Devious Players

[selunatic2397]

Howdy All!

I'm back and with a new "idea" from my devious little player.

Some of you might remember his last creative attempts to convince me that a colored piece of clothes that matched a laser beam could provide some level of defense...

Or perhaps his attempt to "tune his laser to the harmonic frequency of water and blow his targets into bloody chunks".

This time he was after a light saber...after all and sundry laughed our collective butts off, he countered with an idea for a Larry Niven style flashlight laser'

He wanted to start with a one megawatt beam laser...cable that to a reasonably portable fusion reactor...and mount the reactor on the back of a suit of battle dress.

He described himself as waving the laser around and slicing his opponents and pert near everything in range into flaming little bits.

I have countered with how bulky that would be, and how great a target that would present as he waddled about.

This sent him back to his drawing board to do a rethink...but I know he'll be back.

Any ideas for dealling with my overly devious mister wizard???

My other players have seriously debated getting him dead drunk...dressing him in a McDonalds uniform and dumping him behind a K'Kree embassy...after stuffing his pockets with some jerky

Any help would be appreciated

 

[RandyT0001]

When he's not talking and telling you what next great gadget he wants does he make that "munchkin" sound with his mouth?

 

[Blue Ghost]

Sing "We are the Lollypop guild" to him

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Originally posted by selunatic2397:
My other players have seriously debated getting him dead drunk...dressing him in a McDonalds uniform and dumping him behind a K'Kree embassy...after stuffing his pockets with some jerky

Okay, that got a genuine "laugh out loud."

Here's an idea: rather than telling him his next "great" idea won't work, let him try it, then play out the consequences.

Like the flashlight laser - let him make the rolls to build the device, and then saddle him with the weight and the awkwardness of the fusion plant. Tell him that the only way he can carry the power supply is to hunch forward at all times, making it impossible to do more than walk forward slowly, all the while accompanied by the loud whine of the battledress servos as they compensate for the load. Any time he tries to change direction require a Dex throw (with no benefit for the suit) to avoid falling down, and then a Str check to stand up again. And zero-g? Unable to move except by pushing off with his arms or legs, with no ability to rotate at all.

Remember, sometimes the very worst thing is getting exactly what we want...

 

[flykiller]

Remember, sometimes the very worst thing is getting exactly what we want...

concur, though not with the dramatics. give him what he wants, and the reasonable consequences of what he wants. rather than slap him down, make an adventure of it. tax collectors, local sherrifs, news agents, zhodani spies, industrial spies, relatives of people he kills, some local merc organization, some punk gang, or all of these and more, may take an interest in his doings. play it up.

 

[mike wightman]

How come he has access to a portable fusion power plant and a suit of battle dress?

Anyway, the smallest fusion power plant in LBB8 Robots is 1000kg in mass, the lightest in Striker is 2 tons.
He'll need something stronger than battle dress to cart that lot around.

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Anyway, the smallest fusion power plant in LBB8 Robots is 1000kg in mass, the lightest in Striker is 2 tons.
He'll need something stronger than battle dress to cart that lot around.

Yeah, but he might be able to counter this with that "infinite-power" pack LBB4 gives to the PGMP-13; isn't it Fusion as well? It might be Fusion, but remember that its a military-grade weapon; remember that what he is doing is going to be quite illegal on most worlds even if it works - not only would that ultra-powerful laser be illegal at all law levels above 0, but the fusion pack might run afoul of many safety regulations. Sure, a high-tech ATV has an integral fusion plant, but the ATV is a *vehicle*, with enough external protection (shock absorbants etc) and stabilization around it, a decent cooling system and so on... That small powerpack wouldn't be liked by safety inspectors.

 

[Piper]

One idea you could try to limit this kind of creativity is "they already tried that".

As an example:
Beam Laser, Man Portable-13 (BLMP-13)
The "Blimp" was an attempt to create a man portable, high output beam laser suitable for use by powered troops.

Researchers modified a PGMP-13 reactor for higher electrical output and coupled it to a forearm-mounted laser array.

The results were not entirely successful.

Failure modes included burn-through of the forearm power conductors, explosive fusing of the power couplings and plasma venting in the backpack reactor (ouch).

The one time they were able to achieve full functionality, the output was equivalent to a laser carbine (until the laser head exploded).

The entire program has been black classified. In fact, if you are reading this, place your hands on top of your head and consider yourself under arrest. Agents are on the way.

 

[Ran Targas]

I really like the K'kree idea

 

[matrix cypher]

why not give it a slightly better dmg (say one dice) then a regular sword with more weight and a power-duration limitation.

over all not that big of a deal and it could be used a welder/cutter

 

[matrix cypher]

Besides you can always say after he is realy succesful with it. the popularity of it becomes outstanding . next thing you know evertyone has one and well the authorities outlaw them. etc etc

 

[matrix cypher]

Originally posted by Ran Targas:
I really like the K'kree idea

dress him in a varger costume thats whereing a mcdonalds uniform with a bloody knife and a raw steak or two......and drop him off inside the the front door of a kkree embasy or militarty base

 

[matrix cypher]

oh and since it is a laser or even a high energy weapon it will be outlawed by most law levels anyways

god forbid he mistakes a bunch of marine comandos as pirates

 

[matrix cypher]

Remeber Devious DM trumps Devious Player everytime

 

[matrix cypher]

in my mt game i use this
from Jeff Zeitlin's awsome page http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/rules/chargen/zartismt.html
The Brand of Zar-Tis

The descriptive text for the plasma sword known as the Brand of Zar-Tis can be found in the background document on the Order of Zar-Tis. This section addresses MegaTraveller-specific game mechanics related to the Brand of Zar-Tis.

In Combat: The use of the Brand in combat requires the Sabre skill, which should be considered part of the Blade Combat cascade skill group. Otherwise, combat should be resolved normally.

Constructing a Brand of Zar-Tis: Only members of the Order with a Sabre skill of 3 or greater are taught how to construct a Brand. Until then, a member of the Order must depend on his/her Master for a Brand.

To construct a Brand from raw components:
Difficult, Gravitics, Mechanics, 1 day (fateful, hazardous)

Referee: The character should have a Sabre skill of 3+, or increase the difficulty one level. The use of components of TL15 or less increases the difficulty by one per TL drop. This task is effected normally by adverse work conditions, inappropriate parts, etc. If unsuccessful, the amount of damage determined from failure will be the amount of damage inflicted when first activated, as the Brand discharges and melts the interior of the weapon into useless slag.

To construct a Brand Recharger from raw components:
Routine, Gravitics, Mechanics, 1 hour (fateful, hazardous)

Referee: The character should have a Sabre skill of 3+, or increase the difficulty one level. The use of components of TL15 or less increases the difficulty by one per TL drop. This task is effected normally by adverse work conditions, inappropriate parts, etc. If unsuccessful, the amount of damage determined from failure will be the amount of damage inflicted when the Recharger is first activated, as it causes the Brand to discharge and melts the interior of the weapon into useless slag.

Combat Statistics:
Plasma Sword: Penetration 15, Damage 4, Block 2

(TML Statistics: Penetration 20, Damage 3, Block 2. I prefer the lower pen and higher damage, since interior bulkheads are AV30, while external hulls are AV40, and I wanted it harder to cut through the outside of a ship than an interior bulkhead.)

 

[Blue Ghost]

Trader... what? You don't have another post? How dissapointing

Seriously, I like the McDonald's thing

 

[Klaus]

STUB GUN!

If you've not seen the Judge Dredd epic "Apocalypse War", a stub gun is a handheld beam laser that does just about what your player wants, cutting through H-wagons and freeway intersections...

The drawback: they had a (near certain) tendency to overload and explode - considered more or less a suicide weapon.

His second shot should blow his arm off. That'd wipe the smirk that he has when he creates carnage with the first on off his face.

Off course then he'd want some ultra powerful prosthetic arm probably. Let him do it on a low tech world so he has to make do with a hook for a while (though it would probably be some kind of hook cum scythe...)

 

[Rover]

Any ideas for dealling with my overly devious mister wizard???

Well, the way I see it you have three options.

1) As stated above you can give him what he wants. A weapon like that will require lots of R&D. Does your guy have the requisite skills, of the cash to pay for engineers and nessesary permits? Does he have the time to wait for it to be built, tested and prototyped and refind and rebuilt. Will the rest if the party be willing to wait for him?

Even if he goes through all that, a weapon like that will be certainly powerful, and anyone wielding one will be a primary target. Just like in D&D combat. Step 1 kill the Magic user.

2) Another option, is have a serious OOC conversation with him. Tell him the object of the game is roleplay and adventure, not who is the most clever at weapons design. Is building/wanting a weapon like that in character? Explain to him that a weapon like that will be unbalancing to the campaign and the end result will be a boreing game to him and the other players.

3) Give one to his enemy. Turn about is fair play after all. Maybe he will reconsider things if he gets sliced and diced.

R

PS I like the k'kree thing too.

 

[Liam Devlin]

The McDonald's idea at K'Kree embassy is quite appealing, however to seal his fate:

Kidnap and sedate subject for 3-6 days while the TL-14+ nanite injections that geneer him to visually grow canines, fur, claws, and his secretion glands to exude the essence of carnivore.

Once transformation is complete, continue with original plan.

Sell the film to the Gateway states, and watch them re-arm for a K'Kree Invasion.

Sell weapons to both sides, retire back to Imperium...

Ciao.

 

[sgbrown]

Another option is to look at his character's tech skills.
IF he has tech skills to allow him to attempt to piece the thing together and waste a great deal of HIS time (not the other players) on it - with his character out of play while working on it.

Poor rolls means the character failed and possibly even hurt himself in the process (subtract 1 point from his favorite physical ability score and more time out for the character while he heals).

IF he suceeds, then add the restrictions necessary to maintain game balance once it's done. The end result could be either a functioning portable laser cutting torch that's next to impossible to aim and not very good againse refelc armor - or a very encombering beam laser with a high chance of colatteral damage depending on your point of view.

After several such devious ideas falling short of the goal, devious player should get the message.