Bob's Supers Playtest Con 1 - Paladin

[Bob McNamee]

Bob’s Playtest Con

I have been looking into running a Supers related game…but not using Champions (which we used in the past).  I created the same characters for each of 4 games Powergame, Paladin, SuperKind (my OtherKind variant), and the Pool..  

I decided to go pretty 4-color with the tone… Bill played Captain Wonder “The Greatest thing since Sliced Bread”, and Chris picked Doughboy “The Boy Wonder”.


“Skating on Thin Ice”
PALADIN
About 45 minutes  (we hit dinnertime)

I took a while to explain the rules to them, and a quick couple die rolls to show the mechanics…
The initial impression was that it didn’t really sound like all that interesting to them (or maybe just not appropriate to the setting).

We cut right to the action, the heros were called to an accident/kidnapping of a prominent diplomat in-progress by 4 normals quality Penalty Boxers.

Both sides started with Active vs Active attack. The heros applying CW active flesh trait 5 and (Arms & Flight ability), and DB active 3 and (Arms, Martial Arts, Stretching) abilities.  PBxrs  acitve 3 and (Boxing, Skating, Hockey). Two fighting heros… two knocking out Diplomat to kidnap…

The Paladin Animus rules exerted their influence in the first exchange on an extremely good roll for Doughboy with 6 active successes vs. 1 active success for the mook, neither one could active and animus traits for re-rolls.  This led to 10 damage to the Boxer, killing him instantly (he had 9 flesh traits, 1 Dark Animus point).

Oops, Doughboy just violated the Unbreakable Law for 4 Color Supers Do not Kill… and gains 10 dark Animus points! He now has 6 Light, 10 Dark.

Right Away the Heros decided “Lets fight Reactively…to only knock them out”

Question:  He can still use Light Animus traits for 1 free re-roll right?
He used no Dark Animus or Dark Animus points.

The Battle continued including some two-on-one action of 2 heros vs. 1 mook, and Doughboy vs. 2 mook. Doughboy debated burning Dark Animus points for dice. The mooks ran, encounter finishing with Captain Wonder flying behind them ,burning several Light Animus Points/Dice, and clunking their heads together.

I  wasn’t sure Paladin could suit 4 color supers, but after the comments of the players about  “Doughboy:  The Rise of the Dark Loaf “  Ah, campy fun!

This one encounter showed off the system really well so we stopped here. The players each got 5 Light Animus (for medium adversity 2 opponents each of 1 Dark Animus each). This brought Doughboy to 11 Light Animus and 10 Dark, he then spent 9 Dark Animus to bring his 1 point Dark trait (social: whining) to 2 and his 0 point (protective: cowardice) to 1. This brought his Animus to 2 Light and 1 Dark.  The same as if he had spent that Light points to buy down the Dark, which seemed a bit odd to me.  Chris liked that aspect a lot though “It makes using the Dark side even more seductive for him now, he’s better at it than he was” In fact, if his reactive trait was one higher he  would be even between Dark and Light.

This game Really intrigued us!
It Will be played…. Maybe not for Supers, but for something…

At the break for dinner PowerGame was largely forgotten for talking about Paladin…

Paladin WILL be used… maybe for a completely separate Supers game (my player Bill wants to run Fantasy with it).
You’ll be getting a few new customers Clinton, they were shocked when I told them the price! That’s quality!


Now I see Universalis is out……..I like the sound of it on the website!
Looks like I need another Playtest day.

[Bob McNamee]

One problem with my setup for the game...
It will be hard to do an extended 4 color Supers with it as stands...

With Unbreakable Law
Do Not Kill

It will put a much heavier emphasis on Reactive Flesh... to safely knock-out opponents...

With the other settings presented (and my other designed ones) there is no big detraction to Killing your opposition... in some games (like the Sword of Heaven) that is the Point...

It worked in the Playtest, but I can see that an extended campaign with Player-made characters could bank heavily toward that stat.  On the other hand, a Player that wants to explore the allure of the Dark-side might not.

I talked to the players that day about the Laws (and game tone) would be set by mutual consent.

Bob McNamee

As mentioned in another thread, I too had a moment or two of confusion about "why not put all your Light Animus trait points into one area...thus letting you get a high re-roll... and maybe the Dark in another...

I doubt this would actually happen with my players.

Nevermind: It would be pretty cool, especially if limited in active/reactive you can pick... (you're ok Defensively, but to reroll active offense you will have to lean toward your Dark side!)