massey

First, you've got to understand that what you're describing is incredibly powerful.  With even 1D6 of such an ability, with one action, your character can take out an opponent for up to 6 phases.  For most characters that's an entire Turn.  It's not quite a one-shot knockout, but it almost is.  You can incapacitate opponents for a huge amount of time, and you want it to auto-hit.
 
In other words, it's going to be very expensive.
 
So what you're really looking at is building a power that takes an opponent out of a fight with one shot, but has a limitation on it so it operates according to your "roll a D6, lose that many actions" system.  Because basically the guy is hosed for however many phases you roll on the dice.  So you build a power to completely take him out, and then limit it from there.  So let's go over some possibilities (to give a sense of scale, this is assuming a standard 12D6 game, and I'm using 5th edition rules):
 
The blasty way to do it
30D6 Energy Blast, area effect accurate (+1/2), no knockback (-1/4), only to "KO" to prevent target from taking actions (-1), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
You knock the target unconscious with your mega-oversized attack.  You knock him to -40 Stun or something and he's in the GM discretion range.  But the limitation means that he's not actually "unconscious" -- he didn't actually lose any Stun, he didn't take any Body, he didn't fly backwards from knockback, he doesn't take x2 Stun if he's hit by someone else, he's still aware of what is happening, etc.  He's only "unconscious" in the sense that being at negative Stun prevents you from acting, and that's the game mechanic you want to duplicate here.  The value of the last limitation of recovering in XD6 phases depends on how many D6 you roll.  10D6 would not be a limitation at all.  1D6 might be somewhere between a -1 and a -2.
 
The flashy way to do it
20D6 Flash vs Sight, Hearing, Radar, Touch, Mental, Smell, Spatial Awareness, etc., area effect accurate (+1/2), target still peripherally aware of surroundings (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
It's the same general idea.  They get Flashed enough so that they can't sense anything, and therefore can't target anything.  So they can't shoot, can't fight, can't really even move around.  While they could technically blindly fire off energy blasts or something like that, they can't sense their environment in any way.  There's a "peripherally aware of surroundings" limitation which means they won't blindly run into a fire, or fall off a cliff, and if somebody says something to them they might remember it once they can take an action again.  But the power is intended to stop them cold when it comes to actual useful actions.  The final limitation on automatically recovering will be lower than in the first example, because being at -40 Stun recovers far more slowly than does a 20D6 Flash.  Since you're "waking up" faster anyway, you get less of a limitation for a rapid recovery.
 
The scary way to do it
+100 Presence, only for presence attacks (-1), only to make target stand still (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
Again, we're taking a power that can totally eliminate a target from play, and limiting it so he isn't as removed as he would normally be.  The limit of "only for presence attacks" might actually be too high -- it's in a book somewhere, but you generally don't need +100 Pre to defend or for skill rolls, so it's clear that the only purpose here is for attack anyway.  The XD6 limitation will be very very small, as Pre attacks don't tend to last more than a single turn anyway.
 
The go-away way to do it
Extra Dimensional Movement, usable as attack (+1), ranged (+1/2), area effect accurate (+1/2), target can still be seen (-0), target comes back XD6 phases (-?)
You make them go to a different dimension where there's really nothing for them to do.  The upside to this method is that it's a lot cheaper, as you only need the base level of XDM before advantages.  The downside is that unless you have Transdimensional attacks, you can't hurt them while they're looking at your magic trick.  The "target can still be seen" represents the fact that they haven't really gone anywhere, and it doesn't make sense for them to vanish from view.  Effectively they haven't gone anywhere, but since they've technically been moved to another dimension, they aren't a legal target until they come back.  For some reason nobody shoots at them during this time.
 
The grabby way to do it
12D6 Entangle, area effect accurate (+1/2), takes no damage from attacks (+1/2), target released after XD6 phases (-?)
I think you all get the gist of it by now.

Luke said "it's not possible" and threw up his hand.
 
Is 1 pt in STR equal to 1 pt in DEX? Seems the numbers would say they would, but then why does DEX cost more?
 
All the arguments of "this stat does more/less than that stat, so it should cost more/less" seem to point out that a lot of the stat valuation is based solely on experience and usage. So, since most players/GMs got nothing out of COM, it went away and we got the Striking Appearance in its place.
 
And we have dry areas in stats where they do nothing except get us a little closer to the next skill break point.
 
Two different 450 pt characters are equal. Not necessarily balanced against each other, but equal. Equal in value. It takes a GM to sit and go over the characters to find the balance between them, based on his experience, expected usage, and opinion. And opinion is nothing to base a balance on.

First, you've got to understand that what you're describing is incredibly powerful.  With even 1D6 of such an ability, with one action, your character can take out an opponent for up to 6 phases.  For most characters that's an entire Turn.  It's not quite a one-shot knockout, but it almost is.  You can incapacitate opponents for a huge amount of time, and you want it to auto-hit.
 
In other words, it's going to be very expensive.
 
So what you're really looking at is building a power that takes an opponent out of a fight with one shot, but has a limitation on it so it operates according to your "roll a D6, lose that many actions" system.  Because basically the guy is hosed for however many phases you roll on the dice.  So you build a power to completely take him out, and then limit it from there.  So let's go over some possibilities (to give a sense of scale, this is assuming a standard 12D6 game, and I'm using 5th edition rules):
 
The blasty way to do it
30D6 Energy Blast, area effect accurate (+1/2), no knockback (-1/4), only to "KO" to prevent target from taking actions (-1), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
You knock the target unconscious with your mega-oversized attack.  You knock him to -40 Stun or something and he's in the GM discretion range.  But the limitation means that he's not actually "unconscious" -- he didn't actually lose any Stun, he didn't take any Body, he didn't fly backwards from knockback, he doesn't take x2 Stun if he's hit by someone else, he's still aware of what is happening, etc.  He's only "unconscious" in the sense that being at negative Stun prevents you from acting, and that's the game mechanic you want to duplicate here.  The value of the last limitation of recovering in XD6 phases depends on how many D6 you roll.  10D6 would not be a limitation at all.  1D6 might be somewhere between a -1 and a -2.
 
The flashy way to do it
20D6 Flash vs Sight, Hearing, Radar, Touch, Mental, Smell, Spatial Awareness, etc., area effect accurate (+1/2), target still peripherally aware of surroundings (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
It's the same general idea.  They get Flashed enough so that they can't sense anything, and therefore can't target anything.  So they can't shoot, can't fight, can't really even move around.  While they could technically blindly fire off energy blasts or something like that, they can't sense their environment in any way.  There's a "peripherally aware of surroundings" limitation which means they won't blindly run into a fire, or fall off a cliff, and if somebody says something to them they might remember it once they can take an action again.  But the power is intended to stop them cold when it comes to actual useful actions.  The final limitation on automatically recovering will be lower than in the first example, because being at -40 Stun recovers far more slowly than does a 20D6 Flash.  Since you're "waking up" faster anyway, you get less of a limitation for a rapid recovery.
 
The scary way to do it
+100 Presence, only for presence attacks (-1), only to make target stand still (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
Again, we're taking a power that can totally eliminate a target from play, and limiting it so he isn't as removed as he would normally be.  The limit of "only for presence attacks" might actually be too high -- it's in a book somewhere, but you generally don't need +100 Pre to defend or for skill rolls, so it's clear that the only purpose here is for attack anyway.  The XD6 limitation will be very very small, as Pre attacks don't tend to last more than a single turn anyway.
 
The go-away way to do it
Extra Dimensional Movement, usable as attack (+1), ranged (+1/2), area effect accurate (+1/2), target can still be seen (-0), target comes back XD6 phases (-?)
You make them go to a different dimension where there's really nothing for them to do.  The upside to this method is that it's a lot cheaper, as you only need the base level of XDM before advantages.  The downside is that unless you have Transdimensional attacks, you can't hurt them while they're looking at your magic trick.  The "target can still be seen" represents the fact that they haven't really gone anywhere, and it doesn't make sense for them to vanish from view.  Effectively they haven't gone anywhere, but since they've technically been moved to another dimension, they aren't a legal target until they come back.  For some reason nobody shoots at them during this time.
 
The grabby way to do it
12D6 Entangle, area effect accurate (+1/2), takes no damage from attacks (+1/2), target released after XD6 phases (-?)
I think you all get the gist of it by now.

First, you've got to understand that what you're describing is incredibly powerful.  With even 1D6 of such an ability, with one action, your character can take out an opponent for up to 6 phases.  For most characters that's an entire Turn.  It's not quite a one-shot knockout, but it almost is.  You can incapacitate opponents for a huge amount of time, and you want it to auto-hit.
 
In other words, it's going to be very expensive.
 
So what you're really looking at is building a power that takes an opponent out of a fight with one shot, but has a limitation on it so it operates according to your "roll a D6, lose that many actions" system.  Because basically the guy is hosed for however many phases you roll on the dice.  So you build a power to completely take him out, and then limit it from there.  So let's go over some possibilities (to give a sense of scale, this is assuming a standard 12D6 game, and I'm using 5th edition rules):
 
The blasty way to do it
30D6 Energy Blast, area effect accurate (+1/2), no knockback (-1/4), only to "KO" to prevent target from taking actions (-1), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
You knock the target unconscious with your mega-oversized attack.  You knock him to -40 Stun or something and he's in the GM discretion range.  But the limitation means that he's not actually "unconscious" -- he didn't actually lose any Stun, he didn't take any Body, he didn't fly backwards from knockback, he doesn't take x2 Stun if he's hit by someone else, he's still aware of what is happening, etc.  He's only "unconscious" in the sense that being at negative Stun prevents you from acting, and that's the game mechanic you want to duplicate here.  The value of the last limitation of recovering in XD6 phases depends on how many D6 you roll.  10D6 would not be a limitation at all.  1D6 might be somewhere between a -1 and a -2.
 
The flashy way to do it
20D6 Flash vs Sight, Hearing, Radar, Touch, Mental, Smell, Spatial Awareness, etc., area effect accurate (+1/2), target still peripherally aware of surroundings (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
It's the same general idea.  They get Flashed enough so that they can't sense anything, and therefore can't target anything.  So they can't shoot, can't fight, can't really even move around.  While they could technically blindly fire off energy blasts or something like that, they can't sense their environment in any way.  There's a "peripherally aware of surroundings" limitation which means they won't blindly run into a fire, or fall off a cliff, and if somebody says something to them they might remember it once they can take an action again.  But the power is intended to stop them cold when it comes to actual useful actions.  The final limitation on automatically recovering will be lower than in the first example, because being at -40 Stun recovers far more slowly than does a 20D6 Flash.  Since you're "waking up" faster anyway, you get less of a limitation for a rapid recovery.
 
The scary way to do it
+100 Presence, only for presence attacks (-1), only to make target stand still (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
Again, we're taking a power that can totally eliminate a target from play, and limiting it so he isn't as removed as he would normally be.  The limit of "only for presence attacks" might actually be too high -- it's in a book somewhere, but you generally don't need +100 Pre to defend or for skill rolls, so it's clear that the only purpose here is for attack anyway.  The XD6 limitation will be very very small, as Pre attacks don't tend to last more than a single turn anyway.
 
The go-away way to do it
Extra Dimensional Movement, usable as attack (+1), ranged (+1/2), area effect accurate (+1/2), target can still be seen (-0), target comes back XD6 phases (-?)
You make them go to a different dimension where there's really nothing for them to do.  The upside to this method is that it's a lot cheaper, as you only need the base level of XDM before advantages.  The downside is that unless you have Transdimensional attacks, you can't hurt them while they're looking at your magic trick.  The "target can still be seen" represents the fact that they haven't really gone anywhere, and it doesn't make sense for them to vanish from view.  Effectively they haven't gone anywhere, but since they've technically been moved to another dimension, they aren't a legal target until they come back.  For some reason nobody shoots at them during this time.
 
The grabby way to do it
12D6 Entangle, area effect accurate (+1/2), takes no damage from attacks (+1/2), target released after XD6 phases (-?)
I think you all get the gist of it by now.

First, you've got to understand that what you're describing is incredibly powerful.  With even 1D6 of such an ability, with one action, your character can take out an opponent for up to 6 phases.  For most characters that's an entire Turn.  It's not quite a one-shot knockout, but it almost is.  You can incapacitate opponents for a huge amount of time, and you want it to auto-hit.
 
In other words, it's going to be very expensive.
 
So what you're really looking at is building a power that takes an opponent out of a fight with one shot, but has a limitation on it so it operates according to your "roll a D6, lose that many actions" system.  Because basically the guy is hosed for however many phases you roll on the dice.  So you build a power to completely take him out, and then limit it from there.  So let's go over some possibilities (to give a sense of scale, this is assuming a standard 12D6 game, and I'm using 5th edition rules):
 
The blasty way to do it
30D6 Energy Blast, area effect accurate (+1/2), no knockback (-1/4), only to "KO" to prevent target from taking actions (-1), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
You knock the target unconscious with your mega-oversized attack.  You knock him to -40 Stun or something and he's in the GM discretion range.  But the limitation means that he's not actually "unconscious" -- he didn't actually lose any Stun, he didn't take any Body, he didn't fly backwards from knockback, he doesn't take x2 Stun if he's hit by someone else, he's still aware of what is happening, etc.  He's only "unconscious" in the sense that being at negative Stun prevents you from acting, and that's the game mechanic you want to duplicate here.  The value of the last limitation of recovering in XD6 phases depends on how many D6 you roll.  10D6 would not be a limitation at all.  1D6 might be somewhere between a -1 and a -2.
 
The flashy way to do it
20D6 Flash vs Sight, Hearing, Radar, Touch, Mental, Smell, Spatial Awareness, etc., area effect accurate (+1/2), target still peripherally aware of surroundings (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
It's the same general idea.  They get Flashed enough so that they can't sense anything, and therefore can't target anything.  So they can't shoot, can't fight, can't really even move around.  While they could technically blindly fire off energy blasts or something like that, they can't sense their environment in any way.  There's a "peripherally aware of surroundings" limitation which means they won't blindly run into a fire, or fall off a cliff, and if somebody says something to them they might remember it once they can take an action again.  But the power is intended to stop them cold when it comes to actual useful actions.  The final limitation on automatically recovering will be lower than in the first example, because being at -40 Stun recovers far more slowly than does a 20D6 Flash.  Since you're "waking up" faster anyway, you get less of a limitation for a rapid recovery.
 
The scary way to do it
+100 Presence, only for presence attacks (-1), only to make target stand still (-1/4), target recovers automatically in XD6 phases (-?)
Again, we're taking a power that can totally eliminate a target from play, and limiting it so he isn't as removed as he would normally be.  The limit of "only for presence attacks" might actually be too high -- it's in a book somewhere, but you generally don't need +100 Pre to defend or for skill rolls, so it's clear that the only purpose here is for attack anyway.  The XD6 limitation will be very very small, as Pre attacks don't tend to last more than a single turn anyway.
 
The go-away way to do it
Extra Dimensional Movement, usable as attack (+1), ranged (+1/2), area effect accurate (+1/2), target can still be seen (-0), target comes back XD6 phases (-?)
You make them go to a different dimension where there's really nothing for them to do.  The upside to this method is that it's a lot cheaper, as you only need the base level of XDM before advantages.  The downside is that unless you have Transdimensional attacks, you can't hurt them while they're looking at your magic trick.  The "target can still be seen" represents the fact that they haven't really gone anywhere, and it doesn't make sense for them to vanish from view.  Effectively they haven't gone anywhere, but since they've technically been moved to another dimension, they aren't a legal target until they come back.  For some reason nobody shoots at them during this time.
 
The grabby way to do it
12D6 Entangle, area effect accurate (+1/2), takes no damage from attacks (+1/2), target released after XD6 phases (-?)
I think you all get the gist of it by now.

This sounds like a Presence Attack.

That doesn't work in a scenario where the other PCs are built to campaign expectations. 
It's not "One underdog against the world" in a group setting, it's "Three heroes and this loser against the world".  And being that loser sucks.  It's not fun, it's not 'compelling' to experience.  It's an NPC role.  Don't have a PC fill it. 
 
The GM needs to make sure PCs are at the same approximate level of effectiveness for anything that will come up constantly (IE, combat) and that each also has a distinct niche they can take the spotlight in. 
Having one character be a bit better is fine, but having one character noticeably behind in the thing that happens every session is going to lose you that player unless they're already disengaged from the game, are a masochist, or like thinking they're better for playing a weaker character. 

I cannot help you.  All my characters are overflowing with awesome.  Even when I try to make a weak character, they end up powerful.  Sorry man.

Well, isn’t that special.               It sounds better coming from Dana Carvey’s Church Lady.

I think it’s all a matter of people being on the same page.  Bob and Ricky and Sarah all need to know and understand what the rules are before they make their characters.  As long as they understand, no problem.

I think it’s all a matter of people being on the same page.  Bob and Ricky and Sarah all need to know and understand what the rules are before they make their characters.  As long as they understand, no problem.

I think it’s all a matter of people being on the same page.  Bob and Ricky and Sarah all need to know and understand what the rules are before they make their characters.  As long as they understand, no problem.

I think it’s all a matter of people being on the same page.  Bob and Ricky and Sarah all need to know and understand what the rules are before they make their characters.  As long as they understand, no problem.

I saw the 330 active point total on that  power and my brain must have flatly refused to believe it.  So I guess I plead, "Coping Mechanism?"
 
Also, the only time I have ever statted out a 330 active point power was the device Ultrasonique used to take Starforce's armor offline in the TASK FORCE story "A Week at Davos."

Her power is portrayed incredibly inconsistently in the comics.  Early on, she seemed a prime candidate for a big attack (potentially above whatever your campaign maximum is), with an Activation Roll and Side Effects.  The Scarlet Witch was the one Avenger who could potentially drop Ultron with one blast.  Of course if she tried to use it at the beginning of the fight, it would rarely work out in her favor.  There's not really a "wrong" way to portray her power, because it's so inconsistent.  Whatever you decide to do, it's probably been shown that way at some point in time.
 
I have a writeup of her, but I'm not that happy with it.  It's clunky and very expensive, and I kind of kludged it with using a VPP for part of it.  This was for a version of her with no cost limit, just trying to properly model the character with everything she could do.
 
Hex Power (3 parts):
--11D6 Luck, Activation Roll 13-, Side Effects (becomes Unluck), Costs Endurance (55 Active Points, 20 Real Cost)
--11D6 Energy Blast, 1/2 End, Affects Desolid, Variable SFX (any), Indirect (any direction, any origin), Variable Advantage +1 1/2, Activation Roll 13-, Side Effects, Locks out VPP when in use -1/2 (330 Active Points!!!, 120 Real Cost)
--70 Point VPP, Powers Change as 1/2 Phase Action (122 Real Cost)
 
So the Energy Blast could represent any weird effect you can dream up.  Use the Hex Power and a piano could fall on someone's head.  A bus could make a wrong turn and run over the enemy for 11D6.  An electrical line could fall and land on somebody.  The variable special effects let you choose any kind of appearance.  The variable advantage allows you to make it Area Effect, or Armor Piercing, or whatever you want.  There was a reason I picked +1 1/2, but I don't remember what it was now.  So the Hex Power represents things just going wrong for the enemy.  And the VPP could create any power if a straight-up Energy Blast doesn't work.
 
But again, it's kind of crammed together and I'm not thrilled with how it turned out.

One thing I considered (but haven't actually written up yet) is to give her a Multiform with a fairly large limitations.  If she wants to do something really powerful, she makes an Activation Roll or something to try and tap into her vast potential.  In other words, to change to a character sheet with a lot more points.
 
Depending on what limitations you chose, you could give the player or the GM more control over when she activated God Mode.  Say she's normally a 350 point character, and you build her along those lines.  But then she's got a Multiform into a 700 point character (No Conscious Control -- GM permission only), and a 500 point character if she rolls an 11-, with a limitation that you can only activate it once every three sessions or something.

Her power is portrayed incredibly inconsistently in the comics.  Early on, she seemed a prime candidate for a big attack (potentially above whatever your campaign maximum is), with an Activation Roll and Side Effects.  The Scarlet Witch was the one Avenger who could potentially drop Ultron with one blast.  Of course if she tried to use it at the beginning of the fight, it would rarely work out in her favor.  There's not really a "wrong" way to portray her power, because it's so inconsistent.  Whatever you decide to do, it's probably been shown that way at some point in time.
 
I have a writeup of her, but I'm not that happy with it.  It's clunky and very expensive, and I kind of kludged it with using a VPP for part of it.  This was for a version of her with no cost limit, just trying to properly model the character with everything she could do.
 
Hex Power (3 parts):
--11D6 Luck, Activation Roll 13-, Side Effects (becomes Unluck), Costs Endurance (55 Active Points, 20 Real Cost)
--11D6 Energy Blast, 1/2 End, Affects Desolid, Variable SFX (any), Indirect (any direction, any origin), Variable Advantage +1 1/2, Activation Roll 13-, Side Effects, Locks out VPP when in use -1/2 (330 Active Points!!!, 120 Real Cost)
--70 Point VPP, Powers Change as 1/2 Phase Action (122 Real Cost)
 
So the Energy Blast could represent any weird effect you can dream up.  Use the Hex Power and a piano could fall on someone's head.  A bus could make a wrong turn and run over the enemy for 11D6.  An electrical line could fall and land on somebody.  The variable special effects let you choose any kind of appearance.  The variable advantage allows you to make it Area Effect, or Armor Piercing, or whatever you want.  There was a reason I picked +1 1/2, but I don't remember what it was now.  So the Hex Power represents things just going wrong for the enemy.  And the VPP could create any power if a straight-up Energy Blast doesn't work.
 
But again, it's kind of crammed together and I'm not thrilled with how it turned out.

I actually find myself offering a half-hearted defense of Middle East Forever Wars as possibly the least bad option.
 
Others have mentioned the problems with simply throwing up our hands and walking away. ISIS rebuilds (or the next generation, possibly even more virulent, as ISIS was more virulent than Al-Qaeda). The Kurds, one of our few allies, get slaughtered. Russia and Iran increase their influence; American credibility plummets.
 
The great problem with the Middle East is that what happens there, doesn't stay there. For comparison, Africa regularly produces horrors that make the Middle East look tame. Think of the long trench war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the decades of bandid anarchy through Central Africa, and the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur. But they don't metastasize, the natural resources keep flowing out; and so we cluck our tongues in concern, then do nothing.
 
But the Middle East has produced a movement that doesn't just want local power. Jihadists want to kill us for being us. When Osama bin Laden listed his grievances, they weren't limited to political issues such as support for Israel or American military bases on sacred Sudi sand, which Western governments could in theory do something about. He listed music, movies and TV as intolerable affronts. Jihadists won't leave us alone, because from their POV the West is engaged in a relentless propaganda assault to lead people to Hell. Our governments can't stop this, and I don't want them to try.
 
At the other pole, instead of Get Out we could Get Tough. Accept that the only way to contain the Middle East is to rule it as its people are accustomed to being ruled. This is not nation building: It's empire building in the old style. Brutal punishment for anyone who steps out of line (and their families). Extract resources to pay for it all. Appoint satraps to do the rough stuff, collect the taxes and tribute, and take the fall in rebellions. Let favorites get filthy rich at the people's expense, but occasionally execute them without warning.
 
In a technical sense, I think it would work. It's how the Ottomans ruled, and lots of empires before them. But I don't think we could do it. 19th-century colonialism, in all its many-layered brutality, relied on the colonized people being invisible to the colonizers back home. The more people saw, the less they liked it. The genocidal horror of the Congo Free State was undone to a great degree by journalists. At least I hope we couldn't rule the Middle East as the latest despot keeping order, because we wouldn't be us anymore.
 
So what's left? I would like a better alternative than endless whack-a-mole against Jihadists and knocking down strongmen as they arise, spending trillions and spending lives. But I haven't heard one yet.
 
Well, maybe there's one slim hope: We do have cultural influence. Young people are getting different ideas and wider perspectives. Some groups are trying to get their crap together and govern -- notably the Iraqi Kurds, who (I recall hearing, mostly on BBC newscasts) in the years between the Gulf Wars were resolving their infighting and administer northern Iraq in a competent and non-horrible way.  So, while playing whack-a-mole find the people who are least bad and try to help them grow.
 
I guess this would be nation-building, but starting with the proposition that we don't have to start with existing borders. It also requires accepting that this is a labor of decades. One problem I see with past failed attempts is that the US always acted with one eye on the exit, letting the entrepreneurs of violence and fanaticism know that they could out-wait us. (A taliban fighter interviewed for a documentary about the movement said this flat out: To paraphrase: You'll get bored and tired of dead soldiers. We won't. You'll leave. We'll still be here and take power again. The prediction seems accurate.)
 
It all sucks, but we may be the onbes who need to pull up our big-boy pants and accept that some things may need to be done even when they are slow, hard and uncertain of success.
 
Dean Shomshak

You are seriously overthinking this.  You don't need to buy water to drown somebody.  Environmental rules already exist.

no - it's smart phones and buried coffins

You are seriously overthinking this.  You don't need to buy water to drown somebody.  Environmental rules already exist.

If the phone were that smart it would write itself up!

I agree. You don't need to buy a power with character points to be able to use a shovel. A HERO character already has the INT to figure out how to dig a hole, the DEX to make the shovel go where they want, and the STR to lift the dirt. You wouldn't (I hope) buy the Summon power to represent the fact that your character can call a taxi/Uber/Lyft. This way lies madness and spoons with half-page writeups.

So he's just putting an unconscious person in a box and burying it, via purely mundane methods?  I wouldn't represent that as a power.  Not everything should be a power, this is just an application of a box and the environment. 

Did you pay points for that hamburger?  LS: No need to eat, expendable focus.  You didn't?  Oh well I guess your character starved to death.