>When you look back at the chatlogs on Roll20 and remember

>>53224619
If it bothers you that much, do gm rolls/roll behind a screen.

Also, keep in mind that your boss being a bitch isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just makes them cocky and easier to knock down when the next existential threat surfaces.

Maybe that guy wasn't actually the mastermind, just a pawn used by the REAL big bad. Isn't that like a staple trope in comics?

>>53224862
>If it bothers you that much, do gm rolls/roll behind a screen.

Yeah, unfortunately I think the biggest problem I now realize is that pleasing my solo player, from what remains of the previous campaign, feels impossible. I gave them two additional NPCs to help in the fight that were once out of the fight, and said NPCs were enough to rob the villain out of any actions.

When I first started playing the game, I always did my rolls via /gmroll, but that become literally almost everyone's complaint, so I switched because they demanded it.

Said player was getting to the point where they were getting sick of the campaign because the villain was doing things her character couldn't always stop. To be honest she wouldn't have even gotten the chance to do that Affliction if I had just had the villain retreat without anyone noticing as I planned and then had a real final battle to uncorrupt the other worlds afterwards.

TL;DR tried to please players, can't do anything right it seems.

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>>53224619
>Me: "The Mage Emperor of Zalam weaves a wholly original spell, one that defies categorization under known schools of magic! Iridescent, scintillating rays spring forth, spiraling about wildly before they strike each of you! Roll Constitution saves!"
>all PCs succeed on their saves, and all the d8s for damage come up 1-3, for a total of 16 damage before being halved
>Me: "...you all take 8 damage and don't suffer any of the status effects the spell WOULD have inflicted."

Such status effects included: petrified, paralyzed, blinded, slowed, bleeding, confused, gravity reversed, poisoned, and a couple others I can't remember, determined by rolling randomly, with the possibility of multiple effects at once.

>>53226236
fucking Malboros.

>>53226236
Rolling low on damage dice is a shitty thing in DnD, which is why average damage is a thing for enemy encounters.

>>53225370
Also, because the villain wasn't allowed to "get away", I can easily just assume that the killing of said villain, who is a SHAPE-SHIFTING MASTER OF DARKNESS type btw, would do disastrous things to the world's pre-established "lifestream" afterlife. The thing is, this is another instance which I feel all that would do is piss the player off.

If it weren't for me worrying for the preferences of the player, this would not be a problem at all. And I am pretty much done with combat in the campaign anyway.

>>53227274
That's why I like running Fate, I never roll the dice but let the players handle it all.

>>53227509
I'm been thinking of testing FATE out, but I'm one of them people that prefers to play a system before I GM it.

>>53224619
Plan big fight against a baddie so cybered up not a soul would dare question what lengths the foe would go to. Most of the nervous system was dedicated to processing a relay between a satellite based super weapon and what used to be their arm. The single shot fired to announce their presence shaved a few inches off every building for several miles in a bad way.

One shot with a thrown knife to the back of the head. Player rolled damage so high there was no chance of survival, it wasn't an appropriate baddie to provide with the sorts of abilities that could mitigate that.

Anticlimax was a theme with that game's baddies.

>>53227697
>>53226236
Seems like this appears to be a problem beyond system, yet the player insists that MnM 3e isn't "meant for bosses"...fuck my life.

>>53227789
Ah I should have noted that >>53227697
was in savage worlds, though I have been told its super's book is M&M lite.

>>53227802
Eh, either way, there are just some players that can't be satisfied as much as I don't hold anything them (which is why we have just switched to what is essentially freeform roleplay for the campaign conclusion). Boss fight take 5 rounds and actually resists things/adapts with immunities? Slog and "unfair"/metagaming GM. Boss fights end up a favoring the players by a significant margin? Anti-climatic/curbstomp.

Not in MnM, but my campaign had the PC group being followed by the final boss in a sneaky sneak cloak, with the party getting secret passive perception checks every so often so that they occasionally got glances of a blurred figure watching from the treeline.

Naturally one of the PCs rolls 3 crits in a row to draw his gun and shoot her in the fucking torso for like 150 damage.

>>53227789
M and M is totally meant for bosses. It's specifically designed to recreate superhero fights.

I think you should put it on the backburner and run something else, I think the real issue is there's a level of fatigue afflicting you and the player and you need to switch it up with something radically different

>>53224619
That's what chance does, anon. I'm sure you've seen coward loser enemies in media before.

>>53225370
>roll behind the screen
>get accused of exaggerating or fudging
>roll in the open
>get accused of making overpowered villains and intentionally trying to kill the players
I left and found a new group to DM for.

>>53224619
>>53233981
>>53234019
To further elaborate on what happened:

>Player gets upset that a villain seems to be causing trouble she cannot prevent (I actually planned on allowing her to stop the capture of her paretns, but I already had her battle two very tough enemies...that didn't damage her at all but lasted a little while) and frustration has her just accepting her character's death once the villain confronts her PC directly.
>Boss is meant to be really hard, but I even offer her a way she'll avoid dying in case the worst comes to shove.
>However, also get the idea of her captured hero parents managing to get themselves free and jump into the fight
>Said parents end up being the biggest reason why the villain gets sent straight into the Stunned and Disabled condition (That's what I get for having the Mom target the boss's Dodge of whopping 0 and combining power attack and multi-attack for a Affliction 20 power).
>The PC's 2 crab kaiju minion swarms (Who have a Variable Condition Affliction 18) attack and send her straight to the Transformed Condition
>Also forget to roll Overcome checks
>Also miscalculated the Affliction to succeed 3 degree instead of just 2
>Also had the boss have immunity to anything mystic, so that would have including psionics if I wasn't being nice
>Also could have easily let the villain get away and throw in two more powerful minions of her own, but I purposely let the villain stay around for a window of opportunity for the PC to stop it.
>This is when the PC uses her Tide Swaying Speech Luck Control as a basis for an affliction thanks to my suggestion.
>This is when the villain stops in her tracks and the girlfriend zaps the big bad mentally to oblivion.