Is Capes Good For...

[dunlaing]

Is Capes good for two-player play?

Is Capes good as a pick-up game or one-shot?

If so, why? If not, why not and are there any specific rules changes that would make it good for that thing (such as having one player start off with Debt when playing as a pick-up game or one-shot)?

I met up with someone yesterday to play a different game, but not enough people showed up (only two of us were there). We thought about doing something else, but had trouble thinking of something good for two players who don't know each other well enough for that icebreaking game. We started to try Sorcerer ...& Sword, but we didn't have a good handle on what we wanted Humanity to be. For some reason, Capes never came up, but as I was heading home I thought of it and couldn't think of a reason why not. It occured to me that maybe it's not good for that situation, and thought I'd ask here to see if anyone else knows if it is or isn't.

[TonyLB]

Is Capes good for two-player play?

It's really not.  I won't even run demoes for one other person.  I'll draft somebody from the crowd.  The problem with two player play is that the core of the game is Player A competing with Player B to see who is most entertaining to Player C.  Without Player C, what you discover is "Well, yes, Player A ... you are the most entertaining other person at the table.  Also the least entertaining other person at the table.  So I guess you get the resources, no matter how you perform."  The major choice of the game (Player C judging between the contributions of A and B) gets gutted.

Is Capes good as a pick-up game or one-shot?

Very much so.  The rapid prototyping of iconic characters gives everyone something to latch on to, and the reinforcement of social rewards ("Hey, that was cool!") with mechanical rewards (Story Tokens) forges a quick but effective social contract even among people who don't know each other a't'all. 

I find that it benefits from having someone willing to play a character who is really over-the-top obnoxious, so that folks can beat on him ("I, Major Victory, am a SYMBOL!  In these troubled times, people need me to remind them that America stands for JUSTICE!  And Justice will always lead ... to VICTORY!")  Then they have an absolute blast playing kickball with some poor slob, who then gets loaded down with Debt and Story Tokens and takes his sweet, sweet revenge.  That in turn leads to further revenge, and you get a fun (if unsustainable) whirlwind of escalation and amiable abuse.  If nobody's willing to get that whirlwind going then the game can flounder, but once everyone understands the danger and benefit of going over-the-top, they tend to take to it really strongly.

I met up with someone yesterday to play a different game, but not enough people showed up (only two of us were there). We thought about doing something else, but had trouble thinking of something good for two players who don't know each other well enough for that icebreaking game. We started to try Sorcerer ...& Sword, but we didn't have a good handle on what we wanted Humanity to be. For some reason, Capes never came up, but as I was heading home I thought of it and couldn't think of a reason why not. It occured to me that maybe it's not good for that situation, and thought I'd ask here to see if anyone else knows if it is or isn't.

The person you met up with is wise in the ways of Capes.  He is also handsome and well-liked.  He is, however, really bad at attracting enough gamers to his table.

[Bret Gillan]

Tony covered it, but I've run many successful Capes one-shots! In fact, I can't think of a single UNSUCCESSFUL one-shot. I'm sure it would be just as successful in a campaign, but I have yet to find out.

[MooseHole]

I learned this game with 2 other people, so we had 3 player games most of the time.  Last night only one of the people were available, so I played with him only, for a 2 player game.  The first scene was pretty boring, just 2 characters trying to kill eachother for the most part.  However, I made sure other stuff happened in the next scene by introducing another character using a story token, and he did the same.  We were able to create a few moral quandries that way so it was better.  I'd say 3 player games are still better than 2, though.