I was left vaguely disappointed by the premiere. I had to think about why, because I thought the acting was great, the special effects were decent (some great, some not so great). (Occasionally I thought the lighting was bad, but it was bad in a way that made sense for the setting, I just would have preferred that they cheat on it.)
The big reason I was disappointed was that I felt I had seen it all before--and I had. In the trailer, which contains most of the juice from this particular episode. But having seen the trailer multiple times, this felt like a slower version of the trailer...I expected the next beat in the trailer and got a bit of dialogue instead. So it felt clunky, but I'm not at all sure that I would have thought it was clunky had I come to it pure.
So in that sense, I thought it was decent--certainly decent enough that I'll make my real judgement over the next few episodes.
My other disappointment is probably personal. The pilot had a lot to do: it had to get the show picked up (for starters); it had to introduce all the characters; it had to introduce a problem that was going to take all season or longer to resolve (the prison); there had to be an action story, because we had to make clear that this was an action-adventure series. The pilots for Arrow and Flash did these things. In addition, it had to explain why we weren't seeing the oft-referenced-but-never-named cousin.
But because the whole thing was tied up in an hour, introducing us to the new status quo, I felt like they hit some of the beats...not mechanically, because everyone hits those points...but a bit less gracefully than I would have liked. Kara's life, ending when she comes out of the closet...and commercial break. First attempts (which I thought were fun, really)...and commercial break. Downturn, which ends with heartbreak...and commerical. And redemption, leading to the new status quo. Often the structure is less obvious, or is obscured by ongoing threads.
Of course, a pilot doesn't necessarily have ongoing threads..
Characters had to be sketched out in the briefest of ways. Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen got a bit; Callista Flockhart as Cat Grant got a bit, and Jeremy Jordan as Win Schott got a bit. Enough that I'd like to see real development there...they intrigued me.
Chyler Leigh got some very on-the-nose dialogue, while I would have preferred that it be more indirect. Poor David Harewood didn't get much besides antagonistic plot stuff (though the line about Alex's abilities pleased me). I'm sorry that Dean Cain didn't get actual dialogue, but I understand it. I hope we'll see better and more in the future.
The villains got to chew scenery, which is fun for them, and sometimes fun to watch. It was certainly okay here.
So I think it was a decent pilot. Sure, maybe it would have been different if it had been picked up by the CW instead--the two networks have different styles--but it was decent.
Now we see how they're doing...what changes as it's an ongoing, where they cut corners on the effects shots, and what they get to do.
If they're going to keep up references to her cousin (they probably won't make them as numerous as here), it would be nice if there were some mention of meeting for self-defence training: both of them have learned on the job, as it were, and each of them needs the opportunity to work out with someone just as strong. (That can be a throwaway line..."What was that move?" "Been working out with my cousin.")
I'd like it--though it might not work for everyone--if the prisoner of the week ongoing actually led them into the real villain of the season. (We might have already seen the villain of the season.)
So I'll keep watching it, cautiously hopeful.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
Generic Super...uh...girl?
Icons
In honour of the premiere of the CBS series tonight (and no, I didn't see the leaked pilot), here is a quick generic Supergirl. She's more of the iconic sort than anything in particular, though "Rash, brash, and bold" plays to recent portrayals, since as created by Otto Binder (and Al Plastino, I think) she was a typical subservient female. (It was the times, I think; I don't mean to imply anything about Binder.)
The higher Intellect is because she hangs out with Braniac 5 in the future, so you know she's not exactly dim. She's also been shown to have an interest in science in some of the relatively recent comics, such as the Sterling Gates run.
Other powers, such as super-breath and seeing in the dark, are left as stunts.
If you want to fit her into the Fallen ICONS posts, she's clearly a second attempt at creating a human-alien hybrid who was given false memories of her earlier life on the alien planet. When her "cousin" revealed the deception to her, she didn't believe him, and left the planet on a kind of Wanderjahr, attempting to find the remnants of her alien homeworld.
(Hmmm. It just now occurs to me that Clark should have been spending time with her when he found her, trying to learn more about Krypton. There is a certain loveliness to the idea that he came to the Midvale orphanage every week to take her to dinner, saying, "Tell me more about Krypton." (Well, she might have just whispered it in her room, knowing that he would hear her. No, it's not at all creepy. *shiver*))
| Supergirl (Linda Lee Danvers) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRW | 4 | INT | 5 | DP | 1 |
| CRD | 7 | AWR | 7 | STA | 14 |
| STR | 10 | WIL | 4 | ||
| Specialties | Aerial Combat, Mental Resistance, Science | ||||
| Powers |
| ||||
| Qualities |
| ||||
Or, to put a Fallen Icons spin on the character description:
Pinnacle
The same project that produced Exemplar also produced
Pinnacle. Once the alterations to his genome had been shown to be stable, they
produced a woman, a dozen years younger. There was never any intention that the
additional genes would breed true, but as a precaution the project gave her a
cover story as Daniel Hugo’s alien “cousin.” They also spent much longer programming her with the alternate history that they wanted...years, in fact.
When Daniel Hugo leaned the truth about his and her origin,
she was on the alien dimension of Alpha-Nile-8, leading a retaliatory strike
against the leader Umbra. She lost people there, and the last thing she wanted
to hear was news about the government that had sent her there. Rather than
believe Daniel, she retreated into her alien identity, creating monuments to
her fallen civilization.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Power of the day
SYSTEM: ICONS
So about six minutes ago I had this idea for someone whose power is sort of duplication, but each duplicate represents a different part of the character's personality...and who has different powers. She or he splits and the new character represents something else. Sometimes the character pulls out the butt-kicking side, sometimes the brainy side, sometimes the manipulative emotion-controlling side, and sometimes the transformative "I'll change to be with you" chameleon side.
This is not a power that I immediately said, "Hey, it's easy to do."
This is kind of like Alter Ego, in that it's a different set of powers and a different character, and kind of like Duplication, in that both versions are around. (Otherwise, it would be straight Alter Ego.)
But it suddenly occurred to me that you could do it like this:
Duplication, Extra: Side Effect (Alter Ego)
Every time the duplication goes off, boom, the Alter Ego goes off for the duplicate. And you can either use a straight there-are-n-duplicates (except when narratively interesting) or you can take the Dial-H-for-Hero serial extra on Alter Ego, and the character never knows what duplicate he's going to get, whether it's a known duplicate or some other aspect of personality.
As a GM, I'd probably ask the player to not go with the serial Alter Ego duplicate, just to keep things faster at the table.
EDIT the first: This is, of course, the Crazy Jane/Black Annis power, which I only just realized.
EDIT the second: Or, as pointed out by the lovely and talented Fabricio, you can do serial Alter Ego power by having the player or the GM generate a series of heroes that the character will turn into. Depending on the degree of trust between GM and player, the GM might want to look them over before the game, but they're all likely to be gone soon. (There is the plotline where one of the supercharacter refuses to turn back--the Miracleman Jr. scenario--but the player and the GM will probably agree on that, because it isn't the concept of the character.)
So about six minutes ago I had this idea for someone whose power is sort of duplication, but each duplicate represents a different part of the character's personality...and who has different powers. She or he splits and the new character represents something else. Sometimes the character pulls out the butt-kicking side, sometimes the brainy side, sometimes the manipulative emotion-controlling side, and sometimes the transformative "I'll change to be with you" chameleon side.
This is not a power that I immediately said, "Hey, it's easy to do."
This is kind of like Alter Ego, in that it's a different set of powers and a different character, and kind of like Duplication, in that both versions are around. (Otherwise, it would be straight Alter Ego.)
But it suddenly occurred to me that you could do it like this:
Duplication, Extra: Side Effect (Alter Ego)
Every time the duplication goes off, boom, the Alter Ego goes off for the duplicate. And you can either use a straight there-are-n-duplicates (except when narratively interesting) or you can take the Dial-H-for-Hero serial extra on Alter Ego, and the character never knows what duplicate he's going to get, whether it's a known duplicate or some other aspect of personality.
As a GM, I'd probably ask the player to not go with the serial Alter Ego duplicate, just to keep things faster at the table.
EDIT the first: This is, of course, the Crazy Jane/Black Annis power, which I only just realized.
EDIT the second: Or, as pointed out by the lovely and talented Fabricio, you can do serial Alter Ego power by having the player or the GM generate a series of heroes that the character will turn into. Depending on the degree of trust between GM and player, the GM might want to look them over before the game, but they're all likely to be gone soon. (There is the plotline where one of the supercharacter refuses to turn back--the Miracleman Jr. scenario--but the player and the GM will probably agree on that, because it isn't the concept of the character.)
Boytoy in ICONS
SYSTEM: ICONS
Made up in about ten minutes on my lunch hour. Fidelity to concept not guaranteed. Cost seems excessive. Might be okay.
Derived from this writeup: http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/topic/598-heridfel-the-clique-pl7-10-villain-team-npc-tier-3/
Boytoy, from the Clique
| Heridfel's writeup | ICONS | |
|---|---|---|
| Character's Name: Boytoy Alternate Identity: None Power Level: 10 Height: 5'11" Weight: 1500 lbs. Hair: None Eyes: Lavender Description: Per Crooks! History: Per Crooks! | What that says. I'll make his Origin: Artificial | |
| Stats: Str: 12/30 (+10) Dex: 12 (+1) Con: - (-) Int: 10 (+0) Wis: 10 (+0) Cha: 2 (-4) | Attributes Prowess: 2 Coordination: 3 Strength: 8 (Density+Origin) Intellect: 3 Awareness: 6 Willpower: 5 | |
| Combat and Saves Attack: +0, +10 grapple Defense: 16 (flat-footed 13) Initiative: +5 Grapple: +23 Toughness: +14 Fortitude: - Reflex: +7 Will: +5 | Stamina: 13 | |
| Specialties
| |
Powers:
| Powers:
| |
| Drawbacks: Non-combatant: Boytoy will not take any action that directly results in a Toughness save for any targets (-2 pp) | Qualities Like, totally an android Can't hurt sentients | |
| Costs: Abilities (-14) + Combat (12) + Saves (11) + Skills (9) + Feats (7) + Powers (127) - Drawbacks (2) = 150 pp | Points: 70, I think. Man, that's a lot. |
No blocking, no wimping, and the apocalypse engine
(An aside before I start: I am totally going to call some superhero plot device the "apocalypse engine.")
I don't own any games that are powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA), but I will--I've backed Masks and I'll get a copy of it sooner or later. But I see comments about it, and about Worlds in Peril. And this question came up, along with an answer (and of course I can't find it any more...the title was something like, "How to Ask Nicely in DW").
But the answer suggested that there is no just-riffing move for the GM. If the players asks for something (the title You don't do a simple information check. What the GM says has to move to story forward: say yes, introduce a villain, make a conflict out of it.
That's very much the improv "no blocking, no wimping" rule. Whatever you do, it matters.
It's interesting to me that you restrict the GM in this way. (Presumably you also restrict the players....there's an SRD for Dungeon World, isn't there? I should read it.)
I don't own any games that are powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA), but I will--I've backed Masks and I'll get a copy of it sooner or later. But I see comments about it, and about Worlds in Peril. And this question came up, along with an answer (and of course I can't find it any more...the title was something like, "How to Ask Nicely in DW").
But the answer suggested that there is no just-riffing move for the GM. If the players asks for something (the title You don't do a simple information check. What the GM says has to move to story forward: say yes, introduce a villain, make a conflict out of it.
That's very much the improv "no blocking, no wimping" rule. Whatever you do, it matters.
It's interesting to me that you restrict the GM in this way. (Presumably you also restrict the players....there's an SRD for Dungeon World, isn't there? I should read it.)
Monday, October 19, 2015
Fallen Icons: Square Peg, formerly Flexiguy
Used to be, you could see sideshows at circuses. Freakshows. In this more enlightened age, they don't show up, now. Instead we have the Internet and streaming video.
Some people let other people see them. One of those people is Square Peg.
She's not attractive, as women go. Her arms and legs are too long. She obviously wears a wig, because sometimes it is askew. And she always, always, always wears a bodysuit like the one Flexiguy used to wear. It's not visible all the time, but it's there.
Square Peg looks like a church lady, but she performs. She'll do anything nonsexual and nonlethal that you ask and pay for. She swallowed live fish (twenty-six of them). She's rolled in disgusting things. She once kissed a clown.
Getting to know Square Peg involves getting through layers of secrets. Like an onion.
Square Peg was Flexiguy, who was Chuck "Moray" Marston, back in the 1940s. He never seemed to age, and he fought crime for years.
Years.
People have been born, lived, raised families, and passed away in all that time. The crooks seemed to get meaner. People in general got less sunny, less tolerant of his way of looking at the world. A guy who could pretend to be a very nice desk set seemed as out of place as, well, desk sets.
He'd been adopting a woman's appearance for years in order to get in and out of places in disguise. One day, it seemed like just too much effort to change back. To stretch at all, in fact, or fight crime or do, well, anything. He's stuck in that form.
Well, he still needs to eat. So he does what they pay him to do.
What does that mean for the PCs? Well, one might be related to him, or one might need something that he knows. Someone might be suspicious of his cover identity--Peggy Rest doesn't seem as old as she should be, given that her history starts with her as a middle-aged adult in 1989.
A fresh infusion of the flavoring agent might help him. (Is Gin Gold still around? Is there someone who remembers what the secret ingredients were?) And he needs a reason to live...someone with a bright view of the world might help. Someone who figured out who he was...someone clever, like the PCs.
Chuck "Moray" Marston was a gangster on the way up. He got put in charge of the Gin Gold factory robbery, but there was a double-cross, and a shoot-out, and then Marston fell into a vat of flavoring agents. That saved him from being shot dead. He crawled out (dying) , managed to overpower the night watchman who found him, but collapsed before he made it two blocks. He collapsed in front of a brownstone.
The old man who owned the brownstone had been a monk, and he cared for Marston. Under his influence, Marston decided to turn over a new leaf. Before he left, Marston discovered that his time in the flavoring agents had given him a new power: when he wanted, his body was as pliable as putty. He decided to put it to use as a superhero.
He toyed with a number of names (such as The Pliable Punk, Malleable Max, Elastic Man, Mr. Bendtastic, or Darknight Ductility) and decided to be the Flexible Freak. However, when someone asked his name, he blanked and what he got out was, "Flexible...guy." The newspapers turned it into Flexiguy.
Some people let other people see them. One of those people is Square Peg.
She's not attractive, as women go. Her arms and legs are too long. She obviously wears a wig, because sometimes it is askew. And she always, always, always wears a bodysuit like the one Flexiguy used to wear. It's not visible all the time, but it's there.
Square Peg looks like a church lady, but she performs. She'll do anything nonsexual and nonlethal that you ask and pay for. She swallowed live fish (twenty-six of them). She's rolled in disgusting things. She once kissed a clown.
| Prowess | 5 | Intellect | 4 | Determination | - | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coordination | 3 | Awareness | 3 | Stamina | 6 | ||
| Strength | 2 | Willpower | 4 | ||||
| Specialties | Performance, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Wrestling | ||||||
| Powers | None? | ||||||
| Qualities | Tired. | ||||||
| Morally flexible. | |||||||
| Embarrassing secrets to spare. | |||||||
Getting to know Square Peg involves getting through layers of secrets. Like an onion.
Square Peg was Flexiguy, who was Chuck "Moray" Marston, back in the 1940s. He never seemed to age, and he fought crime for years.
Years.
People have been born, lived, raised families, and passed away in all that time. The crooks seemed to get meaner. People in general got less sunny, less tolerant of his way of looking at the world. A guy who could pretend to be a very nice desk set seemed as out of place as, well, desk sets.
He'd been adopting a woman's appearance for years in order to get in and out of places in disguise. One day, it seemed like just too much effort to change back. To stretch at all, in fact, or fight crime or do, well, anything. He's stuck in that form.
Well, he still needs to eat. So he does what they pay him to do.
What does that mean for the PCs? Well, one might be related to him, or one might need something that he knows. Someone might be suspicious of his cover identity--Peggy Rest doesn't seem as old as she should be, given that her history starts with her as a middle-aged adult in 1989.
A fresh infusion of the flavoring agent might help him. (Is Gin Gold still around? Is there someone who remembers what the secret ingredients were?) And he needs a reason to live...someone with a bright view of the world might help. Someone who figured out who he was...someone clever, like the PCs.
Flexiguy
The old man who owned the brownstone had been a monk, and he cared for Marston. Under his influence, Marston decided to turn over a new leaf. Before he left, Marston discovered that his time in the flavoring agents had given him a new power: when he wanted, his body was as pliable as putty. He decided to put it to use as a superhero.
He toyed with a number of names (such as The Pliable Punk, Malleable Max, Elastic Man, Mr. Bendtastic, or Darknight Ductility) and decided to be the Flexible Freak. However, when someone asked his name, he blanked and what he got out was, "Flexible...guy." The newspapers turned it into Flexiguy.
| Name | Flexiguy | Prowess | 5 | Intellect | 4 | Determination | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coordination | 4 | Awareness | 4 | Stamina | 9 | ||
| Strength | 4 | Willpower | 5 | ||||
| Specialties | Mental Resistance Expert, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Wrestling | ||||||
| Powers | Transformation (objects) Limit: Tell | 6 | |||||
| Extra: Damage Resistance | |||||||
| Extra: Stretching | |||||||
| Life Support (vs aging) | 1 | ||||||
| Qualities | Secret (ex-crook) | ||||||
| Came from the dark side to the lighter side | |||||||
| Morally flexible | |||||||
Notes
Unlike every other Fallen Icons post, this one is genderswapped. Mostly, the name appealed to me. But also, if you have significant amounts of Transformation, choosing a sex is, well, optional.
Square Peg is rather a bleak, dark view of existence. It certainly doesn't fit with the character Jack Cole created, but for me, it certainly feels like what happened to comics. If you could manage some kind of a comeback story that ended up with Flexiguy being in a happier place, well, that would please me.
Square Peg is rather a bleak, dark view of existence. It certainly doesn't fit with the character Jack Cole created, but for me, it certainly feels like what happened to comics. If you could manage some kind of a comeback story that ended up with Flexiguy being in a happier place, well, that would please me.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
A thought adventure
Warning: This is a long one.
A thought adventure using the ideas I had the other day.
We take, oh, Batman. The Joker is a standard villain for him. I don't have a writeup for him, but the Joker is about chaos and the Batman is about restoring order, so that's the problem in some way. I have no idea how many points we assign the Joker, so let's do it without assigning any points, see how many we rack up, and that might give us an idea of what significant and insignificant mean here.
I'm going to try to create a story using the rules I've laid out, but if there's a conflict, story wins and I'll amend the rules. And remember, I'm not trying to create deathless prose; I just want it to feel like a story.
(It might be nice if this were a helpful tool for creating stories, but if it isn't, I don't care. That's not its purpose.)
The Joker attacks the ball, mostly because he says he's trying to draw out Batman, but Bats isn't showing because he can't get away (another point). He robs everyone (because a little extra cash isn't a bad thing) and mentions that there's nothing wrong with orphans. He was an orphan, and he likes the way he turned out. He decides to kidnap Violet St. Germaine to bring out Batman (another point), they finish tying people up, and he shoots Bruce, who is trying to attack. (Another point!) Bruce takes out some henchmen, but the Joker gets him. Only wings him, though, because Bruce is fast. Still, Bruce will have the complication of a wound for a while. They leave, with Bruce lying on the floor, possibly bleeding.
He wakes up at home...Alfred brought him home. Bruce being Bruce, he doesn't want to ask for help, even though Dick Grayson or Clark Kent or whomever would help. No, he's going to take the disadvantage of the winged arm and go with it. Still, he hasn't figured out how to where the Batman costume with the sling.
As Bruce Wayne, he checks on the police. They have nothing. They haven't even been notified that the Joker has escaped Arkham Asylum yet. (That sounds like something I can reincorporate later.)
Well, Bruce Wayne is on the board there, so he can make a tour of the asylum and try to get some information. He manages to browbeat Dr. Phillips to let him see the Joker's cell. (It's empty. They discovered the dummy when the police called.)
Bruce spots something odd that explains how the Joker got away...the cell literally has a revolving wall. An old escape mechanism that someone has refurbished. The list of people with access gives him a place to start investigating.
The cells were refurbished by Lantern Gate, a security firm that specializes in high-tech places. Bruce goes there, claiming it's for the charity from last night. (Point for reincorporating that device, though.) Maybe he claims it's for the hotel, or for the charity itself. The manager at Lantern Gate--call him Mr. Strom--gives him a line. He knows it's a line, but Bruce Wayne can't force the issue. Batman could.
Alfred (take a point for reusing him) has his Batman suit jout in the car but strenuously objects to him doing his thing. Bruse costumes up (except for the arm, where he can't fit the costume over the bandage so he's got a bare arm down to the gauntlet) and rigs up a sling.
Well, the day that Batman can't take a pair of gunmen even with one bad arm is the day he retires. Fight scene, resolved by the game system involved. I'm going to assume that he wins, because it's so in his wheelhouse. Strom did do the work in Arkham Asylum, because the crooks had his mother. And yes, they work for the Joker.
Now Batman has got to rescue Strom's mother and Violet.
That's enough points but he has to know where to go. So if he won the fight, there might be some clue that sends him to the right place (and we'd lose a story point because he'd rescue Strom's mother). If he lost the fight, he'd still find a clue, but Strom's mother might be there.
We'll assume that he won because hey, he's the Batman.
At the train garage, there are a number of unconscious people--it doesn't take detective work to find them. He doesn't see the Joker, which tells him that he's too late, but Violet is there. (Take a point for character reuse!) And so are several thugs and Boy Hunger. Fight scene...
The fight is a game system thing, but it's obviously the thugs and then Boy Hunger uses his power on Violet and...oh, let's reuse Alfred because he's there. Let's say that the other thugs, the ones that were outside looking for him, bring in Alfred, and Boy Hunger uses his power to make both Violet and Alfred into awful things, who attack him. (They'll feel awful about it, later.)
Now, either Batman wins or he loses. If he loses, you get an extra point for losing. If he wins, well, he still has to get to the Joker but now he knows that the device is already on the train. (You see how we've structured this so that we don't say the device is there until we discover that we need the points, so it isn't?) Either way, it's not enough points. The advantage of him losing is that of course the thugs will take him to the train.
Let's assume that he wins the fight, because the story still has a place to go. I know that's story thinking and not gaming. But we would want the points from losing, so that we can move into the end game. (Are people going to game this way? Maybe. But if you come up with a good narrative reason why you lose this fight, that's not a bad thing. You just have to deal with it later. Winning against a capo like this should be good, though, so long as it's not the Big Bad.)
Boy Hunger gets away. Maybe we'll reuse him later, maybe not, but we have a choice.
Also because we don't care about little details, the train has to slow down to make a curve, and Batman's plan involves speeding up so he can jump to it, even though the limo will be destroyed when it hits a concrete abutment. He makes it, possibly through the use of a game mechanism such as Last Ditch Effort.
Now it's Joker against Batman. There are probably other people around--people who didn't notice the white-faced green-haired lunatic--but maybe not; maybe Joker's henchmen cleared everyone off the car first. (We'd ask our oracle.) Batman has only one extra point here, and he needs to make five in order to beat the Joker. So we'll go up against the thugs first (for a point).
They go down. (It's Batman, after all.)
Are we going to bring in Boy Hunger? I don't think so: it really feels like a mano a mano throwdown at this point. But what I set up has Batman with only two or three points, and he needs five.
So Joker, who is not without his own resources, slips on his gas mask.
I think there's a decent skeleton of a system here, but clearly it needs some flesh and muscle.
I'll make some modifications and try it with my own characters, which don't have this kind of backstory.
A thought adventure using the ideas I had the other day.
We take, oh, Batman. The Joker is a standard villain for him. I don't have a writeup for him, but the Joker is about chaos and the Batman is about restoring order, so that's the problem in some way. I have no idea how many points we assign the Joker, so let's do it without assigning any points, see how many we rack up, and that might give us an idea of what significant and insignificant mean here.
I'm going to try to create a story using the rules I've laid out, but if there's a conflict, story wins and I'll amend the rules. And remember, I'm not trying to create deathless prose; I just want it to feel like a story.
(It might be nice if this were a helpful tool for creating stories, but if it isn't, I don't care. That's not its purpose.)
Thoughts and commentary will be indented, like this.
Stage 1: The Threat
We quickly introduce Violet St. Germaine, Bruce's girlfriend of the moment. (A point!) They are at a charity ball (another point!) that has to do with some imposing-order or helping kind of thing...orphans. They're trying to give families to orphans. Bruce is all over this; he doesn't want other kids to go through what he did. Okay, so the story has something to do with putting orphans in families...making the standard nuclear family, I guess. So the Joker's plan will make more orphans, or kill the parents. I don't know what, yet, and I don't have to.The Joker attacks the ball, mostly because he says he's trying to draw out Batman, but Bats isn't showing because he can't get away (another point). He robs everyone (because a little extra cash isn't a bad thing) and mentions that there's nothing wrong with orphans. He was an orphan, and he likes the way he turned out. He decides to kidnap Violet St. Germaine to bring out Batman (another point), they finish tying people up, and he shoots Bruce, who is trying to attack. (Another point!) Bruce takes out some henchmen, but the Joker gets him. Only wings him, though, because Bruce is fast. Still, Bruce will have the complication of a wound for a while. They leave, with Bruce lying on the floor, possibly bleeding.
Points so far:
- Introduce a character (Violet)
- Introduce a theme (the charity ball)
- Set stakes (put Violet in jeopardy)
- Lose to villain
- Complication (Bruce is hurt)
We'll try five points. So the Joker is a five point villain? I don't know, but really, I'm not sure that the threat stage needs a point value. It needs certain things to happen, but it might not need points.
If it really is something in that range of points, then the thing to do is decide on the length of your story and set down the die with that many faces, turning it up to remind you. So as soon as you get your first point you plunk down a D6 and increment the count on it; once you reach five (or six), you can fulfill the end condition for that stage. Maybe the number of faces would correspond to the length of the adventure: D4, D6 are short adventures. D8 and D10 are long adventures. D12 is really long. D20 is for crazy people.
Stage 2: The Investigation
Leslie Thompkins helps Bruce but says, "You've been shot! You need to rest!" Bruce says he's had worse and immediately falls down (a point). He has to rest.Under the current setup, we don't get points for introducing characters after the threat stage, just for reusing them. So we don't get points for introducing Leslie or Alfred to the adventure. We get points if they show up again, though.
He wakes up at home...Alfred brought him home. Bruce being Bruce, he doesn't want to ask for help, even though Dick Grayson or Clark Kent or whomever would help. No, he's going to take the disadvantage of the winged arm and go with it. Still, he hasn't figured out how to where the Batman costume with the sling.
Point for adding the complication that he can't wear the costume.
As Bruce Wayne, he checks on the police. They have nothing. They haven't even been notified that the Joker has escaped Arkham Asylum yet. (That sounds like something I can reincorporate later.)
Well, Bruce Wayne is on the board there, so he can make a tour of the asylum and try to get some information. He manages to browbeat Dr. Phillips to let him see the Joker's cell. (It's empty. They discovered the dummy when the police called.)
Bruce spots something odd that explains how the Joker got away...the cell literally has a revolving wall. An old escape mechanism that someone has refurbished. The list of people with access gives him a place to start investigating.
Now, that solution feels like it's worth a point--it gives Batman somewhere to go. Does that fit any of the criteria I've already mentioned? Maybe it's a plot device, though I had in mind things like "the raygun that makes you a turtleman". Still....
The cells were refurbished by Lantern Gate, a security firm that specializes in high-tech places. Bruce goes there, claiming it's for the charity from last night. (Point for reincorporating that device, though.) Maybe he claims it's for the hotel, or for the charity itself. The manager at Lantern Gate--call him Mr. Strom--gives him a line. He knows it's a line, but Bruce Wayne can't force the issue. Batman could.
All this story stuff is great, but what about superhero action?
Alfred (take a point for reusing him) has his Batman suit jout in the car but strenuously objects to him doing his thing. Bruse costumes up (except for the arm, where he can't fit the costume over the bandage so he's got a bare arm down to the gauntlet) and rigs up a sling.
Hmmm. I think that there should be some rule or complication that enforces the idea that encounters have effects. That's part of what the reuse thing does, though of course it can be abused.He sneaks inside and thugs come out from the back room and say that Mr. Strom did well, but they're not going to release his aged mother just yet.
Do I get a point for doing the thing where Strom might become an orphan? Nah, it's just a callback to the theme rather than something meaty. It doesn't feel like it is a consequence of anything in the story so far, it feels like it's decoration that reminds of us the theme.
Well, the day that Batman can't take a pair of gunmen even with one bad arm is the day he retires. Fight scene, resolved by the game system involved. I'm going to assume that he wins, because it's so in his wheelhouse. Strom did do the work in Arkham Asylum, because the crooks had his mother. And yes, they work for the Joker.
Now Batman has got to rescue Strom's mother and Violet.
For that complication, I will take a point, though: that's going to have effects. That's probably the way to think about it: does something have consequences?Amazing detective work follows and Batman figures out where the thugs came from ("This mark on their shoes...it's tarry, but it isn't tar. It looks like the stuff they use in hospitals to keep the dust down. There's a medicinal smell. Their car has a chalk mark on the wheel, so they parked at a meter...the only medical place it could be is (make up a name) Ravenwing. The place has been closed for years.") That detective work is a function of the game system, not this system. He has Alfred drive him there, because (a) he doesn't have the Batmobile and (b) his fight has had effects.
Is that a new complication from being winged or is it just following through on the original? We'll take a point, just to see. But it feels like the larger rule is not "reuse" but rather "take a point when something from earlier has an effect."He goes to Ravenwing and sneaks in. Here he discovers Strom's mother (yay!). Wounded and at a disadvantage, he fights the thugs there. Whether he wins or loses, he discovers the Joker's plan and discovers that the Joker's plan is to kill everyone in the city over puberty...making them orphans.
That's enough points but he has to know where to go. So if he won the fight, there might be some clue that sends him to the right place (and we'd lose a story point because he'd rescue Strom's mother). If he lost the fight, he'd still find a clue, but Strom's mother might be there.
We'll assume that he won because hey, he's the Batman.
Points:
Six points total. Kinda feels like the midpoint of a comics story, though...maybe one from the Bronze Age.
- He can't wear the costume (complication)
- Reuse the theme of the charity ball
- Reuse Alfred
- Lose a point for managing to costume up, when we said he couldn't
- Added complication of finding and rescuing the mother
- Get a point for having the being winged affect him even though he decided to get costumed up
- Lose a point for resolving the Strom's mother thing
- Get a point for raising the stakes
- Get a point for having the theme involved
Stage 3: Challenge
I think this time we'll make it harder on him. The Joker has actually hired some superpowered help, ostensibly because he was worried that Batman would bring one of his superpowered playmates, but that gives us someone for Batman to beat (or be beaten by) without invoking the main villain. I guess the main villain should be called the big bad or the boss or something. I'll think about that.The delivery mechanism for this thing is going to be the elevated train: it will spray the chemical all along the route of the train (yes, I just made that up). Batman needs to get to the train garage, where they're going to fasten it to the train.
Let's invent somebody...we want to reflect the theme somehow, so let's call him Boy Hunger. The super power involves weakening his opponents...some kind of weakness added to a starvation kind of mind control. The weak-minded become gluttonous killing machines, probably with an enhanced ability to hit. Since Batman has the complication of the injury, we'll make it by touch, or by being near. It's quite Batman-like to have the secondary villain affect other people.
At the train garage, there are a number of unconscious people--it doesn't take detective work to find them. He doesn't see the Joker, which tells him that he's too late, but Violet is there. (Take a point for character reuse!) And so are several thugs and Boy Hunger. Fight scene...
The fight is a game system thing, but it's obviously the thugs and then Boy Hunger uses his power on Violet and...oh, let's reuse Alfred because he's there. Let's say that the other thugs, the ones that were outside looking for him, bring in Alfred, and Boy Hunger uses his power to make both Violet and Alfred into awful things, who attack him. (They'll feel awful about it, later.)
Now, either Batman wins or he loses. If he loses, you get an extra point for losing. If he wins, well, he still has to get to the Joker but now he knows that the device is already on the train. (You see how we've structured this so that we don't say the device is there until we discover that we need the points, so it isn't?) Either way, it's not enough points. The advantage of him losing is that of course the thugs will take him to the train.
Let's assume that he wins the fight, because the story still has a place to go. I know that's story thinking and not gaming. But we would want the points from losing, so that we can move into the end game. (Are people going to game this way? Maybe. But if you come up with a good narrative reason why you lose this fight, that's not a bad thing. You just have to deal with it later. Winning against a capo like this should be good, though, so long as it's not the Big Bad.)
Boy Hunger gets away. Maybe we'll reuse him later, maybe not, but we have a choice.
Points
Is it worth rescuing Violet and Alfred at this stage? By the rules I've laid out, it's not: you need the point. From a story point of view, it is: now that you've "used" Violet and Alfred with Boy Hunger, it feels like you can't use them in the last chunk of the story. (If the Joker had taken them away, totally worth it: they still have value. But because I chose to use them here, not so much.) So in the future, either wrapping up a complication in this stage is worth a point, or beating a capo in this stage is worth two points. I also think that there might be some usefulness to distinguishing between the consequences of something earlier, and an actual plot twist. Like, as a story, the fact that there's another superhuman involved is a twist that means Batman doesn't end the story with this confrontation. If those are distinguished, maybe that's a twist. (And if this were a story, I'd totally introduce Boy Hunger sooner, so it's not a surprise when he shows up.)
- Reuse of Violet
- Complication: Personal use of Violet and Alfred
- Didn't lose the fight, but he didn't get the current villain. Should that be worth a point? I don't know how to phrase it yet, but this might be worth a point. Should we count winning against a capo as worth a point? It signifies some kind of story movement.
- Are Violet and Alfred rescued? Yes, I think they are. So that's wrapping up a complication. Might be worth a point at this stage.
- I would count that the fact that the device is in place and about to go off (It's on the train! about to destroy all the adults in Gotham!) as ratcheting up the stakes (making them immediate), then he's got another point, and we end the stage.
Stage 4: Comeback
Because Alfred's being checked out by doctors, Batman is driving the limo himself, trying to get to the train. He's got the radio tuned to train chatter, so he's following the train's progress and thinks the Joker is going to release the agent when he gets to the center of town, the most densely populated section.Maybe a point for him driving the limo, increasing the chances of someone making the Bruce Wayne-Batman connection? Maybe if this weren't the end game. No point for forecasting the plan; that feels more like a plot device to get him to the confrontation.
Also because we don't care about little details, the train has to slow down to make a curve, and Batman's plan involves speeding up so he can jump to it, even though the limo will be destroyed when it hits a concrete abutment. He makes it, possibly through the use of a game mechanism such as Last Ditch Effort.
We might consider losing the limo as a spend on his part to get another story point. It's a resource that he's burning up. Think about that.The jump does horrible things to his injured arm. (Point!) He works his way up the train to where the Joker is. Before he enters the car, he unhooks the other cars.
Feels like there should be a point for that, for trying to save innocents. Probably that's a game-system thing: acting in accordance with his drives or qualities.
Now it's Joker against Batman. There are probably other people around--people who didn't notice the white-faced green-haired lunatic--but maybe not; maybe Joker's henchmen cleared everyone off the car first. (We'd ask our oracle.) Batman has only one extra point here, and he needs to make five in order to beat the Joker. So we'll go up against the thugs first (for a point).
They go down. (It's Batman, after all.)
Are we going to bring in Boy Hunger? I don't think so: it really feels like a mano a mano throwdown at this point. But what I set up has Batman with only two or three points, and he needs five.
So Joker, who is not without his own resources, slips on his gas mask.
Does that count as ratcheting up the tension? Because it means that the button press is imminent. That would give Batman three or four points.Joker notices the hurt arm and taunts about it. "The obvious conclusion is that you're Bruce Wayne."
Complication? If this were part of a campaign, I'd allow the point, because it's such a comic book thing to do for a series. In this case, I'll allow it anyway because it clearly plays into one of Batman's complications, and it can be reincorporated if we do another story. So Batman has four or five points. If we're not allowing that other point, Batman can't win. Except that winning gets him a point, which means he can.So here's how I might play it out the ending:
- Batman loses the fight with the Joker. I allow a retcon (allowed in ICONS and several other supers games) that makes it work: When the Joker knocked him down, Batman used something or other he took from the lab to disarm the bomb, so that even when Joker presses the button, it doesn't work.
- Batman wins the fight with the Joker. Hey, he won. No problem.
I think there's a decent skeleton of a system here, but clearly it needs some flesh and muscle.
I'll make some modifications and try it with my own characters, which don't have this kind of backstory.
Team resources: some thoughts about headquarters
What do you want your team to have? What are the resources that they share? What are the freebies and what should they work for?
While you could use the excellent location-building rules in Stark City for this, I wouldn't get a blog post out of it if you did. I'll also skip specifying a system on this one, though I'll use ICONS for the examples. (Later, I might come back and add examples written in other systems.) ICONS, in fact, doesn't talk much about headquarters and team resources, because they are mostly plot devices.
Which they are, but I'm going to talk about them anyway.
(If you want to build team resources because they're really extra-special, maybe you could have a "Team Resources" power: every level or rank of Team Resource gets you five points of resources. Some of the resources are levelled--the size of the headquarters can be small, medium, large, or extra-large--and some are not--communicators for everybody!.)
Almost every team needs a place to meet and some kind of communication. The other common resources are contacts and vehicles.
I have run a campaign where the heroes met in a back room at a coffee chain: the Circle Perk. (That was Wild Justice, my reaction to Dark Champions, where they fought against the excesses of the Blue Moon Killer.) Still, the heroes probably want a more private place to meet, and they might want other equipment. Here are some ideas for your standard crimefighting, beat-the-conquerors kind of team.
Size. How big is your headquarters? I think there are four useful categories:
Inaccessible/Accessible. An inaccessible headquarters is tough to get to. There are three levels.
A headquarters is usually also accompanied by one or more qualities: Secret magical school, interdimensional train, teleporting street.
A headquarters can also have bonuses to skills or specialties. The description of the place serves as a source of qualities that the player can tag for +2 to the effort or to actually do something. "I'm in the library where we have lots of old information, so I get +2 to Occult" or "Here in the lab I can do mass spectroscopy, so that's a chance to do/redo Investigation."
I'd also avoid using set numbers for anyone trying to get in. Instead, I'd use the accessibility quality to create trouble for anyone trying to get in stealthily. Something that's inaccessible is a minus to their attempt; something very inaccessible is a double minus.
Weapons and durability can be modeled with powers. This is where you want an exchange rate between the advantages that the players put in and the number of points you can spend.
Senses (the TroubleAlert?) are probably best done with Qualities rather than trying to make ranges work, because the range rules in supers games are usually meant for people, not machines.
Communications are probably best described by their limitations. So what kind of information is transmitted (only voice?) and how far? Can it be overheard? Can it be blocked? In my games, communications are usually an excuse to keep everyone involved because they're going to talk anyway. Sometimes I care that character X is not there (and the players are good about it), but usually I'm fine if they communicate. Off-hand, I can think of the following:
Communications also have a security aspect which you might want to spell out.
Stuff like sign language for stealth missions is usually spoken by the players and invented by the players as necessary.
Vehicles can often veer from the pure plot device category, as the characters hide in the vehicles or use the vehicles as weapons. They are the resource that are most likely to have to be statted out.
While you could use the excellent location-building rules in Stark City for this, I wouldn't get a blog post out of it if you did. I'll also skip specifying a system on this one, though I'll use ICONS for the examples. (Later, I might come back and add examples written in other systems.) ICONS, in fact, doesn't talk much about headquarters and team resources, because they are mostly plot devices.
Which they are, but I'm going to talk about them anyway.
(If you want to build team resources because they're really extra-special, maybe you could have a "Team Resources" power: every level or rank of Team Resource gets you five points of resources. Some of the resources are levelled--the size of the headquarters can be small, medium, large, or extra-large--and some are not--communicators for everybody!.)
Almost every team needs a place to meet and some kind of communication. The other common resources are contacts and vehicles.
I have run a campaign where the heroes met in a back room at a coffee chain: the Circle Perk. (That was Wild Justice, my reaction to Dark Champions, where they fought against the excesses of the Blue Moon Killer.) Still, the heroes probably want a more private place to meet, and they might want other equipment. Here are some ideas for your standard crimefighting, beat-the-conquerors kind of team.
Size. How big is your headquarters? I think there are four useful categories:
- Small: a back room somewhere, a hidden desk when a wall turns around, a private garage
- Medium: an apartment, a hidden section of a floor in an apartment, your magical study
- Large: a floor in a building or a hidden basement, a forgotten subway station,
- Extra-large: a building on an island in the river, a satellite orbiting the earth, a pocket dimension
Inaccessible/Accessible. An inaccessible headquarters is tough to get to. There are three levels.
- The first is accessible.
- The second suggests that anyone could get there if they knew what to do (knew the combination for the entrance, turned widdershins six times and said the magic phrase, pressed the buttons for twelve and fourteen on the elevator at the same time, hired a plane to get to the Fortress of Solitude).
- The third requires special abilities (the Avengers card, the strength to move a giant key, dimensional transport magic). It's your call whether you think a satellite above the earth is the second level of accessible or the third...given how it's used in the comics, usually the third.
A headquarters is usually also accompanied by one or more qualities: Secret magical school, interdimensional train, teleporting street.
A headquarters can also have bonuses to skills or specialties. The description of the place serves as a source of qualities that the player can tag for +2 to the effort or to actually do something. "I'm in the library where we have lots of old information, so I get +2 to Occult" or "Here in the lab I can do mass spectroscopy, so that's a chance to do/redo Investigation."
I'd also avoid using set numbers for anyone trying to get in. Instead, I'd use the accessibility quality to create trouble for anyone trying to get in stealthily. Something that's inaccessible is a minus to their attempt; something very inaccessible is a double minus.
Weapons and durability can be modeled with powers. This is where you want an exchange rate between the advantages that the players put in and the number of points you can spend.
Senses (the TroubleAlert?) are probably best done with Qualities rather than trying to make ranges work, because the range rules in supers games are usually meant for people, not machines.
Communications are probably best described by their limitations. So what kind of information is transmitted (only voice?) and how far? Can it be overheard? Can it be blocked? In my games, communications are usually an excuse to keep everyone involved because they're going to talk anyway. Sometimes I care that character X is not there (and the players are good about it), but usually I'm fine if they communicate. Off-hand, I can think of the following:
- Radios (voice, short range, can be overheard, don't work everywhere, device complications)
- Smartphones (voice, occasionally visual, can be overheard, don't work everywhere, global range, device complications)
- Mind link (usually voice but can be enhanced, range has to be defined, can't be overheard, not so good for characters trying to hide things, usual limit is conference call size, switchboard complications)
Communications also have a security aspect which you might want to spell out.
Stuff like sign language for stealth missions is usually spoken by the players and invented by the players as necessary.
Vehicles can often veer from the pure plot device category, as the characters hide in the vehicles or use the vehicles as weapons. They are the resource that are most likely to have to be statted out.
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (a bunch of links)
A while ago, I did a bunch of ICONS versions of some of the heroes and villains from the first season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. While all those posts are still there (really), I thought it would be good to gather the links together in one place. These are links to Google docs.
I was intending to put the right disclaimers on them and put them on the ICONS wiki ... I think I did some of them ... but heck. That takes a while, and I'm not so sanguine about the future of g+ as I was back then.
I'm just copying and pasting links here. I haven't gone back and looked at the posts or the files, so it's possible that I'll include something that I hadn't finished or that hadn't been fixed. Do let me know.
So. A:EMH writeups in alphabetical order.
I was intending to put the right disclaimers on them and put them on the ICONS wiki ... I think I did some of them ... but heck. That takes a while, and I'm not so sanguine about the future of g+ as I was back then.
I'm just copying and pasting links here. I haven't gone back and looked at the posts or the files, so it's possible that I'll include something that I hadn't finished or that hadn't been fixed. Do let me know.
So. A:EMH writeups in alphabetical order.
- Abomination: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dCcOQG1qk8Qcsm1kOb2kHRxpRrvgIYmdvAG7NBj8HKc
- Absorbing Man: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ae54TFQDLLGDdpDydPh4xBs1o8CsPraeW2gj0hqnoXE
- Baron Strucker: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1um-_ltlY5YQEmiksn-MWJkC_fIGExEXs_0V33Rc3WF4
Baron Zemo: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ln5qM41lo2Q3kq914gEjBHCaLjWG3P3a02oxRr29jcc - Black Panther: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LCKYFgxSws2b8QuFv3c6SmsnenNiddN4Hbknqnws86I
- Captain America: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1onWSgzgROpjAVJZELSSD3YEWUE72CHa0k02wJyRYKhY
- Chemistro: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12eQ3yDQHWsQVwZiKZ9EPcdp_ue17wQ-YgeBUoanX9Jw
- Crimson Dynamo: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bbYjoeXmOowFUjM0mnR_uy7hDhIsx8Phn3hDwPN_g5Q
- The Enchantress: https://drive.google.com/open?id=11i3_ZWmGWPlJrMHjLOldZci2ZLwBZ6zkgsTNsadKNX4
- The Executioner: https://drive.google.com/open?id=11ygg8ud1jrr96eq3RzmqWNRPqGJK0bNcCEeFrkrphwM
- Grey Gargoyle: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Vs_ZKlTSsQxYr919JPA8hR7FaLh3Eza3xw9ljBcrsic
- Griffin: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NpVvYMGK3QaEyEYyZOEuEpfaEGogyFd3MXB66nqxmy8
- Hawkeye: https://drive.google.com/open?id=13WMpM1oMPBhZUHi7__QQ2mMqTRsm5jiYzPzdJQS2PRE
- Hulk: https://drive.google.com/open?id=19-i9sZjgOIMhUsXZG4KlkZZoNYRSlQEk5yLyMp9l-E4
- Iron Man: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iVzhjOTSb8Th9k95ay59KUreos2SKXh_HYgRNhNWE-c
- Living Laser: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-hR_bm5xKDuSZDIqkXNKxw4eaBiiypY4MwZQBbVNKWk
- Mandrill: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FS5JKrNPCDO08p6kVLZ6sHQOl6aegsTGc897Q7A0KZA
- Spider-Man: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1L8X8wodmGk4LPNMUYoqLzpsd3tIY9dDA91J9d4fzeJc
- Thor: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pAq1zLlFlEhHONXtL7UXI_JzCnmW7f-qZZ5Biw6R7Hs
- Ultron-5: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mHeUL5A9kIIFh-ZchQr08iy7kC1c2Cjh-CpiI5JGFCI
- Wasp: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1T7Tc_EWh0mVjL1HAPMUAsNh_fscivKTDJCoViDRcW1I
- Whirlwind: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BIv4kpVlj4s8NQ1FJfkneyc8UIlvfE2VSmjZUjwz9B8
- Wonder Man: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KxhzINdI9M05yVjlKMVODw6J5lnTel8_qmUclceG1uc
Saturday, October 17, 2015
More thoughts about solo superhero RP
Well, actually the rest of yesterday's thoughts.
What I was thinking was that alone, you'd have something to emulate story structure above the whole scene/conflict thing. MHR does this a bit with the Doom Pool. I was thinking of a more generalized version that could be grafted onto anything.
Again, this is me thinking out loud. I haven't tested any of this, and I've optimized my thoughts towards superhero games.
An adventure is broken into four parts. Larry Brooks calls them Setup, Response, Attack, and Resolution, but we’re going to go with Steve Kenson’s terms, because they’re specific to superheroes: Threat, Investigation, Challenge, and Comeback.
Each stage garners you story points of some kind, and you need a certain number of points to get to the next stage. The number of points you need starts at the point level of the opposition. So part zero is that you have to figure out who or what the opposition is worth. (You don’t have to figure out what the opposition is, but what it’s worth.)
Another decision we make at the beginning is to pick one of your complications or qualities or challenges, and say that the villain’s plot (whatever it is) is going to deal with that. It will mirror it, exacerbate it, result from it, or whatever. So a secret ID might mean that you have a secret identity plot. If you don’t have formal qualities or disadvantages, then look at the description of your character for something that causes the character trouble. You also have to figure out what the value of the adventure/problem is. (I have not yet figured out how to decide on the value; this is spitballing.)
At the end of each stage, you fulfill the ending condition and spend the story points, so you start the first three stages with no points. You do get to keep excess points in the transition between third and fourth stages because the excess points become tokens that help you win at the end.
Note that you can introduce characters settings in any of the first three stages; you just don’t get points for it.
Next I'll try a thought adventure.
What I was thinking was that alone, you'd have something to emulate story structure above the whole scene/conflict thing. MHR does this a bit with the Doom Pool. I was thinking of a more generalized version that could be grafted onto anything.
Again, this is me thinking out loud. I haven't tested any of this, and I've optimized my thoughts towards superhero games.
An adventure is broken into four parts. Larry Brooks calls them Setup, Response, Attack, and Resolution, but we’re going to go with Steve Kenson’s terms, because they’re specific to superheroes: Threat, Investigation, Challenge, and Comeback.
Each stage garners you story points of some kind, and you need a certain number of points to get to the next stage. The number of points you need starts at the point level of the opposition. So part zero is that you have to figure out who or what the opposition is worth. (You don’t have to figure out what the opposition is, but what it’s worth.)
Another decision we make at the beginning is to pick one of your complications or qualities or challenges, and say that the villain’s plot (whatever it is) is going to deal with that. It will mirror it, exacerbate it, result from it, or whatever. So a secret ID might mean that you have a secret identity plot. If you don’t have formal qualities or disadvantages, then look at the description of your character for something that causes the character trouble. You also have to figure out what the value of the adventure/problem is. (I have not yet figured out how to decide on the value; this is spitballing.)
At the end of each stage, you fulfill the ending condition and spend the story points, so you start the first three stages with no points. You do get to keep excess points in the transition between third and fourth stages because the excess points become tokens that help you win at the end.
| Stage | Threat | Investigation | Challenge | Comeback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Get points for |
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| Lose points for |
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| To end: Enough points and… |
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| Other rules |
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Next I'll try a thought adventure.
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