Fantastic Four (with movie spoilers)

[Tony Irwin]

I just saw Fantastic Four and I'm all super-heroed up.

There's a gorgeous scene where Ben Grimm's fiance dumps him wordlessly, taking off her ring, placing it on the ground, and backing away into the crowd. Ben goes from together with his fiance to alone. Can things get any worse? Yep - his orange brick fingers are too meaty too even pick up the tiny ring from the ground and he fumbles helplessly.

Then his buddy Reed Richards steps in and picks up the ring for him. He holds it in his trembling hand saying "I swear to you Ben, I will do everything within my power..." Reed goes from perplexed and guilty about the cosmic mutations to determined and passionate about finding an answer.

What a great scene - two major turning points for two different characters. Ben goes from postive to double negative spurring Reed to go from negative to double positive, and that kicks in the next series of scenes: "Finding a cure"

I don't own any of the WGP downloads but I read all the actual play threads and lurk on this board. Can you whet my tongue? How would WGP play out the above scene?

PS: The comic strip art preview looks fantastic and puts my laughable Shoujo Story comic strip rules (also inspired by what that Kitowski fellow is up to) to shame. Thank goodness there's no way I can link to them just now.

PPS: Is it time for me to spend some money on what's out there, or will the finished version be out soon?

PPPS: M.M.M.

Tony

[Michael S. Miller]

Face Front, Tony!

Simple question first: The complete first edition of With Great Power... is at the printer right now. It will be available at GenCon. As far as post GenCon, I have not yet decided whether to go with Indie Press Revolution, or handle my own fulfillment. I'm weighing my options and I'll make that decision before GenCon, certainly. In either case, it should be available via mail order by the end of August. The game will also be available in PDF form, but not until the autumn.

I, too, liked that great scene on the bridge. Probably the best scene in the movie, actually. In WGP... you'd handle that kind of thing as changing in the Suffering level of an Aspect during an enrichment scene. Ben would have an Aspect called "Relationship--Family--Debs." Ben's player would set up the enrichment scene right on the heels of the big conflict scene (in this case the conflict was hero v. accident rather than hero v. villain). He'd choose his Relationship Aspect and increase the Suffering of it (Suffering is kinda like damage) and get to describe how that manifests in the imaginary comic book. In this case, Ben's player describes it as "Debs can't stand the sight of me. She runs away, without her wedding ring."

Ben's player would also have Stakes for the scene: What he wants to get out of it. His stakes might be "If I win, she walks up to me and hands me the ring, saying she can't go through with it any more." Then, the GM sets the Stakes for the opposition, something like: "If I win, not only does she drop the ring to the ground and flee, but you can't even pick it up with your rocky fingers."

Reed would be a fellow hero in the same enrichment scene. He might have an Aspect called "Motivation--Duty--Find a Cure" He's also increasing its Suffering (by introducing it to the story). His Stakes for that scene might center around whether Ben believes him, or lashes out at him for making them all into freaks. Sue's Stakes center on the press conference and how the media interpret their situation. So do Johnny's, actually.

Oh, and if the FF movie were a WGP game, Dr. Doom would have a REAL villainous Plan rather than "hurt the Fantastic Four." The real Victor von Doom would not brook such small-minded schemes!

[Tony Irwin]

Sounds great, I'll watch for announcements about mail order availability. Good luck at GenCon

Tony