[Capes!] Brawl at the Taffy Factory

[Gamskee]

I had recently purchased Capes! and my campus gaming club was meeting this Tuesday, so I had planned to get them to sit down and give Capes! a shot. Worth noting is that many of them have a hard time doing something serious in any RPG setting, and hadsomehow immediately got the impression that Capes! was not a very serious game. What I hadn't counted on was that more people showed up than I had expected, making it a seven player game.

I let my friend Player N set the first scene. He really, really wanted to have a big battle at a Taffy factory, and briefly described it before he picked up Dark Eyes the Ninja Master. I picked up some ninja thugs I had created earlier, while everyone else in the group was playing Supers of one type or another, though one was an unconnected villain.

Heres a rough breakdown of the one and only scene we played.

Characters:
Player N- Dark Eyes the Ninja Master
Player S(Me)- Ninjas!
Player C- Jake, a Godling Crusader
Player J- Snare, the Neurotic Hunter
Player M- Lim Do, Dali Lamma master of martial arts
Player E- Boy Genius, Identity Thief
Player W- Snowboarder 133, Livejournal keeping superspeedster

Scene 1:
   Page 1
      Goal :Poison Taffy is introduced
      Goal: Arrest Ninjas comes into Play
      Goal: Destroy Taffy Factory Introduced
   Page 2
      Goal: Get away with Bank Records introduced
      Poison Taffy Resolves (Ninjas Win)
      Arrest Ninjas Resolves (Ninjas win)
      Destroy Taffy Factory Resolves (Lim Do wins)
   Page 3
      Goal: Lim Do fights Dark Eyes in Mortal Kombat introduced
      Goal: Trick Billy into Eating Poison taffy introduced
   Page 4
      Goal: Mortal Kombat resolves (Lim Do loses, due to ninja interference since Ninjas claimed)
      Goal: Trick Billy resolves(Dark Eyes wins, poison safely in Billy's pocket to be devoured at leisure)
      Goal: Get Away with Money resolves(Snare and Jake win, Boy Genius loses, also due to ninja interference- "Never use a ninja as a distraction- without paying him first.")            
      Boy Geniuses Player gets seven story tokens, first awarded in the game
      Snowboarder 133 gets 3 story tokens Dark Eyes put on Trick Billy
   Scene End

The game was actually a blast, partially due to how silly it was, but partially to something else. A great deal of odd reasoning had been used as to why anyone was at the taffy factory, including a superpowered delivery of taffy to the mayor of the city.
The heroes were immediately on the rocks, through a series of very bad rolls. Double debt mess them up pretty bad. Debt was getting used mostly because I kept rolling sixes as the ninjas. Cursed luck, I just wanted some story tokens... most of the time I still won the conflict.

Despite the luck, and the slowness of the game due to reactions for seven people(though this sped up when peopel realized they didn't really need to react all the time), the session went pretty well. A few people started to kind of get into it near the end, when the heroes stopped the Boy Genius from making of with the banking data for identity theft. Debt was all over that goal, which was an accidental stroke of genius on the players part. Player E could have easily just took the data and ran, but instead made it a goal after two heroes had failed to stop a previous crime and were loaded with debt. I even attacked him, mostly for the chance to spout a cool line about not messing with ninjas. He seemed kind of confused when he netted the seven story tokens. I hope we can play again so he gets a chance to use them. As far as supers games go, I've seen few less chaotic, but this was very fun.

Snowboarder 133 was planning on sullying Dark Eyes name in the next scene with a particularly nasty website he was about to cookup. It made me happy to see that ire had been inspired by the Ninjamaster.

It is likely that we will play the game again, as everyone seemed to enjoy it, though not likely on any regular basis. My favorite moment was when I saw a look on player M's face that suggested that he had just gotten it-that he saw how the system could be more than just goofing around. I think mostly he was excited by the fact he could make any kind of goal he wanted.

I am curious on one mechanic, that being how much debt can be staked on a given conflict? Is it unlimited, or only equal to your drive, or some other limit?

[Eric Sedlacek]

I am curious on one mechanic, that being how much debt can be staked on a given conflict? Is it unlimited, or only equal to your drive, or some other limit?

The limit is equal to the drive, and each character can only stake from a single drive on each conflict.

[Sydney Freedberg]

And definitely try playing again in the same storyline, because once you've accumulated a bunch of Inspirations, Story Tokens, and Debt, the game takes on new depth. Capes starts very easily (click-and-lock, throw out first Goal, go!) but it also builds nicely.

Also, yay ninjas.

[TonyLB]

This was a terrific post overall, and sounds like a fun (and frenetic) game to have played.  My hands-down favorite bit, however, is this:

He seemed kind of confused when he netted the seven story tokens.

I am so there with him in terms of understanding that emotion.  I distinctly remember, especially during late playtesting, suddenly being handed all these tokens and realizing "Oh my... I just did something very right.  And I have NO idea what it was."  That was followed by the immensely frustrating (and enlightening) times immediately after that, when I tried to make lightning strike a second time, and it all fizzled on me, while other people raked in the rewards.

Still happens to me, even today.  It can be so maddening.  "This is virtually identical to the threat that netted me seven story tokens last week.  Today it's getting me nothing.  What on earth am I doing wrong?" is alternated with "What?  People care about that?  I only put that out on a whim.  Why on earth do they care about that?  What the hell is going on in these people's heads?"

Wow.  I'm managing to make my own game sound like some obscure existential mind-torture.  How's that for salesmanship?

[Gamskee]

"Oh my... I just did something very right.  And I have NO idea what it was."

That really sums up what seemed to be going through in his head. I don't think he yet understood that character loss could be player victory, nor did he understand how he won so big. See, he was really trying to get away, and it seemed to him as if he was getting ganged up on. He even said at one point "Could somebody help me?". I actually decided to hit him (rolling up the oppositions one to a six and even using an inspiration)
1) because it made all of the villainous victories that round NINJA victories
2) Feeling a little used for providing his distraction and
3) Feeling bad for the two players who were about to get double debt handed back to them for the second time in a row. But all that was really doing was putting a lot of story tokens directly in his pocket.

I have started thinking about playing this same storyline again, and as I have the next scene to set, hoping we take some time to generate Exemplars. Those free Conflicts don't seem too important when you have story tokens to burn, but at the beginning of the game, it would be really nice to put some conflicts into play and still retain an action. I've been taking down a list of likely goals and tactics to use in the future, as well as some plot threads, most based on the characters already featured, the events as they have broken down, and a little psychological warfare based on knowing the players.

If another session occurs, I'll be sure to write up the results here,

[Vaxalon]

... it would be really nice to put some conflicts into play and still retain an action.

My play experience with Capes is admittedly limited, but it always seemed to me that there weren't enough opportunities to play goals in the beginning of scenes.  I wonder what the game would be like, if each character that entered the game, automatically got a free goal to express his purpose in the scene?

[TonyLB]

Fred/Vaxalon:  You could also view the opening Conflict as one of the perks of having Story Tokens, and work within the system to get them.  If you're keen on your notion though, why not make a separate thread, rather than hijacking discussion of this Actual Play?

Gamskee:  The list you're making (plot threads, psychological warfare, etc.) is precisely what I do, myself, when preparing for a game of Capes.  I'd be fascinated to hear whether you think you're putting more or less thought into prep work for the hypothetical second session of Capes than you would for a more traditional game where you were the GM and had sole power to decide on major plot and game-world elements.  I find myself putting in much more work for Capes, but that's because I was really, really lax as a plot-driven GM.

[Eric Sedlacek]

I find myself putting in much more work for Capes, but that's because I was really, really lax as a plot-driven GM.

I'm often the other extreme, just showing up and going where the flow takes me.  I've found that having too much of a plan can be bad since the other players are inevitably going to derail parts of it, if not all of it.  That is actually what I like about the game, its unerring ability to produce something unexpected.

My only real prep work is when I know I am likely to be framing a scene during the session.   I think about what I may want to do with my scene...but if I am not first up, that can go out the window really quickly too.

[Gamskee]

To be honest, I'm doing a lot less work for Capes as I am currently planning to run a homebrew of my own design. I think its because I don't have to plan on providing as much as I would in a traditional GM game. If I run out of material, I can almost be sure in Capes that someone else will be happy to provide it.  That, and strategizing for Capes is not agonizing- its fun. Ideas I have never been short on, but time to assign all the stats for them and make sure that there is enough for everyone to do? That kind of planning takes more time and a lot of readjustment whenever it changes.

Most of what I have been planning for Capes was driven by excitement from the initial game. Like many things, anticipation generally makes it all the sweeter when I get what I want, and I've wanted to play Capes before it even came out... though it was honestly almost unintelligible, so it has obviously come a long ways.

So, while I was bored, ideas for the next game that might never come were bubbling in my brain. They were written down for when that next game comes, which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.