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<blockquote data-quote="The Shadow" data-source="post: 6007078" data-attributes="member: 16760">I guess I'm not seeing what's so horrible about 'dissociated' mechanics in the first place?&nbsp; I mean, Mutants &amp; Masterminds is one of my favorite games ever, and one of its prominent mechanics is Hero Points, which are explicitly a player ability rather than a character one.&nbsp; The player spends a Hero Point, and the character does something cinematic.&nbsp; You can fluff it as drawing on inner reserves or whatever, but its not necessary.And it works just fine.&nbsp; Better than fine, in fact, it works great!My problem is not with dissociated mechanics, but with *bad* mechanics, no matter how associated or not they may be.'Fearless' causes me no problems at all.&nbsp; Read the chapters about Sam in Mordor, and you'll see exactly what this mechanic represents.As for the Disciplined ability of hobgoblins, clearly it represents teamwork, training to work together - one guy attacks to take the guy off guard, the other guy exploits the opening.Steadfast is not quite as good.&nbsp; I can see what they're going for - hobgoblins won't break as long as there's some unit cohesion (or if there are any witnesses to their cowardice, which they'll be punished for later).&nbsp; But as a GM, I would feel the need to make the occasional exception.&nbsp; (Cthulhu would be a good one, as mentioned above.)Savage is definitely not as good as the others.&nbsp; It's hard to make sense of.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Shadow, post: 6007078, member: 16760"] I guess I'm not seeing what's so horrible about 'dissociated' mechanics in the first place? I mean, Mutants & Masterminds is one of my favorite games ever, and one of its prominent mechanics is Hero Points, which are explicitly a player ability rather than a character one. The player spends a Hero Point, and the character does something cinematic. You can fluff it as drawing on inner reserves or whatever, but its not necessary. And it works just fine. Better than fine, in fact, it works great! My problem is not with dissociated mechanics, but with *bad* mechanics, no matter how associated or not they may be. 'Fearless' causes me no problems at all. Read the chapters about Sam in Mordor, and you'll see exactly what this mechanic represents. As for the Disciplined ability of hobgoblins, clearly it represents teamwork, training to work together - one guy attacks to take the guy off guard, the other guy exploits the opening. Steadfast is not quite as good. I can see what they're going for - hobgoblins won't break as long as there's some unit cohesion (or if there are any witnesses to their cowardice, which they'll be punished for later). But as a GM, I would feel the need to make the occasional exception. (Cthulhu would be a good one, as mentioned above.) Savage is definitely not as good as the others. It's hard to make sense of. [/QUOTE]

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