Clarification on Pushing Powers

[Lindharin]

Hi there,

In AslanC's play-by-post OOC thread, the topic of hero points came up, and that led me to bring up a question about the rules for Pushing Yourself (pg 26).

It seems like there is a big inequality between the rules for Pushing a Power vs Pushing a Stat / Skill. In each case you spend 10 hits, but if you push a power you get +1 rank which typically means a +1 multiplier (or other benefits, depending on the power), while pushing anything else (stats, skills, etc.) gives only a +1 result bonus. On average (assuming a die roll of 7), pushing a power gives a bonus of 7, while the other option only gives 1. And when you push a power the benefit lasts for an entire page, while pushing stats/skills is for just one roll.

Just to be clear, the benefit for pushing a power feels pretty appropriate to me, like something I would see in a comic, while the benefit for pushing a stat or skill seems much too low. Am I missing something?

One possibility might be when you are allowed to declare the push. I didn't see anything directly about that, but the example for pushing a stat/skill indicates that you can decide to Push your stat/skill after seeing what you rolled. Can you do that with Pushing a Power too? Or do you have to declare that you are pushing a power before you roll, and that is part of the difference?

Thanks!

[AslanC]

*bump*

[BASHMAN]

The big difference is it's a common occurance in comics for someone to "push" powers. But pushing stats, while it happens- aren't by as much of a margin.

Spider-Man is buried in rubble. He languishes there saying... "it's too heavy, I can't lift it". The Narrator declared he needs to make a 30 Brawn check to break free- but he got a 27. Then thinking about MJ and Aunt May, and the villains outside wrecking havoc, he says "yes.... I...... CAN!!!!" and spends 3 hero points to break free. It's dramatic, it's cool- but it's not breaking my suspension of disbelief. It's not like he's now suddenly able to lift an L-Train when before he was straining while lifting a pickup truck.
Of course, by spending a Hero Die, he'd get free automatically- and there is usually more than one way to get out of a situation (escapology/contortion is a great skill to have).