Well, THAT sucked.

...I clearly spoke too soon. Dumpster Power!

You never know when a roll might go your way. Even if the Watcher can spend doom dice to up their total, sometimes it's better to take a hit so as to conserve them for a future action. Overexpending the doom pool can have rippling consequences when the Watcher's roll comes up short and they find the doom pool empty. (Or when they hang onto their spent d12's a little too strongly and find their heroes now all have a ton of XP to power up before the next fight scene... Yikes!)

But yes, it helps to have Dumpster Power. ;)

(Seriously, I think Demogoblin's official weakness is dumpsters now.)
This message was last updated by the GM at 18:31, Wed 06 May 2020.

@Moon Knight Just looked at Demogoblin's roll again and realized you'd have won either way. Under our current rules, the most dice anyone can put towards a total is 3. The best I could have gotten with my 3 dice was a 12, and heroes win ties. Dumpster Power indeed!

<<3 XP - when you abandon an... innocent bystander who needs your help in order to pursue a member of Carnage's Family.>>

Wow. That is really not a heroic action.

I'm no a hero. I'm a bat-crap crazy agent of vengeance.

Please, how do we go about making a 'recovery roll' during a Transition Scene?
I know Domino's Physical Stress drops one level by default ... but am I right to think that I can also make some kind of roll in the attempt improve her health further?


Also:
Please, when in this game do we mark the 'start of each session'?
And what defines a 'new Act', please?

I see the potential for Domino to begin these 'sessions' with additional PP in her pocket as an extension of her 'Luck Manipulation'.

And, please, how many XP are we permitted to use in this way?
Can we spend 4 XP to increase our pool, and 'session start' PP to 5 in one hit?
This message was last edited by the player at 08:44, Sat 09 May 2020.

@Domino You're correct on both counts. Stress steps back by one at the start of a Transition Scene, so your d12 Physical Stress is now d10. You may perform a recovery roll by gathering a dice pool including:

- One affiliation die (Solo/Buddy/Team)
- One distinction die
- One Stamina die, if any
- One specialty, if appropriate (Usually Medical for Physical Stress or Psych for Mental/Emotional)

You'll roll against the current doom pool (still to be determined) plus your existing stress die and any relevant complications. If your effect die is equal to or greater than the stress die, the stress goes away. If the effect die is smaller, the stress steps back by one.

It's worth noting that you can also spend Plot Points to add additional power traits to a recovery roll, if applicable, or keep an additional effect die to try and recover additional stress at its new rating. For example, let's say you roll to recover d10 Physical Stress and beat the doom pool's total. You have a d8 as your effect die, and you spend 1 PP to keep another d8 as an additional effect die. The first d8 effect die steps your d10 Physical Stress back to d8, and the additional d8 effect die removes it completely.

Finally, you can only attempt to recover each type of stress once in a Transition Scene. If you fail the roll, you either have to wait until the next Transition Scene or try to recover your stress during an Action Scene (Usually more difficult, unless you have recovery SFX like Wolverine, Hulk, Deadpool, etc.).

As for your question regarding the timing of sessions and acts... I completely overlooked that! Measuring out "sessions" doesn't really make much sense in the context of online RPG's, but I'll give it some thought and make a ruling on it soon.

@Domino Going forward, I'm going to play around with using "sessions" and "acts" to divide up the action. If we think of a session as being a set number of turn orders, I think it can work and we can keep the starting PP rules from the game book. That way you can spend some XP on that and have it actually go towards something useful.

On that note, I have added some content to the Unlockables thread and updated the Milestone/XP tracker with a fresh tally of everyone's XP. Act I of "Maximum Carnage" has closed out with these numbers:

Daredevil - 7 XP
Domino - 11 XP
Moon Knight - 5 XP
Spider-Man - 16 XP (Holy cow...)
Tigra - 7 XP

As we head into Act II, I will no longer award XP in place of PP's when a player is at the 5 PP cap and I'm keeping a spent doom die in the doom pool. This is in response to player feedback and to keep XP from getting out of hand.

I have also updated the Status Tracker to account for assets and resources that expired at the end of the last Action Scene. If anyone thinks any of their data is off, just let me know and I will take a look.

I look forward to seeing where "Maximum Carnage" takes everyone next!
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:35, Sun 10 May 2020.

Please remind me: we start each ACTION scene with the base PP?  or do we carry into it whatever is left over from the last Action/Transition scene?

@Domino You carry whatever PP's you had from the previous scene into the current scene, whether it's an Action Scene or Transition Scene. However, as PP's reset between Acts and we have just started Act II, any hero who wants to hold onto their PP's from Act I would now need to spend some XP to do so. Otherwise, they'll begin the current scene with the standard amount of 1 PP.

To answer your earlier question from Msg #57, a hero who spent 4 XP would both expand their maximum starting PP amount to 5, and they would start the next Act with those 5 PP's already in their possession. The trade-off is that, per the game book, this expanded starting amount resets between Acts. For example, you'd have to spend another 4 XP to start Act III with the same advantage.

So to confirm.
We just started Act II: so we start with the standard 1 PP.  Except that I have spent 1XP, so start with 2PP.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:12, Sun 10 May 2020.

@Domino Correct. And I've taken note of your new SFX as well-- a very fitting choice for Domino.

Awesome, thank you.  M
And yes, when I saw it, I thought it represented ‘a lucky break’.

I made a small change to the event milestones for Maximum Carnage. Instead of using two different sets, I combined them to offer a hero/vigilante choice for each milestone hit. Doing it this way allows a player to change their direction in response to the story if they would like. See below:

HERO OR VIGILANTE?
1 XP when you call out an ally, either for crossing the line or for not having the stomach to do what must be done.

3 XP when you abandon a bystander to pursue a member of Carnage’s Family, or let a member of Carnage’s Family go so that you can help a bystander.

10 XP when you kill (or convince an ally to kill) a member of Carnage’s Family, or refuse to let you or your allies be a part of it.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 06:06, Wed 13 May 2020.

I like the Milestones combined, much like they are usually presented in the official builds, when a hero has choices that are often a choice between two opposite things. (As well as giving an option between both, and going back and forth as situations and moralities play out.) But I'm still uneasy about being rewarded for abandoning a bystander.

@Daredevil In hindsight, I probably would have made it say "ally" instead of "bystander" to make it fit better with the 1 and 10 XP milestones. It seems like players who have already hit that milestone interpreted it that way anyhow, which is fine.

Edit: I changed the wording on HERO OR VIGILANTE? to focus on allies, as it seems to make more sense.

Also, just a reminder to everyone that if you skipped your 1 XP milestone, you can still go back and hit it even if you already hit your 3 XP milestone.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:39, Fri 15 May 2020.

Sorry folks, family emergency has taken me ‘away from keyboard’ for the last several days.
I intend to try posting something sooner rather than later.

@Domino No problem, hope everything is OK on your end.

@Domino and Moon Knight That was a great exchange you two just had in the game. Domino, I've taken note of your use of the milestones on the last few turns. Moon Knight, I'll try and set up some opportunities for you to hit yours in the coming scene.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:36, Tue 19 May 2020.

Normally in a Transition Scene, the turn order is relaxed and posts focus more on dialogue and setting up the next scene (Domino and Moon Knight's last few posts, for example). Of course, that can get a bit confusing when different players are in different types of scenes. Usually I try to have the separate Action/Transition scenes line up, but that may not always happen. I'm going to start putting it in the Status Tracker to make it easier on us.

As a refresher, you can roll to recover your own or another's stress during a Transition Scene. You can also spend 1 PP to create a resource for the next scene, as some players have done. Domino and Moon Knight have started their next Action Scene, and after DD/Spidey and Tigra have a chance to do anything else they want to do, they'll start theirs as well.

I'm confused. Are dice pool actions part of Transition Scenes or not? If so, how are dice pool actions different in them? When are PPs and the Doom Pool going to reset?

@Daredevil I understand the confusion. I think it came about from me having you guys still doing active things (tracking Spidey/Carnage, etc.) in the Transition Scene (following Msg #110), when it probably should have been more rest/recovery/dialogue type actions.

The only rolls in a Transition Scene should be to recover your own or another's stress. I had allowed some Assets to be created earlier on, but I realize now I should have been having players create those as Resources instead (spending PP's vs. rolling dice).

PP's and the doom pool have already reset since we're in a new Act. When we get to Act III, they'll reset again. If anyone still wants to spend XP to up their starting PP amount in Act II, let me know.

Hope that helps.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:44, Thu 21 May 2020.

A quick note: from now on milestones will only be tracked in the Milestone/XP thread. They'll no longer appear crossed out on player's character sheets.

I'd also like to offer players the chance to use 2 sets of personal milestones in Act II, while simultaneously being able to use the event milestones. I know some players wanted to use 3 sets, and after giving it some thought, it makes more sense that the event milestones should be something extra on top of the 2 each hero already has.

Also, please welcome Ghost Rider to the game!
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:14, Tue 02 June 2020.

Hello Ghost Rider.

Gee, there seems to be a lot of 'Holy Retribution' characters around at the moment.   Isn't that Moon Knight's gig also?  and Demogoblin?

This promises to be an interesting time for someone like Domino, then.