage type. In CO, he's limited to damage, with some healing and buffing. Built for PnP, he'd have at least a small VPP to represent having access to a wide range of spells, and would likely try something like an illusion, or some form of crowd control like an AOE entangle or flash. He'd try to stop the activity using his bag of tricks to discourage the mob.

 

Liberty Star: Flying Brick. and Mister Midnight: Martial Artist with the ability to step through shadows: Both are physical brawlers and wouldn't want to fight normals unless they had to. Liberty Star would attempt to use her PRE to discourage the looting. Mister Midnight would monitor the situation and intervene to prevent any violence.

 

Greyhound: Speedster with a Big Stick. Low level speedster/Martial Artist. He'd zip around smacking fools with his billy club, which is flexible and hurts like heck without doing too much damage, and taking stuff out of looters' hands and putting it back, and generally being a pain. If authorities are on hand, he'd help herd the crowd for them.

 

Prototype X: Bulky Gernsbackian Power Armor: Decisions, decisions. Acoustic weapons to run them off? Stick them to the ground with some fast hardening foam? He'd deal with it while absentmindedly doing some engineering work in his heads up display.

 

Agincourt: Archer with trick arrows. Flash-bang and tear gas arrows for everyone! He'd also scan the area furiously for a buckle to swash. 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Pattern Ghost

[Scott Ruggels]

Living Close enough to San Francisco, that my local Apple Store got looted by a flash mob, this hits a little close to home, literally.

 

Sgt. S.M.A.S.H  has no appropriate weapons against shoplifters and looters unless he recieves a weapons free order, such as after a large natural disaster.

 

Felix 9 Would probably use a violent presence attack to scare them off, and if that fails, start shooting them.\

 

Thunderbird  would probably frop a 16/16 Force field around  high ns;ir items or use the forcefield to block exits until the cops show up.

 

Dream thunder would drop 10F6 entalillusions on the looters, and keep them confused as to where the exits were and bottle them up until the cops showed up.

 

Executioner would just shoot them. (Punisher Expy)

 

Mega Lord would probably just pinnch the exits shut until the cops showed up.

 

There are some peculiarities in current California law, that theft of items of less than $900 value are a misdemeanor. Couple that with  progressive District Attourneys, preaching the doctrine of "restorative Justice", means that most of those the police round up will be released.