Sentinel Comics RPG Core Rulebook

If you are creating a challenge that can be resolved
with different, mutually exclusive approaches,
note it down as such. The key to making these
interesting is to have truly different outcomes
for each solution — one technique should yield
benefits and drawbacks that the other does not.
For example, as we discussed in Chapter 4 on page
162, you can’t both hack the computer to neatly
open the door and also break that door open. You
have to pick one approach or the other.
Jennifer decides to borrow a challenge from the SCRPG
Starter Kit, adjusting some details to fit the story she’s
telling. The challenge is for the heroes to infiltrate a
mountaintop fortress; howling winds, blowing snow,
and treacherous ice protect the fortress from remote
sensing and observation. They’ll have to get up close
and personal to find an entrance they can use.
Generally, there are two approaches: either finding
a way in without giving their presence away, or taking
the direct brute force approach. Both are listed as
multi-part challenges to the right. In either approach,
the environment is spitting out threats and challenges
to harass the heroes and the scene comes to a
positive end when they successfully make it inside,
which will immediately remove from the scene any of
the environment threats going on outside.
Note how the stealthy approach requires more
actions. The heroes will burn more time that way, but it
leads to the next scene having a better chance of going
smoothly.
THE STEALTHY APPROACH
Resolution
Navigate the storm stealthily
Get a closer look at the base to locate an
entrance
Disengage security measure on entrance
Open entrance
Reseal the entrance to avoid setting off the alarm
If the heroes use this approach, they begin the next
scene in the fortress with no immediate opposition,
but with less time to complete their mission.
Resolution
Get to the fortress
Open entrance
THE DIRECT APPROACH
If the heroes use this approach, they have more time
to finish what they came to do, but they begin inside
the fortress with guards and security fully alert and
ready to repel them.
Some challenges you create end up being
conditional ones because it makes more sense in
the story to have conditional ways to resolve them.
Just be careful not to make them the norm; it’s a
good idea to leave players with as much creative
freedom as possible when facing multiple threats at
the same time.
No-Win Scenarios
Part of the point of challenges is to create hard
choices for the heroes to confront, and either
emerge heroically by doing the unexpected, or
make a choice and deal with the consequences.
This might lead you to pre-plan a challenge where
there’s no right answer, and whichever choice is
made can lead to disaster on the other side. Save
the helicopter from crashing into the side of the
office building, or save your long-lost brother from
being trampled by the Hippo?
First, it’s usually not necessary to plan for those
situations. They often emerge from play naturally
without you guiding the story to that moment. You
lay out the elements, and when a hero needs to
take a major twist, they find themselves facing that
kind of hard decision. Then the two of you can
decide what makes the most sense for the story
going forward and where that might lead.
Second, while you as the GM might not know
how the heroes might accomplish all their goals,
the players can surprise you with their inventiveness
and epic teamwork; those kinds of novel solutions
can lead to some of the most memorable moments
of the story. Remember that risky actions (page 19)
are a good guideline for when a hero needs to do
just a bit more with an action, such as making two
basic Overcome actions as part of the same roll.
This means they can’t use any abilities to improve
the roll, and they’ll take a minor twist no matter
what (probably on top of other twists as well!)
but at least they can try something completely out
there to save the day.
Finally, if you do include these situations, be sure
not to overuse them. If your heroes have to save
their loved ones from near death every single issue,
the threat loses a lot of its meaning.
Creating Challenges
Intro
Playing
the Game
Creating
Heroes
Moderating
the Game
B ullpen
the
Adventure
Issues
The
Archives
Appendices
193