Question regarding Affiliations vs One bad guy.

[MidnightBlue]

I'm not against having some flexibility there, but I think the "solo in a group" thing should be damn rare and VERY well justified for it to come up.

I agree with that 100%

[Spidermaniac]

For me, a sub-text of this conversation is that managing scenes in MHR can be a little different than in your "traditional" RPGs where the whole party walksinto a dungeoun and fights a horde of monsters together. In modern comics (and movies) you often have sub-groups working together within a fight to accomplish a side-goal or target a specific opponent or group of opponents. Think, for example, of the big climactic battle scene in the Avengers movie: at different times you have Solo, Buddy, and Team alignments going on to accomplish different tasks. Thus, I'm happy to use Doom dice and player decision/action to set up those type of scenarios.

While geography is a key factor, I think focus is the better measure. If there are three heroes trying to take down the Juggernaut, they are a Team. If two heroes are fighting Juggernaut while one is trying to hack a database in the same room, I'd say that's two Buddies and a Solo affiliation.

In a team vs. team scenario, it takes a little more finesse. I'd probably allow Sabretooth and Wolverine to go solo as long as no one else tried to interfere, but once someone else got involved (either attacking Sabretooth or aiding/assisting Wolverine), we now have a Buddy situation. Of course, if the opponent is unwilling to split from his team, forcing the affiliation dice with an action is a brilliant idea.

I find allowing the group to make sub-groups to accomplish goals in a fight adds another layer of tactics and RP.

[Nerd King]

In the game I ran last night I think the five players only really "teamed" very briefly in a Transition scene.

I was running Breakout to introduce some of our regular group the system as they'd missed our previous sessions. They had selected characters from the book (we usully play with homebrews) and the way it worked for mots of the game was that Human Torch and Iron man went off ahead - bickering and trying to out do each other with show boating (Buddy) while the other three (Beast, Colossus & Black Panther) followed on (Team). However without a word to the wise Panther decides to stealth ahead of the group (Solo'ing leaving the X-Men Buddied).

He then came across Count Nefaria forming his new Lethal Legion and radio'd it in to the X-boys. They attacked (still Buddied) with Panther's help. The Panther remained in the shadows as he was fighting and didn't take advantage of the X-teamwork so I ruled that the Solo/Buddy split still existed. In context it worked fine - he was being all "batman-y" - in teh team but not part of it and the X-Men worked well as buddies as they knew their stuff and complimented each other.

Also in our regular game we've had times when one character has fallen out with another and run multiple Affiliations depending on the heroes perspective:

Three heroes in the scene - Aegis, Rock Breaker and Scott. Aegis is working with both her colleagues but Rock Breaker and Scott have had a bit falling out.

Aegis (the peacemaker) gets her Team Affiliation but Rock Breaker & Scott are both (seperately) Buddied with Aegis, get their Buddy Affiliation and can't benefit from each others Assets etc.

[icemanpure]

In a team vs. team scenario, it takes a little more finesse. I'd probably allow Sabretooth and Wolverine to go solo as long as no one else tried to interfere, but once someone else got involved (either attacking Sabretooth or aiding/assisting Wolverine), we now have a Buddy situation. Of course, if the opponent is unwilling to split from his team, forcing the affiliation dice with an action is a brilliant idea.

But with this it isn't just ALWAYS about "helping" Wolverine. It could just be that the other bad guys were out of reach and they turn and see Sabertooths backside wide open for a shot. It's not necessarily about helping Wolverine but about stopping all the threats.

Any damage someone takes is a disadvantage on their part no matter where it comes from. They could fall 100 feet and have a broken leg at D8 stress, this doesn't mean that Gravity is now Wolverine's ally and he has to use a Buddy die to ally with Gravity, or that Gravity was trying to aid Wolverine. Same for if someone inflicted damage on that same bad guy like Midnight brought up. That doesn't mean he's giving anyone aid at all, his goal is to take down the bag guy.

However, if their intention is to save Wolverine then I would agree that they would become a Buddy. If Cyclops see's Wolverine pinned down and blasts Sabertooth off him, then comes over and holds a hand to help him get up and pokes a joke about not being able to handle it, then by all means that's 100% a Buddy situation now.

[figurefour]

But with this it isn't just ALWAYS about "helping" Wolverine. It could just be that the other bad guys were out of reach and they turn and see Sabertooths backside wide open for a shot. It's not necessarily about helping Wolverine but about stopping all the threats.

Any damage someone takes is a disadvantage on their part no matter where it comes from. They could fall 100 feet and have a broken leg at D8 stress, this doesn't mean that Gravity is now Wolverine's ally and he has to use a Buddy die to ally with Gravity, or that Gravity was trying to aid Wolverine. Same for if someone inflicted damage on that same bad guy like Midnight brought up. That doesn't mean he's giving anyone aid at all, his goal is to take down the bag guy.

However, if their intention is to save Wolverine then I would agree that they would become a Buddy. If Cyclops see's Wolverine pinned down and blasts Sabertooth off him, then comes over and holds a hand to help him get up and pokes a joke about not being able to handle it, then by all means that's 100% a Buddy situation now.

I don't think their intention matters at all. At least, their intention towards each other doesn't matter. As long as they both are working towards the same goal (beat up Sabertooth) they're working together.

Two heroes fighting the same villain while telling each other how much they hate each other, getting in each others way and generally being dicks to each other(intending to make the other hero look bad) are both rolling their (shitty) Buddy die, not their (awesome) Solo die.