High Stakes: A superhero game using cards and Messengers

[highstakes]

I've been rpging a long time and I'm always writing my own games. I'll be watching or reading something and it'll get my imagination going and I'll start writing up rules to emulate the genre. I hope to one day release a pdf and I have two systems that are close to completion but I want to make sure they're as good as they can be. I was hoping that if people had time they could take a look over and give me some feedback.

The first is High Stakes. I'm passionate about comics and feel that there has yet to be a superhero game that truly captures the medium. To this end I've spent some time putting together my own rpg system called High Stakes.

I know that there are many superhero games out there but I'd thought I'd ask if you'd kindly look over my rough draft at the below link.



What I've tried to do is give the player the flexibility in the definition of their powers and abilities, giving them as many options as possible while keeping the system simple.

It's based around the idea that heroes expend energy (either their powers, their luck, or other resources). When they fail at a task they become weaker but if they succeed they usually recover their strength, getting their second wind.

As such the core mechanic is a cut down version of poker. When trying to succeed at a task the GM sets a target number (placing a card with correct face value face down). The players stake chips from their three hero pools (power, plot and resources) and if they stake equal or above the target number they pass the task.
So they can pass most checks but if they stake to much they'll get weaker faster.

In combat all parties pick a card, highest wins but they don't reveal this until everyone has staked at least 1 chip and someone calls. The winner gets an equal number of chips from their opponents ante as they staked so players can continue to stake in the hope of draining their opponents reserves and become stronger. Even if they have a losing card they can see if their opponent decides to 'fold' which means the opponent only loses half his ante.

So there isn't a health system. Players just run out of resources. I think this better duplicates the ebb and flow of comic fights. The players can be as inventive as they like as they describe how they're using their various hero pools.

Players are also rewarded with chips to replenish their pools by doing things typical of comics such as involving their supporting cast, patrolling and making revelations about their character.

I've run a few sessions to playtest it and its gone well. The system was able to handle a character who was a spirit that possessed inanimate objects, a speedster who used her media empire just as much as her powers and led them through an exciting high speed chase and final battle on pier as it collapsed into the sea.

The second game is Messengers. Inspired by programs like Medium, Millenium, Wonderfalls and even My Name is Earl I've developed a game where the players are chosen Messengers, receiving Messages from an enigmatic source.

The Messengers have gifts such as postcognition, premenition, the ability to see ghosts and so on. Using these gifts they gather information about the Message to work out what needs to be done. Each piece of information leads them to another clue which gives them a plus modifier when they next use their gift.

The game does not centre entirely around gathering information but rather what they do with it. Their gift might show them the identity of a killer but how do the Messengers make sure that person gets arrested? Similarly if they know a plane is fated to crash how can they stop it?

Messengers allows a great variety of adventures given that the Message will motivate them to take interest in other people. It might require them to stop a couple breaking up, help someone achieve their goal in life or find a lost puppy. Each has just as much challenge as stopping a serial killer or preventing an accident.

As a reward for carrying out the Messages the player characters receive karma which they can use to affect their dice rolls but also improve their characters lives or to increase their stats.

As far as I'm aware there aren't to many games that cover this specific genre and I'm hoping it ignites peoples imagination.

You can download a rough first draft from the following link



I'd appreciate any thoughts on these two.

Thanks!

[Rob Lang]

[highstakes]

Hi, thanks for taking a look.

The reason I went for the gambling mechanic is that I felt it best simulated the narrative of a comic. Looking through several stories it seemed to me that actions escalated throughout, leading to a breaking point where one side was usually weaker and the other stronger.

The best way to simulate that was the staking of chips. Combat in comics doesn't really fit the use of hit points. No matter how hard someone is hit they usually just get knocked down and it doesn't take much for them to get a second wind. Again this seemed to be flow of chips moving between the various combatants.

I wanted a system where a hero always has a chance, no matter how powerful their opponent is. Even if they draw a low card they could bluff or play defensively, draining their opponents resources. It also allowed the common comic book scene where a group of heroes attack as one, in the game a group has a greater chance of winning since only one of them need to have the highest card for the team to win.

Even defeat need not be a bad thing as it allows a hero to make statements against opponents that have defeated them at a cheaper cost. This reflects the way that the second time a hero faces a villain they can often overcome the same attacks that beat them before.

The flow of most comics includes scenes where the heroes spend time dealing with their private lives and their supporting cast, something that can be missing from many superhero games. By making supporting cast a way to renew resources it allows these important part of the superhero mythos to come into play, after all what would Superman be without Lois Lane or Spiderman without his Aunt May?

I'm hoping that its these elements that will set it apart from other superhero games.

This is really just a draft of the basic rules so I hadn't given much thought to the layout. Thanks for the advice about setting it to double columns. Is there any software you'd recommend for page layout.

Personally when I read rpg rules I prefer to get the system rules first. It gives me an idea of what is important and by the time I reach the character creation rules I know what each of the attribute, skills and other abilities do.

I have written up a setting including a time line, cosmology (you can't have a superhero game without alien worlds and alternative dimensions), many different locations for adventures and a host of extra heroes and villains. In total it'll add an extra 50 pages.

I'm hoping that the Gamesmaster section will have lots of useful advice.

You're right, I should include an adventure. During play testing I found it quite easy to write as each section just needed a target number and the group could use their various hero pools in a variety of ways to meet that challenge. Half the fun was just seeing how they'd solve the problems they'd face. I need to write something up to show how to make the most of the system.

[Rob Lang]

Sounds like your gambling theories are well grounded. I do hope that others feel the same way. Comic books are less popular in the Uk and beyond a stack of WW2 Commando comics, I am bereft of the typical American ones. You incisive description seems to make sense, fingers crossed your public agree!

I'd include as much of the setting/adventure as you feasibly can. It's great that you know enough about the genre and your game to go off the cuff (I do for , too) but a cold-starting GM will need a bit more of a helping hand. You being able to do it will mean that the adventure will come out much better, I'm sure.

I'd say that graphics are going to be very important to your game, given the subject matter but you probably know that already.

Layout software
What software? Well, that's a big question. It's big because there are so many answers. Normally, to get up and running quickly, I'd recommend going with what you know. If you use Word then that should do the trick, there are where you can convert into a handy PDF. Alternatively, you could get hold of , which is a free alternative to Microsoft Office and you can make PDFs for there. Layout can be a bit of a trial but once you get used to the tools, you'll be there. For graphics, you might consider , which isn't a dodgy website but a free alternative to photoshop. Try and stick with what you know, much better to spend the time improving your game, rather than learning new applications.

The best bit of advice...
Just keep going!

[highstakes]

I got a chance to playtest my game Messengers. I was the GM and there were two players. It took about twenty minutes to create characters and it was interesting to see the different tact's they took.

The first character is Brad Mercury, an amnesiac (yes that old cliché) with an army tattoo and numerous burns (including burns on his fingers that prevent identification). He spent most of his character points taking his attributes close to the maximum (allowing him to be strong, swift, quick witted and charming) but took no qualities (representing his lack of memory of any skills). He took only 1 rank in insight and spiritualism, using the medium psychic to give him a +3 bonus on his message checks.

The second character was Dave Spectrum, working in a pizza shop he took qualities that gave him a talent for spotting when people were lying and allowing him to handle himself in a fight. He took at least 5 ranks in all of the available gifts but only one medium, electronics.

In the first game both Messengers received a vision of a young blonde woman standing on a cliff top at night. She cries out "Dad!" before plummeting to her death. They meet up to discuss what they've seen and searching the local paper. I had them roll Mind checks and both rolled high so they found the same story, a Kate Foster had been found dead and the police suspected she had become lost while hiking and fallen, the death ruled accidental.

Once Dave had finished his shift at the pizza shop, and blown of a co-workers invitation to go drinking, both Messengers headed to the cliff. They each used their gifts, receiving a +5 to their rolls for being on an important location. This was the first time I had to look through my list of prepared clues for each of the categories (vague, trivial, minor, major and critical) and select an appropriate clue for their location and the gift and medium they were using.

Brad was at the top of the cliff and suddenly had a vision of a cars headlights blinding him while a man approached, shovel in hand. In his panic Brad almost falls off the cliff. Meanwhile Dave has driven his car to the bottom and uses his postcognition gift and electronics medium. Suddenly he finds himself driving along a highway leading out of the city just as a hitchhiker steps out in front of the car with a sickening crunch. Dave gets out of the car only to find himself at the bottom of the cliff. Although he knows the event he just saw didn't happen at this location he knows it is connected.

Both messengers gained trauma for what they had seen, Brad ending up with the most. The two swapped information about what they had seen and headed home, disturbed about what they had seen. With a chunk of trauma providing negative modifiers on their rolls they realised they should have invested in contacts, if only as a means to shed their burden. They also regretted making their characters loners with no friends of family.

The next day Dave decided to share his trauma with his co-worker Greg, claiming he had become disturbed by what he had read in the paper about Kate's death, suspecting it was foul play. He managed to remove all his trauma and Greg only gained 1 trauma point for listening to Dave. They decided to go for a drink after work.

Meanwhile Brad had headed to the local library to see if he could find any record of the dead hitchhiker Dave had seen. The librarian took pity on the badly burnt Brad, showing him the archives but Brad took advantage of her attention by getting rid of all 6 trauma points, babbling about his nightmares and dark thoughts leaving the librarian quite shaken.

Brad found a news report from 10 years ago indicating that the hitchhiker was called Peter Swanson and his family had reported him missing but his body was never discovered. Spending a few more hours Brad searched for more information about Kate and found out her dad, Daniel Foster, had died 10 years ago, around the same time that Peter had gone missing. Brad headed to the bar where Dave had got rid of his last point of trauma by spending a relaxing evening drinking with Greg. After Greg left Brad told Dave what he had learnt.

The next day they both went to city records and Dave used his gifts again, While Brad just saw text on the computer screens Dave saw police discovering a burnt out car, a charred corpse inside. One of the few things left intact was a drivers license for Daniel Foster. They assume this must be the person in the car.

Both Messengers suspect that Peter was accidentally killed and that Daniel had burnt his body in the car to fake his death. The question was why and how did it relate to the apparent murder of Kate. They sent an unsigned letter to the police to urge them to re-examine the body in Daniel's grave.

They then went to visit Kate's mother, Beverly, getting the address from the phonebook. This was the first time we used the influence tables. I told them that Beverly was apprehensive, sad and neutral towards them. They claimed they were writing a book on grief and made personality checks. Between them they managed to roll well enough to make two shifts on the influence tables so decided to move her from neutral to friendly.

Beverly welcomed them inside and they were able to subtlety ask her questions. They learnt Daniel had been a travelling salesman, sometimes spending months away but when he died Kate took it very hard. Beverly goes on to say that recently Kate had become happier and Beverly suspected she was secretly seeing someone as she had started going out late and lying about where she was going. Beverly had just been glad that Kate was getting out of the house. With some convincing from the Messengers she gave them the phone number of Kate's best friend, who might have more information for them.

That's where we left it for the first session. It seemed to go well as the players really got into the mystery, positing scenarios and try to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It had a good balance of good old fashioned detective work and when they got stuck they could use their gifts. They also realised that with all they had learnt they still needed hard evidence before they could bring it to the police (aside from the mysterious letter they sent).

It didn't take them long to realise that there were benefits to having a life outside of just carrying out the Message. They needed to interact with other people, either to transfer trauma or just take part in a social activity to get rid of it. I'm pleased with how the Influence tables were used and the players took the time to think about how the NPCs might be feeling or react and adjust their interaction with that NPC to match. With Beverly they were very understanding about her loss, Brad playing up his burns to get sympathy from her.

As the GM I think planning is the key. You have to know everyone involved and have a good selection of clues so no matter where the Messengers use their gifts, what gift they use and through what medium you can give them something appropriate and satisfy their desire to learn more. I'm sure the longer you play and the more familiar you become with the groups tactics the easier this will become.

At the end of this first session the response was positive. The players said the system was easy to understand and they thought the mystery aspect of the game was something different from the d&d sessions they usually play. They also kept detailed notes about the mystery which is unusual for them as they usually just play by ear.

We're looking forward to next week when we hope to continue the investigation.

[tadk]

Ok reading the AP post makes me want to investigate Messengers now. I was not interested before.

[highstakes]

[Rob Lang]

[highstakes]

When a character uses a gift I just select an appropriate clue from a list and tell them what they see. It's usually just a very short glimpse. They get to ask questions about what they've seen but can't affect what they've seen. The only difference is when they use spiritualism and can interact briefly with the ghost that appears.

We have done one adventure where they had a vision of truck driver having a heart attack and causing an accident. Although the driver still had a heart attack, thanks to the Messengers he wasn't behind the wheel at the time and they got him to the hospital in time.

The idea of being is a Messenger is that they can make a difference. Whether its solving a mystery from the past or stopping a disaster the Messengers are the only ones who can do what needs to be done.