Sentinel Comics RPG Core Rulebook

Regardless, either provide the heroes with a way
to Overcome the movement-preventing effect, or
a significant reason that they can’t just yet.
For abilities that target multiple opponents, that
doesn’t mean all of the opponents in a big scene
with lots of targets. Make the heroes pick which
opponents they’re specifically targeting — only
the ones in the building with you, or that group
clustered together in the intersection, or just the
foes in front of the doomsday device, but not
the rest of them. As long as there’s a reasonable
story explanation of why an effect doesn’t apply to
the entire area, it lets each hero have a chance at
making a difference in the fight and prevents one
hero from taking down all the foes in a scene due
to a lucky roll.
Some abilities reference “nearby” or “close”
opponents. These are both ways of saying things
that are near the hero. Make players justify this
themselves when taking those actions: which
opponents are they already close to, or moving to
get closer to when using their ability? As the GM,
your job is to help keep the action interesting and
help the heroes be the most heroic they can be!
Running
Social Scenes
Scenes that focus on characters interacting with one
another, or with the NPCs, to resolve specific issues
are called social scenes. Anytime the heroes try to
obtain something specific from NPCs, convince
them of something, or investigate promising leads,
we’re likely dealing with social scenes.
Setting a Social Scene
When a player says they want their hero to do some
investigation, talk to another character, or engage
in any other social, non-action activities, it’s time
to initiate a social scene. You can suggest a social
scene if the players don’t explicitly ask. Make sure
you identify which characters are present, where
the scene begins, and what’s going on, exactly like
you would when setting up an action scene.
Prepare index cards for any challenges the heroes
are likely to have to Overcome. Unless there’s
some clear story incentive, social scenes don’t
usually include a scene tracker or any combat stats.
Environments can sometimes be used in social
scenes, provided they are more helpful to the story
than they are in the way.
There are two ways to run social scenes: formal
and informal.
• Informal: An informal social scene involves just
letting players talk to each other in character
in real time and occasionally involving a nonplayer
character, if necessary.
• Formal: A formal social scene keeps the action
order system in which players and other
elements in the scene each take their turns and
then pass the action order on to someone or
something else in the scene.
As the GM, you can choose how formally you
want to structure each social scene, depending on
your gaming group and their preferences. Informal
social scenes are good if everyone wants to jump
right in, but formal social scenes can be helpful if
some players are more hesitant to speak up, or
if there is some sort of timer or other outside
pressure in the scene. Either way, play the scene
out to its logical conclusion or until players think
they’ve done all they care to do.
Overcome Actions
The Overcome action is your most important
mechanical tool in social scenes. Heroic Overcomes
can represent persuasion attempts, investigations,
questioning suspects, or any other similar activity.
When calling for an Overcome action, keep this
important rule in mind:
• No single points of failure: Avoid situations
where the heroes absolutely must do a specific
thing or find a particular clue in order for the
story to progress — or, if there is that single
point of failure, don’t allow failure. The last
thing you want in a game is for the story to
grind to a halt just because the heroes didn’t do
just the right thing or failed at one crucial roll.
You can approach this in two different ways.
First, you could simply ensure they find the clue
and understand what it means — the hero with
the best science quality finds the science clue, or
the hero with the Principle of Robotics immediately
finds the identity of the attack robots. Second, you
could allow the villain to spring a trap, or introduce
a new big threat, in response to that failure — the
story doesn’t stop, but it changes.
Remember, Overcome actions usually manifest
twists! Use those twists to move the story forward
while still creating problems for the heroes.
Running Social Scenes
Intro
Playing
the Game
Creating
Heroes
M oderating
the G ame
The
Bullpen
Adventure
Issues
The
Archives
Appendices
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