Not rolling reactions for numerous villains

[Rick Danger]

When four or five villains are attacked by an area SFX, does the Watcher really have to react with each one separately? I've been thinking of just adding up support dice and just rolling for one of them, but I don't feel that works.

[EldritchFire]

When four or five villains are attacked by an area SFX, does the Watcher really have to react with each one separately? I've been thinking of just adding up support dice and just rolling for one of them, but I don't feel that works.

Rules state that each rolls reaction separately. Otherwise, you won't get that "hey, extraordinary success against him! Oh man, she totally dodged!" etc. One thing you can do is have some of your other players can help you roll. Since all datafiles are common knowledge, there's nothing preventing you from distributing the workload.

-EF

[figurefour]

When four or five villains are attacked by an area SFX, does the Watcher really have to react with each one separately? I've been thinking of just adding up support dice and just rolling for one of them, but I don't feel that works.

When do you have 4 or 5 villains in a scene? There's a good chance that some of those should be a mob.

[N01H3r3]

When do you have 4 or 5 villains in a scene? There's a good chance that some of those should be a mob.

I can imagine plenty of occasions when you might have half a dozen distinct villains in a scene - if you're using the Wrecking Crew or the U-Foes, or recreating a villain team like the Sinister Six or the Lethal Legion, then multiple distinct villains in a scene is an entirely reasonable assumption.

[Grimmshade]

If there are individual Specialty Characters, I make one roll for all of them. Any other situation though, you pretty much have to roll for each villain to make it fair.

Area Attacks are sort of dangerous on named villains though, as any one of them (or all of them!) could counterattack the hero. If its happening all the time and slowing your game, consider this option.

[Reinhardt75]

From a comics standpoint, that helps it make sense.

You don't often have a hero take out a gang of super villains with an area attack...a gang of mooks sure, but a gang of super villians, typically not.

If you area attack a mob, you only have to worry about possible repercussions from one reaction pool against you.

With a bunch of named bad guys, that is courting the chance that some of them are going to be able to levy some stress without your ability to stand up to it.

[figurefour]

Also, area attacks should make narrative sense.

You probably can't just selectively hit all the villains in a scene unless they're standing nearby each other without anyone you don't want to hit in the area.

Mobs tend to be the large groups of people who are hanging out in close proximity to be area attacked. Villains are probably a bit more dynamic.