[Actual Play - Capes Lite] Tough When Everyone Wants You Dead

[LandonSuffered]

So I played Capes Lite with my two nephews, aged 14 and 11.  I've really wanted to try a new supers game, and this one had the edge in playability (over Marvel) and character creation (over Aberrant).  As the kids only know RPGs from video games, I've been breaking them into  narrative role-playing (InSpectres, Donjon, Pantheon) rather than trying to teach them the D20 monster, or my old school out-o-print RPGs.

So I read through the Capes Lite rules several times, and while no one posted answers to my rules questions (see my post from yesterday), I decided to wing it anyway.  Hell, we just went to see Iron Man today and after a taco feeding frenzy and a couple hours of Warhammer 40K, we were ready to start narrating away.  Here's how it went down:

- Asked the kids to think of character concepts.  Actually, we'd  already discussed this a bit the day before, but after picking up a bunch of mags from Free Comics Saturday, they got a little changed.  Specifically, Zach (age 14) wanted to play Tony Stark the Invincible Iron Man, and Spencer (age 11) moved from wanting a villain like Venom to the Hulk.

- Set the stage at Nova Star labs. I let the kids pick their click-and-locks first, then took the Robot-Psychotic Loner as a good villain (I was thinking of Ultron). "Vainglory 3000" was a sentient, 15' tall be-weaponed monster from Nova that had decided 'there can be only one' and immediately set the goal "Kill the hostages."

- Spencer played "Ben the Brick" a Brick-Ex Victim based on a cross between the Hulk and the Thing. He was at the labs trying to find a way to get "turned back to normal" but decided he better stop the Vainglory robot by stepping in with his Invincibility to save them.  He rolled a "6" immediately putting me in a pickle.

- Zach as "Tony Stark" (Gadgeteer-Charmer) was getting his suit re-customed at the lab, but was more interested in getting a date and decided to create the goal, "Tony gets a girlfriend."

End page 1.

Spencer claims Saving the Hostages, Zach claims Getting the Girl, and I claim Killing the Hostages, but with no debt yet there was no way I could hope to off the poor victims and complete my dastardly plan.  Spencer's action was to create a new goal "Kill Vainglory" and now I was in trouble.  Zach used his action to chat up the girl in the lab (Friendly) to which I reacted with powers trying to get some debt, not really caring if I succeeded, just needing the chips. I used my action to roll up Vainglory doesn't get killed, reacting immediately to gain more debt. 

All the hostages escaped, Tony got the girl (a little weird) and now there was nothing but a big target on my robot's head.

End page 2.

Spencer claimed killing me off (of course), I claimed saving my ass. 

Zach rolled up offing me.  I split my die with three debt and start working on salvation. Spencer stakes two debt and tries to keep in the running.  The narration was a lot of super punches and titanic strength. In the end we were tied, and things were looking grim.

End page 3.

I tried rolling myself up, but didn't end up with much and the kids were rolling me down, targeting weak spots and laying into the poor psychopathic droid.  Zach staked another debt token on killing me (his action) as did Spencer (total of 4), and they managed to finish the round by one point.  Spencer had the final action of the page using his "Suddenly Snaps" ability to go berserk and completely rip me to shreds.

Since they resolved killing me, Spencer got to narrate my being beaten into tiny pieces.

End page 4 and scene.

I ended up with 11 debt and a dead character, but 4 story points.  The kids each had a couple inspiration, but no story tokens and quite a bit of debt left over (Ben had 4 or 5 points, and Tony had 1 or 2).

The game was fun, though I was wiped out...it's pretty difficult to stop a double team when you've no debt or extra actions.  That 6 on the first ability roll really screwed me...I wasn't able to react and gain debt and there was no way to box my way out once cornered.  Oh, well...hopefully we'll have the chance to play again and I'll be able to come back with my newly earned story tokens.

[JohnUghrin]

I'm glad you had fun. I hope you get to play it again.

Sorry that we didn't get a chance to respond to your questions before you played! However, it sounded like you had a fair understanding of things, so I hope it didn't hang you up.