Doom Pool: D12 ever ?

[Cam]

Regarding extra dice from categories, generally the Watcher has the ability to just spend doom dice right from the pool. 90% of the time you should do that rather than spend doom dice to add them in. Look at the cost of keeping extra effect dice or including more dice rolled into your total. Each of those requires you to spend a doom die of equal or larger size than the die you want. Granted, this is because these are after the dice are rolled, and not before.

Cheers,
Cam

[EldritchFire]

…
- is it possible for a Watcher NPC to use extra Traits from a Trait group (like the PCs who pay 1 PP to add another power from a Power Set, for example) ? Can I use any dice (mostly D6) to do the same ?

thx !

As Watcher, you can add a doom die directly to your pools, and give that player a PP to keep the die in the doom pool. So I really don't see a need to spend a DD to add another trait when you can just add the die directly.

Specifically, OM16-17 spells out what you can spend doom dice on, and adding a second trait isn't on the list.

-EF

[Udo Femi]

yep, makes sense.
No bookkeeping, no "I pay a d6 from DP to add a second d10 from that Power List"
just pick and roll.
thx !

[GabrielK]

Just as a random mention, I have not yet been able to achieve a d12 in the doom pool. But then I only have 1 real (as in, a non "let's learn the system") session. And honestly I wasn't actually trying to hit that d12. Still, everybody did get a bit nervous when the DP hit 3d8+4D10.

[Supplanter]

Just as a random mention, I have not yet been able to achieve a d12 in the doom pool. But then I only have 1 real (as in, a non "let's learn the system") session. And honestly I wasn't actually trying to hit that d12. Still, everybody did get a bit nervous when the DP hit 3d8+4D10.

Did they take many voluntary actions vs. the Doom Pool once it hi that size?


Jim

[salsa]

One thing REALLY important to note, and I say this because I oversaw it before (the first time I played it). However, tonight it was different, very different.

You can keep the doom die you've just added to a pool if you grant that player a PP. That way you can make things hard and reward at the same time. The players get a fair amount of PPs and I managed to the doom pool up to as much as 2d8 and 1d10 in a few rounds.

Of course, this is something you should do sparingly, save it for when you have a player on a 1v1. You're feeding him enough PP to keep the fight interesting and fast paced. At the same time your rolls are hitting so hard that the tension grows exponentially. By the end of it, two things might happen, you have accumulated enough doom dice for a big battle at the end of the act or you can spend those 2d12 to skip to the next scene. Either way everyone wins.


Sidenote: an increase in the number of dice also increases the number of opportunities that may come up, this helps the players generating resources and beefier stunts.

[Supplanter]

One thing REALLY important to note, and I say this because I oversaw it before (the first time I played it). However, tonight it was different, very different.

You can keep the doom die you've just added to a pool if you grant that player a PP.

The consensus opinion of my regular group is that this is the worst rule in the book - possibly the one genuinely bad one - and we've dropped it. Because its real practical effect is, the player-heroes only win whenever the Watcher decides to let them win. (That is, the Watcher finally decides to stop buying herself permanent Doom Dice.)


Jim

[Supplanter]

One thing REALLY important to note, and I say this because I oversaw it before (the first time I played it). However, tonight it was different, very different.

You can keep the doom die you've just added to a pool if you grant that player a PP.

The consensus opinion of my regular group is that this is the worst rule in the book - possibly the one genuinely bad one - and we've dropped it. Because its real practical effect is, the player-heroes only win whenever the Watcher decides to let them win. (That is, the Watcher finally decides to stop buying herself permanent Doom Dice.)

[ETA: This actually harkens back to the pre-DP early playtest edition of the game. "I feel like I only win when the Watcher decides to stop paying out her infinite supply of Plot Points" was a key problem the Doom Pool helped to fix. Keep any DD you want by giving the player a PP goes a long way toward undoing that fix.]


Jim

[Udo Femi]

This is exactly the trouble we experienced with Smallville RPG.
Features (= major NPCs) have unlimited acess to PP to fuel their rolls, provided that they give these PP to the contesting player.

It has 2 effects:

-1- You (the player) wins if and when the GM has decided this was the end of the conflict

-2- the player involved in the conflict has now a pile of PP in front of him. Maybe it is not a balance issue in MHRPG but in Smallville where there are often PC vs PC conflicts, it is.

[Nestor]

For myself, the 2d12 scene-ending rule is there for when a fight's dragging on, and I want to end it and move to something more interesting for the table, or drop a dramatic comic-book style scene cutaway (and probably have the bad guy escape). I have better things to do than hose players. If you can manage without it, that's terrific.

I guess that's the part of this rule that confuses me. As a GM that concentrates on the storytelling side of things, if a scene is dragging too long, I don't feel I should be constrained by what dice I have in deciding whether to cut it short or not. I just do it, selecting an outcome based on the current circumstances, with some player feedback.

Having to suddenly start working to build a 2d12 DP just so I can finally wrap things up would seem to me to just drag the whole sorry mess out some more.