Heroes: new show on NBC, mondays, 9PM

[Sindyr]

Guys - i don't think that this is entirely off-topic.  This show is all about the same heart that Capes is about - without the costumes.

And I need to say something.

After watching the first two episodes, this show is now my favorite show currently on by FAR.  The first episode made me wonder if the show could really be this good - and the second episode answered that question.

It really is this good.  It is smart, amazing, inspirational, real, and at times even funny and joyful.

It is available for download on iTunes and it is on TV at 9PM on Mondays.

You *gotta* watch it. *Please* watch this show - I don't want it to be cancelled!

That is all. Thanks.

[Sindyr]

PS - If you like find yourself loving this show as much as I do, then please tell everyone you can to watch it as well.  I want to see this show go on for *years* - and so will you. ;)

[Sindyr]

PPS:
Apparently, you can watch the last aired episode in FULL at the nbc website!  The link is here:
http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/?show=heroes
You do have to watch a 30 second commercial first, but it's VERY worth it.

Spread the word!

[Matthew Glover]

I'll second this.  So far I've been liking Heroes quite a bit.  I'm not convinced it's the best show of the new season (never mind best show on television), but it's one that I make sure I don't miss.

[Sindyr]

At this point I have seen 5 episodes (4 of which are available on iTunes and the most recent is watchable at nbc.com) and it is only getting better and better.  This is fast becoming for me not just the best new show this season but one of the top five or ten best shows ever!

I cannot recommend this highly enough.  I believe that if the average person watches two episodes of this show in a row, they'll be hooked.

Save the cheerleader, save the world!

[Sindyr]

By the way, not only is Heroes playing every Monday on NBC at 9pm (and itunes store, and nbc.com) but it is also rerun every Friday at 8PM on the SciFi channel (as I understand it).

Bon appetit.

[epweissengruber]

I haven't seen the show but I know the premise.

So to you fans of the show ---

how could it be brought into CAPES how could a Heroes-like situation work in CAPES.

If they are normals they don't have debt-creating powers.

Is it possible for a CAPES character to pass from mundane to super in a series of stages?

Is gradual character "advancement" possible in CAPES

[Hans]

I personally love the show, and since it is on Monday nights here in Canada right after the new season episode of Doctor Who, Monday nights are pretty much TV heaven for me.

In the show, the various super-powered characters seem to have their abilities completely from the beginning, but are learning how to use them over time, learning their parameters and limits, etc. 

Translating this to Capes, here is a suggestion for a kind of "developing" Capes, where the characters all sort of get their powers at once, and then work through the consequences to themselves and to the world.  Its inspired by some ideas Bret had in his Capes-based Gods playtest rules and some independent thought after our own Capes in Mississauga run, which had some similar premises.

* Before the first scene starts, each player comes up with one spotlight "protagonist" character and one "antogonist" character.  This is done in a group setting, all around the table.  What "protagonist" and "antogonist" actually mean is sort of up to the players, but I suggest that, thinking for a moment about the fiction you are about to create as a comic book, the simple rule would be that a "protagonist" character is a character the reader would generally root for, would generally want to see come out on top, while an "antagonist" character is a character the reader would generally not like much, or be suspicious of, or want to fail ultimately (although not necessarily in the short run).  This is only indirectly related to right and wrong or good and evil.  Each character must have at least one antagonist and one protagonist as an exemplar (so therefore, the game probably needs at least 4 people).

* The comics code is progressive, based on power level.  At the beginning, in the first few scenes, the code would say something like "No character can create anything more than a token miraculous effect."  This means that while the character have powers on their sheets, they actually cannot use those powers normally yet.  I might have "Flight" on my sheet, but in the first few scenes, I cannot describe my character doing anything more than big jumps or momentary hovers.  After each scene, the players all vote on whether it is time to notch the code up; from "token effect" to "mild", from "mild" to "noteworthy", from "noteworthy" to "impressive", from "impressive" to "fantastical", from "fantastical" to "Earth-shattering".  I personally hate the terms I am using here, and a lot of thought, I think, would need to go into defining them, or some kind of voting/consensus process in place to work through them in play, but I think you get the idea.

* No player can change their own spotlight character sheet.  They can make up new, non-spotlight characters all they want, but they cannot make a new sheet that directly represents their primary character.

* OTHER players CAN change a spotlight character sheet.  A player can suggest an alteration to the wording of a power, style, or attitude, of another player's spotlight character at the end of any scene, based on what happened in that scene.  The suggested change can either be an alteration along the same lines of the current wording of the item, or it can be the complete opposite of the current wording, but cannot be something unrelated to the current wording.  All other players vote/agree on the change.  The owner of that character can veto the change.  I might have "Flight" on my character sheet, and at the end of a scene another player might propose that this should become "Supersonic Flight", or "Uncontrolled Flight", or "Never touches the ground" or something along those lines.  Or, I might have "Calm" on my character sheet, and another player might suggest it change to "Serene", "Unflappable", "Controlled", "Restrained", or, alternatively, "Angry", but couldn't suggest "Intellectual" or "Sensuous" as a replacement.

* There should also be a process about changing exemplar relationships; either temporarily suspending the code provision about exemplar relationships not being resolved for a scene, or similar.

Thats my contribution.

That could be fun to play around with.

[Sindyr]

Wow, that's a lot of interesting ideas to chew on.  If you wind up running this, let us know how it went. :)