Grrl Power #427 – Utility euphoria
Sydney can jangle her way through a basic padlock or a front door, but certainly not in record time. She understands the mechanics of it. She watched a few youtube videos on the subject, then practiced on her own front door and a padlock she had. Not handcuffs though, because she’s never casually had access to them, and mechanically they’re different than a deadbolt. She should look in to that before too long probably.
As the stinger suggests, Sydney does own a number of utility belts. Her first one was really just a bandoleer with pouches, probably filled with various types of candy, hair ties, a magnifying glass, and a tape measure, because she was six. This is her first opportunity to build one with literally military grade hardware. (The proper use of the word literally.)
I haven’t been giving Anvil enough to do lately in the comic. She’s a Sergeant, so this seemed like something that could fall in her wheelhouse. It was either her or the QM we saw once at the beginning on the fight, and the boob hug joke wouldn’t play right with him. ( Y ) :)
Originally I had planned on drawing a lot more stuff on the table than I did, but (besides taking forever) I started running out of ideas because a lot of stuff she could potentially carry around would realistically be a small kit of some sort contained in a pouch or a box, not scattered all over the table – or, the sort of stuff Batman (for instance) would carry on his belt is basically the stuff of science fiction. His grappling hook is just not realistic. Batman is something like 6′ 2″, is dressed in full body armor, and carrying all the crap in his utility belt. Even given than his outfit and gear is bleeding edge materials, he’s still probably hauling around 225-250 lbs minimum. Ok, if someone spent 6 million dollars developing a grappling hook, they might be able to make one the size of a… I guess a liter of soda roughly describes the size as depicted in show, but someone maybe could make one with existing materials and tech that could haul that much weight. Ignore the fact that Bats regularly drag another person along with him, and ignore the problem of the grapple being shot into the side of buildings securely enough to hold that weight – sure usually you’d hook it over the edge of something or attach it on to a pipe or fire escape, but watch Batman TAS or Justice League and tell me he’s not firing that thing into rock and armored walls all the time.
So maybe I could buy the grapple with enough money dumped into it, but then he’s got a million batarangs, and not just what basically amounts to shurikens, but also ones that electrocute people, ones with explosives, ones that spray knockout gas, etc. Then he’s got a laser torch, a microscopic rebreather, gas mask, bat-bolas, bat cuffs, a thing that jams guns somehow (according to the Arkham games) flares, x-ray specs, etc. Some of that stuff is realistic, some of it isn’t. I guess I’m mostly doubting his ability to fit it all on his belt.
A-kon is this weekend, which is my usual local con haunt. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday. I don’t have a table, but I’ll be at some of the webcomic panels and maybe we can organize getting lunch or dinner one night. Details to come.
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I expect her to include duct tape. She’s enough of a geek to know how useful it is if you’re creative.
As to Batmans utility belt. Wayne tech has probably gotten a hold of a selection of weird science and future tech over the years, and made a few of their own, so it’s no surprise that people often remark about the wonderful toys Batman has. I never understood why nobody ever realized that the true gem of his gear was the belt itself. How much does that thing hold?!?! They’ve also showed it being casually slung around by a kid, so even with all that stuff, it’s rather light. There has to be some kind of ultra-tech involved that he just doesn’t talk about.
Batmans belt is simply a belt looking Bag of Holding
More like hewards handy haversack.
the haversack has a smaller capacity for tiems than a bag of Holding, and can only hold small items, bat-a-rangs are actually pretty big and batman has even bigger things stored inside those pouches including a chunk of Kryptonite to use against Superman should he ever go rogue.
Yes but the Haversack has the ability to always put what you are looking for directly into your hand when you reach in unlike the Bag of Holding as that has you searching for it. It would seem to me that he has each pouch on the belt act as an independent Haversack with various tools. That is about the only way that he would be able to carry as much using the Haversack.
Belt of Many Pouches is what you are looking for. I have had many, many, many characters over the years who have owned one of those belts. Each pouch is a 1′ cube, holds up to 10 lbs, and acts like a haversack. There are 8 obvious pouches, each with 7 others “behind” the obvious one, for a total of 64 (8×8) in all. One of the best items ever. Cost is like 64k in gold – but who cares?!?!
Actually Batman only puts the kryptonite pouch on his belt when he’s dealing with Superman. It spends most of its time in a vault because they figured out long ago that kryptonite radiation is poisonous and normal lead shielding is insufficient for long term exposure. Lex Luthor missed the memo.
Let me guess, like regular radiation poisoning, it makes your hair fall out?
It certainly didn’t help. Also, all the cancer!
He wore a ring of it constantly and had to have a hand removed, actually.
Yup. On the plus side, nothing spurs cloning research like your immanent demise.
Sydney will take the Macrobinoculars of course… They’re great for looking for Wampas and Probe Droids.
and they help with her cover…
How does she know what that is over THERE…. (Teleorb …) … oh, cool binos.
Only now do I realize that Batman has the superpower of HAMMERSPACE!
I always thought of it as a plus one bag of holding, or a pocket universe.
I always figured that PymTech was a subsidiary of WayneTech, or something like that.
We’ve stopped asking those kind of questions.”
https://limbero.org/jl8/137
^_^
Thank you, this is a fun webic (enjoyed the page where Bruce and Clark were playing Spiderman :D)
Likewise.
My favourite was Bruce being all broody and vigilant, watching over the playground. Nice punchline on it.
One thing can’t understand: the first page has Bruce complaining about having to wear his bat-suit to school, but everyone is wearing their super (or villain) outfits
I think it is the particular style of the suit, as opposed to it being a super-outfit. As we see later, they get teased for wearing nappies.
What, no Leatherman?
Isn’t that one right above the long knife?
Anyone else notice the Predator throwing blade in top right corner.
Two or three have mentioned it, yup.
No one has mentioned the Predator hiding in the background though.
But already know about Dabbler. She’s not a very subtle predator.
She’s the main reason Predators use Stealth fields. None of them want to get her attention.
Her mom’s the reason her planet is safe. Never interrupt a succubus on a food tour of the galaxy.
I took that as a pair of cesti-blades.
I’m sure this has been written somehere in this thread and I missed it but: Star Wars Monoculars!
Yup. And nope. Turns out that they are real-word rangefinders, which were used by Star Wars. As opposed to being a custom-made prop. I love learning interesting trivia like that.
I don’t know there were times where enemy was inside of her bubble. Medium size blade or stun baton would be good for defense. Especially since she doesn’t know how to put light hook inside bubble. Taser too. Medkit. Shovel since she’s a flight hero she maybe deployed our to help mountain or Rocky terrain. Rope for same reason. Especially against teleporters. Lockpit cause she wants it. Small conceivable blade takes care of her being tied up. Pouch on the back end. Make conceable. Binoculars for multiple angle views sidneys illusions let her see out of them. Maybe no truesight. But. Angle view is capable multisight lens. Medkit includes her prescription medicine. Not sure if pepper spray would help she d probably try to drink it. Ration kit to take medicine with.
Interesting selection. Totally lost me on the “Angle view” though?
If you are equipping Halo with the shovel, you may as well skip the medium blade. Just make sure that the shovel keeps a properly sharp killing edge. Weight is Sydney’s enemy and anything which can serve a dual-purpose allows the duplicated item to be dropped from her kit.
Rope may help vs some kinds of teleporters, but most, that I can picture, would simply teleport out of any restraint.
Remember that the truesight orb can also make a doppelganger. Which she can see through. Angle view would be using binoculars to see than using doppelganger binocular scope to see at another angle. And I was talking about using rope cause 1st she doesn’t know how to make light hook inside of shield yet. But her shield cancels out teleportation like harem. Also blades or stun baton can instill fear like the gun example giving her an intimidation bonus. Shovels are useful but are more difficult to learn to use skillfully. Also May be broken easier depending on who she is trapping herself with.
By ‘Angle view’, you mean ‘change of direction view’, Halo has 270 degree view of the surroundings and sends out Doppel-Halo to cover the remaining 90 degrees?
These shovel’s are compact, light, but very sturdy, they are not going to break unless used against something (or someone) stronger than a tank, and if she is trapped inside her bubble with them, then her only hope is to drop the bubble and run
I was stating trapping her opponent in with her like she did against vehemence. Where dropping the shield would do more harm than good. Or if she captured a teleporter in which she needs to keep the teleporter inside. I was going with the medium blade cause of mentally people are afraid of weapons stun batons will stop opponents quickly. Though they should be scared of it not many are afraid of shovels. Also I was stating multiple angle cause I didn’t want to limit her range for her doppelganger. Though an interesting idea just popped in my head. She just leveled up her truesight. What if the doppelganger got a bonus as well what if she can now use the doppelganger free hand for a different ball.
Gotcha.
No, he’s actually got the right idea, taking the blade and the shovel…although I would suggest swapping out the medium blade for a heavier blade like a machete. Don’t take the Gurkha knife, cool as it might look–it’s for combat only, and if they ever run into any real Ghurkas…well, they’re real particular about who gets to carry one, apparently. Since they’re sort of the elite infantry unit (sort of like the Rangers in the USArmy, if I understand correctly) for the Commonwealth’s military presence in Southeast Asia, this is probably something they’d want to avoid.
She will also need a watch with some kind of alarm–I haven’t seen her wearing one, so presumably she can get by on just one or two doses of medication per day, but if she’s handling a crisis, she’s going to need to re-dose. Also, on a related note, if she’s anything like me, she’ll get progressively crazier and more hyperactive as it gets later and later at night. Since, as she gets more and more famous, this would logically become better and better known, it would be a VERY good idea for her to be established as wearing a watch early on. Plus, I can tell you from experience that lots and lots and lots of people won’t allow the cell phone she probably uses now for her medication timer into their building.
Technically the Gurkhas are regular army, rather than special forces. Albeit drawn from the Nepalese population, rather than the British one. But because you might have ten thousand turn up, even if they have had to walk for days to get to the selection site, yet only a few posts available, each year, means that competition is intense.
Thus the recruiters can have their pick from hundreds, or thousands, of suitable applicants, for each post. So that aspect makes their selection process more akin to special forces selection,* than that for regular army. This is born out by the reputation that Gurkas have earnt, in service. A couple of excerpts from Wikipediea:
Think about that. Usually if a unit fights to the last man it is in a defensive position. Or protecting their home or families. But that unit did so on the offence. Even after the rest of their battalion had been killed, the last still pressed home the attack, knowing full well their own fate.
That first quote was not said lightly.
* Relatively speaking. The S.A.S. recruit from within the armed forces. So such individuals have already been through recruitment and training. Then go through far more intensive and depravating processes to choose the best. So I am not claiming Gurkas are on a par with them. But feel that a basic recruit for the Gurkahs will be closer to the special forces material than an average raw recruit for the British Army.**
** It is also of interest that there are more Gurkahs serving in the Indian Army than the British Army. Under a deal struck at the time of India gaining their independence, the Gurkahs were split between the two armies. Britain has since scaled down its number of Gurkah battalions (drastically) whereas India has increased theirs by at least double the original number.
That knife is a kukuri, not a gurkha. Also the gurkhas do not impress when compared to other special forces. When all of you dying is your claim to fame…
I just took it as a typo by homis draconis, in missing out the “s’ “. But it is worth mentioning the name, true enough.
As I said above, Gurkhas are not special forces. I was just pointing out that if you have ten thousand applicants for one job, you will be more likely to end up with a top soldier, than if you have just ten applicants. All other things being equal.
Ensuring you have the best quality recruits is just one part of what is needed for special forces. They then go on to have far more training than regular army recruits. Plus are equipped differently and have different roles.
Amongst the months of extra training that special forces gets is escape and evasion tactics and experience. Meaning that it is unlikely an entire unit will be wiped out, as every member has extensively practiced running away and hiding. That is not an option for the Gurkhas.
As regular army they do not get briefed that “if things go wrong, evade the enemy, make your way across 100 miles of enemy occupied territory, until you reach your extraction point, where we will airlift you (or send a submarine or whatnot). They simply do not have that training.
They have much richer a history than I could list in a single comment. But clearly you missed my mentioning them serving with Lawrence of Arabia. His was an unique irregular unit, which operated very much like we expect special forces to do today. And in fact his actions helped to inform such modern practices. Yet despite the unconventional, and innovative, tactics he employed, the Gurkas were able to fight effectively alongside them! And in many other regular actions, around the globe.
As for their honours, Gurkas and their officers, have earnt twenty six Victoria crosses and, for non-combat situations, two George Cross medals. Let alone the 2,734 bravery awards earnt during combat, in the Second World War, across Syria, North Africa, Italy, Greece, Burma, India, and Singapore.
Clearly, I should pay more attention to the comments. The Ghurkas are NOT special forces. Nor are the majority of the Army’s Rangers, although ONE regiment of the Rangers is listed as such. Mostly, the Rangers as a whole serve as the Army’s elite light infantry/scouts/skirmishers (if such a term still applies in modern warfare). They are NOT tasked with unconventional warfare like the Special Forces are–instead, they are tasked with being the Army’s eyes and ears on the ground, and are trained to be the last guys on Earth you’d want to get into a conventional fight with. From what I understand, the Ghurkas do NOT compare to, say, the Green Berets, or the 75th Ranger Regiment. They DO, again from what I understand, compare well to the regular Rangers (i.e. the 4th, 5th, and 6th Ranger Battalions), who are elite troops, but not actual Special Forces. I perhaps should have used the term “Ranger-qualified,” but to my mind, the difference is moot. If you’re qualified to serve as a Ranger, you ARE a Ranger, whether you are actively serving as such or not, and I would expect that, if the US military ever shifts over to a total war footing, that a Ranger-qualified soldier would be expected to serve as such on demand.
Basically, the Ghurkhas are one of the Commonwealth’s elite conventional units–they are not, and probably never will be, special forces, but they are the unit that is most widely known as being willing to continue fighting–and to do so effectively–well past the point where most units would be said to only exist on paper. As such, they are typically posted someplace to show that yes, the Commonwealth means business, and is seriously committed to providing major military support to this or that location. Currently, I believe the Ghurkhas are stationed in Brunei, to underscore the British Commonwealth’s military commitments to that country…but if they need to act as a deterrent someplace else, they will likely be sent someplace else. The guys have a pretty serious reputation, and they’re flamboyant enough that the whole world has probably heard of them by now.
+1
In most cases she wouldn’t need rope when she has the Lighthook, only for longer term stuff (eg disaster help) but even then other people would be carting around the extra stuff.
sydney is a geek and a tabletop gamer. never, EVER, underestimate the usefulness of fifty feet of lightweight rope.
Little surprise that their isn’t a tanq gun on the table for her too. I’d think that would be her go to given her distaste for real hard core bloody gore and killing.
Which implies it is part of the non-optional kit.
Also useful for children with insomnia and interviewers who break ‘out-of-bounds’ subject agreements.
“What do you mean, I am not able to sue, Halo? She shot me live on network TV. I have a quadzillion witnesses!!!”
“Check the penalty clauses on that agreement you signed.”
Used gas grenades on kids in an RPG once (needed them on the ground and out of direct line of fire fast and no villain on-the-scene had displayed area-of-effect attacks). Spent the rest of the fight grabbing kids and getting them to ambulances outside the “warzone”.
I don’t recall anyone being happy with my decision. “Hivemind Drugs Children” was the nicest headline of the media circus that followed.
On the plus side, my Recognition score went through the roof.
On the minus side, my Reputation ended up in the basement.
Heh, I can see how those stats would change.
I should mention that when I made my “non-optional” comment, I had in mind that they had used a tranq weapon in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park®. I forgot that they were in bracelet form, not a tranq gun.
Well, there are three tranq darts (bottom right corner)
I was thinking those are blowgun darts (with a variety of blowguns out-of-frame).
Too big to be blowgun darts
Not too big for tranq blowgun darts.
If you don’t manually blow them (stop it Dabbles) then it’s not a blowgun
You do manually launch them by blowing. I’ve seen them used to tranq an animal that is in a trap.
you’re not talking about these things right?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunai
but if you meant those three little pink and yellow-ish blobby things, to me they look like a set of jewelers screwdrivers that someone got from a shop that thinks if a female is going to use it then it must be PINK, because any other colors are just “too manly” for them to use properly (pfft, snrrk… Haha)… or maybe they’re from a rep for the Susan G. Komen “three day walk” and are just maintaining branding?
Tranq guns have two problems: first off, they don’t work on anything that’s already bullet-proof, which means most of the things Sydney has to fight are going to make them completely useless; and secondly, that they take time to take effect, which means that they’re not going to work on most of the enemies Sydney has to fight. Basically, anything that you can tranq quickly and effectively, you can subdue in other ways more effectively. Especially if you’ve got this nifty little energy rope that reacts to your every thought.
Not really. Many villains will be able to counter that, true. But many others will not.
Invulnerable: Maxima, Achilles, Math (he could just dodge them, unless attacked by surprise), Anvil*, Stalwart, and Super Hiro.
Potentially vulnerable (due to not having defences raised at all times): Halo, Dabbler, Heatwave, and Zephan Zoeng **
Always vulnerable: Mr Amorphous, Harem, Peggy, Jiggawatt, Leon and Gwen **
Jiggawatt and Harem could teleport away even if Halo grabbed them with her tentacle. Mr Amorphous is invulnerable to blunt attacks. So direct attacks with the tentacle would not bother him. And trying to grapple someone who can alter their form is an exercise in futility.
All three however could have a tranq dart stuck into them. Yes it will take a while before they keel over. But then they are out of the fight.
* But totally vulnerable to taser. Hence why both are lying on the table.
** We know little about Gwen and Zephan. But Gwen is an amateur spellcaster, whereas Zephan is a retired adventurer. Hence where assuming that the latter can handle a mere tranq dart, if he has a chance to use the right artefact. Whereas the former may not have a suitable spell yet.
I’m in agreement that Tranq guns would be dangerous to field, outside of a ‘safe’ gun potentially encouraging fire in environments that would otherwise preclude it.
Many of the foes she could fight appear to have non-standard body chemistries, which means that sedatives may have reduced or no effect, or worse, may potentially be fatal instead to the target. This risk increases when you consider there are an unknown number of aliens present in the world, who while able to tolerate our environment, will have unknown allergies or reactions.
(NSAIDS, while low risk to humans, can kill cats in short order. Humans and dogs both eat meat and vegetable matter, but chocolate poisons them, so on.)
Also importantly for humans, though – there is a reason that anesthesiologists are a highly paid medical discipline in and of themselves. Tailoring sedatives powerful enough to induce unconsciousness in a matter of seconds to a patient’s body weight without killing them, handling unanticipated complications and the like is a specialist role, and the first time ARC darted & killed or damaged a suspect (shoot the tranq gun twice = instant overdose) they would lay themselves wide open for bad publicity and litigation. And if they miss & hit a bystander instead? Drugs to disable without unconsciousness would be less risky – extreme nausea springs to mind – but would still have risks.
All well thought out.
Do not forget that tranq weapons are already standard issue for the unit. Presumably for that to be the case appropriate training and procedures for use must be in place already.
The same as for my comments elsewhere, as regards tasers, use of such technology must only be considered in situations where killing the criminal is the only viable alternative. In which case the risk of death is less with a tranq dart than with a sniper’s bullet!
I’m probably just getting old, but when were tranq guns confirmed as standard issue? I only recall actual firearms being stated, due to their intimidation factor.
‘Tranq weapons’, as opposed to ‘tranq guns’. Namely the bracelets which we saw Harem slapping on one of the prisoners. Which monitor their vitals and administer an appropriate dosage of drug to keep them unconscious.
Regardless that it is a worn item, one must think of it as a weapon, due to its potentially lethal nature. Fortunately, from its built in safety features, it addresses many of the concerns regarding incorrect dosage administration. And we should assume that it has successfully passed all medical device manufacturing rules, given that it is being used in the field.
Clearly they should only be used by personnel who have had appropriate medical training. I would envisage something as intensive as combat medical training, but exclusively focussed on the anaesthetists role. A combat medic does not have all of the years of training a surgeon does, but has specialised training aimed to stabilise a patient until more competent personnel can take over. Likewise with the ‘tranq bracelet’ operators training I propose.
Training for tranq dart use though would draw as much from vets skills as much as an anaesthetist, such as estimating the weight of the target purely by visual examination.
Ah – the bracelets. I take your point that they could be classed as weapons, but since they only seem to be deployed after a target is incapacitated they seem to intended as (still potentially lethal) restraints for prisoners who can laugh at conventional restraints. Though as you said they do overcome many of the shortcomings of a tranq dart (real-time patient monitoring, dosage adjustment, tracking, reliable method of introduction to the body, and maybe the ability to apply different drugs if needed).
I have to assume there’s a reason they don’t simply have Harem or Math running around slapping them onto targets as a first offense, though. Possibly the bracelet would take long enough to take effect that the target could remove the device again before he was incapacitated?
In real life, even vet skills with animal dart sedation would be of limited use given the greater complexities of the target environment. When a vet sizes up an animal, they generally have a single target in a predictable state (for example, the target is not likely to be taking unknown drugs), and they normally have time to adjust the dose & agent accordingly. Even then, it’s not unknown for large, powerful animals to die in the process.
Both England and America decided that gas and dart weapons were simply not reliable enough in their effects in the battlefield after years of testing in the 80’s and 90’s, and in Russia when a sedative gas was deployed during the 2002 Theatre hostage crisis, over 150 hostages died from exposure to the gas, while many of the hostage takers were able to don gas masks and continue fighting.
If I recall correctly, regarding the Russian gas, a big reason for the number of fatalities was that they had not made adequate preparations to treat affected hostages. Many who were safely evacuated were not given even simple first aid, such as you would provide to any unconscious victim (such as lying them on their side and ensuring their air-ways were clear).
Even worse, although they had an antidote, they failed to administer it quickly enough to the hostages. Doubtless complicated by ongoing fighting, for some. But many rescued early were not treated even after being brought to a safe area.
Mind you, living in a former Soviet country, I know that Health and Safety was a non-existent concern for their regimes. Which spilled over to every level of society. Fortunately E.U. safety rules have gradually improved things here, in areas where such regulations apply, such as super markets and shops.
One thing that is good about the culture (at times) is they are sticklers for rules, so such do get implemented. Albeit hampered by endemic corruption.
Physicians have also pointed out that lack of food & water for three days before-hand, which weakened the hostages, and the reluctance of the government to identify the agent, also contributed to the toll. The lack of prompt (or any) on-site treatment notwithstanding, it seems likely that there would have been some fatalities regardless.
Counter-arguments that more lives would have been lost had they not done it are a discussion for another time (I do not know enough of the situation to have a valid opinion either way), but the case does still serve to illustrate the dangers involved, enough so that using such a tool as a response, even for exceptional circumstances is a risky endeavor.
On a tangent, if respect for rules and procedures is on the rise in your home, then that could be a good thing (I hail from a long-failing African state where the rules collapse more by the day. Especially if you are government or police). So long as the ones making the rules don’t go off the deep end, of course.
I was born in South Africa, and have friends and family who have lived and worked in various African countries, so I am fairly up to speed with the ongoing problems. Mind you corruption is a world-wide problem.
I was all too aware of it working in England. There though it is hidden beneath a layer of politeness and superficially legitimate terms (eg paying a “commission” *).
* Have your alarm bells set to go off if you are ever asked to pay a commission to an individual, rather than the company (even if he is a director or the like) who may be providing a legitimate service. Likewise for third party companies, who have no visible contribution to the business deal. And, most suspicious of all, if full details of what is being paid to whom is not disclosed to all parties involved (especially any tax authorities, needless to say).
Here is how I would go about solving corruption, if power fell in my lap:
1) Make me the absolute dictator (I would say “appoint an incorruptible benevolent dictator”, but I do not know any other way to achieve that*).
The following steps would be rolled out starting with the judiciary, then the central government, then the police, then the army, then the rest of the public sector and finally the private sector.
2) Offer an amnesty to anybody who wishes to resign from their official position (Ie if they were corrupt, but fear being put to death, they may leave their job regardless of any contractual obligations).
3) Make corruption punishable by death. Setting the standard of proof, for anyone in public office, as “on the balance of probability” rather than “beyond the shadow of a doubt” ***
4) Make false accusations of corruption punishable by death by torture.**
5) Give full protection to whistle-blowers (barring proven instances of false accusations), such as protecting their jobs or finding them alternative employment (or if need be a witness protection program). Ensuring that they do not make a gain however, to minimise the chance of promoting false accusations.
6) Require that outgoing officials provide full training to their replacements, before leaving. Provide an incentive scheme for exposing prior corruption (eg reduced pension if not co-operating, where corruption is suspected, but increasing to the full pension if helping). Granting amnesty for where they incriminate themselves, of course.
The above steps will take time so, in parallel to the those, it is necessary to start changing the culture from the ground up. Starting with children. Educate them from an early age and ensure that they keep the ideals and morals of youth, without them falling to the cynicism of age. Encourage organisations like the Scouts, which promote such ideals.
I would rather have a young, idealistic but inexperienced judge, than an old, cynical (and possibly corrupt) experienced one.
* So long as they never find my weakness for Yorpie Snax®, they will not be able to bribe me.
** If a country does not constitutionally allow the death penalty. Then lesser punishments could be implemented. Keeping the penalty for a proven false accusation greater than the punishment the accused would have suffered.
Filling up jails is a bad idea. Perhaps have deportation as the penalty, for corruption? With deportation to the USA for false accusations.
*** We are suffering from endemic corruption, worldwide. We would need to accept that in a war against it there will be some casualties, where the innocent will be falsely convicted.
However this has a useful side effect. Only folks who are idealistic enough to risk such will be willing to enter public service. Those are the kinds of people we want in the job!
I like the cut of your jib, sir. EVERYONE! Write in vote! Yorp for president!
For some reason I can’t reply directly to your comment on corruption (the reply button vanishes for the last four entries). Maybe to stop conversations getting too entangled!
1) I agree with your basic premise, that a benign, honest dictatorship would be the most efficient form of government, and up to a point, resistant to corruption. The biggest problem with that, however, is the lack of checks and balances combined with limited capacity for overview by said dictator (especially once the sugar crash from the Yorpie Snax sets in). Simply put, a single individual will always be dependent on the information provided to them by those further down the chain. In a dictatorship, this equates to not only the leader supreme having to be beyond reproach, but also everyone who acts in his name, which in a dictatorship, also means they act with all his authority & lack of accountability except to one person. So instead of fooling an entire system, they only have to fool one man.
There’s also the question of who becomes the NEXT president for life.
2) This could have some interesting pro’s, since you could see who they try to stay in touch with & root out their networks that way.
3) Look at China for a real-life example pretty similar to this. The current chairman has been leading a massive anti-corruption crusade, with an interesting twist. When they identify a high-level official suspected of corruption, they leave them in place, and instead monitor the network they build up, on the basis that this will identify people predisposed to corruption in that branch of government. Then they swoop in and net the whole group, with harsher penalties the more senior your rank is.
As an example, see the 2001 arrest of Shenyang (a city in northern china) officials, including the Mayor (dies in prison), deputy mayor (executed 2003), and numerous others.
4) Combined with point 3, I humbly suggest two unintended effects:
A) Many people, even when confronted with knowledge of corruption, will say nothing for fear of being executed for trying to do the right thing. A lowly clerk may well believe his word will not be accepted against that of a deputy chairman. If someone suspects but doesn’t KNOW, then it becomes even more unlikely they will say anything.
B) This, combined with basic frame-ups, will quickly become a preferred tool for disposing of rivals & the like. Witness the McCarthy era anti-communist witch-hunts, or the communist people’s courts. It will be risky, yes, but it will be abused – history has shown this many times. Especially if the ultimate authority is acting on bad information (for another example from Chinese history, google the Gang of Four).
5) Assuming 3 & 4 work, then this would be a good idea. Since a public forum is required for some of your other proposals, protection for the family of whistle-blowers would need to be draconian and prompt.
6) Again, an interesting idea. With the proviso that the new guys understand that they will be monitored, and trying to use these teachings as a how-to will result in swift and summary retribution.
I agree with the problem of endemic corruption, but unfortunately I don’t believe we will ever completely eliminate it, without a paradigm shift in humanity’s drives and nature. What we have to do is ensure checks and balances that:
-ensure a level of accountability. Absolute power without accountability is one of the most corrosive & corrupting influences known to humanity (looking at you, Mr. Robert Mugabe. Also conglomerates who have more disposable income than some small states).
-prevent too much power from being accumulated by any one person or department. Otherwise they will be able to pervert the system of checks and balances.
-ensure an enforceable method of change of power that does not rely on armed revolution.
Manage corruption to minimise it’s impact, ensure that good government runs primarily for the benefit of country, and that the end goal of the regime is that good government.
(or we just clone you a few thousand times to take over all roles in government. After I buy a controlling interest in YorpieSnax, Ltd., of course!)
When comments get beyond a certain number of replies, it cannot indent any further. So, as you deduced, you just have to reply to the last post that allows such.
Thanks for the insightful response. I think it was all well thought out. Especially the cunning plan to ensure continuity of Yorpie Snax supply!
Actually a tranq dart will penetrate a kevlar vest because its sharp. Kevlar mostly works against fast and rounded. Armor-piercing bullets work by having a tip designed to narrow down on impact to pierce through standard ballistic armor. They don’t go through hard plates very well.
…so kevlar is like a Dune shield?
kinda, kevlar vests work by spreading out the impact force over a much wider area as well as actually absorbing some of it.
Dimethyl sulfoxide might be used in combination with some tranquilizers to allow them to be administered against the bullet-resistant, but from what little I’ve read on the stuff, it’d like be dicey in terms of reliability and effective (and the less said about unwanted side effects the better). Skin would have to be essentially like our own – forcefields, material-armor, and non-terrestrial folk would also have a high degree of resistance.
That said, it made a paint-ball gun a viable weapon in Shadowrun. :D
“effectiveness”
Feh.
In some of Patricia Briggs’ books it’s used to help get a (silver nitrate + ketamine) combination into werewolves…
If Anvil had more to do then she’d be getting somewhere…!
What? o_O
Yea, that had me scratching my head too.
If you scratch your head in a forest, but nobody is there to hear it, how are you scratching your head?
With a hind hoof.
Obviously.
I see a FUBar! Fine tool that. Just look at that beautiful thing and tell me – TRY to tell me – that it is not built for pulping zombies! Given its usefulness for getting into locked supply caches, I want one of those in my hands when the dead rise.
… of course, I will likely be zombie chow within the first five minutes of an outbreak, but hey.
I could not have chosen a situation, without being able to afford my own tropical island paradise. Rural location, that is far enough from the nearest big city that big hordes are not likely to be a regular problem. Small enough population, that it may be able to avoid initial contamination, and give folks the time to build up suitable survival instincts and community co-operation.
Not to mention having its own natural springs, and being so fertile that weeds taller than me can spring up in less than a fortnight! But, even without raising a paw to tend it, the orchard plus various fruit and nut trees still provide more produce than I could eat. And in a survival situation, I would be tending it and preserving any surplus.
One other bonus is that most of the village use horses to pull carts and ploughs. Plus have flocks of sheep, goats and chickens. Which in a post-apocalyptic survival situation is really handy.
Farming my garden would be plausible, as it is entirely walled. Albeit that it would need a fair bit of work to make it properly zombie and scavenger proof. Unlike the house.
Mind you, as I live in vampire country, if the dead were turning out to be wandering around, I would prioritise them instead. If they can be trusted to keep to a deal, then let them control the lesser undead. Assuming vampires which do not have to kill to survive, of course.
Depending on how much they need to feed, offer to be their sustenance on the condition that they otherwise leave you and yours alone (any hostiles are free-range food for them), because doubt they would like to snack on zombie (better to be free-range cattle than dead)
Traditionally, that is a bad idea–most vampire varieties can supposedly enslave others with their bite. Personally, I’d want invite the local priest around on a regular basis to bless my property if I lived in vampire country, and they were a thing, but that’s just me.
Then again, if I lived ANYWHERE with the walking dead, I’d make it a priority to not only clean out the area post-haste, but to make routine and repeated sweeps through the area a major part of my weekly routine to make SURE that the area remained safe to live and work within. Probably wearing something like a knight’s suit of armor, so that I’d be safe from getting bitten. It wouldn’t help against the vampires, of course, but it would make zombie-hunting significantly less likely to be lethal. And if that means I have less time for food production…well, I promise you, somebody like Yorp can produce a hell of a lot more food if he doesn’t have to worry about zombies creeping up on him whenever he goes outside. I figure I’d work a deal with the local Amish, or the organic farmers–they grow food, and I keep the zombies from bothering them.
I figure, if I survive the first five days of the zombie apocalypse, there should be almost a 60% chance that I live to see my kids go into the family business. Maybe riding on a horse, and shouting “what ho!” with an inappropriately British accent when they see a zombie.
Yeah, that was one of the major things that bothered me about The Walking Dead: they didn’t once, while they were in the prison, make a sweep to clear out the walkers at the fences, not until it was almost too late (and occasionally poking them through the fence doesn’t count)
They got complacent, and paid the price when the shear numbers brought the fences down
My initial comment should have read “I could not have chosen a better situation”
Yep. University studies* have concluded that zombie apocalypse outbreaks are containable. But only if early aggressive action is taken. You have to counter-attack in force and relentlessly. If the outbreak is allowed to spread, such that it becomes pandemic then it is not survivable. Even with the slow classic zombies.
Modern movies with fast running or intelligent zombies are not survivable by any means.
Note that such studies do not focus on individuals. But look at whether a society can survive. If a handful of individuals manage to eeeeeek out a survival on a remote island, they will still die off in due course.
Any population of less than five hundred individuals will suffer inbreeding. And the smaller the initial group, the quicker the problems kick in. Most notable of which is infertility.
* Epidemiologists need to have something to simulate, that they can’t just look up previous results for. So clever professors need to either create a hypothetical disease or find something which will grip the students’ imaginations, from the get go.
Zombie apocalypses have their social uses, it seems.
I always figured the humans in the Walking Dead were simply too stupid to live; the series is one slow, drawn-out victory of Darwinism. Remember the iconic scene in the pilot–Rick riding his horse into the city? The outbound lanes are clogged with cars, all scattered and trashed. The inbound lanes are completely empty. Sure, it’s a “meaningful” shot, showing that people are abandoning the big population centers–but it also means no one ever figured, “Hey, that side of the road is empty, let’s use that!”
Sticking the odd zombie with a spear through a fence is actually a step up for these idiots.
Well considering that an actual functional replica exists and it is no bigger then batmans grapple in the movies. Its just thicker. Batmans batarangs also fold for easyer storage. So it is possible that his utility belt does contain all the gadgets it does and only weight maybe 50-60 lbs.
*raises eyebrow*
And this is twelve inches.
*holding paws an inch apart*
That’s what she said!
There are a lot of misapprehensions on what all is carried in Batman’s Utility Belt. For one, he doesn’t carry everything on him. He’s definitely got lockpicks, but those are negligible as far as weight goes. Alfred actually works the map back at the cave, so he doesn’t need to worry about having a map on him. Batarangs, and miscellaneous little throwing stars.
His body armor isn’t fully bullet proof, it’ll stop a knife, and maybe some winging shots, but mostly, it saves him from blunt impact shots. The cape is exceedingly lightweight. Most the other stuff is either held in the Batvehicle most of the time, or something special for a given situation (Fighting Ivy? Well, let’s make sure we’ve got plenty of anti-toxin.)
No, no armor is fully bulletproof, it’s mainly a question of how big and/or projectile design, but that line in Batman Begins still makes me want to hurl, because it’s pretty darn easy to google what average body armor will stop TODAY, and extrapolate that to fiction. The average police vest ( NIJ IIIA) will stop most handgun rounds (barring the true handcannons, .454 etc, but law of averages.) A military one will stop a fair selection of .30 caliber rifle rounds, and there’s so many cool tech possibilities that they easily could have come up with something that sounded WORSE than what I used to wear to work each day. Heck, “Same protection as infantry body armor at a quarter of the weight” still would have been a better explanation than the bullshit that came out of Fox’s hole.
Anything but a straight shot my ass….
Ah, but what about the Bat Shark-Repellent?
Hm, my utility belt: pair of tonfas, the folding knife, the small spyglass scope, first aid kit, rope, pen & paper, squawk, lockpicks, camera (I’d want a smaller one, though. That big one, while taking HD pics, is too fiddly to carry about), and those concussion grenades
Has Sydney forgotten what Dabbler can do?
Sydney: Dabber! Good timing. Help me design my utility belt. Can you add hammer space to it?
Dabbler: Sure! What do I get in return?
Sydney: …
Sydney: I’ll let you fondle my…(suggestive hand motions)…orbs [sly grin]
Dabbler: Sorry kid, but blue ones just don’t do it for me
If I were Sydney equipping from what’s on the table, given her stature and load-carrying ability, I’d pack:
– small monocular,
– small flashlight,
– pocketknife,
– duct tape,
– and maybe the taser.
The taser is if she needs it as a less-than-lethal alternative to the sidearm she’s also packing. Though the duct tape I’d reduce to a half-roll, with a tighter wound core and shorter length, to make it smaller and lighter.
Five items that could save your life in a tactical scenario. It’s mostly basic equipment that she can carry, won’t weigh her down, and move around too much on a belt. Most of everything else on the table is handheld use, which prevents orb use, and her orbs are better suited for most of those functions. If she’s going to be stuck in a situation without the orbs, the stuff I listed is going to be the most useful.
A well-thought out minimalist approach, which factors in Sydney’s assault course weakness.
Yeah, I’m seeing all these long lists of gear, or even stuff that would fit into small backpack. She’s not going on long expeditions here. We’re talking everyday carry equipment. She’ll be going into combat situations and needs to be able to remain mobile. She’s also a newbie and won’t be going alone, or into something without backup and an evac plan in place. A lot of this stuff is unnecessary.
ArcSwat are military, but they’re also police. How much of this would you expect a beat cop to be carrying walking down the street in the city? He’s not going to have a backpack of gear, just what he can easily carry on his patrol belt and still be able to chase someone down on foot.
Minimalist gear and ready access to backup. Done.
I once found some duct tape that’s half the normal width, and wound around a single FLAT piece of cardboard. Not very long, but very compact. And you can fit a few ‘here and there’ where there’s extra space. Of course I bought the entire stock in the store(7 or 8, I think).
Clever design. I commend that to the quarter master.
Or, if Archon take up the principle, the one-eighth-master.
Or should that be the one-thirty-second-master?
Lets see, MY LIST:
1. Tear Gas Personal Defense. — Stress to her that this is NOT pepper spray. That it’s very much more dangerous and not tasty.
2. Flare Gun + Flares — Yes, her lighthook is a VERY good tool. No I don’t see it as enough.
3. Glowsticks — portable, disposable light.
4. Knife — She picks ONE, if she picks the big combat knife, she gets spanked and tries again.
5. Duct Tape — She is one with the geekdom.
6. Paracord. — The rope is good, but lets cut some weight here.
7. Taser + Battery — Like the pepperspray. Lets not encourage her to let them inside shield range.
8. HEAD MOUNTED FLASHLIGHT. — Power pack can be on the belt, but lets keep her hands free.
9. Pad + Pen — Lets not let others see… THE LIST.
10. Pills. Asprin, advil, decongestant, motrin, antacid. Basically what would be in a comfort pack, but in a neat disc instead of 20 lost packages.
11. Range Scope. Small long distance slight without revealing the telepresence orb, might even stack.
12. Power Pick (+ spare manual picks) — you know she’s going to take it.
13. First Aid. — Training not optional.
14. Compass — even with the GPS she gets lost. Lets throw her a bone.
I’m honestly dropping the shovel. I’m picking her kit as mostly the lighter items.
Now, not displayed. Add her resperator, a firesteel that can be struck with the knifeback. One survial candle. She’s not going to use the PPO to light a campfire. Likewise a NON balistic flare, for hand use. A leatherman in pouch and a similiar uncomplicated swiss army knife. Lets add in a small “sanitary” kit. Half those items also double with first aid uses anyway. Likewise, I’ll add a single bar of chocolate… not on her belt, but on somebody else’s on her tearm. I don’t trust her to not indulge, but the caffine can help the ADD… sometimes, briefly…
With her top speed up about MK4 she can return home and replace loadout really easily. She does not need 50 flares. The entire roll of duct tape will be too much. Keep her lightweight, fast change, as few as possible, and the lightest form of each that’s still useful.
…. now, what’s that ugly orange thing on the bottom? Waterproof pill holder? Match holder?
Not after what happened last time, anyhow.
Sounds similar to the kind of list I would make, if I engaged my brain.
Oh, and I might let her have up to 5 lbs of “other” in a pouch. One or two zipties, a spool of thread… you know…. “other”.
Jelly babies! A perfect ice breaker. A good source of energy in a survival situation. Useful for gumming up the works of delicate machinery. Wonderful for winning friends or bribing children. And can even turn a ferocious animal into a friend.
Who would find them irresistible.
Hint hint.
::watches Yorp wag his tail in a friendly manner and assume an adorable pose as the jelly babies are taken out::
Carrots or apples are good, too, but bulky.
::twitches an ear hopefully::
*tosses a steady stream of jelly babies towards Weatherheight*
Bon appetite!
*lobs a couple into own mouth and munches away*
Hee Haw!
Yeah, definitely one of the reasons i liked dating taller ladies.
Yeah, the batman grappling hook rig is actually pretty reasonable. The Mythbusters’ assent device combined with something like the Plumett AL-52 would probably be something that the ARC would have as standard equipment. Then again, since Syd and several other team members can fly / teleport, most probably wouldn’t carry the equipment./
Did you see the ‘Gravity Hook’ on Kickstarter?
The Titanium version is pretty sweet. It’s not ‘human-safe’ certified, but it’s pretty strong, and would probably hold Sydney without problem.
Sydney.
Put. The big knife. Down.
She’ll need to wave it around first.
And now we see why Anvil got assigned this job, rather than the quartermaster. He would find himself bleeding.
Blech. I have been in a class where almost everyone’s face was boob high on me. I kinda hate being tall.
Try seeing the world from down here. We are lucky if we get above you bipeds’ knees!
Actually, last month I saw a pretty girl on a bus, who must be similar to you, in height, from what you said. My thought process:
“Too young, for me? Mmm probably.” *sigh*
“Too tall? Meh, no such thing.”
“Maybe I should… hey stop, noo, don’t get off!”
Too slow. Now that is a thing.
“Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor..”
I’d want a tomahawk, and some 1″ steel ball bearings!
Someone may have mentioned this before me but… Handcuffs are easier to get out of than picking even a simple, low-end padlock. All you do is jam a shim up the cuff where the toothed section goes into the locking mechanism. This forces the ratchet to open up and the cuff opens right up.
https://imgur.com/Clwdp6H
This is just step 1, but from there you can probably see how the rest of it goes.
How did I learn this? Very kinky times…
That does only work if the handcuffs aren’t properly locked (modern designs have a secondary lock which stops them from tightening, so the shim method is impossible). That being said, handcuff locks are roughly equivalent to a single tumbler padlock, so they are very easy to get open with a bent hair pin and a little practice.
Unless they’re the more modern, hinged cuffs rather than being chain-linked. I’ve never tried to get out of those, but getting the right angle would be significantly more difficult.
The vast majority of people do not properly lock the double locking cuffs. Police don’t even give a crap. Most people don’t have shims or know how to use them, and the fact that they’ll tighten and make the suspect more uncomfortable is completely immaterial.
However, if you have a bobby pin, you can unlock even double locking cuffs, though THAT takes a bit more dexterity.
Gerber multi-tool. Survival blade with hollow handle, holds compass, matches, wire saw with diamond dusting, and flint. Power binocs with IR, lo-lite, hi-rez camera, laser range finder and usb port. Powerful field-grade, hand-held computer/communicator with top level encrypt/decrypt. Swiss army knife. Cheap 99 cent lighter. three pieces of thick chalk, different colors. 500 feet of black silk thread. Powerful, small led flashlight. Folding solar panels for charging everything that takes power. 6 flash-bangs. Black fabric electrician’s tape. Smelling salts. 3 eppie pens. Pepper spray. 30 tab-a-vites. One series of a powerful antibiotic. Modern med kit with morphine.
Why Antibiotics?
That’s stuff that has a short shelf-life, and unless she’s stranded many days travel away from civilisation isn’t really a concern. (Antibiotics needs time to work. ) Charcoal tablets in case of the runs because of bad water, maybe. Those water-purifying pills may be a better use of the space than antibiotics.
For cops operating out of a fixed base, replacing short shelf life items on a regular basis can just be a matter of routine. The briefing room could have a refrigerated storage unit by the exit, and everyone re-stocks as they go by.
But, equally, if you are operating out of a fixed base, it is easier to store such there and use it, if necessary, when you get back, at the end of your day’s work. Barring those being held hostage by a megalomaniac situations, of course.
As Yorp pointed out, Sydney will be kept on a short leash; however, she is able to independently travel at several hundred miles per hour, and is thus able to strand herself in difficult to reach locations, where it might be a few days before she might be recovered. Due to my experience with USArmy Special Operations, I know that having a course of strong, general antibiotics can be a huge life-saver, and there are ways of storing such to extend their life in the field.
As it is, this is a seriously trimmed-down list from what I required for a 1 week solo mission, as Sydney has those lovely orbs available to her.
Okay, why are people envisioning a literal bat-belt for Sydney? That stuff would be mostly going inside, or on the outside, of a small backpack, some of it may be going on a belt, but not all of it, just google images of WWII soldiers and look at their packs, that is what Sydney is putting together (also note, that most of those packs had a shovel as standard equipment)
Mmmmaybe. But Sydney, while in a military unit, is not actually prepping for long field missions. She is prepping for short-term specialist missions. Most of what she needs is in her orbs, and mandatory issue.
This is just for stuff she thinks may be useful. She could end up with a pack worth at first, but I bet her loadout will drop considerably after a few missions where she ends up carrying 40 pounds around for no reason…
The WWII combat packs are way smaller than the giant footlockers modern soldiers have to lug around
Yes, and if you tell one of the WWII veterans what’s in the modern packs, they’ll tell you how many of their buddies could still have been around if they had all that.
Very little in those packs is ‘unnecessary’.
Did you know that Allied soldiers fighting in the rather wet Rhinland area in Germany would sometimes force captured German soldiers to strip so that they could steal their DRY underwear?
That todays Special Forces often carry a bag of plasma, strapped to their body, under their clothes when going on a ‘hot mission’?
They have no misconception of ‘everyone will get home unscatched’, and are prepared to deal with serious injuries.
‘Cause a Bat-Belt is COOL!
And you put yer logo on it! (a plus for a comic shop owner in need of merchandising)
And get slapped with a lawsuit from WB
Cops have nick-named their duty belt the ‘Bat-Belt’
Wrong use of “literal” (to play on the comic mention, although I suspect it was used advisedly). Most folks were probably thinking about utility belts. You have me thinking about belts made from endangered species. Which is very wrong. Don’t do it.
I vote Turtle-Shell!
Not visible, but something I would like to point out as VERY useful: A plain deck of playing cards.
Bear with me- got some training with search and rescue as part of an emergency response training course, in San Francisco, and this WAS recommended. When buildings collapse, you need useful, multi-purpose items. But why cards, you may ask?
Broken finger? Roll a card up to make a splint.
Need to leave a message? Write it on a card (its visible and doesn’t usually fly away on the first errant zephyr).
Mark a trail? Cards, duh.
Shim? Cards.
Get stuck somewhere with nothing to do? Solitaire.
Tinder to make a fire? Pasteboard.
Keep a door from closing? Card in the jamb.
Fast way to decide who does a task? Cut to the high card.
Need a distraction (practice this) 52 Card Pickup.
Given that Sydney is going to be doing NON-military activities, mostly, the cards are indeed a useful and LIGHT item to pack.
Sydney should get the spy version: Made of nitrocellulose, with a detonator in the seal.
The practice of using seals to place explosives is bad enough. But putting a detonator in the seal is even worse. How cruel!
And just how practical is it to train a seal to spy anyhow? You will probably just get reports on fish migrations and how long a ball can be balanced on a nose!
The debriefings would also be a bit orr-full.
::waits for the pun to go off::
Wow. I’ve been out a long time. I’ve totally forgotten about how useful a deck of cards is. I usually carried 3-12 decks, depending on how many locals I might meet, and how much time I might loiter in an area before completing a mission. Decks of cards are a great way to win over locals in 3rd world areas. Better than U.S. currency. Add 2 decks to my list for Sydney.
I’m very happy to see kunais
Love the look on her face in the last panel with the Kukri
I imagine that Sidney has wistfully looked at the top of the line Leatherman and Swiss Army knife tools in the past. Now she can easily afford them.
I know it wouldn’t make sense, but I’m somehow saddened to not see a towel snuck in there. I hear they are very useful and one should not leave home without it. :)
On the practical side, 550 (parachute) cord and duct tape are absurdly versatile for the minimal size and weight involved. Sidney being Sidney, she also needs a taser (or several) so that the next time she jumps a norm she has more professional nonlethal options than “wrestling move” and “below the belt”. I’d also throw in a flame retardant emergency blanket (like the ones fire fighters carry). Given the size of her shield I’m not sure she’ll have room to deploy it if a mission takes her into any tight spaces (like many apartment buildings and industrial spaces) and fire is pretty much inevitable if a super-fight breaks out.
Far right side. That is an entrenching tool.
Sorry, I don’t know why the system decided to put this on your comment. It was supposed to be a responce to somebody on comment page two
Well done comic, as always, DaveB, though I do have to call shenanigans on one point:
with a 19″ height differential, even Anvil’s massive chest would just be brushing the top of Sydney’s head, rather than suffocating her.
My pick of load-out:
Crowbar (FUBar?)(good for leverage and whacking)(video-game homage)
Lockpicks
{Spyglass w/Laser Range-finder
{Night Vision mono
{vid-recorder
Small Med-kit, including extra comfort pack
Swiss Army Knife
Multi-tool, locking “blades” (the kind that the blades open on the OUTSIDE)
-Various driver sockets
3C Mag-LEDlite, extra batteries (good for whacking, too)
LED Headlamp
signal mirror
signal whistle
Compass
Space Blanket
Zippo lighter
Notebook/pen
Air-mask!
Air-quality monitor
Towel
UNBREAKABLE Pocket comb
Silk Rope, 50ft
Monofilament (non-melting) fishing line, 100ft
Glowsticks (3 12hr green, 1 30min white)
“Marker” flares (like in “Aliens” 10min burn)
Duct Tape, 25ft*2in flat core
Zip Ties, assorted sizes
Spy Pack of playing cards (nitrocellulose w/ detonator seal)
24hr rat bar (w/ hot sauce)(tastes like chocolate-covered cardboard)
Canteen, 1qt
Taser/stun-gun, extra ammo
Sedation Slap-patch
Batman has his batarangs, and Link has thirty bombs the size of his head.
Well, Link is a tiny annoying little brat, so no surprise he has bombs the size of his pin-head :P
Batman is the most overpowered superhero ever written. Why? Because his belt is a superpower. No, really. If you were to build it using the HEROES system, it’d be a multi-use power, with the ability to pull anything Batman needs at any given time. Usable by self only, requiring his hands, non-persistent.
AND… if Batman ever loses it, he can always pull another one out of the one he doesn’t have.
As for the magical grappling hook, Bob Forward of 3 Minute Max sits on board with a company (it’s his late father’s company) that’s developing a grapple gun. Read about it here!
https://www.3mm-crisisstrike.com/3mmcomic/striking-sparks-page-fifty-one/
As for lock pick guns, I’ve never met a lockpick artist who’s taken them seriously. I ordered mine, and it sits in my car doing nothing, because I have no idea how to use the darn thing. I could probably look up a video and figure it out, but darn it, I’d rather get more practice in on using my loose picks. I hardly ever get any practice in as it is. Also, I’m told lock picking guns are loud. Not sure about the validity of that, but there you go.
Batman’s Utility Belt is a Variable Power Pool in Hero System (at least, to pull off *everything* that’s been seen to happen in the comics.
Advantages and Limitations that apply to the entire VPP’s Control Cost (individual powers may have higher “cost” ADS or LIMS)
ADS
+1 AD – No Skill Roll to Change Powers – This lets him pull whatever power he wants out of it without having the appropriate skill (But see Limitation Below)
+1 AD – 0 Phase Action To Switch Powers – Switching a VPP is usually a full phase action, and 99% of the time, batman moves and attacks in the same phase (But see Limitation Below)
LIMITATIONS
-1/2 LIM – Obvious Inaccessible Focus
It’s obvious where he’s getting them, but you have to subdue /entangle him to remove them and it takes a full phase action to remove the belt. It can be argued this is actually an Inobvious Inaccessible Focus, but it has been taken a few times, so I’m inclined to give the larger bonus. Definitely Not an accessible focus (nobody charges past batman and removes the belt, or frankly even does much with individual items on the belt).
-1/4 LIM – Requires Gestures to Activate
He has to use his hands but typically only to activate a power – Some “Omnigadgets” will require longer time to activate but this applies to any power.
-1/4 LIM – Once a Power is Selected, cannot be swapped out without appropriate way to do so (Return to Base / Mobile Storage Unit / Reasonable Source)
Hence, batman can jury rig a weapon if needed from a hardware store. Again, not really a huge limitation given Batman’s terrorist.. erm.. counter-terrorist training
-1/4 LIM – “Reasonable Real World Tech” Only (No alien tech, Technomancy Gadegtry, or magic items)
Not really a big limitation, but still. This might score more with other GMs but since a lot of “real world tech” gets rolled into the other limitations, this isn’t worth quite as much to me. If it were “Real Tech”, that might be a half, but Batman pulls some crazy wild stuff out of the belt.
-1/4 LIM – Requires a skill Roll to Activate “Powers On the Fly”
“Can our hero cobble together a weapon to take out Killer Croc using only items found in the Lingerie Department at Sears? Tune in next week, same Bat-Time, same Bat-channel”
-1/4 LIM (or maybe more, depending) – No Powers above X Number of Active Points
We never see Batman pull a BFG out of his belt, only relatively “low point cost” items. *Might* be a limitation, maybe not…
It’s also possible there are some powers Batman chooses not to use and could *maybe* be a LIM, but “does not” is not always an applicable LIM.
So, +2 AD, +1.75 LIM – So that means for every 5 points in the VPP itself, Bats has to come up with ((5*3) / 2.75) = 2.18 points, or 22 points in the VPP costs Batman 12 point for the Control Cost. I can assume that Batman’s Base VPP is 110 points (given all the crap he pulls out of that thing) and has a Control Cost of 60 points, and this is a VERY lowball estimate IMHO. Given the character’s *very* long history, I can easily see him with Maxed NCM Stats, Every skill in the book, Gobs of Perks, and still have a 165 point VPP with a Control cost of 89 points – which is practically infinite options. Best to have *everything* written up and approved by the GM prior play, all you Bruce-wanna-be’s.
“Usable by self only” is not a power limitation – “Usable by others” is a power advantage. Additionally, if he takes the Focus limitation (as frankly, he really ought), it has to be defined as either Usable by Self Only or Usable by Anyone as part of being a Focus, and the “Real World Tech” only limitation pretty much means it has to be capable of being Usable by Others.
He’s pretty versatile, but the belt is pretty limited. Has Batman ever pulled a 500W long-range cutting laser out of the utility belt? Since I’m not a reader of the comic, I dunno, but it seems out of character. Also, every time he pulls out a power he’s by definition limiting what he *might* be able to do for the rest of the “fight”. The JLA has Brutes aplenty, so I’m pretty sure Batman spends most of his time being the Utility Fielder for the team and stocking the stuff that isn’t handy often but is occasionally Absolutely Essential.
Your point is very well taken, however – VPPs in Hero System are sick powerful unless the GM rides herd on them.
Nuts – Please add the following change, since I got typing too fast…
“So, +2 AD, +1.75 LIM – So that means for every TEN points in the VPP itself, Bats has to come up with ((5*3) / 2.75) = 2.18 points.”
Sorry bout that, Chief.
The GURPs way of handling it is to allow gadgeteers to spend character points on buying widgets. Unspecified devices, chosen at the time they are deployed. But limited to things that the user actually has access to (normally kept in their base for example) and could reasonably have on their person.
Want to be able to draw out three such devices in a fight? Just spend the points to have three or more widgets. And the character can always specify carrying the more common things like grapnels, in addition to the unknown widgets.
A fairly common technique used by more than one super-hero role playing system, as mentioned elsewhere in these comments.
Personally I prefer just listing the items carried. With lists reminiscent of the numerous ones being suggested here. It feels much more realistic and saves character points that I can use much more interestingly elsewhere. Especially as widgets require the cinematic version of the gadgeteer, as a prerequisite, which is even more a points drain, and not something that appeals to me either.
I miss GURPS.
Never had any luck talking my group into playing it, unless of course *I’m* to be the GM, which would be counter to my wish to PLAY in the game. :D
Pretty much the same deal in Mutants and Masterminds 2e. Different modifiers, different nomenclature, but operates on a similar level. ^_^
And yet another system I’ve read and enjoyed but never played. Also seems pretty cool.
“No Skill Roll to Change Power”
I don’t know about that. I’d want the player to roll to see if he had remembered to pack what he needed that day. With modifiers for how often he’s used the item in the past vs how exotic it is.
Grenades :) With her light-hook for use as a sling-shot for range, throw things around corners, slam dunk, etc, she would make a good grenadier, and it would help her overcome some of her weaknesses, such as ..erratic.. close combat, and lack of AoE abilites (that don’t leave craters in the building on the other side of her target).
Plus, she’s already showing herself growing into a good tactical field support & analysis unit, so things like smoke, flashbang and concussion grenades could fit her emerging role of providing support, while giving her more oppurtunties to control the battlefield:
-she has a breather mask now. So gas grenade to act as a boobytrap for anyone getting inside her shield
-Dabbler’s capture grenades. She can float around the periphery using them to take out targets at range, minimise collateral damage, and cause disruption while safe behind her shield.
-contact-fused devices, so that she can literally smack people with it using the hook. Homing grenades!
-booby-traps using her image projection and remote or proximity detonated devices
-with flight & shield can act as improptu close air fire support
…ooh – get dabbler to design a weaponised gas grenade of her curry breath X_o
Downsides:
-her aim (mitigated by using the lighthook to hand-deliver)
-she is likely to go mad and ‘nade spam the entire battlefield
-has already demonstrated tendancy to butt-dial grenades while showboating.
-how to get grenades to molestorb..er, lighthook from inside the shield. Harem might help there?
-curry breath may result in excessive collateral damage and casualties on both sides
Harem would have to be the one carrying the grenades, if you want to do that trick. Given that she is unable to teleport through Halo’s shield. Or get them from the base, as she did with the flashbangs.
Mind you teamwork would allow any teammember to toss Halo a grenade. The biggest tricks being to ensure she is not being distracted, when they do. Plus checking whether Halo’s tentacle can handle the tricky task of pulling a pin (it is dexterous enough, but a pin may be too small for it to grip). If they need to pull it first, the timer needs to be longer than for a normal throw. And that whole distracted thing gets even more critical!
Hrm – for some reason I remembered Halo as being able to teleport through the field, but you are quite right in that she cant.
Pins would potentially be an issue, but I was imagining custom designs for her (although I didn’t make that clear, in retrospect.) Hence, contact, remote detonation, or given the light-hook’s demonstrated ability to hold things snake style, a squeeze to arm, release to start the timer setup for more traditional grenades. Disarming could be trickier, but should just be engineering matter. Looking at the size of the lighthook, it seems like it would be too large for traditional ring-pulls designed for human fingers.
The biggest issue would be exposing herself by dropping the shield to get a new grenade out, or else risk having a (also exposed & vulnerable) box of explosives outside the shield in a fight.
Dabbler has teleport tech, & while perhaps she could setup a port on demand grenade feeder for Halo, it begs the question why she wouldn’t just port the grenade in on the target instead. Also doubtful whether she would be willing to release control of her tech to that extent.
Combined with Halo’s ADD, so that she quite possibly would forget to catch and/or stand around holding a live grenade (Distraction is her not infrequent nemesis, as you point out!), and I must regretfully withdraw the suggestion. Pity, though – I suspect that Halo playing with actual bombs + Maxima’s & PR Lady’s faces = audience glee.
Oh, please do not abandon the idea. Especially as you elaborated on the customised ring pulls. One plus point is that Halo’s tentacle will be able to throw a grenade much further than even an RPG could reach. Its length, flexibility and strength would allow that. And Sydney clearly has precise control over it, so even the aim might be good. With practice.
Not to mention that she could place a grenade, or C5 pack, in a precise position. Which is a considerable advantage versus the uncertainties involved with anybody throwing or firing a grenade.
I agree that the Dabbler line is a no goer though. Not just from her unwillingness to share (and Sydney has already begged for that, twice, in the Hammerspace scenes). But also because if Harem’s teleportation is blocked then Dabblers probably is too.
Of course they might operate in fundamentally different ways, thus allowing one to work, but not the other. But the simpler explanation is they use similar underlying principles, if different means of accessing it. Easy enough for Halo and Dabbler to test, either way, mind.
I think that Halo will be able to manage her ADHD enough to be responsible around firearms and explosives. Just think of her offended comment about being able to get a drivers licence. But I suspect she will need to prove her ability before folks will trust her with explosives.
One of the downsides of Sydney’s habitual play-acting, is she will face an uphill struggle to show that she can be responsible when it is called for.
True – but since the lighthook is external anyway, I was thinking of how to feed grenades to it without Halo having to drop her shield each time. Hence, a specific D-Tech one-way teleporter that Halo could trigger on demand, but not otherwise control, that would feed her grenades (say, 1 foot outside her shield each time).
The range & flexibility the lighthook would give her is exactly what made me think of it originally, but without a good deployment mechanism, that doesn’t compromise her ability to turtle (esp. since without the shield she is the squishiest front-line member of the team by a long shot), it is just too risky. If there was a way around it, though… hehe, can’t you just picture Halo flying out of the sun spewing grenades while screaming “DEATH FROM ABOVE!!”
She is earning the respect of her colleagues already – working out how to take down Vehemence probably didn’t hurt – so while they may require extra training from her, I don’t really see it being a problem in the long run.
Ah well – even if no grenades, she can use other multi-use weapons with the lighthook and get a lot of the same benefits. Long range homing taser that can immobilise and retreive the target after shocking comes to mind.
I like all these ideas but have to point out they would never give her lethal grenades. Nearlly all her missions are expected to be in highly populated areas. Bang bangs plus civies equals lawsuits. Also if she can reach the enemy to set a grenade next to them then she can reach them to grab them and slam them into the ground with a few tons of lifting force, which will do far more damage, or just grapple and wrap them up.
you can buy cuffs at like, Fry’s electronics though. Or on amazon for all of fifteen dollars. >__>
Dabbler has a bigger collection than Amazon.
Hey…um…has the author ever read Battle Angel Alita? I’m only asking because he’s a big fan of the Cammy manga…and it has a loot of homages to Alita.
Why do you need a lockpick when you have a ppo? Or a super strong lighthook if you’re being tactful.
Even the lighthook option is still pretty loud–you’re going to have the sound of ripping wood, if nothing else; depending on the design, this could also entail ripping metal. A skilled lockpick is vital for stealth-mode.
As an example, I was just listening to an NPR story about a group of Norwegian Resistance fighters in WWII who went to sabotage Hitler’s heavy-water production facility. The mission nearly got derailed because of a locked door that would have kept them from getting into the basement where the heavy-water tanks were. Fortunately, they had such a detailed knowledge of the place that they were able to find an alternate route through a utility tunnel; otherwise, they might’ve alerted the guards in the facility by trying to force/blow the door open.
Had the mission failed, Hitler’s atomic program might have gotten far enough along that we’d be talking about “London” instead of “Hiroshima”.
So, yeah–lockpicks.
Mmm, lockpicks without equipment to, and training in, overcoming alarm systems is not likely to be stealthy.
Had the mission unfortunately failed, fortunately Hitler probably still wouldn’t have had a delivery system for getting a bomb of the size they were likely to build to London.
Don’t forget that the same team who worked on the V1, V2 etc rockets, for Nazi Germany were employed, after the war, as an essential part of the Apollo program. With his absolute power, Hitler could have allocated sufficient resources to that team to build a big enough rocket.
However that would have had to be prioritised early in the war, gearing the V-rocket program to have that capacity as its main aim. Otherwise it would have been like the jet aircraft, a real game-changer, but developed too late.
The biggest factor in Nazi Germany not doing that was actually a blunder by Hitler’s own science advisor, early on in the war. When Hitler enquired if an atomic bomb was realistic, he did the math and concluded that it would take more fissionable material to build than was available on the planet.
Post war he claimed that he had made a deliberate mistake, to stop Hitler from insisting that it be developed. However it turns out that MI5 had bugged his prison cell, and knew the truth, that he confided to friends. He simply got it wrong.
Average Batman utility belt contents per the Batman wiki:
Multi-function flashlight (infra-red, UV, etc)
Smoke pellets
Fingerprint dusting kit
Micro camera/binoculars w/ infra-red and other settings
Lockpick kit
Teargas pellets
Power supply/handeld computer
Micro recorder
Batline reel
Laser torch
Mini-grenades/plastic explosives
Rebreather
Buckle contains 2-way radio and spring tension batline reel
Grapple clips to belt
Baterangs fit in pockets lining the entire back of the belt
Here’s the link with illustration if anyone doubts.
https://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Utility_Belt?file=Whoswho_ubelt.gif
Neat – Lots of practical stuff in there. And nothing completely beyond the pale. Very Nice.
It’s missing the really BS stuff like ‘explosives that can magically hurt/inconvenience people who throw down with Superman’.
…writer depending.
Also, for a time he carried sonics (ie, stuff he’d throw that put out intense sound to disable people).
It’s cannon that Batman switches out things that are on the belt on a regular basis, sometimes for mission specific gear, and sometimes just because he feels like it. As for several toys from the Arkham games series, many of them were made specifically for the game and had never appeared in Batman before. The explosive gel dispenser is a perfect example.
Obviously, I’m not fully engaged in the spirit behind the idea of “what tools should she take?”, as all I can keep thinking is “Why are we not in the Danger Room finding out what those orbs can actually *do* and practicing that?”.
If I were her commander (Maxima), she wouldn’t get choices until *after* we find out what her capabilities and limitations are and train her a bit more. I get to decide what she carries until she demonstrates she’s worth putting into the field and in what way she can currently be useful.
Maybe this is the “Let’s see where her head is at about all of this” stage, and all of this is just another psych evaluation.
Halo’s basic training should not be put on hold until some indefinite date in the future, when they are confident they know all the orbs capabilities. Even preliminary testing could take days or weeks. Whereas Sydney needs to start improving her physical fitness immediately.
Part of which involves carrying the equipment she requires for her role. Which means Sydney has to be properly equipped. Yes, it may turn out that some items she chooses now become obsolete when she finds out more about her super powers. But those items can be swapped out for more useful ones, at that point.
In the meanwhile they do know the broad strokes of her powers, so the kit can be customised to compliment them pretty well even now. And, most importantly, it allows Halo to keep getting her training for things which are critical to the job of a cop. Such as proper restraint techniques and use of handcuffs.
No matter that she can wrap a villain in her tentacle, at some point she needs to put the cuffs on. She will not want to spend the rest of the day holding a crook, until he is processed and put into a cell, simply because she has not learnt how to put handcuffs on safely.
We do all want to see Halo testing more of her capabilities. But see how ecstatically happy Sydney is above. We could not deprive her of that joy!
I see what you’re saying, and I agree. Better to have something that may become obsolete later on the off chance it’s needed right now.
Still, wannasee DangerRoom!
::brays obnoxiously::
Sydney is tiny (I guess she is around 155 cm/45kg), so her every-day-carry items should be as light and compact as possible. Most of her tools should be usable with one hand only, so she can hold a powerball in the other hand. Since she has powers, she does not need all Batman tools.
Multitool: Leatherman “Charge TTi” or “Skeletool”, with “Bit Kit”; while Charge is one of the best multitools, it is also heavy.
Med kit: Chinook “Covert Trauma Pouch”; anything smaller is pretty much useless, anything larger is too heavy.
Light source: “Petzl Zipka” headlamp; simple, compact, weather resistant and has retractable headband.
Less-lethal: Small can of Level III “SABRE RED Crossfire” pepper gel; good range, fast effect, and red dye allows you to see what you hit.
Handcuffs: “TUFF-TIE” plastic handcuffs; light, compact and does the job.
Binoculars: Zeiss Mono 8×20 T*; actually monocular, not binocular.
Utility Knife: Spyderco Delica 4 plain-edge; small enough for small hands, rides flat on pocket, opens with one hand, closes with one hand with some practice.
Fire-starter: “S.T. Dupont Minijet” compact lighter; small, easy to use, works well.
Lock-pick: Titanium “Jack-knife” pick set and two-headed tension bar.
Other: “Flat pack” of duct tape.
Other: Survival bracelet braided from 10 m of 2.5 mm Dyneema cord, with 730 kg tensile strength.
These items can fit in two small MOLLE/PALS pouches, with knife clipped to front pocket for instant access, and bracelet worn on wrist. The total weight of these items (including pouches) is just under 1.5 kg (~3 lbs). The med kit is the heaviest single item.
I think you put the best list together, taking her existing capabilities and limitations into account.
Unfortunately, I fully expect Sydney’s to include NVGs, a tent, inflatable raft, a Poke-ball, a 10′ pole, a bag of jacks, and a Harley Quinn Hammer…
She will order a collapsible 10′ pole and pay for it with her own money if anybody objects.
+1
It IS a good list.
I’d still give her the taser and a little general survival gear, but you have picked some VERY nice items.