Sentinel Comics RPG Core Rulebook

Player Characters
The hero characters played by all of the players
other than the GM. See Hero.
Plot Characters..............................................................150
Named NPCs that play significant roles to advance
a story but don’t always act in action scenes.
Powers...................................................15, 20, 47, 115-118
Talents, whether innate, coming from gear or
gadgets, or some combination of the two. Powers
are stats for both heroes and villains, rated as die
sizes from to .
Power Source......................................................46, 56-71
A characteristic used during hero creation. What
changed you into a hero and what fuels your
powers. A hero’s power source determines some
of their powers and qualities and some of their
abilities.
Principles...................................................14, 45, 122-141
Representations of a hero’s core beliefs and
fundamental personality traits. Principles give
heroes a roleplaying prompt, as well as minor and
major twist questions, and a green zone ability
that generates hero points. Principles fall into five
categories: Esoteric (pages 124-126), Expertise
(pages 127-130), Ideals (pages 131-134), Identity
(pages 135-137), and Responsibility (pages 138-
141).
Qualities..............................................15, 20, 47, 119-121
Learned traits and skills acquired through training,
education, mentoring, etc. Qualities are stats for
both heroes and villains, rated as die sizes from
to .
Reaction...................................................................12, 29, 45
A thing you can do in reaction to a trigger. Each
character can perform only one reaction per round,
gaining it back at the start of their turn, unless they
have an ability stating otherwise.
Recover...................................................19, 29, 32-33, 171
A special action used by abilities or in Montage
Scenes to get Health back.
Red Zone..........................................12-13, 106-111, 147
The lowest band of GYRO. Red abilities can only be
used when the hero’s personal or scene status is in
the Red zone.
Results........................................................................17, 21-22
The numbers rolled on dice, either individually or as
part of a dice pool. Results can be affected by mods.
Retcon.....................................................................................112
One of the last steps of hero creation, allowing you
to go back and tweak specific mechanical aspects
of your hero.
Risky Action..........................................................................19
A way to add an extra effect to a basic action by
invoking a minor twist. Only works on a basic action,
not on abilities.
Round.................................................................................15, 23
A cycle of play over which every character and
element in a scene has a chance to act on their turn.
Once each actor in the scene has taken their turn,
the round is over and a new round begins.
Scene........................................................................ 9, 159-160
The sections of play of the game, falling into three
categories, depending on the type of roleplaying
happening. See Action Scene, Social Scene, and
Montage Scene.
Scene Difficulty................................................... 185-188
Scenes can be built as easy, moderate, or difficult,
depending on the number and severity of threats
and challenges.
Scene Elements.............................................................146
The pieces of a scene that work together to create
the playable game.
Scene GYRO...................................................................................16, 147
The particular status of the scene itself. Spaces on the
scene tracker are checked off as the scene progresses,
moving from Green to Yellow to Red. If the scene tracker
runs out of checkable spaces, the scene goes to Out and
ends in some catastrophic fashion.
Scene Tracker..........................15, 16, 23, 147-148, 159, 188
A series of spaces broken up into Green, Yellow, and
Red zones that measures the tension and danger in the
scene.
Sentinel Comics.................................................................2, 291-431
The (fake) comic book company that prints such iconic
titles as Justice Comics, Mystery Comics, Sentinels of
Freedom, and more! Sentinel Comics is the name of the
IP of this game, as well as many others.
Social Scenes..............................9, 34-35, 159, 169-170, 184
Interpersonal focused scenes, for dramatic and interesting
interactions among characters, whether heroes or NPCs.
Status...............................................................................14, 16, 20
A stat that changes based on health for heroes and
some villains, notable factors for other villains, and
can be affected by the scene itself, based on the
scene tracker. The four zones of status are Green,
Yellow, Red, and Out.
Index & Glossary
437
Intro
Playing
the Game
Creating
Heroes
Moderating
the Game
the
Bullpen
Adventure
Issues
the
Archives
A ppendices