[WGP...] Cosmic Zap @ GenCon

[Michael S. Miller]

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[Ron Edwards]

Hi guys!

I loved this game. I think I want to have someone else be the rules-ref and play the villain like this every single WGP game that I ever play. And I can guarantee that I'll be playing again.

I think that the Cosmic Zap context has one slight problem for role-playing: the intense individuality and disconnected back-stories of the protagonists. It's sort of central to that sub-genre ... one doesn't have a super-team, but a bunch of alienated and separately profound (well, in a pop way) dudes cruising around. So that resulted in Paul's protagonist not getting much direct contact with the villain and none with the other protagonists. But what that also means, for purposes of the whole story arc, is that Creche will be the one who has the most resources (i.e. least damage to Aspects) right at the moment that the villain loses his advantages in decks and wild cards.

That turnaround had just occurred when we stopped playing for the evening. I had, I think, transitioned to only one deck. Thus far, I'd beaten the dog crap out of Scion, blown up the seventh sun, and totally corrupted the Council by making them peaceful; Traxis had undergone awful humiliations and frustrations in every way; and I'd gotten rid of all those stupid fairies (and I can tell you that I was aiming straight at Devastating them and the Council, for sure). But Creche, on the other hand, was pretty much activated. If we'd played a second session, and if the heroes could come together in the classic Cosmic Zap way (sometimes not even meeting up! but still working together), then Dark Omen would be in a lot of trouble.

I should take a moment to point out that I put a fair amount of effort into making Dark Omen worth our time. My point of reference was Thanos. How the hell do you play an RPG character worthy of recognition like that? Well, I tried. Dark Omen as a power embodied negation. His ideal was universal entropy, energy dispersed evenly to the point where nothing happened or could ever happen. To get there, he even imposed peace and boring harmony on the fractious and rather mean-spirited Council, for instance; this led to a great 70s vibe of Scion getting more and more willing to jettison the selfish, exploitative establishment he served, and thus moving closer to "agreeing" with Dark Omen.

But Dark Omen as a person had to glimmer through a little bit too. At one point in the fight with Scion, he switched to really harsh physical in-fighting, elbows and so on, as a direct contrast to the operatic reality-shifts and superpowered, casual back-hand he'd used so far. His dialogue at that moment: "I was human, once."

That also leads to my understanding of the fruitful void in playing With Great Power, which is no more nor less than the occasionally-achieved fruitful void of the entire Marvel Comics endeavor itself: the truth that is inherent in ambiguity, which provokes constant reflection upon one's current path of action, even in the presence of an urgent need for action. It applies to the greatest of the villains as well as to the heroes, both large and small. Thanos is all about this, when he's not just a bunch of heavy metal imagery filtered through Jim Starlin peaking on acid, or an excuse to sell an action figure.

Oh, it has its failures - for one thing, the constant self-doubt and during-action blithering that often characterizes Marvel action, and the tendency to devolve into whining and the dumb brand of soap opera. Not to mention losing its political edge entirely around 1980, although since that criticism applies to our culture as a whole, I suppose that's understandable. But its triumphs are pretty damn powerful.

That's a key part of a fruitful void, I think, that it's not guaranteed. What we need to bring to play and to share with one another, to get to it, is what makes role-playing worth doing, for me.

And that game of ours was hella worth it, or it was getting there through the dynamics of the rules. I wanted to see each hero go through that transition that's central the mechanics, of deciding which Aspects really were important and which could be destroyed, and I think it was going to happen in a much more powerful way than just another "save the dog vs. stop the villain's getaway" bit.

Best, Ron

[Paul Czege]

[Ron Edwards]

I didn't say Creche was totally undamaged, only less damaged than the others. I find that I really regret that we weren't playing a full-on, multiple session game ... that android had "stop Dark Omen" written all over him, even though neither character knew it.

Also, were the rivets on his arms really the eggs? I somehow had the mistaken idea that they were in his abdomen, or maybe that was just part of the discussion during character creation.

Best, Ron

[Paul Czege]

I find that I really regret that we weren't playing a full-on, multiple session game ... that android had "stop Dark Omen" written all over him, even though neither character knew it.

[Michael S. Miller]

I thought that after Ron said "no see-through abdomen" to say he didn't want to be able to SEE the eggs inside the android, I suggested rows of rivets down the arms, y'know rows of rounded rivets, wink wink nudge nudge. I probably thought that everyone understood I was implying they were eggs. But, in a late game in a noisy room, I've got to remind myself that stating things loud and clear is the way to go.

As for "the truth of ambiguity" as WGP's fruitful void, I like the way you put it. I tried really hard to put room for self-doubt into each decision and card-play. I'm glad to see it worked out. This was definitely my favorite game session of GenCon.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Mike,

Well, it's the truth of the ambiguity that matters most, don't you think? In other words, to establish the self-doubt is one thing, but to punch through into the conflict and resolve it without an easy, coincidence-driven "have it both ways" ending ... that's the key. The best Marvel stories and characters actually resolved. Not to geek out too, too hard, but I submit that Lee's tenure on Spider-Man can be read as a complete novel, with an ending.

If the game design didn't include the innate story-arc, which frames the whole thing on the de-stabilizing elements of the villain, and which forces the hero to prioritize in the face of this crisis, then it'd be an exercise in the worst excesses of bad Marvel writing: piss, whine, moan, shlep about, preach, repeat in different order, repeat.

So the fruitful void, as I anticipate and hope to experience all the way through some time, really doesn't hit until the middle phase: when the distinction between threatend and un-threatened aspects is clear, and when the villain still carries enough punch to rip at least one hero's existence to shreds (which is another way to say, "affects the setting significantly and permanently according to his vision"). At that point, the players know what's really at risk, and I think the essential feature of a good Marvel villain, which is a valid point to make (classic example = Magneto), may have emerged.

Best, Ron