A superhero RPG

[John Wick]

This is rough stuff. I wrote it at 3 AM last night. I may have had a fever.

Anyway, it is what it is. Interested in seeing what you guys would do with it, how you'd change it, all the other stuff.

Have fun, take care and I look forward to your feedback.

Superhero RPG

Traits
3 Traits: Mind, Body, Spirit
Played with cards.
Clubs = Body
Diamonds = Mind
Hearts = Spirit
Spades = Plot

Each action a player takes takes up a number of "panels." Each "page" has 9 panels. Each "issue" (game session) has 32 pages. (288 panels.)
Each player starts the game with 10 cards. Players don't act in terms of "actions," but "turns" in which they control the flow of the comic. The first player begins by playing cards. Remember, every play is a number of panels equal to the Trait + Power. A player cannot simply "take an action," he must play a card for everything he wants to do (he must take up at least one panel). He continues his turn until he either has no more cards to play or no more actions to make. Then, at the end of his turn, he re-fills his hand up to ten.
By the way, a Trait equals free panels. Thus, if you have a 3 Mind, any Mind action takes up 3 panels of the book (or one long panel that takes up a third of the page).

Using Powers
Powers are defined by the player. The player gets a number of points based on the "Level" of the campaign. Street-level characters get 3 points for powers. Sky-level characters get 10 points. Celestial level players get 20 points. Each power is limited by your Level as well. Street-level characters may only have up to 3 points in a power, Sky-level 10 Points in a single power and Celestial Level 20 Points in a single power.
Each Power is defined by its appropriate Trait. Mind Powers, Body Powers and Spirit Powers. Powers define the specific special effects of your character in addition to giving you bonus Panels.
If Belladonna (3 Spirit) uses her Venom Blast (3 Power), she takes up 6 Panels. This means she can use up to 6 cards from her hand to create an effect. Any Heart card she plays counts as its face value. Face-cards count as 12. Aces are a special exception, detailed below. Any non-Heart counts as 1 added to the total.
Belladona uses her Venom Blast against a bad guy. She plays 4 cards from her hand (she could use up to 6). She plays all Hearts: 2, 4, 8 and 9. The total of her play equals 23.
An ace counts as a Full Page effect. The player may play up to 8 other cards to add to the total regardless of his Trait or Power. Also, the ace adds 15 to the effect total itself.
Targets of effects may try to resist. You must match the suit of the attack and match or exceed the total effect of the attack. If you fail, you are subject to the effects of the attack. In addition, divide the attack by 5 (round down) and discard that many cards from your deck. You can play cards to lessen the effect of an attack. Play cards and subtract the attack effect from your defense effect. Then, divide the remainder by 5 and throw away that many cards from your deck.

Plot Cards
Spades count as "plot cards." Any spade thrown down counts as a single panel and as soon as you play it, you may draw one card. The single spade counts as a single panel. Also, you may throw spades into any attack or effect to add to that effect's total.
You may also throw spades to have the plot effect other characters without your own character's involvement. The targeted player may throw down his own Spades to counter the effect, but he must meet or match the total.

Unconsciousness and Death
If you're attacking another character, and that character cannot draw cards, play a spade and that character falls unconscious. They can counter this action by playing their own spade, but it must match or be higher than yours.
If you play an Ace of Spades on another character and they cannot draw cards, that character dies.

[kwill]

aces as full pages are neat, but what about spreads or fold-outs? :grin:

quick question: is the comic layout model supposed to be strongly or not-so-strongly enforced? for example, do I have to wait for a page to be completed before playing an ace (ie, it can only be played where a real full-page panel could happen)

similarly, a player would be limited by the end of a page, perhaps being able to play only 1 or 2 panel action

if strongly enforced, a blank, panelled mini-comic of some sort would be a *very* helpful game aid

ron has mentioned previously that he used to run a supers game "by the comic book" in terms of pre-plotting; do you see that being something of a guide here? (I'm not familiar enough with the framework, but let's say there's usually a full page panel on page 10, if you're going for a comic feel it may be a good idea for the group to be aware of this kind of thing)

I think this kind of metagame restrictioning (or guidelining) would be interesting to work within

hey, this is also a great deconstructionist tool! pick up your favourite comic and figure out what cards were played! (damned deconstructionists)

[John Wick]

On 2001-11-08 07:25, kwill wrote:
quick question: is the comic layout model supposed to be strongly or not-so-strongly enforced? for example, do I have to wait for a page to be completed before playing an ace (ie, it can only be played where a real full-page panel could happen)

Strongly enforced. If you have an ace in your hand and it's the middle of a page, playing your ace is "wasting" it, but then again, if you need it right then and there, and it saves your super-butt, you really didn't waste it, did you?

if strongly enforced, a blank, panelled mini-comic of some sort would be a *very* helpful game aid

Count on it.

ron has mentioned previously that he used to run a supers game "by the comic book" in terms of pre-plotting

There's no real "format" I know of to writing comics. You look at an Alan Moore book, it has 9 panels per page. You look at a Frank Miller book, it usually has no more than 4.

I think this kind of metagame restrictioning (or guidelining) would be interesting to work within

I agree.
But then again, I like writing within structure. It isn't very popular these days (that whole "down with discipline" thing), but write, read and play like what you like and leave the rest alone. :smile:

[Mike Holmes]

Oh, hell yeah, you have to stick with the book format. And you should have to draw the comic as you go as well. Really terribly, if nothing else, and to keep pace, but definitely draw little stick men sending each other for loops. Serves as a record for post game. I'm seeing something like the little blue books for exams but with nine lightly demarked areas that can be more boldly outlined as the character uses them up. Or at least sheets to photocopy in the book.

No, really.

Mike

[Tim Gray]

We were recently playing a modern horror/mystery type game using the Castle Falkenstein rules, and we ran across something that would occur in your outlined system too: if you don't have any cards of the right suit, you're screwed and players tend to feel frustrated.

This could be even more dire in your version, as it looks like the trait itself plays no part in the result once it's given you a maximum number of cards to play. So Mr Mento, Master of the Mind, is targeted by Hypno-Bum's Mind Control power and wants to resist. Although the number of cards he could play is high due to his trait and power ratings, his hand of 10 cards contains none of the appropriate suit. So he succumbs, not because of his opponent's superior force but because his own power mysteriously fizzles out.

(I'm pretty sure this is what you outlined, but the forum software won't let me see it right now to check!)

One defence, presumably, is that you could use a Spade-fuelled plot alteration to escape instead.

I think it's more important than ever in the supers genre that PCs are not rendered arbitrarily helpless, given the focus on super-competent individuals. As written, you may be risking that.