Carrying Over Resources Over the Course of Game Sessions

[LemmingLord]

One more quick question for Tony; are story tokens, debt and inspirations carried over from one session to the next?  I hear you talking about having 15-20 story tokens at the end of a night; do you have that many next time, and if so, doesn't that disrupt the equal opportunity when new players enter the game?  Does Capes even support multiple sessions?

[Eric Sedlacek]

One more quick question for Tony; are story tokens, debt and inspirations carried over from one session to the next?  I hear you talking about having 15-20 story tokens at the end of a night; do you have that many next time, and if so, doesn't that disrupt the equal opportunity when new players enter the game?  Does Capes even support multiple sessions?

Don't need Tony for this question.  The answers are:

Do resources carry over: Yes
Does this disadvantage new players: Not really

Everything is carried over from session to session.  Does this put a new player at a disadvantage?  Only marginally.  If the old players want to overwhelm him at first, they can, but that won't last long.  They still have to spend debt to do it, and that can eliminate the story token descrepency in a big hurry.

This phenomenon seems like it would actually be healthy because it creates a (short) breaking in period where the new player can take in the rhythm of the game while he rakes in story tokens.

[LemmingLord]

Don't need Tony for this question.  The answers are:

Do resources carry over: Yes
Does this disadvantage new players: Not really

It is actually a trick question... :)

When story tokens are attached to a player and not to a character, and with continuity very sketchy in the game; how does one determine when they carry over and when the game you are playing is a "new game." 

[Andrew Cooper]

When you sit down at the table you say, "Are we starting a brand new game or are we continuing our old one?"

Hash that out and then distribute Story Tokens as appropriate.  If the guy with 25 Story Tokens isn't there that night, then you ask the same question the next time he's there.

[Eric Sedlacek]

It is actually a trick question... :)

When story tokens are attached to a player and not to a character, and with continuity very sketchy in the game; how does one determine when they carry over and when the game you are playing is a "new game." 

I don't agree with your premise.  In theory, Capes doesn't have to have any continuity, but in practice, it does have continuity.  Are you continuing the same story or starting a new one?  That answers your question.

[Vaxalon]

In theory you could start a new "story" and still be playing the same "game" and include the resources from last session.

[LemmingLord]

That definitely makes Capes a different kind of game..  Imagine if you got to use the monopoly money you had at the end of the last monopoly game you played!

[Vaxalon]

Capes is unique.

[Eric Sedlacek]

In theory you could start a new "story" and still be playing the same "game" and include the resources from last session.

Absolutely true, of course. 

[Matthew Glover]

I like the idea that Fred brought up, starting a new story and still keeping the same resources.  That was actually one of the core concepts for the Capes Universe idea (that I still haven't gotten to playtest). Players always keep their resources (Story Tokens, Inspirations, Characters and associated Debt), no matter whether they're playing with the same people in the same storyline, the same people in a new storyline, or new people in a new storyline. 

[Vaxalon]

I would totally play Jenny Everywhere in that game.

[TonyLB]

I like the idea that Fred brought up, starting a new story and still keeping the same resources.

And, y'know, if the Inspirations are carrying over from the past game to the next one then it will not be a disconnected story.  The players will look at those inspirations and say "Hey, I can get a mechanical advantage for connecting this past event where I won the Inspiration into current events where I want to spend it."

You can't stop them from doing that just by making all new characters, in a completely disconnected universe.  They'll manage despite those constraints.

[Matthew Glover]

Yes yes yes!  You're digging into exactly the sort of stuff that excited me about the Universe idea.  It's a new story, new characters, new SIS-universe, but the audience is aware of the thematic influence that past events have in shaping  the present.  I'd love to see what would happen with about fifteen people involved in three to five weekly mix-and-match sessions in the same Universe.  I'm betting that after a couple of months you'd get half a dozen separate strong storylines with crisscrossing threads of story and theme tying them all together. 

[Vaxalon]

You know, Capes may just be the perfect game for Thomas Robertson's "Chaotic Play" idea.

[Matthew Glover]

All the Chaotic Play stuff is hitting the same ideas that I've been kicking around.  Thanks for bringing that to my attention.  Capes + Chaotic Play sounds very much like what I was envisioning.  Rather than having separate simultaneous games at tables in the same space, with player mixing at regular intervals, I was imagining several intertwined regular gaming groups with occasional pick-up games.  Something like this:

Regular Monday night game with players A, B, C, D.
Regular Tuesday night game with players E, F, G, H.
Regular Thursday night game with players A, C, E, F, G.
Regular Saturday game with B, D, H, I.
A, B, D, G, and I work together, so sometimes some of them play quick lunchtime games.
With additional people dropping in and out, and other games happening whenever somebody decides to play.