The Long Awaited 1.1...

Wow! 1.1 is finally here!!! It probably should have been uploaded a while ago, but life keeps on happening… Despite that, I’m really happy with a lot of these changes. There’s still work to be done, so I think Capes is still technically in Playtesting, but these new changes have been tested a fair bit so far and they’re a lot of fun. So, if you’ve enjoyed the game already, get ready for even more fun stuff.

What follows is a summary of the changes since the “1.0” release. I did a big diff of the files, so I should have gotten everything, but in case I missed something, be sure to give the game a read through.

Thanks again to Yuri Runnel for the new cover art!!!

New Rules

• Arcs
  • A new tool to track play over time. Introduced an Arc Antagonist, Arc Complications, and Arc Beats.
  • The Faction Game was changed to integrate Arc Antagonists as a special threat. This was accompanied by a general rewrite to streamline the entire section.
  • Team XP was changed to integrate Arc Beats. Satisfying an Arc Beat gives the team XP at the end of a session.
• B-Plot
  • Mechanical guidance to run concurrent and overlapping missions.
  • Each team playbook has a new ability to buff the new B-Plot rule.
    • “I’ve Got Your Back” (Alliance), “Change of Plans” (Class), “Rock Bottom” (Kindred), “Cut Back to the Action” (Mavericks), “Perfect Synchronicity” (Paragons).
• Endbringers
  • After some intense playtesting sessions, the Endbringer rules were reworked to provide two alternate modes of play: Last Stand, and Rout.

Reworks

• Reaching Your Limit
  • Reaching your limit also gains you a Level 2 condition (cannot be resisted).
  • The previous iteration saw too little mechanical consequence for Reaching Your Limit, despite there being big narrative implications consistently. A Level 2 Condition means that there’s still a tax on player resources, but it doesn’t slow down the action as much as a Scar.
• Reputation
  • Reputation felt like it was both too slow to change, and not impactful enough when it did.
  • Reputation was changed to a total of three tiers (I - III, instead of I - V).
  • The team’s reputation track was removed. Instead of answering questions to fill your reputation track at the end of a mission, your entire tier changes based on whether or not you were victorious or not.
• Esteem
  • Esteem ended up being fun, but not impactful enough.
  • The Awe and Bystander questions were removed to streamline the end of session bookkeeping.
  • Additionally, Entanglements are rolled when your Esteem changes, not at the start of every downtime: the world reacts to your changing perception.
• Player XP
  • Attribute specific XP tracks were removed. Each player has a single XP track that can grant an ability OR an action dot when filled.
  • It is now 10 ticks.
  • Changed “allies, rivals, or reaching your limit” question to “your powers or your relationship to the city” to de-emphasize the importance of allies, rivals, and reaching your limit.
• Team XP
  • Reworked as a result of Arcs and Arc Beats.
  • Fewer XP triggers, and XP gained upon the completion of an arc beat.
• Engagement Roll
  • The Engagement Roll questions changed to weigh more heavily the overall vibe of the team.
• Allies
  • The exchange of favors with the Trust clock didn’t promote the kind of play it was aiming to do.
  • The Trust clock has been replaced with a shared Need. A narrative hook to drive the relationship between the player and the ally.
• Mayhem
  • The existing rules for mayhem triggered escalations too frequently, and have poor guidance for what to do during a mayhem escalation.
  • Mayhem escalations only trigger after the counter reaches a certain value.
  • Additionally, mayhem escalations directly impact the arc, potentially changing the arc antagonist and complication.
• Downtime Scenes
  • Acquire an Asset was removed.
    • This was a downtime action that was used exactly once during the playtest game. Oftentimes, having a McGuffin isn’t the interesting thing, but where you got it and how. Additionally, the rules around quality felt weird when integrated with the streamlined Position / Effect in Capes as compared to Blades.
  • Meddle was Removed.
    • The potential for the risky consequence in the Meddle action had more weirdness than initially expected, and the outcome wasn’t important enough to warrant it.
  • Side Mission was added.
    • Given the difficulties with Acquire an Asset and Meddle, a new downtime scene was added to allow players to frame a flexible kind of scene with a dynamic list of rewards.
  • Train was updated.
    • Training gives XP for the Player XP track or the Team XP track.
    • See the Player XP and Team XP reworks for context.
• Special Abilities
  • “Wild Eyes” (Loose Cannon) replaced with “Don’t Need Friends”. Allows the player to spend connection clock ticks instead of stress to push themself.
  • “Team Bonding” (Rookie) updated to apply to all downtime scenes.
  • “Martyr” (Rookie) changed name to “Plucky”.
  • “Work your Network” (Specialist) updated to reflect downtime changes.
  • “Master of the Trade” (Specialist) updated to have a more relevant bonus. Name was changed to One Step Ahead to reflect this.
  • “Leader of the Pack” (Symbol) gives a better bonus when working with a companion.
  • “This Town Ain’t Big Enough” (Symbol) updated to have more interesting bonuses.
  • “Friends Close Enemies Closer” (Symbol) updated to clarify who the ability should apply too, with more narrative hooks to make it interesting.
  • “Fraternize with the Enemy” (Turncoat) updated to roll on the Ally Entanglements Table.
  • “G.O.A.T. Status” (Veteran) updated to give a better and more scaled bonus.
  • “Many Hands” (Paragons) updated to reflect the 1.0 Downtime Scenes change and also Side Missions.
  • “Best Suppliers” (Paragons) updated to reflect the removal of Acquire an Asset.
  • “Healing Touch” (When Power Break The Game) updated to remove the stress cost.
  • “Rapid Regen” (When Powers Break The Game) updated to reduce the stress cost.
  • “Potent Powers” (Capes & Bodies) updated to make the collateral more narrative, and force the player to choose what it is.
• The Setting
  • The guidance on the setting was changed to recommend fewer teams. The 12 originally suggested was too many. It now ranges from 6-10 with 8 teams default in the text.
  • The following teams were removed as a result of this change: The Avant Guard, The Storm’s Eye, Gendarmerie, Parhelia.

Clarified Sections

• Gather Information. Included a list of example questions.
• The Fortune Roll. Guidance for 1-3 result and expected size of the Dice Pool.
• Pushing Yourself. Previous rules were unclear regarding overcoming Level 3 Conditions.
• Legwork. Clearer ruling on how many legwork actions players should take.
• Companions
  • Additionally, companions are no longer gained as a result of filling your team’s XP track. Instead, they’re only gained through narrative means or LTPs.

New Sections

• Changing Drives
• Contacts
• Rivals and their Teams
  • Guidance on how to run a fight sequence when a rival shows up with a team (or some other threat) behind them.

Miscellaneous

• Veteran Power Prompts Reworked.
• Veteran Gear: Super Serum was replaced with Old Costume.
• Changing Cape Playbooks: A maximum of 8 action dots are kept when you change playbooks.
• Paragons: Coin and Credit Reworked from Reputation Changes.

On the Horizon

• Team Upgrades
  • Having two different kind of advancements for Teams increasingly feels clunky. This hasn’t been implemented for 1.1, but for 1.2 Upgrades will be replaced with more Special Abilities (but rebalanced to reflect the “change” in cost).
• The Narrator Section
  • This has been in the drafting stage for a while, but instead of waiting for that to release 1.1, guidance on running the game will be delayed until 1.2.
• A Glossary
  • The game is at the point where an Index or Glossary would be really convenient…