How is an emptied Doom Pool handled?

Question

I occasionally get overzealous spending dice from the doom pool, occasionally spending every last die. I don't recall any rules for handling the "emptying" of the doom pool, where there are no dice left after a given roll.

Is there a way to handle this situation? Is there something I'm doing incorrectly that leads the game into this state, some rule I've forgotten to apply that prevents the doom pool from ever running empty?

Answer 1

There's nothing special about an empty Doom Pool, i.e. no special rules for dealing with it, other than the players are rolling uncontested in some cases.

As for how to keep it from emptying, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. You can always toss a Watcher character's effect die from a successful action into the Doom Pool [OM15], rather than inflicting stress or complications on the player chars. Narratively, the Watcher character is amping up the local chaos, e.g. stiring up angry crowds, starting fires, collapsing buildings, setting off alarms, etc.
2. When you add a Doom Die to a Watcher character die pool, you can pay a Plot Point to any players whose characters were targeted for effects from that roll and put the Doom Die back into the Doom Pool when you're done [OM16]. This is a great way to engage the Plot Point mechanics when your players aren't rolling ones. It's also a very economical way to get the most out of those large Doom Pool dice (d10's and d12's).
3. Add flunkies. Villain sidekicks, weak mobs of henchmen, and nasty pets are great narrative fodder and give the heroes something to smash to make them feel powerful, but they're also a great resource for Doom Pool building. Be sure to take a d4 Distinction on their rolls for a d6 or to step up the lowest Doom Pool die. If your DP gets low, throw their effect die into the DP on a success (in this genre, flunkies always seem to send more ordinance into the scenery than the heroes anyway).

Answer 2

If the Doom Pool is empty, it probably means you're leaning hard on the players, taking actions to ensure the success of your Watcher characters. You might consider activating some limits on your characters to replenish the pool or spending some effect dice to make things worse rather than doing damage or whatnot. (OM15)

As for what you might be doing incorrectly: Don't forget to activate player Opportunities when they come up, and remember that just rolling the Doom Pool as Opposition doesn't burn dice. (OM18)