Peril:RPG/Kabooms
Kabooms!
[edit]Bad decisions are a renewable resource.
Kabooms are the game's metacurrency. Characters earn them by getting themselves into trouble in ways that fit who they are, then spend them to bend comic-book reality back in their favor.
The basic rhythm is simple: trouble creates bad decisions, bad decisions create Kabooms, and Kabooms create ridiculous solutions.
TROUBLE → BAD DECISIONS → KABOOMS → RIDICULOUS SOLUTION → BIG FINISH
Starting Kabooms
[edit]Every character begins an issue with 2 Kabooms and can hold a maximum of 5.
Write them on the character card like this:
KABOOMS: ● ● ○ ○ ○
Unspent Kabooms do not normally carry over from one issue to the next. Each issue starts fresh, except for a bonus Kaboom earned through a Public Service Announcement.
Earning Kabooms
[edit]A character earns a Kaboom when their behavior creates a genuine complication and that complication fits the character.
Common ways to earn one include invoking a Running Gag, making an obviously bad but in-character decision, panicking, taking bait, making an existing problem worse, or volunteering a complication that gives the Editor something useful to work with.
The important word is genuine. Repeating a joke without affecting the scene does not earn anything.
Running Gags
[edit]Running Gags are the most reliable source of Kabooms.
Mastermind refuses to admit an obvious mistake. Chameleon finds a reason to leave when things become dangerous. The Cavalier stops in the middle of a crisis because he assumes someone wants an autograph. Mister Chips gives sensible advice, is ignored, and disaster follows.
When that behavior actually complicates the issue:
KABOOM!
Bad Decisions
[edit]If the player knows something is a terrible idea but the character would absolutely do it, that can earn a Kaboom when it creates trouble.
Tokyo Joe charging a giant robot before hearing the plan is in character. Mister Chips doing the same thing for no reason probably is not.
Random stupidity is not enough. The bad decision should reveal something about the character.
Panic and Cowardice
[edit]Running, hiding, screaming, surrendering, disguising yourself as furniture, pointing at another hero or suddenly remembering an urgent appointment may all earn a Kaboom if the reaction fits the character and makes the situation worse.
This is especially useful when the heroes are badly outmatched. An overwhelmingly powerful villain is not a failed encounter; it is an opportunity for panic, bad decisions and later revenge.
Taking the Bait
[edit]Sometimes the Editor puts a character's weakness directly in front of them.
The player could ignore it.
They do not.
Dr. Quake hears somebody call him Kwak. The Cavalier sees a camera. Chameleon notices an exit.
If taking the bait creates trouble, award a Kaboom.
No Double-Dipping
[edit]One incident normally earns one Kaboom, even if it qualifies in several ways.
If Chameleon panics, invokes his Running Gag, flees the fight and makes everything worse all at once, that is still one Kaboom.
The currency should reward good comic play, not encourage bookkeeping.
KABOOM!
[edit]Whenever a Kaboom is earned, somebody at the table must yell:
KABOOM!
Preferably the player.
Preferably too loudly.
The Editor may yell first. The player should yell louder.
This ritual has no mechanical purpose and remains mandatory.
Spending Kabooms
[edit]Kabooms are for changing circumstances, introducing useful facts, escaping disaster and attempting ridiculous solutions. They should usually make the fiction more interesting rather than simply increase numbers.
1 Kaboom: Do-Over!
[edit]Reroll a roll you just made and use the new result.
Even if it is worse.
Especially if it is worse.
1 Kaboom: It Was There All Along!
[edit]Declare a previously unmentioned but plausible fact about equipment, a vehicle, headquarters or the immediate environment.
Examples include:
- The Peril Plane has an escape pod.
- My costume has a radio.
- There is a service tunnel under the laboratory.
- Peril Peak has a bowling alley.
Once established, the thing has always been there.
Obviously.
The Editor may reject a declaration that instantly ends the issue, contradicts something important or steals another character's entire gimmick.
1 Kaboom: Perfect Setup!
[edit]Introduce a small detail that gives another character an obvious chance to use a Running Gag.
A reporter recognizes The Cavalier. Someone asks Mastermind whether he is absolutely sure. Chameleon discovers that the emergency exit is directly behind him.
The other player does not have to take the bait.
They probably will.
1 Kaboom: Prop!
[edit]Produce one small, useful object that could reasonably be nearby.
A rope, fire extinguisher, wrench, ladder, bucket, frying pan, traffic cone, magnet or suspiciously convenient pie are all fair examples.
The Prop exists for the current scene. It does not automatically become permanent continuity.
2 Kabooms: Editorial Correction!
[edit]Change one minor fact that has already been established.
For example:
- That guard didn't actually see my face.
- Those are robot sharks.
- That was the decoy detonator.
- Mister Chips made a backup.
An Editorial Correction can improve the situation, but it should not erase the entire problem.
2 Kabooms: Just What I Needed!
[edit]Gain a temporary gadget, feature or Power that lasts for the current scene.
Examples:
- This suit has a flotation system.
- The Peril Plane has underwater capability.
- I took correspondence-school hypnosis.
Explain where it came from if anyone asks, but do not explain very well.
At the end of the scene it breaks, disappears, becomes irrelevant or is simply never mentioned again.
3 Kabooms: Next Panel!
[edit]Escape the current predicament by cutting directly to the next useful moment.
Smoke fills the room. The lights go out. Something explodes. The panel changes.
The character reappears somewhere plausible, alive and considerably annoyed.
Next Panel! cannot defeat the main villain, solve the central problem, save the entire city or end the issue. It only gets the character out of the immediate mess.
3 Kabooms: That Can't Possibly Work!
[edit]Attempt an outrageous solution that should not work but would make a magnificent ending.
Spend the Kabooms, explain the plan, and roll normally.
Kabooms buy permission, not success.
Possible uses include defeating Lobster Lord with a giant nutcracker, redirecting an earthquake with mattresses, convincing Atomic Head that his own Goons voted him out, or stopping a cosmic menace with something found in the glove compartment.
If it works, it works.
Kabooms and Powers
[edit]Kabooms are not meant to become a damage-boost economy.
Do not spend three Kabooms for +3 damage.
Use them to create opportunities, invent equipment, establish facts, escape disasters, bend continuity or try a Stunt that would otherwise be too ridiculous even for Skyscraper Comics.
If the only thing a Kaboom changes is a number, there is probably a more interesting way to spend it.
Kabooms and the Editor
[edit]The Editor should be generous when players make their own lives harder in ways that fit the character, but should stop awarding Kabooms when someone repeats the same behavior only to farm currency.
Running Gags stay funny because the circumstances change. Chameleon cannot earn five Kabooms by saying “I leave” five times while standing in the same room.
Make them work for their cowardice.
Losing Is Profitable
[edit]A villain may be much stronger than the heroes, and the first confrontation may go terribly.
That is fine.
The heroes panic, flee, hide, get captured, invoke Running Gags and accumulate Kabooms. Those Kabooms then give them the resources to improvise a solution they could not have attempted at the beginning of the issue.
This is one reason Peril Patrol does not need encounter balance. Getting into trouble is part of how the game gives players the tools to get back out.
Public Service Announcement!
[edit]At the end of an issue, the Editor may choose one player to improvise a short Public Service Announcement in character.
The player gets no preparation. The Editor supplies the topic.
Suitable subjects include donuts, cats, escalators, suspicious sandwiches, cape storage, loose change, unlabeled buttons and llamas.
Avoid serious subjects. This is not that kind of PSA.
The announcement should take roughly twenty to forty seconds and does not need to be good, accurate, useful or responsible. It only needs to be completed.
If the player finishes the PSA:
KABOOM!
That character begins the next issue with one extra Kaboom.
The Editor is encouraged to assign the topic to the character least qualified to discuss it.
The llama is the well-known devil fish of the Atlantic.
This information is completely wrong.
Skyscraper Comics remains committed to it.
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