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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 9733078" data-attributes="member: 3400">I think there are problems with that sort of quid pro quo approach - engage self-loathing or the Yancy Street Gang relationship to enable Clobbering Time. Clobbering Time is one of the main things Ben does - but he does it whether he got himself (and therefore the FF) in trouble, or Reed did by engaging in Weird Science and opening a dimensional rift exploited by monsters, or Johnny did by trying to run off to join his girlfriend, or Sue by... being crushed on by Namor or having a weird pregnancy (oh, the FF has been a strange comic in its day). Basing powers on a payoff for jumping through those hoops may be an incentive but it's kind of a resentful one.I think of these sorts of things more as ways to generate scenarios or exploit a PC's backstory or motivations without them being requirements to fuel their best abilities. I much prefer Mutants and Masterminds's approach - these are complications that, when invoked in a scenario, generate hero points that will come in useful when coming into conflict with the big bad of the scenario (be it villain or phenomenon) that outclasses any individuals in the group normally. Johnny has a psychological need to be in a relationship - so generate a scenario based on that be it Johnny encountering something while running off to Attilan to join Crystal, or Johnny finds out that Frankie has flame powers. And give him a metacurrency bennie in return.So maybe a superhero RPG needs mainly to require PCs to be developed with exploitable elements for the GM to aggressively use.Plus, it turns out a metacurrency sort of complication works within scenarios as well. Endanger innocents to keep the PCs busy and enable the big bad's escape? Here's your metacurrency (hero points) for doing the right thing heroically. Spend them wisely.</blockquote>

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