Sentinel Comics RPG Core Rulebook

Ganging Up
Published issues and the scene creation guidelines
discussed in Chapter 5 are based on the assumption
that you won’t completely overwhelm one hero
with minions at the cost of ignoring others. Unless
a particularly self-sacrificing player asks for it, don’t
have the enemies gang up on a vulnerable hero.
Make an effort to spread out threats equally or
focus on heroes that gain from taking damage. In
cases where villains want to take out a character
first, make it abundantly clear through the villain’s
monologuing or orders shouted at minions.
This is a case of your job as the GM being a
facilitator of fun and storytelling — you’re not the
enemy of your players, trying to take down their
heroes. You’re setting up challenges and foes to
provide interesting opportunities for both success
and failure. Having a group of minions focus on a
hero who is almost out is counter to fun for the
players, so only do so with some sort of advanced
warning or give the heroes some way to prevent it
or get out of danger.
Handling Twists in Action Scenes
To keep the action exciting and engaging, choose
twists that introduce challenges that draw the
heroes’ attention from combat. First check with
players if any twists on their character sheets seem
appropriate. If they don’t quite fit the situation
or players would rather not use them, tap into
twists that are tied to the environment or written
specifically for the scene. If you need to come
up with your own, refer to “Creating Twists” in
Chapter 5 on page 200.
Regardless of what twists you use in your action
scenes, remember to come up with in-context
reasons for introducing the twists. Facing twists
and their consequences helps players build a richer
narrative, so incorporating them into the story and
basing them on the heroes’ experiences ensures
that they are fun and interesting.
Twists
Twists are the fuel that make your players’ stories
unique. While it’s a safe assumption they’ll save the
day in the great majority of their undertakings, a
myriad of things will go wrong. Hard choices will
have to be made, embarrassing secrets will be
spilled, costly collateral damage will be inflicted, and
innocent people will get hurt.
Twists come up for various reasons. Whenever
players fail an Overcome action by a slight margin,
they may decide to succeed by invoking a twist (see
page 25). Twists also come up whenever heroes
take risky actions (see page 19). Finally, twists come
up if you introduce one from the environment
when it takes takes its turn.
As discussed in Chapter 2, twists come in two
forms, minor and major. Each represents the relative
impact they play on a character’s story or a scene.
Minor twists are annoyances that tend to have a
localized effect that heroes can easily deal with, or
whose consequences aren’t too far reaching. This
includes getting hit for low amounts of damage,
a slight Hinder mod, or a slightly embarrassing
revelation about a hero’s actions or past.
Major twists are more than an annoyance; they’re
something that can have a shattering impact on a
hero’s life or put the lives of many innocents in
danger. Maybe a journalist finds a damning clue
about a hero’s secret identity, or maybe something
strikes from out of nowhere — an earthquake hits
the area. Whatever it is, it must be dealt with and
likely has lingering consequences for the story.
As a rule of thumb, the effects of many minor
twists remain for the duration of the scene it came
into play, while major twists last for the entire issue.
This applies to modifiers and disabled powers,
qualities, or abilities. Of course, heroes can mitigate
or resolve these twists to have them end sooner.
Mods can be cancelled by an opposed Hinder/Boost
check, while disabled traits can usually be restored
with a story appropriate Overcome action.
166
Running Action Scenes