We finished out a year-long arc recently.

We finished out a year-long arc recently.

We finished out a year-long arc recently.

The heroes, dubbing themselves The Catalysts, sought to change the world. The enemy mastermind was The Status Quo, and our heroes sought to upend it.

In preparation, they built super tech and removed advantages before taking it fully on.

Our heroes were:

Signon, who has control of devices he can see.

Ectype, who can make copies of things he can touch.

Full Disclosure, who can read minds and implant false memories.

The advantages removed were:

Private sectors primary over public for resources

Exploitable poverty

Humanity’s lack of empathy

How?

For the first, they captured an asteroid, and put everything mined into the hands of the UN High Council on refugees.

To reduce exploitable poverty, they created a super tech device which, with the pres of a button, would create one of six staple grains. This was the brain child of Signon.

To help humanity be more empathic, they added something to the device: create another one. Then they went public, spreading these around the world. To make this work, Ectype made a copy of himself and this copy was put in the center of an asteroid, as part of a machine to make what people needed.

But don’t worry, there were dozens of Ectypes at this point.

With those advantages removed — and Obama on their side — they started dealing conditions:

[critical]: Hope For the Future

[critical]: World fever for the catalyst mission

[critical]: Humanity choosing to be a part of what’s next.

[moderate]: compromised secrecy

Between putting Ectype in every hoispital, Signon using the teleportation pads (did i forget to mention? They invented teleportion, using a small part of Ectype) and super space suits to build a moon base, and oh yeah the super undies that make everything easier …

The status quo and all its wiley vileness is holding on by a thread. As in, I’ve written down that we need one condition of damage.

Full Disclosure, who has amnesia meets with his family, and founds out that his father is the embodiment of the status quo. His family is one of the 80 families who own half the world.

Pushed to his limit, Full Disclosure extends his powers. He makes everyone in his household fully aware of suffering in the world, and accidently reaches out to the population of the world, ensuring everyone knows.

With that, everything changes. They spend the next session dealing with fallout, and next time we’re going to do a microscope session and push ahead in the timeline.

Ran WiP for a local mini-convention here in the Philippines yesterday.

Ran WiP for a local mini-convention here in the Philippines yesterday.

Ran WiP for a local mini-convention here in the Philippines yesterday. This is the second group (7 players) that I ran for. Players had a blast playing the game and I was very impressed with how well it went as long as everyone was buying into the fiction.

I ran an one-shot play of WiP last Monday with my friends.

I ran an one-shot play of WiP last Monday with my friends.

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.

So, I ran five 4-hour sessions of Worlds in Perils at Gencon and had a lot of fun with it.

So, I ran five 4-hour sessions of Worlds in Perils at Gencon and had a lot of fun with it.

So, I ran five 4-hour sessions of Worlds in Perils at Gencon and had a lot of fun with it. Having 18 characters for players to choose from kept it from getting repetitive. Play went pretty smooth, and I have to say that it’s currently my first choice in super hero RPGs.

Having said that, there were a few issues we ran into that were awkward and could probably use some clarification or rewriting for the next edition.

The most glaring issue I ran into was powers that cause immobilization, like freezing, telekinesis, and paralysis attacks. Once a villain or a hero had the paralyzed condition, especially if it was assigned as a critical, it basically locked down the character/villain regardless of how many conditions they had left. I was able to work around it for the most part, but some villains, especially the brawler types, had no way to become unparalyzed on their own.

The second issue we had revolved around certain powers not syncing up very well with an attribute. For example: One character had the ability to bring drawings to life and it wasn’t always obvious what ability to use. For the most part I had the player use Maneuver. It wasn’t a terrible hinderance, but I felt like I was just making things up as I went.

Some other thing that was only issues due to the sessions being one-shots.

Getting Drive books open was nearly impossible. The first 3 times I ran the game, only one player got their drive book open. The last 2 session I had the players start with their Drive Books already opened and we just explained how that happened during pre-play. It made a big difference and multiple players were able to open their Drive Moves and use them to good effect. I’m sure this is not an issue in a campaign.

I do have a few questions unrelated to the sessions I ran, but I will save those for another post.  

Here’s a Playlist of our ongoing Heroes of Avalon City game.

Here’s a Playlist of our ongoing Heroes of Avalon City game.

Here’s a Playlist of our ongoing Heroes of Avalon City game. Everyone is still learning the ins-and-outs of WiP, but the most important thing is that everyone is having a blast playing it! 

We try to game every week and the roster of heroes changes, depending on Player availability. Oh and there’s a bunch of Fate rpg stuff on there too; like Shadowrun, Dredd, Riddick, Conan, etc. So sub, if you want to see more rpg shenanigans! =)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj2gvalg-aZWbAr8SdItqHZgGYB_yRE2v

Wrapped up our first few issues of Worlds in Peril.

Wrapped up our first few issues of Worlds in Peril.

Wrapped up our first few issues of Worlds in Peril.  

Our group brainstormed the following for play:

City:

Neutroplis, a US city on the Great Lakes that had the world’s only working fission reactor.  Providing near limitless power to the city and the surrounding area. Also, no-one can work out how to turn it off.

The Team:

Affectionately known by locals as The Temps, this motley group of heroes stepped into the gap left when Neutroplis’ resident superteam, the Astounding Seven, mysteriously vanished.  Moving into the Seven’s base inside the Statue of Futurity overlooking Neutropolis, the Temps do what they can to bring justice to the city.

Current Roster:

Graviton – (Origin: The Accident), a gravity manipulator who got his powers when caught in a section of the fission reactor when it came online.  Chip on his shoulder and a bad attitude.

Volt – (Origin: A Death in the Family), an electrokinetic who got her powers thanks to nefarious experimentation carried out on her and her fellow orphans by the sinister Dr. Grey.

Hunter – (Origin: What I Know) Suffering from a rare condition that saw him suffering from permanent synesthesia, Hunter found a cure for his condition far from home in a hidden valley in the Himalayas.  Trained to become the next avenger of the All Seeing Order, he uses his extraordinary senses and martial skills to bring justice.

Flicker (Origin: My Alien Heritage) – Teleporter.  Last surviving lifeform from Reality B, an alternate Earth where the Neutropolis reactor was actually switched off.   She tries to fit into a world, much like her own yet so different and remains vigilant that a similar catastrophe doesn’t destory her new home.

Issue 1:

We opened with a battle in Tomorrow Square, the city’s main shopping district.  A trio of villains, L.A.S.E.R, Psychlone and the Waxwork, who despite their oddly dated attire still whipped up a mean amount of havoc.  

The Temps leapt into action, either getting straight into it or ducking off from prying eyes for a quick costume change.  The battle raged above and below Tomorrow Square, with Volt finally reducing the Waxwork back into its dormant liquid state.  Flicker finally managed to pull the plug on L.A.S.E.R’s powered weapons.  Hunter and Graviton managed to save the civilians in Tomorrow Square from the flaming debris Psychlone threw around but couldn’t prevent him from escaping.

(I rated each of the villains as punching bags, so they had a 4 Condition Threshold each.  In retrospect, I found this a little high for what I wanted as an opening but not too challenging battle.  Going foward, I used the recommended thresholds as a rough guideline but generally reduced them.  For my group, I found this led to some smoother battles that were still fun. YMMV)

What followed was: secret government agencies, kidnapped loved ones,a missing hyperdimensional Cold War superprison, cities held hostage, the terrible, reality-burning genius of Dr. Cassius Bonaparte and a lonely security bot named Fluffy.

Definitely had fun with it, definitely haven’t mastered it to my satisfaction.  Definitely going to be going back to the well for another go in the future.

Adam, Jason and I also recorded some AP sessions, and though I’ve been lazy editing and uploading them.

Adam, Jason and I also recorded some AP sessions, and though I’ve been lazy editing and uploading them.

Adam, Jason and I also recorded some AP sessions, and though I’ve been lazy editing and uploading them. I’ve still got a short episode to put up, and we plan on recording a few more when we’ve got the time.

Figured I’d make a section for Actual Play reports now that the final version is out in the wild and new players…

Figured I’d make a section for Actual Play reports now that the final version is out in the wild and new players…

Figured I’d make a section for Actual Play reports now that the final version is out in the wild and new players might want some examples so they can grok the system. This is the playtest video that was on the kickstarter page. It’s an older version of the system, and doesn’t showcase all the mechanics, but might prove useful for some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzL9Cpgn__k