[Capes-Lite] - RTFM

[Glendower]

RTFM - Read that fine manual.  Yes, that would have made this whole session a lot smoother. 

I'd like to first tell Tony that he made an amazing game with Capes.  What I don't want to tell him is how I mangled the rules and got horribly, horribly lost, to the amusement of my fellow players.  And this was with the Capes-Lite book, where I was led by the fricking hand.  This is going to be embarassing...

The Players:
Jon - Me.  I played a Gadgeteer bad guy named Omni-Ratchet.  He was a disgruntled mechanic turned renegade.
Dave - A good friend.  He played a bystander reporter named Kevin Kage.
Wes - Another friend.  He played a hero Mimic called Major Attraction, who seduced her enemies to justice.
Dan - Friend and brother of mine.  He played bad guy Grand Masta Disasta, a white boy trained in the Martial Arts and straight thugging. 

I started the scene with the example - Nova Labs, during the theft of the Hyper-Mega-Adamantine-Laser-Disrupter.  (much fun was had with the gadget names in the back of the book.  Great addition!)

I described a 6th grade field trip being menaced by the evil Omni Ratchet, and put up the first Goal, "Hurt Hostages" (as per the quick start). 

Dan was next, he had Grand Masta Disasta teamed up with Omni-Ratchet for all of 8 seconds, before he said, "hey, this laser is mine!"  And he put up the goal "Steal Laser".  So far so good. 

Dave then used one of his reporter abilities to roll one side of "hurt Hostages" I believe it was Pointed Question - "Do you actually intend to harm children in your crusade of evil?"

Now here's my first question.  By using an ability on one side of the conflict, and rolling, does that mean you claim that side? I wasn't sure on the rules for this.  I flipped through the pages of the book, couldn't find anything (I was flipping quickly) and decided that it didn't. 

Then we all reacted.  Dave first, he decided that the roll he had (2) wasn't quite good enough, so he reacted with using another ability, I belive it was Fast Talk - And rolled a 4.  ("You know that harming children will mean they won't rest until you're behind bars or in the ground.  Let us go and take your damn trinket.")

Second reaction was Wes, who elected not to react.  I then reacted, and used Logical to try to roll it down.  I was called out by the other players as logical was too low to beat the 4.  Again, reading comprehension is not my strong suit.  I passed.  Then Dan for last reaction, who opted to use his Precision Strikes to intimidate the journalist - and rolled a 3, keeping it. gaining a debt in the process.  (Masta takes one of the bigger kids, and makes to snap him in half, but stops, saying "If you get in the way, then these kids will get what's coming to them.")

After Dave's turn it was Wes, who used "Imitate something" to roll on the same side as Dave against "harm hostages".  (Major Attraction reveales herself to be the Sixth grader that was picked up, saying "what big arms you have, Kung Phooey!") - Rolled a whopping 5, gained one debt.  Almost said "not yet" when he picked up the kid, but the kid wasn't harmed so much as menaced,  we decided that was all right.

Wes doesn't react, and I try to, using repulsor beams (spanner strike!) to roll down "harm hostages" - I get a six, curse, and roll back.  Gaining one debt.  ("Firing his spanner strike at the do - gooder, but it jams.  'bah, I knew I should have used metric heads!'")

Dan reacts, uses his intimidate skill, (marking it off) and rolls down to a 3 ("Your acts will kill these children, just as I have killed many others.")

Dave uses Investigate, and rolls it back up to a 5.  ("Kevin Kage spots a back door, a way to get the hostages to safety.  He waits for a moment where he can get them out of the line of fire.")

That ends the page.  There were other pages, and I tried the "splitting dice" rule, got really confused, and ended it.  Two people wanted to claim one side of "Steal laser" and I didn't know exactly how claiming worked.  I got a little confused, there was some amusement, and the game ended. 

I'd like some feedback on how we did in the initial page, did we hit all the bases?

The opinions on the game were upbeat, but I was disappointed on being so spotty on the rules.  I learn by doing, not so much by reading (makes me a kinesthetic learner, to those teachers out there). 

So here are a few questions.  When are claims made?  how soon can you claim a goal?  If two people want to claim the same side of a goal, how do you resolve that?  I had a vague idea that you stake debt, split the dice, and claim a third side, but I didn't know how that would look, or how to resolve that in terms of inspirations at the end. 

One heck of a confusing session, but in terms of fun, it was chock full of fun filled goodness.

[Hans]

So here are a few questions.  When are claims made?  how soon can you claim a goal?  If two people want to claim the same side of a goal, how do you resolve that?  I had a vague idea that you stake debt, split the dice, and claim a third side, but I didn't know how that would look, or how to resolve that in terms of inspirations at the end. 

One heck of a confusing session, but in terms of fun, it was chock full of fun filled goodness.

First of all, it took me three game sessions to get to the point where I even could think about much more than the rules themselves, and its only now, after 6 sessions or so, that I can comfortably just play and not be worried about breaking rules.  Instead of asking "what was that rule again?" I can ask "What cool stuff do I want to happen?"  So don't feel bad that you had a rough go on your first Capes session.  It is a pretty darn complicated game.  Your first session of Capes sounds remarkably like mine; crazy, quite silly, a lot of fun, and complicated enough to give you a headache.

As to your questions...Tony, please correct if necessary:

* Claims are made ONLY at the beginning of a page. 
* You get one free claim, and can pay a story token to make a claim.
* Claims are made clockwise around the table, starting with the page starter, one at at time.  Therefore there can never be a conflict over who claims a side...there can only be sobs of pain and anguish when someone elses claims something you wanted.
* During your turn, before or after your action, in any combination, you can do any number of the following:
     - Stake debt on any number of conflicts
     - Split dice, as long as there are no more dice than debt.
     - Use inspirations on any number of dice
     - Create a new side to any conflict using the debt that you have staked.
This means there is a LOT of tactics to the order you do these things in combination with your action.  The only limit on the number of these things you can do is the resources you have.
* As long as you have at least one debt staked on a conflict, and there are at least two total debt staked to a conflict, you can create a new side.  All you do is take any amount of your own debt you have staked, as well as no more than one die per debt (making sure at least one is left behind) and set it in its own pile.  Presto, you have a new side.  Its one of the hardest things to describe in the game, and one of the easiest things to physically demostrate with poker chips and dice on a table.
* Deciding on inspirations with a three (or more) way conflict is a bit tricky, and (sorry Tony) its not quite clear in the rules how it should be done.  When we do it, we remember that while there are three sides, there is only one WINNING side, the others are all losers.  Therefore, you just match the winning die as you normally would against the losing die (regardless of which side they are from), but use the colour of the dice to tell you which of the losers (if any) get the resulting inspirations.  So, for example:

Side A (winner): two die 6 and 4 (I will use the shorthand A6 and A4 for these dice)
Side B: two die 4 and 2 (B4 and B2)
Side C: one die 5 (C5)

There are any number of ways you could do this: 

A6>C5
A4>B2
--->B4

Gives side A a one and a two point inspiration, Side B a four point inspiration, and Side C gets nothing.  Or

A6>B2
A4>B4
--->C5

Gives side A a four point, Side C a five, and side B gets nothing.  Note that however side A matches the dice, at least one of the losers is going to get an inspiration.  Also note that side B and Side C dice CANNOT be matched against each other...they are both losers.

Does this help?

[Glendower]

That helps a ton.  Thank you!

I'm underlining various passages in the book I have here so I don't forget.  The bit about three sides, and one winner (two losers) really makes a great deal of sense.  How would you arrange tokens and dice on the playing surface to reduce confusion?  Any suggestions?

We didn't use any Exemplars or Drives, I didn't want to get into that until we had a handle on the basic stuff. 

I just hope I can convince them to sit down for another go at it. 

[Hans]

How would you arrange tokens and dice on the playing surface to reduce confusion?  Any suggestions?

We use the following props to track this in our group:

Red Poker chips (debt)
Coloured glass beads (one colour for each player)
3x5 card (conflict)

When you roll on a conflict, you place your own colour glass bead near the 3x5 card (not on it) on the side you rolled for.  If you stake debt, you put one of your coloured glass beads on each of the debt tokens to make sure everyone knows they are yours.  If you claim a side, you put your glass bead ON the 3x5 card (as opposed to next to it).

This seems to work pretty well.  The coloured glass beads are pretty cheap at crafty type stores.

[drnuncheon]

We use the following props to track this in our group:

Red Poker chips (debt)

We have 3 players, and conveniently 3 colors of poker chips (red, blue, and black).  Each player gets one color to use as debt, and those same tokens are the ones passed out as story tokens - so you automatically know that any chips in front of you which aren't your color are story tokens (and you know who you got them from, too).

J

[Glendower]

We have 3 players, and conveniently 3 colors of poker chips (red, blue, and black). Each player gets one color to use as debt, and those same tokens are the ones passed out as story tokens - so you automatically know that any chips in front of you which aren't your color are story tokens (and you know who you got them from, too).

That's a fantastic idea.  I'm stealing it for the next time I play.  Which, sadly, won't be until next week sometime.  I'll be sure to put up another Actual play report, and let you both know how these ideas work out.