What Do I Do With All These SHIELD Agents?

[Grimmshade]

If a player rolls an opportunity or uses any Distinction belonging to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at a d4, they get a Plot Point!

Cheers,
Cam

So a player can share PP among characters they control, and get a PP for any PP earning thing any of those characters do?
I like it!

[vitruvian]

If a player rolls an opportunity or uses any Distinction belonging to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at a d4, they get a Plot Point!

Cheers,
Cam

So a player can share PP among characters they control, and get a PP for any PP earning thing any of those characters do?
I like it!

Me, too - that was my option #3, and frankly my favorite of the bunch since it seemed least likely to give odd, counter-intuitive results in play.

[vitruvian]

If a player rolls an opportunity or uses any Distinction belonging to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at a d4, they get a Plot Point!

Cheers,
Cam

So a player can share PP among characters they control, and get a PP for any PP earning thing any of those characters do?
I like it!

Me, too - that was my option #3, and frankly my favorite of the bunch since it seemed least likely to give odd, counter-intuitive results in play.

Revisiting this - suppose the Watcher character(s) allied with the PCs are not Specialty characters, but full fledged superheroes with SFX and Limits in their power sets. So, besides Distinctions rolled at D4 providing PP, what happens with those SFX and Limits?

1) Do they consume and provide Doom Pool, as specified in the datafiles for Watcher characters?

2) Do they switch to consuming and providing PP instead, since the players are rolling for them?

3) Or do Watcher characters not working against the PCs not use SFX or Limits even if they're on their datafiles?

[Cam]

Usually it's #1. If you want to go with the spirit of the earlier post, go with #2. It honestly balances out pretty well.

Cheers,
Cam

[vitruvian]

Usually it's #1. If you want to go with the spirit of the earlier post, go with #2. It honestly balances out pretty well.

Cheers,
Cam

Wouldn't #1 result in really rapid depletion of the Doom Pool if you have two or three Watcher characters fighting on the side of the PCs and using their SFX every round?

[Cam]

Depends on whether those SFX cost doom dice!

But yes, that's always an issue. A great deal of the time it's absolutely no fun having the Watcher play a whole ton of heroes fighting his own bad guys while the players sit around and wait for it to be resolved. I am much more inclined to let the Watcher characters serve as either scenery, occasional support actions (to add assets), or be temporarily turned over to players and have them use Plot Points.

Cheers,
Cam

[vitruvian]

Depends on whether those SFX cost doom dice!

But yes, that's always an issue. A great deal of the time it's absolutely no fun having the Watcher play a whole ton of heroes fighting his own bad guys while the players sit around and wait for it to be resolved. I am much more inclined to let the Watcher characters serve as either scenery, occasional support actions (to add assets), or be temporarily turned over to players and have them use Plot Points.

Cheers,
Cam

Just to clarify,

IF you were turning Watcher superheroes over to the players (to avoid one Watcher character rolling against another and the Watcher having to roll against him or herself while players watch),

THEN you would have the Watcher characters the players were running use Plot Points rather than Doom Pool dice.

Correct?

[Morik]

Doing this, would you start all the watcher heroes with one Plot Point or would you do something different like having the player pool his plot points between the characters he is playing (though I think I would still add one to the pool).

[Cam]

I would have the players use their own pool of PP. I guess I might hand over a PP to the player as a reward for doing me a solid and playing this guy for me.

Cheers,
Cam

[TrentFarrell]

I usually treat Watcher characters on the PCs' side as having their own PP. Start them with one just like a character, have them gain and spend them like a character. It doesn't make sense for their allies' powers to deplete the Doom Pool. At the same time, these allies' 1s are opportunities for me.

That said, I typically try to keep Watcher characters separate from the group once combat starts, tackled off into a different location to deal with an enemy there while I let the scene revolve around the players.