When I was asked to recommend an RPG for kids aged ten or higher, I took a look back through some of the RPG PDFs in my collection with that in mind. One game that I came across was Power Outage. I really like Power Outage and would love to get it to my table … but. There are caveats.
This is going to something of a mixed review, but stick with me. There's a good game here.
Power Outage is packaged and promoted as a game for kids. In that area, I think it fails. First, the 180 page core rule book is not easy to read. If you aren't a gamer, you are going to struggle with this book. It is full of jargon and game play assumptions.
The book may not be too terrible for people who are already tabletop gamers, but I struggled with it. I wouldn't recommend this book to a parent looking to enter the RPG space for the first time. Personally, I only plan to use about 15 pages of the game when I play it. Most of the rest feels like bloat.
The game is supposed to be easy enough to be played by kids aged 4 and up, but it's loaded with power tables and character advancement to level 20. It's crunchy. Yes, some things are streamlined, but this is no more a kids' game than most OSR D&D clones that I've read. And then, there are a few rules that just blow my mind as being present in a kids' game at all.
Here are two rules that don't belong in a kids game and don't belong in my game. If I run Power Outage I will change these rules.
1) Random attribute generation.
This shouldn't be in a kids' game. What happens when big bro rolls a six and little sis rolls a one? So sorry little sis. I guess your character sucks. (Just no.) If I bring this to my table, everyone will get to use the max value of the dice for character creation stats.
2) The Energize Rule
A game balancing rule in Power Outage limits the number of times that you can use powers during an encounter. If you run out of these then you have to Energize. This involves sitting out doing nothing for two turns and then rolling a single die on the third turn to see how many uses of your powers you got back.
What?
Sitting around not taking turns sucks for anyone. Do you really expect a 4 year old to sit on their hands and do nothing for three turns? This is crazy. It not only doesn't belong in a kids game, it doesn't belong in any game!
If I bring Power Outage to my table (and I want to) I will change this rule.
I will say that no one has any powers to use until they Energize. When they Energize they immediately gain D+1 power uses. (D is a die type and replaces the power use limit. A limit of 6 is replaced by an Energize die of a D6.)
You still have to Energize, but you do it and go. No waiting. The higher your Energize die the longer you can potentially go before needing to use a turn to Energize again.
With these house rules, I could happily bring Power Outage to my table, but not for kids. This is a clean and streamlined game. But it's still no more a kids game than any other rules lite RPG. I want to play this with my regular play group.
The power tables allow you to create / define interesting powers. The system builds characters based on level progression and not a point buy system. (I prefer this immensely.)
Power Outage actually combines the modularity of a point buy based game like Champions with the clear simplicity of a level based system like D&D. It's really good.
Characters have 5 stats: Impact, Power, Ohmer, Yield Points, and Travel
Impact is used for non-power actions and Power is used for power actions. Sure it's simple. But that's okay. The granularity comes from the different power effects, and there are many.
Ohmer is defensive. It's what you roll to keep from getting hurt. Yield Points are like hit points, but they show how close you or an enemy might be to giving up. No one gets killed in Power Outage.
Travel is just your movement allowance. How many "spaces" you can move each turn. (The rules say minis are optional, but all powers count distances in number of spaces.)
That's it. Combine these 5 core stats with some powers and you've got a superhero. It's decidedly combat focused despite what the jargon laden CAPE system might state to the contrary.
One Last House Rule
Power Outage uses opposed d20 rolls for action resolution. That can be really swingy. I will probably just go with a basic Difficulty Class approach like D&D does. Easier. Less die rolling. (I know that this is a lot of house rules, but I really like the basic framework here. Power Outage's structure is so solid that it makes it worth house ruling, as opposed to just reaching for another game.)
I'm not sure how well Power Outage sold. The back cover has a copyright of 2018. Their Facebook Page hasn't been updated since 2021. So, I don't know. I feel like Power Outage is a product that missed its audience.
I applaud what the designer wants to do, but I don't think that they succeed. At least, I don't think that they have created a game that will appeal to people looking for something to play with their kids. I do think that Power Outage looks like it might be a lot of fun at the table.
Maybe one day, I will find out.
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