Re: [[BNW] Brave New World site]

[MKirk2112@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/11/2000 11:56:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
GSZalonef@netscape.net writes:

<< David Fryer <badsign_98@yahoo.com> wrote:
 >I have been working on a website which would develop
 >the Brave New World game for Marvel Super-Heroes.
 
 I have kept out of this discussion as it came up in the past, but since this
 idea keeps coming up, I am gonna toss my hat into the ring.
 
 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.  The largest one, in
 my opinion, is the fundamental limiting of power improvement in BNW.  MSH has
 a good mechanic for increasing powers, and experienced Marvel players will be
 unhappy with this mechanics removal from the system.  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.
 
 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.  It is the difference between Call of Cthulhu and Chill.  CoC is 
a
 game about horror, and horror is a genre of VICTIMS.  The fundamental truth 
of
 CoC  is that the investigators cannot make a true difference in the game
 setting.  They may delay the various entities plans (and gain the remainder 
of
 their life free of the entities' influence), but in the end, all of humanity
 is truly insignificant on the cosmic scale.  Chill, on the other hand, looks
 like a horror game, but it is a hero game.  The players are given abilities
 that place them on par with their avdersaries.  I have seen several attempts
 to convert the CoC universe over to the Chill Rules, and the bottom line is
 that the FEEL of the game didn't transfer.  This resulted in the quick demise
 of these campaigns.  I fear that the same will happen with the BNW setting
 with the MSH rules.
 
 I am not saying that such a conversion would not be interesting, and even 
fun.
  But much of what makes BNW so good is the unique feel it has.  Anything that
 might lessen this feel will also lessen the impact and power of BNW.
 
 Zalonef >>

I must admit that my first response to the issue of transfering BNW to Marvel 
is "why?"  I do very much like the Marvel system, but the BNW system is cool 
and fresh ... however ... I am running a game with 7 PCs in it, and I 
actually appreciate the idea of running the BNW setting with a game system 
that is a bit faster than BNW is with this many PCs.  As an aside, my players 
who have characters who do not have the First Move trick are beginning to 
hate the players whose characters do have the trick.  "Okay, I get to use all 
5 of my actions at once ... you guys might as well go out for pizza."

I successfully used the Marvel rules for a Wildcards game I ran a few years 
back.  Wildcards is pretty close to BNW in power level.  All I did was make 
it consistent across all attributes that Remarkable is the human maximum 
(which took some minor modifications to the Strength table) and made 
Unearthly the maximum level for anything.  This did keep things pretty much 
in check.  Like BNW, many of the Wildcards type characters who have powers 
that don't provide them with superhuman attributes ended up running around 
with Typical or Good in most every attribute, which kept the Health scores 
down and made normal weaponry a real threat.  The only real significant 
modification I had to make to the rules was to make it easier to die ... I 
never liked that "Endurance shift" rule anyway.  I also said that all 
characters, regardless of whether they were "heroes" or "villians," could not 
spend more than 20 Karma on any one roll.  In the Wildcards universe, it is 
often difficult to tell the heroes from the villians, just like in some BNW 
games.  I know my BNW game is like that!

As far as the power improvements went, I let the players do it because the 
power intensities do change for the characters in the Wildcards books (I 
would probably not allow it in a BNW game run with Marvel rules, however).  
But I have to tell you, not a single player raised an attribute or power 
level more than one column shift.  I do think that Marvel has a good system 
for this, but it is EXTREMELY expensive to raise powers in that game, in my 
opinion.  By the time you get finished spending Karma to stay alive, to take 
out your opponent, and to do any power stunts you want to (we had a lot of 
those in this game), you've pretty much blown your Karma and have little, if 
any, to spend on increasing the power rank of your powers or abilities.

One wonderful thing about the Marvel system is that, although it is somewhat 
of an illusion, the attributes and powers are defined with verbal labels 
rather than numbers.  True, the numbers are used in the game mechanics, and 
everyone knows that.  But it just seems so fun to say "my character has 
Incredible Strength" rather than "my character has an 18 Strength or a 5d6 
Strength."

I do think you make a good point about the feel of the game however (with the 
CoC and Chill example you provided).  But, maybe that can be taken care of 
with non-game mechanic things, like adventure plots, "atmosphere," etc.  
Also, even in the game mechanics department, with the low number of 
characters in the BNW universe running around with superhuman attributes, you 
would have a lot of Marvel versions of these characters with 35 or fewer 
health.  A Remarkable intensity attack (which isn't extremely high for the 
BNW universe of possibilities) all of a sudden becomes quite lethal and 
respectable.

Again, with a smaller playing group, I wouldn't bother.  The BNW game is such 
a fun game and the world is well encompassed by the rules, so why change it.  
But I have to admit that moving my 7 PC BNW universe game to Marvel rules has 
crossed my mind.  I haven't done it yet, and probably won't, but it is quite 
appealing at times when it takes an hour and a half minimum to handle a 
combat between 7 PCs and 6 or 7 NPC delta bad guys.

Also to address Jennifer's comment about the X-Men movie, I am getting ready 
to start a second campaign of BNW for a much smaller group (3 players) and 
the way I got them interested in BNW was to say "it's a lot like the X-Men 
movie, it's just that the power levels are a bit lower."  They were hooked!

Guide Matt