Post by takewithfood on Jun 22, 2012 14:34:49 GMT -5
That's a completely invalid argument, WK, for a number of reasons.
1. Players cannot force the Watcher to do anything with the DP: they cannot force it to burn off, as you suggested earlier, nor can they force it to grow, for that matter. If the Watcher has allowed the DP to dwindle to a stupidly easy size, then that's entirely his or her fault.
2. Knowing the size of the DP is a pretty minimal advantage. If you go up against a typical Watcher character you can often guess what sort of dice pool you'll be up against. A major character will have an Affiliation, a Distinction, one or two Power Sets, and they'll toss in a Specialty in most cases. At the very least you'll be looking at an Affiliation, a d4 Distinction, one power set, and maybe they won't have a relevant specialty: 3 dice including a d4. At most you're likely to see an Affiliation, a d8 Distinction, two power sets, and a relevant specialty: 5 dice. Minor and Specialty characters are even more predictable. More dice can come in from the DP, but when rolling against the DP the Watcher can choose extra effect dice and stuff like that, too, so it isn't a tremendous difference.
3. And besides, you're likely to wind up rolling against the DP in Action sequences even if they involve typical combat, especially if there are side objectives or ways to win the scene other than to knock the lights out of the designated bad guys. In the first scene of DK's game we had a side objective that required rolls against the DP; we could have largely avoided the sentinel if we wanted to, and most of us wound up doing exactly that. If knowing the size of the DP causes problems, they're often still present in Action scenes anyway.
4. There is almost no way of knowing whether a scene will or will not involve Watcher characters. I already mentioned the possibility of nosy neighbours or the police showing up as examples of ways in which breaking into your friend's house could involve Watcher characters. There could be a guard dog in the back yard or maybe there's an armed intruder already in the house? How does the player know?
5. Equally possible: there's an armed intruder in the house and you expect the players to fight him, but due to clever thinking the players manage to find the evidence they need without ever having to roll against a Watcher character. Does the scene retroactively become a Transition scene? What an utterly useless distinction to make.
I still see no problem here. That's the end of the discussion for me, I think. I'm interested to hear what people who AREN'T WK think about this - namely F-Bomb, the OP.
~TWF
1. Players cannot force the Watcher to do anything with the DP: they cannot force it to burn off, as you suggested earlier, nor can they force it to grow, for that matter. If the Watcher has allowed the DP to dwindle to a stupidly easy size, then that's entirely his or her fault.
2. Knowing the size of the DP is a pretty minimal advantage. If you go up against a typical Watcher character you can often guess what sort of dice pool you'll be up against. A major character will have an Affiliation, a Distinction, one or two Power Sets, and they'll toss in a Specialty in most cases. At the very least you'll be looking at an Affiliation, a d4 Distinction, one power set, and maybe they won't have a relevant specialty: 3 dice including a d4. At most you're likely to see an Affiliation, a d8 Distinction, two power sets, and a relevant specialty: 5 dice. Minor and Specialty characters are even more predictable. More dice can come in from the DP, but when rolling against the DP the Watcher can choose extra effect dice and stuff like that, too, so it isn't a tremendous difference.
3. And besides, you're likely to wind up rolling against the DP in Action sequences even if they involve typical combat, especially if there are side objectives or ways to win the scene other than to knock the lights out of the designated bad guys. In the first scene of DK's game we had a side objective that required rolls against the DP; we could have largely avoided the sentinel if we wanted to, and most of us wound up doing exactly that. If knowing the size of the DP causes problems, they're often still present in Action scenes anyway.
4. There is almost no way of knowing whether a scene will or will not involve Watcher characters. I already mentioned the possibility of nosy neighbours or the police showing up as examples of ways in which breaking into your friend's house could involve Watcher characters. There could be a guard dog in the back yard or maybe there's an armed intruder already in the house? How does the player know?
5. Equally possible: there's an armed intruder in the house and you expect the players to fight him, but due to clever thinking the players manage to find the evidence they need without ever having to roll against a Watcher character. Does the scene retroactively become a Transition scene? What an utterly useless distinction to make.
I still see no problem here. That's the end of the discussion for me, I think. I'm interested to hear what people who AREN'T WK think about this - namely F-Bomb, the OP.
~TWF