Who DOESN'T want to play a Stage Magician?

My brother today was asking how "the Star Wars game" was coming along...to which I replied: not very quickly. Most of this has been recent distractions in the personal life (including my recent illness) which has precluded me from doing any writing recently.

But certainly there's been my normal lazy distractions, too. In my lucid moments this week (not many), I've been thumbing through the ol' superhero RPGs...specifically, Super World, Villains & Vigilantes, and Mutants & Masterminds. Being sick, for whatever reason, put me in a "superhero state-of-mind;" I don't know why exactly. Jedi never get head colds and fevers...but superheroes seem to with some frequency (happens from running around in the rain at night clad in nothing but colorful long-johns). And, of course, I start envying those lucky guys with the regeneration superpowers.

Also, of course, I do have a couple comic books stashed away that are entertaining reading when one is sick in bed, no matter what your age (yes, yes...I have several thick, half-read novels sitting next to the bed, too...I wanted some "lighter" reading). One of these...the first volume of Marvel's The Ultimates, I always find amusing, no matter my state of health.

Also, I caught part of NBC's new television show The Cape last weekend. Kind of interesting, but coming in halfway as I did, I was left wondering where the guy got the seemingly magical apparatus. Unfortunately, I was in no condition to sit through the repeat On Demand this week to find out.

Until today.

Having recently watched Kick Ass and read about the true life exploits of Phoenix Jones and crew, I'm starting to get a little jaded with the whole vigilante hero shtick. It's one thing to postulate a world full of super villains and mutant heroes fighting battles the local authorities should best avoid, but as far as Everyman-type crime fighters taking to the streets, well...that's a good way to get hurt. Not to mention police officers DO receive a certain type of training for a reason (including making sure to protect the rights of citizens, both the innocent and the guilty).

But what the hey...I dig superhero stories, both in print and celluloid. The Cape isn't terrible, after all; it's definitely a step above a lot of superhero shows I've seen on the TV over the years (like The Flash), though perhaps not as clever as NBC's last show Heroes (which, admittedly, I only watched for a season or two). The writing isn't fantastic (dialogue and plot-wise) and there are whole scenes that don't make sense at all...and yet it has some fine actors and some nice effects and action sequences. Watching it often feels a bit like reading a comic book...though one of those disjointed Dark Horse ones that sometimes skips intermediary scenes in order to get you to the next cool piece of art.

[sorry, Dark Horse...hopefully, you know what I'm talking about]

There have actually been TWO episodes of the Cape so far, and the second is somewhat better than than the Pilot episode (the pilot has to mash together too much for its "origin" stint, which may be why it feels so ridiculous and disjointed at times). At least, the new bad guy Cain is more interesting than "Scales."

The show has a ridiculous premise, which by the way isn't necessarily a bad thing; MOST superhero origins start with a ridiculous premise (a kid can get super powers by being bit by a mutant spider? an alien baby that looks completely human is raised to believe in Truth, Justice, and the American Way?). A RIDICULOUS premise, as I was saying; basically, "the only way I can tackle organized crime is to learn stage magic from a group of circus carnies!" Bank robbing circus carnies...but I shouldn't dwell too much on the retarded parts that don't make any sense (I am NOT a dirty cop! But I AM aiding and abetting felons!).

The Cape is a friggin' stage magician...not in the Criss Angel/Mind Freak sense, but in the straight-up Palladium Heroes Unlimited sense. Contortionist, flash powder, fancy clothing gimmicks, knife catching, etc. It's all there.

Which is great, of course. I've written before about my love for Heroes Unlimited, specifically for its way of doing gritty, street-level superhero action in an "old-school" (read: "wargaming" as opposed to "narrative driven") fashion. The stage magician is one of the "power types" (read: "class") of superheroes available to the HU player. It is a class that is almost NEVER taken. At least, the one time I ever saw someone want to play a stage magician, it was my brother who just trying to be a funny asshole in an attempt to "ruin" (read: "make comedic") the game for Yours Truly.

And the stage magician does seem a bit of a joke...he can juggle? Contortionist skill? A few flash bombs...what the hell? And while you're spending the time writing up this guy your buddy has a mutant with armored skin that breathes lightning and flies at supersonic speed. HU does NOTHING to balance characters against each other.

But I've already talked about balance in Palladium games AND how to approach it (with self-imposed setting limits). And The Cape is completely "do-able" in the HU system using a few self-imposed rules. Hell, far-fetched though it is, the show feels like the writer PLAYS Heroes Unlimited and said, "what if we wrote a superhero story using the two lamest character classes in HU...the stage magician and the super sleuth? What would that look like?"

It would look like The Cape. The protagonist is the stage magician and his buddy, Orwell, is the super sleuth. Throw in the new classes from Powers Unlimited Two (specifically the Natural Genius and Minor Hero classes) and you can do this type of superhero campaign, with these villains, all day long.

On the other hand, you canNOT do this kind of game with Marvel or Wild Talents or Mutants & Masterminds...I mean, you could, but it would be a lot of work for not much pay-off. And you'd have to leave much of the rules for any of those games on the cutting board. M&M especially...God! How I want to like this game and how it keeps raising its ugly side for a bitch slap!...where every time you level up you come closer to throwing your street level heroes into the realm of the Silver Surfer.

Yes, yes, you can ignore leveling with M&M altogether...and I can dress in a cheerleader outfit and call myself Nancy, too! I don't want to rework the game to my specifics...if I'm going to do that I might as well write my own damn game. F** you, Mutants & Masterminds...as written, you suck.

[sorry...that was kind of a tangent...it's getting late and I'm starting to cough again so I should probably wrap this up. Suffice is to say I spent a lot of the earlier part of the week poring over M&M to see if I could salvage a manageable supers game out of it...and kept getting extremely pissed and frustrated at multiple points. Ugh!]

Heroes Unlimited certainly needs tweaking, but it can work (and fairly easily) for a low-powered granular hero game...and I mean "work with all cylinders." Probably because it doesn't have that many cylinders to fire. But as my love for Boot Hill shows, I don't think an RPG needs to model EVERY thing (with rules/systems/mechanics) that might happen in the imaginary game world. HU has everything a supers game needs...and maybe a few it doesn't (like the whole clunky skill system...).

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting someone making a show where the protagonist is such a low-powered hero (though still plenty "unrealistic" and "comic book fantasy"). Also, after watching the program, I have a newfound respect for the stage magician as a class (I can see some ways to use it besides as a Mysterio-style chump-villain). Funny thing is, I think my brother has, too!

: )