Vulnerabilities

[Vaxalon]

How would vulnerabilities be handled in Capes?  They're an extremely common trope in superhero comics.

If Capes doesn't already handle it mechanically, I have an idea for how it could be done:

On the character sheet, take the highest numbered heroic ability (whether it's a power or a style) and create a new stat for the vulnerability, with the same number (so if your highest heroic ability is a 5, your vulnerability is a 5).

In a conflict, if someone uses your vulnerability against you, they can use your vulnerability to roll down one of your dice, if it's equal to or lower than the vulnerability's rating.

[TonyLB]

I create and use vulnerabilities in three ways.

First, it's an excuse to lose a conflict you want to lose.  So if I'm keen to lost a conflict that my character is keen to win, I just drag in his vulnerability to give him an in-character "out" to not roll it up.  "Of course, under normal circumstances, I'd pummel Lex Luthor from here to next sunday, but he's got that dratted kryptonite... sorry, nothing I can do, can't be helped.  Maybe next time!"

Second, you can use it as an ability by overcoming it.  So, for instance, Zak (my simian nature-boy) has Preternaturally Keen Senses.  I can use this as "He hears something that helps him" or I can use it as "The sounds of battle are practically splitting his head open, but he rises above that hardship to kick butt!"

Third, a player who wants to make your life particularly miserable can create your vulnerability as a character and play it in a scene.

I've tried all three, and I find them very useful, in different circumstances (obviously).

[Vaxalon]

Creating a vulnerability as a character!?  Ooh, how would that work?  Is it a non-person character?

[TonyLB]

Yep.  Non-person character... either an actual object or situation, or the general phenomenon of their vulnerability.

Like, "Big Hunk of Kryptonite", with abilities like "Glow menacingly", and "Superman gets all faint and pathetic," and "If only you had some lead... but you don't," and "Just out of reach... SUCKER!"

FWIW, I've already seen this in our wednesday game.  Lord Ronan Ransom ("Knave of Hearts") has a long and storied history at our time-travel organization, dating back to his working along-side its since-vanished founder, Tempus.  But Ransom has serious, ongoing doubts about what Tempus was after, whether Ransom himself is living up to Tempus's ideals, whether he wants to live up to those ideals, etc.

So Eric (Ransom's player) created a character "Tempus's Shadowy Legacy", with abilities like "Tempus wouldn't agree with that decision", and took it as an Exemplar for Ransom.  Sydney and I constantly bring it into scenes in order to hobble the character, and make it harder for him to make decisions with any certainty.  If that's not a vulnerability, I don't know what is.

[Vaxalon]

Dude, that needs to go in the next version of the book.  

BIGTIME.

[Vaxalon]

If a non-person character is an exemplar, can it get two free conflicts?  One for the option related to a non-person character, and one as the exemplar conflict?  The first would be playable whether the exemplar's main character is present or not, and the second only if both are present.

[TonyLB]

Yep.  If you sacrifice one of its columns of abilities for a Free Conflict then you can have that one and the one it gets for the Exemplar relationship.

[Vaxalon]

Sweet.  Kosmik Ray is definitely getting one of those.

[Sydney Freedberg]

Although if your Exemplar of something is a big glowing rock... I dunno, I'm not sure how emotionally engaging that is. "Oh no! The rock is going to fall and... uh... maybe get chipped." It just doesn't thrill the soul like "Oh no! Jenny/Little Timmy/Fido is going to fall and get splatted!" Even "shadowy presence of Tempus" works because at some level it's about a person, even if they're not there.

And you really want people to care about your Exemplars, so that they'll invest Debt in screwing them over, so that you can lose and get Story Tokens.

[Vaxalon]

So an exemplar has to be something that can be threatened?  I didn't read it that way at all.   An exemplar can't be something that threatens the super, or fascinates him?  An exemplar can't be (a la Electra and Daredevil) another super, with whom the character has a conflicted relationship?

[TonyLB]

I think that all it really needs is to have a root conflict based in the emotions of the character.

For example:  Kryptonite,  Exemplar of Hope,  Recurring Conflict "Event:  Superman remembers that he can never go home again."

Does that inspire him to more fully appreciate earth as his new home?  Or does it throw him into despair, convincing him that he will never have a home?  Well that depends how it resolves, doesn't it?

[Sydney Freedberg]

I've been pondering this, because the "kryptonite as stand-in for your lost homeworld" is a cool example, but...

Still. A. Rock.

Yeah, you can come up with a neat Exemplar Conflict for one that has emotional resonance; but it's much harder to come up with any other conflicts than for a person. If your Exemplar's a person, it opens up a whole array of other emotionally interesting conflicts: "Goal: Your enemy falls in love with you"; "Goal: Your love interest falls in love with your enemy"; "Event: Your enemy is about to fall to his death" (remember, Batman & Superman can't let their foes die); "Goal: Get your kid brother a date"; etc. ad infinitum. Just by the fact that the Exemplar's a person, it can interact in all sorts of interesting ways beyond the defined recurring conflict. The rock can't.

[Vaxalon]

How do you feel about non-person characters in general, Sydney?  Personally, I think it's an innovative and fascinating mechanic, that I plan on using.

[TonyLB]

First, let me see that I totally see what you're saying, Sydney, and I agree.  There's less play in the Exemplar.  Which isn't to say that it won't be good it just won't be as good as something else might be.

And now, I must descend into utter geekiness, and point out that Kryptonite comes in a rainbow of colors, each of which has the option to create entirely different conflicts, above and beyond the root conflict of the element as a general class.

Which, really, isn't a response to your valid point... just something that needed to be said.

As a response, however:  Do you think that the Exemplar as a tool is expanded if it is shared by another player?  Like if a villain is Kryptonite-powered?

[Vaxalon]

When I created the "handwavium" for the Capes game I'm organizing on IRC, I made sure that it would be something that would have implications for any sort of super.