24 hour rpg 'have-a-go-heroes'

[Simon W]

Please take the time to have a look at this



and let me know what you think.

I was aiming for a simple fun game with no stats and no skills, which I did.

However, do you think the characters will have enough variety for good characterisation, in a humorous way?

Do you think the game is condusive to humorous play? What needs changing, if not?

Do the scenes/between scenes bits make sense? Is it clear that scenes and between scenes serve two diferent functions in the game?

Anything else?

Would you want to play it?

Cheers

[Praetorian]

Is Have-a-go heroes the product of Andy Kitowski's "design an rpg in 24 hours" promo?

If not, I can point you in the right direction to have it included int he 24-hr rpg roundup.

Overall, I like it. I think you are right to think that some of the SP number need to be adjusted... but I like the fact that the Boss (game master) does not roll any dice. Initially, I thought it was a really bad idea- but as you explain how a game unfolds, it makes more sense. Though I still have some worries the Boss has too little impact and play in a standard game.

The dice conventions need to be explained a little bit better- even with a variation of 6 I am still a bot confused on how the rolls work.

I really dig the idea of the game. The not-so-superpowers are great and I really compliment you on having a nice example of game play. That helps bring everything together. Another mechanic I like is the personal life mechanic that can help the character do better in later scenes- fun way to encourage the players to think about being "normal guys" while still being superheroes.

I think the addition of bonuses for working together is a great game mechanic to promote cooperative story telling/game play. I would like to see a couple more bonuses and examples- but that may be the traditional roleplayer in me rearing its ugly head.

Why "Marvel City?"

Do you plan on revising have-a-go superheroes?

Also, I noticed the nice words at rpg.net about Lashings of Ginger beer- nicely done.

[Simon W]

Thanks for taking the time to read through and post your thoughts. Good points all.

Yes, it is a 24 hour rpg and has already been submitted to both the Yahoo group and to Andy.

I was going to go totally diceless, but then the introduction of dice became inevitable. With The Boss, it went the other way and as I was writing the game, it became evident that the Boss was probably becoming almost superfluous.

I think it needs to be playtested,

a) To give The Boss a bit more to do, although I think they may just about be ok overall
b) To see if it can be played without a Boss and see what extra rules are needed for that type of play
c) To see how the dice works and how the SP/DP stack up - this is a question of fine tuning I think and will probably need to vary depending on the number of players
d) and to give a few more examples (I may take the example I have given all the way through the entire session)
e)To make more of Marvel City - which was to be the hometown of the characters, but I forgot to say any more about it whilst I was writing the game. (In the Mystery Men, their hometown is Champion City)
f) Yes, I will revise the whole thing vert soon, 'cos I like it - a lot.

Lashings of Ginger Beer - yes, it is slowly gaining in interest and this is finally showing in sales too. At RPGNow it is both a popular pick and features in the Top 10 products and is equal top of the non-d20 products, in terms of customer ratings.

[Rob Lang]

[Simon W]

Rob,

Thanks for looking through have-a-go-heroes, your comments are appreciated.

You say your players wouldn't like it. Could you elaborate for me please? What could I do to it to make them like it (short of making it d20 or anything like that, of course!)?

Borders

It was just a MS Publisher template I used. I will find something more suitable for the rewrite.

Clip art
Yes, I wouldn't normally use clip art. It was just something to break it up, in a hurry. When I revise it, I shall dump the clip art and get an artist to do some stuff for me.

Paragraphs

I was just trying something different, that I hadn't tried before. Since you are the second person to complain about it, I'll have to change it!

Structre/Design

Yes, I'll have to give it a short blub to make it stand out over other s/h games. The structure was really intended to create two completely different styles of scene - one for 'heroic' things and one for 'everyday' stuff. I'm going to keep this, but work on it a bit more.

Yes, I will keep 2 versions.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

[Rob Lang]

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of splitting it up between the hum drum of everyday life and doing not-so-super things! It's the firm structure of start, three middles and an end that bothers me. Having said all that, I'm not sure what to suggest as an improvement. I'll keep thinking...

The reason my players wouldn't play is because there is nothing particularly new about the system. There isn't the draw of a new mechanic, new setting or new ethos to playing the game. I recently persuaded the lads to have a go at the StickGuy setting I am writing. StickGuy was easy to sell because it had the funky stickman drawing at its heart and the slightly off-beat humour written through it. RPGs that do well always have some draw for the GM to persuade their players into playing something new. By having a little paragraph at the start saying why your RPG is better than other Superhero RPGs out there will not only give the GM some ammo but better sell it to the reader.

Re-reading my last post, I do sound quite negative. Please don't take it as so! It's certainly not meant to be but I do think that being blunt is a good way to get one's point across without wasting too much time.

[Simon W]

I didn't take any of your comments as criticism. I'm glad you responded. I've posted to The Forge and RPGNet and got little feedback so far, so it's nice to see someone here take the trouble!

Besides, what's the point of just saying 'yeah, I like it' - that doesn't help me make it any better.

So cheers for now. I'm getting to work on it a bit more now

[Rob Lang]

[Praetorian]