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Board game From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Capes & Cowls: Adventures in Wyrd City (usually referred to as Capes & Cowls or merely C&C) is an expandable "book-in-a-box" superhero board game based on Capes & Cowls: The Wyrd City Chronicles by Robin Spriggs. Prior to its commercial release by Wyrd House Press in 2006, the game had been in private circulation, according to publisher Jazz Lieberman, “for well over a decade.” [1]
Adventures in Wyrd City | |
---|---|
Designers | Robin Spriggs |
Publishers | Wyrd House |
Players | 2 to 4 |
Setup time | 5 minutes |
Playing time | 1 hour |
Chance | low |
Age range | 9 and up |
Skills | strategy, tactics |
Capes & Cowls is a superhero skirmish game in which two to four players each recruit a team of super-powered characters from the Wyrd City dramatis personæ and send them into battle against opposing teams. The game is played on a specialized “Battleboard” whose color- and number-coded spaces influence character abilities, modify power levels, and place strong emphasis on strategic and tactical play. Though the outcome of some actions is occasionally determined by the roll of a “Battle Die,” luck plays only a small role in the mechanics of the game.
Capes & Cowls features three primary modes of play and several variants. The three primary modes, intended exclusively for head-to-head competition, are as follows:
Though Capes & Cowls emulates the visual aesthetics and fanciful exploits of golden-age and silver-age superhero comic books, its action takes place in a markedly dystopian alternate universe wherein the entire known world falls under the tyrannical jurisdiction of the Wyrd City Powers That Be (WCPTB) and its street-level enforcers, the Wyrd City Freedom Patrol.
Indignant at the appropriation of their sacred name by a government so oppressive, the celestial Sisters Wyrd unleash upon the world the long-buried forces of mystery, wonder, and magic. This act of cosmic intervention, over time, brings into being a pantheon of super-powered heroes and villains (aside from their telltale biographies and certain scenarios in the game's Adventure Book, no overt distinctions are made between the two) who find themselves at constant odds with not only the Wyrd City Freedom Patrol, but often with each other as well.
The characters included in the Capes & Cowls master set (all of them principals and supporting cast from the Wyrd City universe) are divided into two types—Heroes and Crews. Both are represented by stand-up figures and character cards. Heroes are depicted on large, blue character cards and defined by name, portrait, stats, and three unique powers, while Crews are depicted on small, gray character cards and defined by name, portrait, stats, and one unique power. The Heroes, Crews, and character-specific powers are as follows:
Heroes
Crews
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