When To Make A Roll
Characteristics are designed to give both the player and GM a general understanding of the Character’s capabilities. Heroes also have a Special Pool Willpower that lets them push their abilities further.
During gameplay characters may come across situations where the outcome may not be clear. Players can Roll related Characteristics to determine how the situation is resolved. However, before requiring a Roll the GM should ask the following questions:
Is this outside a Hero’s routine tasks?
How competent is the Hero in this situation, do they have have related Talents and at what level?
Will this Roll impact the overall story in a significant way?
What consequences does failure entail?
Does the Roll add to the overall game, or distract from the narrative?
Is there something different this time?
Example 1: Nancy has Vigilant scan police and military channels. She has described him as a man always on guard and looking for the next threat. Someone that, if there is nothing more important to do will be monitoring for trouble and there’s a lot he considers less important.
As the GM, Dave knows Vigilant has multiple Talents relating to finding trouble and Nancy has made it clear, this is what Vigilant does. Would a Roll to locate problems in the world impact the story? Does the Roll add to the overall game, or distract from the narrative? Generally, this Roll would only serve to distract from the narrative, and takes away potential action from the story Failing to identify an incident happening means the character, and perhaps the entire team is left out of some action in the world. What are the consequences of failing entail? The character continues to monitor and does nothing else..
Most of the time the GM should not bother having Nancy Roll, Vigilant is the man that sees it all, and Dave should respect that. There should not be a Roll involved. When framing the scene the GM can simply assume Nancy made her Roll and Vigilant is going to notice interesting things.
What are the exceptions though? As the GM there are some questions Dave should probably ask. What is the scope of your scan? Are there crimes, or events that are below Vigilant’s notice? Nancy may answer with City Police, County Sheriff, and Highway Patrol along with the Military bands for Vigilant to monitor. Vigilant looks for any super powered crime, major crimes, and crimes near other members of the Pride.
It is early morning, Vigilant is about to finish the overnight shift monitoring before Guardian takes over. Its already been a busy morning for the local police. In the last hour two cars have been reported stolen, likely overnight crimes just being noticed, a pedestrian was robbed. Is there anything you wanted to investigate?
While these crimes are outside what Nancy stated Vigilant is looking for Dave gives her the information as it is something Vigilant would have noticed and offers her the chance to have Vigilant act. If Vigilant is not following up with any of the early morning crimes Dave adds, it looks like someone is trying to attack an armored car.
While its likely Vigilant will react to the armored car robbery Dave has also planted seeds he may later build on.
What if that early morning robbery was more important that it seemed at first glance? Everyone knows that Vigilant is the hard boiled, protector that wishes he could stop every crime. The GM should play to those Drives. However, Dave should keep in mind that if he’s going to do more with this morning’s mugging, tomorrow’s petty robbery shouldn’t turn into a catastrophe as well. The point is to build on what the players have given the GM, not to punish them for it.
Example 2: After leaving his office Dr. Jerome Howell was kidnapped outside an IMR research facility. Howell was the lead scientist on the Zenith Mark III armor. With him was a flash drive containing the plans for the updated battle suit. Bulwark, was on the scene looking for clues while Elf and LAdy Night went to mean some of her old contacts for possible leads. Back at the base Vigilant is researching the armor itself.
Each of these actions have possible tangible consequences and Success or Failure will advance the storyline in different ways.
Bulwark’s investigation could provide information on the nature of the abduction. How the target was taken and possibly clues as to who the actors in the crime were. Things such as did the doctor go willingly or was he taken by force? Are there signs of super powers being used?
Elf and Lady Night’s interviews could provide insight into who orchestrated the kidnapping and how large of a job the abduction was.
Vigilant’s research could uncover clues as to the nature of the Mark III and what it is capable of. This also gives insight into what resources would be required to build the suit or who the possible buyers for the blueprints might be.
Each action would add additional details to the story. However, failing these potential Rolls could also add new twists to the story as well. For example, the abduction may be a plot by GEO to create their own type of Zenith armor or Luminessence looking for an upgrade. Their might be a major deal happening for the blueprints in some corporate espionage.
Because all of these are possible storylines Dave decides that Rolls are needed and that allowing the Players dictate what they find on successful Rolls can lead to a very different outcome. He decides that should Elf and Lady Night come up empty handed that soon a Zenith Mark III will be rampaging through Arlington, possibly assisted by whatever Bulwark uncovers and augmented by what Vigilant learns.
