Capes

[Curufea]

.

[Vondy]

My purchase of Capes (see the Narrative thread or the website - http://www.museoffire.com/Games/ ) was processed so I've downloaded the game and had a look. Very interesting.
However, I'm not that interested in the superhero genre, so I'm wondering if it could be turned to something else.
For example - a fantasy version could be seperated "by location" rather than "by scene". And "pages" become "paragraphs" implying literary work (rather than comic book format).
The goals would need changing too - but I can see it working.

The players choose to play one of the heroes adventuring, or one of the monsters/bad guys at the location.

I've only looked at Capes Lite, but the mechanics are based more on player dynamics than anything, so it should work fine if you just change the names of things to match the genre feel you want. Also, it will be hard if players want to have ongoing characters who work together because, at that point, the cooperation mechanics are wholly in their favor. It may need to be tweaked in that regard.

[Curufea]

Kinda - playing the badguy gives you the best chance to Gloat, which gives you more things to play with.
Even if all players are "heroes" there will be conflict between them.

It isn't suited for "hack and slash" fantasy that much - because there is little in the way of character development and you can't go for social conflicts, just combat ones - which would get tiring.

However, I think it would work well for epics, such as Lord of the Rings.

[Curufea]

crossposted from my LJ entry
Well, despite the fact that only half the players read the rules I provided for them, and I yet again proved I'm not very good at explaining things - I do think Capes works and is worth playing a second time.

We made mistakes, but still told an interesting story. I started out as recommended in the Capes Lite handout, with playing a supervillain and creating a "kill the hostages" conflict. Unfortunately becuase we didn't have many conflicts and lots of folk rolled 6s - the scene ended a bit quicker than I liked.

Anecdotes
Scene 1
Captain Proton (was Doctor, but I kept forgetting) Master of Magnetism with he horde of nameless mooks took over Nova Labs developers of hightech weapons and equipment, holding all the employees hostage.
The Galactic Visitor, in his undercover guise as Bob, a worker there, attempted sneak into the toilets to get changed into his hero idea. Only aided by the mental projections of Doctor Psi who had sensed danger from the mental plane - and the ninja skills of Black Knight distracting the strangely competant guards - was he able to successfully get changed.
Black Knights ninja skills were used successfully to smuggle hostages past the guards and avoid being captures by the enclosing force fields of Captain Proton. Shortly after Proton himself was captured by the team.

Scene 2
Sergeant Slander, trusted lieutenant of Captain Proton, takes the mayor's daughter Faye Flanagan to the top of the roller coaster at an Amusement Park (played by one of the players). He threatened the entire crowd with her imminent fall if the Captain wasn't released immediately.
Meanwhile a little girl watching the happenings almost loses her balloon. If it were not for the mental help of Doctor Psi and the magical manipulation of forces by the nearby Mephisto (in his undercover stage magician guise of a baloon animal entertainer) she would have burst out crying.
The ricketty roller coaster almost collapses while Doctor Psi mentally dominates Slander, causing him to plunge himself off the top. Luckily for Faye, Slander pushes her out of the way of an oncoming car just before he himself falls and loses consciousness.
The Balloon Animal of Power that Mephisto manipulates to trap Slander with the aid of Psi soon transports him into the waiting paddy wagon built of purest Unobtainium. But not before the last despairing lovestruck look (and single tear) that passes between Faye and the Sergeant.

Rule notes
Capes rules could be set out better. Unfortunately the writer went for style over clarity and the rules read like a comic book. I want to play it again and it would be best with players who had played Baron Munchausen before. I will write up some cheat sheets to properly explain the turn sequence and list the game jargon in an easily readable manner.

Genre notes
It may be worth lending Kingdom Come onto some of the players just to show the contrast to 4-colour comics and that angst or adult concepts can appear in some subgenres of superhero.
While I don't actually like the genre of superhero (it's my least favourite) - it has proved to be a genre (at least to me) in which any kind of story can be told. Much in the same way that any kind of story can be told in science fiction or fantasy. It is a genre that should be investigated further by folk unfamiliar with it.
A genre is just "common things that occur around the story".

[Curufea]

I've created a couple of cheatsheets to clarify the rules - we'll test them out next time we play. I've put them on one of my wikis
http://www.curufea.com/Wikka/wikka.php?wakka=Capes

A flowchart created by another player-
http://www.seeandswim.com/Capes%20Flowchart.pdf