This is... too damned weird:

[The Great Ork Gods] Early ideas
[Capes] Unresolved Complications
Need help with a core mechanic
Unsung Done (kinda -- revised, certainly)

THREE great games, one of which I very directly influenced (GOG god names, maybe some mechanics--I can't recall, 9 years later). And I suspect I recognize the fourth. Wow... memories.

What am I gonna DO with 'em... No damned idea.... WORK, brain, WORK!!!

Yeah, that looks like one hell of a mash-up!
Uh, side note, GOG is totally great & got my brain into some great design spaces. Thanks for helping make it a thing!

Well, you do have the word ingredients.

Like, Combat medics that pray to caped gods? IT COULD WORK

"Combat medics that pray to caped gods" is an amazing, amazing idea.

The year is 2145, or whatever. The golden age has long passed. The masked heroes have left this earth. Now it's just you, a handful of sutures, and your prayers. You're in the trenches, and a kid's dying on you. To whom do you pray?

Spiderman, grant me agile hands and a quick wit.
Superman, confine my weakness to a single source.
Daredevil, give me the power to fight what I cannot see.
Tick, give me the audacity to survive where physics would deny me.

Let's just say I'm mulling it over. The weekend was mayhem, so all I could do was occasionally think, "Oh, right... I'm in the middle of Game Chef.... hmmm...."

But I see some linkages, some threads in the threads:
* Normal (or even defective) folks, screwing up--I need to read more of Capes, but it seems to play on the normality of the folks behind the mask.
* Gods, Supers, Authority--Even the Capes deal with authority, potentially (fallout with government).
* Randomness in IN--possibly using the "core mechanic," though I doubt it.
* GMful--but lots of player agency.

I'm reading Promethea, slowly but surely.... Just finished The Authority....

Hmmm....

Has anyone done an RPG about the "Dependent NPCs" (in the Champions sense) of superheroes? Maybe all the players are somehow attached to a super that they collaboratively create [prior to | during play | both]. And they also collaborate on villains of the super, agents of authority, etc.--sort of Universalis-like, with fact creation as needed (not a bunch of data dumping).

Play cycle something like:
* Players characters are threatened (Super's Secret ID is revealed, villains use mind reading to reveal PCs, whatever fits the session)
* Super is only partially able to resolve.
* Dependents [must | may | may somewhat] resolve for themselves.
* Resolution by the super is like "experience"--impacts the PC positively, in terms of "security" both in the world and within the relationship with the super.
* Resolution by the PCs pushes the story arc--impacts the super negatively somehow (of only in that the PCs become less needy over time).

Possible Play ONCE drivers:
* The super [will | is likely to] die--maybe as part of the pacing mechanics.
* The PCs are really rather at risk--not Golden Age, here; they could well DIE!
* The PCs could write themselves out of the dependence--divorce, maturation, becoming super also, others (hmm...).
* The villains could all be stopped... nah, not that. TONIGHT's villains could be stopped, though, necessitating a new reveal->threat driver next session.

LOTS of meat, there, for dealing with themes of (co)dependence (after all, the super needs the PCs, too!), self-empowerment, and tragic loss.

And, cool! It just occurred to me that I might just be able to name the game Banter and not have to change the thread title! Sort of fits, if one imagines most conversations between DNPCs and supers. Although "In Their Shadow" kind of kicks me in the ear, too (though I HATE using "their" for the indefinite, third-person, possessive pronoun; fucking slack-ass English...).

(Aside: It sucks that the links in my Unsung thread no longer work, but it's also understandable for a commercial product. The Intro gave me enough to at least get the theme and tone out of it, if not its mechanics.)