In Hong Kong Shadows, each player had a mage character and a secondary character who was an ally of another player's mage character. The allies could do specialized things that the mages couldn't, from acting as bodyguards to doing feng shui to spending vast amounts of money. The mages themselves would seek out their allies on certain occasions, or bring them in.
In Heroes of 1889, all the PCs were heroes of roughly comparable power. But the players got to pick which of their characters would go along on a given mission. One mission might call for Superbman's superb strength, superb speed, and superb aristocratic connections; another might call for Raven's night vision and lethal marksmanship.
In Boca del Infierno, the normal state of things is that only the Slayer and the scoobies are present, and the scoobies get double the drama points to even things up, which works stunningly well. Indeed, one of the players has never spent an experience point on anything BUT drama points. But if one of the scoobies is offstage for some reason, that player's hero can show up. For example, when the Slayer, the half-demon, and the soldier went to San Francisco for the governor's All Hallows Eve ball, leaving the witch and the watcher behind, they met the Slayer-in-training and the masked thief.
You have to bear in mind, too, that my campaigns don't routinely have all the PCs on stage all the way through a session. I'm perfectly willing to bounce back and forth among different subgroups.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-08-23 02:21 am (UTC)In Hong Kong Shadows, each player had a mage character and a secondary character who was an ally of another player's mage character. The allies could do specialized things that the mages couldn't, from acting as bodyguards to doing feng shui to spending vast amounts of money. The mages themselves would seek out their allies on certain occasions, or bring them in.
In Heroes of 1889, all the PCs were heroes of roughly comparable power. But the players got to pick which of their characters would go along on a given mission. One mission might call for Superbman's superb strength, superb speed, and superb aristocratic connections; another might call for Raven's night vision and lethal marksmanship.
In Boca del Infierno, the normal state of things is that only the Slayer and the scoobies are present, and the scoobies get double the drama points to even things up, which works stunningly well. Indeed, one of the players has never spent an experience point on anything BUT drama points. But if one of the scoobies is offstage for some reason, that player's hero can show up. For example, when the Slayer, the half-demon, and the soldier went to San Francisco for the governor's All Hallows Eve ball, leaving the witch and the watcher behind, they met the Slayer-in-training and the masked thief.
You have to bear in mind, too, that my campaigns don't routinely have all the PCs on stage all the way through a session. I'm perfectly willing to bounce back and forth among different subgroups.