Reinhardt75 wrote:When exactly do you need to spend a PP for an asset? Is it only when you want it to last through the next scene?
When Ben Grimm spends an action and picks up the telephone pole, he creates an asset. Can he use it for just this scene without spending a pp in its creation?
Yes, exactly. Maybe the villain gets sick of the stupid telephone pole and targets it successfully, and it's gone. Maybe the action enters a narrow hallway where a telephone pole is just a crappy weapon, in which case it's also gone (as a useful asset). Otherwise, yeah. It lasts the rest of the scene.
Reinhardt75 wrote:And as far as Asset vs. Resource...Is the difference only that the Resource is equal to your specialty die -1 (d6 or d8 for master) and an asset is whatever effect die you can muster?
That,
and you
buy a resource with a Plot Point, either in transition or by activating a Watcher opportunity during an action scene. You
earn an asset via a successful action (or reaction).
Reinhardt75 wrote:Can you create an asset during a transition scene and spend a pp so it lasts to the next transition scene (like creating a resource).
I'm not sure if the RAW explicitly allows creating assets during transition scenes. It seems reasonable to me, though - you roll against the Doom Pool for a narratively reasonable thing, and if it works it works. I'd actually feel a little cheap charging you a PP to keep it in existence until the next action scene; I mean, when else would you use it?
Reinhardt75 wrote:So Ben, if he wanted, could pick up a telephone pole during a transition scene, possibly using his d12 die from strength as the effect die to create a Telephone pole d12 rather than use his specialty to create a resource at a d6?
The telephone pole kind of doesn't even work well, fictionally, as a resource, but works really well as an asset or a stunt. Let's run it down:
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You can create resources one of two ways - spend a PP in transition, or spend a PP to activate a Watcher opportunity during an action scene. If you do the latter, BTW, the resource is stepped up +1, so its die-value is
equal to your Specialty die. Cam wants us activating those Watcher opportunities, so he makes it worth our while.
Here's the thing: narratively, an opportunity-created resource is supposed to be a
reveal: "
I happen to have Marshall McLuhan right here!!!" Actual-play example: in our last Playgroup A session, my hero, the dismayingly wealthy Magnitude activated a Watcher opportunity to turn out to have
THE FINEST PORTABLE CAPACITOR MONEY CAN BUY D8 in the trunk of his Jaguar. Very handy when Zzzaxxx is heading for a nursing home.
"At that point I show him the telephone pole I packed before the encounter" feels a little odd.
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As an asset, yes, you succeed at a roll and the telephone pole is worth your effect die for that roll. If it's your D12, yup:
TELEPHONE POLL D12! Enjoy. That roll is probably against the doom pool. But I could also see you creating it after a successful reaction roll, using a PP to create an effect. The villain punches you and sends you flying, sure, but it doesn't hurt. You're the Thing! Plus, you flew back through this telephone pole, which should come in very handy for the rest of the fight.
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As a stunt. When you absolutely, positively, have to have a telephone pole right now, Stunt it. Spend a Plot Point, and say that your stunt is, "I break off a handy telephone pole and treat my opponent like a whiffle ball." Here are the tradeoffs of doing it as a stunt:
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It's immediate. It doesn't take up your action. You can hit someone with it on this turn. Yay, hitting!
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It's certain.You don't roll to create a stunt die. There's no prospect of failure - or at least no prospect of failure to break off the telephone poll. You said you did so you did.
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It costs you a PP. You may fail an asset roll, but you may also succeed; in particular, you may succeed without spending any PPs.
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It's transient. This is the biggie. That light pole is worth D8 this turn (maybe D10 if you bought a Watcher opportunity), but it's worth
nothing next turn - unless you pay another plot point to repeat the stunt.
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But you can always cycle it. You could totally buy the light pole as a D8 stunt this turn, whack the villain with it, and then, on your next turn, take an action to "recreate" the light pole as an asset. You could even pay a PP on your first action roll to keep a second effect die, and declare that the second effect die is the light-pole-as-asset. The Watcher may well give the Doom Pool a reaction roll to prevent this. Probably, by the rules, she should. But if you win, for the cost of two PPs you got to hit the villain with the light pole now and you'll get to
keep hitting the villain with the light pole after this. And as already pointed out: Yay, hitting!
Jim
