Sundog

The Litigant is the face of Force Majeure. As well as being a registered member of the Bar in several US states, he is also a Barrister in Britain and lawyer in Switzerland. He's very good in front of a court or Judge, and while his written submissions are nothing special, he rarely if ever fails to convince face to face.
That's because the Swiss-born Guy de Varoux is the possessor of the Golden Tongue of Peitho, the Greek Grace of persuasion, a direct link to the minor goddess, which grants him the power to persuade others of his own point of view. It's not perfect - he can't talk someone into committing some act they are vehemently opposed to, or self-harming - but it gives Guy a decided edge in any argument, and with his natural charm and charisma, that's usually all he needs.
He's not helpless outside of a courtroom, mind you. He's quite fit and keeps a 9mm pistol (licenced, of course) on his person at all times.

The Litigant is the face of Force Majeure. As well as being a registered member of the Bar in several US states, he is also a Barrister in Britain and lawyer in Switzerland. He's very good in front of a court or Judge, and while his written submissions are nothing special, he rarely if ever fails to convince face to face.
That's because the Swiss-born Guy de Varoux is the possessor of the Golden Tongue of Peitho, the Greek Grace of persuasion, a direct link to the minor goddess, which grants him the power to persuade others of his own point of view. It's not perfect - he can't talk someone into committing some act they are vehemently opposed to, or self-harming - but it gives Guy a decided edge in any argument, and with his natural charm and charisma, that's usually all he needs.
He's not helpless outside of a courtroom, mind you. He's quite fit and keeps a 9mm pistol (licenced, of course) on his person at all times.

I also got a "lost world" vibe. But I was thinking more along the lines of modern exploration, like the current Tomb Raider games or National Treasure films. Hidden ancient items and "true history."

I've pretty much used the terms for guided vs. unguided weapons - a missile being a guided one, a torpedo being dead-fire. The other one I've seen, especially in fighter-based media, is missiles being fighter-vs-fighter weapons, while torpedoes are larger ordinance small craft use to attack capital ships.

It has just been announced in the Extra Extra ! thread that Kevin O'Neill has died.

I could see running this without people noticing that it is just Die Hard, since you'd be having a whole team of PCs. You'd just need to avoid being *too* obvious... OR Lean into the obvious "this is you guys playing Die Hard", and let them have at it.

In a number of settings resurrection magic either won't work or has limited effect on people who die of old age - might get them functional for a short time, but they're just going to die again, and given the difficulty of resurrection magic, not worth the trouble. Such settings would likely result in a lot of long reigns, punctuated by civil wars.
As far as assassination goes, I imagine that mutilating the corpse would be a common method of prevention. A lot of settings only allow resurrection of an intact corpus. Taking the head and disposing of it would be effective there.
In settings where resurrection magic is common, a counteractive approach would likely be considered. Steven Brust's Taltos novels feature both hiding the body until resurrection is no longer possible, and Morganti blades, which kill the soul as well as the body.

I think it would be a call for the Judge. If the Judge believed the Jury was unlikely to be swayed by the apparitions (such as allowing the defence to make the point that the apparitions were not necessarily what they seemed, and might be illusions and lies) then the Judge might allow the trial to go ahead with instructions to ignore them. (This would actually be a big win for the defence - if they win, they get their guy off, and if they lose they have pretty much automatic grounds for an appeal). On the other hand, if the Judge truly considered the apparitions prejudicial, I don't think he'd have much choice but to declare a mistrial, at which point it's up to the Prosecution as to whether another trial is called.

Immunity to common sense comes to mind...

Immunity to common sense comes to mind...

Immunity to common sense comes to mind...

The situation in White Wolf's Aberrant (part of their Trinity - Aberrant - Adventure series) is similar. You have Novas (superhumans activated by a traumatic or high-stress event) who are mercenaries, shootfighters (think professional wrestling with superpowers), superstars and just normal folks. The first known Nova is a fireman who gains the ability to control fire - and who simply stays on with the FDNY, using his powers to fight fires. There is a designated "Superhero Team" - Team Tomorrow - but they do a lot more disaster support and civilian architectural and ecological aid. But they aren't without their secrets, and their primary opponents, the Nova-supremacist Teragen, aren't really the bad guys, either. The system has problems, but the setting is great.

25 Kg of mass, with a bipod, rear monopod and shoulder pad? Guessing pretty OK.

I've been to Cleveland, so I can kind of understand an un-Cleveland sentiment....

Not sure it ever was for anything other than Champions Super Hero roleplay and Star Hero. I've always played a wide variety of systems.

Say you have a bad guy company, something like the old Union Carbide. And they are responsible for an event, like Bhopal. 
Now, have the Dissidents target the company. Kidnap executives and ransom them back to the company, especially in developing countries. Blow up machinery. Sabotage building sites and infrastructure.
Best part? How conflicted the PCs will be about stopping them...
 

Zoran Zarkon
 
Zoran Zarkon, known throughout the world as Double Z, was a friendly businessman and inventor, and secretly a criminal mastermind. He had almost full social control over Megol City when "the Great Green", Omegaman first appeared to fight crime on his adopted planet of Earth. Zoran became so obsessed with causing Onagaman's downfall that he bankrupted his business, and practically destroyed his social life. Then Onegaman exposed him as a criminal mastermind to the public. 
 
This caused Zoran to form the Omegans, naming it after his nemesis as a constant reminder of his bully heroics. How dare this alien invader force his justice upon people of the world! What gives him the right to do so? His ability to withstand most mortal weapons? His inmensed strength? His ability to break the laws of gravity? He has no rights to force the common man to obey his rules. They should be obeying HIS rules.
 
 

The Society Gal
 
Miriam Petrovica's name comes from long ago, the halcyon days of the 1920s, when she had a habit of taking the society pages by storm every few years. She'd hang out with the rich and the beautiful, do some scandalously outlandish things, have an affair or two, and find "the right man" and get married. The right man was invariably rich, young and handsome...and dead inside two years. At which point Miriam would pop up again in Paris or New York or Berlin and do it all again.
 
It was the Golden Age hero The Black Fedora who exposed her. Miriam was a monster. Rather literally - she was created by a group of medical students using the forbidden notes of Doctor Victor Frankenstein. Their copies of his notes were incomplete, and they improvised, so Miriam seems quite different from her fellow created beings - she is beautiful, scarless, and was able to fit into society fairly easily. But she also has an unending thirst for human spinal fluids, which she has learned to tap gradually and painlessly through skin contact, slowly killing her lovers or husbands. As long as she has a steady supply, she doesn't age. In addition, she naturally secretes powerful pheromones, making her near-irresistible to men or women. If she actually cares about someone, she will end the relationship before they are seriously harmed - but that is rare indeed. And she does like money...
 
The Black Fedora tried to kill Miriam (he was that sort of mask), but her inhuman strength and toughness almost ended him. So he did the next best thing: He went to the papers. In days Miriam's face and story were all over the world, making her an outcast in the very circles she used to dominate. 
 
For decades, Miriam has been forced to hide in dreary suburbia, drifting from victim to victim. Several times she has tried to find out who The Black Fedora really was, to no avail. She finally gave up in the late 1950s when the surprisingly long lived vigilante disappeared from the public eye entirely. But her hate festered.
 
But today, there's a new man who's taken up the old mantle. The new Black Fedora isn't a killer like his predecessor (and, though no one but he knows it, grandfather), but he's got the same "mystic affinity with the night" (chameleon-weave cloak), "ability to befuddle the senses" (narcotic gas pellets) and "powers of evasion" (good training in Aikido).
 
Miriam really wants to kill him, slowly and painfully. But her first attempt was a botch - he was seemingly immune to her charms, and exposed her again! (The new Black Fedora is both gay and, due to a little accident with those gas pellets, anosmic - he has no sense of smell, making her pheromones useless against him.)
 
The papers have hung that old "Society Gal" moniker on Miriam, but this time she's playing up to it - and playing for keeps.

The Society Gal
 
Miriam Petrovica's name comes from long ago, the halcyon days of the 1920s, when she had a habit of taking the society pages by storm every few years. She'd hang out with the rich and the beautiful, do some scandalously outlandish things, have an affair or two, and find "the right man" and get married. The right man was invariably rich, young and handsome...and dead inside two years. At which point Miriam would pop up again in Paris or New York or Berlin and do it all again.
 
It was the Golden Age hero The Black Fedora who exposed her. Miriam was a monster. Rather literally - she was created by a group of medical students using the forbidden notes of Doctor Victor Frankenstein. Their copies of his notes were incomplete, and they improvised, so Miriam seems quite different from her fellow created beings - she is beautiful, scarless, and was able to fit into society fairly easily. But she also has an unending thirst for human spinal fluids, which she has learned to tap gradually and painlessly through skin contact, slowly killing her lovers or husbands. As long as she has a steady supply, she doesn't age. In addition, she naturally secretes powerful pheromones, making her near-irresistible to men or women. If she actually cares about someone, she will end the relationship before they are seriously harmed - but that is rare indeed. And she does like money...
 
The Black Fedora tried to kill Miriam (he was that sort of mask), but her inhuman strength and toughness almost ended him. So he did the next best thing: He went to the papers. In days Miriam's face and story were all over the world, making her an outcast in the very circles she used to dominate. 
 
For decades, Miriam has been forced to hide in dreary suburbia, drifting from victim to victim. Several times she has tried to find out who The Black Fedora really was, to no avail. She finally gave up in the late 1950s when the surprisingly long lived vigilante disappeared from the public eye entirely. But her hate festered.
 
But today, there's a new man who's taken up the old mantle. The new Black Fedora isn't a killer like his predecessor (and, though no one but he knows it, grandfather), but he's got the same "mystic affinity with the night" (chameleon-weave cloak), "ability to befuddle the senses" (narcotic gas pellets) and "powers of evasion" (good training in Aikido).
 
Miriam really wants to kill him, slowly and painfully. But her first attempt was a botch - he was seemingly immune to her charms, and exposed her again! (The new Black Fedora is both gay and, due to a little accident with those gas pellets, anosmic - he has no sense of smell, making her pheromones useless against him.)
 
The papers have hung that old "Society Gal" moniker on Miriam, but this time she's playing up to it - and playing for keeps.

Small blades and bludgeons of various sorts will continue to have value in close quarters combat.  vibro blades, lightsabers, monofilament blades and what not are basically just ways to up the effectiveness.  Obviously some settings emphasize melee combat more than others.  

Scooped.
 
Posted about this in the Extra Extra thread on Saturday.

https://theconversation.com/vale-judith-durham-the-cuddly-aussie-girl-next-door-whose-soaring-voice-found-international-fame-188343?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1qT7ezIFQtzD3BYwLaPiZcz_qwPIMIbBuPXgiY9FAtUec55Bau9-DI22I#Echobox=1659833306
 

Slept in my Icehouse T-shirt and woke up in Flowers. 

Slept in my Cold Chisel T-shirt and woke up in Bow River.

Slept in my Redgum T-shirt and woke up in Bali. 

"Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!"
 
~Whoopi Goldberg's reaction to seeing Uhura on Star Trek.
 
RIP Nichelle Nichols