Main Menu (edit)
Random Average Blogpmwiki.org |
NOTE: Before you look here, go through the Errata (LINK), which may answer your question. This F.A.Q. was orginally compiled by Hans Messersmith, and is currently maintained by him, mostly. It is not currently sanctioned by Muse of Fire Games or Tony Lower-Basch, the designer of Capes, so you should use at your own risk. THIS FAQWhat is the purpose of this FAQ? To provide a common reference point for Capes players to turn to to see if a question they have has already been answered. In my own experience, I found that many questions I had when I first started playing have been asked again since I joined the forum, and in researching this FAQ I found I was not the first person to ask them. The point of this FAQ is NOT to stifle discussion...I would hate to see a lot of "See the FAQ, idiot" type posts on the Forge. My hope is that it will be a STARTING point for BETTER discussion. What does this FAQ cover? This FAQ covers all the questions and answers posted on the Muse of Fire Forge forum since its founding up to May 3, 2006. What about house rules, different comics codes, etc.? Sorry, this F.A.Q. is mostly about what Capes IS, not about what it could, should, might, or would be. I tried to stick to rules issues only, with only a few exceptions. What are the threads underneath each answer? They are each instance where the particular question has been asked on the Forge. The more links, the more time the question has been asked. Hey, that means some of these questions have only been asked once! Its not really a FREQUENTLY asked questions document, then, is it? You caught me. Sue me. I felt it was best to summarize all the questions at least once, so that others will have the answers all in one place. How did you decide what answers to put in this FAQ? I gave priority to answers from Tony himself, followed by answers from people I know have been playings Capes for a while and have real experience (such as Sydney F. and Eric S.) who are I think generally considered trusted authorities. I have done my best NOT to attempt to provide my own answers to questions, but instead to record, as succinctly as possible, the answers from the Forge that others more qualified than I have given. Man, this one answer, its dead wrong! What the *%&^? Could be. But I sincerely request that you review all of the threads associated with the answer before you commit to that conclusion. If you still think I have REPORTED an incorrect answer, please feel free to put the correct answer in, with a thread or two that supports it. However, my hope is you will find that the answer I have reported is the answer that has been given by the Authorities (Tony, or another answer if Tony has not corrected), and if you still think it is wrong, you shouldn't change it here, you should take it up on the board. I'd like to make a modification to this FAQ. What should I do? Just click the "Edit Page" link up there at the right and go for it. That being said, anything added to this F.A.Q. should refer back to a Forge thread that the information originally comes from. If there is no Forge thread, then I will remove it. This first section is the only exception to that rule. Who is this "Tony" guy you keep mentioning? Tony Lower-Basch, the designer of the game. What does this FAQ need? Well, eventually I would like to go through and add page numbers from the Rules PDF (or Errata) for those frequently asked questions that have a clear answer in the rules. These can be found in some threads, but by no means all. I have also highlighted in red some areas that seem to me need attention from Tony, as they are possibly areas where contradictory points have been made. GENERALWhat can I do with Capes? What can't I do with Capes? Is Capes right for me? No better place to start then with what Tony says here http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=15199.msg162044#msg162044. Other than that, you should browse around and read what people say about it. Or better yet, just plop down the $10 for a copy. Can Capes be used in [Insert genre other than four-colour comics here]? Who knows? However, you are not the first to ask. Here are some discussions around Capes used for other things: Is Capes a GM-less game, or a game where everyone is a GM? Of course! Is Capes narrativist, gamist, or both? What do you think? Where can I find people to play Capes with? No good answer to that, but you can try posting on the Forge forum and see what happens. I just played my first session of Capes and, well, it all went a bit silly. Is this normal? It seems like most people, when they first play Capes, do get a bit silly. Consider it a normal reaction to all of that freedom, and keep playing. It does settle down eventually. Is Capes good for pick up games and demos? Of course! When will Capes 2.0 come out? Shortly after Hell freezes over? Why does Cape work this way instead of that? Can't answer that, but Tony could, if you post on this thread http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19027.msg199705#msg199705. PLAY ORGANIZATIONHow many people should be involved in a Capes game? The general consensus seems to be that 2 is worthless, 3 is good, 4 is perfect, 5 is good, 6 is getting unmanageable, and more than 6 is pretty much not worth trying. I'm about to run my first game of Capes. What should I have prepared, in terms of pregeneratated characters, etc.? Check out these threads. STORY TOKENSWhen can I spend a story token to take an extra action? After all the normal actions (one per player) have been done in a page. CHARACTERSWhen can new chararacters be brought into a scene? At the start of any page, with the expenditure of any story token, before actions start. When it says "take five heroic or villainous drives" does this mean that you can mix and match them? Yes. As long as you have five drives, they can be in any combination of heroic or villainous. Is there a limit to the number of characters you can control in a scene? No. As long as you want to spend the story tokens, you can have more characters. Is it legal to have a "character" consist of more than one character sheet? For example, "Giant Robots Right Arm", "Giant Robots Left Arm", "Giant Robots Head", etc.? Yes. As long as story tokens are spent per extra character sheet past the first free one in a scene, there really aren't any limits in how those character sheets can represent. A variation of this is to have a few characters, and then an NPC that represents the "team" of those characters, with abilities like "know each others thoughts" and "well trained teamwork". See the threads for more variations. N Ote? that it is entirely possible these different "parts" could be played by different players. Is it legal to have a "character" consist of more than one person or entity where, for example, each power is the name of a person (like a superteam)? Yes. It gives you no more mechanical resources than any other character, but can serve to introduce a lot of characters into the narration quickly. See the threads for more variations. What is the significance of an exemplar's connection to a drive? There is no mechanical significance, but as the free conflict is going to be related to the root conflict between the characters, and the root conflict is associated with the drive, then there is an implicit relationship between the two. Can I use a "preventative goal" to prevent a person from using a power? Depends on what you mean. If you mean can you use Goal: Good Guy uses Power X as a way to prevent the CHARACTER Good Guy from using Power X, the answer is yes, absolutely (given no vetos occur). If you mean can you use the goal to prevent the PLAYER from using the ability "Power X" as part of an action, the answer is no. All you are doing is making that player be more creative in how they narrate the use. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16641.msg176948#msg176948 If I am using a power of a character in narration, but not to actually roll a die or increase an inspiration, do I gain debt? No. You only get debt when you use a power as an action. I know that a character can have more than one exemplar, as long as the other exemplars are shared. What stops me from just making up a bunch of extra characters I never intend to play, so that my main character can have some more exemplars? Page 75 of the rules states "For a second (or third, or so on) Exemplar, two players must collaborate on Sharing the Exemplar." This is really one of the few places in the rules where there is a hint of true "ownership" of characters. What stops me from picking another player's character as my character's exemplar? Nothing mechanical. However, you may find that unless you discuss it with them, the principle benefits of an exemplar won't be available to you. What happens if my character dies? Can I still use that characters abilities in the game? Yes. You just will have to be more creative in terms of how you describe those abilities being used. Can I mix powers and skills in the same character? No. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19021.msg199664#msg199664 How many styles must be powered or non-powered on a powered character? There is no rule saying you can't have all powered, or all non-powered, but the way click and locks are structured has been suggested as the most balanced. Can I take a "mundane" skill based left side click and lock, and simply say it is powered? Certainly. When people do this, they usually indicate in some way why the character is somehow "more" than their mundane counterparts. INSPIRATIONSAre inspirations associated with the character or the player? Inspirations belong to the player, but are associated with a particular conflict, and hence often with a particular character as well.\\
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14296.msg152220#msg152220 How do you record an inspiration? There are several methods to do this. The simplest is to take the index card the conflict was on, write some numbers on it and keep it. However, this is not possible if multiple people get inspirations from the conflict. Another way is to write down a short blurb about the inspiration and its value, as in "Capt. Sensible Saved the Day! 5". The inspiration tracker (link) can be used for this purpose. How do the circumstances of the conflict that generated the inspiration tie back into using the inspiration later? The answer is "somehow". That is, there must be some relationship between the conflict now, and the conflict then. Tony has said "my general rule would be that [the new conflict] should be related to the origins of the Inspiration to the satisfaction of the player using the Inspiration." Does using an inspiration involve narration? Yes. You must narrate some way in which the previous situation the inspiration springs from relates to the current conflict. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17371.msg183871#msg183871 What do you narrate when you use your action to increase an inspiration? Quote from Tony: "You must do something that (a) makes the past action the Inspiration is based on more of an issue in present events than it was before and (b) uses the ability that you reference prominently." What are 1 point inspirations good for? Only as a potentially higher inspiration if you invest actions into it. Can a 5 pt inspiration be bumped up to a 6? Yes. I am allied with the winning side, but did not claim it. Can I get inspirations from the win? No. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17321.msg183318#msg183318 NON-PERSON CHARACTERSWhat is the breakdown for abilities on a non-person character that has a built-in free conflict? Either 5/3 or 4/4 in two columns. (NEED PAGE #) If the Free conflict of a NPC resolves, does that NPC leave the game? Yes. Pg 103 Can NPC's be exemplars? If so, do they get two free conflicts if they sacrifice a column of abilities? Yes, and yes. TURN ORDERWhat is the order of playing free conflicts and claiming? Really any order you want. You can play them before anyone claims, just before you claim, or after everyone claims, at your whim. Note that you cannot prevent someone from claiming a side of free conflict in the Claiming phase of a page, but you CAN force them to use a story token to do so if you wait until all players have used their free claims. For that matter, WHEN can I play free conflicts? Anytime. Really, anytime. What is the exact order that things happen in during the claims phase of a page?
There are no clear rules on this, but there are two ways people seem to do it; the theoretical way, and the actual way. The theoretical way is as follows: When does a page end? When everyone has used their free actions, and no one wants to spend any more story tokens for additional actions, the page ends, and all resolvable conflicts are resolved. \\ http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19021.msg199702#msg199702 When does a scene end? When, at the end of a page, there are no conflicts left on the table. ACTIONSWhen can I stake debt/spend inspirations/split dice/schism during my action? At any time before and/or after you make your actual action, and you can do these things any number of times as long as you have the resources to do so. How does staking/splitting/using inspirations/schisming work with reactions? The reactions immediately follow the changed dice and are, in essence, part of the action. Therefore staking, splitting, etc. all must take place either before the action, or after the action and all its consequent reactions. If I have multiple characters, I get one action per character per turn, right? Yes When it says I can play a conflict, that means either an event or a goal, right? Yes When I pay a story token for an action, do I get one action for each character I control, or just one action? If only one action, which character takes it? Only one action, regardless of how many characters you have. You can pick which character takes it. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16733.msg177721#msg177721 DEBT, STAKING, SPLITTING, SCHISMINGDo I have to split dice/schism at the moment I stake debt, or can I do it later? Now or later. As long as you have debt staked on a side of a conflict, you can split dice, or take some or all of your debt away to form a new side, at any time. Can I stake debt on a side I am not allied with? According to the Capes text itself (pdf edition copyright 2005), you can stake on any side of any conflict, but you can only split on (or from) a side your are allied to. The author clarified this here: What happens to my debt if I switch sides? It stays where it is. If that side wins, you will get to hand it out as story tokens (although you can't give any to yourself on the losing side), and if it loses, you will get it back doubled. If I end up with debt staked on two sides of a conflict, what happens when it resolves? Debt on the winning side gets handed out as story tokens. Debt on the losing side returns doubled to the drive it came from. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17454.msg184704#msg184704 If I have claimed a side, but then split off a new side from that side, what happens to the claim? It stays where it is. You will have to wait until the next page to get a chance to claim the new side you have just created. How much debt is required to schism? Only one. There is a "free" die on a side. You can lay one debt, split the die into two sides, one that has your one debt on it, and one that has the one free (now smaller) die. You only need two debt to split a die on the SAME side. On an action, can I stake debt from any of my characters, or only from my acting character? Only your acting character. Whats the most debt you can stake from a single drive? On a single conflict, no more than the drive strength. However, you can have any amount of debt staked from a drive as long as it is spread out across multiple conflicts. Can you stake more debt later on a conflict you have already staked debt on? Yes, as long as you don't exceed the drive strength of the drive from which the debt is staked. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17454.msg184704#msg184704 After a side has been schismed, can it be recombined with another side? No. Can I split dice off of one side and give them to another side? No. When I schism to make a new side with my debt, which dice can I take? Tony has made it clear that his intent was that dice and debt are not directly associated with each other, and that you can take ANY dice, as long as you don't take more than the debt you have staked. All you have to do is leave at least one "free" die behind. Can you split a 1? No. Do you have to be CURRENTLY allied with a side to schism from it? (Assuming you were allied at one point in order to stake debt on it) Yes. ALLIANCE AND CLAIMINGHow many people can claim a side of a conflict? Only one person. Does claiming a side make me allied with it? No. You can be claimed, but not allied. Claiming is a player thing, alliance is a character thing. How many free claims do I get at the beginning of a page if I have more than one character? One per player, not one per character. Pg 22 Who is allied, characters or players? Characters. Pg. 22 Note, this means that you can have characters allied with multiple sides of a conflict. Can a conflict be claimed on the first page of a scene? Normally, no. Claims are made before actions, and since normally conflicts can only be played by actions, there will be no conflicts to claim. However, as free conflicts are played before claims, it is possible that there will be conflict available to be claimed on the first page, if an exemplar or non-person character is involved in the scene. How can I become allied with a side on a conflict? If you ever roll on a conflict, the character whose ability was used is now allied with a side of that conflict; the side who you were trying to benefit with your roll (either by rolling up or rollling down a die). How long does an alliance last with a side? Until you change it as stated above. Alliances, unlike claims, can persist through multiple pages. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19134.msg200761#msg200761 Do I have to state my intent on allying before I make a roll? No, you do not. However, if you choose NOT to raise a die when you could have (by rejecting a higher die) than the character whose ability is being used is considered allied with the opposite side.
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14890.msg157656#msg157656 If there are three or more sides to a conflict, and I roll down a die, which of the opposing sides is my character allied with? Whichever you choose. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14890.msg157656#msg157656 Which sides of a conflict can I claim? If you have characters allied with one or more sides of a conflict, you can only claim those sides. If you have no characters allied with the conflict (because you have never rolled on it), you can claim either side. Does that "claim either side if you haven't rolled" mean I can claim a side that others have worked to build up out from under them? Yes. As long as you have no characters allied with any side, or you have a character allied with the side you want to claim, you can claim that side, regardless of what work others have put into it. Can I retract my claim on a conflict during a page? No. How long do claims on a side of a conflict last? For one page only. All claims dissappear at the start of a page. Can I roll for the side AGAINST my claim, in order to have a character ally with it? Yes. In fact, you can stake debt against your claim, use inspirations against your claim, and even split off a new side from the side against your claim. REACTIONSThe rules say can pass on their chance to react to a changed die, but they also say everyone has a chance to react. What do you do if noone wants to be the first to react (reaction deadlock)? The rules don't actually help you here. However, there are several common house rules that govern this issue, usually in the form of some kind of passing in order around the table, and if everyone passes once, you move on to the next action. Can I stake debt/use inspirations/split dice/schism during a reaction? No. All you can do is use an ability to roll the die that changed. CONFLICT RESOLUTIONWho gets the story tokens when a conflict resolves with debt staked on the winning side? The basic rule is as follows:
If you match a 2 to a 5 and a 2 to a 4 at resolution, is that two inspirations (a 3 and a 2) or one inspiration (a 5)? Two (a 3 and a 2). Each match yields a separate inspiration. Do you have to match up all the dice or can you leave some unmatched? You have to make as many matches as possible. Sometimes this may leave some dice unmatched, because there are more dice on one side than another. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=21201.0 If there is more than one side to a conflict when it resolves, how does dice matching work to determine inspirations. Dice on sides have to be matched, but they can be matched in any way the resolver wishes. Therefore, for example, the resolver can match dice among the LOSING sides, giving inspirations to the higher sided die of the losers, and take all of the WINNING dice as inspirations for himself. The only restriction to matching is that dice cannot be matched to other dice on the SAME side. Who gets to decide how the dice are matched, and who gets the resulting inspirations? The resolving player makes all decisions regarding inspirations, essentially at their whim. When, exactly, does a conflict resolve? At the end of a page, IF a side of the conflict is higher than all the others, AND that higher side was claimed at the beginning of the page. If more than one conflict is resolving at the end of a page, in what order do they resolve? To quote Tony, "Use your best discretion." Many use the same order as actions were declared for that page. CONFLICTSDoes a goal have to state a played character as its subject? That is, can you play "Goal: Make stuff happen", or must you play "Goal: Good guy makes stuff happen", where good guy is a played character? It seems clear that Tony and many others allow goals that have no played character as their subject. That is, either a goal with no subject, as in "Make stuff happen", or a goal with a subject that is not played, as in "Innocent bystander makes stuff happen". If a goal can have no played character as a subject, then who can veto it? The consensus is no one can. However, its important to note that a goal is quite different from an event, in that a goal mandates no particular resolution, while an event is something that WILL happen. Whats the deal with "preventative goals"? Don't the veto rules make them impossible. That is, if I put down "Goal: Bad guy escapes", can't the bad guy just veto? Tony's answer seems to be "yes, but that hardly ever happens since the player you are trying to prevent will see it as a gold mine of resources." Others seem to say that since you can pretty much always rewrite a goal to be unvetoable by a player, as in "Goal: Good guy captures Bad guy" instead of "Goal:Bad Guy escapes", it is sort of a moot point. Its particularly unclear whether "Goal: Escape" prevents any kind of escaping behaviour by anyone, or whether it prevents nothing since it has no subject. And some seem to think it is the object, not the subject, that can veto, as in "Goal: Capture Bad Guy" could be vetoed by the bad guy player. The bottom line on this quesion is you should read the threads listed below and decide for yourself. COROLLARY - Under what circumstances can the "Not Yet" rule be invoked with regards to preventative goals? To paraphrase Tony, a goal such as "Goal: Bad Guy escapes" prevents any narration that would make the escape CERTAIN, or DEFINITELY IMPOSSIBLE. This is a good guideline for "Not Yet" and any guideline, and it really doesn't matter WHO could veto the goal. See http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16641.msg187263#msg187263 and posts before and after it. COMICS CODEConcept X (say, rape), is something I simply cannot bear to have in my game. So I should just put it into the comics code, right? Maybe. Its important to remember that while things in the comics code can't happen, people are incentivized (as Vaxalon put it) to come CLOSE to making them happen, because then gloating is possible. So if you put something into the code, you may perversely make it MORE likely to come up in the game, albeit in tangential ways. The general consensus seems to be that a well constructed code is crucial to ensuring the right "tone" of a Capes game, but there is little current advice on how exactly to do this. NARRATIONWhat do the sides of a conflict represent? Essentially, no one really knows until the side is claimed, and then the conflict resolves with that side winning. It is very dangerous to think of "heroic" or "villainous" sides to a conflict. Often, based on who is rolling on behalf of a side of a conflict and the kinds of narration they introduce, it is possible to have a good guess what the consensus opinion of the players allied with that side is over how the conflict should resolve. But there are no guarantees. So, your saying that a player can resolve a conflict in a way that is completely different from what his or her allies expected? Yes. The resolver is not limited in any way in how they can narrate the resolution (other than they may face the "Not Yet" rule if they narrate something that affects another conflict on the table). Is there any way to stop people from inappropriately narrating the use of an ability? There is no inappropriate use of an ability; there is only more or less creative uses, and there is what YOU think is appropriate or inappropriate. There is no way to prevent people from narrating something YOU find inappropriate. There is a rule on page 38 which states "Whether the player accepts the die they rolled or not, they always narrate what happens. The Ability they used must be central." However, there is no mechanical method, in the form of a penalty, cost, or other structure,
that enforces this. Is there any way to stop people from narrating something that I think is stupid, makes no sense, is silly, is crass or unecessary, or that I otherwise just plain can't stand? And still play the game? No. Capes is like a book added to line by line; you can add anything you want, but you can't erase anything. However, you can reinterpret things in any way YOU want, and they can't stop YOU. The only exception to the above is if the narration violates the "Not Yet" rule. I have narrated a resolution to a conflict. How long do the elements I introduced into that narration have meaning? As long as they are interesting. This is one of the hardest concepts in Capes, so an example is in order. If the goal "Capture Mr. X" resolves, it can be narrated such that Mr. X is arrested and carted of to jail. How long does Mr. X stay in jail? Answer, as long as it is interesting to everyone for him to be there. If the scene is not yet over, a player could narrate Mr. X escaping from jail almost immediately on the next page. If the scene is over, Mr. X could be narrated escaping in the very next scene. Conflicts prevent narration (through the "Not yet" rule) while they are on the table, but prevent nothing after they are resolved. COROLLARY - So, then is there no way to have any established "facts" in a game of Capes? As the game is written, no. However, see the threads for discussion of some house rules that might work. The general feeling of many on the Forge, though, is that Capes should be played as is first; after you have had a chance to try out the rules as written, you can see if the knee-jerk reaction to no real facts really needs a house rule for your play.
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14383.msg152974#msg152974 What happens when two conflicts are seemingly contradictory to each other if they are NOT resolved simultaneously? For example: Very carefully. When a conflict must be resolved (i.e. a claimed side has control at the end of a page) it MUST be resolved, regardless of whether it is seemingly impossible based on other conflicts on the table. So, the answer is that someone is going to have to be very creative. There has been a fair amount of discussion as to WHO should bear the weight of this creativity. Some tend to view this in terms of the "Not yet" rule, and say the onus is on Player A to craft some narration that leaves "room" for the future resolution of Goal 2. Others tend to view this as a challenge to some future player who will
resolve Goal 2; can that future player come up with some way for B to kill A from beyond the grave? Tony, for his part, seems to fall in the middle ground between the two sides. However, several possible suggested resolutions have been suggested to the above. These include clones, flashbacks, explosive release of powers, etc. See the related threads for more discussion. Does the difference between the sides matter in terms of narration? That is, if one side has 1, and the other side has a total of 15, does that mean stronger narration should be employed than if it were 1 vs. 2?
The rules say the difference doesn't HAVE to matter. However, it seems that some groups do take this into account in play. GLOATINGWho can gloat on a gloatable conflict? Can only the villains gloat? Anyone who is in a position to resolve a gloatable conflict could choose to gloat and narrate accordingly, not just the "villains". When, exactly, can someone gloat? The jury is out on this. There are no 100% completely certain rules for it. See the threads.
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=18898.msg199456#msg199456 How many dice do I have to change to 1's if I gloat on the resolution of a conflict? As many as you want, from zero to the number of non-one dice, and get a story token for each die changed. In fact, you can leave the total value of your side HIGHER than the other side if you choose, after gloating; this does NOT resolve the conflict. POPCORNWhat is "popcorn throwing"? Popcorn throwing is a metaphor coined by Hans Messersmith, that he is working very hard to drive into the lexicon of all Capes players for egotistical reasons. It represents the ultimate court of opinion for any Capes narration; essentially, in the end, the only thing that keeps you from narrating something really silly or stupid is that your fellow players will throw popcorn at you, pouring out their scorn and contempt for your weak narration. |
