[Just Heroes] Synergy for Superheroes

I'm currently working on another new draft of Just Heroes, but this time taking it back to the idea of having separate playbooks for Origins (why you have superpowers) and Styles (what your superpowers are). One of the other changes I'm thinking of making, is to replace the current respect rules with synergy instead: respect is similar to Hx, but it just doesn't feel like that good a fit for a superheroes game, so I'm tending towards something more like strings as in Monsterhearts.

The synergy idea is that you understand more about the other heroes on your team, so you can better support them when they make a move, by spending your synergy with them to give them a bonus to a move you suggest or enable them to make an advanced move. The catch is, deciding how you earn synergy in play: as a late change to the rules, it doesn't really fit in as a consequence of the basic moves, so I was thinking of giving each Origin a move that determines when the other heroes in the team gain synergy with them.

For example, the Accident (the Origin for heroes who gained their powers unintentionally, by chance) might award synergy to another hero who saves a bystander from a fatal accident, whereas the Adept (anyone who has gained their powers through practice and discipline) could award synergy to a hero who saves the day through words rather than deeds... anyway, those are just the rough thoughts.

How would you feel about that? Do you want triggers for awarding synergy that are specific to your playbook? Or a general trigger like 'choose one hero at the end of each session and award  1 synergy to them'? Do you prefer a passive trigger, where you have to wait for someone else to do something? Or an active trigger, where you get to decide when you award synergy?

That's really interesting.  It could provide for those observational "Ah, she's like me..." moments.  One concern I might have, however, is the possibility of the effect being triggered when I saw an event take place but she really wasn't like me, like maybe it was an accident, or she actually did it for unknown reasons or egotistical reasons, etc.

Which made me think maybe it could be validated before it counted?  Either within the fiction or outside of it...

In the fiction: After the observation is made, if the observing character tells the observed character what she noticed and they agree they are similar in that regard, both characters gain +1 synergy with each other.  If the observed character does not agree, -1 synergy with each other.

Outside of the fiction: As soon as the observation has been made, if the players of both characters agree the characters are similar in that regard, the observer gains +1 synergy with the observed.  This +1 may be reciprocated by communicating it in character as above.

Does that taste yummy or pukey?

That's a good thought: there needs to be some element of recognition from the player/character you want to award synergy to, otherwise it becomes a totally passive exercise. Just observing another hero do something you approve of or feel empathy towards should not be enough of a trigger in itself: you need to involve them in the decision to award synergy to them.

Perhaps then the trigger shouldn't relate to a third party? For example, the Accident awards synergy to heroes who save them from an accident and the Adept awards synergy to heroes who persuade them with words? In fact, that sounds a lot better and suggests a general guideline for building these triggers: the other hero must take an action that affects you directly, in a way that you approve of. Perhaps even an action that causes you to change your own course of action... hmmm, I'm liking that, as it combines in and out of character elements in the trigger.

Awarding synergy could be a peripheral move and provide mechanical weight to arguing with other heroes over your next course of action: when they do things your way, they take synergy with you, but if you do things their way, you take synergy with them. That could fit nicely with a couple of the existing moves, such as improvise, which allows you to appeal to the MC to give you a solution to a problem, and the new power mechanics, which rely on how you behave and treat others.

Thanks, that's good food for thought!

I tried this with a few of the playbooks... and hated it: it was still too passive and created too many special cases, so I've gone for something more straightforward. The current rules for gaining synergy are:

• If another hero takes action to protect you or your interests, take 1 synergy with them if you sincerely thank them for it.
• At the end of every session, decide which hero you have worked most successfully with and take 1 synergy with them.