Horror Comics

[BeZurKur]

The horror genre of comics is as old (although, currently not as popular) as the supers genre.  However, with some of the darker supernatural heroes, particularly those of the 90's, such as Spawn, the boundaries between the two become blurred.  My gaming group is interested in playing one of these hybrid campaigns and I'm going to suggest Capes.

The Comics Code is going to need special attention, but what has me really wondering is how the Gloating rule will work.  The rule is great for a regular supers genre because it rewards the players for being villainous.  Can the Code and Gloating be modified to encourage the horrific? 

[TonyLB]

Well, at a first thought, I would recommend including (at least) the following lines to your Comics Code:

• Nobody and nothing can ever be made safe.
• Nothing lost can be regained without losing something of greater value.

Other folks may well have better recommendations.  I'm not enough of a horror-comic buff to feel it in my bones.  I know the Spawn only by reputation ... but I'm a fair hand at Swamp Thing and Hellblazer, which (if not horror) are certainly suspense.  These two Code-entries seem (to me) to do a fair shake at providing reasons for tragic heroes to engage in hopelessly self-destructive quests that end up failing (or worse, succeeding).  And that's a good thing.

The one thing that I'm pretty sure you can't get the Capes rules to support is the notion of powerlessness that some horror genres (particularly zombie flicks) portray.  I don't know whether that's anything you're going for though, so maybe it's a non-issue.

[Sydney Freedberg]

Interesting. So for classic superheroes, the Comics Code stops the villains from making the world permanently worse, but gives them Story Tokens for trying and failing (through the Gloating rule); but for a dark genre, the Comics Code needs to stop the protagonists from making the world permanently better and reward them in Story Tokens for trying & failing. This goes beyond Horror, I think; e.g. a Comics Code might have "Elric of Melnibone never gets a clue."

The one thing that I'm pretty sure you can't get the Capes rules to support is the notion of powerlessness that some horror genres (particularly zombie flicks) portray. 

Good use of preventive goals can get you partway there, though: "Goal: Run away" or "Goal: Act bravely" or "Goal: Save anyone." (Of course, "no one ever outruns a zombie" might be a Comics Code line, too).

[Anders Gabrielsson]

My initial feeling is that gloating should work fine, as long as the comics code is appropriately written.

I suspect a horror Capes game will go through a lot of characters, though. ;)

To my group I've put forward Buffy as an example of a non-supers setting that would work well with Capes (not all of them are interested in superheroes), and I think more "regular" horror would work well too.

[BeZurKur]

Yeah, Gloating as a rule where you still are rewarded for attempting the impossible, still works.  I'm not trying to create the sense of powerlessness of horror.  Swamp Thing is a good example.  I think those add-ons to the comics code are right on.  Thanks.