[RPG]: Truth &Justice, reviewed by Tim Kirk (5/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11814.phtml

Tim Kirk's Summary:

A fantastic supers engine, arguably the best supers game on the currently market for true genre emulation.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Tim Gray]

This is a good and comprehensive review. But it really, really needed a solid edit.

I think you're wrong about powers being on the super scale by default; but there's an ongoing discussion about this on the T&J Yahoo group. I say powers are either super-scale versions of normal abilities, or things that normals simply can't do (and IIRC the official position is that you can raise the latter to super scale for one use with a Hero point).

You short-changed the sample settings: you could at least have given each a one-sentence summary so the reader knows what they are.

[Tim Kirk]

Originally Posted by Tim Gray

I think you're wrong about powers being on the super scale by default; but there's an ongoing discussion about this on the T&J Yahoo group. I say powers are either super-scale versions of normal abilities, or things that normals simply can't do (and IIRC the official position is that you can raise the latter to super scale for one use with a Hero point).e.

I've seen the discussion about scale of powers--but that isn't what the book states. I only go with what's written in the book in that particular chapter.

In particular the text box on page 19 states specificaly ' A simple rule of thumb is that Qualities are normal scale, and Powers are super scale'

That is in the chapter and it is set out from the rest of the surrounding text for emphasis.

Comments on the mailing list are not what people are buying when they buy the book--the /rules/ in the book, is what they have to go by, for good or ill.

Later on in my review you'll see that I mention its not always clear cut however. But that is contrary to the stated bit in Chapter 2.

As for editing, well, it was, then I rewrote sections of it and didn't have said person recheck it alas, it had taken too long already.

[Dan Davenport]

Originally Posted by Tim Kirk

Comments on the mailing list are not what people are buying when they buy the book--the /rules/ in the book, is what they have to go by, for good or ill.

I have to agree. Personally, I won't even consider a rule completely functional as written if it requires me to get an explanation from the author.

[Tim Gray]

Originally Posted by Tim Kirk

Comments on the mailing list are not what people are buying when they buy the book--the /rules/ in the book, is what they have to go by, for good or ill.

Oh, sure.

I happen to think the stuff around normal vs super scale is a key thing that the book doesn't quite nail, and I know I'm not alone in that. I fully expect it to come into clearer focus in future revisions, and of course one of the virtues of PDF publishing (if you get it that way) is the availability of free updates for purchasers.

[Richard Parkinson]

Thanks for reviewing this one Tim. I saw Truth and Justice and, although I've played few games in this genre, I was intrigued by what I saw. Your review has piqued my interest even further. Maybe, I'll have to buy myself a Christmas present or something. Thanks again.

[Tim Kirk]

Originally Posted by Richard Parkinson

Thanks for reviewing this one Tim. I saw Truth and Justice and, although I've played few games in this genre, I was intrigued by what I saw. Your review has piqued my interest even further. Maybe, I'll have to buy myself a Christmas present or something. Thanks again.

Well hope its fun for you. It has been for me.

[Simple Man]

Can't sell me, Tim. I already bought it for a friend of mine. He thought it rocked!

Probably his 2nd favorite supers game of all time (friendship with a system is hard to break).

[WillyPete]

Maybe it's just me, but I took a look at the 'Demo' version of the game, and came away thinking that it was just another 'Rules Light' system, with nothing to offer that 'Cartoon Action Hour' doesn't already have, and certainly not up on a par with either 'Wuxia' (I know, that one isn't about Supers, but it could just as well be!) or 'Modern Heroes' (I think that's the right name...}

At least, 'Wuxia' seems innovative in terms of how it resolves things, where this just sounds a little 'odd'...
It falls prey to one of my typical bugaboos in Superhero RPGs, the notion that all characters must somehow be 'equal'!
Would you care to explain that to Green Arrow? I'm sure he'd love someone to tell him how he's just as Powerful as Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern!

Sorry if I don't sound enthused...
but I find a Supers game to be hard enough to make work when I don't have to write half the rules from scratch, just because the Author didn't want to 'hamper my flexibility'...

[iago]

Originally Posted by WillyPete

It falls prey to one of my typical bugaboos in Superhero RPGs, the notion that all characters must somehow be 'equal'! Would you care to explain that to Green Arrow? I'm sure he'd love someone to tell him how he's just as Powerful as Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern!

What I think this perspective manifestly fails to "get" about at least some rules light systems (Fate, for example, and you knew I was going to say that, and, I think to at least some extent, Truth and Justice as well) is that when you're talking about Green Arrow being "equal" to Superman, you're not necessarily saying "objectively equal in power". You're saying "subjectively, for the purposes of our story, equal in importance to the story."

Now, before I go on about that, it's important to say one other thing: people who want a supers system to give them comparative power ratings are not looking for an "equal importance" game, period. The game is not for them. So please let me be the first to say that Pete's dead-on correct about not buying Truth and Justice if that's not what he wants in a game (at least as far as buying Truth and Justice just for the game system goes -- more on this below).

Anyway. For me, when I get a system where Green Lantern and Green Arrow are on the same "potency" level as far as sheet-stats or whatever goes, I figure I'm getting a pretty healthy dose of how things should be for, say, the main protagonists of any given Justice League Unlimited episode. When Green Lantern and Green Arrow go off to fight the gigantic nuclear robot bearing down on a poor fishing village, yeah, Green Arrow's story certainly doesn't have him tussling directly with the robot half the time, but he's getting just as much screen time because he's one of the main characters in the episode, on equal or even greater footing with Green Lantern, in part, because he's our everyman dude of the hour. Then again, maybe during an important moment, Green Arrowgets up on a hilltop and shoots the special detonator on the end of an arrow right into the gullet of the nuclear robot, taking it out -- after said nuclear robot kicked Lantern's ass. So who's to say Arrow's 'not as powerful' on occasion, really -- at least as far as the power to resolve that story went?

So that's my piece on characters who aren't objectively of equal power still getting to be subjectively equal in importance and thus equal in ability to resolve stories!

But back to Truth and Justice. One of the things that Truth and Justice does very well has fuck all to do with the system it contains. I like PDQ; it's a lot like Fudge, and thus like Fate, and thus it lives in that whole comfort zone cloud for me. But at least with the way I play, system-wise, it's more of a toolbox of stuff I can steal and borrow for things I'd run with my own things. No shock, there, and I'm pretty sure Chad is just as enthusiastic for people to do that, too. Truth and Justice isn't a bible and Chad isn't a fundamentalist.

But the magic, the truly mad-and-beautiful thang that Mr. U. does in Truth and Justice, is analyze the nature of comics and how to give yourself a game experience that hits the reason you came to the doorstep of the supers genre in the first place. This, more than anything for me, is why I've gotta own a copy of T&J. Dicker and dither all you want about where Truth and Justice's "head" is at, system-wise, but you can never question the dead-on completely-right placement of its heart.

I heartily recommend that people get out their gaming stethoscopes (and their wallets) and give that jazzy beat a listen.