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First off, looks. The cover is set up to warn you exactly what kind of superhero game you're about to play: a caped and masked superhero is in the middle of two comic panels, one showing a young lady with a laser pointed at her, timed to fire in 3 seconds, the other showing a missle heading toward a building, also apparently ready to explode in 3 seconds. Needless to say, the hero does not look happy, but he does look heavily invested in the dilemma. That's With Great Power...in a nutshell. The art is serviceable, about what you'd expect from an independent gaming company, with a few flourishes and cool touches to make it easy and fun to read. As I'm not an art snob, I'll give it decent marks, especially considering that I'm reviewing an indie game publisher. Your mileage may vary. Since the game does Silver-Age era superheroes as it's niche, I'd recomment using Heromachine on the net to do up your characters. The sheets (black-and-white) for the GM and the characters are nice to look at, but you really should have your hero drawn up in bright, stylish colors. To their credit, they kept the Thought Balloon.
But enough of art, how does the darn thing play?
Be warned in advance: this game does not base it's mechanics on physics. If you're looking for that, try HERO. If you want to roleplay “people with superpowers”, not superheroes, try Aberrant. Try Jared Sorensen's darkpages (upcoming) for gritty, spooky, quirky anti-heroes. It is not meant to be a "generic" superheroes game, for which I'd recommend Chad Underkoffler's Truth and Justice. It does not use dice, but regular playing cards; this is so you and the GM can control the flow of the story, and so that you as player can make the hard decisions that are at the core of this game.
What's all this about hard decisions? Well, to quote myself, this game was designed to simulate Silver Age comics, where the storylines were founded on morality plays, built around the design of soap operas, and covered over and spruced up with high-end special-effects-saturated pro-wrestling matches. The game prioritizes itself accordingly.
Each player starts by deciding on the groups' Struggle. These are the key issues that the heroes will face during the adventure. They are the opposite directions the superhero's lives are being pulled in. Examples include: Responsibility vs. Freedom, Public Superheroics vs. Private Lives (think Spiderman), Ideals vs. Practicality (think The Authority), Tolerance vs. Prejudice (X-Men), Justice vs. Vengeance (Batman), and so on. This Struggle sets the tone for what types of characters you create, and what adventures your characters have.
Now you create the character. You have six Aspects to fill in, which include your Origin (how you became a superhero), Powers (what makes you different from regular people), Convictions (what you believe in with all of your heart), Relationships (the ties you have to those around you), Identity (who you are when you're not a hero), and any Duties you might have to others. You have to Scale these (ranking them from Personal-Municipal-National-Global-Cosmic)according to the impact they will have on the game. (Convictions are the only exception, as they are both Personal and Cosmic at the same time.) Scale is the only concession to real-world physics in this game, so don't be afraid to scale down Powers to what you think they should be; the cards you play will determine how effective your character is. This means both Superman and Batman can be in the same party. Green Lantern is also quite playable as well.
To actually play the game, your characters and the GM-controlled villains first go through Enrichment Scenes. These not only allow players and GMs to introduce their characters, but also win or lose at certain personal-scale conflicts, thus setting up for the Big Conflict where they will do battle. If the characters win, they get their Stakes, meaning they accomplish what they set out to do. If they are frustrated, they get cards put into their hand. This is important, as it establishes one of the key meta-rules of With Great Power...: if your character's life currently sucks, that's a GOOD thing, because it will give you more opportunities to excel later on. It's not physics or real life being simulated, folks, it's good old-fashioned dramaturgy.
Then the Conflict, where Heroes and Villains collide. Mechanically, combat is just like War, with 2s being low and Aces being high. You and your opponent square off, each one playing a card in the same suit, but ranked higher. You can change suits, and thus change the nature of the conflict. You can keep putting out higher and higher cards. You can play the same card (same suit and rank) to cancel their next action.
While that’s going on, you can (and should) narrate your Aspects getting more and more jeopardized somehow in the conflict. This simulates your character feeling the pressure of combat, while you the player get more and more cards to play in the conflict. Blow out your Aspects, though, and your character suffers, the GM gets to capture that Aspect and use it against you, but in return, certain cards (2’s, 3’s, and 4’s) become wild cards for your character. Further, if you lose the whole conflict, you can put a card from your hand onto the Story Arc. Each card you put to the Story Arc neutralizes some advantages that the GM-controlled villains have.
In short, as the game progresses, your character becomes more powerful by suffering, while each early success by the villains end up crippling them, depending on how aggressive the players are. Just like in the comic books. In the end, the heroes (now driven beyond all measure) will handily mop the floor with the villains, leading to a satisfying conclusion. This is further helped out by the fact that this is a card-based game, where your effort’s success or failure is dependent on the choices you make. Dice don’t give a darn about drama or stories, but cards held in hands can, if played properly. And there are plenty of examples of strategy, of how to play, and how to tailor your narration to the cards you put down.
Big tip for playing the game successfully: READ THE SIDEBARS AND EXAMPLES. While they do plump up the page count, this is one game where they are essential to get both a grasp of the rules in action and why the rules that are there are there in the first place. There are very few wasted words in this book; if it’s written, it’s in there for a reason. (How many RPGs can say that nowadays?)
So why do you want this game, with so many superhero RPGs on the market? Well, do you want a game where the rules allow a Batman and Superman to be in the same conflict? Do you want to do superheroic stunts with your powers without having to spend “hero points” to pull it off? Are you tired of superhero games being all about the powers, and not about simulating how the story and action flows in the comic books? Heck, wouldn’t you just once like a superhero game that gave you games that felt like they could have come from the comics? With villain design notes that made near-perfect villains for your characters to fight? How about a game where the choices you have to make for your character hit harder than Superman’s right-cross?
In sum, this is the superhero game to get if you enjoy Silver Age high-impact melodramatic superheroics. It’s a niche, but it fills that niche well.
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