Sure. Like anything else, supers fights that are overly fiddly can get tedious. But there are lots of non-narrative designs to alleviate that aspect of play.
The older i get the less I need.
- Thread starter Reynard
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I don't see this scenario (which is pretty cool btw) having much at all to do with mechanics. These are things happening in the game above and beyond mechanics. There is an agreed upon story happening here, with player buy in to what the GM is laying down, regardless of anything else mechanically.
I feel like a lot of people assume players will only engage in story of their are system incentives or requirements to do so. Not only do I think that is off base, I think that players not interested in story won't engage with it even when there are mechanical incentives or requirements to do so.
payn
Glory to Marik
Speaking generally, sometimes the mechanics get in the way of those story beats. For example, if breaking an enchantment is a 3 step process or requires more actions than a character is allowed in a turn, it prevents it from being possible at all. A GM could waive it for the rule of cool, but some folks do not appreciate this kind of rule fiat (rulings over rules). Narrative games tend to cleave through this and put the story beats in front of the rules so it seems more organic.
My experience is that they do, but only on the most superficial level to get that mechanical benny (or avoid that mechanical penalty). YMMV.
I do think you should generally "paint within the lines" of a system in order to do a thing, but I also think it is okay to employ a bolt on system (borrowed, invented or otherwise) in order to achieve that. These are games, after all.
Where I think player facing narrative tools are useful is if the GM wants to empower the players to do more heavy lifting in the resolution process. That has value, I think.
Thomas Shey
Legend
I used M&M for many years--ran two campaigns with it and played in three others. Unfortunately at one point I concluded many theoretically meaningful decisions in combat were illusory, and after that I just didn't do it for me.
Can you expand on that? What meaningful decisions ended up being illusory?
Thomas Shey
Legend
Well, for starters, almost any use of what 3rd Edition calls Afflictions. Though theoretically useful to set up other things, the ability to make them actually work, and last long enough to be relevant compared to accumulating Toughness save penalties turns out to be minimal (and that's not counting the ones where the lower stage effects--the ones most likely to work at all--are not mostly pointless). This means that a theoretically wide range of non-damage attacks almost might as well not be there.
Similar things apply to some feats (All-Out Attack and Power Attack can be useful sometimes; Defensive Attack and the fourth one that has escaped my brain almost never) and simple tactics.
This meant that what almost always worked best was simply to pound away. That was a disappointing conclusion to come to in a game that theoretically had a wide range of options. Its primarily an artifact of the interactions between the way damage and effect are resolved and the hero point/GM fiat systems.
Golden age Superhero
Explorer
R_J_K75
Legend
Worth tracking down used copies on ebay or noble knight games. Last I checked you could get a decent bundle on ebay for relatively cheap. I checked a few months back. That was the first time I saw the d20 being the primary resolution die and the skill system that was in 3E-5E. Another mechanic was that some die rolls were modified by d4-d12 depending on the situation. Wish I had kept my books, but I sold them at a point when it was pretty apparent, I'd most likely not play it again.
The basic idea with Alternity was that it was primarily skill-based with some class elements. The main task resolution was rolling d20 ("control die") plus often another die ("situation die") based on difficulty, and wanted to hit your skill value or lower. Skill value was equal to your ability score (which was in the 4-14 range for humans) plus skill ranks (up to 12, no more than 3 at game start). If you rolled half your value or less that was a Good success, and a quarter was Amazing (these numbers were listed on your sheet, so if you had skill total 14 it would be written as 14/7/3). The situation die was normally a 0 if you had the appropriate skill or +d4 if you didn't, and scaled up or down as follows: 0, d4, d6, d8, d12, d20 (either positive or negative). This had the somewhat weird effect that things that were more difficult were expressed as a + modifier, and things that made things easier were expressed as a negative.
You had three different damage tracks: stun, wound, and mortal. Depending on the weapon and success level, you'd do damage to different tracks – a club might do d4+1s/d6+1s/d4+1w, meaning it does 1d4+1 stun on an ordinary success, d6+1 stun on a good success, and d4+1 wound on an amazing success. Dealing wound or mortal damage also meant dealing half as much of each lower category (so 4 wounds would also deal 2 stun). Armor reduced damage, though not secondary damage (so if you hit for 4 wounds, and it was reduced 3 points by armor, you'd deal 1 wound and 2 stun). There was also a fourth separate track for Fatigue, but it didn't interact with the others.
Characters were primarily skill-based. You had classes (combat spec, free agent, tech op, diplomat, with an optional mindwalker), but they mainly boiled down to a discount on certain skills and one or two special abilities, plus they determined what level you could get various perks at. Having high skill levels also often came with various special abilities/bonuses. In some cases, you could spend skill points to get early access to these.
The game itself was setting-neutral, but had two main settings. The first was the far-future space opera Star Drive, which had the stuff you'd expect: spaceships, multiple stellar nations, a fair amount of different species to play, invaders from Beyond, and so on. The other was the modern-day Dark Matter, a conspiracy-themed setting strongly influenced by X-Files. There was also a one-off Gamma World book, and I think one of the bigger computer games at the time (either one of the Fallouts or Starcraft) had an adaption included on the installation disc.
I would think Alternity is available at DTRPG, but I can't be hedgehogged to check.
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