[Capes] Giant, Incontinent Robot Curmudgeon Ruins USS Intrepid

[James_Nostack]

We played Capes last night.  "We" meaning the group from the "Curse of the Python God!" Sorcerer game and the "Blue Diamond Super-Spectacular Annual #1" With Great Power... game plus Jon's friend Nick.  For some reason, I think Nick loosened us up a little, which was a good thing.

I had some frustrations with Capes 18 months ago, and was kind of skeptical: it seemed like an arcane system that, while conceptually groundbreaking, just wasn't satisfying for me. 

But... I was wrong, and Tony was right.  So far.  :)  Anyway, it ended up being a pretty fun session, and a lot more fun than I had expected.  I attribute this to a couple of factors, discussed below.

What Happened, Etc.
We kicked around some ideas--bone-tired oilrig workers stuck dealing with a catastrophe, the blissed-out supervillains of a pleasure-prison when the power gets cut off, teenage sidekicks run amok--but ultimately went with a reality-show style superhero team--sort of like InSpectres or X-Statix.  We had a lot of fun thinking of "realistic-ized" super things, like the clingy supervillain ("I spent months working on the Magna-tron Accelerator, and did you stop to admire its workmanship?  No, you just stormed in a wrecked it!  I just... I want some appreciation, you know?") and the Dr. Strange-equivalent who has to clean up the team's wreckage. 

Then we tried a practice scene.  The Tin Man (robot curmudgeon) tried to join the Navy, but when he was rejected, he decided to vent his frustrations on the USS Intrepid.  The asinine Miraculous, annoyed at this interruption of his evening's activities, goes off on his own to subdue the robot; his arrogant prick teammate Hyperion shows up to chide him; as they're bickering, the Tin Man blows up several jets, urinates oil on some deckhands, and makes obscene motions with the control tower.  Only in New York...

* Event: massive property damage, resolved in favor of the aircraft carrier going down (I think)
* Goal: Tin Man makes a mockery of the Navy, resolved in favor
* Goal: Miraculous alienates his team, presently unresolved but it's 6 against.

We picked up maybe 1-2 debt each.

Commentary & Analysis, Etc.
I still don't know how the token stuff worked, I gather that's the key to the game.

The game is far simpler, procedurally, than the Flash animation, Capes Lite, the rules themselves, and various people who tried to teach me on-line would suggest.  One of the big frustrations I had with my abotive on-line experience with Capes is that I had no idea who did what, when, and felt very frustrated.

Also: this time around, we didn't go for each other's throats during the incidental color narration.  This was one of the jarring things about our first game--the goal/event is mechanically sacrosanct until resolution, but you can literally destroy the rest o the universe, only to have it come right back.  By avoiding this extreme, I felt a little more comfortable and felt that the story had more "legitimacy."  But maybe we'll branch out from this, who knows.

I'm still learning the rules, but I'm looking forward to playing again.

[James_Nostack]

Just a quick bump on this, before it slides off the third page:

Story Events from the Second Session
...Continuing from the giant robot's rampage, the superheroes bickered some more, and after some build-up, Hyperion clobbered Tin Man off the deck of the USS Intrepid, and the tin titan stumbled and crashed onto the West Side Highway, killing a tourist.  The Navy blew the robot up with F-16's.

During the debriefing scene at HQ, the characters laid blame all over the place.  Weathervane got fired, which outraged the trainees (Weathervane was well liked, unlike Hyperion and Miraculous).  But the company managed to escape legal liability for the destruction.

Commentary
Jon is a sly dog at setting conflicts.  In the first scene, he proposed, "Goal: the team kills a bystander;" in the debriefing scene, he proposed, "Event: someone gets fired."  Eric ended up deciding that Weathervane got fired, which surprised me: I'd forgotten the character existed, actually, because Hyperion and Miraculous were such compellingly fractured screw-ups, and Weathervane was sort of... normal.  (Bleccch.) 

At the close of the second session, I had a few inspirations, but everyone else had more debt and story tokens.  This is partially because I played a mundane lawyer during the debriefing scene, and introduced the conflict: "Goal: CEO escapes legal liability," which was a yawner designed to create inspirations for me.  I'll start the next scene, so I want to come up with something really juicy and earn more resources.

Ultimately, I'm liking the game a lot, though Nick and I are still a little bamboozled by the structure of the rules, let alone the sophisticated strategy aspects.  One of the things I really like about Capes is that you have to pay attention all the time.  It's not like a lot of other games, where the wizard/thief/hacker does his special thing while the fighter-types scratch their behinds and stare off into space.  Every conflict matters, because it's a chance to collect stuff.

It's a really good game, Tony.  I still think there's a risk of cognitive dissonance given the scope of narration, but that can be adjusted to taste based on the play group and so far we're on the same page.

[TonyLB]

During the debriefing scene at HQ, the characters laid blame all over the place.

Heh.  You're doing an office comedy with spandex.  That's cool!

Did anyone play Weathervane, or was he color to this point?

[James_Nostack]

Eric created & played Weathervane during the rampaging robot scene, as the new recruit from Flyover Country, to give the media someone corn-fed and wholesome to gush about.  No one played Weathervane in the debriefing scene, which was why I was startled he got fired.  "Oh, that guy?  Yeah, whatever."

Given that the two most colorful characters, Miraculous and Hyperion, come across as venal, self-serving jackasses, we'll have to introduce some very nasty villains, to make these guys seem acceptable in comparison. 

[TonyLB]

That's if you keep playing them as protagonists (or, indeed, playing them at all).  If it were me in the driver's seat I would immediately be steering the plot to focus on Weathervane.  He's just in from Kansas, he did everything right, he got fired because he's not enough of an asshole to play the blame game, and now he's at loose ends in the big city.

Awesome.

[Jon Hastings]

I'm having lots and lots of fun playing this game.  Our second scene definitely went more smoothly than our first.  I feel pretty comfortable with most of the rules at this point, although I'm sure I'm going to have to refer to the book and the FAQ when it comes to divying up Story Tokens as our conflicts get more intricate.  (I'm still a little fuzzy on all the differences between Claiming a side of a conflict and being Allied with a side of a conflict).

A slight correction: in our second scene, I originally proposed the conflict "Event: Someone gets fired", but James vetoed it.  So I reworded it as "Goal: The Ranger fires someone".  This meant that no one had to get fired.  Eric fought pretty hard for it to happen, and so I was glad to ally the Ranger with the "The Ranger doesn't fire anyone" side of the conflict in order to pick up Story Tokens.

One of the things I'd like to focus on for next time is to build more off of the in-story stuff that we've already established.  Especially when it comes to resolving conflicts: the narration that has already happened with all the die rolling can provide a great foundation for the resolution narration.  (There were a couple of times during the game when it came time to resolve a Conflict and we stalled while the resolver tried to come up with something).

Story-wise, I'm definitely interested in what is going to happen to Weathervane, but I also want to see Miraculous finally learn to be a hero (and to see how hard Nick will fight to keep him as a weasel).

Right now, my only concern is that I have too many ideas for scenes I'd like to have and things I'd like to try out.  Our second scene took us around 50 minutes, and I think in our next session we'll have gotten comfortable enough to do a scene in 45 minutes or so.  Having at least three scenes a session would be a little more satisfying, I think.  Tony - it took me a while to really grasp the rules (and it was a struggle that I almost gave up on), but it has definitely been worth it.  I'm really digging the game!

[James_Nostack]

A slight correction: in our second scene, I originally proposed the conflict "Event: Someone gets fired", but James vetoed it.  So I reworded it as "Goal: The Ranger fires someone".  This meant that no one had to get fired.

Really?  That was cowardly of me. 

Story-wise, I'm definitely interested in what is going to happen to Weathervane, but I also want to see Miraculous finally learn to be a hero (and to see how hard Nick will fight to keep him as a weasel).

I totally have some ideas about this, but I don't have the story tokens to make it work.  I know what he's afraid of.

If it were me in the driver's seat I would immediately be steering the plot to focus on Weathervane.  He's just in from Kansas, he did everything right, he got fired because he's not enough of an asshole to play the blame game, and now he's at loose ends in the big city.

Bah!  This ain't a superhero version of Midnight Cowboy! 

.....Although if he fell in with a Ratzo Rizzo supervillain, that might be funny...  (Ah!  And a use for our needy villain idea...)

[NBraccia]

I have to take credit for the "A Bystander is Killed" goal ~ that was mine, not that sly dog, Jon.

I'm enjoying the game quite a bit. Not since some really intense PTA sessions have I been as emotionally involved as I was in the "firing" scene.

Looking forward to the next session.

Our game sort of feels like Inspectres Meets The Tick Meets The Office. I've been called worse things...

[James_Nostack]

Jon, since I've garbled both of the goals I ascribed to you, I revoke your "sly dog" status.  I also impose "Dunce of the Day" status on myself.

[James_Nostack]

A minor follow-up, since we're progressing pretty nicely with this game.

Inspired by TonyLB's suggestion, I created a minor-league supervillainous screw-up, Tony Tinsnips (Weathervane's Justice exemplar; free conflict: "Goal: Weathervane helps Tinsips").  There was some stuff involving a leather cloak stitched from the faces of dead men which Tony was trying to steal, and Weathervane was (ultimately) trying to prevent the theft. 

Nick (one of the players) wanted to break Weathervane down even more, and proposed "Goal: Weathervane kills Tony Tinsnips," but because Tony was so lovably screwed up, people fought pretty hard to keep him alive. 

We also had a dinner party scene, where the superhero team tried to smooth over their differences, involving a lot of sexual innuendo and and bickering.  Jon managed to snag Hyperion before I did, the rat!  We all fought surprisingly hard for him to seduce some random waitress.  Though not before implying she had an STD and that he was bi/curious.

The main events, from a mechanical point of view: I pulled off an Instant-Split maneuver!  Also, I played to maximize resources.  I've got five 6-point Inspirations, two Story Tokens (finally!), and tried to use super-powers at every opportunity to gain debt.  So far, I don't have an agenda, but I want to be ready to make big moves when the time is right.

The one (potential) problem I've noticed with Capes: there's no sense of pacing, at least not so far.

[Hans]

The one (potential) problem I've noticed with Capes: there's no sense of pacing, at least not so far.

Up in Mississauga we noticed a similar difficulty, James.  It was difficult to get a sense of how quickly to move forward, or when to concentrate on a particular piece of business longer. 

Also, with events along the lines of "the Airplane crashes" or "the bomb is a second away from exploding", it is very difficult to time your narration so that the climax feels climactic, especially when that event might not resolve when you thought it was going to resolve, and ends up going to another page.  The suspension of disbelief can become quite strained.  It would be interesting to hear from Tony or someone else who has played a lot of long term Capes if this is a learned skill, or if it just a thing you live with to have all the other fun that Capes brings to the table.

[Kintara]

The main events, from a mechanical point of view: I pulled off an Instant-Split maneuver!  Also, I played to maximize resources.  I've got five 6-point Inspirations, two Story Tokens (finally!), and tried to use super-powers at every opportunity to gain debt.  So far, I don't have an agenda, but I want to be ready to make big moves when the time is right.

FIVE?! Yowza. You're really going to kick some major ass as soon as you feel like it. How did you pull that off?

[James_Nostack]

FIVE?! Yowza. You're really going to kick some major ass as soon as you feel like it. How did you pull that off?

I'm just that good!

Seriously: I claimed some dud conflicts (not always intentionally), split when I could, and our dice seem to roll 6's very often.  The downside of winning so many conflicts is that I didn't have any Story Tokens until the end of the latest session. 

Right now, I have no incentive to spend my resources, because no player has threatened my interests.  Perhaps the game becomes more intensely paced once we draw some blood, and everyone tries to snatch up the resulting resources.