Emma Frost

[Mad Thinker]

Let's say you have Emma Frost vs. Jigsaw, and Jigsaw makes an attack with his Guns D8. Could Emma do a reaction "I knew what you were going to do, and removed the bullets from your gun" using her "One Step Ahead of You" Distinction, Telepathy, and Psych Master?

Then if she wins the roll and spends a PP for a counterattack, she could use her effect die to attack and maybe eliminate Jigsaw's Guns D8, while if she wins but doesn't spend the PP, she just stopped that attack, but Jigsaw will have reloaded the gun by his next turn.

[Supplanter]

Let's say you have Emma Frost vs. Jigsaw, and Jigsaw makes an attack with his Guns D8. Could Emma do a reaction "I knew what you were going to do, and removed the bullets from your gun" using her "One Step Ahead of You" Distinction, Telepathy, and Psych Master?

Then if she wins the roll and spends a PP for a counterattack, she could use her effect die to attack and maybe eliminate Jigsaw's Guns D8, while if she wins but doesn't spend the PP, she just stopped that attack, but Jigsaw will have reloaded the gun by his next turn.

That's pretty cool, actually. The actual narration is probably that Jigsaw removed the bullets from his own gun without thinking about it. And then yeah, whether Emma buys a counter-effect determines how long Jigsaw goes without bullets.


Jim

[Grimmshade]

Let's say you have Emma Frost vs. Jigsaw, and Jigsaw makes an attack with his Guns D8. Could Emma do a reaction "I knew what you were going to do, and removed the bullets from your gun" using her "One Step Ahead of You" Distinction, Telepathy, and Psych Master?

Then if she wins the roll and spends a PP for a counterattack, she could use her effect die to attack and maybe eliminate Jigsaw's Guns D8, while if she wins but doesn't spend the PP, she just stopped that attack, but Jigsaw will have reloaded the gun by his next turn.

Nice!

[Mystrich]

My goodness, I wish my players were half this creative, as I'd love to hear one of them do this in game!

[Mad Thinker]

My goodness, I wish my players were half this creative, as I'd love to hear one of them do this in game!

My inspiration was the Doctor Who episode "Let's Kill Hitler", where River Song keeps pulling guns on the Doctor, but the Doctor always anticipated it and removed the bullets (or substituted a banana for the gun).

[Supplanter]

I think the one trick here is narrating what it means within the fiction if Emma fails her roll. I'd want to come up with a reason for the failure that doesn't make Emma look like an idiot or lame, but none are immediately obvious to me. Thoughts?


Jim

[MidnightBlue]

I think the one trick here is narrating what it means within the fiction if Emma fails her roll. I'd want to come up with a reason for the failure that doesn't make Emma look like an idiot or lame, but none are immediately obvious to me. Thoughts?


Jim

How about, "Emma succeeded in making Jigsaw unload his gun...however, Jigsaw being the killer that he is, he double checked his gun, realized it was empty and popped in a new clip before trying to shoot Emma."

It's an option I'd be comfortable with.

[Grimmshade]

I think the one trick here is narrating what it means within the fiction if Emma fails her roll. I'd want to come up with a reason for the failure that doesn't make Emma look like an idiot or lame, but none are immediately obvious to me. Thoughts?


Jim

This is always a concern for me as well. When I ran other Supers RPG's, I was always put off by the "You fail at Mind Control vs the average mobster guy" result that made a character feel weak and un-comic-like. MHR allows a load of possibilities that lets a character remain cool but still "fail."

I agree with MidnightBlue, it would be simple enough to say Jigsaw unloads his gun, but pulls another, or perhaps pulls a knife and throws it at her.

Another option, depending on how generous the Watcher felt, would be that Emma succeeds in making him unload his gun (and the Watcher can invoke his Gear limit!), but Emma takes the damage as Mental stress from looking into his twisted mind... or emotional stress from seeing his disgusting thoughts.

[MidnightBlue]

Of course another sollution is for the player to think about why she'd fail independent of her power.

Did something distract her thoughts at the last second?

Perhaps that Burning Corridor scene distinction, even if not used in the dice pool, can still be of use for explaining failures.

So for Emma, maybe the key isn't in thinking about how her ability would fail or how a mook could shake off her mental might, but in how she could be distracted by the scene around her.

[Grimmshade]

Of course another sollution is for the player to think about why she'd fail independent of her power.

Did something distract her thoughts at the last second?

Perhaps that Burning Corridor scene distinction, even if not used in the dice pool, can still be of use for explaining failures.

So for Emma, maybe the key isn't in think about how her ability would fail or how a mook could shake off her mental might, but in how she could be distracted by the scene around her.

Yes, thats a great point. I've often used the opponents affiliation as a reason for failure. Examining the opponents entire opposing dice pool is a good way to figure out why it may have failed.