A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

[Marketeer]

Ok, this one should be fairly simple, with no real moral quandraries. (I'm offering it partially as a change of pace from some of the more... involved WWYCDs)

 

One evening in Campaign City, the city suffers a fairly major power blackout. Most of the sources of electrical energy to the city have either been cut off or shut down.

 

There if no indication that the power plants or electrical relays are "under attack"--they might have been sabotaged, but in any case there are no armed (super)villains or any such holding people for ransom.

 

Likewise, there has been no outbreaks of rampant lawlessness. There have been a few of the expected spikes in rowdy behavior that you'd expect from a blackout, but no major gang violence or any such.

 

In other words, your character is relatively free to choose how (s)he assists; there is no immediately pressing crisis to attend to.

 

WWYCD?

[Blue]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Anthem would patrol as usual, looking for trouble.

 

Audra Blue assuming that telecommunications lines are working, she'd begin a search online in all the proper places for hints of the cause of this problem, and dispatch a team as appropriate. (The base has generators independant of those affected.)

[McCoy]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Iron Will's a technomage, will see if he can shift his pool to find what caused the blackout, see if he can assist the crews to restore power.

 

Millennium will check to make sure emergency power is operating at the local hospitals, then tell police he's available if the need him. Borrow a police radio if his cell is not working.

 

Cheeta, Snow Leopard, and Dolphin will patrol. If still during rush hour may direct traffic at a major intersection. Otherwise will be looking for looting or other street level crime, nip it before it escilates.

[nexus]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Tao would intensify her patrols, looking for trouble but otherwise procede as normal.

 

Eve, with all power down would be little use in Cyberpathi Mode so she would switch to full combat mode and assist where needed. \

 

 

Shidoku, who's campaign takes place in Hudson City would wonder just WHY things were so calm?

[Whitewings]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Faye would consider the first priority to get the busses to their nearest stops; many of the local municipalities use electric busses powered from overhead lines. Then get the Skytrains to their nearest terminals; they're electrically powered too. After that, what the passengers do is up to them, but the vehicles will be in locations where they won't be blocking traffic, and will be easily found later. Once that's done, if the power's not back on, she'll assist the police in clearing the inevitable traffic accidents. Fixing the problems, she'll leave to Hydro. That's what they're paid to do, and the unions do *not* take well to freelancers "interfering."

[Marketeer]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Faye would consider the first priority to get the busses to their nearest stops; many of the local municipalities use electric busses powered from overhead lines. Then get the Skytrains to their nearest terminals; they're electrically powered too. After that' date=' what the passengers do is up to them, but the vehicles will be in locations where they won't be blocking traffic, and will be easily found later. Once that's done, if the power's not back on, she'll assist the police in clearing the inevitable traffic accidents. Fixing the problems, she'll leave to [b']Hydro[/b]. That's what they're paid to do, and the unions do *not* take well to freelancers "interfering."

 

(various emphases added)

 

...you're from BC, aren't you?

 

[nexus]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

(various emphases added)

 

...you're from BC, aren't you?

 

 

I get everything else but why the emphasis on Faye?

 

Edit: Never mind. I'm an idiot. Carry on.

[incrdbil]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Hornet tries to see whats wrong with the grid. The fusion reactor should be pumping out enough power for dear ol'Chicago.

 

Ranger--well, he can't repair electrical grids. God help the looters though.

 

Blaze--well, if light is the problem, he could do some light based only images to get the city. Odds are he'd stick to the usual rescues, evacuations.

 

Demon wants to help, and the lack of light makes it easier to skulk about. Still, he wants ot be careful. Blackouts are panicking enough, seeing a greenish winged Demonic figure flying about really never does seem to go over well. He contemplates finding his sometime partner Gremlin, to see if the blackout is his fault.

 

Back in the 40's, The Blue Baron, suspecting sabotage from axis agents, goes ot make sure those plants are ok, and then checks in to make sure essential weartime production sites are safe. He then rescues all sorts of stranged folks, bounding through the streets of his adopted city and nation.

[Whitewings]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

(various emphases added)

 

...you're from BC, aren't you?

 

However did you guess?

[Marketeer]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Ok, related question:

 

Would any of your characters stop to help out in mundane or non-superheroic ways? For example, with no power, even if it's not freezing in campaign city, it might get cold.

 

Would any characters take a break from the patrolling to gnerically help out? Again, assume there's no crisis in terms of someone specific needing help here.

 

For instance:

 

Blackberry might drop by a shelter, and use her tiny VPP of magical tricks to make sure they can cook dinner for people.

[Weldun]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

The Specter - would wonder if Malcolm is toying around with cloaking devices again and go see if this is so. Upon finding out that Malcolm had nothing to do with it, (and spending close to an hour getting the high-strung gadgeteer to calm down and get out of the cupboard), patrol, try to keep the looting to a minimum, and stick to the south side.

Whisper - would be in heaven. All those shadows to hide in, to teleport between. All those shadows that now have all that food in them. Drool....

[DataPacRat]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Bunny would call up her charitable foundation, and tell them to consider this a trial run for a /real/ emergency, and start activating the phone-trees, ham-radio-trees, and other ways to get things in motion: opening up the shelters (with their backup generators, their lights should stay on for hours), have people drive around in the 'Pink Bunny Foundation' vehicles to distribute water and blankets, help jump-start stalled cars, knock on old folks' doors to make sure they're alright, and otherwise make friendly nuisances of themselves.

 

Bunny herself would be doing much the same thing, though with a rather impressive Leap that can get her through any traffic jam.

 

Once the power is back, Bunny would get a report on how well things went, how they could be improved, and so on, and hope that things will go at least as smoothly should a Giant Rampaging Monster rampage gigantically though the city, with the Pink Bunnies digging for survivors in rubble and performing first aid on minor injuries to free up the paramedics for more serious cases.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Ooh...

 

Rook is sadly on a team with more than a city as a jurisdiction. That said, if a major city happened to have a power loss...

 

 

He'd ask to be beamed down and used as an auxilary power supply. He can generate electricity in and of himself, but he has something more useful than that: He can absorb energy and then emit it, amplified.

 

I'd talk for a little bit with the GM, and then hopefully have him become a temporary power station (you did say MOST of the power was out, yes?).

[Marketeer]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Yup, "most". Like "Enough that this would be a major hassle, but nothing like some kind of electrical-nullification field or anything like that".

 

Mostly, I wanted to highlight some of the different definitions of "I am helping" that different characters would have in what amounts to a relatively routine (by superbeing standards) situation.

 

For some characters, the lack of an overt attack upon the power supply leads inevitably to the conclusion that there *must be* some kind of covert attack, whereas other characters will take the situation at face value.

 

Different characters, different powersets, different universes--but it's kind of fun to see how different hero-types would respond to a low-threat "situation".

[McCoy]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Ok, related question:

 

Would any of your characters stop to help out in mundane or non-superheroic ways? For example, with no power, even if it's not freezing in campaign city, it might get cold.

 

Would any characters take a break from the patrolling to gnerically help out? Again, assume there's no crisis in terms of someone specific needing help here.

 

For instance:

 

Blackberry might drop by a shelter, and use her tiny VPP of magical tricks to make sure they can cook dinner for people.

I mention directing traffic if nothing more urgent required their attention.

[nexus]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Tao, not really, she doesn't consider that part of her job, but she's pretty much a genetically engineered fighting machine.

 

Eve would most definitely help out where she good. Its the right thing to do, if nothing needed her attention she'd offer her help getting the power back up.

 

Shidoku, given that things are strangely quiet would problably be at home, trying to eat her leftover before they went bad and waiting for the inevitable riot, string of opportinistic robberies or phone call from her "handerl" to come.

[input.jack]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Black Hawk would first fly around Angel City to see if there -was- looting and such. When it became clear there wasnt, shed see if hospitals and the airport had power. If so, cool, if not, shed try to get some routed to them. Her powers are basically an enhanced physique, martial prowess, and flight, so they dont really help much here other than to let her try to help people out of jammed elevators and things like that. If the team commlinks are up shed fly around looking for ways to help, and answering distress calls.

 

Revenant would first make sure that his corporation's charitable organizations were mobilized, then he would go to the main power plant of Gothic City to look for clues as to why this was happening. Revenant is one of those people who would need to see the plant itself, to be convinced there wasnt some kind of nefarious plot occurring. If there are clues at the power station pointing to one of his (large) rogues gallery, then we are off and running. If its just a mundane breakdown due to wear or neglect, he would patrol to see that the looting wasnt out of hand, and when he found that it wasnt that bad, hed have Goblyn and Jade Spectre patrol while he would be checking out the financial records of upper-level power station personnel trying to find out if someone was funnelling money away from the station to some other purpose (bank account in Jamaica, giant robot facility underground, whatever).

[Robyn]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

One evening in Campaign City' date=' the city suffers a fairly major power blackout. Most of the sources of electrical energy to the city have either been cut off or shut down.[/quote']

 

Kaja, grazing in a city park or in one of the less developed areas, glances up as the city's lights blink off, and mutters to himself "Technology - ultimately, unreliable. I knew it."

 

There if no indication that the power plants or electrical relays are "under attack"--they might have been sabotaged, but in any case there are no armed (super)villains or any such holding people for ransom.

 

Likewise, there has been no outbreaks of rampant lawlessness. There have been a few of the expected spikes in rowdy behavior that you'd expect from a blackout, but no major gang violence or any such.

 

In other words, your character is relatively free to choose how (s)he assists; there is no immediately pressing crisis to attend to.

 

Since the rest of the team probably hasn't called for him, then he'd just switch to nightvision and keep on as he was.

[Lethosos]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Queen of Spades isn't particularlly fazed--it happens on occasion during a major thunderstorm in Vibora Bay.

 

That being said, she'd work her way over to the powerstation (I have to check the book on this) and fiangle some means to jumpstart the power grid through the turbine in the Jack of Diamonds, her long-distance transport. (Or convince them that this would be a good time to try some alternative power sources that she could cook up with the Forge. )

[jkwleisemann]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Void gets in contact with his people at DuBey Industries and starts them off getting supplies out to people, making the rounds with generators, that sort of thing (and has them beef up security at their facilities).

 

Huntress checks on what the most crucial portions of the power grid are (probably starting with low-income parts of Colton, given that they tend to be the areas where the population density and tensions are highest) and heads out to make some quick adaptations and 'plug in' her suit's electrical blasters.

 

Darkchild makes sure there's no supernatural cause behind it (gremlins, for example), then starts shifting her VPP between various Summons to get assorted charitable critters around to help. Once that's done, depending on the time of year she'd work on cutting a deal with the local weather-spirits to help cool things off (if it's the dead of July) or warm things up (if it's freezing out). Keeping folks comfortable is the first step towards keeping them from each others throats, after all.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Sentinel Ok, let's see. He's a new hero - he and he's team are working to keep low profile for the time being. He's use he's enhanced Instant Change to create a 'new' uniform and then head out into Lexington Ky and start helping as he could. 50 Str Brick, Flight, do the traffic bit, the help fire department if needed. All in all just be a hero.

 

The Traveler Here we have a Extra-Dimensional Meddler, with a 107 VPP Magical Power Pool. He'd find a place to hide and ue he's powers as a member of the Bloode and he's Shide powers to help. He'd see no reason to make he's pressence known. plus the less he is seen the less danger he'll get in to with he's bosses.

 

Titan Mk V An adult version of Cyborg of the Titans, with many sicence skills. He'd work to get the power back on, seeing that the city, Denver Co, isn't falling apart with violance. You get the power back on faster the better off the city and it's people are better.

 

Flame Human Torch type, would direct he's team of other teens to do what was needed. Either traffic, hospitals, fires, homeless shelters, and if he had to he'd just move over the city and hover, using he's flaming form to give out as much light he can.

 

Si Mon Re Aquaman/Namor mix, he would contact he's people to bring in a portable power station and have them do a temp connection to provide power. Then direct he's people to help the NYPD and FDNYC as needed. He is the UN Ambassiador for he's People.

 

Black Cat Wolverine type, go on patrol and heaven help anyone that is causing trouble. He'd scare the idots into helping the authorities and if not possiable beat the heck out of them. If he saw ambulances stuck in traffic he'd use he's 45 Str to clear a path, same with Fire, police.

 

Cosmic Blue KOS-MOS type, she'd use her 50 Str and other powers and her team mates, and the others in New Frisco to do what has to be done to get it back up and running.

 

Ca'Rom Holt Male Dawnstar, he's home city is a space station. He'd help get the people to the emergancy area's that have lights, gravity, heat, food. Then he'd help get power hook-up's from any ships on the hanger deck so that they can get some power back on. Then make sure that no enemy ships are heading toward the station.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Marketeer again.

[Marketeer]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Marketeer again.

 

 

 

Haha, that's the first time anybody has ever had to deal with that particular issue with me... I get my rep in slow dribbles...

 

[Zeropoint]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Special Agent Trent:

 

Put on a fresh pot of coffee. Grumble at no one in particular when he realizes that he can't make coffee without electricity.

 

After that, sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop.

[wagnern]

Re: A Simpler WWYCD: The Lights Go Out

 

Nadia: before curfew: Pout as the guitar goes silent.

After curfew: She can see in the dark just fine, she might not notice and keep on reading her book. If Brenda (room mate) is still up and nervous about the power outage, she would break out some candles (and not tell Brenda what they are normaly for). I think Brenda has realised the "don't ask dont tell" policy you should have when you have a Necromancer as a roomate.