Superheroes

I am planning on doing a series of posts next on Superhero RPGs, focusing on some new ones I have picked up with some retrospective of some older ones.

I have spoken at length about Mutants & Masterminds, my "go to" Supers game, but I have also talked a bit out Silver Age Sentinels and Smallville.   Games I want to cover are the DC Adventures, Icons, BASH and Villains & Vigilantes 2.1.

Obviously one of the things I like to look in any system are the magic rules.  I like to think that Supers and Horror games are reflections of each other.  They share a lot of the same tropes and even plot designs.  Supers are obviously the "light" world and Horror is the darker reflection.  The core philosophies are are also very different.  I think two quotes sum this up perfectly by two of the "kings" of their respective genres.

"We believe in heroes because, ultimately. we believe in ourselves." -Jack "King" Kirby
"We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones." - Stephen King

Horror helps us deal with how the world is.  Superheroes help us by showing us what the world could be.

Of course I see this link since I was re-introduced to horror from comics.  "The Tomb of Dracula" took me from Marvel (which took me from DC) into the world of Horror, Occult and all sorts of things that go bump in the night.  It should also be no surprise that my favorite parts of AD&D were the horror-themed elements; the gothic tradition and the weird horror of Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.  Supers comics even got into the game, alot, and not just Dracula. Read a copy of Dr. Strange, or anything with John Constantine in it; monsters abound.  Twilight is less about vampires than it is about super-powered humans.  So yeah there is a lot crossover.

So as I review these games this is something I want to keep in mind.

The Dragon and the Phoenix: Episode 1

So my Fridays are likely to be very busy so I am thinking of going through my big CineUnisystem adventure season The Dragon and the Phoenix.  These will be mostly plot summaries and some actual play reports.  Keep in mind that these games are now almost 10 years old.  I wrote and ran these a long time ago.  They were the playtest bed for Buffy, Angel and Ghosts of Albion.  Plus I have talked about these for so long I assume everyone already knows everything about them and that is really not the case.  So sit back a enjoy.

Episode 1: Will We Burn In Heaven?


Willow (crying): I thought…I thought I had lost you!
Tara (kissing her face): I’ll find you. I will always find you. 
- Willow and Tara: The Dragon and the Phoenix, Episode 1 “Will We Burn in Heaven?”

Episode 1: Will We Burn in Heaven? by ~WebWarlock on deviantART

November 7, 2002 Thursday
(Ran this during Summer 2002, right after the Dark Druid)

Willow and Buffy have just been visiting Tara’s grave when they get two unexpected visitors, Cordelia and Tara. Tara comes back from Heaven to help the cast defeat a group of fallen angels bent on finding the Enochian Tablets and destroying all of creation with the Word of Unmaking. Tara helps, but is torn between her duty to the Creator and Creatrix and her love for Willow.  Te tablet is found, in the hands of a magical merchant named E'rif E'nur.  He is found dead and his local contact, Spike is horribly burned.  Anya is later found also burned.  Tara is able to heal her by touch, but both Spike and Anya tell her that they are "afraid" of her now. The fallen angels are found and there is a great battle.  An angel tries to burn Willow, but Tara gets in the way and engulfed in flames.  She walks out of the flame, unharmed, and in full angelic form to fight back.  The fallen angels are defeated with daggers given to them by Anya.  The tablet is destroyed and Tara must choose whether to return to heaven or remain. In the end Tara chooses Exile; she gives up her powers and angelic life force to be human again.
Giles discovers that the dead god Leviathan will be entering our reality.


Story Arc and Game Design elements: Introduce the new Ascension, Other Worldly and Geas quality/drawbacks.
Soundtrack: Foo Fighters “Learning to Fly”, Enya “Exile”

Notes and Comments: This is the first adventure and it is fairly linear, but also fairly combat heavy. What is new here is the first time we have seen angels in the game or universe, and they are evil ones. We also see the return of Tara and her exile. One thing quickly became obvious to us that a demonic Anya is not a playable character. She can't die, she is totally beholden to her demonic master D'Hoffryn and really she should be out to kill the Cast. Finding things to do with Anya was a problem. Another problem was Dawn. We had big plans for her, but no one wanted to play her. Spike gets burned pretty badly in this episode by the angels so we could have an excuse not to have him. The focus of this of course is the return of Tara and how Willow could deal with it. In the begining I wanted Willow to be completely de-magicked; unable to cast any spells. It would have been great for a story, but for a game people want Willow to have spells. So we comprimised and had Willow's magic reduced. Throughout the series she begins to gain it back. Tara shows off some of her new powers too here, the ability to heal and her "otherworldlieness". We liked the idea that every demon and vampire in town was now terrified of Tara. Later in Episode 4 Spike describes her as appearing as if she was on fire.
Some elements from my old AD&;D game appear here. Luna is a former character and E'fir E'nur was an NPC. E'Fir E'nur was also going to be part of the D'jinn arc as a summoneer and binder of Iffrits.

Like the D'jinn series, this also had a tie to the Dark Druid episode that was published in July of 2002. The Dark Druid, with your cast, acts a prelude to the D'jinn or with the original cast as a prelude to this.

Tara Maclay
Keribum (Ascended Human Witch)

Life Points 71
Drama Points 20

Strength 5 Dexterity 4 Constitution 5
Intelligence 4 Perception 3 Willpower 5

Qualities Ascended
Attractiveness +3
Empathy
Fast Reaction Time
Hard to Kill +7
Nerves of Steel
Sorcerery 5

Drawbacks Adversaries (lots) 5
Honorable (Serious)
Geas
Minority (Gay Wicca)
Obligation (Major)
Otherworldly

Skills
Acrobatics 2
Art 2
Computers 1
Crime 0
Doctor 2
Driving 2
Getting Medieval 3
Gun Fu 0
Influence 2
Knowledge 3
Kung fu 3
Languages 1
Mr. Fix it 0
Occultism 5
Science 1
Sports 0
Wild Card (riding horses) 3

Combat Dodge +7 -
Magic +15 varies
TK +10 2xSL

This is Tara at the beginning of the first episode of the Dragon and the Phoenix. She has returned as a Keribum (or not exactly a Kerubim from WitchCraft) to stop the Knights of Elohim from the Unmaking. Or at least she (and we) think so at first. She allowed to go into exile but keeps the healing touch power of the Keribum and demons and vampires still fear her.

After Episode 1 her stats return to what appears in the Magic Box or revised Core (which were based on the above stats in the first place).

I also made a print quality pdf of her character sheet.

LEGO Minotarus

I don't talk much about board games here.  Nothing against them, they are just not something I talk a lot about, but I would hazard a guess and say that a full half of my game room shelf space is devoted to board games.  My kids and wife love them and it is something we can all do together.

So if you were at Gen Con this year you saw the LEGO booth.  And if you saw it then like me I am sure you looked at their new board games, Minotaurus, Rames Pyramid, and Lava Dragon.  I am sure that LEGO is still kicking themselves for not bringing product to sell, because they would have raked in the bucks.

We went to our local LEGO store and picked up Lava Dragon and Minotaurus.  The salesman mentioned that they had been selling out of them over the last three weeks and couldn't keep them in stock.

Well I can see why.

We got the games home and my LEGO loving son wanted to build them right away.   That is part of the appeal of these games over say most board games.  You have to build everything first.

It was easy for him (he regularly builds the big Star Wars LEGO sets, so something under a 100 pieces is nothing) and we all sat down.

The rules are simple.  Roll a die, move your pawns.  Try to get to the center of the maze and don't get hit by the Minotaur.  Oh, and you have to build the die too.  On some rolls you can move the Minotaur to send a pawn back to "home" or move a wall to block an opponent.  The game move quick and I can see how it will be a little different each time.  The rule book also comes with some suggested "house rules" like more or less powerful Minotaurs, the ability to jump over some walls and how many pawns you need to get in to win.

In truth this game reminded me of the old Mattel "Electronic Dungeons & Dragons" game from the dawn of the D&D age.

If LEGO is moving into the board game world then I think they are going to do very, very well.  For the RPG crowd this game is nice little diversion and I am sure it will not be long before there are house rules about how the pawns can attack the Minotaur and even rules separating the three pawns each into "classes".  Maybe that is too much, but I can see ways to do it now and certainly someone else will too.

Anyway, see more here.  http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=3841&cn=595&d=70

Cortex: The Hex Girls

Given yesterday's post, this seemed like the logical choice really.

So I am working out some ideas for a Third Season of the Hex Girls.  No ideas yet, but I thought I would try them out in Cortex after already stating them up in Unisystem, Witch Girls Adventures and Cartoon Action Hour 2.

Still sticking with the same idea here; this is Scooby-Doo in reverse.  The Hex Girls tour all over performing gigs and fighting various supernatural threats.  The monsters are real, but most everyone thinks they are people in masks or special effects and the like.

For a change of pace I used the "Mystic Arts" magic system found in Demon Hunters.  Demon Hunters has a lot in common with Scooby-Doo and would make for a more Scooby-Doo like game than say Supernatural would.  For Willow and Tara I used the magic system out of the Core book.

Thorn

AKA Sally McKnight
Agility: d6
Strength: d6
Vitality: d6
Alertness: d8
Intelligence: d6
Willpower: d10

Life Points: 16
Initiative: d8 + d8
Endurance: d6 + d10
Resistance: d6 + d6
Move: 15
Innate Def: d6
Dodge: d6

Traits
Allure d4
Initiate of the Mystic Arts d2
Talented d6 (Guitar, Singing)

Complications
Idealist d4
Superstitious d2
Insatiable Curiosity d6

Skills
Artistry d6
- Poetry d8
- Writing d10
Craft d6
Discipline d4
Influence d4
Knowledge d6
- Folklore d8
- Occult d10
Performance d6
- Guitar d12 + d6 (Talent)
- Singing d10 + d6 (Talent)
- Stage Magic d8
Tech d2

Mystic Arts: Witchcraft d6
- Alteration d8
- Defensive d8
- Detection d8
- Offensive d8

Not completely different than previous stats, but a good reflection of her say Post Season 1.

Luna

AKA Kim Moss
Agility: d6
Strength: d6
Vitality: d6
Alertness: d8
Intelligence: d8
Willpower: d8

Life Points: 14
Initiative: d8 + d6
Endurance: d6 + d8
Resistance: d6 + d6
Move: 15
Innate Def: d6
Dodge: d6

Traits
Allure d4
Initiate of the Mystic Arts d2
Talented d6 (Keyboards, Bass)

Complications
Idealist d2
Glory Hound d2 (wants the Hex Girls to be a number 1 rock band)
Duty, to the Band d6  (Luna lives for the band)

Skills
Artistry d6
- Poetry d10
- Writing d12
Craft d4
Discipline d6
Influence d4
Knowledge d6
- Music Business d8
- Occult d8
Performance d6
- Bass d10 + d6 (Talent)
- Guitar d10
- Keyboards d10 + d6 (Talent)
Tech d2

Mystic Arts: Witchcraft d6
- Alteration d8
- Defensive d8
- Detection d8

This Luna is still more focused on the band and what they can do with it rather than the mystical powers they all have.  Why does her skin appear darker here than in previous posts?  Easy, she has stopped wearing the "vampire" make-up.  It also looks like they have all dropped the fake fangs her father made.

Dusk

AKA Muffy St. James
Agility: d8
Strength: d6
Vitality: d8
Alertness: d8
Intelligence: d6
Willpower: d6

Life Points: 14
Initiative: d8 + d8
Endurance: d6 + d8
Resistance: d8 + d8
Move: 15
Innate Def: d8
Dodge: d8 + d6

Traits
Allure d2
Initiate of the Mystic Arts d2
Talented d2 (Drums, Guitar)
Wealthy d2

Complications
Crude d4
Glory hound d2
Rebellious d6

Skills
Artistry d6
- Writing d8
Athletics d6
Covert d4
Influence d2
Knowledge d6
- Occult d8
Performance d6
- Drums d10 + d2 (Talent)
- Guitar d10 + d2 (Talent)
- Singing d8
- Survival d2
- Tech d4

Mystic Arts: Witchcraft d6
- Alteration d8
- Defensive d8
- Obscuring d8
- Offensive d10

This Dusk looks older.  I would say here she is more mature now, less of the party girl (although she still has it in her) and has finally come to terms with her rich, yuppie parents.  Her magic is more attack focused that Luna's.

"Crush"

Better known to you and I as Daphne Blake in a Goth Cheerleader outfit. (That phrase will increase my hits for this post by at least 20%!) In the episode "In Fear of the Phantom" she became a Hex Girl so she could draw out the Phantom, but in the process wrote a song about how she feels about Fred.

This magic system is more skill based, so in some respects it shares that with the WitchCraft RPG.  I think it would work fine for a Hex Girls like game, but not for say a Charmed RPG. Might need to look a bit deeper.

New Hex Girls

Ok.  I am such a geek.  But you all know that by now.

Well there is a new Scooby Doo cartoon out now, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated.  I am not completely sold on it yet, but my boys like it, so really that is all that is important.  Today though, I watched a new one with them featuring the Hex Girls, "In Fear of the Phantom".  Obviously I wanted to watch, but had to get the morning prep done before school/work first.

Here is what I saw.  The visual style has changed a bit and Dusk has a new voice, but all in all I like the new look.  So people online are complaining (shock! I know) about the changes (they are rockers, they should update their style every so often, and excuse me, but Luna was always African-American, or at least bi-racial).

Thorn looks mostly the same, I like the new looks for Dusk and Luna, very Goth-Punk and neo-Victorian. In fact I might adopt this as their new look in either the "Season 2" game I am thinking about for Cartoon Action Hour, or as a new Season 3 game.  No ideas are hitting me just yet.

I won't go into the episode too much.  It was cool to see Luna playing bass.  Dusk also looks older now.  I do plan on using the Hex Girls more often in my games, even if it just as a background thing in a more serious game and I still like the idea of using them in Witch Girls Adventures and Cartoon Action Hour.

To tie in this episode, I might have a nod in Season 2 to a single, "Trap of Love" that was recorded live with another lead singer, the 4th (or is it 5th) Hex Girl, "Crush"; really Daphne in disguise (looks like bondage gear to me, but hey) to lure out the episode's bad guy.

So yeah, some new stuff to add to a game.  My kids were very excited to see the Hex Girls again and I am sure it is only a matter of time (and repeated viewings) before they ask me to make them a CD with the new songs on it.

Links
Clips, Screencaps: http://www.comicvine.com/news/scooby-doo-mystery-incorporated-in-fear-of-the-phantom-clips/141930/
And of course Danny's Hex Girls site, http://www.angelfire.com/goth2/thehexgirlscoven.com/

Cortex, Part 6 - Final Thoughts

I have spent some time with Cortex and Cortex Plus.  I like the games, they are a nice mix of elements I enjoy in games.  Cortex does not give me anything new, say over Unisystem or Savage Worlds, but it is a nice presentation of ideas in a different way.  Cortex Plus is new and has a very interesting element to it.  Character creation though takes a long time and is typically only suited for groups who know who and what their characters are about already.  Sometimes you want to discover these things in game.

I will discussing Cortex Plus more as I move over to super-hero games.

Cortex, Part 5 - Cortex ++

So I am continuing to spend some quality time with Cortex and Cortex Plus.    One thing though has become very apparent; the only proper way to build a character in Cortex Plus is in a group.  You need the input of others in order to determine what it is your character will do.  This is a cool thing, but doesn't work well in all situations.  For example, me working by myself to stat up some characters on my own in far more work.

When putting together the cast for The Hallows, one thing became very obvious.  Rachel is the star of the show, the others support her.  This is perfect for a book, a less than perfect situation for a game like Smallville.  While playing some D&D with my boys this weekend I thought it would also be cool to try the Cortex Plus system with their D&D 3.0 characters.  They could tell me how they all reacted to each other, how their actions played on each other and what their goals were.  Not bad for an 11 and 7 year old.  This got me thinking.

Could you apply this system of social interaction to any game?

I think the answer here is yes.  The other question is, would you want too?  This one depends on your group.
For most of the D&D-like games I am in, I am thinking not.  But certainly I could see doing this in a Unisystem game (Unisystem Plus?) and I know some of the people on the Cartoon Action Hour yahoo list are discussing this very idea.  But as it turns out there is a game that is absolutely PERFECT for this.

Cortex.

Cortex in it's classic version (BSG, Supernatural) is a great game as I have mentioned in the past.  It is lacking something though to separate it away from the likes of Unisystem and Savage Worlds.  Cortex Plus is a great system that does some very different things, but sometimes that high level of social interaction between characters needs to take a back seat to beating the crap out of some monsters.  The two systems share a base and they have many of the same design elements in place.  What they need then is to be merged.  This gives you the best of both worlds.

Cortex ++ ("Cortex Plus Plus", like C++) combines the best of both games into a cohesive whole.  It has the same base character development as Supernatural or the Core, along with the added Social Development dynamic of Cortex Plus.   Some of the points might need to be tweaked a bit, ad this would make the character sheet a minimum of 2 pages.  But it is something I would like to see and try out.  Players would start with a concept, stat out their characters per the points given by the GM (basic stats only) and then everyone would come together for the first session to work out the details and the social interactions.

This would provide multiple levels of play and interaction.

I want to provide some write-ups this week of some characters both as Cortex Plus characters and as Cortex ++ characters just to see how it would work.