Gotham Nights: Column Shifts and Why They Matter More Than You Think

Column shift rules. Been thinking about them as I was looking through the book this past weekend for the podcast.

 

This is the heart of the system, without it, it would make games boring.. and frankly why would you want to skip using them?

In the DC Heroes RPG, every Dice Action goes through the Action Table and the Result Table. You compare your Acting Value to their Opposing Value, you roll, you get a Success Number. If you roll higher than that… you start shifting columns.  

“Move your finger across the row. Each move to the right that’s lower than your dice total is a Column Shift.” (p. 85)

I remember back when I was young teen playing, I treated those shifts like a little bonus. +1 or +2 RAPS here and there. But after a few sessions, I realized they make or break the game’s tension. Shifts are how a normal hit becomes a knockout. Shifts are how Batman landing a punch on Deadshot actually matters. Without them, you can hit all day and watch the N’s on the Result Table laugh at you.

I vaguely remember running the solo Gotham City scenario twice. First time, I didn’t sweat the shifts. I hit the thief, did 0 RAPS. Hit him again, still 0 RAPS. It felt like punching air. Then I re-read the column shift section and played again… suddenly Nightwing style fights made sense. Rolling 19 against an 11 Success Number gave three shifts, enough to drop the thief in a single phase. Hey I was a kid!

I noticed something else. Shifts create swing. Big rolls go from “hit him” to “slam him into the wall and he’s out.” Low rolls leave you flailing. It’s a built-in pacing tool. Small hits keep the fight moving… big hits end scenes.

Hero Points live here too. Spending them on Acting Value isn’t just about success… it’s about breaking into the Shift Zone. Hitting that first 11 threshold flips the table in your favor. I started thinking of Hero Points like column shift tokens. Not for survival. For control.

And there’s a subtle rhythm to it in team fights. If you’re doing a Team Attack and everyone piles on, each successful attack can be minor… but one player hits the sweet spot and their shifts do the work. The others are just tilting the math.

Just my random thought of the day for my blog readers.

out.