Peer Review Response: Invincible Hench

[Matt Cowens]

All the cool kids are doing it, so...

First up: Thanks for the kind words Chris (CodexArcanum). It's awesome to get some feedback on my efforts. Yay!

To address a few points brought up in the review:

OVERALL - I knew the game had some weaknesses when I submitted it, and you pointed out all of those plus extras! I'm going to be playing the 'only 9 days' card repeatedly as an excuse, but also the 'I've never done this before' card. That said I want to emphasise that all of your feedback is awesome and totally helpful and I'm mega-grateful that you took the time to read the game and write a review. So, without too much more ado...

System Thoughts:
I like the system used here, but I can see some problems... My immediate question is, "Does Karma override normal failure?" and vice-versa. I'm assuming so, or else karma loses much of it's value.

That would be a yes. I knew the rules needed to be clearer, but without the luxury of putting the game on the shelf for a couple of weeks then looking at it again, I made little headway.


Another bit which wasn't really discussed in the text is the roleplaying aspect. I'm assuming that the author assumes that the hench-people will be roleplaying a good bit until the challenges come up. The example of play section provides slightly more in this area, but still boils down to "This scene has 2 challenges." Rather than integrating conflict resolution into the story, the story seems to revolve around conflict resolution. Set up the challenges first, then build a story up to meet it. Not a bad way of doing things, but i would have liked to see more story elements discussed in a roleplaying game.

D'oh. Again, I knew something wasn't right. When I looked at other people's entries, and saw some of the things they'd included, I knew I'd missed some pretty important stuff.

The Accuser phase idea, however, is wholely brilliant. Actually making the PCs own up to their actions (and unspent Karma) during the mission is a great stroke that keeps the players thinking about the goal of the mission and on doing things properly.

Why thank you!

Some more distinction between characters would also be nice. I understand that it's a very light game, where the players enforce themselves, but I would have liked a little more definition to characters. Even something so simple as giving a 1 point bonus when a character attempts an action that they are good at would work, just to provide a little niche protection so that the safe-cracker has an incentive to be the guy who cracks safes.

Excellent suggestion. I shall add this to the next version (probably one page per character, with some flavour text and a specialty).

I thought the characters were also a bit... colorful. The Nazi saluting german, the snooty Frenchman, the crazy irish killer, and so on. Rather than inspire me to play, the character just sort of insulted me. I guess the humor, while not lost on me, was not meant for me.

Erm, yes. My sense of humour is not always terribly PC. You've phrased this very delicately, and I appreciate this. I did pause when drawing the German Sausage King to wonder whether I had overstepped the bounds of decency, but I wanted a variety of poses in the artwork and decided to barrel on in spite of my doubts. I hope nobody gets deeply offended by any of it.

Oh dear, there goes the bell... off to class I go....[/b]

[CodexArcanum]

I'm glad I was helpful to you. Hopefully not too harsh on the critiques. I really wasn't offended too badly by the pictures, probably not insulted really either. It probably is wise to issue a warning that they might be a little over the top. Some other humor in there might help balance things out.

I really did enjoy the idea of the game. I also like creative diceless systems, so kudos on that as well. Good luck on your future work, I'll look forward to it.

[Matt Cowens]

Your comments were totally helpful. Pretty much every one was a case of "Of course! That makes perfect sense!".

No doubt next year's entry will be all the stronger for it.