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 if 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) the group 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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Villains: More Than The Sum Of Their Abilities

One of the "GM traps" I strive to avoid in the SCRPG is to play villains in combat as a collection of abilities that they'll use round after round.  I've probably made this worse for myself by writing 230+ sets of tactical notes on this blog, which were really intended more for other folks borrowing an unfamiliar baddie than for myself.  They're still in my head to some degree, and the temptation to just follow the script I've written is considerable.  That's really a mistake in my opinion.

Villains should be using their abilities regularly, but you shouldn't ignore their other options either.  At the very least, move around.  If you have mobility powers, use them to go interesting places in the scene.  Slugging it out in the bank lobby is fine, I guess, but what about ducking into the vault so you're harder to gang up on and outflank?  If you're intangible or can teleport without needing line of sight or otherwise get in and out of closed vault you can slam the door shut and use it for hit-and-run strikes.  You could bull your way out to the street and complicate things with passing traffic and crowds of pedestrians if the police haven't set up a perimeter yet - or menace the cops and spectators at that perimeter if they have.  That ought to distract the heroes.

The other big thing to consider is starting challenges mid-scene with Overcome actions.  Keep an eye out for narrative opportunities to do this.  Perhaps an innocent civilian can be suddenly endangered, a building damaged and threatening total collapse, a fire started that might lead to an explosion, etc.  Unlike challenges bought as separate scene elements or brought into play through the environment these need to be fairly simple to solve to maintain some level of balance when it comes to action economy.  A villain action is a pretty precious resource but it shouldn't be reliably tying up multiple hero turns on Overcomes.  To ensure this, I suggest using the following outcome table for such on-the-fly challenge creation.

• 0 or less: The action fails spectacularly, and might even trigger a beneficial minor twist for the heroes
• 1-3: The action fails, since supervillains don't take major twists.
• 4-7: The action fails, or the villain can take a minor twist to succeed instead.  Suggestions for villain twists are on page 154, and function somewhat differently than hero twists.  If the villain succeeds, create a simple challenge with a single Overcome success required to solve the problem.
• 8-11: The action succeeds.  Create a challenge that either requires two Overcome successes or has a timer starting with two check boxes. 
• 12+: The action succeeds dramatically.  Create a challenge that either requires three Overcome successes or has a timer starting with a single check box.     

Remember to make note of consequences if the challenge triggers, either at the end of the scene or when its timer runs out.

If a villain has an applicable mastery they may use it when creating a challenge.  Construct a die pool as normal but instead of rolling, treat each die as its highest possible result and reading the appropriate die - usually Mid, but if the villain is using an ability that lets them take a basic action using their Max die then the Max die counts.  Apply penalties as normal.  If this winds up generating a 4-7 result they succeed without a twist but create only a simple one-success challenge.  Results of 3 or less (only possible with penalties) are treated as normal.

I wouldn't go overboard with making new challenges like this, reserving it for narratively interesting moments or to show a villain is going out of control from panic, rage, or frustration.  Once or twice a scene total is probably plenty to turn your villains into something less predictable than their abilities alone indicate.

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Villain Design Analysis: Final Thoughts

Wrapping up this series with a few final thoughts:

1) As I said way back at the start of all this not all villains are created equal, and once you've gotten yours built it's worth doing some test runs to get a good idea how much damage they'll hand out from turn to turn, as well as how well they apply penalties and absorb incoming damage.  Keeping that in mind when scene building will give you a better idea of the villain's de facto impact on a situation, and in extreme cases you might even want to treat a villain as an extra element of their difficulty level for your budget, or adjust them up or down one level on the simple/moderate/difficult scale.

2) I originally suggested starting with a concept for your villain in mind before tackling the mechanical side of things, but I didn't mention that "I wonder what I can do with the abilities of this Approach/Archetype pairing?" is a perfectly legitimate concept.  You can get some real inspiration about the nature of a villain just by mashing together some abilities - especially ones that don't initially seem to work well together - and sometimes just a single standout ability is enough to form the seed of a villain writeup.  The creation process can go both ways.

3) Don't get too hung up on names and descriptive fluff, especially when it comes to Approaches and Archetypes.  For ex, Loners Archetypes supposedly don't like working with other villains, and their status die and even some abilities reflect that.  But you could easily reskin that so that you have a whole team of Loner villains who are actually drawing power from the same energy source, and grow more effective as they suffer losses and their power is shared between fewer people.  Look at the mechanical effects of abilities and see if they inspire you to do something different with your Approach/Archetype pairings.

3b) And by all means, re-name your abilities however you want.  The GM has enough mental work to deal with, and customizing your ability names will probably make it a little easier to remember which one does what at the table.  If the names sound cool and suggest the villain's style to your players all the better.

And that's all, folks.  Hopefully this rather sprawling series of posts has been of use, or at least an interesting read

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More Maunderings: Types of Scene Elements

Continuing on with the subject of actions scenes, I thought a post looking at the types of scene elements might be worthwhile.  The core rulebook goes over them on starting on p.186, but there are other things worth mentioning for new gamemasters.  There are five different types of scene elements, each of which offers different things to the GM.  You normally have H elements (H = the number of PC heroes, possibly adjusted for allied NPCs and similar aid) to use in your scene design budget and the mix you select will determine the feel of the scene for your players.

Villains

Most actions scenes will have one or more villains as their centerpiece, and their motivations will tend to dominate events whether it's something as simple as "escape the heroes" or something more complex like carrying out one step of a convoluted scheme.  The villain design process will let you make just about anything you can imagine, and most villains will be the single greatest threat a hero will face, often taking some cooperation to defeat.

There's a "secret" the rulebook doesn't emphasize:  Villains are not created equal.  Combinations of Approach and Archetype vary wildly in terms of effectiveness, and ability choices can make even identical A/A combinations behave very differently.  There's a very large difference between an Underpowered/Fragile villain and an Overpowered/Titan, for example.  

Despite this, each villain counts as a single element in your budget.  This makes your choice of villains a dial you can turn to adjust the difficult of a scene, and it's a good idea to consider how much of a threat each villain will be to your group of PCs.  Some key things to look for:

- Multi-target abilities are much more punishing than single target ones.  Even if the multi-target abilities are defensive in nature being able to buff a group of allies means a lot more than buffing just one.  If you find a villain overperforming because of these abilities, remember that you don't have to affect every target you could - and for more unstable or treacherous villains, including their own allies in mass attacks is perfectly in keeping with comic book tropes.

- Villains that can create more allies (usually minions) during a scene can make things very tough for heroes without multi-target abilities of their own.  It can be simply impossible to keep up with a flood of new lackeys for some hero teams, and sparing the actions to defeat the villain creating them is a real struggle.  To tone these types down use their creation abilities sparingly, and perhaps make suboptimal choices for the allies they do spawn.  Legion archetype villains are probably the easiest "spawners" to adjust on the fly, while Overlord archetypes can be enormously powerful if their minions get out of hand.

- A few villains have access to very powerful healing abilities, with the Domain archetype being the worst offender.  Be careful about using these abilities to stall out the heroes until the scene tracker expires, as it can easily feel like robbing your players of a hard-won victory.  Sometimes it's fine for the heroes to lose, but doing it by tanking damage faster than they can deliver it doesn't make for great experience at the table for anyone.  

Lieutenants

You get H/2 (round up) lieutenants for each scene element, and that can often make them collectively harder to take down than a single villain while still being easier for the GM to run.  They're also quite action-efficient and should have an ability or two (or even three) to give them some individuality.  This combines to make them quite popular and effective.  If you're worried about them overperforming, remember that H/2 is the maximum you can take as one choice, and you could opt to just take fewer, especially for larger PC groups.  With 5+ PCs they can be a bit too good in my experience.

Another interesting element of lieutenants is that they reward heroes who are good at delivering very large single-target attacks.  The way their dice degrade usually means they take four or more separate hits to bring down, but if a hero can scrape up twice their current die size in one blow they pop as easily as a minion.  Getting to 16+ damage to drop a d8 lieutenants isn't all that hard with some Red abilities or serious bonuses, and I've seen 20 or even 24 damage hits one-shot a big lieutenant.  This is a definite moment of awesomeness for the player.  This makes them natural partners for minions (who need lots of small attacks to dispose of efficiently) so PCs with both kinds of damage output can shine. 

Minions

These come in blocks of H minions per selection, making them the best way to fill out the scene with a lot of weaker foes for the heroes to wade through.  They're probably the most swingy of all scene element choices, being quickly disposed of by heroes with lots of multi-target abilities but overwhelming to heroes that rely on hitting one foe at a time.  How many you use needs to be tailored to your PCs to avoid under- or overperformance, although there are some dials you can use here during play.

The rules strongly encourage you to spread Attack actions from minions as evenly as possible between heroes for good reason, and breaking from that to concentrate fire will make minions far more dangerous.  That said, you can lower their effectiveness quite a bit by deliberately shooting at targets with damage reduction, a Defend buffer in place, and strong defensive reactions.  With damage reduction, always do one roll at a time so any change in personal Zone gets to increase the amount of deduction for later rolls.  Going from -1 in green to -2 in Yellow means a lot with d6 or even d8 minion shots.  Contrariwise, you can make minions more dangerous by concentrating on the greatest threats they're aware of, which usually means heroes with multi-target attacks.  Not all minions are smart enough to do this, but it's pretty reasonable behavior from (say) the reeling d4 survivors from an earlier assault if they don't just try to flee or surrender instead.

A better use for minions is often to skip on Attacks and use other actions, spreading them around to support their more powerful allies.  If they Boost and Defend other villains and Hinder heroes it will generally feel better for the players and lets them choose between powering through the mods and Defends to hit bigger targets or taking the time to scrub off the weak minions first.  By not spamming minion Attacks they're still contributing but aren't putting as much immediate pressure on the PCs to avoid going Out.  

Challenges

Challenges are an interesting way to mess with PC action economy during a scene, and the Overcome actions required to remove them often generate both twists and hero points, so both sides of the table get something out of them.  The rulebook spends quite a lot of time explaining how to build challenges, and following those guidelines will still leave a GM with plenty of room for creativity.  When doing so it's worth considering a few things beyond just what difficulty of element you want, though.

Simpler challenges are probably best as part of an environment (see below) where they can be introduced as twists gradually.  Long, involved challenges are better used as elements unto themselves so that the PCs can start working on them from the start of the scene.  Timed challenges can be tricky to balance, especially if introduced through a twist - it's usually pointless to put a three-turn timer on a Red zone environmental challenge since it won't trigger till the tracker runs out anyway, for ex.   

Be careful of using too many challenges at once, especially if there are high durability enemies in the scene as well.  A party of (say) five heroes only has a total of 40 actions between them in a normal scene (less if anyone goes Out) and not every Overcome action will succeed even with twists if there are any penalties in play on those attempting them.  If you put in three major challenges that require five Overcomes apiece plus another two or three small challenges among your environment twists that need a total of four successes themselves, that's at least 19 actions needed to deal with them all, which doesn't leave many to dedicate to combat, buffing to improve Overcome odds, etc.

Another good idea is to be very restrained about challenges that put penalties in play until they're resolved.  Those penalties make the Overcome actions needed much, much harder to accomplish, letting all the challenges in the scene "punch above their weight" in terms of impact.  If you do employ that sort of challenge it would be best to limit the penalties so they don't apply to Overcomes or Boosts, giving the players a fair chance at solving things.

It's also good form to use challenges that give a significant reward to players for resolving them rather than applying a penalty.  The carrot works better than the stick by putting less immediate pressure on the players (the scene tracker, environment and combat elements are doing that already) while still pushing them not to ignore the opportunity until too late.  Challenges that apply a serious (possibly story-related) outcome if the tracker (or timer) runs out but give a commensurate reward for finishing them early might be the best option to get players to engage with them.

Environments

These are unusual because you'll never use more than one in a scene unless something very peculiar is going on - maybe a string of major twists throws all participants into a whole new environment mid-scene?  An environment is a powerful storytelling tool by virtue of its twists, which can do almost anything the other scene elements can and more.  You can add lieutenants, minions, and challenges this way, take actions that affect one or more targets and even accelerate the scene tracker, and that's just sticking to book suggestions.  A GM can really do anything they want with twists, but there are some things to keep in mind.

- Because they're so versatile and essentially impossible to prevent or even foresee, individual environmental twists need to be fairly restrained so they don't dominate the whole scene.  The rulebook gives good guidelines on this on p.244 in terms of power, with each GYRO zone having a single more potent major twist that can't be repeated and any number of weaker minor twists that can be reused.  Unlike other scene elements the environment does scale up as the scene tracker advances, but its impact is rarely equal to the strongest villain and hero abilities even in Red.

- An environment's twists are just a menu of pre-planned possibilities - a rough "script" for the scene's extras and the special effects guys to work with, as it were.  If the "leads" (the heroes) manage to derail things badly enough you may have to abandon your plans and improvise.  If you've got twists planned where the nuclear micro-reactor starts leaking radiation but one of the PCs has thrown the whole thing into deep space, you need to come up with something new even if it's just re-skinning the same mechanical effect.

- Similarly, the GM ultimately decides what twists to use and when to use them, although listening for player suggestions is always a good idea.  Weirdly, most of those suggestions tend to be phrased in the form of "I hope X doesn't happen!" rather than just asking for X outright, but that's players for you.  You can use your choice of twists to adjust difficulty in the scene up or down, and even avoid using some twists at all while repeating others if if seems like that will produce a better experience.  The only real limitation is not to use more than one really strong major twist effect per GYRO zone, even when making one up on the fly.

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Designing An Action Scene, Part 1

 I've had a few folks ask about my approach to action scene design, so I'm going to run through an example of the process from one of the games I'm currently running.  This scene got used a few months ago so I don't have to worry about spoiling anything for my players.

Backstory

For the last couple of sessions the heroes have had a couple of encounters with familiar villains in the process of carrying out heists with the assistance of a new kind of ally.  They were accompanied by these strange biotech-looking monster things, humanoid but very alien looking with malleable, unstable bodies that could stretch and distort or vary their consistency from gooey liquid to nearly stone-hard.  The things weren't very durable and got taken out easily enough, but they could duplicate some of the other villains' abilities, letting the bad guys effectively use their nastiest tricks multiple times per round.  That was bad enough the first time it happened, but the next time around there were three of the things instead of one.

The players decided that needed attention, and after some investigation they discovered some new player in the "black cape" community was offering the things - which turned out to be called "protoids" (not "purple goo monsters" as the players dubbed them) - for rent as living tools for other villains.  They dug further, found that some of the payments involved rare chemicals that were also found in the remains of the defeated protoids (they melt into goo when beaten), traced some of the stuff to a front business and from there to your classic disused warehouse in a mostly-abandoned industrial park.  The next session would open with the heroes outside the place, planning a stealthy entrance and search to see what was going on inside.

Budgeting The Scene Elements

So the plan was to do a montage scene for the initial sneak-and-scout, at which point they'd locate the concealed entrance to an underground lab facility that would make a good setting for a (probably climactic) action scene.  With that in mind, the first thing was to consider what scene elements I wanted to use.

My group has a theoretical six players, but only three of them always show up and I usually get one or two of the others.  I generally plan on four and adjust at the table if it turns out to be more or less.  I knew for certain I wanted an environment in play, since the lab would be interesting to do twists for.  There was a specific new villain made for the story arc - a sort of super-protoid that would be very different than the "rental" ones they'd seen so far.  So that's two elements for sure.

There were also a couple of lieutenants that were the mad scientists responsible for creating the things in the first place.  I decided to make them part of the environment twists, along with a mix of weak environment minions to represent plain old human guards and lab workers.  The other environment twists would be a mix of action effects and a challenge or two.  All that goes under the single environment element, which balances out since they come into play fairly slowly as the scene tracker advances rather than all being active from word one.  Environments are also a great tool for the GM to use to tweak danger levels on the fly by choosing twists that will be more or less of an immediate problem for the heroes as needed to keep them feeling threatened but not overwhelmed.  

The big boss protoid would also have the ability to spawn some mook protoids with its upgrade, so decided to start the scene with Hx2 of them, using up another two elements worth of choices.  That covers a four-player table, so job done.  If need be I could just drop H minions to fit three players, and if five or six turned up I could add one or two of the "rental" protoids they'd fought before, who could imitate some of the boss protoid's more potent abilities to good effect but were a known factor and would likely get focused own fast.

What Produces Urgency?

The scene tracker itself bears a little consideration too.  Why is the scene on a clock, and what happens if it runs out before the heroes triumph - and what does that triumph consist of?  Here it would represent the fact that the big protoid is starting to become fully awake and get out of its creators' control.  If the tracker runs out without it being defeated it will break out of the lab, collapsing the place behind it and going on a rampage while the heroes dig themselves out and presumably head off to try to stop it.  The heroes "win" the scene by defeating the boss protoid before the scene ends, although capturing as many of the lab's occupants while they're at it would be a plus.  Depending on who was left standing when the big critter goes down I might just handwave the rest of it, or I might let it play out with the remaining baddies trying to escape.  

It's just a coincidence that this is all happening just as the heroes enter the place, honest.

Location, Location, Location

Going by just the rulebook advice I'd be done (beyond writing all this stuff up, anyway), but there's another factor it kind of glosses over.  Environments are all very well and good, but there's more to a good setting than just their dice and twists.  I still needed to think about what the layout of the lab would be like, both in terms of narrative descriptions and in mechanical terms, how many discrete locations I wanted to divide it into.  We play pretty abstract, with locations in a scene usually just written on index cards and laid out on the table, so I didn't need an elaborate grid map.  

Past experience tells me that an ideal setting has a number of locations that ranges from H-2 to H+2 (with a minimum of at least two) or there's not much point in even talking about them.  With less than that the heroes can't spread out much even if they want to (which makes them more vulnerable to some effects that hit all nearby targets) and don't have many movement options, and more than that will probably leave some locations unused, especially if the heroes are busy dealing with a lot of challenges or otherwise facing action economy pressures.  It's also worth thinking about what types of mobility tricks might make movement between locations easier, or if some locations are physically close enough not to require an action to move between, making the division between them mostly have effects on combat actions and Overcomes.

And that's all there is to the planning stage of things.  I'll stick the mechanical end of things in a follow-up post tomorrow so you can see the finished writeups for everything.

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Twists In the Sentinel Comics RPG

Twists are an important part of the SCRPG but it feels like many folks misinterpret what their role is.  Because they have negative effects on a character and often come up by rolling low on an Overcome action, they get seen as a punishment to be actively avoided whenever you can.

This is unfortunate because twists give both the players and the GM an opportunity to be creative and come up with situationally appropriate twists.  Yes, they'll frequently harm or handicap a PC in some way but they can also introduce story elements, provide an opening for narrative tricks like cutscenes, flashbacks or foreshadowing.  I'd contend that twists are better regarded as a cost levied for a benefit than a punishment for failure.  And there are a lot of potential benefits.  Let's take a look at those.

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Things you can do by taking a minor twist:

-Take a Risky basic action, allowing you add a bonus effect to the action (p.19).

-Use an ability one zone earlier than normal, eg a Red action while in the Yellow zone (p.19).

-Succeed at an Overcome when you roll a result from 4-7 (p.25).

-When creating a mod with a Boost or Hinder action, let that mod last for two uses rather than one (p.26).

-Hit the deck when Attacked, using a Reaction to immediately take a basic Defend action affecting yourself (p.29).

-When you opt to Recover Health during a Montage Scene, Recover an extra Health zone beyond what you would otherwise (p.33).  In this case, the effects of the twist last until the end of your next scene.

-As a cost for using Emergency Change (p. 91).

-As an option to avoid taking damage when using Emergency Switch (p. 96), Push Your Limits (p. 106) or Unload (p. 109).

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Things you can do by taking a Major Twist:

-Succeed at an Overcome when you roll a result from 1-3 (p.25).

-When you opt to Recover Health during a Montage Scene, Recover two extra Health zones, which will normally leave you at full even if you were Out (p.33).

-Use Final Wrath (p.108, 109, 110).

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As you can see, you're cutting yourself off from a lot of very useful options if you're adamant about not taking twists.  There are lists of suggested generic twists on page 30 so you can get an idea what kind of impact taking one will have, but that's just listing a few possibilities.  Your Principles offer more options to choose from even when you're not using their abilities, and anyone at the table is always free to suggest unique twists based on the current situation.  The GM has final say about what effect to apply, but this is ultimately a collaborative game where maximizing everyone's fun is the goal.

It's also a creative game, which makes it important not to use the same twist effect too often.  You don't want players to develop an expectation that (say) buying an extra use for the mod they're creating will always cost them Mid die damage, for ex.  Twists are a cost, but not a fixed cost.  They're always negotiable and should be situationally appropriate.

To emphasize one thing from the rulebook (p. 30 again) it's vital that the effect of a twist doesn't negate an optional Overcome success.  If the player was Overcoming a challenge that would advance the scene tracker if it wasn't solved, don't choose "advance the scene tracker by 1" as a twist.  

You should also be careful about other twists directly negating whatever they're paying for.  For ex, if a player takes a twist to hit the deck to avoid taking damage, don't choose to have them take Mid die damage as a penalty.  Hinder them with Max instead, or separate them from the group as they dodge into a new location, or have a hero with Principle of Strength break something important as they hurl themselves out of the way.

That's even more important with major twists where the cost of an effect is much higher.  Majors are rare, and should be a big moment in the story.  Their effects often last to the end of a session rather than the scene, and narrative effects could last much longer.  If anything I think the rulebook example of a major twist (p. 167) underplays their potential impact, and the player there is losing their (in-character) voice for the rest of the session.  If a minor twist is "Spider-Man's web-shooter runs dry" then a major twist is Aunt May getting shot and mortally wounded.  A player that uses Final Wrath in a tremendous effort to drop a villain before they escape shouldn't suffer a twist that lets the enemy get away automatically even if their damage fails to drop them.  Make the villain earn their escape on their turn.

Positive Twists

There's one other type of "twist" (although the rules don't call it that) that deserves mention.  When you roll a 12+ result on an Overcome you get what my table calls a positive twist a bonus on top of succeeding with the overcome.  They talk about some possible benefits in the book (p. 25) but the general principle of inverting minor twist effects so they harm or hinder a villain instead of the hero works pretty well.  They don't have to be purely mechanical either.  Narrative effects that make it easier to foil whatever scheme is going on or provide definite leads on a mystery are fine rewards too.  You might even find a way to invert the twists of the PC's principles here, eg the Strength guy breaks something important to the baddies during the Overcome.  Much like other twists, variety and fitting the situation are important here.

Villainous Twists

Finally, don't forget that villains, lieutenants and minions can take Overcome actions too.  Lieutenants and minions don't generate twists the way heroes do (p. 156).  Most villains will try to use their Mastery (if they have one) to automatically succeed rather than rolling an Overcome normally, but when they do roll they succeed or fail normally.  They never take major twists (opting to fail instead) and have a set of additional minor twist suggestions unique to them (p. 154).