Sentinel Comics RPG Core Rulebook

When to Check a Space
Most of the time, you check the next space on the
scene tracker’s turn. That’s right, it gets its own turn
in an action scene’s turn order! If the scene uses an
environment (page 16), the environment acts on
the scene tracker’s turn — check the next space on
the scene tracker, then perform the actions for the
environment. In either case, the GM chooses the
next actor in the initiative, as if the scene tracker
and environment were any other NPC.
Who’s Who in Scenes
Many characters make up a scene. Heroes are the
main players, but you already know who they are,
and your players will take care of playing them. As
the GM, you play the role of pretty much everyone
else! You voice these non-player characters (NPCs)
and make some of them act during scenes.
Playing to Your GM Strengths
When we say “voice these non-player characters”,
we don’t necessarily mean speak in their voice. If
you’re comfortable with voice acting and improv,
by all means go ahead! If that’s a challenge for you,
don’t let it be a barrier to GMing — just describe
in your own voice the kind of thing that the nonplayer
characters say or do. The important thing is
to make the action and social scenes come to life
through your descriptions.
NPCs come in a variety of categories: bystanders,
minions, lieutenants, villains, plot characters, and
threats. Some characters can fit into more than
one category; in these cases, go with whichever
category makes running the game easier and more
fun. In the case of recurring characters, you can
even change the category of the character from
one scene to the next. Outside of action scenes,
it’s usually not essential that NPCs firmly fit one
category or another.
Bystanders
Bystanders are the random civilians, the people
standing in the background. Use bystanders to
complicate heroes’ plans in action scenes: they
need to be rescued, protected, kept out of the way.
Placing bystanders in danger is a great twist to throw
into any action scene. Bystanders don’t have stats
like Health points or abilities. If they’re in trouble
and need to be protected or saved, represent
them as challenges (pages 161-164), or have
them Hinder the heroes’ actions.
Allied Minions
If characters can provide some kind of significant help
(like police officers, soldiers, or professionals like
firefighters) they should generally be represented
as allied minions, rather than bystanders. When
their turn comes up in the scene, if that allied
minion needs to perform an action, you can have
one of the players make decisions and roll dice for
those characters — unless you have a reason for
that NPC to act in a specific way.
Player-Controlled NPCs
It’s great to let players control allied NPCs in action
scenes — it’s a great way to minimizes rolling dice
against yourself. However, don’t let the players take
unfair advantage of the situation. NPCs won’t throw
their own lives away frivolously, they won’t violate
their own morality, they don’t like being exploited
or taken advantage of, etc.
Minions
Minions are, most of the time, nameless, faceless
hordes of bad guys (or robots, or lightly armored
vehicles, etc.) that the heroes fight their way through.
In action scenes they’re represented by a name, a
single trait die, and a short description like this:
E-Street Thugs
Minions (1 per hero)
Description
These are grizzled punks armed with clubs, knives,
and a few handguns. They’re the scourge of one of
Rook City’s industrial neighborhoods.
148
The GM’s Turn