I playtested Capes again last night. Details of how the rules worked out can be found in a much longer post here.

What I found fascinating in terms of the actual events of play was that I think I've perceived CAs unequivocally in action for the first time. Specifically, we had several events that were thematically, rather than causally, created... and with the two of us who were playing I genuinely think that felt more "right" than a more logical story would have felt.

We had a classic superhero story where the fight against the mutated monster caused our heroine to miss meeting her sister at the mall.

So then we skipped all of the things that could have happened afterwards ("Hey, where'd that monster come from, anyway?") and moved directly to the sister throwing a snit-fit.

And then when the sister was blown off a second time I moved directly to the sister being kidnapped by forces of darkness.

Is there any causal relationship between the arguments and the kidnapping? Slim at best... yes, the little sister stormed off to "live her own life", but that doesn't put her any more at risk than any other time she leaves the house.

What sold the idea is that there was clearly a strong thematic link. The heroines neglect of her sister should result in the sister being endangered, in some way that I have trouble verbalizing but that both of us clearly felt.

I've been thinking of Creative Agendas as a very conceptual, abstract thing, but this was just straight up in my face. There was absolutely no need for me to provide a logical, cause-and-effect explanation of why the villains chose this particular moment for their kidnapping, because nobody at the table cared.

I'm sure folks who are old hands at this will just be nodding and saying "obviously", but hey, it was new to me. Cool stuff!

Hi Tony,

If you and Michael Miller haven't yet exchanged your current working copies of Capes and With Great Power, then it's double-double time you did so.

It'd be great to see two different mechanics-approaches toward this crucial and decades-overdue concept in superhero-based role-playing.

Best,
Ron