From: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Subject: Re: Supers and Heavy Weapons : was Re: Gurps Supers
Reply-To: jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim)
Organization: Columbia University
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:58:28 GMT

dfrancis@tronsbox.xei.com (Dennis Heffernan) writes:
>jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (John H Kim) writes:
>|	However, my PC's were a bunch of highly competant folk, one an 
>|immortal with several centuries of combat experince, another with a short 
>|army stint, a third who designed military missle guidance systems, etc. 
>|Thier powers were generally not of the direct damage variety, but rather 
>|more interesting.
>
>Again, if they've got what it takes to rip off the Army, they don't need to!  

	I thought I just explained this. Your point seems to be that if they 
are powerful enough to get heavy weapons, then they are already sufficiently 
powerful that such weapons will not make a difference. I responded that they 
had powers and abilities that let them get access to heavy weapons, but that 
these did not include the ability to cause large amounts of damage unarmed. 
Therefore, by getting heavy weapons they were adding to their capabilities 
rather than duplicating abilities they already had. 
	Also, they did not rip off the U.S. Army. Some arms they ripped off 
of an illegal arms dealer from L.A. (these were foreign arms, not U.S.). Some 
arms they bought off the black market. Some arms they made with the aid of 
a demolitions expert. 

>
>|	Excuse me? My PC's were never heroes of the people in the first 
>|place, but by and large, they were judged by the police and government by 
>|what they did, not the hardware by which they accomplished it. Those with 
>|any brains will realize that once you start dealing with super-powers, laws 
>|about gun registration and such become rather silly. 
>
>	No sane government, no matter how powerful the supers are, is going to
>let anyone just walk around with missile launchers or other military-level
>hardware.  
>No matter how powerful the supers are, the government is not going to want to
>ADD to the problem by letting every Tom, Dick and Mary walk around with a
>cannon.  You can physically obtain the stuff easily enough; with the CAD/CAM
>equipment that's available it's downright impossible to keep gunrunners from
>just making whatever they want.  But if you get CAUGHT using LC 0 equipment,
>you won't see daylight for a looong time at worse, or you'll get assigned to
>the Suicide Squad at best.

	In my campaign, the government had no loose conjectures about heavy 
weapons - if the average person were arrested for possession of heavy weapons, 
he would be tried and possibly convicted according to the law. However, 
paranormals were considered as special cases by the government: there were 
only about 110 of them since 1915, 70 of whom originated in the Northeastern 
United States. As such, the U.S. considered them special resources and 
dangers, and tried as hard as possible to keep them out of trouble and doing 
something useful. 
	I consider it a very sane government which, rather than locking up 
a resource which they have a monopoly on, tries to recruit it. This was 
especially true after Hangman defected to the Soviet Union in 1969. After 
this, the government largely dealt with paranormals on an individual basis. 
It did not make laws against the use of empathy, but rather approached the 
sole known empath directly, and insisted that he use his powers reasonably. 
Even a criminal group like the Taskmasters were occaisionally negotiated 
with - because the government knew that it was unlikely to capture, convict, 
and successfully hold all of them, and they could do *alot* more harm than 
they currently were. If it could reliably eliminate them, it would, but the 
damaged they caused was quite minimal compared to their potential. 

	The PC's never displayed or used their weaponry in public unless it 
was absolutely neccessary. At one point, they were attacked by a powerful 
cyborg-like *thing* in midtown NYC. Unwilling to let it loose upon the city, 
one of them retrieved a missle launcher while another tried to distract it. 
They fired two missles and failed to hit, after which they retreated with 
two of them in need of hospitalization (actually, one had already teleported 
to a hospital in Chicago). 
	At a later point, the FBI did figure out what happened, and had a 
chance to hold two of the PC's for questioning concerning the rocket launcher. 
However, there were reasonable people in charge, who realized that the PC's 
and the rocket launcher were *not* the problem in this situation, and that 
trying to convict them of possession of illegal firearms would be counter-
productive to say the least. 

	Had the PC's used this sort of force in a situation that did not 
require it, in the government's view, would have resulted in the government 
approaching them and delivering some sort of ultimatum which would involve 
surrender of all arms and naming their sources, along with submitting to 
government surveillance. 
	Had the PC's used this sort of force and appeared to be dangerous, 
unreasonable 'loose cannons', the CIA or Enterprise would probably try to 
kill them, most likely through hired third parties. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kim                    | "All the world will be your enemy, Prince with
jhk6@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | a Thousand Enemies. And when they catch you, 
Columbia University         | they will kill you."         - Watership Down
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