So, one other question, I guess. Hopefully I can get some help on this one. How do you guys handle the Villains needing 12 Conditions to take down? Like.. how do your heroes end up delivering 12 different things? Do you just track individual trauma points, or is there a more elegant way to handle it when you’re dealing with huge Condition Thresholds?
So, one other question, I guess.
So, one other question, I guess.
I know Jason Martinez has run the game, not sure if he has any tips for that. In my case, I just keep a notepad beside me and write them down as they’re imposed, cross them out as they’re recovered from. I make the players come up with the name for the Condition though, as per what they do to inflict it on the villain. I could see using beads or something being a pretty handy way to go about it too, though!
I didn’t mean so much tracking them as.. it just seems like a lot of different things to be inflicting on a villain. Seems like it might get almost silly on your way to 12 unique conditions. At lower counts, it fits the action really well, cause there’s lots of thematic stuff to do. But when you get to 12, it seems like you’ve got to start coming up with some ridiculously specific things to do to the villain in order to further push them toward their Condition Threshold.
Oh, my players usually want to come up with specific stuff so that they can they take advantage of those Conditions in the fiction. Like, if he’s blinded, then they’ll be able to sneak around him to hit from behind or unaware, if his legs are weak then he won’t be able to run fast, or if they cover him in paint he’ll be visible if he wasn’t before. As you say though, if they end up just beating him into submission then some Conditions might lose they significance. If it gets to the point where they’re kind of doing the same thing, you’ll probably hear it in the way they address the fiction and you, the EIC.
If they don’t give out specific Conditions, and just say something like “Beat Up” or “Bruised and Bloody” and they basically just keep doing stuff like that I’ll just put x2, x3 as it adds up on that Condition, I won’t force them to come up with specific Conditions – they benefit the players then they do the EIC. I do take it as a sign that the villain is a bit boring, though. If a villain has a 12 Condition Threshold, I try to make it so they’ve got all kinds of stuff that need dealing with – Advantages and gadgets, varying powers that need taking out (neutralize super speed in some way, neutralize his ability to get invisible in some way, and so on), which all require dealing out Conditions, and they don’t have to all be physical, either (making them angry, confused, question their motives, and so on). I’ll count external stuff going on towards their Condition Threshold too – taking away an Advantage might inflict a Condition, or go to reducing their threshold (having their minions taken out might shake them, not having their ray gun means they’re looking for a way to escape at this point, etc), players using the environment is usually a big one too (if buildings are collapsing on him, or they set him on fire, he’s encased in cement, etc.)
TL;DR – The higher the Condition Threshold, the more complicated and diverse the villain should be in terms of abilities and the environment that the players take them on in. I try to read the players and the situation to see if they’re bored or not, and if it’s just a matter of them wanting to be semi-monotonous in the way they take them down, then I roll with it and just add up the number I write beside the same Condition.
Not much to add on dealing with large numbers of Conditions. 12 is quite a lot. Even 6 felt like a long battle (perhaps my players need to work together better or run away less). Variety didn’t feel like a super problem assuming your PCs inflict more variety than punches and kicks. Example conditions in our final battle included: sliced up, face rotted off, cratered, doubled weight in lead (inflicted by TK character who fired 30 guns into him at once), pummeled, impaled on rebar, and crushed by truck.
As far as tracking I have a whiteboard that I used to use for Fate and just jot down everything there. With PCs I toss post it notes with their condition.