Limit the total number of dice

[aneesh]

Hi
Just a quick comment. Playing as Hardigan Slater I realized how easy it is to get an insane number of dice on your damage rolls. Unfortunately superheroes are constantly in battles and extra damage goes a long way. And it is also advantageous because you do not have to convince the GM for nifty maneuvers. The problem is that along with my 5 dice for my Might damage attack, I can also use strain points to add 2 more dice to the attack. This means that I will constantly use my strain points for extra damage. This can make battles broken since for an average hero that has 6 life points, I can use 7 dice to attack them, potentially knocking them out in 1 attack. This also degrade the plot to a simple hack and slash campaign. Instead if you were to limit the damage rolls to 5 dice max, then players who invested fewer points to their might ability can stand a good chance against power hitters by investing strain point to Might abilities during combat. The heavy hitters can then reserve their strain point for creative uses, such as in their less developed skills or healing. The heavy hitters will still have the advantage that they do not need to spend strain point attack based moves. And the light hitters will have their moments to shine where they use their super-heroic will (aka strain) to save the day. Just some food for thought.

-Aneesh

[Joshua Kitz]

Nov 23, 2011 16:34:52 GMT -5 aneesh said:

Hi
Just a quick comment. Playing as Hardigan Slater I realized how easy it is to get an insane number of dice on your damage rolls. Unfortunately superheroes are constantly in battles and extra damage goes a long way.
The problem is that along with my 5 dice for my Might damage attack, I can also use strain points to add 2 more dice to the attack.

Constantly in battles may be a bit of an exaggeration. There are many other things that heroes do. They rescueing people and investigation being two of the more prevalent ones.
Either one of those might also benefit from Strainpoints.

Nov 23, 2011 16:34:52 GMT -5 aneesh said:

This can make battles broken since for an average hero that has 6 life points, I can use 7 dice to attack them, potentially knocking them out in 1 attack.

Let's clarify this a little.
A character with an Attack ability of rank 5, can spend a Strainpoint in order to roll 7 dice. They might also get more than 5 dice by pooling multiple talents together.

Given the situation of a 7 dice attack, a characters chance of scoring 7 basic success is 5.8%. (This is the probability I calculated of 7 dice all being 3 or higher.)

Personally I find this rare swingy roll where someone might actually knock someone out in one attack incredibly appealing. But there are many caveats that makes this amazing turn of events less likely to occur.

1. The Opponent may have a Talent that gives them more than 6 lifepoints
2. The Opponents defensive roll may block some of those basic successes
3. The Opponent may elect to spend 2 Strainpoints to reset a die in the contest, making him take fewer Lifepoints of damage
4. Falling uncouncious at -1 is hard.
5. If they don't fall unconcious immediately they can spend 1 Strainpoint to regain 2 Lifepoints.

Let's look at #2 and #4 above a little closer.

#2. Defensive rolls and Playing the game "Open"

As GM, I play Simple Superheroes very Openly. This means that players know how many dice are going to be thrown against them, and see the results of my rolls.
Opposed dice rolls have to be made at the same time.
This means I would say, "Thunderfist is going to pummel you with his Fists - 4 dice, and he's going to spend a Strainpoint - +2 dice." (Often show the dice to the player rather than actually say the number, but I do both.)
The player might then decide to spend a Strainpoint to boost their defensive roll, or find a way to pool a couple Talents for defense. This method gives the player choice, allows him to take risks, and manage his resources (Life and Strain).

Clearly this does somewhat depend on what kind of defensive Talents the character has, and what there rank is.


#4. Falling Unconscious is hard.

At -1 Lifepoints the average character has a 1/6 chance of falling unconscious. It the character has a rank-2 Talent in remaining conscious he'll only fall unconscious 2.7% of the time at -1 Lifepoints (1/36).

Yes the character will need to reroll on their next action but only if they do not either regain Lifepoints by Spending Strainpoints or Stabilize by spending strain.

A character might have some kind of regeneration.



So can character knock a Super Opponent out in a Single attack?
Yes. But it is very unlikely particularly if that opponent is built to take hits.

So can a character do a large amount of damage in one hit?
Yes. This is more likely than the above, and ultimately depends on the Talents of the two opponents.

Nov 23, 2011 16:34:52 GMT -5 aneesh said:

The problem is that along with my 5 dice for my Might damage attack, I can also use strain points to add 2 more dice to the attack. This means that I will constantly use my strain points for extra damage.

Will it? You'll probably use your Strainpoints for that frequently (particular if you have a certain style of character). But you'll also use them to regain Lifepoints, boost your defenses, change poor results after the die roll, affect the story, shake off mental control, and other things.

And you only have 6 Strainpoints before you need to start rolling to stay conscious (you can spend into the negatives). There are also enemies who can damage your Strainpoints!

[Joshua Kitz]

Now does any of the above mean that I think that a house rule to limit the number of dice is a bad idea?
Not at all.

In fact I think it has some interesting ramifications. But I'd still recommend playing the game as is for a good number of game sessions before deciding to adopt this rule.
By actually playing you may find this problem sort of goes away. I've hand some characters burn through a lot of Strainpoints in the first battle of a session, and find that they have very little left for later combats - even regaining a few from relations in between. So few that they cannot effectively defend themselves from their opponents.