Episode Guide

This adventure is aimed at letting everyone have fun making up and participating in a story that's like an episode of the 1970s Super Friends TV show. It isn't supposed to be about overcoming obstacles, defeating challenges, effectively using resources, or similar things that are frequently associated with roleplaying games. It's a given that the Super Friends are going to win, that you're going to save the day and triumph over the forces of injustice and villainy. That's why your powers describe what you can do but not how effective they are. If you say they work, they work.

What it is supposed to be about is mutually creating an interesting story that lets everyone participate equally, use their character's powers, perform their character's schticks, and enjoy the humour inherent in the game setting. To achieve this goal, there's a number of gaming conventions everyone needs to follow.

1. Spotlight light should be shared equally between players. Sure, Superman can probably handle every emergency that's going to come up during the adventure by himself, and do a better job in many circumstances than some of his teammates, but that doesn't mean Superman should. One of the themes of the Super Friends was the value of friendship and teamwork: by working together, you can accomplish more than by working individually. As GM, one of my roles is to make sure spotlight time is fairly distributed.
2. Players should cooperate, not compete. There's no benefit in trying to perform all your schticks before someone else does, for example, or stopping someone using one of their powers. Everyone's here to have fun, so work with the others to that end. It can only improve your chance of being the Best Player of your character(s), or of the event.
3. Character control should be respected. Each player has complete control over what their character does: you can't, for example, describe how another player's character makes a fool of themselves. You can make that suggestion, but it's up to the player to decide if that's what they want to happen to their character. Likewise, the GM controls the game setting. I welcome suggestions, but sometimes I may say no. One of my other roles as GM is to make sure the game emulates the TV show as much as possible: I'm only going to override your control over your characters if what you're doing harms that goal.

So, what's involved in making the game like the TV show? Here's some key genre conventions that you should keep in mind throughout the adventure.

1. No hitting, no hurting. It's a children's show, so you can't do anything violent to another character. Never punch people, use Bat-nerve gas, or club them with redwoods. You shouldn't even grab people very much: that's a villainous thing to do. Solomon Grundy, one of the "scariest" members of the Legion of Doom, not only grabs people, he also shakes them. That's just wrong on so many levels. When you want to defeat people, trap them in barrels, wrap batarangs around them, roll them up into hay bales, and so on. Use your imaginations.
2. Explain everything. Remember, people don't notice things that aren't spelled out in excruciating detail, plus they don't see things that are occuring on the screen unless someone tells them they're happening. If rocks are falling from the sky on innocent bystanders, the Super Friends should be saying something like,

   "Look! Rocks are falling from the sky!"
   "Holy Rolling Stones, Batman! The rocks are going to hit those teenagers!"
   "I'll use my expanding Bat-shield to protect them."
   "Good work, Batman! Your Bat-shield did the trick!"

3. Talk with exclamation marks. Everything should be exciting, just like in the comics! Make it short, make it punchy, and (with the exception of Apache Chief) make it fast! You too can do this, too! Now!!
4. Moral lessons can be found everywhere. Watching a TV cartoon wasn't just fun, they're also a didactic experience full of learning opportunities. As well as the obvious moral lessons that "crime doesn't pay" and "working together achieves more than working alone", there's scope for all manner of positive, uplifting messages. Work them in whenever you can.
5. Superscience is bad science. Things don't have to make sense, or be physically possible, let along plausible. Flying really, really fast should cause a sonic boom, but it doesn't. Growing really tall should cause all manner of problems with the square-cube rule, but it doesn't. Just relax and make stuff up: I won't know any better, and neither will the viewers at home.
6. Everything is taken seriously, no matter how ludicrous or absurd. Regardless of how funny you find something, your character should treat it in a matter-of-fact manner and view it as reasonable. Giant puppets with strings descending from clouds and threatening to convert the world's oceans into rain-clouds controlled by the Legion of Doom? That's a fiendish plot that has to be treated as a major risk to all that's good, not a laughable suggestion that could never work and that no sensible person would even consider for a second.
7. Characters often find that that they've "got to do something … and fast!", that they have "only one chance!" and that they've "got to do things just right!".
8. Members of the Super Friends are frequently captured, weakened, or placed at a disadvantage that can only be overcome by the help of other Super Friends.
9. Ultimately, nothing changes. The underlying situation cannot be changed by your actions: the Super Friends will succeed, the Legion of Doom's plan will be foiled but they will escape, everyone will laugh at Zan making a fool of himself being afraid of Gleek at the end of the episode. Play your parts, and let everyone else play theirs.

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