Basic Action Super Heroes!

Question 1: I have a villain Archer someone has in their rogues gallery in my table game. Problem is, he's a speedster and he can (and does) just keep taking the Bow from the archer. So as a solution, I decided to go a little Batman on them and electrify the bow. So what happens when you try to take an electrified weapon? Is there a penalty to taking the weapon? Common sense dictates that if you get electrocuted you're going to want to recoil your hand.

Question 2: Back to the Force Field I continue to have problems with, can you use Immobilize on someone with this up? If they're stuck in the Field and you fire a net arrow that envelopes the field and lodges into the wall behind them, does that work?

Boost wrote:Question 1: I have a villain Archer someone has in their rogues gallery in my table game. Problem is, he's a speedster and he can (and does) just keep taking the Bow from the archer. So as a solution, I decided to go a little Batman on them and electrify the bow. So what happens when you try to take an electrified weapon? Is there a penalty to taking the weapon? Common sense dictates that if you get electrocuted you're going to want to recoil your hand.

While common sense says you will want to recoil your hand and indeed this is true you will Want to but your body is a bio electric machine and your muscles are contracted by charging them with a slight electrical current, so while you will want to recoil your hand you will be unable to. The charge will keep the muscles in your hand contracted and firmly holding on to whatever is providing the charge. Many people are electrocuted in this fashion being unable to let go of whatever (often a downed power-line) is killing them.

for electricity the grab or recoil depends on whether it is AC or DC, I forget which is which.

DC current locks your muscles, while AC causes your body to * away. That's why household current is AC.

You could define the Bow powers without the Gadget limitation (maybe the bow is now an armature strapped to his arm so it can't be taken away).

As for the Force Field question, I'd say the Immobilize would need an Area Extra the same size or larger than the Force Field to be able to affect it.

Nestor wrote:DC current locks your muscles, while AC causes your body to * away. That's why household current is AC.

You could define the Bow powers without the Gadget limitation (maybe the bow is now an armature strapped to his arm so it can't be taken away).

That's backwards, and misleading, both AC and DC create the same effect DC is easier to over come

Source

For the bow, it is easy: Damage Aura 4 [Limitation: Same source [Bow], Enhancement: Doesn't affect "Archer", Limitation: Only affects people touching the bow].

So when the speedster grabs his bow, he takes damage- and the Rogue can quip "I've made some upgrades, you sticky-fingered hippocrite!"
Hey- even if you forget to put that in the build you can STILL use it- since he is in a Rogue's Gallery, that can net him a free Villain die- which you can use to power stunt this.

For the force field, I'd apply the rule of common sense. If the net is big enough to envelope the field and stick it to a nearby wall, then yes, it works. Note that unless this is a skin-tight forcefield, it won't affect his personal movement, just moving around the battle field. However, even if this is a "hamster ball" style force field- being able to make someone hold still like that can be very useful.

Note also- if anyone has a Force Field that is bigger than "personal" I don't even require a roll to hit them. You automatically hit the force field. So a big hamster ball might be able to protect more allies, or allow ore movement inside it- but there is a downside to having a bigger one.

Of course, whenever I build a "personal" force field, I usually do this as "Armor" instead.

BeardedDork wrote:

Nestor wrote:DC current locks your muscles, while AC causes your body to * away. That's why household current is AC.

You could define the Bow powers without the Gadget limitation (maybe the bow is now an armature strapped to his arm so it can't be taken away).

That's backwards, and misleading, both AC and DC create the same effect DC is easier to over come

Source

How odd. My experience with AC (having worked with household appliances) is that AC will make your body * away. I've never seen a case of someone suffering the muscle lock associated with electrocution working with AC, although I admit I've never dealt with it higher than household voltage/frequency (120V 60Hz).

But, hey, this is comics book, not real life. So let's move on!

Sorry I'm a Tesla nerd. I also happen to agree that RL science has little to no place in RPGs.

Thanks for all the advice guys, due to the Holidays, I've got a few weeks till the next game, so I have some time to think it over.