What Would Your Character Do? #30

[Wormhole]

It's lunchtime in the campaign city. In Secret ID, you join one of your teammates and his girlfriend, Heather, for lunch at an outdoor cafe. The three of you are laughing and talking- though trying to avoid certain topics since she doesn't know about his crimefighting career yet- when Teleios shows up with a platoon of his Clone Troopersâ„¢ and grabs Heather! Unable to intervene immediately without compromising both of your Secret IDs, you each sneak off to chance into your costumes only to find Teleios and his henchclones have given you the slip. Your teammate then pulls out what looks like the reciever unit for a tracking device. As you are following the homing signal to Teleios's secret lair de jour, you ask him how he got a tracker on Heather. He then confesses something to you that, though you always knew he was something of a shade of gray, surprises you nonetheless. Last year, when she went in for an apendix operation, he blackmailed her doctor (who was addicted to painkillers and stealing them from the hospital supplies) into secretly implanting her with the tracker during surgery. As shady an affair as it was, he says he believed he was justified in doing it because Heather is "just so damned kidnap prone" and he's always worried that the next time some scumbag abducts her he'll lose her forever (there have been several "close calls" in the recent past). He asks you not to repeat what he has just told you to anyone; not to the others on the team and, most especially, not to Heather. What would you do?

[Mentor]

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #30

 

Originally posted by Wormhole

It's lunchtime in the campaign city. In Secret ID, you join one of your teammates and his girlfriend, Heather, for lunch at an outdoor cafe. The three of you are laughing and talking- though trying to avoid certain topics since she doesn't know about his crimefighting career yet- when Teleios shows up with a platoon of his Clone Troopersâ„¢ and grabs Heather! Unable to intervene immediately without compromising both of your Secret IDs, you each sneak off to chance into your costumes only to find Teleios and his henchclones have given you the slip. Your teammate then pulls out what looks like the reciever unit for a tracking device. As you are following the homing signal to Telios's lair de jour, you ask him how he got a tracker on Heather. He then confesses something to you that, though you always knew he was something of a shade of gray, surprises you nonetheless. Last year, when she went in for an apendix operation, he blackmailed her doctor (who was addicted to painkillers and stealing them from the hospital supplies) into secretly implanting her with the tracker during surgery. As shady an affair as it was, he says he believed he was justified in doing it because Heather is "just so damned kidnap prone" and he's always worried that the next time some scumbag abducts her he'll lose her forever (there have been several "close calls" in the recent past). He asks you not to repeat what he has just told you to anyone; not to the others on the team and, most especially, not to Heather. What would you do?

My Egoist, Prodigy, is 900 years old and has been manipulating events in human history for the good all of his career. (Not always successfully given that his opposition is of similar longevity and ability). He views privacy and other modern expectations as convenient rather than necessary. As he would be just as likely to read someone's mind to track down the kidnapped Heather or mind scan the city for her, he would not be too put out.

[Blue]

That's a hard one for Anthem. The team she ran with were slowly picked off and two of them are still missing. Right now such a measure would seem reasonable.

 

But being a patriot type, she's too much a proponent of individual freedom to appreciate someone being tagged in this way. She would demand that the item be "discovered". She'd let the hero develop a way to do this (Metal detector, X-ray, whatever), and he could blame it on someone else if he so desired. Aside from forcing him to get that thing out of her by whatever means she'd stay out of it; because if Heather ever asked her who she thought implanted it she would tell the truth and they would forever be screwed as a couple. And likely so would her friendship with the teammate.

 

Uncle Slam, however, has been party to this for government/criminal tracking purposes. But doing this to a private citizen would appal. him. He'd force the teammate to answer for his actions.

[lemming]

Yet another one relying on secret IDs. I don't have any PCs.

However, if your DNPC is that kidnap prone, they really should be let in on your ID and be able to make the choice of having a tracking device.

[Chromatic]

But if your girlfriend knows you are Superman, how are you going to play out all that teenage angst? Oh sorry. I thought this was the Smallville rant board for a moment.

[Cybernaut]

Assure him of my silence and secretly keep an eye on him from now on.

[Farkling]

Lightning:: "You know Tony, I would never want such a temptation to cross my path. My girlfriend emits radio waves naturally that I can be tracked with my natural powers, and she knows it. I don't know if I could recommend your method, but it certainly would make more sense to get her permission, you bastard. What if they decide to remove it, without a hospital or anaesthesia? Or even worse, what happens when they track down the frequency? They could follow her anywhere, anytime...like they just did...you idiot."

Lightning's thinks Tony is now a waste of time AND space...

 

FlameJet:: "You did WHAT? You couldn't have bugged some jewelry surreptitiously? Or her clothes? Or her cell phone or pager? You had to IMPLANT it, without her knowledge? I thought you were some kind of stealth and espionage EXPERT, and now who are you? The goddamend government? I expected more morals from you! The only people who get that kind of "for your own good" treatment are people in nursing homes with memory problems! You absolute BASTARD! IF she lives through this, I will personally bring it all to her attention, tell her WHO did it, and volunteer to pay for the removal operation. IF you have objections of any kind, you better come at me in the middle of combat, and from behind, because I will burn you down where you stand!"

[Trebuchet]

As a good socialist, my character Zl'f would probably think this was morally OK since it was done for the girlfriend's own good. She would not approve of the fact that it was done without the woman's knowledge, however. That's a serious betrayal of trust. Said hero better 'fess up after he rescues his girlfriend.

 

And if the hero was really so worried about his "kidnap prone" girlfriend, why hadn't he split up with her to protect her?

[Maccabe]

Conumdrum

 

As I am an Orthodox Rabbi, what he told me is privilieged information, and I cannot mention it without his permission.

(Even under oath in court)

But I will pray that this man tells this woman this little secret, and that no harm comes to her.

[Stormraven]

Checkmate - not possible. Public ID.

 

Guardian. Would help him rescue Heather, let her know about the tracking device - though she wouldn't necessarily say who put it in - and find a doctor to remove it. Then she would hold it about 2" from the guy's forehead and flick it at him (60 Strength).

[farik]

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #30

 

Husky would think. Cool . But then suggest Kenneth probably could have done it easier than having a surgeon do it.

 

When Kenneth was active again he'd build a tracking system that could home in on Heather's biometrics once the bug went dead and offer to remove the bug if he felt it could be harmful. Whether Husky would actually mention this or not is another matter entirely.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Arcane... point out that magic works much better, have a friendly imp smack him upside the head, and replace the device with a handheld portable spell... He's ancient, cynical, and his newfound morals are a little too simple to handle 'invasion of privacy'

 

Wraith... get a hacker ghost to disable the device/follow the lady, go poltergeist on the idiot, and try to convince the lady that a ghostly guardian would work wonders.

 

Neither has a Secret ID, but both come close.

 

Flip, who has a Secret ID, would disintegrate the device. As for the idjit? He's going to find out why teleporting martial artists are not fun to fight.

[Caped Crusader]

Wow...

 

A lot of righteous indignation being spouted here.

 

But then, superheroes are a self-righteous, indignant lot.

 

If Heather gets rescued before the baddies have her for lunch, she might be pretty thankful it's there. As the story states that she's been kidnapped before, being lo-jacked might not necessarily be a bad thing. Sure. it's a double-edged sword, depending on how it operates. (Constantly broadcasting, or just when activated? Open signal, or coded burst transmission? Single frequency, or frequency-hopping?) There are a lot of ways to make it tough to track unless you knew exactly what to look for. If the technology were available, how many CEO's would have these installed on purpose into loved ones under threat?

 

As far as character reactions, it depends on which of my characters you ask...

 

Spellbinder (mage): Sloppy and instrusive, my friend. You should find a better way.

Mr. Gizmo (gadgeteer): Cool. Good thinking. Let's go get those idiots.

Steel Raven (spiritual swordsman): Not an honorable course of action. Either have it removed, or tell her, or I'll do it.

Rapidfire (swinging energy-flinger): Not the best solution, but it'll work for now. We'll talk later.

Recoil (manipulates inertia): You did what!?!

[Marcus Impudite]

Devilfire: (Demon Half) Would at first be tempted to rat him out just for the sake of screwing him over, but then decide to instead ask him where he can get a tracker implant for Rhea. If that whiny human he's sharing a body with insists on protecting that little powder puff, it wouldn't hurt to make the job alittle easier. (Human Half) "Fine. I'll keep your secret, but you owe me BIG TIME for dropping a bombshell like this on me."

[astralfrontier]

Thomas Temple would point out two things: first, that presumably anyone (such as a villain) can follow this homing signal if it's just a regular radio broadcast, and second, if Heather really is kidnap-prone, hasn't this genius just complicated the problem by giving people yet another way to find her?

[Cybernaut]

Originally posted by Trebuchet

And if the hero was really so worried about his "kidnap prone" girlfriend, why hadn't he split up with her to protect her?

 

On Smallville, Clark and Lana broke up and got back together so many times I've lost count and she's still the baddies' favorite girl hostage regardless. Hell, she even ended up getting cocooned by Bugboy back when she was still seeing Witless...er...Whitney.

[Pteryx]

Considering that my character is part of a hated faction of robots bound to the will of a mad scientist, all of whom are wanted as criminals whether they completely deserve it or not, that news of romantic love towards someone reaching the leaders of the group is met with reprogramming and such news reaching the nastier "brothers" not in power would result in ridicule and manipulation and even more kidnappings, and that even the "sensitive new age" members of the faction are acclimated to lack of freedom enough to tend to feel that it should have its limits... the situation described here makes so much sense in so many ways that it just wouldn't be an issue. -- Pteryx

[Mayday]

Mayday: Whoa. Severely out of my league. Nod yes a few times, and no a few times as my friend explains. Sounds reasonable to me but I hope he doesnt let her go to that Doctor again, while speeddialing the big teams out East for help. Then we follow them and try to sneak our way in or case the place until we find her then leave.

 

Sabre: Alert the team to the abduction and rendezvous with the tracker. We are all of us armored heroes, but my specialty is flight speed whereas his is 6"x2. With him in tow we find the location and do surveillance from a few thousand feet up. If I let him onto the ground he'll try to get in without the team (without ME, and will then fail and alert the kidnapper and make the rescue infinitely more difficult). Get our AI to pull up whatever records they can find on the building layout and power grid, utilities. By the time the team arrives we have a plan hashed out over our team communication system, approved by the Chairman of the Firm that markets us and the Board of Directors, and we go in almost immediately abandoning the plan to blast our way through whatever comes our way. (We have a slight teamwork problem)

 

Metallion: !?!?! WHAT I'm not enough woman for you? You chose HER!?!?!!!??!! Gah! Men you stupid arrogant pigs.

 

Metallion is a very beautiful woman and a powerful magnetism based heroine, but also vain and always somehow coming out third to her two identically beautiful teammates (who also fly as does she). She will take her frustration and some choice curses out on the lair, while SteelFront gets in and gets his lady back. Thn he gets shot in the back, knocked out, and we have to go rescue him. Distracted by her feud with the other two beautiful teammates Metallion is the last one standing and grabs Steelfront to leave. Steelfront gets shot several more times, Metallion forgets the way to the front door and shot down after a lot of effort on their part. GM halts the game, tears up our character sheets and tells us to make new heroes for a new campaign.

 

ShadowCross: Follow the tracking device while Fletch alerts Batman. Who knew Fletch had it in him to have a girlfriend AND put a tracker in her! Much impressed. If we wait for Batman (our teamleader) he will go in alone on the other side of the building and not tell us so we start our attack early. Fletch takes out guards with his arrows while I stealth in and use the tracker I palmed off him to find her. This is going to be fun but when I find her, Bats will be there before me. Cause thats the kind of Dark Knight he is.