WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

[Robyn]

One of your most powerful enemies has broken out of prison and threatened your hometown. Patrolling solo to look for signs of any disturbance that will announce his location, you investigate a minor disturbance to find that a relatively minor villain has chosen now, of all times, to pursue his own schemes. You don't know if it's simply bad timing or he's been hired by your powerful foe, and if so, whether his actions now are part of a larger plan or just a distraction. In any case, you don't know if he'll be able to tell you where to find this enemy, or even give you any clues about where to start looking. You also know that it will take several minutes, because of his annoying powers, to take him down alive and conscious (able to answer questions), several minutes in which your powerful enemy will be free to wreak havoc in another part of the city, should he choose this time to strike, or already be in action.

 

Do you interrupt your search or continue on your way? Does it matter what type of crime the weak villain is committing? If you can put him out of commission quickly, but only with a lethal takedown, do you stop him and move on?

 

What would your character do?

 

edit: Following garou's suggestion, assume that, if your character stays to take care of the minor villain, you then hear over a nearby police radio, or through your other senses/communications, about the major villain striking elsewhere in the city right now. This happens soon enough after you commit to staying that the situation is still as described above.

[garou]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

All characters - deal with minor villain now. Although they would arrive at the conclusion through different means, most approach it this way:

 

1) Minor Villain is committing a crime now.

2) Major might be committing a crime elsewhere, or might not. Major could be planning on ambushing hero; major could be gathering minions, major could be sleeping. Patrolling is an inefficient way of attempting to find major villain in any case.

3) Since there is (currently) insufficient data to take down or confront Major villain, I choose to deal with minor villain and then continue search for major.

 

Of course, Whisper would think along those lines, whereas Whammo would simply charge (unthinking, as usual) into combat, because Bad Things Are Happening Here and Now.

 

A better question might be: while you are fighting this minor villain, you hear (via police scanner, super-hearing, decoder ring) that major villain is striking elsewhere in the city right now - do you continue current fight, or go deal with the greater threat?

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Blue Bolt's attention span is so short he'd deal with the immediate issue, and MAYBE remember he was looking for someone else after it's done. The rest of the team likely wouldn't semnd him out alone if there was a need for him to remain focused.

[TheTemplar]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Tornado! - Stop the immediate crime first. Yes, the other is a serious threat and this could very well be a trap or a roadblock set up to delay him, but he'd think it'd be wrong to ignore one innocent in danger just to get somewhere else to stop a less certain threat. Lethal takedown would not be an option for him. There's always another way.

 

The Templar - Tough one. His sworn duty to stand against injustice wherever he finds it would pull him to aid in the more immediate distress, and to pray that by the time he's done it won't be too late to stop the larger threat. While a non-lethal method would be preferred, especially if there was a chance that perp A could provide info about perp B's plans and whereabouts, he would not hesitate to do whatever was necessary if lethal force was the only option.

 

Sadly, chances are neither of them would immediately call for back up. Tornado! would think that it'd just take them too long to show up anyway, and The Templar wouldn't know how. Communication devices frighten and confuse him.

[TheTemplar]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

The rest of the team likely wouldn't semnd him out alone if there was a need for him to remain focused.

 

I'm with ya there, man. Speedster? For some reason my team always thought that Tornado! and Solo Work never mixed well...

 

Then again, they also thought my last words would likely be, "Yeah, sure... I'll wait right here until you all show up. Whatever."

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

So we're assuming I can't get someone else on this guy while I'm off looking for the other (or vice versa)?

 

Anthem would handle the crime in front of her. She's a sucker for someone in immediate need.

 

Uncle Slam could callin plenty of backup, he just typically chooses not to. Given these circumstances he would.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Dr. Anomaly -- assuming the rest of the Millennium Knights aren't available for some reason -- deal with the current crime first. The other is, after all, a potential crime, with nothing definite (or he wouldn't be out just hoping to spot something relating to the threat); this, on the other hand, is a definite crime happening now. Deal with what's a problem now, rather that a nebulously-undefined threat.

 

(A more cynical part of him that's been developing lately wouldn't put it past a major enemy to have arranged this, not as a distraction, but to get video of Dr. Anomaly ignoring this "minor" threat while searching for the major one...and then getting said video to a TV station. That could well be the first step in a calculated campaign of discreditation before moving on to the actual death & destruction of the city.)

[David Johnston]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Unless the character actually has some kind of substantive lead on the guy he's actually looking for, there's not much of a choice to be made. The odds that he'll happen to be randomly patrolling near where the big bad will make his move...well he has a better shot at assuming this is a trap and Ambush Bug will lead him into it letting him find the bad guy.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

All characters: Will not ignore crime-in-progress. Take perp down quick and clean as possible, hand him over the the authorities, resume patroling.

[Robyn]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

A better question might be: while you are fighting this minor villain' date=' you hear (via police scanner, super-hearing, decoder ring) that major villain is striking elsewhere in the city [b']right now[/b] - do you continue current fight, or go deal with the greater threat?

 

Good point. I'll edit the first post to add in that variation. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Leatherback: Would try to finish the confrontation with minor villain quickly, so as to get to major villain and get to eat his cake and eat it. This would probably entail using his rapid attack:HtH skill to continually do grab-by/throw combo's on the minor villain, in the direction of the major villain. Wouldn't contact his team-mates because he only has confidence in one of them, and the Stormlord is difficult to contact in the middle of a fight (not to mention suffers from a condition that means once the Stormlord is in a fight, the fight is all he can think about, ie. enraged in combat.)

 

The Spector: Would try to resolve the minor quickly, then hyperboost over to the major villain. Sometimes, have a combat speed of 75 kph for up to a minute is handy. If the major villain too far away for that, then would simply focus on the minor villain. One of his quotes is "Do the good you can. Very few can heal an entire world."

 

Whisper: Thought process= Food that's here now vs. food that's gotten away before. (Although, with the assupmtion that Whisper went looking for the major villain, clearly this is very tasty food.)

 

An reserve character of mine is called three-piece. Always-on duplication means that it's VERY hard to keep him adequately distracted. Curiously, only one GM sited that as the reason they won't let me play him. All others have stated that they simply find the idea of a Stock Broker and Lawyer, (in the vein of the worst of the '80's), who can be in 3 places at once, to be more than a little disturbing.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Soulbarb would initially stay to handle the minor villain, on the reasonable assumption that a few minutes' difference in the search for the major villain won't make a difference if she doesn't know where the major villain is to begin with. She will of course attempt to wrap things up expeditiously, and has a number of powers that might help to that effect, though if the minor villain is not really of the dangerous sort (e.g. not a known killer) then she won't resort to lethal tactics.

 

Once she gets a confirmed location for the major villain and that he is attacking elsewhere in the city, she will probably call in Nocturne and let him handle the minor threat while she goes after the major threat. Especially if the major threat IS known to use lethal tactics. At which point... if Soulbarb has imprisoned him once, and he's escaped, and continues to kill, he won't get a chance to escape from prison a second time.

[Lethosos]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Queen of Spades goes downtown on the minor perp, no question about it. As said before, this is the known crime, compared to the possible crime elsewhere.

[DataPacRat]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Bunny would, at a guess, release one of her nano-birthed spy-mice (or perhaps the spy-snake) to keep an eye on the Minor crook, use her bunny-legs' (her usual patrol limbs) rather impressive Leaping to do a Move-By or Move-Through on him (she may jump up and down on him a few times first before hearing that police report, depending on the GM's timing), and then make her way to deal with the Major Villian - and, on the way, flip open her cellphone to call the local superhero headquarters and let them know the Major Villian needs to be dealt with now, oh, and there's a Minor Villian if any of the low-powered sidekicks need some live-target practice.

[Koshka]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Falcon would initially stop to deal with the minor crime-in-progress. Once the alert about the main villain went out ... are there any cops around? In that case, quick bolo on the minor villain and call out to the cops to drop the guy while he's entangled. (Alternately, if minor villain has the DCV from heck, drop a smoke bomb to blind him followed by something from the local environment that can act as an improvised Area Effect entangle -- probably a shop awning -- then turn matters over to the cops.) If there's no one around to take over for her, well, she can't just run off unless someone else can deal with minor villain. She'd probably spend her next few phases yelling for help over the radio and trying to KO the minor villain at the same time.

[Egyptoid]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

White-Knite would definitely do the right thing,

small guy now and track the big guy for later.

 

Cosmo-Knite: ever the glory hound, let's bust the big fish now and loot any new foci he may have acquired.

[Zeropoint]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Special Agent Trent would reflect bitterly on how supers always make life harder for him. Then, he'd call in a PART team* to deal with the minor villain, and go deal with the bigger threat.

 

*I'm sort of assuming a San Angelo-based campaign here. A Paranormal Alert Response Team consists of highly trained SWAT personnel with very modern but not "supertech" equipment. They don't play around--the standard issue weapon is a Barret semi-automatic 20mm rifle with either armor piercing or explosive ammunition.

[Lethosos]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

*I'm sort of assuming a San Angelo-based campaign here. A Paranormal Alert Response Team consists of highly trained SWAT personnel with very modern but not "supertech" equipment. They don't play around--the standard issue weapon is a Barret semi-automatic 20mm rifle with either armor piercing or explosive ammunition.

Ooo, tasty. Good reason to not do anything bad when you've got only a little power...

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Badger- Deal with minor villain. But, if he hears of a confirmed sighting of the bigger one he is gone leaving the minor one to do whatever. (Or if minor is subdued leaving him hanging where-ever, which might be comical leaving the poor guy hanging tied up from the telephone pole and forgetting about him till major villain crisis is over. )

 

Minor villain (36 hrs later): Help!! Somebody let me down!

[input.jack]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Revenant- Deal with the small-timer now. Lethal takedowns are never an option. If, in the middle of the fight, Revenant overhears the radio announcement that the Big Fish is now active and doing something that threatens alot of people, slip a tracer onto the Little Fish during the scuffle, let him think he gave me the slip, go off to deal with the Big Fish, and collect the Little Fish later.

 

Preferably when hes in his hideout and thinks hes safe

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

(Or if minor is subdued leaving him hanging where-ever' date=' which might be comical leaving the poor guy hanging tied up from the telephone pole and forgetting about him till major villain crisis is over. )[/quote']

 

In a Shadowrun game I ran about 10 years ago, the PCs subdued a ganger, and handcuffed him to the kitchenette in the back of the Rigger's Bison (A campervan). Three session and 2 weeks later, they open up the back to find the poor Jazz addict lying in a pool of his own waste, having subsisted mostly on Orc-rinds and Twinkies, and in serious withdrawal.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

All characters: Stop the crime in progress, particularly if is violent or excessively destructive.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

Any Character I Run -- Stop the nobody villain, and then get after the big baddie immediately afterward. In stopping the nobody villain, however, I'd probably wind up doing it quick and nasty just to move on to the main event (which probably means there would be some excessive collateral damage).

 

"Do what you can with what you have where you happen to be and leave the rest to karma."

 

Matt "Ever-the-complete-functionalist-hero-type" Frisbee

[Victim]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

In a Shadowrun game I ran about 10 years ago' date=' the PCs subdued a ganger, and handcuffed him to the kitchenette in the back of the Rigger's Bison (A campervan). Three session and 2 weeks later, they open up the back to find the poor Jazz addict lying in a pool of his own waste, having subsisted mostly on Orc-rinds and Twinkies, and in serious withdrawal.[/quote']

 

In a DnD game, we'd tie prisoners to trees and then forget about them. And we'd forget to pack up our loot. Most negligent group ever.

[wagnern]

Re: WWYCD choosing between two villains to stop?

 

If Mr minor is doing somethig that the cops can handle more or less and there is mininum risk to civilian life, they I could see a hero letting the little fish go. If the Big Baddy has a ultimadum going "Midnight tonight will be unlike any night this city has ever seen!" well, I could really see letting him go if you are on the big badies trail and don't think you could spare the time.

 

now if Mr Minor vilan is endangering a lot of people, well, I beleave a hero should really stop him, even if just entangle his behind and call the cops.