Plot Immunity?

Another gaming question for you all.

In several genre of games (D&D, super heros, white wolf, Ars magica), the players are sometimes clearly head and shoulders above most other people. Sometimes its the nature of the genre (supers, white wolf, etc) and other times its a gradual thing where the players become powerful over time (D&D, Ars).

In these settings and genres, the "reality" of the world is that the player is a complete bad*ss and can wipe the floor with most challengers. Either he's a super hero or a vampire or an ancient cranky wizard that throws fire. Whatever reason...he's going to stomp 90% of the world around him.

My question is this:

How often do you let that reality actually get reflected at the gaming table? How often do you have encounters that let the *player* be that bad*ss?

For example: You have a supers game where one player is Amazing Man, a brick that can take fire from a battleship and not flinch. How often do you have an actual (possibly comical, possible serious) scene where Amazing man is faced with something that isn't a threat, but isn't even close to the same weight class?

Say...a scene where  Amazing man is faced against a local biker gang. yeah. There are 20 of them. But not one of them can hurt him. You know it. The player knows it. but you play it out anyhow, knowing its not going to be a threat of any kind...just a superhero...being...well...a superhero. It is so not a threat it turns into a RP scene more than anything else. but It gives the player a chance to ham it up and bend a motorcycle in two and throw out some good one-liners...

Despite how satisfying these scenes can be for the player, I've noticed there's not a lot of these scenes.

and I was wondering why.

I think it comes down to time management. a given session has only so many hours (usually not enough) and usually have a lot of players for the GM to juggle and entertain....so usually theres some plot or common threat that involves everyone....and often ends up in some dramatic high tension challenging battle.

So essentially ever session ends up being like a TV episode. plot. build up. climax. resolution. Sometimes it spills over to a couple sessions....but theres rarely any "day in the life" scenes to contrast this "threat of the week" dynamic. The easy victorys and such are assumed to happen offcamera, just like all the easy boring missions on the Enterprise arn't worth an episode.

Why is that a problem? Well, I think that it denies the player a chance to feel the reality that, yes, most of the time, he wins. That the supervillians that give him pause and a real fight really *are* few and far between. If every week, Amazing Man fights something thats not only a challenge, but cleans his clock, the character has lost his feel, because he's *not* the unstoppable brick he was made to be. the reality is...the last 10 sessions, he's gotten his butt kicked. a lot. which isn't the world reality...but its definitely the game table reality.

Does Amazing man win every single battle? No. but does he win most of them? Yes. And sometimes it shouldn't even be a contest. Heck, it might even be a fun way to start a scene....in media res..setting up the hero in the middle of stopping some completely trivial crime. sort of like a james bond teaser intro...with capes.

So, when you run a a game, how often do you have a "throwaway" random encounter or the easy win victory?
When was the last time you had one as a player?

It's funny, as a GM that's so interested in planning great stories and also so excited to *show* those great stories (and neat NPCs/threats) sometimes ...I get bogged down in the details of having it play out... Even in D&D games with minor threats (that I know are minor threats) end up BEING "encounters". And "encounters" end up taking hour(s), even the ones that aren't threats.
Then... combine the many many plots, events, NPCs, etc... mix all that in and sometimes there's not "time" to wedge in the moments YOU mention. Rather, more correctly, a GM forgets to include those moments. Which stinks.
That said.
I laughed out loud (above) because I literally JUST did something like this in my last episode of my new Star Wars campaign. Star Wars characters are as bigger than life as your "Amazing Man" but they're meant to be cinematic - and that's what (I believe) you're talking about here.

In my last episode "OF SPICE & MEN" our fringers (think Star Wars meets Firefly campaign!) were dealing with a couple different things at the same time. One group was conning + gambling, while the other was scrounging in the underbelly of the Cantina/Shadowport. The two in the underbelly (a Duros pilot & his Battle-Droid) found a large crate, behind the crate slowly rose one, then two alien beings - the sentient plant-like Revweyen. The droid, paranoid for his owner, couldn't hear the mental communication effect talking to the pilot ... and after some negotiation determined the best method of discussion would be to ZAP the two aliens with stun blasts. To the point. After 20-30 minutes of fun role-play with the group... The droid determined this action and the player was ready to roll initiative. THEN ... nope. ZAP! they're down!

Here's the thing... while I agree in theory that system doesn't completely dictate the way we can role-play. I do know that my players (and I) have been SO accustomed to the "roll initiative" and 5' squares of D20 based games for so many years, we forgot that role-playing games don't need to be that. These aliens were clearly peaceful and in a way naive, not really understanding the violent ways these PCs were talking to them in! And they surely couldn't/wouldn't be any sort of threat.

So ZAP! and they fell. The player was almost shocked.

And so opens the reminder that some "foes" and situations can be handled through fun role-play.

The thing I hate hate hate most (and have done as a GM it unintentionally as many times as I've witnessed it as a player) is having an (group of) NPC in a battle that still has a handful of hit points, and the ONLY reason the GM is having the battle drawn out 3-4 more round (which could be 10-40 minutes of game-time!!) is either:
a. just because...
b. to whittle away resources (ammo, PC hit points, etc..)
When... in reality the GM could simply see, then say... "rest fall after a few exchanges" and end the grind... I've even said "they fall, but to show the battle continued please take 1d4 more HPs of damage and remove 1d4 ammo" if I really feel it's necessary for resource loss to the campaign/story. Because sometimes it IS, depending on the world setting or scenario.

That's my most recent story! Last Saturday! LOL