A few questions after first session

Games Sentinel Comics RPG
#1

Hello everyone,

we finally had our first session today (with me as the GM) and it was a blast. There were, however, a few questions that came up, mostly regarding specifc abilities:

  • The red ability Purification says: “Remove all bonuses and penalties from the scene.”
    How does this interact with boosts or hinders that are ongoing effects from existing challenges, like “Hostage Situation” from the Megalopolis environment? It seems rather overpowered to be able to completely negate one (or more) challenges that would usually require several overcomes to remove with just one ability, even if it is red.

  • The yellow ability “reflexive burst” says “When your personal zone changes, Attack all close enemy targets…”
    Since this is yellow, can it be used when your personal zone changes from green to yellow? Or would it trigger while you’re still green and can’t be used then? I ruled it is the first, but I could see it being the other way around.

I’ll probably post more questions as I think of them.

#2

Reflexive Burst means when your heroes Health moves them from Green to Yellow, you can trigger it. When their Health moves from Yellow to Red, they can trigger it. When their Health moves from Red to Yellow (healing up) they can trigger it. When it moves from Yellow to Green, they can trigger it as long as the scene itself is in the Yellow or Red zone.

(Reply written without actual text in front me, grain of salt, mea culpa if I got it wrong)

#3

That’s up to GM discretion, but it’s also a Red Zone ability. They are intentionally somewhat absurd. I’d personally make the decision based on the narration used with Purification in the situation.

Yes, because it responds to you ‘changing zones’. If your zone changes from green to yellow, Reflexive Burst checks and says ‘hey, you changed zones’. Thus, you can use it when your personal zone drops from green to yellow.

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#4

I think it’s not quite as clear, unless someone posted an official clarification somewhere (which afaik GTG haven’t bothered to do yet).
Phrasing it as “Immediately after you changed personal zones, do X” would be much clearer, as would be “when you are about to change personal zones, first do X”.

As it is, one could very much argue a reaction can only trigger if you started in the correct zone for it.
Otherwise, there would be no difference between having it as a green or yellow ability, and both variants do exist separately, for example in the ‘Accident’ power source…

#5

Thanks for your answers so far, I appreciate the help. We had our second session a week ago and more questions popped up:

  • What exactly counts as an ally? Most importantly, are you considered an ally of yourself? I feel like this is defined somewhere in the rules but I can’t find it.

  • Are there any rules for healing Minions/Lieutnants? I ruled that it would work like boosts, with every +1 that would be created by the healing die instead increasing the size of the target’s die by one (to a maximum of its original die size). However, I think that’s a pure house rule and minions/lieutnants aren’t actually meant to be healed.

  • If you use an attack that ignores penalties, are those penalties still removed afterwards or do they stay until your next roll (I ruled they got removed with no effect).

  • Reacts that trigger on being attacked: are they used before or after the roll for the attack, i. e. can you wait to see how much damage you actually get (if any) before using your react? The rules aren’t especially clear about the exact timing.

  • The last one is less of a rules question and more about playing style: when a villain uses an ability, how much information do you give about what that ability does? The question occurred to me when I created a new villain and came across the Guerilla’s “Human Shield” ability. Said ability attacks a target and defends against all damage from other targets until the villain’s next turn. Any defended damage is redirected to the target of the attack.
    So would you tell the players that it doesn’t defend against the target of the attack? Would you tell them about the redirection effect or let them find out the hard way?
    And in that vein: are you allowed to attack an ally? Since that would allow the minions of the villain to shoot at the villain, having him redirect the damage to the target and thus getting around any reactions or defends the target might have up.

#6

1: My search bar is failing me, but I remember C&A saying you can never be your own ally.
2: Healing has no effect on minions/lieutenants.
3: I think they are ignored, but not removed (unless that makes sense for the scene, i.e. teleporting out of shackles or whatever).
4: Looking at a smattering of Reaction wordings, I’d say they usually trigger after damage is revealed, but some may have different timings based on wording.
5: too complicated to answer while my 4yo is pestering me. :joy:

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#7

An Ally is any other Hero or Hero-created/affiliated Minion or Lieutenant.

Correct. The only way Minions or Lieutenants could be “healed” (i.e. increase their die sizes after degrading) is via an Ability that specifically says so. I do not recall if any such ability exists . . .

Agreed.

If you’re saying that a Defend Action was just taken, you have to clearly spell out who it applies to.

I think it depends on the fiction of what the Ability represents. If used with the default name, Human Shield, I think it’s fairly clear that anyone trying to target the Villain is going to hit their friend. However, if you reflavour it to be, e.g., some sort of supernatural curse, I think it would be permissible to let the players find out on their own.

Well, yes, technically, but . . .

That seems awfully meta-game-y, and I certainly would never do it.