Cape

There's a rather high text-to-choice ratio, which is to be expected from Undum; a couple of these don't actually lead to different story branches, though they do affect the way in which the story unfolds. The chief of these which come to mind are an early choice of where in the brownstone to explore, and a later choice of where to take the investigation next.

The first of these is a simple trick that all GMs should be familiar with: the one where you want an encounter to happen, so you move it to wherever the players have chosen to go. The key thing here is that the player still has the illusion of choice, even though the important part of the sequence has been fated to happen regardless.

The second is a little more complex, and is presented as a question of which of two locations to investigate. Either way, you will be investigating the other location afterwards, but it is not such a simple thing as a mere re-ordering of chapters. There's a time difference, and the two locations change depending on when they're investigated. You'll end up with the same information, but that information will be presented differently based on your choice here. It's a trick that gives both the game and the flow of the story a touch of realism.

(We do still encounter the odd "no, you can't/don't actually do that" choice denial, though not often enough to annoy.)

As for the story itself, it is, as the title suggests, a superhero story. I found it entertainingly written, with enough attention to realistic detail to seem believable. The world presented is gritty and corrupt, and there is some question as to whether our hero's activity actually makes much of a difference at all. By the end of the story, however, it appears that the main cause of both the criminal conflict and the police corruption within the neighbourhood has been put down for at least a little while -- not eliminated, of course, because all good superhero origin stories require a recurring supervillain -- which could be the sign of better times to come. But I think that the best development in the epilogue is the suggestion that someone else in the city might have taken up the task of superpowered crimefighting. Our hero, alone, might be barely able to make a dent in the filth around him, but the real good he's doing is in providing an example to be emulated; perhaps, with more people Doing Something, something might actually get done.

Breakfast: Strong coffee, and huevos divorciados with refried beans and rice. Whether it's topped with salsa verde or salsa roja, it's still huevos.