[Capes] The Problem of Evil

[Bob McNamee]

Just found these Capes threads...

Cool stuff, I've been looking for a good Super's system for a while.

Love the example of play, even if I'm not quite sure on the mechanics (haven't read the webpage yet, but have read the recent threads).

This generates a type of play I find really cool, and not common at all in other games.

I'm really excited about seeing this game. It could be what I'm looking for!

Supers RPG with a brain, and heart.

[LordSmerf]

I just thought of an interesting alternative rule for Inspiration.  Instead of supplying the number of Wonder Points spent in dice, supply a number of dice equal to the number that you didn't roll...  This will also encourage people not to roll all of their dice.  This might be too powerful though, and you might need to  balance it by making Inspiration a higher Level Wonder.

Thomas

[Marhault]

Just a few comments:

1)  Capes kicks ass!  I can't wait to try it.

2)  Not to drift the thread off the topic of villainous drives, but I agree with LordSmerf.  There's no reason, statistical or strategic (as yet), not to roll all your dice.  What about having a maximum number of dice that can be rolled per "round"?  (3 the first round, 6, the second, etc.)  That way the fight builds from the little hits to the major overkill instead of the other way around.  Although you probably would prefer something that encourages rather than forces, that kind of play, right Tony?  Just thinking. . .

3)  Back to the topic of Drives, I find the earlier version of the interlaced drives (the one with the chart, rather than the wheel) to be easier to understand.  The Drive Wheel sure does look nice though.

4)  The conflicted / villainous drives are very cool, but I wonder if having a backdoor for heroes to be nonheroic will damage the kind of play you're shooting for?  Someone like Spider-Guy never just gives up on, say, Love, ("I don't care about Love, I only care about Respect") but instead fights tooth and claw for it, even when it means being pounded senseless.  I say, either use this system solely for Villain creation, or don't allow players to change drives after Chargen (which would allow for some cool conflicted, Antihero types).

I have some more questions, etc. about the text, but that'll have to wait 'til later.

[TonyLB]

I had thought that the new "Strength Through Adversity" Wonder Effect I put in at level 3 would give a statistical reason for holding back some of your dice pool.  At least it seemed to do that in practice in the playtest.

I agree that the conflicted drives are cool, but shouldn't go in the system.  Indeed, I've decided they aren't going into the system.

The rules have changed to address some of the issues of the thread, but it's hard for me to communicate whether an issue is still open in my mind, or whether I think I've addressed it.  I'm going to start a new thread discussing some of the issues of the playtest.  Mostly, I must admit, that's to give us a clean slate for discussion.