What Would Your Character do #41

[farik]

For weeks you're team has been showing up too late to stop the villain dubbed "The Intimidator" (who dresses like an armored Viking) and every time they arrive he gets away because he scares everyone with his mere presence allowing him to escape while everyone is momentarily stunned.

 

This time your group has snuck up on the scene and the most impulsive member has done a move through on The Intimidator killing him instantly as it's revealed the armor is fake and the guy was a wimp with nothing but a single limited but powerful trick "intimidation."

 

Your team has just murdered a man and nobody's life was really in danger how do they respond?

 

(If you can't imagine a character intimidating your character apply advantages like penetrating and armor piercing to power levels of PRE above the normal campaign limits this power was a plot device not a balanced combatant)

[Blue]

Re: What Would Your Character do #41

 

ANTHEM: Would wait for the police and tell them her story. She'll even stand trial if necessary, feeling guilty the whole time. The man is in idiot for "pretending" he has armor in a city filled with superheroes. She'd also go to church and confess.

 

UNCLE SLAM: Doesn't perform killing manuvers to start off, on anyone. Not these days anyway. He's got a strict CvK and gives everyone benefit of the doubt. So he'd have grabbed the guy and discovered he was a weakling. And he has plenty of PRE to resist intimidation. It just wouldnt' happen to him.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Flippant: Wonder why the Mentalist didn't do something safer from far away...

(Attempt to?) take the offender into custody for a trial. It should be a fair trial; this team ain't hated. No real malice or angst; when it comes to killing he has only the default 0pter.

 

Wraith: *Is* the mentalist, wonder why *he* didn't do something to stop The Intimidator mentally... from the other side of the city. (At least after the first few times)

Interrogate the ghost of The Intimidator, ask why he was so out and out stupid, and get him to haunt the killer... (sounds fair to *me*. )

[lemming]

Scales: Well, it was probably one of the "junior" teams. (Let's just say the main team doesn't scare easily)

Reprimand the move through person, but make sure the best defense is put in place. "The Intimidator" should of realized it was a matter of time.

 

Probably the same response from other characters as well. Except for Vetali, who would of probably been the person doing the move through. Her reaction, "Yuck, I need a towel!"

[lemming]

Originally posted by WhammeWhamme

Interrogate the ghost of The Intimidator, ask why he was so out and out stupid, and get him to haunt the killer... (sounds fair to *me*. )

To quote Monty Python:

"It's a fair cop"

[Chromatic]

Actually, a couple game sessions ago, something similar to this happened in Zornwil's game. A villan with one shot powers (was invisible, had some unknown unsuccessful power at the time that we could only sense him attempting to use--it was the power to swap brains presumably personalities (ala that Stagate sg1 episode)), the group ended up using "reasonable force" on him and killing him outright. Granted none of the heros at the time had a CVK, but we kind of glossed over the whole thing and moved on. It's a dangerous world out there, you need more than 2 pd in a 14d campaign.

 

A scenario like this can really lose its impact if its done purely to teach a lesson to characters. If its for the roleplaying of angst afterwards, well, its been a long time since I was a teenager and interested in teeny bopper angst filled soap opera tripe. If the scenario was done for the humor aspect (obviously dark) to have the grisly chuckle and move on, I can handle that. In short, scenarios like this are all too commonly used to preach.

[Badger]

My character isnt exactly intimadated easily and second he has limited life force sense powers, so he would have known the guy was a weakling. Probably would have just humiliated him greatly and go on. But if he didnt know he probably have been the one to do the killing. He wouldnt be too apologetic either. "The fool should have seen something like this coming". Just a matter of time. Though the Intimidator would get an honorably mention in the Darwin Awards.

[McCoy]

None of my characters would have been after him if he hadn't committed a felony. You play in the Bigs, you accept the possibility of geting hurt.

[Eyendasky80]

My character would probably just shrug.

[farik]

Husky would be crushed and return to the lab to change back into Kenneth. Kenneth fearing legal repurcussions will construct an elaborate plot to make the Intimidator appear more dangerous than he was and try to convince the world that Husky had done the right thing. It will take longer but once Kenneth rationalizes his actions it will just be a matter of time until Husky puts the incident behind him.

[caris]

Since the phrase “the most impulsive member†was used, I will assume that this was part of a larger pattern of behavior. Adonis will step up to the character, and first gauge the impulsive character’s reaction to the event. If the character is contrite and legitimately upset by what happened Adonis would offer his emotional support. On the other hand if the character were cavalier about the whole issue, Adonis would move into full lecture mode, and among other things point out the similarities in the bone-headedness of both characters’ actions. In either case Adonis would insist that the case be handed over to the appropriate authorities for investigation. Adonis would be fairly certain that the impulsive character would receive a strong, but still fairly lenient punishment, probably some form of probation, since fundamentally the impulsive character simply made a mistake. It would still be up to the courts/internal affairs/etc to determine if it was a reasonable mistake under the circumstances.

[Bengal]

Hm. A pigeon hunt scenario where the villain was, actually, the pigeon after all. Bengal would have probably been the on eto do the killing, so it's hard for me to answer how he would have responded to someone else doing it. I can't imagine he would feel too remorseful about stopping this guy.

 

 

Had it been someone else though, he would probably just make a mental note never to turn his back to the offender.

[Houston GM]

Interesting legal situation.

 

Obviously, it's not technically my character, since I'm the GM. However, I can see this potentially happening in my campaign.

 

Texas has very lenient self-defense laws. I can think of two cases (in recent history) where a Texas homeowner has shot an unarmed man on their property and gotten off because it was "self defense".

 

Both cases received international attention. One of the victims was from Scotland. The other was from Japan.

 

Neither aquittal was due to some miscarriage of justice in the courtroom. Texas does not require absolute proof that your life is in danger. You just happen to believe that you're in danger. (Example: if someone is breaking into your home at night, you can legally assume your life is in jeapordy.)

 

Texas law also permits you to use lethal force defending your own property, even when you're not in any personal danger. (You can legally shoot someone in the back, if they're running away with your TV.)

 

Any citizen at the scene could legally kill the Intimidator, and have numerous eyewitnesses testify that they all feared for their lives.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

However, there's a twist.

 

My players are all police officers. Police officers are held to a higher standard. They have to identify themselves and offer the perp an opportunity to surrender, unless they can reasonably believe that someone is in imminent danger.

 

Therefore, it all hinges on how the Intimidator behaves at the scene of the crime (and previous crimes). Did the Intimidator say he would kill bystanders? Was he standing in a threatening posture? (Since he's a metahuman, this would get interpreted much more broadly than usual.) Did the officers have any prior knowledge that would lead them to believe he was just bluffing?

[farik]

Let's say The Intimidator didn't have to make threats he just made demands and people were frightened.

[Avatar]

The impulsive character would be our speeder, Blitz. And normally as Heros backed by the U.N., we would just come forward and tell our side, how with all the visable armor it was thought he could take above normal amount of effort to stun or disable.

 

But now that Blitz is the secret ID for Mr.Quick, the well known super speeder that joined Menton and is hunted by the U.N . for criminal activity, I would step forward and and take the blame myself as leader of the Legion. This way my personal rep would help, and hopefuly noone would be looking to long and hard at Blitz.

[sethwolffe]

Shield would regret the death, and go into lecture mode to the impetuous one.

 

Whisper would pat the young fella on the back and congratulate him on a job well done.

[Chuckg]

Starguard -- /is/ the most impulsive character on the team... however, she also has a big phobia about actually doing permanent injury to the villains, to the point where she's had to be reminded that you if you're going to use Healing Aid on the opposition, at the very least you should remember to take the 'Only Heals BODY' variant.

 

i.e. -- if she ever shot the guy in the back, she'd have used her 16d6 Stun Only EB or her NND or her Entangle. Ever since the time she punched her first supervillain and accidentally shattered his jaw(*), she's been so over-cautious that sometimes she doesn't hit back at all.(**)

 

(She also has Cosmic Awareness and Sense Life Energy, so picking up that the armor or the villain is fake is within the realm of possibility, even if her Sense Life Energy has a 12- Activation.)

 

 

Baron von Darien -- isn't impulsive at all, but is also the most likely to take a nice big shot to the back.

 

It wouldn't bug him a bit. It was reasonable force given the circumstances that obtained, and Lord knows it (correction) would not be the first man to die at his hands in the course of a very long unlifetime. EGO 45 master vampires tend not to angst out about /anything/.

 

 

Dr. Pain -- although he is a brick, and is an ex-pro wrestler, that's actually going to save schmuck-boy's life here... as a pro wrestler, he's got ten years of practice in how to knock somebody flat without actually crushing them. He bought enough Penalty Skill Levels for Pull Punch that he can use that maneuver all the time, at -0 OCV, and does.

 

So while he'd STUN the guy into next year, even his Haymaker does only 1/2 BODY... which means that even an unprotected normal would be only hurt, not dead.

 

 

 

 

 

(*) She didn't know that Blackstar loses a lot of his PD when he's Desolid...the /player/ knew, but the character didn't.

 

(**) Last session, her reaction to facing a martial artist that looked physically normal was to dump her entire VPP into a 16 PD/16 ED Force Wall, Self Only, and -12" KB Resistance (and all this on top of her normal 30 rPD/30 rED)... and then just stand there and let him punch her until he finally figured out that it just wasn't going to get him anywhere.

[Pulsar]

Though Pulsar takes efforts to minimize damage he would fit this under the line from the MIB movie "Don't start nothin' and there won't be nothin' ".