Random Gaming Thoughts...

[blueguy76]

For many years I have thought that a game set in a pulpy universe like that of "Doc Savage, Man of Bronze" would be cool, but making it work as a GAME with one guy that is better at everything the other guys specialize in seemed... hard

Comments

[whswhs]

I'm afraid I'd bid 0 points on that one. Doesn't sound like fun at all. I can see the premise of "I'm doing heroic deeds in secret because the people I'm protecting have to be shielded from the truth" (that was the premise of my Gods and Monsters campaign), but "I'm doing heroic deeds in secret to give this other guy a fraudulent rep for heroism" is not the stuff of my fantasies.

[blueguy76]

Well, my thought actually was that at the point we pick up the story, the PC's were HIRED some time back to give some other guy a fraudulent rep for heroism, but that NOW they do it because they ARE heroes... The reason they don't dump the "Hero" is because he (and his fraudulent rep) are useful.

Also, more of the bad guy bullets have his name on them...

I dunno, the idea just seemed like a way to resolve the problems I had with the "This guy is just better than everyone else he hangs with" issue for a role playing game.

I was curious about how you resolved that issue with your Buffy game, given that it would appear that one character would tend to get a lot more face time than the others.

[whswhs]

The rules for Buffy the Vampire Slayer provide a simple and elegant mechanism for resolving this, which in my experience did exactly what it was supposed to. All characters have Drama Points, which can be spent in play to have various advantageous things happen, such as "that wasn't actually a deadly wound; it only did half as many hit points as were rolled" (which you can apply repeatedly to whittle it down to a scratch, if you don't mind the diminishing returns) or "+10 to my effective skill on this roll because I'm really, really motivated." But White Hats start out with twice as many Drama Points as Heroes, and it costs 1 Experience Point for a White Hat to buy another Drama Point, but 2 Experience Points for a Hero. So every White Hat gets a certain quota of really great actions.

One of my players, kiltcheck, pushed this to the limit: Through the entire campaign, he spent every Experience Point he earned on Drama Points. Fray Tomas never got any less inept in ordinary life, but he regularly pulled off amazing feats of theurgic magic.

[bluejogger]

Eben had a similar idea for a group of characters all pretending to be "James Bond" since it is too much for one guy to do. So, there's one guy who looks/talks the part and plays the role of the decoy, surrounded by four/five other guys that work in the background.

I think you hit an important key. In stories and movies, you can have the Lone Hero who succeeds at everything, since it can be ALL UP TO HIM. But, in games, each character needs their niche and/or specialty.

However, it would be interesting if the Hero occasionally becomes the damsel in distress.

[blueguy76]

I was anticipating that the "Hero" would often need rescuing, because everyone other than his support team (including the bad guys) has such an inflated view of what he can do, when in fact most of his deeds can be laid at the feet of that support team.

He's more than happy to handle any "Bond Girl" action that comes his way though...

[caprine]

This is a fascinating idea. I can think of a number of ways it could be played out. Hmmm...there's a different Dread Pirate Roberts every few years; perhaps the real Dread Pirate is the whole crew...