The Reveal

[jtelson]

This past summer, as an exercise, I designed a handful of settings for another system - now that 6th is out I've been looking back over them with an eye towards Hero and have been reminded of one of the few things I've never been able to wrap my brain around a mechanic for in role-playing: The Reveal. Here's how I described it last August

 

We’ve all seen it, the end of the movie, episode or arc where the jig is well and surely up, the villain of the piece has all the cards, and the heroes’ hopes have been dashed upon the pokier rocks of inadequacy. But wait, in the blink of an eye and aided by a series of rapid flashbacks the truth is revealed, our crafty protagonists have been 9 steps ahead of this vile beast all along and order is restored to an otherwise topsy turvey universe. The reveal, when done well, is one of the coolest tricks in the screenwriters bag o guns, when done poorly it just sits their limp and accusing like so much crap.

 

So, how do we bring a technique that’s all about fooling and then entertaining the audience into a medium where generally there is no audience and, lets face it, in all likelihood your players don’t include the likes of Henry Gondorff. (Don’t know who Henry Gondorff is? Go forth now and rent The Sting, we’ll wait)

 

That then is my question - is there a way to do The Reveal as a regular item in Hero, preferably one that doesn't involve the players having to have actually pulled off a con?

 

My Savage Worlds solution can be found here. I'm not convinced that it would work.

[ghost-angel]

Re: The Reveal

 

I think it would be really really hard to work out. As it's generally a suspense aspect for the audience.

 

But....

 

As the characters reach the point where all looks lost:

Take ten minutes or so and let each player write down - and collaborate with up to one other player at most - one thing that they "did before hand to prepare for just the thing" and if everyone buys in, you should have both a interesting set of reveals, and an audience to reveal to (the other players).

 

It probably won't work with Power Gamers, or at least those who are "out to win no matter what" or anyone who isn't very familiar with this particular story tactic.

 

But I'd hope it would include things like

1) I just happen to have an extra stick of dynamite

2) I have my lock picks on me (especially TV-Like if they had to overcome locked items beforehand...)

3) Just the Right Gadget

4) Last time we were in the villains lair I discovered, but didn't utilize, a secret passage from this room...

etc...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Reveal

 

One game that has a mechanic that could be adapted to this purpose is White Wolf's Adventure! pulp-era game. Inspiration Points can be acquired during the course of play, in a manner similar to bennies in Savage Worlds, to be used by players for "Dramatic Editing" of already-occurred events by the players in their characters' favor. The degree of Dramatic Editing would depend on the number of Inspiration Points expended, subject to GM approval.

 

One of our fellow HEROphiles, Donald Doepke, adapted several Adventure! mechanics to HERO for his own pulp campaign, including Inspiration Points and a detailed chart for how many points a particular change to the plot would cost. Another pulp HERO gamer, Jesse Zwerling, devised a very similar mechanic he calls Action Points! (his exclamation mark, not mine) , which isn't as detailed in its Dramatic Editing guidelines but has IMHO better guidelines for how and when to acquire and use those points, and a wider range of genre-appropriate uses for them.

 

I've combined the Action Points! system with the detailed Dramatic Editing chart to great effect in my own games, and from your Savage Worlds-based approach it sounds like these concepts could be extended to fit what you want to do. I copied the relevant rules from Jesse and Donald's campaign websites (which were free for the viewing, so I'm sure they won't mind), and am Attaching them below.

[Nevelon]

Re: The Reveal

 

The best way to do this would be to use some sort of metagame hero/action point system. It could also be a special effect of luck. If you want to use a sort of bank and spend system, you could save up times you could have rolled luck (but didn't), and cash them in all at the end in one big reveal.

 

If you wanted to have one character who did this sort of thing rather then a whole campaign, you could take things like uncontrolled variable pools, or invert mystery disads. just block off a set number of points and tell the GM to use them for what he needs to make for a cool story.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: The Reveal

 

You really can't have the players pulling off an elaborate plan that no one sees coming, since the players would have had to do it themselves. You might be able to do something similar if an NPC or GM character pulls this stunt, but that shifts too much focus away from the PCs which is not generally a good way to make the players happy.

 

You can do something similar though by giving the heroes a riddle or puzzle that can't really be solved because they don't have all the pieces until the final confrontation, at which point everything falls into place (and if it doesn't the appropriate INT or PER rolls can nudge the players in the right direction). I have taken this approach a few times by giving the heroes a prophecy or a portent in a dream that on the surface is nonsensical or misleading, but ultimately holds the key to the villain's defeat. For example the prophecy says "The vampire king's downfall will come not through his heart but through his stars". On the surface this just seems to say the the vampire king is fated to lose. But when the heroes finally meet him, the see that his crown has a star motif. In game terms the crown adds piles of defense, but has the side effect that he bursts into flames if it is removed. It isn't quite as statisfying as a Harry Gondorff stunt, but it can be a nice touch.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: The Reveal

 

I've thought about this myself...a lot of good caper movies/shows look like it's all going to come tumbling down like a house of cards, and then it turns out to have been part of the plan all along. Your SW system looks pretty interesting, and could probably be transferred without too much hassle to Hero.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: The Reveal

 

I was wondering whether I should give one player each session (on a rotation basis) a 'get out of jail free' card. It would allow them to twist the plot to get them past a blockage in the story by giving me a good explanation. I don't think it would be valuable in climactic confrontations but might defeat or circumvent any of the other various obstacles they might encounter.

 

 

Doc