Sentinel Comics RPG Core Rulebook

If they smashed their way through more often, the
Temple figures that a labyrinth might stymie the
heroes. The way through the Temple of Logic to
the pedestal is through a stone maze, with twists
and turns and dead ends. Overcome actions are
necessary to complete the labyrinth; the suggested
twist is checking a space on the scene tracker as the
heroes struggle to find their way.
If they used cleverness more often, the Temple
assumes that action is their weak point, and presents
clockwork defenders to combat the heroes:
always equals the number of heroes in a scene.
Bronze Age Warriors
Minion (1 Per Hero)
Description
These are bronze statues of Athenian hoplites,
each carrying round shields and spears. They lurch
to life and attack the heroes.
Ability
Phalanx: While there are at least two Warriors
active in the scene, they get +2 to their save rolls.
Minotaur
Lieutenant
Description
Ten feet tall, this monster has the head of a bull and
the body of a muscular wrestler.
Ability
Pankration: The Minotaur gains a +1 to Hinders
made by grappling.
Be aware that the scene tracker keeps ticking
while the heroes play out the scene. If you want
to play a drawn out scene with lots of branches
that can lead to several additional challenges, you
should consider adding clearly defined ways to
allow pushing the tracker back.
For example, if you set up a scene with several
linked challenges, you might decide to add a few
optional side challenges the outcome of which
could pull back the scene tracker by a tick or two.
In the same way, be careful of attrition of the
heroes’ Health. Try to avoid scenes that feature
extensive combat where more bad guys show up
just as the heroes move from one challenge to the
next, unless you give the heroes a way to rest.
Additional Challenge Design Guidelines
Challenges are meant to represent something that
requires the heroes to perform feats of heroism
and daring in the nick of time. They also represent
moments when tension runs high with key NPCs
and where there’s a lot at stake in the story. When
preparing a story, go for challenges that would
create great panels in a comic book. That’s always
a good guideline to follow.
If there are no threats or impetus to act rapidly,
like pushing a car away before an oncoming train
rams it, or having to convince a CEO to allow
access to the company’s lunar base before it’s
taken over by aliens, no actual dice rolls should
be required. In such cases, consider setting up an
informal social scene (pages 169-170) to explore
how heroes are dealing with their environment.
Often, you’ll find opportunities in gameplay for a
challenge you hadn’t thought about beforehand.
Feel free to try out an impromptu challenge to get
the action moving.
Lastly, try to avoid creating “locked door”
challenges that require solving to move the
story forward. If a story comes to a stop when a
challenge is failed and other Overcome actions are
required before the story can move again, pacing is
affected and everyone can feel the “wall.” Consider
using branching challenges instead, where one
thing happens if the challenge is overcome, and
something else happens if it’s failed.
Doomsday Devices
Doomsday devices are a specific kind of
challenge that are the ultimate tool of villains
attempting to bring about apocalyptic level
events in the heroes’ world. They’re usually quite
complicated and, true to tradition, fairly obvious
contraptions whose appearance in a story tends to
foreshadow their dire purpose.
Their very nature and likely impact they bring to
the game make doomsday devices natural set pieces
to bring epic stories to their conclusions. On the flip
side, they shouldn’t be so common as to become
clichéd and expected by the players whenever they
reach the villain’s hideout.
Doomsday devices are basically challenges
that require multiple successes, with two major
differences: the scale of their effect when they’re
triggered and how they’re handled in the action
scene turn order.
Creating Challenges
Intro
Playing
the Game
Creating
Heroes
Moderating
the Game
B ullpen
the
Adventure
Issues
The
Archives
Appendices
197