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August 2009

Musings: what’s missing from Supes games?

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I’ve never played Marvel, which people talk volumes on both plus and minus. With Great Power was too fussy for me in play. Have sorta heard good and bad things on Capes.  So, taking a step back from the systems: what is it that a comic story delivers and what do you want to do when you sit down to a Golden-Age supers game, movie, comic book?

There are plenty of games that encroach on modern, alternative comic formats. But it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of successful ones that address “whammo”.  My interest is in specifically one-shot games (option for multi-game but not to support campaign style) in a non-traditional rpg style.

first thoughts on game chef ’09

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I’m a big fan of Jonathan’s and think he’s done a ton of work re-envisioning Game Chef.  The new tech is a bit daunting in the magnitude of opt in but once over the initial shock it seems to be a pretty good device.  I’m still running to catch up on nuances of tagging and rss.

Nay sayers. Nobody likes a nay sayer.  In my case, I’m thinking of effectively becoming one in going against theme and doing something on my own.  Themes are loosely stated as : Star; Intrigue; Fleud-de-lys; divider; sea bird.  On the surface, i imagine a rush of seafaring aged rps: Napoleonic through …?  Spacefaring for some.  There will be a bunch of people rushing to ape Danger Patrol and Kagematsu.  Some perhaps to older pillars like Vincent’s Dogs or early adopters panning in Jared’s vanity Castle publication.  Oh, and pirates.  Lots of pirates.  Vincent’s pirate game has summoned a lot of attention.

The next issue is the well of folks that will dwell on Webster’s effluvia of the themes and keys to derive the most abstract value of the words in order to “fit” the criteria of the badges.  A path to originality perhaps but bad design.

So, i don’t have it much in me to do a sea/space-faring game at the moment.  Don’t want to force myself to do it.

Jonathan has said repeatedly that it’s possible to swim with the current of Game Chef and just do your own thing.  Last week, in anticipation of GC, I came up with an idea i’d like to pursue.  I hope that i’ll get some feedback from other participants and that you’ll stick with me for the ride.  the goal is just to FINISH something.