1) In the Starter Kit, players could prevent the Scene Tracker from advancing with a successful Overcome action. Has that been removed from the final version of the rules?
2) Do Hinders on Minions & Lieutenants apply to their Damage saves? It seems like they should, and that's how we've been doing it so far.
3) Are Sidekicks permanent additions to a character, or temporary? Same question for a Favor From A Contact.
4) Is there any way to use Hero Points to permanently increase the die size of a power or quality, or to upgrade an ability from one color to another?
Thanks in advance for feedback, answers, and the like! :)
1) It has not been removed from the final version of the rules, but I would not let it be done willy nilly. The Overcome action should make narrative sense, and it's not terribly interesting to keep doing the same thing over and over to keep a situation from getting worse.
2) They do apply to damage saves. Boosts can also be used on Damage Saves
3) Sidekicks have to be purchased anew with hero points each issue, unless it makes narrative sense and the person running it says otherwise.
4) There is not unfortunately; However, I could see doing something like that if a hero has maxed off their number of collected trades in exchange for getting rid of all of them.
1. Maybe I'm missing it but I don't see it mentioned in the current rules Overall I'd say it's not worthwhile to spend an overcome on that and if done it needs to make narrative sense
2. Yes if they active penalties it would apply to their minion save
3. Temporary. You can keep using hero points at the end of a session to keep them for the next one but it has to be done for each session.
It’s good if the group is running short and is large.
Thematic? well, if there’s a scene trigger or color change trigger nastiness, then it’s reasonable that anything that would delay the trigger would count. Things such as “hasting all my allies” or “Chilling the bomb’s batteries to slow the clock”.
True, but then the game mechanics are also quite liberal on translating challenges to overcome into threats to defeat, or boost/hinder effects to counter… it is all much more a matter of narrative pupose than definite rules and mechanics.
Which is a good thing in the hands of a resourceful GM and/or player.
Remember Christopher’s pacifist hero Bespoke? Instead of “defeating” a minion, he would “overcome” them. And why not? The result is the same, only the narrative shape changes.
That's fine when you can give a good narrative reason for how that would work. I'm still not seeing a good argument thematically on what was provided that would stop or slow the scene tracker from advancing.
To go with the default FengShui solution: Blowing things up helps with all sorts of problems. :)
So I'll try an example:
*As the stricken freightship noticably gained momentum towards the roaring abyss, CowboyX cocked his guns and gave his allies a grim nod. "I'll buy us some time" he grunted, disappearing into the engine deck. Moments later, one of the large engines rocketed away with a screeching sound, its recoil forcing the trembling vessel into a momentary standstill between the two forces.*
I'm certainly no writer (and english isn't my first language either), but I still think this should sound familiar, in all its cheesiness. And we don't even get to know what CowboyX did there precisely.
Of course, whatever players make up should make barely enough sense to get away with - but myself, I'd not set the bar too high. Comics are full of 'explanation' that defies all laws of real-life physics.
What you are describing sounds like an overcome to an existing challenge in the scene. I'll note again as well thst mechanically the current core rulebook makes no mention that an overcome can be used to stop the scene tracker from advancing.
You are certainly not wrong. All I’m saying is, from the narrative standpoint there is not necessarily a strict differentiation between one and the other.
If you think of the scene tracker as a timer until ‘the looming bad thing’ happens, then of course the whole scene is a ‘challenge’.
Of course, all this is totally situational, and depends very much on your narrative for what the scene tracker represens, in-game.
I suppose. Regardless, it's not item I'd really suggest players do and would point them more towards resolving the active challenges in the scene to overcome instead.
Here is an idea.. if you want to make overcomes to slow the scene, just give another yellow when they successfully do something that would slow. Like taking out an engine to slow a train would add a yellow. I don't think I'd advertise that but it's something you could "plan for". Especially if you have players that want to take that route.