Deahtraps as Watcher characters

[Nerd King]

As I'm sure a lot of Watchers do I find myself increasingly thinking of the comics I'm reading, supers 'toon & movies I'm watching in Marvel RPG terms.

While watching an old '60's Batman episode with my daughter this morning I was struck with pondering how I'd represent the deathtraps that Bats and so many others get caught in (eg. Arcade's Murder World).

Strictly speaking the Hero would probably roll against the Doom Pool + a Distinction for the trap, or may be it might be a Viallian's Resource or a Complication for the Hero. Now that's fair enough if the trap is a feature of the scene and environment eg an "Automated Defences" Scene Distinction. However if the trap is the main feature of the Action Scene, especially if it's a scene early in the Act, then leaving it's strength solely to the winds of fate of the Doom Pool (however good you are at building/maintaining it) is a little unpredictble for me.

Therefore I'm suggestiong that where the trap is the focus of the Action Scene (i.e. The Riddler leaves Bats slowly descending into a pit of molten wax or Arcade has the heroes as balls in a giant pinball game) teh trap should be stated out as a Watcher character.

This way you can represent a host of minor traps (Mob), a nefarious trap (specialist, Minor or even major characters) and if you want to simplfy the Murder World as a single entity you could make it a Large Scale Threat (though personlly I'd run it as a series of scenes each versus a different unique trap-adversary).

Affiliation becomes how well the trap functions in conjunction with other traps.
Distinctions are pretty obvious
Power Sets & Traits are what the trap actually "does" - basic stuff will be weapons but take a look through the pages of some old comics - or watch a few Bond movies - villains are nothing if not creative with their ways to remove meddlesome heroes.
I'd suggest each trap has a single Speciality relating to it's quality/the skill of teh creator. A simple pit in the jungle filled with snakes might be Rookie D6 while something created by Dr Doom will likely be Master D10.

As for Damage I would suggest that most Traps would be immune to Emotional stress - unless there is a living component or controller, but Physical stress would relate to simply trying to break out and Mental Stress would be trying to solve the trap/pick the locks etc. The trap would be stressed out as per the rules for Watcher Characters.

I'd stress (pun not intended) that I think the current system works PERFECTLY well when the trap is part of a greater scene but I think when things are focussed upon the trap itself as the "threat" in the scene this system could work well.

Any thoughts?

[nthmetaljustice]

Actually ... I did just that a while back.

I had heroes fight a villain who could control fires, and who had already set a fire.
Instead of just making the fire a scene-distinction, which I found a little boring and of which I thought, would lessen the impact of the fire greatly, I made it a watcher character. It was a mob!

Something like:

Fire - 5d8
d8 burn - d8 explode
SFX: area attack
SFX: fiery reaction (can hurt hero on a successful reaction against melee attacks, can hurt hero on a failed reaction with spending dice)

There were a couple more twists, such as that the fire-controller villain could spend effect dice to increase the fire mob. It was huge fun, and the fire was really dangerous.

Generally I would suggest: If the dangerous trap / situation is just a backdrop and the focus is on the villain (or something else), make it a distinction and use the doom pool. If it's the focus, turn it into a watcher character all for itself.

[Supplanter]

I agree completely.


Jim

[MidnightBlue]

Definitely!

Statting hazards as a character is just one of many ways to represent the threats challenging our heroes!

It's a great way to handle natural (or not) disasters as the major threat of a scene.

You want your characters to have to survive a major earthquake? Stat the earthquake as a large threat that attacks and reacts to the heroes as they try to make it to safe ground. The Watcher spending the Doom Pool to throw out new Scene Distinctions/Complications...maybe even "minion" disasters...can only add to the fun!

[Dunlaing]

In a similar vein, stat up some collateral damage-style characters (e.g., Broken Gas Main, Crumbling Masonry) and keep them in your back pocket. When you want to add a little chaos to a scene (or just want to try to force the PCs to focus on something other than the villain(s) for a minute), spend a die from the Doom Pool to bring it in.

[igorbone]

I like this idea, specialy if you combine the deathtrap with a Scene distinction. The possibility of making a "living" trap is very interesting, I'll have to put it to the test.

[figurefour]

Personally, I'd be inclined to roll for the death trap's CREATOR and make the trap some combination of Scene Distinction, Scene Complication and Power Set.

There's something about making an inanimate object a character with agency in a fight that rubs me the wrong way. A fire doesn't attack people on its own, it just sits there. A villain uses the fire to attack people.

Edit: Not that I want to crap on other people's ideas. I think it's cool, it just doesn't agree with me so I'm mentioning an alternative approach.

[Supplanter]

Personally, I'd be inclined to roll for the death trap's CREATOR and make the trap some combination of Scene Distinction, Scene Complication and Power Set.

There's something about making an inanimate object a character with agency in a fight that rubs me the wrong way. A fire doesn't attack people on its own, it just sits there. A villain uses the fire to attack people.

Edit: Not that I want to crap on other people's ideas. I think it's cool, it just doesn't agree with me so I'm mentioning an alternative approach.

Understood about the not crapping. I think what a lot of us are after with these approaches is "entity that gets a separate turn from the villain and provides a separate target from the villain." That's mechanically identical to a character, even though it does lack personhood.


Jim

[Nerd King]

I'd also stress that my original idea was based srtongly on teh automated death traps/Danger Room devices/Murder Rooms that are often animated and automated, rather than "Enviromental Hazards" such as fire/flood/smoke/poisonous atmosphere/chemical spills etc.

But as with everything it's just a concept add modify or ignore as you wish.

[figurefour]

Understood about the not crapping. I think what a lot of us are after with these approaches is "entity that gets a separate turn from the villain and provides a separate target from the villain." That's mechanically identical to a character, even though it does lack personhood.

Well, a Scene Complication or Distinction IS a separate target from a villain. The extra action is a thing though. I'd be inclined to find a way for a trap to give a villain Area Attack (and a whole lot of leeway when narrating it) to resolve that, but I agree it's sort of a clunky solution.

I'd also stress that my original idea was based srtongly on teh automated death traps/Danger Room devices/Murder Rooms that are often animated and automated, rather than "Enviromental Hazards" such as fire/flood/smoke/poisonous atmosphere/chemical spills etc.

The Danger Room is an interesting circumstance. Honestly, I don't think the Danger Room is an Action Scene at all. It's a Transition Scene used to narrate some cool moves and gain a Training Resource maybe.

Now, navigating and surviving a villain's deathtrapped lair is definitely something I'd make a contest with the villain.