[BNW] About playing the game...

[Mark Kilfoil <kilfoilm@nbnet.nb.ca>]

Theodore McGuckin wrote:
> Make sure your players understand the setting from the beginning (have
> them read the intro in the book). A lot of players (in my experience) go
> into a BNW campaign thinking it's a superhero game when it really isn't.
> The result is that they start the game expecting to fly around smashing
> buildings and saving the world, and then get disappointed when they have
> to run from cops because they're out-gunned.

That's a really good point, and I'd like to second that.

BNW is a gameworld to explore oppression, racism, revolution, 
apocalypse, betrayel, suspicion, fighting a dictatorship government, 
running to survive, exploring the underground movement, being 
subversive, and kickin' ass.

It's about living with something strange about yourself, something that 
you were born with and can't get rid of, and something which the 
government (and most of the world) doesn't like.

It's about being the hero -- not because of the glory, but because it's 
right.

Of course, you can also play the marauder, the crusader, the Primer, the 
cynical surviver, the infiltrator, the criminal...

I kinda think of the game as "four-colour comics -- with four shades of 
grey"...

> That's not to say that there are no super-powers in the game (naturally),
> just that you can't go in with the mindset of Superman, or even Batman,
> and expect to survive/have fun.

Another great point.  I've always considered deltas to be "mostly 
human", rather than "powers with a human connection".

Now alphas, they are more like your superheros, but there aren't any of 
those..  sorta...

Hey all, did Matt ever reveal those secrets?  Time to go wander over to 
his page...

Oh, and while I haven't updated my BNW stuff in a while -- haven't even 
looked at the books for a while... :( -- I do have a bunch of stuff at 
my website:  www.geocities.com/encaf1

the Encaffeinated ONE -- EVER DEFIANT!
--
"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made,
in a narrow field."   - Niels Bohr
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Mark Kilfoil                                   <kilfoilm@nbnet.nb.ca>
 Software Designer/Developer, Radio Host, Gamer, Curmudgeon, Oddball
    From the FINE mega-city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
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