Activating hero limits

[siebharinn]

Johnny Awesome wrote

I haven't done it much, but Iron Man tried to ram Electro in the first Breakout session I ran and I activated Iron Man's limit and shutdown his Flight, plunging him into the East River briefly.

How did the player take that? My fear is the people getting worked up about arbitrary fiat. As a Watcher, I understand that it makes story sense, but the players don't always see it that way.

[figurefour]

Johnny Awesome wrote

I haven't done it much, but Iron Man tried to ram Electro in the first Breakout session I ran and I activated Iron Man's limit and shutdown his Flight, plunging him into the East River briefly.

How did the player take that? My fear is the people getting worked up about arbitrary fiat. As a Watcher, I understand that it makes story sense, but the players don't always see it that way.

Hey! I did the same thing, only I was the one playing Iron Man. Electro was giving me a beating and I really just wanted a way to duck out of the fight without having to run away in character.

Still, it was funny as hell and I got a Plot Point for it!

[KnightErrantJR]

I think because it's a "known thing" that limits can be activated and that the Watcher pays to do so, and there is a player side mechanic for reactivating the limited ability, there is less of a feel of it being arbitrary. It's just one thing that a Watcher can do, that is spelled out.

I could be wrong, but I think having things spelled out the way they are works better than, say, "break the rules in a way that you want to advance the story and pay the players a hero point" in Mutants and Masterminds. I had some player push back over the open endedness of that mechanic.

[Johnny Awesome]

The player was fine with it. I think part of the reason he was fine with it is because he had just failed his action roll and I had just used a doom die to inflict D8 physical stress on him.

It all just fit together well.