"Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

[Great Beyond]

My group of heroes recently found themselves graduating from being just local heroes to a more jet-setting country and global spanning group. And of course since we're never really dealt with villainy on such a far-flung scale, there's never been a need for teleporters or a team jet or anything like that.

 

However, some of the recent cases had them catching a flight and traveling from one end of the country to the other. The problem is that Scarlet Arrow doesn't have any innate powers, simply relying on her various trick arrows instead. Of course seeing how the TSA are so paranoid that they wont even let hair gel on the planes, I imagine that they'd kick up quite a fuss over an acid tipped arrow that will eat through a 747 bulkhead in seconds.

 

So - the question is: how do your large dangerous looking weapon toting heroes get your foci from point A to point B? Check 'em in your luggage and hope the inspectors don't notice (and hope the baggage handlers don't lose your luggage)? Travel in your hero garb and give someone the thrill of sitting next to Mister Fantastic from DC to Hollywood? Or do you get all Mr T and go "I aint gettin' on no plane!"

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

I haven't had to run into this yet, but it's a good question. A nice way to bring the focus limitation into play without doing the combat disarm.

 

I think the questions to ask the character are 1) is there a legal way to carry this stuff on board and 2) if there isn't, are you willing to risk smuggling it on?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

I agree with you, as simple passengers, especially with Secret IDs, there's no way heroes with that kind of hardware are getting on an airplane in most countries if it's spotted.

 

If the heroes have some sort of official status with the federal government they may be able to receive an exemption when travelling officially, similarly to some law-enforcement officials carrying handguns. Perhaps they have powers or technology that allow them to disguise their gear to fool inspectors and normal scanners, to change it into something else temporarily, or to teleport it etc. to themselves at the end of their trip. Someone with Mind Control could cause airport security to pass their stuff through ("These are not the bow and arrows you're looking for"), but when the control eventually wears off that could cause trouble for them.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

I haven't had to run into this yet, but it's a good question. A nice way to bring the focus limitation into play without doing the combat disarm.

 

I think the questions to ask the character are 1) is there a legal way to carry this stuff on board and 2) if there isn't, are you willing to risk smuggling it on?

 

Agreed, those are the crucial issues. And thanks for pointing out the relevance of the Limitation to this discussion. I should have thought of that myself.

[Bloodstone]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

I think most of the GM's see that as one of down sides of getting the OAF price break.

 

There are going to be plenty of situations where the guy with the swords, guns or what have you will be disarmed by security procedures, while the guy that shoots lasers from his eyes is free and clear.

 

That said, without knowing the specifics of the campaign, is there any reason the team can't arrange for non public transport?

 

Of course, IRL the military tends to avoid flying explosives as much as possible. And when it does, they are specially packaged and obviously not sent on commercial flights...

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

...Of course' date=' IRL the military tends to avoid flying explosives as much as possible. And when it does, they are specially packaged and obviously not sent on commercial flights...[/quote']

Which takes all of the fun out of it.

[Hermit]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

You can have my Tac-Nuke Arrow when you pry it from my cold dead fingers...

[teh bunneh]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

In my games, if the PCs paid points for it, they'll find a way to make sure it arrives at the same destination that they do at roughly the same time. Overnight mail, special courier, hidden in a secret X-ray-proof compartment in their checked luggage, or even "The Man With The Golden Gun" style. That doesn't mean it's on their person at all times, just that they won't be stuck at the hotel while the other PCs do their thing.

 

Of course, this makes for prime RPing when the bad guy attacks in the plane or at the airport.

 

"Where are your arrows???"

"I checked them when I got my boarding pass!"

 

[Tungsten Shephard]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Private Charter Aircraft?

http://www.jetcharter.com/

 

Plus if you use a small town airport and there are many details of your cargo can be easily overlooked. The main concern for TSA is for the safety of large aircraft. Private charters are a whole different matter. There are also x-ray proof camera suitcases that exist in the real world.

 

I would also avoid landing at large established airports such as LAX and instead make a research roll in finding a small airport. Heck even having them look up real airports on the internet can be fun at times rather than just making a research roll.

 

As a GM you don't always have to create the "escape" for your players. Given the oppertunity to think about it. Most G.M.s would be amazed what regular people can come up with when shown the full details of the problems they might face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another option is to simply get a travel pass or weapons permit perk and have the character pay points for it.

[Guest steamteck]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

So far hasn't been a big problem as in their hero IDs they can usually get transport. My wife does have a character with a" light" powersuit not as powerful as her character's primary one designed to be broken down and hidden with her lab gear.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

My group of heroes recently found themselves graduating from being just local heroes to a more jet-setting country and global spanning group. And of course since we're never really dealt with villainy on such a far-flung scale' date=' there's never been a need for teleporters or a team jet or anything like that. [/font']

However, some of the recent cases had them catching a flight and traveling from one end of the country to the other. The problem is that Scarlet Arrow doesn't have any innate powers, simply relying on her various trick arrows instead. Of course seeing how the TSA are so paranoid that they wont even let hair gel on the planes, I imagine that they'd kick up quite a fuss over an acid tipped arrow that will eat through a 747 bulkhead in seconds.

So - the question is: how do your large dangerous looking weapon toting heroes get your foci from point A to point B? Check 'em in your luggage and hope the inspectors don't notice (and hope the baggage handlers don't lose your luggage)? Travel in your hero garb and give someone the thrill of sitting next to Mister Fantastic from DC to Hollywood? Or do you get all Mr T and "I aint gettin' on no plane!"

 

It is part of the Focus limitation. How do characters with a public ID get on the plane? Would you expect the TSA to allow Captain LaserVision to fly, or would he be on a no-fly list? What about those armored costumes (metal)? I expect bows and arrows can be checked luggage, but how do you explain why your secret ID is carrying them? Depends on your secret ID's job, of course, but checking your Bat-Utility Belt is likely to create issues.

 

Check 'em and hope they don't lose your luggage, I guess. You got a point break for the focus. Why do you not expect it will cause you some difficulties on occasion? You want to solve it? Shell out some points for:

 

- a perk allowing you to transport these objects (albeit likely in the baggage compartment)

 

- a vehicle of your own so you don't have this issue

 

- wealth so you can charter your own transport

 

- contacts who will arrange transport for you

 

- a reputation for your hero that allows him to access special treatment

 

There are lots of solutions, but it comes back to the fact that you did get a nice point discount for those foci, and that means that they won't always be readily available.

[Scifi_Toughguy]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

If its something that they know of in advance, then perhaps the OAF player can leave a few days earlier in order to prepare themselves or obtain new equpiment on site.

 

If that is not the case, now there is a side quest where they must go find someone who can teleport or make sure their stuff gets to the right place at the right time. Especially if you take the teleporting avenue and its a big experimental set up (as in not yet thoroughly tested) then you have all kinds of story possibilities open up when they get across the country/world and find one of their arrows missing...

[Great Beyond]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

That said' date=' without knowing the specifics of the campaign, is there any reason the team can't arrange for non public transport?[/quote']

 

Well, so far the times that we've traveling. we've been trying to do so on-the-sly, trying to sneak to the target and do some surveillance on site before showing up in Hero ID to light up the whupass.

 

Chartering a plane probably could work - although that does get a bit spendy after a while.

 

So far she's had enough notice to Federal Express the arrows ahead to the destination, and they haven't gotten lost in route - yet.

 

I expect bows and arrows can be checked luggage' date=' but how do you explain why your secret ID is carrying them? Depends on your secret ID's job, of course, but checking your Bat-Utility Belt is likely to create issues.[/quote']

 

Well, Scarlet's secret ID is a former Olympic archery star that got bounced from the games because she had one insignificant super power (just 1 inch of flight with like x12 endurance on it, so she can only do it for seconds at a time - but rules are rules), so it's not unusual for her to travel with equipment. It's just a pain to explain why that arrow has an armor piercing explosive tip. (:

 

You got a point break for the focus. Why do you not expect it will cause you some difficulties on occasion?

 

Never said I was looking to get out the difficulties of having a focus. I just wanted to know how other folks dealt with the matter.

[JmOz]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

You can have my Tac-Nuke Arrow when you pry it from my cold dead fingers...

 

Dude how big is your Quiver MP

[JmOz]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Well, so far the times that we've traveling. we've been trying to do so on-the-sly, trying to sneak to the target and do some surveillance on site before showing up in Hero ID to light up the whupass.

Chartering a plane probably could work - although that does get a bit spendy after a while.

So far she's had enough notice to Federal Express the arrows ahead to the destination, and they haven't gotten lost in route - yet.

Well, Scarlet's secret ID is a former Olympic archery star that got bounced from the games because she had one insignificant super power (just 1 inch of flight with like x12 endurance on it, so she can only do it for seconds at a time - but rules are rules), so it's not unusual for her to travel with equipment. It's just a pain to explain why that arrow has an armor piercing explosive tip. (:

Never said I was looking to weasel out the difficulties of having a focus. I just wanted to know how other folks dealt with the matter.

 

Well for scarlet, she may have to "tone down" and just use normal arrows sometimes, which can be a fun senario

[Arkham]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

It hasn't actually come up before. Either someone, generally the mystic, can teleport everyone anywhere, or someone is playing a Filthy Rich character with a private jet, or the team itself has a jet.

[Swift]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Brick with megascale flight. Trip to the moon= 3hrs.

 

:DBring your own life support.

[Bloodstone]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Well for scarlet' date=' she may have to "tone down" and just use normal arrows sometimes, which can be a fun senario[/quote']

 

Agreed. I've gone this route with my archer. But both times it was due to losing the arrows mid adventure, not before things got off the ground.

 

Of course, Robin is sort of the team gadgeteer. If need be he can kit bash quite a few of his trick arrows out of the kind of stuff you can find at a typical Ace hardware or 7-11. A running gag in our game is that Robin can and will make an arrow out of anything.

 

Just need the right skills and a little time.

[hfergus]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

This normally would not come up in my group because: 1) one person can t-port everyone to annywhere he can see/has seen on the planet. 2)they have a group plane. 3) no one except the t-porter has an obvious focus, and he stashes it in a pocket dimension for easy summoning. If taken from him, he can't summon back to him and it can be broken, so focus still applies.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

So far she's had enough notice to Federal Express the arrows ahead to the destination' date=' and they haven't gotten lost in route - yet.[/quote']

 

Normally, items crossing international boundaries need content declarations. Shipping concentrated acid in an arrowhead over a border would likely attract some attention. And I've certainly had parcels arrive which had clearly been examined by Customs, so just lying on the form isn't the automatic solution.

 

Well' date=' Scarlet's secret ID is a former Olympic archery star that got bounced from the games because she had one insignificant super power (just 1 inch of flight with like x12 endurance on it, so she can only do it for seconds at a time - but rules are rules), so it's not unusual for her to travel with equipment. It's just a pain to explain why that arrow has an armor piercing explosive tip. (:[/quote']

 

At least you have an excuse for some gear. I suspect carrying an explsoive of any type on a plane is going to cause issues, but more esoteric arrowheads might well go unnoticed absent a very specific search.

 

Well for scarlet' date=' she may have to "tone down" and just use normal arrows sometimes, which can be a fun senario[/quote']

 

I like this concept, especially if coupled with the ability to get at least some of the trick arrows shipped. It highlights the Focus limitation without leaving the character crippled for the duration.

 

We had an archer in an extended cross-dimensional scenario once, and the first comment made was that he had no opportunity to replenish. He was quite careful with his various MP slots on that adventure.

[Shaft]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

In the movie "The Hunted", a Martial Arts expert is carrying a bow and a sword in his checked baggage on a train which he uses to fend of a ninja swarm. When the authorities ask him about his weapons, he calmly replies "I'm an instructor. You can check my credentials." I guess that would be a perk.

 

If you have a Secret ID that shouldn't have martials arts training, an alternate ID with the right credentials used exclusively for travel purposes might be a good idea.

 

Of course that is for a bow & normal arrows and a sword. Power armor and a crate of grenades might be trickier.

[Kirby]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Unless the plane ride is important to the plot, I just do the "comic book page turn" and the PCs go from being in one city (such as San Francisco) to another (such as Millennium City). But then, I'm running a four color campaign, so some things that don't matter to the story get overlooked for ease of play.

 

If I were playing a grittier tone campaign and one that was face to face as opposed to online, I might bother. But, for me, wasting time in an online game about "how are you hiding your equipment" and "exactly where are you changing into costume" can really slow down an already slow process.

[Shoutybloke]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

A bribery roll at -4 for highly illegal act, and some wealth would be appropriate.

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Never really had the problem come up. Unless the PCs were strictly local, then somebody in the group (or their benefactor) always had some way to get everybody and all their gear wherever they needed to go.

[The Weapon]

Re: "Sorry m'am, you'll have to check your hand grenades."

 

Am I the only one who got a mental image of their PC staring at their grenades for a few seconds and then saying "They look fine to me"?