Capes................................................................................
(Note: This review also appeared on RPG.net a few months ago)
Capes is a very unusual new role-playing game from Muse of Fire Studio, available through the good folks at Indie Press Revolution. At first glance, it's a super-hero game, but in reality, it's almost a completely different sort of role-playing game. Role-playing games generally separate the game part from the role-playing. Capes actually makes a game out of the role-playing itself.
What do I mean? Well, in something like D&D, you roll up characters, make them according to strict rules, fight in combat, but when it comes to the actual roleplaying, the players and GM pretty much do it free-form - there's no set order that the players or GM speak in, or narrate events in, or how they do it. And what the players generally do is largely up to the GM (explore the dungeon, save the town, kill the dragon, etc).
Capes has elaborate rules for narrating the game itself. And has no gamemaster.
Actually, it's so different than most role-playing games, that some would probably argue it's more of a story-telling game. I wouldn't go that far, but I would say it's role-playing combined with poker. If not mechanically (there are some similarities), then in terms of feel.
Gameplay
So how does gameplay work, without a gamemaster? Well, it's part collaborative, part competition.
The first player starts off, describing the basic scenario or scene. Then people start divying up the characters present, starting with the first player selecting one, then with the person clockwise picking one and so on. Unlike most RPGs, characters in Capes are not necessarily owned by one player. And some players will pick villains or opponents to play as well.
Once all the players have characters (they may have 1 or more), the first person starts things. Off. Then again, in the same order that they picked the characters.
On their turn, a player can describe pretty much anything. However, he cannot resolve conflicts.
Like for instance, a player says "Mumbly Joe clobbers Buck Gordon". While he can describe that he attacks the other character, he cannot say that he successfully beat him up or not. That has to be resolved through the game rules. Basically a conflict is resolved by having 2 dice, one for each side, with the highest being the winner.
A conflict is not resolved just via a simple die roll, though. This is where it sort of gets confusing at first. A conflict starts with 2 colored dice, one representing each side (win/lose), and both start at 1. Players can roll the die representing one side by various means, thus changing the die total. (There is more options than just rolling)
All during the rotating narrative, players accrue "debt" to manipulate the dice. There is a strategic aspect to it, not unlike poker (and in fact you probably should use poker chips to record debt and story tokens), where to win in the long haul, you cut your losses and bet wisely when you think you can win the most. That is, it's best to lose some conflicts and win others.
This debt also serves as a force to ensure no one dominates gameplay. The more someone drives the game, the more likely they will gain more debt, and thus eventually have to take a backseat to the other players. Though the rules apparently do reward the skillfull. So while the rules mean everyone has a fair chance, it's up to them to make the most of their chance.
I can't really do it justice or explain it all that well. It's something hard to get unless you read an example of play - hopefully the author will put one up on the website for it.
There are two examples of gameplay in the book. One is a fairly standard superhero roleplaying scenario, about a mummy and a curse and a magic scepter and a fight over it. The other is pretty unusual, basically, it's 3 heroes working out in a gym - one wants to leave early for a date, while another hero is trying to make him stay (since that hero feels that heroes should put their personal lives aside for the public good). Two vastly different situations, but both work pretty much exactly the same way.
Capes is something of a competitive game. This is generally not a good thing for roleplaying games, because people really like their characters, and tend to get annoyed and upset when they get screwed over by their fellow player (or GM). However, that doesn't happen here because of the "Gloating" rules.
See, whenever something happens where a major character would be killed or something like the world ending happens (ie, the Super-Villain's diabolical plot succeeding), instead it actually doesn't, for whatever reason (the players have to come up with one), but the player who would have won, gets a reward in terms of story tokens. (Story tokens are sort of the opposite of debt, they can be used for various different things, mostly getting more actions or characters to play in a scene)
The actual specific events that are prohibited or would invoke the gloating rules are defined by the players beforehand. The "Comics Code" it's called (after the real world version).
While the rules themselves are aimed at super-hero gaming, I suspect they would work pretty well for most modern day things. Me, I'm not a much of a superhero fan - while I read comic book as a kid, they were generally Richie Rich, Scrooge McDuck/Huey/Dewey/Louie, and various "Weird" comics. So I'm not exactly an expert on the genre, but I don't see anything that doesn't also apply to most TV shows or novels.
Characters
Characters are really easy to make. They basically have 12 abilities, rated from 1 to 5 (with 5 being better), in 3 categories - Powers (ie, Superpowers), Styles (how they do things) and Attitudes (basically their personality).
These abilities are essentially just very simply descriptions of what the character can do or what they are. For instance, "Flight" would be a power.
They are rated simply by prioritizing the abilities in a category. Say a character had 5 powers, 4 Styles, and 3 Attitudes. There be one power rated at 5, one at 4, one at 3, one at 2, one at 1. Then one style would be rated at 4, one at 3, one at 2, one at one. And of course, then one Attitude would be rated at 3, one at 2, one at 1.
The number of abilities in each category is not fixed (other than there being a max of 5), a character could have 4 in each, so in that case, each category would have one rated at 4, one at 3, one at 2, and one at 1.
You can either create a character from scratch by coming up with your own powers (or picked from a list), or use the "Click and Lock" method. Basically, this consists of combining 2 different halves of a character into one. One half is "Powers", one half is "Persona" (basically personality). Each half is sort of toothed, like a comb, so the halves fit together.
The only real downside is that due to the nature of the game, characters literally cannot improve, as far as I can tell.
The Book Itself...
The book itself is pretty small-ish. It's 160 pages, but digest size (5" x 9"). The basic rules are about 50 pages, a sample of play is about 30 pages, and pretty much the rest is material meant to be helpful, either sample characers ("Click and Lock"s), objects, or advice on playing the game. And some useful random name tables at the very end.
The layout is really nice for finding things. Pretty much every time a rule is referenced, a little dot next to it has the page number for that rule.
The art in the book isn't bad, but now that I think about it, actually is more the Richie Rich sort of art than the typical superhero comic book art. Big heads, fairly simple drawings, slightly creepy looking.
Final Thoughts
I don't think Capes is for everyone. People who aren't great at the storytelling aspect of roleplaying will find it difficult, and those what like the crunchy aspect of character building will find it, well, pointless (so probably not for Gurps or Champions fans). And it's probably something you have to be mentally alert to play (ie, not something you could play for 30 hours straight).
But while it's not for everyone, it seems like a blast to play. I was grinning like an idiot while reading the examples of play, both being amused at the examples themselves (they are funny) and at the sheer cleverness of the game mechanics.
So if you like storytelling, give it a try. It's certainly cheap enough at $15. (And apparently you also get a PDF when you order, as well as the physical copy)
