Sentinel Comics RPG Gameplay Overview Part 2: Putting A Session Together

The previous post in this series talked about the types of scenes that will make up most of session - Action, Montage, and Social.  This one's going to look at how to mix and match them in play and what else goes on outside of the framework of scenes.  

Basic Structural Considerations

As a general rule, you don't want to have two scenes of the same type play out back to back.  The mechanics of Health Recovery also dictate that you want to try to include at least one Montage scene between every two Action scenes.  Keeping that in mind, when prepping for a session you'll want to consider how to lay out scenes to tell the story you have in mind - but don't get too fixated on sticking to plan or you'll wind up railroading the players, which no one really wants.  

Start At The Beginning

The easiest (and arguably most important) part of a session to plan is the beginning, which will do a lot to sent events in motion and determine tone.  Everything after the first scene or two is increasingly likely to be derailed by player actions and wind up surprising you to some degree.  It's fine if that happens as long as everyone's enjoying themselves, so don't worry about it.  

That "everyone" does include the GM, so keep that in mind if the players are pulling you into something you really don't want to pursue right now, like hunting for an old foe when an unrelated current crisis is right in front of them.  It's better to make note of their interest and tell them up front that you'll address it in the future but show them that there's something more urgent to deal with at the moment.  Most players will be pretty cooperative about that sort of thing as long as you keep faith and do actually follow up when an opportunity arises - perhaps next session, perhaps in an improv scene later in this one.

As to why you might feel the need to nudge the players like that, you won't always be up to improv something for them right away, or you might have planned events that will do what they want but they don't (and can't) know that yet.  And if we're being honest, sometimes you have an climactic scene that you really think they'll enjoy but won't come off if the team pursues a side issue this session.  It's okay to want to show off something you spent effort on once in a while, just as it's okay for individual players to get the spotlight to themselves now and then.  Everyone deserve some moments of awesomeness, even the GM.

Climaxes Do Matter

The other part of a session that's worth some extra planning effort is some kind of climax.  These are usually Action scenes, but don't have to be.  A powerful Social scene where characters reach an emotional catharsis or uncover deeply hidden secrets can be just as effective as a showy set-piece battle or the most desperate chase, and they require less prep time as well - just some notes about key points that need to come up, NPC motivations and perhaps some light dialog scripting.  Action scene climaxes can be uncommonly difficult or elaborate but don't always need to be, sometimes just soundly thrashing some rival villains is plenty good enough.  

One thing you want to watch out for is budgeting time for your big scene.  They often come late in a session and most groups are playing on some kind of a real-world clock.  You can really wreck an otherwise-terrific climactic scene by having it interrupted with people having to leave midway through to get to work, your play venue closing or similar issues.  If you expect your scene to run an hour and a half and you've agreed to end in thirty minutes, do everyone a favor.  End on a cliffhanger and run the climax first thing next time instead of risking going over or trying to speed-run things.  It's not ideal, but it might actually work out better since everyone will be rested and ready to go next time you play.  

I'd even argue that it's a good idea to run your big scene no later than the middle of a session when people are still fairly fresh and you have plenty of time, then fill in the rest of your time with a proper denouement and perhaps teasers for next time.  If you want to really be radical about narrative structure, plan your "finale" as part of the beginning of the session (which you know you're going to get to) and let the rest of it play out as denouement and a build-up to a cliffhanger that lets you start next session with another climactic scene.  This wouldn't work well at all in most media, not even comic books, but roleplaying is its own type of entertainment and operates by different rules.  Many people are suffering some play fatigue by the end of a session, which is a problem if you're committed to having your climax as the end of things. 

Getting From Point A To Point B

With a beginning and a climax planned out, getting from one to the other is likely wind up needing some improv unless your players are uncommonly predictable.  You can and should still lay out basic ideas for the other scenes but they don't need as much detail since they may get revised or even discarded entirely depending on how things play out.  Most of them will be relatively simple Montage and Social scenes anyway, so this is the "easy" part of session prep.  

While it's entirely possible to add more Action scenes (which will require more effort as usual) into this part of the process, you really need to think about your time budget when doing so.  Many groups struggle to do even two of them is a play session, although there are so many variables involved you really have to learn to judge for yourself what your group is capable of.  I'll discuss time budgets further in the next post in this series.

Pacing And Tone

So how do you open a session?  It may be a good idea to do a brief synopsis of last session's events, although I prefer to leave that up to the players to actually do.  If nothing else listening to the things they misremember can be amusing, and you may get some ideas from them, perhaps even retconning events to fit - this is a game about comic book tropes, after all.

After that, that beginning scene you planned comes into play.  Consider your options:

Starting with an Action scene immediately throws the PCs into some crisis situation.  Things are urgent and they need to act now.  It's a good way to get players engaged in the session from the very start, lets them roll some dice and use their cool abilities, and helps remind everyone of the mechanics at the same time.  It also means the heroes are likely to take some damage early on, making an immediate follow up Montage scene more meaningful, or you could plan a Social Scene to provide some information about what just happened and then do a Montage as the heroes follow up on that info.     

There are many ways to fit this kind of in media res opening into your game.  A few examples include:

• The team is suddenly assaulted by old enemies.  If victorious, the heroes have a Social scene where they can interrogate defeated foes briefly before they're carted off by the authorities.  If they lose, the Social scene consists of being taunted by their enemies until they're driven off by police or other allies, but they might trick the bad guys into revealing something they shouldn't have.  Either way, a Montage scene follows where the heroes can heal or act on information gathered to gain bonuses.
• The heroes are out with their supporting cast when they get caught up in a disaster and opportunistic looting.  The scene is complicated by the need to get civilians to safety and minimize damage to the surrounding area.  Follow up with a Social scene with very different tones depending on whether they succeeded or failed.  A Montage scene follows where the heroes can heal or investigate the cause of the disaster.
• The session begins with the heroes in a "Danger Room" training session, which might or might not go horribly awry.  When they've finished, start a Social scene where they can review their performance with NPC observers, then run a Montage scene showing how they process lessons learned or patch up their bruises and deal with any humiliations they suffered.
• The scene is a hot pursuit of fleeing criminals, loaded with challenges to cut off escape routes and overtake them and an environment that defines the chase route.  This leads to a Social scene where the heroes can interact with their prisoners (if any), police, news reporters or bystanders, some of whom will offer enough assistance (medical or otherwise) to move into a Montage Recovery/Boost scene.

Alternately, you could start out with a Social scene.  This is a good way to provide opening exposition, perhaps reviewing earlier events or highlighting a new menace that will be the focus of this session.  You might flow from there to a Montage to let the players prep bonuses going forward, or throw them straight into an Action scene - or even move to a different Social scene if that's where the players want to take things.  Social scenes are the "safest" scene type to run back-to-back but you'll still want to make them as distinct from one another as possible, eg go from a government briefing room to talking to your informants in a dive bar.  Social scenes may or may not involve Overcome rolls, so they may generate early twists for the players to deal with.

Examples of an opening Social scene include:

• The session opens with an official recruiting the heroes to investigate a strange phenomenon in a distant locale, with opportunities to negotiate for more freedom of action and time to work on site.  Twists result in greater oversight and tight time limit before other (possibly disastrously misguided) methods are employed.  This leads to a Montage scene as they travel to the site and review reports and data or employ their own unique abilities to gather info for bonuses, most likely leading to an Action scene either at the site or when they're intercepted by mysterious foes.
• A whistleblower approaches the team with news of corporate or government corruption.  After delivering some info, they abruptly drop dead, either by stealthy assassination or slow poison.  This can lead to a second Social scene where they're attempting to gather more info from contacts associated with the corrupt organization, which will be interrupted at some point by an Action scene where assassins try to stop the heroes from getting any farther.
• The team is making an appearance at a civic event when villains appear to settle a grudge.  The heroes can use the stage's sound system to to encourage the crowd not to panic and disperse safely while others delay the villain with banter or persuasive arguments.  A really successful Overcome might even convince the enemy to take the fight somewhere that collateral damage won't be an issue.  One way or other there's going to be an Action scene and a fight, but if the heroes were successful in the opening scene they may have an easier time of it and they'll find the eventual Montage scene more beneficial, with defeated villains giving up info for bonuses more easily and victorious ones helping with Recovery and congratulating them for putting up a good fight even if they take the heroes prisoner.
• The heroes meet with another hero team to discuss an impending crisis.  As they talk it becomes clear that something's wrong with the other heroes.  Twists when attempting to discover what's wrong will trigger an Action scene as the other team (mid-controlled?  evil doppelgangers?  android duplicates?) attacks.  If combat isn't triggered the PC heroes may get a Montage scene to prep themselves for the inevitable betrayal, otherwise they get the usual opportunity to heal and examine the defeated not-heroes for Boosts.      

Finally, you could open with a Montage scene.  This is a little more unusual, but is good for giving bonuses to heroes so that they can handle a harder scene that's coming.  In rare circumstances you might not allow a full heal-up between sessions (usually when it would make no narrative sense due to some kind of cliffhanger ending last session), in which case a Montage will also let the Recover some Health immediately.  Usually you'll go from an opening Montage straight to an Action scene, but putting in a Social scene in between is possible too.

Possible Montage scene openings include:             

• The last session ended just before the heroes were going to confront a major foe who's challenged them to a final battle.  They have the opportunity to prepare, Boosting themselves using their experiences from past fights with the same villain.  They'll have a Social scene before the battle starts as the villain boasts about how doomed they are.  Successful Overcomes might throw the enemy off and give the heroes initiative first round, let them spot and potentially avoid an environmental hazard, or even alter the next scene tracker by removing a Green zone box and adding a Red.  Then the Action scene begins.
• The team is part of a joint strike force facing a planetary invasion.  They can use their Boost opportunities to help ready themselves or their allies before confronting their foes.  Once the action scene plays out another Montage occurs, with allies returning the favor by aiding hero Recovery if needed or providing morale or equipment based Boosts.  This might be followed by a Social scene as they force is debriefed, or it might roll into another Action scene if the pressure is really on.
• Last session ended with the heroes battered and barely victorious after a hard fight, but enemy reinforcements are closing in fast.  They keep their Health and personal Status from that session rather than healing to full, and have just enough time for some quick Recovery or to Boost themselves by setting up an ambush.  The following Action scene may be brutal, but the GM could do several things to adjust the difficulty - allowing the heroes to both Recover and Boost in a single Montage, for example, or adding a Social scene with the commander of the reinforcements that might bluff or intimidate them into delaying their a assault for a second Montage opportunity or degrading the die size of their minions.
• The heroes are preparing to testify at the trial of a criminal they captured.  They can use Boosts to ready themselves by practicing their testimony with the prosecutor, buying a decent suit if they aren't appearing in costume (or patching up their costume if they are), studying the defense attorney's past trials to look for tricks and traps they like to use on witnesses, or just watching a lot of Perry Mason if their die pool is d4, d4, d6 here.  The trial itself is probably a Social scene or series of them as different witnesses take the stand and evidence is presented.  How much of the session is occupied by legal procedure depends on how much your table enjoys that sort of thing, and you could experiment with the players temporarily roleplaying the prosecutor, other witnesses or even the judge when they aren't on the stand themselves.  Alternately, there might just be one relatively Social scene where each hero testifies, followed by an Action scene of some kind.  Perhaps there's an escape attempt aided by villainous allies, an attempted assassination of one or more witnesses or even the defendant ("He knows too much and must be silenced!"), or for something more unique a mentalist villain might assault the courtroom telepathically, sucking the jury into his mindscape to tamper with their minds and accidentally pulling teh heroes in as well if they don't have  away in themselves.    

  

The next post in this series will address a few other considerations for GMs and then we'll turn to more player-facing subjects.

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Sentinel Comics RPG Gameplay Overview Part 1: The Basic Ingredients

Seems like it would be worthwhile to look at the actual gameplay of the SCRPG.  Most of my readers have probably played already, but there are always new folks looking to get a feel for the game and sometimes explicitly spelling things out will be helpful even for veterans.  Every group's "normal game session" will vary from the next, but there are enough commonalities to make some generalizations.   

So what does an actual session consist of?  Gameplay is largely going to be divided between the three types of scenes - Action, Montage, and Social - with the mix of those types defining that session's focus and tone.  In most cases you don't want to use two scenes of the same type back-to-back, especially for Action scenes.  Spacing out the different types will help make each more memorable as well as offering more variety for players with different preferences in gameplay.  

Its worth noting that none of the scene types have strictly defined durations, lasting as long as they need to to support the narrative.  Most Action scenes will be fast and frenetic, but you can use their mechanics for dealing with any event that has a clear ending point like a lengthy political campaign, an attempt to cure a character of a terminal disease, or a natural disaster that sprawls over days or weeks.  Montage scenes are usually slower-paced and fast forward through "the boring stuff" by racing through hours, days or even months of time, but they can be compressed into a few minutes of desperate pep talks and recovery in between waves of alien invaders assaulting the White House.

Action Scenes

Action scenes are the most mechanically complex and for most groups will probably take up at least half of your total play time.  Session lengths vary enormously from group to group, and individual scenes are equally variable depending on many factors, but in my experience you can expect to do anywhere from 1-3 Action scenes in a "typical" session of 3-5 hours.  Action scenes require the most work to assemble, and you should probably prep at least two of them if you can.  It's certainly not hard for an experienced GM to improvise an Action scene right at the table if you need to, but having some ready to use (often with minor tweaks for events earlier in the session) can't hurt.

As the rulebook notes, an Action scene doesn't have to include any combat at all, although most will do so.  The defining aspect of any Action scene is a sense of urgency, reflected mechanically by the use of a scene tracker.  No matter what the players do the scene will end sooner or later, and if the tracker "times out" there are always some kind of repercussions, often (but not always) negative for the heroes.  This can be anything from the villains making a successful getaway to the heroes being rendered unconscious and starting their next scene imprisoned in a death trap.  Most Action scenes will also have some kind of GM-defined "win condition" that the heroes can achieve to end things early, the most common of which is "defeat all the villains" or something similar.  "Winning" a scene avoids any issues that might occur if the scene tracker would run out, and usually requires any challenges to be completed to avoid their own "time-out" effects. 

You can find detailed discussion of Action scene construction in earlier posts, including a full example in two parts and a closer look at scene elements.

Montage Scenes

If Action scenes are defined by urgency, Montage scenes are defined by the lack of it.  They represent a break in the action of the story, whether its a few moments for the heroes to take a breather between crises or days of training, research and preparation while waiting for the villain's next move.  Even more so than most scenes they last as long as they need to in universe, and are one way to model the common comic book trope of a time skip.  They also act as a "clean-up phase" with various effects from the previous scene ending - specifically, you remove all mods (even persistent ones), end all minor (but not major) twist effects, and end any other temporary effects or conditions that might be in play.  The only notable exception is that effects based on the previous scene tracker running out usually persist, as do major twist effects if applicable.

The rules are rather explicit about what can be done during a Montage scene, with each character having three choices:  You can Recover Health yourself, help another hero Recover Health, or take a Boost action to establish a bonus that can be used during the next scene.  Recovery doesn't require any kind of die rolls, just some kind of narrative justification (which could be as basic as a pep talk or as elaborate as field surgery).  Boosting also requires description and functions the same way it would in an Action scene, building a die pool and rolling for effect.  For simplicity's sake I'd recommend just making it a basic Boost action rather than getting abilities involved, although opting to take a minor twist to make the mod last for two uses per the normal mod rules is probably okay since the twist effect will carry into the next scene so the player isn't getting something extra for nothing.

Social Scenes

The third scene type, Social scenes have the fewest mechanical elements to them and focus on roleplaying instead, either between PCs and NPCs or just PCs interacting with each other.  This is the principle spot where things like investigation, negotiation, planning and debate play out, as well as dramatic scenes where characters confront their emotions and principles.  The GM may call for Overcome rolls to determine how well things turn out and what twists might come into play, but its entirely possible not to roll any dice at all during a Social scene of little or no uncertainty is involved, eg heroes agreeing to a plan for foiling a villainous scheme, or deciding to go out for pizza after their nightly patrol.  Participating in a Social scene can earn the whole team a Hero Point if the scene is sufficiently dramatic in the GM's opinion, or if an Overcome is made using a hero's Principles, but (unlike an Action scene) you can never earn more than one HP per Social scene total.

Of course you can and should be roleplaying throughout the session, not just in Social scenes, but these scenes push the game mechanics to the sidelines, encourage players to focus down on their heroic Principles while rewarding them with Hero Points, and provide worldbuilding through the NPCs.  Players can call for a Social scene whenever they want, and assuming it makes sense the GM should accommodate them - although you generally won't be able to interrupt an Action scene to have a heart-to-heart talk.

So that's the basic ingredients of a session.  The next post in this series will take a look at how to best use the different scene types in a session and some other elements of the gameplay loop.

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Other Sentinel Comics RPG Online Resources

People occasionally bemoan the fact that there's no good guide to SCRPG resources and discussion online, so I'm doing my part by posting links to the ones currently know of.  There are certainly others out there but I either haven't stumbled on them yet or I'm not personally familiar with them (like the Sentinels Discord, and at least one Facebook group - I'm not a big social media user).  

If anyone would like some help signal boosting for something I've overlooked, feel free to contact me in the comments and I'll see about adding them the roster below.

Publisher-Related Links - Most readers are probably well aware of these already, but if you aren't these are officially connected to GTG.

Greater Than Games RPG Forum - This is the official publisher forum for the game, although there's little to no input from actual employees here.

Sentinel Comics Wiki - Very little RPG-specific content, but if you're using the canon setting it vastly expands on the pre-Oblivaeon lore, particularly through the Letter Page podcast episode writeups.

Letters Page Editor's Note #42 - This is probably the closest thing to a unified FAQ that exists at the moment.  It's years old, predating the finalized print release, but still better than nothing.  You'll find some other questions in Editor's notes #33-41, but the sections are comparatively brief and you're probably better off reading teh show notes on the wiki link.

Noteworthy RPG.net Threads - This forum seems to be the most active online community for the game, and there are quite a few other threads to be found with some searching.  The links below are my somewhat arbitrary choices for most useful or interesting or at least recently updated, barring the History of Venture Comics thread (which is mirrored in the GTG forums link above).  If you've got other suggestions, let me know in the comments.  

DC/Marvel/other conversions Thread - Exactly what it sounds like.

Friv Is Inventing Homebrew (and you can too!) - Dedicated thread for homebrew rules ideas. 

FrivYeti Reads Sentinel Comics Adventures - Extensive read-through and discussion of the published stand-alone adventures up to Terror Forms (at present).  Spoilers, obviously.

Let's Read: Sentinel Comics Core Rulebook - Full read-through and commentary on the game's core book.  Good for folks who are trying to decide whether they want to buy in to the game.

(Where I Read) Sentinel Comics: The Guise Book - Full read-through and commentary on the Guise Book.  Really, what did you expect?

Sentinel Comics: Crackerjacks! - The in-character thread for an ongoing play-by-post game.

Sentinel Comics: The Pivotal Point Guard - Another ongoing play-by-post game.

Sentinel Comics RPG General Thread - Huge sprawling thread amalgamating discussion going back to 2020. 

YouTube Videos - Links contributed by Sea-Envy over on the GTG forum, and my thanks for the assistance. 

A Player’s Introduction of the Sentinels RPG (youtube.com)

Guide to Creating Characters in the Sentinels RPG (youtube.com)

A Quick Look at Playing and Running the Sentinels RPG (youtube.com)

GTG Actual Plays - All three seasons have links in the show notes at this link.

Audio Actual Plays - For anyone who wants to listen to real gameplay, these are some of the better ones I've listened to.  There are more, although most are much shorter one-shot test plays.  There are more APs on YouTube and Twitch but those are in video format and fairly easy to search for on their respective sites.

Critical Hit: Major Spoilers - First episode of their actual play series from back in 2022, which ran for a total of eleven episodes including one dedicated to a recap and final thoughts.

One-Shot Podcast: Sentinel Comics RPG - First episode of a five-part series that ran in 2021.

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Tirade, A Villain Who Wants To Share the Real Truth With Everyone

Another villain that I've used in a few one-shots over the last few years.  He's pretty versatile in terms of who he might be found working with and what his immediate goals might be, and can vary a lot in terms of tone from borderline goofy to tragically deluded to downright sinister.  

Tirade

The demented villain known as Tirade gained his psycho-sonic powers at the same catastrophic Supersonic concert that empowered the Loud Crowd and many other supers.  Unlike most of those involved, he wasn't attending the show because he liked the band.  His sole interest was in making illicit live recordings that would let him prove that subliminal obedience messaging was layered under the songs.  To this day he's convinced the accident that created hundreds of (mostly) temporary supers was a botched assassination attempt aimed at him because he was getting too close - and he'll be happy to tell you that.  At length.

In fact, he's happy to tell you lots of things whether you want to hear them or not, and his powers make his rambling conspiracy theories actively harmful to listen to by most people, leaving them confused and uncertain and even potentially inflicting neurological damage from lengthy or concentrated exposure.  Tirade is largely devoted to his demented agenda of "spreading the truth" far and wide, but occasionally works with deluded followers to gather cash to fund his anti-conspiracy activities.  Other more rational villains find him easy to manipulate and useful as a temporary ally/sacrificial distraction as well.

It's worth noting that despite being arrested and briefly incarcerated on several occasions Tirade's true name remains unknown.  He refuses to give a civilian identity besides "John Smith" and seems to have a made major effort to stay "off the grid" even before gaining his powers.  This put him a leg up on many new supervillains, as he had a surprising number of bolt holes, safe houses and hideouts from word one, as well as connections with other criminally-minded conspiracy nuts.

Description: With his trench coat, conservative civilian clothing and unimpressive physique he could be confused for a innocent bystander - if it weren't for the snug, strange-looking silver helmet that he wears everywhere, which provides protection against orbital mind-control lasers and includes omnidirectional speakers that help amplify his message to the masses.  He has a hard time keeping his mouth shut (especially around crowds) and lapses into ranting about the secret conspiracies that manipulate the world with little or no provocation.  His voice has an ugly grating quality to it that makes it unfortunately hard to ignore him.

Gender: Male            Age: 44           Height: 5'10"           Eyes: Brown

Hair: Dark Brown, Thinning        Skin: Slug-Belly White        Build: Scrawny, Large-Headed

Approach: Bully                   Archetype: Inhibitor

Health:  35 + (5 x H)

Powers: Weaponized Delusions d10, Gadgets d8, Sonic d8                                       

Qualities: Banter d8, Imposing d8, Deranged Conspiracy Theorist d8

Status: ( # of Heroes with Penalties) 3+ - d10 / 1-2 - d8 / 0 - d6

Abilities:

Never Shuts Up (I) Whenever you or your nearby allies Hinder, increase the penalty created by 1.

Open Your Eyes, You Fool! (A) Attack using Weaponized Delusions.  Use your Max die.  Hinder the target using your Max + Min dice (if the target's status die is less than d8) or your Max die (if the target's status die is d8) or your Mid die (if the target's status die is greater than d8).

Wake Up, Sheeple! (A) Hinder multiple targets using Weaponized Delusions.  Use your Max die.  Attack one of those targets using your Mid die.

Your Truths Are Lies! (R) When Attacked by someone with a penalty you created, Defend by rolling your single status die and the Attacker suffers that amount of damage.

Upgrades & Masteries (optional):

Power Upgrade (I) +20 Health.  Increase all Power dice sizes by one (max d12).

Master of Superiority (I) As long as you are manifesting an effect related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.

Tactics

Tirade's abilities revolve around using his super-powered voice to push his deranged conspiracy theories on those around him, which is distracting at best and downright dangerous to the sanity of the weak-willed.  Worse, he can focus on resistant targets to deal raw damage via psycho-sonic resonance.  If faced with multiple foes he'll rely on Wake Up, Sheeple! to hamper as many as possible, fueling his Your Truths Are Lies! defensive reaction.  Vulnerable targets and major threats will be singled out for Open Your Eyes, You Fool! whenever Tirade starts a turn with at least a d8 status die.  All the penalties he and his allies hand out are made worse because he Never Shuts Up.

His upgrade reflects getting some technological assistance in the form of an even bigger stupid-looking speaker-helmet and some other toys, usually bought on the black market or provided by a villainous ally, which will also let him use his mastery with his signature Weaponized Delusions power.

Design Notes

The writeup above doesn't go into details on exactly what conspiracy theories Tirade is obsessed with, which leaves the GM free to use whatever suits their needs at the moment.  There's no particular reason for him to be consistent from one appearance to the next, although you can assume he's generally at least a vaguely anarchist, anti-status quo, antigovernment type and build from there.  Be careful what real-world conspiracies you use though.  It's one thing to jab at patently counterfactual stuff like Flat Earth Theory and faked Moon landings, but denying war crimes should be completely off limits.

 

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