Stone Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 After discussing the impact of killing attacks w/my group (players forcing my hand thread), two of the three have made new characters (the fire PC w/the RKA is still in the group, but he will soon see what I meant about authorities not trusting folks throwing around ka's). So this is what happened sunday.. The PC's are at their base and detected a hold up alarm at a near by branch bank. Two of them head out there and the fire PC stays (he's also the computer guy for the group). It turns out to be a good hold up alarm. There is a one guy dressed in red & 2 goons. The guy in red is holding something in his hand. He tells the police its a deadman switch to 3 bombs in the city. Not wanting to risk it, the PC's let him go but follow him & his single hostage onto the highway. On the highway, the red guy throws some money out of the window creating a massive traffic jam as people stop to get the money. The flying PC seizes this moment to use his TK and pull the red guy out his getaway vehicle. The red guy is totally calm and simply repeats himself about the bombs. He then tells the PC that the bombs will deactivate in 24 hrs as long as no tries to disarm them. He also tells the PC he will release the hostage right here on the highway, but the PC cannot follow him or he will set off the bombs. The PC releases the red guy and true to his word, he releases the hostage. He even gives a hint about 1 bomb location. After taking the hostage back to the bank and talking to the bank employees, the only person that was injured was a security guard that tried to stop the robbery (broken nose & jaw). The red guy got away with about $300k, but there was much more than that in the bank. The PC's do some research and it turns out that red guy has been doing this for about 7 years now. They find a pattern in his attacks and track down he is hitting banks that have accounts for an insurance co (Millenium Ins) which was shut down by authorities last year for numerous reasons (money laundering, SNL & accounting errors, connections to drug loards, real estate fruad) and has now been taking over by a much larger Ins co (Pacifica Ins). Turns out the red guy is only taking the amount the insurance co had in each branch office. One PC makes a public appeal through the media for the red guy to contact him and gives out a cell #. After numerous bogus calls, the red guy does call him and they chat for a bit. The red guy confirms he is hitting Millenium Ins holdings, but won't say why. After examining all his attacks (only 1 time was a bomb actually set off & it was in a area away from people) and talking to the red guy, the PC's are convinced his more of a robin hood type trying to take back what was stolen by Millenium. He points them toward the source of the problem. The PC's interpet this as the former CEO of Millenium Ins, who is currently serving a 20 year sentence in a federal prision. They then try to get help from UNTIL and learn UNTIL has been trying to investigate Pacifica for some time, but is getting stone walled by Pacifica's vast legal resources. The PC's decide investigate Pacifica. They sneak in the the CFO's estate and steal some computer files. While going through the files, they find evidence of VIPER being involved with Pacifica. Now they have to try to figure out what is VIPER's angle before red guy strikes again. But if they have figured out red guy's angle, surely so has VIPER. Thoughts?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 Sounds like an interesting investigative scenario. You'll need to decide about how realistically you want to hold the heroes to any evidence they obtain by B&E, since in the real world, none of it would be admissible. On the authorities not trusting characters with killing attacks...how would they know the difference? KA is game mechanic distinction, and on average a normal attack of the same DC is just as destructive. Anything 10d6 normal and over has a good chance of killing or putting into critical condition an average normal, so as far as the authorities are concerned, all these guys are using lethal force. Now, if they've all gone to NNDs, AVLDs, Entangles and Ego Attacks and the like, and can't inflict BODY, then the authorities may notice a difference, since there won't be much if any collateral damage. It's probably safest for them to attack weaker looking opponents at less than full power at first if they don't want accidental deaths. (Or pulling a punch, though I don't see the utility of that maneuver, when you're only going to use it on weak opponents anyway and don't need to get full stun on the attack. The penalties aren't worth the trade off when you can just crank down the dice of the attack.) I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, but hopefully some folks with better responses will wonder along soon. I'm glad you have your players back on track and into the game though. Best of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fireg0lem Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 I agree about the "Killing Attack is a Special Effect" point. I think "Authorities don't trust people who kill when they shouldn't" is a better way of putting it - after all, Superman has a killing attack, just most versions of him only use it on inanimate objects and robots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ndreare Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 Originally posted by Pattern Ghost Sounds like an interesting investigative scenario. You'll need to decide about how realistically you want to hold the heroes to any evidence they obtain by B&E, since in the real world, none of it would be admissible. Not true. Any evidence illigly obtaned by the cops would be inadmissable. However if the PC's are licenced PI's or Bondsmen then the laws that affect them are very differnt. A police officer needs an eminent excuse or a warent to cross property lines and search a home a Bail Officer does not he could get a "Tip" that Agent-x is in the building and then cross town and go in the building with out a warent http://www.americanbailcoalition.com/new_html/compendium.htm That is only an example of how releaced people are treated by private industry. I would imagine with the rise or Parahumans there would be dozens of laws both empowering and disabling them. What I would do is have the PC's make a KS: Law roll and if they do warn them before any of the laws are broken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Posted November 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 Point taken about the KA's. Ref the evidence gained. The PC's did not tell UNTIL what they had planned. They made copies of the files and made an anonymous drop off to UNTIL. Since the authorities did not make an illegial search and do not know who made the delivery (though they probably suspect), they may have a chance to use the evidence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tae Kwon Dan Posted November 12, 2003 Report Share Posted November 12, 2003 Ndreare, is correct. If you're playing with the legal system set down in Champions Universe one of the few legal advantages to being non-sanctioned is that evidence illegaly obtained (e.g. B&E, illegal wire tapes) is still admissable in court. Of course the victim of your "crime" can press charges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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