Unity questions, unified

I am most excited about playing with Unity, but I have a couple questions about how her bots work:

1. Do Unity’s bots persist after a fight is concluded? Or does she stop exerting her mental energy and they fall to bits?

2. Can Unity make bots prior to a fight so she has them during the fight?

3. I feel like, when I play Unity in the card game, all I want to do is have a million bots. How, philosophically and functionally, do you recommend playing with her, such that I can make a bunch of bots but not neglect to do any of her other powers or basic abilities?

4. Lastly, since to make her bots have cool upgrades you have to discard a bonus on yourself or an ally, how do you avoid annoying your allies slash how do you ensure a steady stream of upgrade to discard? Gotta have those cool bots!

I’ve GMed some of the starter kit twice now, and Unity, and I have some notes which I’ll do my best to make spoiler free.

1. Depending on the scenario, I’d say it’s very possible for her to carry them through from scene to scene, but it would first and foremostly be at your GM’s discretion, and then secondly would depend on time passed and distance traveled between scenes. I definitely let bots travel between scenes.

2. There usually isn’t a heap of time leading up to combat, but if there were a montage or exploration scene before a fight then I see no reason why not (again, subject to above). That said, flavor-wise if Unity was just chilling and looking around then you would have to think about what bots would be appropriate for that situation, rather than preemptively make an army of destroyers.

3. Having never PLAYED as Unity, others may have a different perspective, but seeing as her architect is Minion-Maker, I wouldn’t stress too much about focusing on the bots. My thoughts are that her other abilities are more for when she doesn’t have a bot or they’re about to die (similar to in the card game I guess).

4. Talk to your fellow players! They might have an ability to boost an ally and not know what to do with it, or have received a boost they don’t need that round. Alternatively you can ask if anyone can boost you and tell them why. Can’t annoy them if they’re on board!

1. In Unity's character booklet, the Auxiliary Sheet says the following:

Unity can create mechanical minions, which follow the normal rules for minions. They act at the beginning of the turn, and only

have one kind of action they can take. The minions Unity makes in battle are rushed, and only stay operational for the current scene.

Afterward, they short out, fizzle, or melt into nothing, and cannot be harvested for parts.

Plus, according to the podcast, Christopher and Adam clarify that the bots Unity makes are only temporary and fall apart relatively soon after their creation. They are temporary creations from her mind and only have enough energy to be around for so long before they fall apart. In this case, it appears to be long enough for one fight. If your GM rules as written, no, they do not last beyond the few minutes that the fight happens, and that is in accordance with the Christopher-and-Adam canon.

2. How would Unity know what kind of bots she needs for the fight before the fight happens? Unity seems to me to be more the type to assess the situation and use the best tool for the job. If a fight isn't going down, then she wouldn't have any bots around "just in case." Besides, they would fall apart anyway given their short lifespan, so why would she waste any of that time just having them around? Far more efficient to maximize their usage and pull them together during the battle!

3. Philosophically, I would say that depends on the situation you are in. The card game and the RPG are cut from similar cloth, but use different mechanics. The card game represents one big fight. The RPG could have more than that in one issue, such that from the story perspective and in keeping with the Christopher-and-Adam canon Unity wouldn't be able to have an army of bots following her around the whole time. They break down, fall apart, and aren't meant to be around for much longer than minutes. Hours aren't possible. Functionally, you can't. You have to make a choice, bots or something else, and that is what an RPG is all about. Players make choices with the understanding that they have to give up something else when the choice is made. If you make a bot the first round, you have to define what one basic action that bot can do, which means you are giving up the four other basic actions for that bot. It also means that it would take five turns to get one bot of each basic action into the game, unless you take a risky action to make more than one bot a turn. If you don't want to neglect her other abilities, then do something other than just make bots. Bots are useful, but Unity can also shoot lightning at stuff with her superpowers. Doing so requires some cool creative description to assemble the dice pool, which makes playing Unity an exercise in imagination. Ultimately Unity is a support tech character at her core, whipping up what the team needs to help them succeed.

4. Simple. Make a Boost Bot. Start of next turn, have Boost Bot give itself a Bot Upgrade Bonus. Then make and upgrade a New Bot by discarding the Boost Bot's Bot Upgrade Bonus. If you wanted to raise the size of your bots, then you need a bunch of Boost Bots around, one to give itself the Bot Upgrade Bonus and the others to give you a bunch of Create Bot Bonuses to raise your bot making rolls. Similar to the card game, to activate the better options you first need to generate resources  and slowly build over turns. This is another choice, though. Doing this means you aren't doing anything immediately contributing to the group, but that is exactly how Unity works in the card game too.

Now, all that being said, I agree with Timjobinroach. Talk to your GM. Ultimately they have final say on how Unity works. My feeling is that having a bunch of bots always around cheapens the fun and excitement of the game for everyone. Bunch of spider bots attacking? Unity's army takes care of it. Dinosaurs roaming around? Unity's army takes care of it. Stuck in a tomb full of traps? Unity's army takes care of it. Unity has the potential to unbalance the game not just for Unity's player, but for the entire table, and the answers your GM gives you can't be given lightly. There are a bunch of factors they need to consider, and while it might be fun for you to have a bunch of bots running around all the time, it might take some of the fun away from the other players who might have their own abilities they want to use, and force the GM to do more work than should be needed to accomodate and balance the challenges of the issue for the added bot army factor. In the card game, the balance is maintained by playing one card and using one power. You start out slow and hope to get to the point where you can do a whole lot of stuff on your turn. Here, you're asking your GM to allow you to start out with your end result already in play at the start of the fight, and I would encourage you talk to your GM about these questions, while keeping the full game experience for everyone in mind as you explore answers.

True. True true true true true. Thanks for your insightful answers! Upgrade Bot is super clever. Unity is always the type of character that oscillates between useless and unstoppable. In the card game, some games she take 10 turns to do anything, and some games she is doing 48 damage per turn without playing any cards or doing any powers. Based on the "Things fall apart" text quoted, Christopher and Adam seemed to be trying to avoid the latter and encouraging doing bots and other stuff. The Bot Army will have to wait for a custom campaign!

My starter group's question about Unity was... how does she create bots? And what is the purpose of listing a d12 size on the Auxiliary sheet?

The Auxiliary sheet lists d12 bot size. Is that for completeness, or can she actually create d12 bots? If so, how? She doesn't have any d12 powers or qualities, and there's no upgrade that makes an existing bot bigger.

What does she roll to create a bot, and how does it translate into a die type? Presumably she rolls (for instance) Metal + Technology/Creativity+ Status. Assuming she's in Green, that's d10 + d10 + d10. So if she rolls a 3-5-7, what kind of bot does she get?

What if she uses Inventions instead of Metal, or is in Red? In that case, she rolls d6 + d10 + d10. What if she rolls a 5-6-3 respectively? The Mid is on a d6, and presumably she defaults to Mid for her generated value, as that's the default (right?). So does she get a d6-sized bot even though she also rolled 2 d10s? Die rolls typically generate values, but Unity's bots are "sized" by die type, not die value.

Thanks!

Unity creates bots using one of her abilities (Spawn Golem or Construction Pylon).  She creates a d12 golem when she rolls a 12 or higher on the relevant check, including modidiers (this is the "Key Die Value" column on the Mechanical Minion Forms chart).  So if she has a +2 Boost and rolls d8 Robotics, d10 Creativity, and d10 Green Status, and rolls a 10 on both of the two d10's, she has a d12 golem.  Improbable but not impossible--especially when you consider that she has a number of ways to give herself a boost using her Max die, so getting a +3 or even a +4 isn't all that unlikely.

In your example (d6 + d10 + d10 results in 5-6-3), the Mid roll is a 5, which, looking at the chart, is in the 4-7 range and thus creates a d8 golem.

When an Action ability doesn't specify Min, Mid, or Max, you always use Mid.  Reactions and Out abilities use only one die.

Oky, so the "key die value" = die type.

Your mention of Spawn Golem + Construction Pylon raises a question we had about Absolute Zero and Wraith, and Unity for that matter. Can they do something without an Ability?

For instance, can AZ just fire a cold blast using his Cold value? Or does he have to use Freezer Burn? Because... a straight roll would be better than the self-damaging Freezer Burn.

Wraith can presumably use throwing knives, because she has the Throwing Knives power. But... she has no basic Throwing Knives ability (until Favorite Blade in the Red). Can she throw in green or yellow? Alternately, if throwing knives are assumed to be Wraith's "standard equipment", does that mean that "cold" is AZ's standard equipment? What's the difference, and where is it stated?

Unity kinda raises the question. Does she require the ability Spawn Golems to... well, spawn golems? Or can anyone with Robotics? Mr. Fantastic in the comics can tinker together robots on the fly, often with spare parts laying around. Heck, Taachyon could probably do it with Inventions + Science. What's the difference between their robots and Unity's golems? Do they have to have an Ability to create robots, or is Robotics/Inventions as a power enough?

Equally, does Wraith require a Throwing Knives ability to throw knives? Does Absolute Zero require a Cold ability to shoot cold? Or does he have to use Freezer Burn?

For that matter, Legacy and Tachyon presumably punch people without a Punch ability (until Thokk! at yellow for Legacy, and Tachyon's superspeed stuff, but those are "better" versions of punching). Can they do that? Or is Close Combat different than ranged attacks?

For that matter, could AZ use Cold + Creativity to create ice cesti or an ice mace or an ice bazooka that shoots snowballs, and then just whale on people? That isn't self-damaging (unlike Freezer Burn). And he could probably sneak range into the mix.

What if Tachyon wanted to pick up rocks and throw them at superspeed? That would seem to be Speed + Finesse.

Essentially, what gives a character the ability to turn a Power value into a basic (i.e., Mid = damage) attack or minion/robot creation? Ranged over close combat?

As I noted elsewhere, I'm all for creativity. But it seems like in this case, there are implied limits (at least on AZ, and Legacy and Tachyon on close vs. ranged combat) that can be disregarded by "creative" reading of the characters. Heck, AZ has Creativity as a Quality. Can he use it to creatively get around Freezer Burn and do cold damage while not taking damage himself?

Can he use it to creatively get around Freezer Burn and do cold damage while not taking damage himself?

Certainly! But there are a lot of advantages to Absolute Zero dealing himself Cold damage...

(Just to start, he gets to the Yellow Zone faster. If you can't think of any other advantages, check out what sorts of things he does in the Yellow Zone.)

Yes, he can use a basic action to just roll Cold + Status + an appropriate Quality to make a normal attack using the Mid die.  Same with Wraith and throwing knives, Legacy and punching, Tachyon and throwing a rock, etc., etc.

This one's a little different.  Spawn Golem is a Green ability she has, which describes how she creates her minions.  That's sort of a core ability for her–that's just how she works.  Her ability as a technopath is what lets her do it.  Sure, Tachyon can also build robots, but she can't instantly build robots out of random scraps and send them into battle immediately.  She has to work in her lab for, even for her, at least several minutes to create something half-decent; a robot of the quality Unity creates would take a normal person days if not weeks, and Tachyon probably hours.  Even Unity would take days to build a real, persistent robot (like the medbay bots she has at Freedom Tower).  Mr. Fixer is an auto mechanic, he doesn't know anything about building robots.

"Certainly! But there are a lot of advantages to Absolute Zero dealing himself Cold damage..."

He could. But some players are kinda adverse to doing damage to their own character. Kinda like the card game. I still get a lot of player who look at basic CG's AZ's basic Power and ask, "Why would I use that?"

That's why the whole line of questioning came up. The player wondered why he'd want ti hurt his character, and if there was a way around it.

I suppose another question is that given your answer... why couldn't he say his Power does damage to himself without spending whatever he spends or does to get the Freezer Burn ability, and get a diferent Ability instead? Maybe Abilities and how they interact with Powers wil be better defined in the eventual rulebook. But it seems a bit unclear now. Powers give you a basic attack or power, but how basic is basic?

Saying he can't do it with a basic power on its own... could AZ invoke a twist to do damage to himself, with a basic no-Ability cold blast? If he can do that, why does he need Freezer Burn?

"This one's a little different.  Spawn Golem is a Green ability she has, which describes how she creates her minions.  That's sort of a core ability for her--that's just how she works.  Her ability as a technopath is what lets her do it.  Sure, Tachyon can also build robots, but she can't instantly build robots out of random scraps and send them into battle immediately.  She has to work in her lab for, even for her, at least several minutes to create something half-decent; a robot of the quality Unity creates would take a normal person days if not weeks, and Tachyon probably hours.  Even Unity would take days to build a real, persistent robot (like the medbay bots she has at Freedom Tower).  Mr. Fixer is an auto mechanic, he doesn't know anything about building robots."

So Tachyon and Mr. Fantastic build temporary robots. Or I create an imaginary character who can build robots on the fly but doesn't have Spawn Golems. Is he required to have it?

Also, you seem to be discussing concepts, rather than powers. But you could apply some of the same reasoning to Wraith. Throwing knives is a core ability for her. But she doesn't have a Throwing Knife Ability.

Unity and Wraith seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Unity has a Power that requires an Ability: Wraith has a Power that doesn't require an Ability. And AZ is... somewhere in-between. As Christopher noted, AZ can fire cold blasts without using an Ability. So he has a Power that doesn't require an Ability, but the Ability makes the character more effective.

Conceptually it seems a bit contradictory regardless. It seems like there's a "base power" that Wraith and AZ have, but Unity doesn't. Wraith's is off-the-shelf, so to speak. But AZ's isn't.

Also, could Unity do a basic attack using her Metal or whatever? "I telekinetically throw metal at you, instead of turning it into a golem." Do powers come with an inherent Attack? (and Overcome, and Boost/Hinder, I suppose).

Pretty much, yeah.  (Although I've never heard of Reed Richards creating instant robots the way Unity can.)  A lot of Sentinels RPG is about envisioning what the heroes can do and coming up with stats and abilities that support that mechanically, but the concept generally trumps the numbers.

Unity is a special case because her main thing is making golems, and that's not something that's simple to represent mechanically.  The Attack Action doesn't apply to that power.  She can absolutely bludgeon someone over the head using Metal, because that makes sense as a thing she could do--although she probably wouldn't, as it's just not her style (and none of her Qualities really apply).  She could also zap someone with a straight-up electric shock using Electricity.  And because people are assumed to have "normal" abilities that aren't Powers, she could simply punch someone using Strength (which she doesn't have, so it'd be a d4 for her).

If it makes more sense, think about actions other than Attack.  For instance, Unity could make a basic Hinder action against Baron Blade by transforming part of his power suit into an annoying, wisecracking semi-bot (Robotics + Banter + Status), or a basic Boost action on herself by creating a pair of hover boots (Inventions + Technology + Status, perhaps).  Those would make use of her technopath-ness without needing a specific Ability to use.

Basically, what MindWanderer said.

One thing that helps to keep in mind is that a character in the Sentels RPG can do ANYTHING they want.  Just describe what you want to do, then find the appropriate dice and roll them.  Unlike in, say, D&D, where you have to consult the large list of abilities and/or skills available to your character, and generally can't do anything else, in Sentinels you can do pretty much whatever you want (within reason, of course).  Describe the action, figure out what type of action that is (Overcome/Attack/Boost/Hinder/Recover), which powers and abilities apply to the action, then just do it.*

• Absolute Zero wants to make a hockey stick out of ice and use it to attack a Spider Bot?  Sounds like fun.  That'll be an ATTACK for which you'll roll Cold + Close Combat + Status.
• Unity wants to use a metal pole to electrocute to a Spider Bot by connecting it to some power lines?  Done.  That sounds creative, so it'll be an ATTACK for which you'll roll Metal + Creativity + Status.
• Tacyon wants to figure out what the fudge is going on here?  Sounds like an OVERCOME using Lightning Calculator + Mind over Matter + Status.  (On a succeess you tell her it's chocolate fudge, and on an overwhelming success she manages to eat it all... darn speedsters).

The Abilities that characters have usally allow them to do things more efficiently (attack multiple enemies, or attack AND hinder using only one action) or allow them to use the max die instead of the mid one.  But you don't ever have to use them, and you're certainly not limited to only the abilities on your sheet.  The first two examples above are things my players actually did in game.  In a few rare cases, such as Unity spawning golems or Tyler Vance switching between modes in the Bunker suit, you actually can't do that thing without the special ability, but those are the exceptions to the rule. 

*(In fact, you're not even technically limited to the powers and abilities on the character sheets.  Absolute Zero really wants to pick up one of Wraith's used throwing knives and make a ranged attack with it?  He's more than welcome to, but since he's not using any of his actual powers, for his power die he'll be rolling a d4.)

This one I've asked about before and never gotten an answer to.  Your statement was my understanding at first, but then I realized that by that reading, when Bunker is in Out Of Suit Mode, he can never get back in the suit.  It's unclear whether he can simply climb back in as an action, or if it takes so long it can only be done in a Montage scene, or what.

"(Just to start, he gets to the Yellow Zone faster. If you can't think of any other advantages, check out what sorts of things he does in the Yellow Zone.)"

Just as a note, looking at AZ, his yellow abilities are good. But they're not any better than anyone else's. It's a hard series of comparisons to make, admittedly, but just looking at them on their own:

Null-Point Calibrator keeps him from taking any more damage from Freezer Burn. Except... he's still at Yellow. So he gets an Abiliy to negate an Ability. And he's still at yellow, so down roughly 7 health.

His status dice don't change: they're d8 at both green and yellow.

Heat Sink, he gets a combined Max-dice attack/Min-dice hinder, but it's a) Absoprtion so it's arguably limited and b) well, a Min-dice.

And there's Subzero Atmosphere, which is admittedly pretty good. Is "close range" defined? The fact that it's AOE suggests that he might also target any close-range allies. Can an ally be a target in a "nail all targets" effect?

And using Freezer Burn shifts him into the Yellow, which gets him an inherent Mid-dice Boost via Modular Realignment. Wandering back forth from green to yellow, healing, and going back again is fairly strong: it's presumably Cold+Status plus... Cool Under Pressure? So d12 + d8 + d8.

But none of that seems to add up to better than, say, Bunker's MagnaRail Upgrade and Grenade Launcher. The former gives him a persistent/exclusive Min/Max bonus, the latter a three-dice attacck (Max/Mid/Min) with a possibility of taking damage.

Was AZ's yellow zone stuff supposed to be better than average? They're good, but they don't seem to be better than anyone else's yellow-zone stuff and they put him closer to unconsciousness regardless. There's ways to finesse them to give AZ advantages, but the same could be said of the other character's abilities as well.

I believe the highly technical term is "kit-bashing". :) Robot-building isn't his primary schtick (those are "Stretchiness" and "Whipping up gizmos"), and those are usually more useful in FF type of situations when he's combined with a super-strong hitter, an energy projector, and a forcefield attack/defend type. But he's done it when the writers need him to do it. If he has a relatively low dice in Robotics/minion-attacks, and higher dice in Stretching and Inventiveness... well, in comparison my players tended to go with the higher-dice stuff and then run off of those. A d6 minion compared to his teammates d10-d12 attack Powers and Abilities just ain't worth bothering with most of the time.

Unity could presumably hit someone with an electrical "punch", using Electricity+Creativity+Status. So no Strength/unskilled d4 necessary. Similar to the AZ "ice close or ranged weapon" thing I mentioned earlier.

And Overcoming fits under Principles for pretty much everyone.

Anyhoo, the players never had any trouble coming up with conceptual stuff for any of the Basic actions, as you can see. "Creativity" as a Quality tends to make players... well, creative. :) No one had trouble with the concepts or finding ways to use them.

It amounted to, "Why did I get stuck with a character who damages himself to do Mid-damage, when I can do Mid damage and stay in green, or invoke a twist and take the Min damage anyway?" And the "rush" to yelow just wasn't that appealing to them. Looking at the character sheets, I'd tend to agree, for the reasons stated. AZ has everything that the other characters have... but he's got Freezer Burn which doesn't seem to be required to do what he wants to do, if he (or anyone else) wanted to get to yellow, use an average power and then augment it with a minor twist of Min-damage to oneself. Why use an Ability "slot" to do what anyone can do anyway if they want to get to Yellow?

Or to put it another way, AZ doesn't seem so strong in Yellow that he wants to "rush" to get there. And if he did, he can do it without sacrificing an Ability (by taking Freezer Burn instead of something else) to do it. Now if Freezer Burn was Max-Damage instead of Mid, maybe... Freezer Burn is just inferior to what any character can do without it. Freezer Burn = Mid damage + hurting yourself, no augment. A normal cold attack = Mid damage + hurting yourself as a twist + minor augment.

Okay, in fairness, looking at the starter rules, AZ would take a Risky Action (pg. 14) to do Maximum. Which would give him a minor twist, which would mean he'd take the same Max damage himself (pg. 11). Which seems a little harsh (one step up of damage, in return for two steps up of self-damage). But okay... then per Christopher, doesn't AZ want to get to Yellow faster so that his Null-Zone Calibrator (NZC) cancels out the Max damage?

So with Freezer Burn AZ gets a more "practiced" version of taking a Risky Action. But it... slows down the apparent intent of Freezer Burn, which is to get AZ to Yellow. And once AZ gets to Yellow, his NZC kicks in and the Risky + Minor thing is still better for him. Because it does Max instead of Mid damage, and the self-damage is cancelled out by the NZC no matter how much damage he does himself on the twist.

It still seems kinda weird. If a player wants to get their character to Yellow fast, take the Risky Action + Minor Twist for Max damage + Max self-damage. I suppose there's the risk that the GM might substitute a different minor twist instead. But a) that mucks up the player trying to get to Yellow, and b) page 14 implies that "you" (the player) choose the twist and that it should be "appropriate".

I suppose it's min/maxing. But it's the same min/maxing that applies to other characters, it was the intent of the character design, and it seems appropriate to the character. Does that all mean it's min/maxing?

His Out of Suit dice section says "When he can use the suit again, change to Operations Mode"

As a Gm, I've taken this to mean: When Vance is out of Bunker, he has to make an effort to be allowed to get in Bunker, wherever that suit may be. If he is at a fancy dress military ball, perhaps the suit is in a trailer in the parking lot, and Vance must Overcome to get through the crowd without panicking them, reaching the trailer, thus qualifying for "Can Use Suit". If he is taking a shower when the alarms at Freedom Plaza go off, Vance would Overcome to get dry and dressed enough not to injure himself or the suit, qualifying  for "Can use suit". If he is giving a commencement address at a university with the suit on stage behind him, he might only have to say "Goodbye" and turn around in order to qualify for "Can use the suit again".

I think a more interesting question is exploring how a Vance player would voluntarily get out of the suit, be unable to enter into that same suit, and then need to shenanigan to qualify for "I can haz Suit" again, all in one scene. (Self-destruct/trapped, call in Freedom Plaza's supply drones for newer/older suit that he totally has, as per collected trade, Minor Twist, must wait two rounds, gets back into suit dropped off by drones.)

I think the important thing about the Out of Suit mode that people seem to be forgetting is that the Bunker suit is FREAKING HUGE!

Your average building isn't designed to have a 9'11", 1.6 ton walking tank on it's upper floors.

Next Unity question: For Volatile Parts, what is meant by a "destroyed bonus or penalty"? How do you decide if a bonus or penalty is destroyed, discarded, used, counteracted, or otherwise? The terminology changes throughout the Gameplay Guide and Unity's own character booklet. 

I’d argue that it only applies when the bonus/penalty is removed by an outside force, usually by giving the target a hinder/boost that’s greater than or equal to the original by affecting the device/bot unity made.

I.e. the new knife unity made for Wraith is stolen by the pteradactyl thief, or Baron Blade blasts off the alterations unity made to his armor.

There are some abilities that specifically say a bonus or penalty is "destroyed," but I agree, the terminology is neither consistent nor well-defined.  In another thread, I speculated it meant "by other abilities that say "destroy" and not being consumed or canceled by an opposite penalty or bonus," and Dave replied but didn't correct me, so I'm going with that.

I came up with another couple of questions, though.

The first is with when you make selections (again).  For instance, for Hasty Augmentation, do you decide whether to use Max or Mid+Persistent before or after rolling?  For Brainstorm, do you decide which target to attack with Min and which with Mid before or after rolling?  I'm guessing it's all before--it seems like all decisions need to be made before--but it's not clear.

Second, it was confirmed that "your" in Volatile Parts means "that you created."  Is that true for other heroes as well?  For instance, if Unity uses Hasty Augmentation to soup up one of Wraith's knives, can Wraith use that bonus for Unleash?  If Bunker boosts another hero, would he destroy that boost when using Omni-Blast?

And that just made me think of another: If Unity creates a Boost for another hero, and then that hero is separated from Unity and that bonus is then destroyed, does it explode?  If it does explode, does Unity's player choose the target even though she has no idea what's going on?  Similarly, what happens if Bunker boosts a hero that then gets separated from him, and he uses Satellite Recall or Omni-Blast?

...Aaand looking at this stuff for Bunker, yet another: Emergency Reconfiguration says "you take extra damage equal to the Min die."  What Min die?  Bunker isn't rolling anything.  You don't even get a Min die on reactions (they use only one die).  If he's being attacked by a minion or a lieutenant (which is usually--in the whole starter kit there are only two enemies that roll multiple dice and you're not supposed to fight one of them), there's no Min die there either.

This is the only one of your questions I feel qualified to answer-- The way I feel like Volatile Parts is supposed to work narratively is that she is making things out of metal that are unstable and explosive, so if some metal boost she made is destroyed then it should definitely explode. So narratively, if she's around, she can choose the target when it explodes, but if she isn't around, perhaps it explodes but without so much precision— more collateral damage? That's my thought from a narrative perspective if not with an exact mechanistic exactitude.

Hmmm. Was still curious why Absolute Zero needs Freezer Burn to get him to Yellow quicker (per Christopher above), since his Yellow powers don't seem any better than anyone else's. And he already has the inherent Risky Action to get to Yellow faster and do Max rather than Mid damage to his opponents. Or do Mid damage and take no damage, with just his basic Cold attack.

Anyone?

If not, I'll have to wing it at tonight's demo session. Or hope that the players who asked last week don't show up tonight. :)

Or should I create a "Absolute Zero questions, unifed" thread? and repost there?

If you feel you need to start one, then go right ahead. :)

New Unity question: Can a bot have more than one "Upgrade"? For example, could you discard three boosts while making a bot to create an Autonomous Flying Pack bot?