This is the two hundred thirty-second entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two-hundred thirty-second random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is distracted by our cape-toting, costumed visage. It’s Kissing Capes, by DMLSP, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Fight with your friends and fall in love with your rivals in a city despoiled by …

…hmm? Despoiled by what, you ask? Sorry, I was distracted by that fetching supervillain over there, what were we talking about?

Kissing Capes is a tabletop role-playing game, and as usual, I can’t be bothered to recruit a group of players (in this case, 3-5) and actually play it. Doubly so, given its focus on superheroes and awkward young romance (cited thematic influences include Riverdale, Teen Titans and Young Justice), neither of which are big draws for me. I did read through the book, however, and was surprised to find mechanics I haven’t encountered yet in all 231 prior Scratching That Itch posts.

This isn’t yet another Powered by the Apocalypse game; instead it cites influence from The King Is Dead by Lumpley Games and Once More Into The Void by Sword Queen Games. Neither of those is in the bundle, so I’m not sure how much Kissing Capes borrows from them. Lumpley Games are the creators of Apocalypse World and the Powered by the Apocalypse system, however, so if Kissing Capes is indeed borrowing its (quite different) design from them, it makes me wonder just how much Lumpley Games has been driving innovation in the tabletop role-playing space.

A session of Kissing Capes starts with creating each player’s superhuman persona through a collaborative process, as well as creating the city they all live in. This includes assigning everyone a set of attractive qualities, and considering a set of labels that everyone shares. These labels represent different aspects of their characters, and at any given time a character is embodying one of them while denying another. Critically, which ones a player embodies and which they deny will shift during play. Sometimes by the actions of another player.

You see, Kissing Capes allows player characters to gain influence over each other, meaning that they care about the others’ opinions, and their words and actions carry more weight with them than someone else’s would. Gaining and losing influence happens via the different “games” that are played on each player’s turn. There are ten games that can be picked, each involving the current player and at least one other, which create scenes that can become cooperative, adversarial, or — true to Kissing Capes’ title — romantic. Choose “Training Day”, for example, and most players will participate, learning more about their powers and getting into awkward situations with each other. Select “Back To Back” instead, and get a chance to flirt with another character while you fight off a common enemy together. Or, if you feel you’re ready, select “Stealing Time Together” to get more explicitly romantic with someone else.

That, obviously, will require a group that’s ready to engage in this type of role-play together, as it goes beyond the typical cooperative adventure one might find in another tabletop role-playing game. As do the adversarial scenes: “A Chase” and “So It Has Come To This?” pit players against each other directly, with the potential to injure each other, perhaps seriously. There are a lot of ways these scenes can end, but players will need to be ready to engage in such duels without overstepping, respecting each others’ boundaries. Especially given that most scenes end with some players taking influence over others, or possibly using that influence to shift another’s labels.

Most games work by taking turns asking leading questions from a list (not necessarily verbatim; some leeway is allowed), with one of the other players responding. Some responses are also selected from a list, others can be freely improvised. A few games also require coins that can be collected and flipped to determine outcomes. Generally, however, the games are guidelines for playing out scenes together, ideally ones that are dramatic and messy.

Kissing Capes does not sound appropriate for beginners. While many of the games have a lot of prompts to choose from, which can help guide scenes for anyone who struggles to improvise, everyone involved will need to engage with the drama and romantic tension to have a good time. DMLSP emphasizes performing some aftercare once a session is complete, and offers some links to safety tools for this type of collaborative play, but it will ultimately up to each play group to make sure everyone is having a good time and no one is uncomfortable. I was pleased to see, however, that even in scenes that pit players against each other, each player ultimately decides the outcome for their character. For example, in “So It Has Come To This?” two players fight each other, but it ends with an open ended question that one player asks the other. A player could (willingly) put themselves at the other’s mercy, and then ask them whether they show any. Or they might give themselves the advantage, and ask the other player whether they submit or flee. The way the questions are written emphasizes collaborative storytelling, where everyone always has a say in what happens.

There are also some alternative rules at the end of the book, including the option to play with a GM to help guide things if players aren’t comfortable creating all the scenes on their own. I was intrigued by the section on incorporating Kissing Capes into another game; one called out specifically is Masks: A New Generation which is a similarly-themed game that uses Powered by the Apocalypse rules. Some other games are also suggested that can help create the city where Kissing Capes will take place.

Despite not being that excited by young superheroes, I remain intrigued by the design of Kissing Capes. I would struggle to act out these emotionally charged scenes with a group of people, but I like the way each game is framed with lots of options for both players (sometimes more than two!) and emphasizes telling a story full of melodrama. The structure also means that Kissing Capes easily fits into shorter play sessions when needed, working as a one-shot or a longer campaign story as players desire. If you’ve got a group that would be into this type of role-play, definitely check out Kissing Capes. If you missed it in the bundle, it’s sold for a minimum price of $3.99 and includes two copies of the book in PDF format: one with background images (as seen in the screenshots in this post) and one with a clean background for easier readability.

That’s 232 down, and only 1509 to go!