The Justice Friends: A Pbta Game Focusing On The Golden Age Of DC Comics

Hello

I've been working on a Powered By The Apocalypse game for a while now. The game, The Justice Friends, focuses on the Golden Age of DC Comics. I'm, by no means, an experienced designer so, needless to say, the title needs a fair bit of work. I've recently finished the first draft of the game and am interested in having it critiqued. It's currently still written like a design document. Comments have been enabled on the google document.

The game was written with the following goals:
*Emulate the themes and feel of Golden Age DC comics
*Avoid the unnecessary complexity many superhero rpgs have
*Be a fun, fast, and well-design system

The game was made using Avery Mcdaldno's Simple World as a jumping off point. I also used a derivation of Paul Taliesin's Alternate Harm Rules. Needless to say, as a Pbta game, it uses D. Vincent Baker's game system.

I want to thank everyone who has provided feedback so far. It's been very helpful and I feel the game has improved alot in a short time as a result.

I hope it's kosher to give an update on the forums. Anyway,

*I've redone the stats to work better with the genre.
*I've reworked the damage system to be more narratively based instead of it being quantitative.
*A bunch of little fixes here and there in relation to moves, powers, and minor rules.

Thanks again for the help so far!

It's been quite a while. School and such have gotten in the way. I have what I think is the finished draft of this hack. In-Dev, wise, not FINISHED finished. A lot has changed. I've gone through a lot of drafts since I originally posted.

*I've completed removed stats from the game.
*Rewritten several moves
*I've rewritten with a big of Golden Age flair
*I've dropped archetypes for non-team-up/league play. They remain for Team-Up and League play.
*Added an Editor's advice section.

It might not sound like much, but a lot has changed from the second draft. You can find the new draft here. I, unfortunately, can't seem to edit the OP. As previously, commenting has been enabled on the document.

I really hope it isn't an issue that I'm updated such an old thread. I apologize if it is.

Hi, there!

I just saw this and looked through it. Pretty interesting!

I really like your version of my harm hack (I'm Paul Taliesin, by the way, not Paul Tseng as you credit me in the text). Clever stuff!

Does the player or the GM choose the options from those lists? Unlike the options in my harm hack, a lot of them are about what the villain is doing or what is happening behind the scenes. Is it your intention to give the player a lot of input into that kind of thing during play?

Hi, there!

I just saw this and looked through it. Pretty interesting!

I really like your version of my harm hack (I'm Paul Taliesin, by the way, not Paul Tseng as you credit me in the text). Clever stuff!

Does the player or the GM choose the options from those lists? Unlike the options in my harm hack, a lot of them are about what the villain is doing or what is happening behind the scenes. Is it your intention to give the player a lot of input into that kind of thing during play?

I'm so, so sorry for never responding to you. I don't frequent these forums so I never noticed your reply.

Edit: Yeah, that should be the last version I did.

First off, I'll correct the error in crediting you. Though, I should mention that the project is essentially abandoned, for the time being. I mean, it's playable and it's out there, but I just kind of changed my focus away from it for quite a while. I was going to release it, a while back, but lack of funds got in the way. Don't know why I brought that up.

To answer your question, it's been forever, but I believe it was the player who decides the option from the list. I'm damn near sure of that. I remember wanting to give the player quite a bit of narrative control, for whatever reason. For example, I believe one of the basic moves (or archetype) allow the player to narrate elements of the villain's plan. At least it did in an earlier draft. It was to play up how, if the hero snooped around instead of it being revealed in a monolouge, they explained it in great detail. I remember this one issue (silver age, though, not golden age) which did a great job of that where, in a two pages, batman explained all of the villains plan from one piece of evidence.

Kind of a long-winded response, but I hoped it helped and thank you for your interest.

I should check and see if the revision listed here is the latest revision I made before changing gears.