Re: Has anybody played "Spirit of the Century"
I've run several adventures using SOTC, and I love it. The game is really geared to make your players feel like larger-than-life heroes; knocking down thugs left and right, performing impossible stunts, trading insults with archvillains.
Play is fast and simple and includes rules for solving both physical and social conflicts, sometimes side by side. In one of my recent sessions, the PC's were trapped by intelligent gorillas in the lost City of Mists, and one of the PC's had challenged the king's champion to single combat. While the PC was duking it out with the gorilla warrior, a few of the other PC's were shouting out encouragement from the sidelines, draining the enemy's confidence and calling out weaknesses in the enemy's combat style.
Can the game handle campaign play? Well, since the rules don't mandate tearing up your character sheets after the session is over, then yes, you can continue to play as many adventures you like with the same group of PC's. The lack of character advancement is fully in keeping with the pulps; The Shadow and Doc Savage were insanely competent from their very first novels and remained that way throughout their careers. If you do feel you need to have some kind of advancement to sustain a campaign, the main rule book does provide optional rules for this, and the SOTC wiki suggests a few more options.
Overall my SOTC game is turning into one of my more successful campaigns. Preparing for a session is easy because of the simplicity of NPC generation, and the Aspects and Stunts encourage and allow players to be flashy and daring. For my wants and needs, SOTC is a winner.
