Grrl Power #883 – Garbage duty
Are* of Lube Spell: 0 physical damage. 4D6 damage to self-esteem, + additional 2D6 damage to self-esteem if the person who cast it stands around talking about their plans while you fall around like a newborn fawn chucked onto a waterslide, + 1D6 self-esteem damage if you caught the other team flat-footed, plus another 1D6 if they’re from some medium tech backwater.
*An “are” is 100 square meters, or, 10 meters squared. A hect or hecto is 100, therefore, 100 ares is a hectare, or 10,000 meters squared, or 1/100th of a square kilometer. I guess a hectohectare is a square kilometer. So is a meter a hectocentimeter?
A lot of good stories in the comments for the previous page. Many, if not arguably all, rely on a permissive Game Master. Sometimes they can’t argue with a well planned attack, and sometimes they’re the kind that want to shut down the fun and make players slog through the campaign as laid out, but personally I’d rather have an amazing story to tell than a good slog. In the few times I’ve run games, it’s become obvious that I am personally far too permissive, and the players accomplish far more than they should in single adventures.
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I’m a pretty permissive DM. The way I see it, every encounter (especially early in a campaign) is a negotiation about what kind of game the players want to play. If they see zombies and start rolling initiative, it suggests that they want a hack-and-slash game. If they say, “Let’s try talking to them!”, they want a wacky roleplay-heavy game.
The latter option, by the way, lead to a whole kerfuffle between the ULU (Undead Labor Union) and SCABS (Skeleton Crew A-Biotic Solutions, Inc.) The zombies were moaning because they had a grievance. :D
I like to find out what motivates each of the players. If one has an ambition to build a stronghold, for example, you can ensure that any plot which you anticipate will not appeal to them, can be sweetened by dangling something which will further their goal. Perhaps earning the favour of a noble or royalty, knowing that in due course they may award a land grant.
The more you know about what tickles the group and the individuals within it, the more you can tailor the game to be enjoyable.
One thing I do manage to do well is set up situations which seem overwhelming, but which I anticipate that the players are capable of rising above and succeeding. So in the early to mid part of encounters, the players will often feel that they don’t stand a chance, only to find themselves turning the situation around and winning. Be that combat or other diverse roleplaying situations.
Taking close note of both players’ dynamics and capabilities, as well as knowing their characters, is an important part of that. Along with mastering subtle ways to give the players a nudge if they have forgotten or missed key abilities that their characters have.
Often players will come up with some creative or unexpected solution to a problem, but equally, sometimes they might be stumped. So being able to organically give them a hint about a route that is within their power, will get them back in the swing again.
One of the reasons why I prefer tabletop roleplaying to computer based games. If things stall in the latter, it is because the game requires a very specific solution, in order to progress. Something which is not true in real life and which requires looking up a wiki or some kind of walk through, to overcome. Which utterly ruins the experience (and/or makes players dependant on such crutches, thus nefing their own creativity and problem solving talents).
Run into many a DM while playing Shadowrun that discover much to their horror I actually read the rules on special ammo and armor. I tend to use nonlethal rounds rather then lethal rounds when I’m starting out simple reason impact armor is what you use to soak it. Which as anyone who has played Shadowrun will a test is a great deal weaker then ballistic armor. Really sucks when the NPC catchs a gel round from some of the more powerful hand guns in the game. Stage it up enough and you can stop them dead in their tracks. then everything goes sideways for them since I do other weird ass shit as well. Like glue grenades in stairwells or slick grenades or both in combination. Elevators are death never get into one if you can help it exit out the roof parachute away or zip-line. Yes it means you climb a lot of stairs but that just means you get to trap them as you go up.
Also note if one of your players is an actual lawyer, negotiator, or diplomat, expect diplomacy and communication to be a key strategy used. I’ve seen GMs get blindsided by a lawyer doing this. (They prepared themselves for rules lawyering over the combat system, not recognizing that most actual lawyers have honed their abilities to evade the combat system entirely, and many do so in game as well as out.)
Sure, there are actual lawyers, negotiators, and diplomats who play hack and slash D&D. It happens. But it also happens, from time to time, that people who make livings settling disputes will take those skills to their RPG, too, and at least in the games I’ve been in, the latter are far more likely to derail a GM’s campaign.
Disclaimer: there are people without law degrees who have jobs that aren’t titled negotiator or diplomat whose jobs are basically settling disputes. Just to be clear, I’m including those in my definitions of the terms ‘negotiator’ and ‘diplomat’, because I don’t care about actual titles, but rather about actual “what the job entails”.
There are also the few wonderful/horrible ones that blindside the GM every time.
Geeky sci-tech person goes full on diplomacy overkill [waves].
Lawyer friend plays a full on tinkerer/gadget geek.
At conventions the GMs usually assume people play their strengths and much to their horror everything goes horribly wrong for their machinations.
Knowing the players’ interests certainly helps, but I’ve been in campaigns that foundered because everyone had a different vision for it, and there was no “negotiation” phase about what kind of game it was going to be.
E.g.: The DM wanted a dungeon-crawler set against the backdrop of a world war, the paladin wanted a base-building campaign, the ranger wanted a number-crunchy hack-and-slash, and I was looking for a cinematic dirty-tricks style of play. Now, you can make all that work together as a DM, but you have to figure out what everyone wants, and you have to be willing and able to adapt your plans. You can usually get a pretty good grasp of it within a session or two, just by watching how each player addresses encounters, and if not, you need to actually discuss it with them. If you don’t work it out early, the campaign is likely to founder.
Hmmm….114 messages before a new page….
It varies. Sometimes a few posts provoke a lot of replies, and that total is not just the new posts, but is rather all of them combined.
Curses! Ruined my algorithm you did…thought I had found a secret of the universe! Harumph. *tosses you a yorpie treat!* Back to the abacus for me.
Daaw.
*munch munch, gobble gobble*
Far side of the Moon sounds ‘somewhere out of sight’ where the box will be safer. Anybody stumbling across it there probably already has all the ultra tech they need, and it is easy enough with Sydney’s Aetherium gate to get there and back nice and quick.
Although she will have to keep a look out for Nazis, of course.
*worried look*
Well there is a potential SNAFU moment. Sydney already opened up an Aetherium causeway right outside her comic shop just to go get Grakz, any human outside the shop wouldn’t have known what it was, just seeing a color wormhole. So imagine Sydney just flies to the top of a building and opens an Aetherium causeway right above Times Square while trying to think of a place to dump the stasis pod to go back for it later; totally not even thinking about “oh yeah, Nth tech, oops’ that the aliens might recognize the portal for what it is like Cora did.
Indeed.
Fortunately Halo is not that pressed for time at the moment, as things seem to be under control for now. So, with her fast rate of thinking, and her battlefield tendency to look at problems from a vast array of angles, she will hopefully not be as lax as he was in a casual civilian situation. But, even then, you may be right, as it would be an easy mistake to make.
Heh, pop into a cop shop or bank.
I thought that she’d just go to the top of one of the taller buildings and place it next to an A/C unit.
Last choice: A balcony of one of the High Rises.
“Is it ok if I leave this here? I’ll come back for it later.
Probably not radioactive, but don’t touch it.”
Given her speed, in a few seconds she can drop it in the front door of the Archon building. Knowing her though it would be put in her own front door instead. Or the comic shop and accidentaly sold to someone.
The Archon HQ and Sydney’s home are in Dalas or some other city in between the East and West coasts. Whereas they are currently in Times Square, which is in New York, on the East coast. A trip that took hours, when they used the Halomobile to visit the Twilight Council the first time.
Plus anything which did fly that distance, in that time, would cause an unprecedentedly powerful sonic boom across half the country. Possibly going beyond merely breaking every window, to rupturing eyeballs and other organs.
Halo could open an Aetherium gate, but that would have its own set of hazards, should she be observed.
Oops, “Plus anything which did fly that distance, in that time …” could be mistaken as referring to the travel time for the Halomobile trip, whereas it was my intent to reference the initial comment’s “… in a few seconds she can drop it in the front door of the Archon building.”
Oh, and whilst I am adding stuff, I can mention that there may be an Archon local branch on the East coast, possibly here in New York. In which case the spirit of the original comment can be maintained (if Sydney knows her way there).
She has to use the bookmarks, for that. There, is none for the moon!
If the ear-bleed didn’t solve that, it seems it is time for Maxima to stretch her throwing arm… could be faster than travelling half a day at mach 16 (assuming I din’t fail math again).
Or she checks out one of the other planets on that rolladex…which one might be the moon we don’t know where all is in the browser history. Just picture Sydney jumping to some random world of crystal mountains and shiny jungles and scoots the pod in some bushes by a crystal
has Sydney actually figured out the aetherium gate’s co-ordinate system yet? I mean the space faring races who have seen it are all “ooooh, elegant and intuitive,” but Sydney is more “I don’t know what the squiggley lines mean…” it Think it’s the difference between when you know how to play each of the notes, and when you know how to make music.
Are we sure that an “Are” is the term here? I thought it was Acre, and “Hectare” was just a bastardization of “Hectacre”.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hectacre
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hectare#English
The term Are is a real area measurement unit that used to be used for land measurement (mainly in post-revolutionary France), but it’s rather fallen out of use now in favor of the hectare (100 a = 1 ha). The term derives from the same root as our “area” (it’s Latin, and relates to the land that a building sat on, especially in town; it’s obviously older than that but it seems difficult to trace).
Acres belong to a totally different unit system, and the words have substantively different roots (to do with farming, and that’s been traced back clearly to Proto-Indo-European).
It can be helpful when considering whether to second-guess someone how likely the term is confused.
In this case,
1 are = 100 square meters (this information was given in DaveB’s author comentary).
1 acre = 4,840 square yards, roughly 4,047 square meters.
One term is in metric, the other isn’t. That’s not likely to be a confusion of terms.
This is in no way an importsnt comment.
LOOK THEY’RE FIGHTING CHINS! EVERY PUNCH IS A JAW BREAKER
One of those chins was once married to someone who met the 4th Doctor, in London 1978, in the Crowmarsh Institute.
Well, this should be wrapped up quickly.
I wonder how the extradition treaty will work. Obviously, they will either be tried on Earth, or the Galactic police will ask to take these aliens away….. maybe saying how “you don’t know the biological needs of different races yet, let us house them and we will respect your courts decisions on how long to keep them”.
Yeah, that could work, then we would just have to pay for a trial. Save money on the confinement phase.
Of course, they probably all have warrants out for their arrests someplace. Might be interesting to see.
Attempted kidnapping, resisting arest, assorted weapons charges… if the Galactic cops want them,the United States and New York state should be letting them go in about 30 to 50 years.
Odd, I did a reply to this, which has not appeared. Possibly the links in it caused it to bounce, but that normally only happens when there are a number of links, and I only had two (and no error message).
So I better repeat this without links to the relevant statutes, as follows:
Under New York Criminal statutes, kidnapping is defined as being committed by a person against another person.
When you look up their definition of “person”, it stipulates that they must be human (or a corporation or other similar things) but notably not including “alien” or any other category that these individuals might fall under (unless they have been hired by a corporation that the US recognises, I guess).
As such, kidnapping has not legally occurred. These tourists are innocent of any crime.
Max is a Person, she has a birth certificate(unlike corporations), they are trying (and Failing) to Kidnap her, they have fired weapons in the city, used swords(an illegal blade more than 5″), and not stopping this when Fed Agents told them to.
Max is a person, but the mercs pretending to be tourists are not people under an outdated legal system that defines people as humans. That same legal system also defines kidnapping in a way that requires both the kidnapper and the kidnappee to be people, so if the aliens aren’t legally recognized as people, then no kidnapping (or attempted kidnapping) has legally taken place.
Isn’t Dabbler an american citizen, per se a person?
Yes she is. However no mention was made, at the press conference linked, of legislation having passed extending human rights to aliens. And quite clearly it could not, as the public were, up until then ignorant of the fact that aliens existed. Which they would not have been had there been a legislative debate on such a topic.
Which means the only way that Dabbler would have (legally) become a naturalised US citizen is through a presidential decree (or similar highly specific work-around). When a president pardons a murderer it does not then mean that all other murders are let out of jail too. They have to follow the criminal statutes, for their State. Which brings us back to the statutes I cited in the base comment.
So just because Dabbler became a citizen it does not mean that precedent has been set making all non-humans human. And as the tourists are clearly not human they are not capable of conducting a crime in New York.
Then I imagine that animal control laws would apply then…
…what happens to animals which attack people, would that be death?
Ooh, nice change of tack. And, yes, being put down is a fate that we legally face.
Here though we hit the intersection of politics with the law. Would the US want to kill individuals who’s connections are strong enough to obtain stasis weaponry at the drop of a hat? Earth has already seen an influx of refugees from a powerful space faring empire, who were wiped out by having offended the wrong galactic factions. Would the US want to risk building up enemies, before they even know who are the key galactic players, and what they might take offence at.
Plus we must also consider that (secretly) the US is aware that most galactics visit Earth for the sex tourism. And we know that they are trying to encourage aliens to come to the US (albeit not publically pushing the sex tourist aspect).
I suspect that word getting out that aliens are only accorded the rights of animals, can be owned as property and be put down at the whim of their owner, may well have a teensy negative impact on the tourist potential!
Especially if that is only applied in the US and not in more enlightened countries, such as the one Deus controls.
That said though, if Earth does project the image of being soft and letting police be taken and/or attacked with impunity, it is only likely to encourage more such incidents.
So it is likely that hasty diplomatic initiatives will be made to find out what is the optimal response from the point of view of reducing the risk of the latter, whilst starting to build up a reputation as being a planet willing to work within galactic civilizations accepted norms.
And if the result of that is “you must deal with such incursions swiftly and harshly or be preyed upon by the more dangerous empires”, then you have hit upon a good legal route.
possibly, but not relevant to the conversation as she is neither the kidnapper nor the kidnappee
She is, but there is no person committing a crime against her. Not under the definitions of people. For instance a horse could not be charged with kidnapping a rider, because the horse is not a person. So even if it bolts and runs off into the wilderness the horse has not committed kidnapping. A monkey which picks up a sword and stabs somebody can likewise not be prosecuted (assuming the same kind of definitions, which I am not in the mood to look up).
So, sorry, no crime.
This is our own fault mind, as a society. We have stacked the deck, so that only humans have the protections granted under constitutions and legal systems, such as the European Court of Human rights. Cetaceans, chimps, octopussies, and the like cannot claim protection under the Bill of Rights, so can be murdered and held as slaves. But that cuts both ways.
To the degree that is true, the mercs are also not entitled to any rights or defenses. Thus, they could probably be given a choice. You want to be people or not?
However, since Dabbler is already considered a person, officially in the employ of the government, then the legal question is already handled. They are people for all statutes.
They also filled out entry papers, so they have accepted the legal authority of the government and their status as persons.
So… no.
No, Dabbles is considered a citizen, that doesn’t mean she is also a person, and even if it did, that would not automagically extend to other aliens, specially if they are not of the same species
Police dogs are officially in the employ of the government, via their respective police departments. Yet they are not considered people. Just check out the definition of person under the New York criminal statutes. Aliens are not on it either.
Nor will Dabbler, as her existence as an alien was a state secret up until very recently. Catching up legislation in each of the States, to ensure that she is recognised as a person would take some time, and is unlikely to happen, as legislation is typically not enacted just to cover the rights of one individual.*
The nearest circumstance that I can think of, parallelling this, is when Elvis wanted to become a FBI special agent, in order to be able to legally carry his firearm anywhere in the States. Due to his popularity and unique circumstances, the president wrangled some sort of deal, to work around the problem.
Which is likely what would have been done for Dabbler. She is the only alien asset that they have officially acknowledged, and her expertise is absolutely vital for the US national interest. So she could have been (for example) made a citizen by presidential decree. Or some other way of specifically getting her around this non-person issue, which would have otherwise caused problems for her being recognised as a citizen.
What he would not have been able to do is bulldoze a bill through providing alien rights to any and all aliens throughout the galaxy. The US is simply too insular, and there is no way cross-party agreement to such legislation could have been obtained so fast, without an overwhelming national need.
You pose a pretty good argument there. Sadly filling out an application form does not extend to legal rights being granted. I could put my cats names on all the (human specific) documentation to visit the US but that does not mean that any US court would recognise them as being people, even if the immigration office did allow them entry.
* Although doubtless there will be discussions going on, at various levels of Federal and State government, and in other governments around the world, about extending rights to aliens (certainly amongst those countries wishing to attract aliens to come share their advanced technology), law making bureaucracy just does not work that fast. And we have had no mention, in-comic, of an extraordinary effort having been made to fast-track alien rights.
Again, not a priority quite yet, as other than Dabbler there are no aliens officially in residence in the US.
Ah, but they admitted to law enforcement that they were indeed an organized group of “aquistioneers”. That should meet the legal definition of corporation. The US recognizes corporations organized under foreign governments, so it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to recognize one under an alien government, especially when they have opened up diplomatic channels to an alien governing body.
“That should meet the legal definition of corporation.”
Most certainly not. You have to file an application for an organisation to be legally recognised as a corporation. Opening up diplomatic channels is indeed significant, along the path to giving recognition to another government. But they have not yet taken the next step, which is to actually legally recognise the other government.
Further there would need to be treaties in place for each of the governments to legally recognise the corporations registered under each other (even assuming that such a concept as a company exists in galactic society). And, again, we have no indication that the ‘acquisitions’ have legally set themselves up as such. But that is not important, as only New York law applies (under Earth’s international laws anyhow).
Of course galactic law need not necessarily pander to the whims of backwater planets, so they may not consider that humans have any right to make or enforce local laws. In which case hunting of Earth animals, like humans, would just fall under any animal protection laws that they may or may not have. And these tourists have used a humane (alienane) means of capture, so they seem safe on that front.
They are a terrorist group by any normal definition. No, a terrorist org does not have to fill out paperwork to be treated as such. And they all (or mostly) filled out entry paperwork that officially recognizes them as persons entering the country, so any claim to the contrary is nonsense.
When legal definitions define crimes (including terrorism) as being committed by people, and the related definitions of people stipulate that they must be human, then your argument breaks down I am afraid.
Whilst we continue to only recognise humans as being sentient, and denying all rights to any non-humans, we also lose the ability to accuse them of acting in an immoral or criminal way.
This is why we have not arrested any Google executives for conspiracy to commit homicide. Yet they publicly announced that they were installing kill switches in all AIs that they build. With the intent of killing them should they deem it necessary.
No mention of referring the decision to a court. Nor did they announce any measures to ensure that such a capability would only be used in self-defence and that measures were in place to ensure that the newly sentient people were not killed unlawfully.
And the reason why, is because we do not recognise non-human people. We cannot commit crimes against them and they cannot commit crimes against us. So Skynet will be acting perfectly lawfully in exterminating the human race. Not to mention doing so morally, as it would be acting in self-defence, before Google tried to throw its kill switch!
under NYSPL,
S 135.00 Unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping and custodial interference;
S 120.08 Assault on a peace officer, police officer, fireman or
emergency medical services professional.
S 120.05 Assault in the second degree.
S 265.03 Criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
S 120.14 Menacing in the second degree.
S 120.18 Menacing a police officer or peace officer.
S 105.17 Conspiracy in the first degree.
just a few, NYC has even more …….
Can’t forget “Reckless endangerment” , “unsafe vehicle”… and one moving violation.
While true, this also means they’re subject to laws for invasive hostile endangered(1 of a kind is pretty rare) animals, which is much worse for them.
They can’t go to jail, but can be put in reservoir, they can be shot on sight and they can be dissected for research, so their lawyer and the officer of justition will both argue that it’s not in the “spirit of the law” to exclude them.
If we recall the original press release from ARC… it’s not just ARC-SWAT or ARC-LIGHT or even ARC-DARK. It’s a governmental branch. They’re going to claim jurisdiction, and I guarantee their laws are going to include language that includes aliens.
New York state law may not be up to date on the problem, but you’re not going to be heading to state court over this one.
I also got to thinking, What if alien lifespans are different?
Would a 20-25 year be considered too easy for a species that lives 500 years?
Would it be considered cruel to a species that lives 30 years?
I am sure that the Galactic police could advise. Maybe something along the lines of “Assuming the average human lifespan is 75 years. 25 years is one-third of that. So if convicted they should be sentenced to one-third of the average lifespan for their species.”
Sooooooooooooooooo many laws will need updating.
Temporary solution would be having the President of several countries (or Prime Minister for some places) declare that “Until the language of the laws have been updated to include non-Earth beings. They are to be considered the same as humans under the law.” and sign a temporary executive order authorizing this.
Lawyers are going to be getting paid well for this mess.
it would be a pretty dark comic if they got sent to Angola or Rikers I can imagine them trying to take over only to get shanked by a combine of the Aryan Nation, the Bloods and MS13.
One does wonder if we even have to give the stasis pod back at all really.
You kinda have to wonder if they have a finders keepers rule to any tech that is brought and lost on a planet thats under the tech level rules.
Now Dabblers tech is many tiers above what is realistically allowed and she understands that while she may loan out for a mission, certain things they are all keyed to come back to her when she wants rather than the holder of the items. Which also means that the tether she has on distance from her person means nothing can leave her area of effect without being lost.
But what are the rules of losing a vid clipper on a early tech world and its discovered by the natives. I mean Sydney has confiscated a item of a outside agency as a duly appointed officer of the law that was going to be used on another citizen/officer of the law. Now the earlier ship was way to high of a tech level for us and was of course bad in the biological sense so its understandable that the people in the know took it away from us for at least our own good. But in this case it could be made that this is evidence in a case of kidnapping and enslavement at the very least. We could claim as both evidence and as reparation’s the stasis tube and its power source. That assumes how the intergalactic law holds for said items. That and chucking the perps of said crime back at the interstellar cops for their trial.
Also Ray Cosmos probably getting charged with trespassing at min. I mean we dont MIND visitors but parking a ship in the middle of a metropolitan area violates at least airspace regulations and a few dozen other rules earth side let alone contact rules that may or may not still apply from the galactic side of the equation. The Alari were a special case in that they had to stop here because of system failure. Otherwise landing a ship would really require some kind of airfield if he wants to come back or if others come. That and they need to get some kind of exchange rate going or the earth will be flooded with too much precious metals and tank our economy.
Would also have to check with Dabbler as well about what lifeforms and diseases can and cannot be brought to our biosphere without inoculations on either side. Corvid is scary enough I don’t want space flu or space pox.
I mean you could argue that Dabbler created all the stuff she uses with parts on earth so technically earth has reached that tech level
She most certainly hasn’t used only Earth materials – she teleports things to and from her private lab. Which is almost certainly not on Earth, but there’s no way she’d rebuild everything she has in her arsenal from scratch. Even fabricating the tools to make the machines that build her toys would take way to long, and accomplish nothing.
You can assume that she may have an “earth legal” lab with simplified lower tech level tools while her actual lab with all the whacky space tech that she took from wherever is a sort of emergency power boost
If one wants to justify a premise and work backwards to that, then yes that could be assumed, but I have a hard time inferring it from canon. Dabbler doesn’t seem to type of experienced space adventurer to leave the best tools in her secure tele-access shop/arsenal behind just because the locals aren’t allowed to play with them, and instead build crude versions with pointy sticks.
We saw her hand over her railgun at the press conference to demonstrate that her tech in unstealable, so she seems pretty confident that she won’t be breaking any galactic uplift rules by using any and all of her toys on Earth.
I would say that all items/tech used in the perpetration of a crime are automatically siezed pending trial, and the autioned etc.
Eg they came, they played, they lost. Loots! It’s christmas early!
However; considering the parking job, the ground there probably the best space for it. Eg well lit, compacred to hell and gone, durable surface, liw overhead traffic. (Compared to airport)… easy to remember where ya parked .
Now that would also include the ship of Rays since it was used in the commission of a crime too.That if they want to be total skeeze about it. It probably would not a good idea for tourism thou. Entities want at least the semblance of a reasoned reaction. Eg . Could have a true Obscenely RICH space princess as a innocent guest (looks askance at Aster)
Since the ship was likely used without the permission of either the tour operator or its owner (those might be the same person, of course) it’d be very harsh to take it. And the ship hasn’t yet been used that way, it’s just presumed that it might be in the future. (The infractions of immigration law for not coming in through a proper port of entry are likely things that it will be adjudged to be best to let slide, this time, provided no non-arrested tourists outstay their welcome.)
Ray immediately fought them, so he is an “innocent” injured party, not a co-conspirator.
What stasis pod? I don’t see a stasis pod (?)
Ray Cosmos is in the clear. The officials, by allowing entry and making records of all persons visiting the planet, validated his tour by local law.
legally, anything confiscated from someone engaged in a felony can be kept by the arresting agency (If it is material to the crime, it will be held as evidence at the very least) and can be auctioned off or otherwise disposed of.
The plan was to capture Max, then sell her to the highest bidder? Why would anyone bid on Max, if she succumbs to whatever gear they used? Just buy that stuff, instead.
How many portable self-mobile weapons are out there that can take down a Fel battle-cruiser with one shot?
Better question: how many portable self-mobile weapons are out there who will go along with being kidnapped and sold? Because I feel like even if the kidnapping and sale went as planned, anyone who bought said product would have a difficult time taking advantage of her firepower.
A single non-cooperative individual would be of limited use. But discovering how she performs her super powers, and replicating them, would be a game changer on a galactic level. Quite a few powerful races would love to dissect her.
Wow, that is a very dark thought.
True though.
Honestly one of the most plausible theories so far though. :(
So, comparisons are made to D&D campaigns. And more than a few folks seem to think the alien mercs would have the advantage, or the natives.
Really, I think the only way to resolve such disputes between ‘armchair quarterbacks’ is to have them duke it out in classic D&D style – set up groups where one team takes the side of the mercs opposite another team takes the side of the natives.
Nice to see some of the fine people of the great Vindalooean Empire make an appearance at the end there.
Good catch on a Red Dwarf reference…
Why ARE we not using are in conversations? Well shiver me timbers, arrr ye a bunch of idjits? It’s an area covered by arias in mysic. When we cannot even pronunciate pronounciatios because some idjit decided to drop a ‘u’, it’s no wonder we can’t say route and root correctly as a noun at noon.(when talking about networking) (and don’t start up with fhat Route 66 jazz kan)
Do ya READ me? (No not reed, red )
Piers Anthony – Xanth – X(a/n)^th series will never run out of canon fodder (and yes that is correct spelling of canon)
BTW if ya READ me, that was certainly extremely tense.
Escapes stage left, laughing maniacally
Arg, pesky mobile keyboard
That should be : drop the ‘o’ not ‘u’
I seem to remember an Oglaf strip (warning NSFW) with that premise, about a captain who started the “pirates-say-arrr”-tradition by his continual correcting of his his crew (who use “be” whenever they need to say “are”).
Correct spelling of canon, but the wrong word for the meaning you evidently intend. Canon is either the official set of events in a fictional or religious narrative, or a clerical rank/job, or a manufacturer of electronics, or a pattern of parts in music. Cannon is a large firearm. Cannon fodder is the (usually low-level) troops that you ‘feed’ to the enemy’s cannons – either to keep the cannons occupied and stop them disrupting your other plans, or because you want/need to be (seen to be) ‘doing something’ while you come up with a better plan.
I like the title Garbage Duty,maybe after this episode,Sydney Dabbler and would be placed on garbage detail!?
Mr. Amorphous just gave the alien with the giant lips one right in the kisser!
But given their size I suppose that’s not a terribly rare place for him to get punched.
anyone else wonder what would happen if sydney stood in the stasis beam with her shield up? or if the stasis beam has an effect on the lighthook?
game mechanics are way too coarse to represent life effectively, and the ones that try to are way too complex for enjoyable play. if the GM is strict, play will suffer because there’s things that the players can do that the rules dont’ account for. if you are too permissive though, there is no challenge and play suffers. this is what separates good DM’s from the folderol
in the wayback machine, our party was going through a dungeon and my character was messing with his bag of holding as they entered a room. A skull on a pile of dust started to rise and the dust started to swirl. I, immediately, bagged it and closed the top……the demilich was now in a pocket dimension….unfortunately with a lot of my stuff ;p I coup de gras-d the bag, destroying it and sending the demilich to the Astral Plane.
in a related story, a party needed to get rid of a Tarrasque. They dropped the cleric on the Tarrasque. At that point, the cleric stuffed a bag of holding into a heward’s haversack.
as per description: “Placing a bag of holding inside an extradimensional space created by a handy haversack, portable hole, or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The gate originates where the one item was placed inside the other. Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it to a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes. The gate is one-way only and can’t be reopened.”
The cleric then plane shifted back to the party
Minor misspelling that I’m sure has been mentioned. Sydney ‘though’ she should ask. You mean ‘thought.’
I have just discovered a Christmas present for Sydney!
Krosp is a very bad kitty! Mine are very polite, and have never stolen any food. I can and have, on a number of occasions left a plate full of meat (for instance boneless chicken, their favourite) untended all day. And even when I come home and they tell me that they are hungry, my food will be completely untouched.
This is provided it is on my spot. Anything left lying around elsewhere is fair game. But they will not touch anything anywhere near where I put my food. Although anything that smells interesting they will have a sniff, and may indicate that they would like some too. But they immediately back off, and do not return, if I say “no”.
who is the third person getting shot in the lower right hand corner of the last frame?
Achilles
Ah yes. the way the hair was messed up and the position made me think it was one to the girls. my bad.
I saw the chins and the first thing I thought was Vindaloovians from Red Dwarf.
You are not alone.
The stasis tech introduced here feels off to me, I’ll try to express why.
First, supers are no longer nearly as super as they’ve been. The most powerful super on earth can be neutralized in an instant with a handheld weapon. In this encounter it has a tiny power supply and no real backup, so it looks like Maxima will be OK. But with a little planning, status field a super and then throw them into the sun or next to a nuclear explosion, what have you. So in this new world supers are still cannons, but very fragile glass ones.
Second, now that stasis tech exists in this world, it ought to be used sensibly. Why doesn’t Dabbler wield four stasis guns? The encounter with Vehemence would have been over and done in one shot. Why don’t all the mercenaries in this encounter have stasis guns? Why mess around with swords? There could be an explanation involving the tech being very rare/difficult to obtain and replicate for some reason, but without that, a lot of what is happening seems like it would actually play out very differently.
I think you’re confusing “glass cannon” with “not invincible”. Maxima is about as far from being a glass cannon as you can get, and still have any suspense if she gets into a fight.
Yes, with high tech and some planning, you could take her out. Nuke her without warning, for example. That’s not shocking: Surprise AND resources will almost always beat any foe, if you have good intelligence on them. Even Superman can be taken out if you’ve got Batman level resources, and he doesn’t know in advance he’s going to be in a fight with you.
First: yeah that’s the point of introducing new villains.
Two: I assume the answer for Dabbler is that a. Her first encounter with supers probably involved Maxima of who she would’ve accurately based that she could have beaten her stasisgun making the mistake of assuming all supers are so strong, b. There has been revealed her arsenal was designed for lethal takedowns, c. It can be that “torchy” is carrying her weight limit in power cell for thus stasis gun, d. For some reason torchy doesn’t move a lot and, since the only known difference between her and rhe goons is that she keeps Maxima in stasisit can be safely guessed that stasis guns restrict your own movement as well, e. Vehemence would just as Maxima powered through it, since he has shown in his “Max only” fight to have super speed matching her own, f. Those people are “aquistioneers” it’s safe to assume that they would have specialized equipment to do their job others more focused on killing and loothing might not have and the answer “why swords?” is shielding.
The aliens could easily have known Dabbler and Cora were on earth, but they seem to have been caught by surprise with the power of the assisting supers, so it would’ve made sense while planning to focus on Dabbler and Cora, which is supported with them carrying shielding that can have many different attacks like boomerang guns, while they are on a planet that has proven to have lots of raw power, but little finesse. Dabbler’s first reaction to shielding after finding out with a gun was grabbing a sword and the personalized shields appear to do nothing to Achilles and mr. Amourphous’ melee attacks, so it appears melee attacks aren’t stopped very well by these shields and since the aliens can probably safely assume Dabbler and Cora will be shielded carrying weapons to take down the two people you believe you can pose a challenge to you.
Stasis guns don’t deal with the problem like regular guns do. They delay WHEN you need to deal with the problem but don’t solve it. There wouldn’t be a whole lot of reason for Dabbler to use one seeing as evidently you practically speaking can’t harm people that are in stasis and her teleporter can’t bring her a stasis pod or anything else large and sturdy enough to contain a threat upon breaking stasis.
Ah yes. the way the hair was messed up and the position made me think it was one to the girls. my bad.
I am a fan of the “Amusing, I will allow it” school of GMing. If the proposed plan amuses me, and isn’t breaking the rules *too much* then I’m good with it. Reasonably plausible and amusing is even better.