I ran an one-shot play of WiP last Monday with my friends.
PCs were members of New Avengers(It was based on Marvel Cinematic Universe), and they fought against Loki who tried to take Time Gem(which was founded by PCs).
We had a blast! And it was the best AWE-based RPG which I ever played. My friends have played Dungeon World once or twice, and one of them even dislikes AWE(but long-time fan of Superhero comics and Mutants & Masterminds). But they all satisfied with the play. Here are their first impressions of playing WiP.
– They all loved free-form Powers, Especially “Impossible” power, which they could easily define what they can do or what they can’t. They also loved they can add new powers during play.
– But they all agreed it would be better if there were meaningful differences among “Simple-Difficult-Borderline-Possible” powers. Sometimes they complained “Why I need to roll ‘Simple’ power?” I need to make difference next time.
– Sometimes they feel awkward for burning bonds, especially bonds with other PCs. “We have fought side by side, but why our relationship is worsening after the fight?” I know it was explained well in the rulebook, but it will be some time to accept the concept.
– We haven’t use Origin book and Drive book for simplicity this time, but of course I will actively use them next long term campaign.
Our group also felt a little awkward regarding spending PC bonds. It is just a matter of traslating the expediture (is that a word?) to the ficton. Sometimes it may be hard to figure it out, but always is a way to deepen into PCs personalities.
Joaquim Ball-llosera Expenditure is definitely a word!
오승한 It’s something to get used to, for sure. If it feels weird at that moment, I recommend just telling them to come back to it later. Wait for something to happen for them to take issue with or help them make some drama in a later scene. In my group, it’s usually differing points of view – what to do with a villain, how to handle the media, big issues like having secret identities but it can be small stuff too like showing up late to a fight, being distracted and allowing someone to get hurt, etc. Once the group gets used to it they’re usually pretty good about it but it takes some getting used to.
I’m glad the M&M player had fun! I’m always kind of nervous to hear about how fans of the crunchier systems take to the game.
When explaining about powers I usually tell them that they actually don’t need to roll anything to use those powers. If it’s on your Powers Profile, then you have done it and can do it again. You’re only rolling to do something that is on your profile when it’s about the situation you’re in. It’s risky or dangerous, time-sensitive – make it about the situation, not their powers specifically. I do try to give some spotlight time where they don’t have to roll and just do cool stuff when I can though, as it’s important to do that sometimes I think (depending on the kind of game you’re running).
For Simple-Difficult-Borderline-Possible differences could you just offer modifiers to the roll like Simple +1 — Difficult +0 — Borderline
1 –Possible -2 or something similar or would that affect the rolls too much?Yeah, it would screw with the rolls a lot. It really is best to handle it in the fiction – even if there is no hard and fast rules for it you’ll get used to it.
I wouldn’t recommend going this way. Roll difficulty is already factored in the attributes. Having a potential -4 is a huge handicap for a superheroic 4-color game. As Kyle Simons says it’s better (and I may add funnier) to handle that in the fiction. As EIC I always bear in mind the power profile in order to describe the fiction and make my moves.
Imposing different conditions or consequences for the failed roll will be a good option, I think. Minor condition for simple power and moderate condition for difficult power, for instance.
Yeah there are a number of options there – but if you start with the fiction it should follow through easily enough. I mean, if they aren’t in danger and it’s not risky then they may just do it. If it’s something that hurts them you can differentiate between conditions. If it’s about time, it may take longer for them to charge up or get ready so they have to make a hard choice or they may need a lot of power to do something big so there is other consequences like putting the city into a blackout, and so on. Whatever feels natural with what’s going on at the time and that makes sense for the character.