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The Good: The mechanics are clever, especially where players can narrate but must end with “And Then” and hand the scene back over to the player whose dice control the conflict. The game rewards players for creating situations that interest and engage the other players, which is sure to result in a lot of fun. A group of folk not afraid to GM, improvise, and otherwise take the reigns could have a blast with this.
The Bad: The product doesn’t read very well, lacks flow, and is confusing (though it makes sense by the second or third read). The major example runs on overly long. The artwork is generally poor and uninspiring. The game may be difficult for many groups to play since it requires a certain amount of narration and improvisation from every participant.
The Physical Thing
This 160 page black and white product provides average to low production values for its $20 price tag. The book is about the size of a graphic or oversized novel (digest-sized). On the plus side, Capes has a lot of excellent, helpful diagrams spread through the book. The examples tend to be clear and easy to read. The “Click and Lock” character creation involves taking two or more partial character sheets and putting them together, and it’s very nicely presented. The Index is fantastic, and the various tables and charts are exceptionally easy to use and understand.There are some big downsides here, however. Artwork is uncommon, and a lot of what is provided is simple, uninspiring, and in some cases just bad. The book can be difficult to read because of general lack of flow and bullet point like presentation of concepts.
Under the Cover
At its core Capes is about telling stories, perhaps more so than other RPGs. The rules here focus on who has control of the narrative more than what happens, and for a group of friends that just want to take turns adding to a story this is great. Don’t think that there are no mechanics or strategy elements here, however. Capes has its own strategy elements, but they’re more subtle and revolve around a player getting what they want out of the characters they’re most interested in.Lets start out with character creation. While players can change characters between scenes, and even take on the role of villains and neutral characters, many players will still want a Signature Character all their own. Super powered characters have Powers and Attitudes while normal characters have Skills and Attitudes. The difference between Powers and Skills involves their cost – Powers cost more to use. Characters also have Styles, which are signature moves that apply to the character. Players choose up to 12 abilities in three categories, and abilities in a category must be rated sequentially (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
If players want to build a character quickly they might use the Click and Lock system this product introduces. It’s really simple, the back of the book has a whole bunch of partial character sheets. These sheets, which contain lists of Powers, Skills, and Attitudes, can be mixed and matched to get just the character the player wants. Alternatively, the player can just spend points on whatever values they want to create for themselves.
Example: I want to build the super hero Mondeus, Master of Magic. I imagine my character as being a smart ass sorcerer who never shuts up and uses his occult knowledge to get the best of his opponents. I flip through the Click and Lock options and decide to take a element here and there while mostly creating my own Abilities. I decide to have four Powers, four Attitudes, and four Styles (thereby totally 12 Abilities). For my Powers I purchase Magic Blast 1, Read Minds 2, Magic Wards 3, and Knowledge From Beyond 4. For my Attitudes I buy Wry Humor 1, Inspired 2, Selfless 3, and Talkative 4. For my Styles I buy Ricochet Blast 1, Ward Against Violence 2, Know Someone’s Secret 3, and Know Weakness of Something 4.
Note that the numerical value represents the ability’s influence on the story, not necessarily its raw power. If a jet pack using character has Flight 3 while a faster than light traveler has Flight 2, it just means the former character’s ability is more important to them and the stories that focus around them. The number is only really important when it comes time to counter a previous ability in a Conflict, as an ability with a higher number must be used to overcome the effect of an existing ability.
Characters with Powers also get Drives, which reflect what really motivates them. Characters may have up to 5 Drives totaling 9 points. In order to make certain the Drive is constantly being integrated into the game a player may assign a Drive an Exemplar – a support character who embodies that Drive. Exemplars can bring Free Conflicts into a scene, something specified by the player that often involves that Exemplar. These Conflicts will allow the character to shine and the player to explore what interests them about the character.
Example: Mondeus is going to have Respect as one of his Drives. The idea is that he fights, in part, to protect his community (a poor area of the city) from all sorts of nastiness. Unfortunately, when he puts on the costume and does his super hero thing the community assumes he’s a part of the System and fears him. He’ll have an Exemplar for this conflict – Natasha Boreman, a young woman he fancies who has led a hard life. She Respects him as an individual, but hates Mondeus, Master of Magic for being outside the community and not understanding the people he keeps putting away.
Mondeus will also have Justice, Obsession, Love, and Hope as Drives. I choose to assign 3 points to Respect, 2 to Hope, 2 to Justice, 1 to Obsession, and 1 to Love.
The final character sheet for Mondeus looks like this: Powers: Magic Blast 1, Read Minds 2, Magic Wards 3, Knowledge From Beyond 4. Attitudes: Wry Humor 1, Inspired 2, Selfless 3, Talkative 4. Drives: Respect 3, Hope 2, Justice 2, Obsession 1, Love 1. Exemplar: Natasha Boreman for Respect. Free Conflict: Event: Natasha judges Mondeus.
That’s it, nice and short. Now, let’s talk about what these numbers mean and how the game works.
The whole process kicks off when a player declares a Scene. At the start of a game the first person with an interesting idea is likely to be the one who starts a Scene, but after that players take turns so that everyone has the opportunity to create a Scene. Scenes are broken up into Pages, one Page representing a single round of conflict.
When a Scene is declared players take turns choosing characters to play. Most players will have a signature character they keep coming back to (their hero that they put more time into building). Players often play a second or even a third character as well, often a villain or henchmen who is causing problems in the scene. Why would a player do this? Two major reasons. First, it’s fun. Everyone likes to posture and be the big villain from time to time. Second, by being an antagonist the player creates Conflicts and gets Story Tokens to play with. Bad guys tend to lose conflicts, and whenever one of a player’s characters loses a Conflict where a member of the opposition wagered Debt they get Story Tokens. Got all that? You will.
So, a Scene has been kicked off by one player, everyone has chosen characters to play in the scene, and now we’re starting out first Page. We need to know what this Scene is all about. RPGs are usually about Conflict of some sort, and that’s the major concept in Capes. When a player has their turn they can add a Conflict to the current Scene. This is often something like “Stop Dr. Borzo from stealing the Omega Device”, “Show off in front of the crowd”, or “Humiliate Captain Awesome.” During each players turn they may create a new Conflict, but they must choose a side of the Conflict for their characters. Captain Awesome, for instance, would be opposed to “Humiliate Captain Awesome” while the evil villain would be in favor of it.
Each conflict starts out with a single d6 on each side set with the 1 side up. At the games simplest level players are using their Abilities to reroll these dice (keeping values or not as they wish). The high value controls the conflict, and once everyone is done doing this the page ends and the side of the conflict with the highest number wins. One character may use their Laser Eyes power, for example, rerolling the die on their side of the conflict and getting a 4. A character on the other side of the conflict may then respond with Super Strength, perhaps lifing a big piece of concrete to block the blast and then throwing it at the other character. Note that the ability can only be used to roll the die if the ability equals or exceeds the current die value (so a Super Power at 1 could reroll a die with the 1 face up). They would then reroll their die, and if it’s higher than 4 then they Control the conflict and get to keep describing things. If it’s lower, then the former player gets to Control and when the current player is done describing she must say something like “And Then” and hand the narration back over to the controlling player. Eventually this exchange will end, with no one being able to force a reroll or otherwise influence the dice, and one side wins the conflict.
So, at its absolute simplest the game focuses on trying to get a higher number on your side of the conflict than the other character, with the high number indicating who is currently in control of the narration. Players need something to sacrifice and something to win, and that’s where Debt and Stakes come into play. Characters initially get debt from using their Super Powers, a trade off for being so cool. They put a token on one of their Drives. Characters later Stake by moving Debt from one of their Drives into the current Conflict. By Staking Debt the character is able to further influence the conflict, such as by splitting the current die into multiple dice. If the character loses the current conflict then they double their Debt but get the other character’s Debt as Story Tokens which can be used to various ends (such as for playing multiple characters). If the character wins, then they give away their Debt as Story Tokens and don’t have to worry about it anymore.
This is an interesting mechanic because it means that players have an incentive to provide situations that interest other players so much that they’ll give anything to win, which ultimately puts more Story Tokens in the instigating player’s hand and lets them win later when something that’s really interesting to them crops up. This incentive to play to your friends’ interests, combined with the “But Then” aspect of responding to another character’s powers with an even greater effort, really makes the product shine.
You may be wondering what prevents players from just saying things like “Captain Amazing throws an asteroid at Dr. Destructo and kills all the badguys.” Players can veto event suggestions in Capes, usually offering some sort of compromise in the process. For the above example, a compromise might be “Event: Asteroid hurtles towards Dr. Destructo’s base.” Whether it hits or not will depend on Conflicts and what all the characters do.
Similarly, when Dr. Destructo wins the Conflict “Kill Captain Amazing” then what happens? Well, the game has its own Comics Code based on whatever the group wants to do. Whenever a death or other horrid thing would result, the winning side instead gets to Gloat and rub their almost-victory in the face of the loser. This is an interesting way to handle things, because there’s still something on the line but the game still resembles the comic books it seeks to emulate.
There are more mechanics here. For one, Things, Locations, and other non-characters can have stats and be a part of a Conflict. For another, characters can gain Inspiration which is a sort of portable victory that can be used on Conflicts to directly add to one side or another. At its core, however, the system is about gambling Debt, framing scenes so that they interest the other players as much as possible, and getting lucky on some die rolls. If that sounds appealing to you, then you’re going to enjoy Capes.
My Take
The biggest problem Capes has is that I had to read it twice just to get the core mechanics down. Their presentation is confusing and may result in some readers giving up on the product. The next biggest problem is selling the game to a group of friends accustomed to RPGs that have GMs and don’t share power. Once you explain the mechanics and the competitive aspect of Capes to them, however, you’re likely in for a good time.If the idea of a game that has no GM troubles you, then stay away from Capes. Distributed authority, limited dice rolling, and a nebulous social contract in the form of the “Comics Code” may make some folk feel downright hostile to this product. If those ideas don’t appeal to you, I doubt the actual game will change your mind.
I think this might be a good way to get friends to GM games where those friends are nervous about doing so. I intend to try and use the game as an “introduction to GMing” at the very least, as the whole thing is based around doling out content that really appeals to the other players.
