Re: [[BNW] Brave New World site]

[whytcrow@io.com]

I stayed out of this only b/c it has been ages since I played Marvel, 
and I don't have the rules any longer, so I had no advice as to 
converting.  However, here we step out of the realm of actual 
conversion notes into theory, so I will happily take the chance to 
avoid doing real work and add my own thoughts.

>I normally love the idea of swapping settings from game to game (these days I
>am spending ALOT of time messing with Big Eyes Small Mouth), but this one
>disturbs me.  It has been pointed out before -- BMW is not a four color comic
>book.  MSH is SPECIFICALLY designed to play a 4 color comic book setting, so
>there are some real incompatabilities in the mechanics.

Yes, there are differences in application and approach and genre in 
the printed books.  However, that doesn't mean that one or the other 
can't give way.  You can do lower powered supers in Marvel, to fit 
the status quo in BNW.  And there's nothing to say you *can't* run it 
as 4-color if you want--it's just, as written, it isn't.  It's a lot 
harder to take BNW *rules* and make 4-color heros than it would be to 
take the setting and apply it to a different rules-set.

One of the things about the X-men movie that hit me was how easy it 
would be to make the main chars as BNW chars.  I'd put Prof X and 
Magneto as Alphas, and everyone else just about would fit in one of 
the power packages.  (Storm is the hardest to fit--you'd have to 
custom make hers from scratch.  Jean is also  a bit tougher, as she's 
not just a TK but a TP as well).

The storyline in Xmen is perhaps a happier one, but it isn't too 
dissimilar to what BNW has.  Mutant Registration vs Delta 
Registration.

> The largest one, in
>my opinion, is the fundamental limiting of power improvement in BNW.

Yes....I quite like this part myself.

>MSH has
>a good mechanic for increasing powers, and experienced Marvel players will be
>unhappy with this mechanics removal from the system.

Maybe, maybe not.

>Additionally, many of
>the power levels that have been proposed for this system conversion are a
>little on the high side.  This issue needs some additional research, but
>examining the power of Omega Flight and/or the Great Lake Avengers (there have
>been several posts about using these 2 groups in BNW) can provide some base
>levels for this project.

Yep.  If you want them as deltas, you need to keep them at the lower 
ends of the Marvel scale.

>My biggest concern is the potential loss of feel caused by switching the
>setting between the two systems.  This is a subtle issue, and it is difficult
>to explain.

Hmm.  This is an important thing to think about.  What type of *feel* 
do you want?  I wouldn't go so far as to say that the rules make that 
big a difference, but there is an aspect there.  The main thing is 
that in Xmen (The movie again--it seemed to represent very closely 
the Xmen I used to read, but I haven't read it in well over a 
decade), they are fighting against the downward slide.  In BNW, it's 
already fallen down the slippery slope, and now everyone is fighting 
the uphill battle.  That's two different worlds--facets, in some 
ways, of the same thing.  They deal with similar issues, but from 
opposite ends of the spectrum.

BNW, to me, is very much about this uphill battle.  It isn't like 
there isn't hope, but it is a long hard ride to get there.  (One of 
my big problems with most WW stuff was that there isn't any hope.  I 
am not interested in playing someone or running a game where all you 
are doing is slowly the fall or preventing the fall from destroying 
you.  Making a difference counts--and you can do that in BNW.)

As an aside:
I was watching Jack of all Trades yesterday (a show much like 
Xena--same producers--that's set in 1801).  At the end, Amelia (the 
female char) talks about the situation that faced her, and says "It 
is hard to tell where the duty to one's country ends and the duty to 
one's self begins."  I think that's a good theme for a BNW game.

Jennifer

The White Crow
FUDGE Deryni and the Penn Ar Mor Ars Magica Saga:
http://www.io.com/~whytcrow/rpg.html
"Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their 
instrument."  -- Halo