How do you (as a GM) handle boss-level conflicts? Whether the conflict is physical or overcome in some other way, do you have any tricks to make it feel more epic and climactic?
A bit more background on my question: I generally use clocks to track overcoming most obstacles in my games. For normal obstacles, this is fine, but personally, I find that my group can quickly overcome even an 8-segment clock. Which makes it difficult when I want to have a climactic scene to overcome a challenge that should feel like a real accomplishment.
For example, in the near future, my crew will be going toe-to-toe with a fire demon that they became aware of. They completed several scores to acquire items and information that would allow them to try to destroy the demon, but now I’m nervous that the final confrontation will lack the feel of a hard-won faceoff.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Don’t make rolls simply to defeat an enemy (or fill a ‘defeat’ clock). Focus on the discrete obstacles and actions, with desperate rolls and nasty consequences.
If you want to use a clock, make it an obstacle between them and the foe. You might have a clock like “Contain the fire demon” (8). Until that’s filled, the PCs can’t directly affect the fire demon — it just flits around like flame, destroying everything it touches at will.
So every action to fill that clock is desperate (4 harm, if you want to be really mean).
You can also force them to resist a horrible consequence before they take actions against the demon.
“As you enter it’s lair, there’s a sudden flash and the place is engulfed in searing flames. Everyone takes level 3 harm.”
Stuff like that. See the swordmaster example in the book for more thoughts on dangerous foes.
Yes I used to struggle with this too. But than started to look closer at cinematic battles (which I tried to play with my players)
The battles are split in many smaller clocks, and as John said, no „Defeat“ Clock. Or not a shallow one.
I gave my players a 24 (3×8) Click for a huge Corpse Golem, while another player (Leech) was fighting the creator in a blade fight (8) Both were „Defeat“ Clocks, and while the Leech has many different approaches fighting the Master (Resist drug powder blown in her face, escaping aimed shots, fight back with blades, prowl around a trap) and so on, the big monster for the other players still was „undefeatable“ till they solved the Arcane Veil Clock (2) to see the magic threads that connected both master & monster (6), so Wisper infused Hounds Rifle with energy to shoot the connections.
As you can see, even direct encounters can have several steps of solutions. Just don’t be too obscure with the keys to a problem.
I can also recommend starting with a suitable level of harm.
My ambitious group of Tier I Shadows infiltrated the Ministry of Preservation during one score. They got 1-3 on the engagement roll, so when I cut to the action it was against the captain of the Ministry’s Mercenaries.
I brought him into the scene with him shooting one of the PCs at random (level 4 harm “Shot through the heart”). Right away you have PC spending stress and armor to stay in the score, and that really set the tone for the rest of that encounter.
Thank you all for your advice, this has been very helpful. I feel fairly comfortable about how I’ve been running the majority of the game so far, but I do feel that my crew has ‘rolled’ their way through some obstacles that I intended to be much tougher without breaking much of a sweat.
Thanks again!
Let us know what happens next with them 🙂
Update: My crew has not yet faced the demon, this conflict is looming for our next session when all of my scoundrels will be present (this past session we were short one player, and we only play bi-weekly).
That said, the crew was hired to track down a spy who stole some formulae from a local alchemist. We had a great time, and I started to use some of the advice here to make the score more challenging, and it worked brilliantly. While tracking the spy, they searched his last known residence, with our Leech tossing the place (using Wreck as a Set-up action) while our Lurk searched it (using Survey). The Set-up failed, putting the Lurk in a desperate position, who also failed… the consequence: The Lurk found a secret panel containing a bomb, which detonated inflicting Severe Harm to all present (all resisted down to Moderate Harm).
This set the tone for the rest of the hunt, and the players were really sweating their characters’ ability to complete the mission. Ultimately, they did find the spy, kill him, and returned the alchemist’s notebooks, but the Leech wound up taking the first Trauma in the game while trying to diffuse another booby-trap at the end of the score.
Thanks again, this definitely reinvigorated the game. I’ll update one more time when they face the demon.