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Bullseye Syndrome
There’s a phenomenon I’ve been encountering a lot lately in various games and other fiction, as far as I know, there is no name for this phenomenon, though I have been referring to it as the Bullseye Syndrome, named after the Marvel Anti-Hero and his ability.
In the comics, Bullseye was not a superhuman, alien, mutant, or anything else of the sort. He, like Daredevil, is simply a very fit person with enhanced senses and skills which border on the impossible. As his name implies, Bullseye has perfect aim, which he is able to use to turn anything into a lethal weapon: pencils become impaling weapons, playing cards slice people’s throats, and peanuts are launched and lodged in someone’s throat, choking them to death.
Any situation where a skill or talent is taken to the limits, to a purely theoretical level where that skill becomes, for lack of a better word, broken. This is most often encountered in superhero games, though it is not uncommon to find it in fantasy or science fiction, or any game which has dice pools which accumulate/roll over, like Sorcerer (if I remember the mechanics correctly).
In some mediums, the Bullseye Syndrome is rather appropriate, especially in the superhero, science fiction, or fantasy genres. In some instances, it can simply cause the story to break down, or it simply doesn’t fit with the themes and type of fiction that is being portrayed.
Many players love to embrace the Bullseye Syndrome because of the power that it allows their characters to wield; but more importantly to many players, because of the theoretical plausibility of that power. Ultimately, however, the question of allowing it comes down to one of scaling. If the ability exceeds the capabilities of other abilities, or is impossible to defend or counter against, then it is most likely time to remove or adjust it, regardless of its potential plausibility.
The true reason this syndrome can turn into a problem is that it changes the way the game works in a fundamental fashion. An outside example could be sniping. In many of my games, I have told my players that if they engage in sniping tactics to take out unwitting enemies safely from a distance, eventually their enemies will do the same to them, and they will die a surprising and unsatisfying death.
In my experience, these kinds of abilities, and their unblockable/uncounterable nature, encourage the breakdown of enjoying play.
How do you deal with your players and these vaguely realistic, but broken, possibilities?
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3 Responses to “Bullseye Syndrome”
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Actually, not a problem in Sorcerer, because it is quite random. The bonus dice are lost to attrition pretty quickly.
Traits with diminishing returns are the simplest methods of dealing with this problem.
My players seldom make characters who have problems which can be solved by killing someone. That is boring and far too easy.
Where I typically encounter this is in the game Shadowrun. I don’t have a problem with folks pulling this stunt because, realistically, it makes sense. Of course all the players know that it only makes sense for the opposition to do the same, but that it really only becomes an issue if the identities of the PC’s becomes known. Long practice has made the PC’s extremely aware of sniper positions, kill zones, and the benefits of a quiet job in which no shots are fired.
If I get a player that pulls this stunt in another game, I pull it on them (potentially killing the PC) with the admonition that “what’s good for the goose is good for the GM”. It keeps my players honest, and even if they still use the PC they don’t abuse it nearly so much.
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