Capes Crisis!

[Doc Blue]

Like any other DC comics addict, I've been reading (investing my children's education fund into) Infinite Crisis and One Year Later.

So last night, I was pondering how to run a 'Crisis-like' event in a role-playing game. What I came up with initially was essentially a tournament-style game, maybe for a con. A team of heroes dives in to deal with some aspect of "the Crisis".  It's a losing battle and one-by-one they are taken out of the fight until only one remains.  This one goes on to fight the final climatic battle to save the universe.

But then I thought some more and wondered where was the fun for the people who get taken out early in the fight?  Where was the reward?  Now I don't have my Capes rules handy, but it struck me that by setting (free?) goals associated with each character of "[Character] falls in battle" gives a reward to the player playing that character when they fall.  A reward that could be carried over to a different character facing a different aspect of the crisis.  It's now no longer necessarially a tournament game or a convention game, but could represent a sort of Capes Campaign where the players play a variety of characters facing various aspects of the crisis until the climax where they play the survivors at the final battle.

Thoughts?

[Vaxalon]

I don't see how you can ensure that it's 1> A losing battle and 2> the heroes are taken out one by one.

[Sindyr]

I don't see how you can ensure that it's 1> A losing battle and 2> the heroes are taken out one by one.

Having a mandatory starting Event?

Event: The heroes are fighting a losing battle and are taken out one by one.

[Zamiel]

Having a mandatory starting Event?

Event: The heroes are fighting a losing battle and are taken out one by one.

Still only covers one Scene, and this is the kind of conflict that extends over multiple Scenes if its to be worth playing out.

I'm not sure its in the spirit of the game to have anything that pre-planned for the game. It disempowers the other Players, who are all as equally valid plotters and co-GMs as you. As such ... you have to sell them on it.

[Ben Lehman]

Have an exemplar-like Event in every scene:

Event: A hero is killed.

That's just always on the table, every scene.

[Zamiel]

Have an exemplar-like Event in every scene:

Event: A hero is killed.

That's just always on the table, every scene.

Interesting framework. Of course, it being Capes, they needn't stay dead. In fact, there are advantages for introducing "Event: Captain Hero returns from the grave!" Or even "Goal: Captain Hero returns from the grave!" especially if you've taken "Zombie Uprising" as your NPC for the Scene ...

[Sindyr]

Have an exemplar-like Event in every scene:

Event: A hero is killed.

That's just always on the table, every scene.

Oh my GOD! (And I'm and atheist!)

Can you IMAGINE the fighting over who gets to resolve *that* one!

lol!

PS.  Don't let the players bring weapons to the table.  Just a thought.

[Doc Blue]

First, thanks to all for your thoughts and comments.  This was exactly the sort of conversation I was hoping for.
I do feel like I botched my communications roll in setting forth my original thoughts. 

It's a losing battle and one-by-one they are taken out of the fight until only one remains. This one goes on to fight the final climatic battle to save the universe.

They were very much me brainstorming out loud and not intended to suggest hard and firm mechanics. Nor were they to suggest that this was the only thing that happened in the game.  This morning I hadn't mulled it through, but in reading the responses, I imagined character scenes where people react to the deaths or to the crisis or maybe do something unrelated.  Just that when the player(s) sponsoring the 'Crisis' has a turn to frame an appropriate scene, there is an event that has heroes dieing or some such. 

I think Ben best captured what I had in mind.

Have an exemplar-like Event in every scene:

Event: A hero is killed.

That's just always on the table, every scene.

And even at that, I don't know that I would even suggest that it be there every scene, just in the 'relevant' ones. 

And Zamiel is absolutely right.... Heroes don't even have to stay dead.

Finally, all of this is predisposed on the fact that your other players don't beat you about the head and shoulders for even suggesting such a concept....

[Hans]

I think Ben best captured what I had in mind.

Have an exemplar-like Event in every scene:

Event: A hero is killed.

That's just always on the table, every scene.

And even at that, I don't know that I would even suggest that it be there every scene, just in the 'relevant' ones. 

And Zamiel is absolutely right.... Heroes don't even have to stay dead.

If it was tournament style, I suggest a modification to the Event, which makes it more of a meta-event:

"Event: A hero is killed, and the same character cannot be introduced again at this tournament."

This yields some interesting fruit.  For example, you can't bring the same hero back, but you could bring back a very changed version of that hero - Angel becomes Archangel, for example, or Robin becomes Nightwing.

Also, to really make it work, it should really be:

"Event: One of the key heroes is killed, and that same key hero cannot be reintroduced again until the 7th scene." 

Who cares, lets face it, if the Black Knight gets offed, what we really care about is when Superman is going to buy it.  You have a list of the key heroes at the beginning of the tournament (lets say 6), and you play 7scenes, in 6 one of those key heroes dies.  In the 7th, the overall resolution occurs, and we see who actually stays dead and who doesn't.

There could even be some extra mandatory events in the last scene of the tournament, such as:

"Event: One key hero was't REALLY dead."

"Event: One key hero will NEVER come back"

"Event: One key hero was really the cause of all the trouble in the first place."

[Eric Sedlacek]

This might also work using the eroding comics code mentioned in another thread.

[Ben Lehman]

If you had "some heroes must die in every scene" as part of your comics code, you could Gloat on "Goal: Keep everyone safe"

How awesome is that?

[Eric Sedlacek]

If you had "some heroes must die in every scene" as part of your comics code, you could Gloat on "Goal: Keep everyone safe"

How awesome is that?

That is undefinably awesome.  I want to play in that game.

[TonyLB]

Heh.  That would make the perfect zombie-movie moment, where people fight and fight and fight to keep everyone safe, and then Joe is left behind so they wade in to rescue Joe and manage to make it to the safety of the bunker ... then just as they pause to draw breath a zombie grabs Kathy and pulls her up into the ventilation system.  Gloat, gloat, gloat ... lose.  The perennial pattern.