I very much like the idea of the GM having a list of plot elements that need to happen to get to phase two. I'm not sure about trading off points for the GM against them, though.
I think the most elegant way of penalising players in phase two is by draining their trait pool- draining Machine abilities before they start doesn't make much sense and other forms of penalty would require more crunchy rules.
At the moment I'm leaning towards ditching twists (together with the rules for replenishing named foes' Machines and mook reinforcements) and instead having a list of 'plot events' that the GM endeavours to work through.
Injury for characters will be modelled through missed scenes, which they can buy off with trait pool (essentially, burning karma in order to avoid injury). If phase two begins with a player 'owing' a scene, the GM spends trait for him (heh heh heh).
Another idea I'm toying with is using the plot events are a form of clock- each time there's an scene that doesn't encompass a plot event the GM notes it down. When a certain number is reached, the GM has permission to start trying to injure the characters. If this number reaches a second threshold, then phase two begins anyway, whether or not the characters are prepared. This might give a nice trade-off as farming for pool risks causing injury- although in this case the pool loss for injury might have to be more than 1.
I'm actually running it on Wednesday (albeit with the currently written rules) and I'll see how that goes before I make the current batch of revisions.
I very much like the idea of
I very much like the idea of the GM having a list of plot elements that need to happen to get to phase two. I'm not sure about trading off points for the GM against them, though.
I think the most elegant way of penalising players in phase two is by draining their trait pool- draining Machine abilities before they start doesn't make much sense and other forms of penalty would require more crunchy rules.
At the moment I'm leaning towards ditching twists (together with the rules for replenishing named foes' Machines and mook reinforcements) and instead having a list of 'plot events' that the GM endeavours to work through.
Injury for characters will be modelled through missed scenes, which they can buy off with trait pool (essentially, burning karma in order to avoid injury). If phase two begins with a player 'owing' a scene, the GM spends trait for him (heh heh heh).
Another idea I'm toying with is using the plot events are a form of clock- each time there's an scene that doesn't encompass a plot event the GM notes it down. When a certain number is reached, the GM has permission to start trying to injure the characters. If this number reaches a second threshold, then phase two begins anyway, whether or not the characters are prepared. This might give a nice trade-off as farming for pool risks causing injury- although in this case the pool loss for injury might have to be more than 1.
I'm actually running it on Wednesday (albeit with the currently written rules) and I'll see how that goes before I make the current batch of revisions.