Goto [ Index ]

In Short

As with many other small press games, With Great Power… is tightly focused and will not serve well as a generic system, or even to run adventures about super heroes outside of classic mainstream comics. The entire system is playing card based, and while there is certainly a random element, many folk wont care for the lack of dice. All that being said, I find this to be an incredible game that very clearly embraces the comics it simulates.

The Physical Thing

A detailed table of contents makes this product very easy to use. Friendly charts summarize the rules at the end of every chapter.

The Ideas

Under the Cover

Chapter One Introduction 10 pages.

The Introduction explains the terminology, ideas, and resources you’ll need to be familiar with while playing With Great Power… Since this is a card based RPG, you’ll want to have 4 or 5 decks of cards for play. It might be a good idea to get decks with different backs, too, so it’s easy to keep the cards separate. Another excellent tool is the Thought Balloon which is a picture of a large thought balloon readers are encouraged to photocopy and mount on a stick. Whenever you’re in character during the Inking phase, just hold up the thought balloon to let everyone know. I think it’s a fantastic idea.

Speaking of inking, the whole game involves a three step process called Illustration. Illustration begins with Scripting where a scene, idea, or play of cards is initially made. Next, Penciling occurs which means that the other participants all respond to the idea. The GM might say “Well, why not do it this way?” and your friend might add “I don’t think character X would do that.” Finally, Inking occurs. This is the final decision of the participants, and once something is Inked it’s done for good. This process, which exists in all RPGs to an extent, is important to keep in mind with this game because understanding character thoughts and motivations is a big part of the fun.

Chapter Two The Origin Process 24 pages.

The chapter begins with good advice on defining the struggle of the hero. Power vs. Responsibility, Practicality vs. Ideals, etc. Many superheroes have a struggle like this at the core of their character, and With Great Power… encourages players to embrace this idea from the start as a group. In fact, it’s essential to character creation and makes certain that the whole group will be tackling the same game themes together. Characters in the game are composed of six Aspects, major themes of the character, and these Aspects largely control what goes on in the game. Three Aspects will correspond to one side of the struggle, three will correspond to the other side. Each of these Aspects, except Convictions, is set at a certain Scale (power level).

Scale: Personal, Municipal, National, Global, Cosmic.

One character could have Telepathic Might (Global) reflecting their ability to hit anyone in the world with an amazing mental attack. Another could have Martial Arts (Personal) reflecting their incredible martial arts training – which really deals with problems on a person to person level. Scale is really flavor text, and it doesn’t matter if an Aspect’s Scale is Personal or Cosmic so long as it makes sense to everyone – the mechanics work the same way regardless. This is why With Great Power… really will let you run a character with incredible cosmic abilities along with another that has no more than a few gadgets and expert training. The game is entirely focused on the struggles those characters deal with – who they are, what they’re willing to sacrifice, what’s important to them – and isn’t as concerned about the Scale of their powers or problems.

The six Aspects which largely drive the game are: Power, Origin, Identity, Conviction, Duty, and Relationship.

Below is a very formal example of character creation. Many characters wont have some Aspects from a given group, while they could have duplicates from others. They could also have Aspects that belong in multiple groups. The goal is to build a classic superhero, like what you would expect to see in a comic book, and as long as that goal is being met I suspect everything will work out splendidly.

Example: If I were playing a WGP game I would suggest Ideals vs. Practicality as a theme and build a character to fit. I have in mind a physicist who, through a lab accident, was partially unstuck in time and space and has time/space control abilities. I don’t need to precisely define his powers, so I’ll call it Space/Time Control (Local). I know he’ll be using this ability to teleport around, speed/slow time, and see about 1 minute into the future. I could make it Space/Time Control (Cosmic) and have him be the ultimate master of Space and Time – it would work out the same way mechanically – but that’s not the character I envision.

For Origin I’ve already figured out Lab Accident – but that’s not really flavorful enough. Origin is about what made the character become a super hero, not just get their powers. I decide the character “died” saving another researcher from his sabotaged project and write down “Product of the Malzron Incident” for his Origin. After the accident he knew someone had sabotaged the project and took up a false persona to go after the perpetrator.

For Identity I should think up something that would put some pressure on him. I decide that he has faked new credentials and got a job as a researcher in a particle physics lab, where he’s always under pressure to produce results (which his powers could help with). I write down “Head Researcher for BetaTech Enterprises.”

For Duty I decide he’s dedicated to “Protecting the World from Science” and seeks out companies that are abusing science to create mutant abominations, evil robots, etc. For Conviction I decide on “Science can Solve all the World’s Problems.” It might do evil, too, but at the end of the day the world is a better place because of it.

My last Aspect will be a Relationship. I decide my character, who I’m calling The Spectacular Sentinel of Science, has a love interest in one of his assistants at BetaTech Enterprises – Evelyn Dowers. Evelyn, or Eve, is always poking her nose into cutting edge research that’s sure to get her into trouble.

I’m almost done. I need to set a Scale for all of these except Conviction, and I need to decide which ones align more with Ideals and which with Practicality. Here’s my final character sheet:

Dr. Derek Cruthers, The (Spectactular) Sentinel of Science!

Ideals: Product of the Malzron Incident (Global), Science can Solve all the World’s Problems (Global), In Love with Evelyn Dowers (Municipal).

Practicality: Space/Time Control (Local), Head Researcher of BetaTech Enterprises (National), Protecting the World from Science (Global).

The last part of character creation, other than telling the group about my super hero for a few minutes, is to determine how each of my six Aspects can Suffer. Powers weaken, girlfriends get captured, jobs become hectic, and conviction wavers. Having an Aspect Suffer is a big part of the game, one could even say it’s the single main mechanic through everything, so understanding how things can go to hell for each of your Aspects is important.

Example: I decide that as my character’s Time/Space Control suffers by becoming too unpredictable and powerful. His “In Love with Evelyn Dowers” Aspect Suffers when Evelyn is put in danger (captured, attacked, tied to a bomb). I would then go on and do the same thing for my other four Aspects.

Finally, the player picks one Aspect to be the Strife Aspect – this one is going to get more attention than the others and will tend to be the focus of a lot of events. For my character above, I choose Science can Solve all the World’s Problems. Villains will likely challenge this part of my character more than any other, so I anticipate the GM will include a moderate amount of magic and horrific science, neither of which can be used to solve anything and which may not be able to be dealt with through science. This will cause my character no end of self doubt, which I think will be fun.

Chapter Three The Enrichment Process 23 pages.

Enrichment Scenes are comic panels that involve personal problems, character development, and showing off. The dark hero looks out on the streets, sees a crime, and leaps down to solve it. The daughter tells her father that he’s never around when she needs him. These scenes are important because they Prime a hero’s Aspect. Below, in the Conflict scene, an Aspect can’t be used unless it’s Primed. Players take turns describing a scene, stating what’s at Stake, and often allowing other players to take on the role of family members, villains, and others opposed to the character’s plans. Cards are played, and the highest card wins the Stakes. The person who loses the Stakes, however, gets the winning card. This gives players incentives to lose some Enrichment scenes – the family member causes problems, the experiment goes awry, etc. – in order to do better later in the session.

Example: I decide I want to Prime my character’s Space/Time Control in an Enrichment scene so I can use it later when I’m fighting badguys. I describe the scene like this: “My character has tracked down a group of toughs who are stealing medical equipment at night for some reason or another.” and I set the Stakes “If I win, the Sentinel teleports in, knocks them both unconscious with his powers, and then teleports them to the back of a nearby police car with an appropriate note.” My friend, Ian, has been asked to take on the role of my opposition for this scene. “Ok,” he says “if I win then the Sentinel still beats down the thugs but he has a power surge that destroys the area around him thanks to rifts in Space/Time. He teleports away as the cops are showing up and has to deal with knowing his powers are growing more uncontrollable.”

I think that’s really cool. It involves my character failing, sort of, and I don’t get what I wanted – but it will be really interesting. I throw a low card – a 4 of Spades – at the situation while Ian plays a 10 of Hearts. I lose, the event he described is Inked in and becomes permanent – but I did get a nice card out of it. Maybe that 10 will help me later. Oh, and my Space/Time Control is Primed no matter what happens so I’m ready to do battle with it later.

The GM also has enrichment scenes for the villains in order to Prime their Aspects. Players may find themselves taking on the roles of henchmen, informants, police officers, or other villains as we look into what sort of nefarious scheme is being planned this time.

All in all I think the Enrichment Process is fantastic and provides exactly the sort of experiences I want in a super hero game.

Chapter Four The Conflict Process 31 pages.

There’s a level of card management here that I’m just not going to put into the review. Know that card hands vary (max 7 for players), a moderate amount of card drawing and discarding occurs, and a GM can be using several decks of cards with card hands in the high teens. For most players I don’t think the card management is going to be a problem – in fact, it looks like a whole lot of fun to me. The GM, however, might find herself overwhelmed with the card management at first. I suspect that after one or two sessions of play these mechanics will be extremely simple to work with – they’re all intuitive, fun, and easy to learn – but at first the number of cards may be intimidating.

The general idea is that in conflicts you’re playing one “panel” at a time, which is usually going to involve one player and the GM at a time – not unlikely a traditional RPG round in many ways. The battle begins when someone Picks a Fight – one character is doing something another wants to stop, so that person initiates the conflict. Each party sets their Stakes, as above. If the villain is trying to blow up the bank I might set my stakes as “The villain fails, and I manage to control my powers while defeating him.” The GM might set her stakes at “The villain blows up the bank, and your powers go out of control.” The Stakes need to be general and not state the how or any specifics if they can avoid them – you’re going to play out the specifics.

Both sides, usually the GM vs. the players, each will be playing cards in the conflict scene until they can’t play any more. When they can’t (or wont) play any more cards they lose the Stakes and describe their defeat. At its core, this is very simple. There are a few things going on to spice it up. First, you can increase the Suffering of one of your Aspects in order to get more cards to play with. Energy blast going out of control? Girlfriend in trouble? Gotta set your camera to take pictures? These sorts of things are real problems for your character, but they’re fun for everyone playing and result in you getting more cards to play.

Every conflict opens with a card being played – whoever Picks a Fight plays it. It’s possible that the two participants will just keep escalating cards (basically just trading blows) until one of them can’t any more. For example: I start out combat with a 10, the GM plays a Queen, I play an Ace, the GM plays a Wild Card (which beats an Ace) – and then I can’t do any more. That could have been a whole sequence of my character and the villain beating the heck out of one another with super powers.

The brute force method of escalating values like that is probably not how the fight is going to go – and you wouldn’t want it to anyway, that’s kinda boring. Super hero battles often involve the characters using objects, threatening nearby folk, spouting witty banter, and performing other actions that harm their opponent. With Great Power… simulates this by allowing you change how you’re fighting in order to get an edge on your opponent. You see, in conflict scenes the suit of the cards is important.

Look at the example above where I led with a 10. Lets say it was the 10 of Clubs. My opponent, the GM, has to play to that suit – and so do I – as long as we’re dealing with conflict in the way I initiated it. If I started out by using my Space/Time powers to disorient my foe, and my foe is trying to hit me, then the Clubs suit is what’s involved for both of us there. Lets say the GM doesn’t have a Club higher than 10, so my foe is going to lose this conflict as things stand right now – my attacks are just too powerful. The GM can play two cards of a different suit and change tactics. The GM plays a 4 and 5 of Diamonds and describes the villain as pausing to pick up a lamp post and using that to attack my character. Since the GM changed suits, now I have to be playing Diamonds as well. If I can’t beat a 5 of Diamonds, I might lose this conflict. I don’t want my character to be beaten unconscious with a lamp post toting villain, so I’d have one of my Aspects Suffer in order to get some more cards.

Finally, other than responding in the same suit or changing suits (and changing tactics) a character can cancel an action. To cancel an opponents action you must play a card of the same suit and value as was just played. If the GM attacks my character with a 10 of Diamonds and I play a 10 of Diamonds as well, I may describe my character as slowing down time and moving out of the way of the lamp post – so the earlier action never really happened. This can be a powerful and flavorful tool, and lets the player really get creative in the description of events.

So, to recap, combat in this game starts out with a card being played. Player and GM take turns playing higher cards until someone can’t OR they change suits and play cards from those suits until someone can’t. Changing suits means changing combat tactics. Finally, an enemy’s action may be canceled by playing the same card that was just played. Whoever can’t play a card first loses their Stakes. This process is going on for all the characters more or less at the same time, and this is why several decks of cards are being used – the GM basically has a deck of cards for every player and is fighting them all at the same time.

Other than conflict, know that by placing Stress on Aspects they can eventually reach a point where the GM gains control over them. Getting cards by increasing Stress is very powerful, and even necessary to succeeding in many cases. While you can un-Stress Aspects by paying a bit more than you receive, you’ll rarely have the cards for it – cards are normally going into your hand only when you defeat your foe. The more your hero sacrifices to save the day, the more it hurts, and that’s a big part of the fun of With Great Power…. What are you willing to give up to save the world?

Chapter Five Game Mastering and the Story Arc 28 pages.

There’s a lot of good, focused GMing advice here that will help create the mood and spirit of comic books – it’s great. Two parts of this chapter really stand out, however, and they take up most of the chapter. The first is Villains. This chapter provides a number of example villains, instructions on how to build a rogues gallery, and general villain ideas. Building bad guys is quick, easy, and done a dozen at a time if you like. Once you have your Rogues Gallery you create a Plan – the big evil thing the bad guy is up to. Plans draw from the Rogues Gallery, so every time you prep a session of With Great Power… you’re really just prepping a plan and then pulling a villain or two out of the gallery to use in the plan – easy, fast, and fun.

The Plan ties into the Story Arc. The Story Arc and Plan are both five step affairs. An adventure progresses through all five steps, during which the characters learn more about the evil plan and the characters gain strength. At the start of the game the GM has more power than the players – 2s and 3s are wildcards for the GM alone, the players have to discard randomly at times, etc. As the game progresses through the Story Arc that power shifts to the characters. This means the characters, like super heroes in your favorite comic, are likely to start out having tough battles they barely lose but will later scrape together their energy and head back for one last heroic show down. This is a fantastic idea, and it looks like it will do an excellent job of supporting the comic book format in play.

Chapter Six Optional Rules 6 pages.

Flashbacks, player vs. player combat, a “splash page” (story introduction), and a few other techniques are briefly discussed here. They’ve been separated from the main body of rules because they bend the rules in various ways for relatively minor effects, and none of them are necessary to play With Great Power…

My Take

Obviously, this is absolutely not a game for everyone. It uses playing cards, it’s pretty system light, and it’s narrowly focused. In addition to those obvious issues, I found the book to be difficult to read at first. It throws a lot of information at the reader without clearly explaining what is going on, and many readers will need to read this product twice to really get it. In particular, the book needs example heroes at the end of character creation so the reader can clearly see how they were built.

Despite these minor flaws, With Great Power… is a fantastic RPG and is sure to appeal to any fan of super hero comics who wants those same sorts of stories to appear around the gaming table.

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.