Capes

[erik buchanan]

This is my first post, so please excuse any deviations from protocall. I'm not even sure if I can do a spell check on this forum, so hang on. I got the chance to play Capes at Dreamathon 2005. Characters included the wise martial artist, a young Magneto type, a speedster, a nuerotic brick(strong man not masonry) and my character, an alien shape shifter. Character creation was very simple, select a type of power and a personality type. Bam! Ready to roll. The actual game mechanics themselves were much more complicated. I never fully got the jist of them but was able to fake my way through it. Note that I didn't read the rules before hand which may have made a big difference. Basically characters took turns creating a scene which could be changed by other characters with a dice roll. This caused the plot to zig zag all over the place but in a good way. You know how the Simpsons cartoons start with one story arc but end up some where completely different? It is like that. As for the game itself- We were playing as session called framed in which the start of everything was the police barging into our superhero headquarters blaming on of us on a crime.We were able to convince them that we were inocent at which point we rushed off to a bank robbery in progress. One of the heroes swithced to villany, and much dice rolling went into getting him back but to no avail. Then a scene was propossed that my characters people were arriving at Earth to assimilate the planet a-la John Carpenters remake of the Thing. The ship sent down a gaint robot to serve me and the heroes summoned the military against me. See what I mean by how quickly the game changes? As the gaming slot was coming to an end, a bunch of soldiers whom I convinced to joined me ended up tricking me with a sneak attack( the wise martial artist rolled higher than me on this event). So what was my overall impression of the game? Despite not getting all the rules, I found it very fun. Very much like the party game were one person starts a story and someone runs with it, repeat. This is a game that forces you to think on your feet and if you're not a creative person, it will be hard to keep up. I look forward to the return of Plasma Collective Q in his revenge against Earth in a future adventure!

[TonyLB]

Ooh, we've moved on from justice to vengeance?  Innnnteresting.

I definitely saw the rapid focus-shifting that Eric is talking about.  Having played other games of Capes, I don't think it's the only possible way that the game can go, but it's definitely a possible way.

Part of what prompted it was, I think, that we had a lot of very creative people at the table, putting out story-ideas that would each, in themself, support a full session of play.  But we didn't have many full sessions of play, we had one... and even that was effectively shortened by people's unfamiliarity with the rules.

So what happened was that, for instance, the player of Gauss, young master of magnetism, said "It would be so cool to have him turn into a villain... oh jeez, I've only got four hours!  Turn him into a villain now!"  And we did, and it was great.

Then the other Eric (we had two... which helped ever so with the confusion) decided it would be cool to ty to save Gauss from a life of villainy.  And, again, that's something we could have played out forever, but we didn't have forever.  So they juiced it for everything it was worth in about half an hour.

And then there was Replicant, the aforementioned plasma-unity-alien-hero.  His "when my mothership arrives" rhetoric was clearly foreshadowing a future conflict.  But... no future, y'know?  Four hour game slot.  So Gauss's player has the mothership arrive now.

What I found interesting, from a mechanics perspective, was the question of whether you switch from a hero to a villain when you "switch sides".  

Gauss went to a different set of Drives, and it worked.  He really had turned over the morality of hope and obligation for that of despair and fear.

Replicant stuck with Hero drives, even while trying to convert all life on earth to a monotonous primal alien ooze.  He thought (and explained compellingly) that he was doing us all a favor.  It really was in the interest of Justice (or at least Order).

Gauss wondered whether he needed to convert back (since he wanted to fight the aliens) but he stuck with his despair and fear, and that worked fine too.  He was fighting the aliens for different reasons than everyone else, but his reasons were just as valid (to him).

This was the game at Dreamation, more than any, that I wish I could have had a lot more time with.  Capes always leaves me with the feeling of having eaten just one potato chip out of a bag, but it was particularly acute here:  These stories would have unfolded in a much more stately pace, I feel, if people hadn't been under such pressure to tell 'em or lose 'em.  And, as well, I think there is still much more of this story to be told.

[Doug Ruff]

I definitely saw the rapid focus-shifting that Eric is talking about.  Having played other games of Capes, I don't think it's the only possible way that the game can go, but it's definitely a possible way.

Part of what prompted it was, I think, that we had a lot of very creative people at the table, putting out story-ideas that would each, in themself, support a full session of play.  But we didn't have many full sessions of play, we had one... and even that was effectively shortened by people's unfamiliarity with the rules.

So what happened was that, for instance, the player of Gauss, young master of magnetism, said "It would be so cool to have him turn into a villain... oh jeez, I've only got four hours!  Turn him into a villain now!"  And we did, and it was great.

Tony,

I'm going to offer some unsolicited advice (again) - you need to find a way of using this type of experience to sell your game.

The fact that it is possible to cram an entire campaign worth of story into a single play session is not a flaw, it's a feature.

I'm sure you know that already, but have you realised the full marketing potential? Most gamers have a very limited amount of play time available, and are already committed to one or more existing campaigns and systems.

The idea that you can take this game and fit it into your existing gaming schedule with minimum effort and maximum story progression is a real selling point - it's the gaming equivalent of a Milky Bar (English reference:  "the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite.)

Of course, it can still be played to a more traditional timescale, but that isn't your USP. I strongly believe that Actual Play posts like this (and the demos that generate them) are what will sell more copies of your game.

[TonyLB]

Doug, that's totally worthy of being split off into the Muse of Fire forums for its own discussion.