My players should keep a Rules Lawyer on Retainer...

[TheTSKoala]

Indeed they did.  La Resistance' Can~on!  *french accent*  They would attach cables with weighted balls to the harpoons for added effect.   ...it was quite ingenious.

[Krensky]

Koala, seriously man...

If you have a copy of Paranoia XP you need to reread the section on player behavior modification.

[Morgenstern]

When the cable becomes taut, I'd call it both sides take collison damage. t' the same energy as if they hit head on. Feeling creative, as an off the cuff answer I'd roll collison damage twice, with the bad guys taking the higher result, and the player's vehicle takignthe lower of the two results.

Strap yourself in, it's going to be a bumpy ride boys... but you should have seen the other guys...

[TheTSKoala]

So... the SUV DID actually survive the incident.. granted.. it's engine took damage, it can't possibly survive any more damage without breaking (it made the save by 1), and for Cosmetic flair, the roof was cut in two by the tether when it came ripping out of the bad guy car.  ...and firmly planted itself in the pavement... ...they had to leave the Anchor behind.  As for the Car.. ....yeah.  Not so much.  And they found out the bad guys chasing them, and whom they just killed, were federal agents of the goverment they were trying to help.  ...and that's how the night started.

[Black Cheese]

I don't wanna hammer this home too hard, but, really, when my players get that look in their eyes, I always ask them what their goal is. I know it sounds like I'm being a dick, but I try to avoid these kinds of situations. If the players say, "We don't want to tell you," then something's wrong at the table. I much rather improvise a Caliber IV grappling gun than a compressed-air-powered anchor launcher.

A long time ago I had a GM who insisted every player write an origin story for every superhero character. Whenever anyone left anything out--for mystery or for the GM to fill in--he would become adamant that we clarified such a point (e.g. "Why does Critical Mass have no living relatives?"*). His reasoning being, "It's your character, so even if your character doesn't know, I have to know, so you have to make it up." And, although I still don't fully agree with him, I understand his point: the GM's job of making the world go is hard enough without mysteries the GM has to remember on the fly.
_________________________

Of course, if you're happy with your players surprising you and you having to make up crap all the time, that's cool. But my players surprise me regardless.
_________________________
* Critical Mass's powers manifested while he was attending a family reunion, killing all present. Hence... you know.

[TheTSKoala]

LOL. Well... they typically give me an idea.   How the whole thing happened was... the whole "idea" was infact ... *thinks* 7 ideas blended?

1.  Create an Entry-style APC tool that could be used on a civilian vehicle.  (Welded twisted steel with a bit of give to attach to entry points.)
2.  They.. hey.. it'd be awesome if we didn't have to run up to the door or window to hook this up...

...and.. further and farther until it turned into an all-in-on Vehicle weapon. LOL. 

[gaghiel42]

Last Near Future SC 2.0 session required us to reference this thread to figure out some of our own craziness.  So, thank your players for bringing this concept up early enough so I could use it for my own needs.

We were investigating a series of deaths in the Chicago Canal which turned out to be a giant sea troll/yeti creature that was aquatic.  Our plot eventually ended up netting off a section of the channel and then screening it with a giant net to box it into an area.  Waiting at the end was our team on a fast attack boat and a big sack of spare beef bits from the butcher shop on a sharpened grappling hook and chain.

When the beast inevitably took the bait, we had some fun with boat versus giant monster action, and a chain that kept rolling 20s on its damage save.

The collision damage wasn't enough to stop it, so we sent in our submursible sled with the Chaos Space Marine wannabe (Cornfed/Test Subject with Chainsaw hands) to go deal with the beast.  While the rest of the team played tug of war with it on the boat.  Also, our intruder used the sled to push the thing to the surface so we could shoot at it too.

I think he said it ended up being a 900 exp NPC... Scary.  But, the whole anchor forced collision thing was veeery handy.