Rules For Your Iconic Moment
Rather than being changed by the world, iconic heroes change the world, reimposing order on it by taking actions that recapitulate their individual ethoses.
To play an iconic hero, you must be reasonably assured that the world will bend to your will when your PC recapitulates his ethos.
You probably don’t want it to be guaranteed, as this undermines the suspense and narrative uncertainty we get from use of the dice. But over time it should be happen way more often than not.
GMs can easily commandeer the existing rules from whatever systems they’re using to achieve this end. Given a convincing explanation of why an action fulfills the character’s iconic ethos:
- a D&D DM could grant the hero combat advantage or a free success in a skill challenge
- a GUMSHOE GM might provide dedicated pool points for the roll of a general ability, or a free benefit on an investigative ability use that would otherwise require a spend
- a HeroQuest GM could grant a bump up on the results chart, as if a hero point was spent
Bennies for invocation of your iconic ethos ought to be infrequent, which you can do by restricting them to major turning points or climactic sequences.
Iconic moments rules might be made to do heavier lifting for GMs by using them as spurs to interesting and plot-forwarding action. Whenever a PC takes an arguably risky action reflecting his iconic nature, he’s rewarded for a) keeping the story moving and b) behaving in a way that evokes the genre. He can then spend these to get his bonus during iconic moments. The more points he’s accumulated, the bigger the bang. By behaving in a genre-appropriate manner, he increases the odds that the world will likewise react according to genre rules when it really matters.