Tags
Related Posts
Share This
Powers for Good Design Diary #1
As I wrangle the text of Powers For Good into a first draft, I want to take a minute to lay out the primary goals of my design:
Simplicity
Endless lists of powers and complex rules aren’t needed. Action is simple and compelling.
Flexibility
The idea of power ‘stunts,’ that the system needs to grant permission for the kind of crazy stuff that happens in every issue, is gone. Powers are limited only by creativity.
Focus
This is a game about one type of superhero story. This is not game about superhero melodrama (Smallville’s got that covered) or grim-and-gritty, it’s world-saving good guy heroes. Modern myth, maybe.
Structure
Player roles are typically highly structured, but GM roles less frequently are. The PFG GM will have simple concrete rules just like the players to help generate threats and action, just like Mouse Guard, Blowback, and Apocalypse World.
Integration
Powers For Good is a game, not a physical object. Sure, there will be a physical book, and I hope it’ll look great, but I also want to toy around with the book-as-app model. If possible, I’d even like to drive PFG to a level of online support similar to D&D 4E.
By next week I should have my ideas trimmed enough to start looking at how to make those things happen. I’ve already messed with the system some, maybe this weekend I’ll even get a quick playtest in with other people.
51 weeks or less to go.
That sounds great Sage – I love me some superheroics, but always struggle for a good system to use.
What are your touchstones when it comes to comics? Which superheroes are inspiring you to do this?
If I had to narrow down the list of touchstones, I’d probably say:
Grant Morrison’s JLA
Mark Waid’s JLA
Joss Whedon’s X-Men
Cornell’s Captain Britain and MI-13
I’ve actually been picking apart my reading list for a while, looking at what makes the comics great and how much of that stuff is lacking from existing games, all those posts are under the Powers for Good category.
What about Ellis’ Authority?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the place of The Authority (and to a degree Ultimates 1 & 2) in my source material. I feel like they’re a bit of a stretch from the other series I’ve looked at, as they’re mildly deconstructing superheroes. The Authority is pretty deliberately about superheroes with a political-ish agenda, and I’m not sure where that falls into the grand scheme of team comics.
Basically, I feel like The Authority without a social agenda is The Justice League or Avengers, so I’d rather aim for a game to emulate those more straightforward teams and leave it up to groups to decide if they want the social change layer.
So yeah, good comics, and probably something I should reread to see if I can pick out any ideas. But I don’t want to explicitly aim for that kind of story.
This is hitting my sweet spots like nobody’s business.
Glad to hear it!
I just found out about this through DivNull and have read through most of the posts now. I’m really keen to keep following and hoping your experience helps me in some of my (less public) game design.
One thing I’ve found really helpful is to have an enemy: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php. I also feel it gels nicely with the reviews you’ve posted of some current super hero games.
Thanks for the pointer, Darin. Enemies are something I’ve been thinking about a lot, especially how to start off a new game and what enemies to start with.