Alric wrote:Sprinkle a few, say 5, in a scene. They will get actions just like any other character. What will their actions be? Run about panicking and/or screaming for help... or to put it another way, Grandstanding. Effectively each round each endangered civilian (EC) will add a d6 to the doom pool. Going with 5 ECs that means each turn 5d6 would go into the doom pool! If your players are anything like mine they will pee themselves in terror the first time that happens and after that they will devote a great deal of attention and effort to save the ECs. In subsequent scenes ECs will instantly become a top priority.
Grandstanding is really quite useful for characters like this, as it can cover a huge array of actual activities.
The second session I ran, I had squads of mercenaries closing in on the heroes, and had ruled that spending a d8 out of Doom meant another squad arrived. So, I used the Grandstanding rules to simulate the mercs calling for backup, adding dice to Doom which then were spent on bringing in extra squads.
Similarly, it's quite easy to turn abstract situations into characters like that:
Burning Building
Solo 5d8
Distinctions
Trapped Residents
Collapsing
Thick Smoke and Stifling Heat
Power Traits
Superhuman Durability d10, Fire Influence d6
*SFX: Location - the Burning Building's distinctions are treated as Scene Distinctions for all purposes.
*SFX: Increasingly Unstable - Spend a die from Doom to step back Superhuman Durability by -1 and Step Up Fire Influence by +1. Should Superhuman Durability be Stepped Back below d4, the building begins to collapse.
*SFX: Calamity - On a successful reaction against any action taken by a character within the building, use your effect die to inflict physical stress or an appropriate complication upon that character. Spend a die from Doom to step this effect die up by +1.
*SFX: Already Ablaze - On a successful reaction against any fire- or high-energy attack, step up Fire Influence by +1 for the remainder of the scene. Spend a die from Doom to do this if the reaction was failed.
*Limit: Inanimate - the only action Burning Building may take is to Grandstand, until it has begun to collapse, at which point it may make physical attacks against any characters within it, adding d6 to the dice pool and keeping an additional effect die for each target after the first.