Tag: Superhero

Age of Wonders: Maly Wywich

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying4 Comments

It’s an exciting day! Today we discover the last piece of our starting party’s puzzle. Who will be the third protagonist, member of our erstwhile Crusaders adventurers, joining Emah and Kami? What sort of stories will be possible once the set is complete? Let’s find out… right now!

Background Rolls

As before, I love me some Background Generator tables in ICONS Origins. For any PC in any superhero game that doesn’t have random backgrounds, I can’t imagine starting anywhere but here. Also as before, I’ll include my d6 rolls (sometimes 2d6, sometimes a single d6 or series of d6s) in parentheses. I’ll also include a bit more commentary on each roll than the previous two, since this character completes the picture of the party.

Gender (7): Female! Alright, then… it’s a trio of women as our protagonists.

Ethnicity (6): Stone Isles. That’s a nice balance with Emah and Kami. All the main cultures in Oakton are represented except the Mesca (which will certainly get covered by NPCs).

Age (7,4): 24 years old, the exact same age as Emah and five years younger than Kami. It’s easy to decide, then, that Emah and this character are friends.

Manner (12): Anxious, nervous, or jumpy. Ha! Stark contrast with the other two, and likely makes this character the comedic one of the trio.

Who do you value? (8): Pet. Pet?!

What do you value (6): Friendship. Well, that tracks. She and Emah are definitely besties.

Attitude (5): People need strong leadership and guidance. Truth be told, I originally rolled a 10, which is the same attitude as Emah, and I wanted more diversity. This result is interesting for someone who’s anxious… I’m guessing that she’s a follower more than the leader, but feels leadership is important.

Birthplace (2): Urban. Born and raised in Oakton.

Status (6): Solid and stable, economically speaking.

Tragedy (4): No childhood tragedy.

1st Past Experience (3,6): Windfall. She received some material or financial gains.

2nd Past Experience (6,3): Imprisoned. She was abducted, held hostage, sent to prison, or otherwise held against your will for some reason.

3rd Past Experience (3,3): Opportunity. She found a new opportunity, whether it was a new job, an invention, or a new way of looking at things.

I roll on these tables until either I feel “done” or I get a result that doesn’t fit the story building in my head from the initial rolls. Today, after only three results, she crystalized early and I’m ready to sketch out her backstory. Here it is…

Maly Wywich was an only child to a mother and father who owned a modest business in Oakton. Much to her surprise, when she turned eighteen years old, her last remaining grandparent died of natural causes, leaving Maly a large inheritance. Her parents were offended by the slight but pleased for Maly’s fortune. That is, until news of the inheritance made its way through the town, and an underworld gang intimidated and threatened Maly and her family, forcing her to hand over the deed to her grandfather’s estate and wealth. Infuriated and defiant, Maly tried infiltrating the gang’s headquarters to get back her inheritance but was caught by the town guard and imprisoned for it. The scandal and shock of the events led Maly’s parents to effectively disown her.

Having lost everything and her world shattered, Maly was eventually released from prison without any prospects for the future. She adamantly refused to turn to a life of crime, instead joining the Adventurer’s Guild. There she met Emah, a strong and capable warrior that Maly immediately idolized. The two became fast friends, and Maly sees in Emah someone who may yet help her right the wrongs she’s suffered, restoring her fortune and the relationship with her parents.

I like it! There’s a strong connection between two of our initial party members, and as I mentioned last time, I see Emah and Maly being hired by Kami as the beginning of our adventure.

Origin

Now the all-important (for most superhero games) roll… What sort of character are we talking about here? As a reminder, I’m using the tables from my variant rules post to figure out the rest of Maly’s character sheet.

The Origin is equivalent to class in many d20 games and provides the overall flavor of Maly’s archetype. Here we go… I roll 31 or 13, which is either Wyrding – Arcane or Companion – Animal. Either Maly is, like Kami, directly transformed by the Wyrding, manifesting magical abilities, or else she has an animal companion who was transformed. Well, well, well… remember how Maly values a pet? This is an easy decision, then. Maly will be a non-powered human, as Emah. Unlike our Warrior, however, Maly will have a powerful bond with a powerful animal.

I’ve thought about how to handle a “Companion” character if I rolled one, and my plan is to create TWO character sheets, one for the human and one for the companion. As a result, my three-person party just effectively became four, which is in part why I went for a limited initial number of PCs. If I enjoy this story and want to continue it, I imagine an ensemble cast that at various times bulges and splits off, creating factions that we can follow narratively.

Powers and Attributes

Let’s stick with Maly for now, focusing on her 3 Power rolls and 10 Attribute points. As a nonpowered human, I’ll automatically trade one of those rolls for an additional 4 Attribute points with the Intensive Training option. I’ll also burn a roll for Privileged Background – Maly is independently wealthy, though she won’t have access to that wealth at the beginning of the tale.

That leaves a solitary Power roll, which is: 09 or 90. That gives me Armor, Vigor, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Energy Blast, Weather Control, Acrobat, or Weapon Master. Even though a lot of those are cool, the only options that make sense, really, are Armor, Acrobat, and Weapon Master. Since Emah is a capable swordswoman, I won’t pick Weapon Master. And given that she’s currently penniless, I have a hard time seeing Maly wearing a sweet suit of platemail armor. That leaves Acrobat, which is a lovely complement. With this power, Maly can vault, somersault, walk tightropes, swing from rooftops, and perform other spectacular feats of agility. She is, in other words, a thief-type of PC. Mechanically, it means she can make acrobatic dodges, adding +5 to her Alertness when defending against melee and missile attacks. She can also break her falls, reducing damage from falls by 20.

For Attributes, Maly will spend her 14 points first and foremost on Alertness, beginning with a 15. She’ll drop a single point onto Physique, four on Prowess, and three on Psyche. She’s vigilant to danger and skilled, with an above-average will. With a 10 Physique, her Vitality is 30, same as Kami.  

Now the juicy part: What kind of animal companion does Maly have? A long time ago, I made an Animal Spirits table for another game, conveniently providing a d100 percentile table upon which to roll in situations like this one.

Some of these obviously won’t work, but let’s allow the dice to tell the story and see what I roll: 68. Panther. Well, that’s just cool as hell. Maly has a friggin’ panther as a companion! I’m guessing that this isn’t an animal that’s ever been seen in or around Oakton, which makes it both a startling companion and something that will immediately cause problems in town. Wonderful stuff.

I’ll also burn a Powers roll for our new panther friend for Intensive Training. Then come the two Power rolls:

Roll 1: 35 or 53, which is Flight, Molecular Morphing, Psychic Blast, Psychic Sense, Energy Manipulation, Force Field, Detective, Marksman.

Roll 2: 90 or 09, which is the same roll as Maly! Once again, that’s Vigor, Armor, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Weather Control, Energy Blast, Weapon Master, or Acrobatics.

As always, lots of ways to go with those rolls. Unlike Maly, I’m perfectly comfortable going weird here. Off to the Crusaders rulebook I go, reading up on the various powers.

One option is to simply make a Super Panther, taking Detective and Vigor/Acrobatics. I like the addition of an investigative character, but I think we’ve got melee combat handled between Emah and Kami, so I like this option least. I’m also ditching the Molecular Morphing and Vigor combo, which makes a panther that can become stone or wood, which is wandering too close into Kami’s territory.

Another option is to take Energy Manipulation and Energy Blast, making a lightning-cat, or fire-cat, or ice-cat, or whatever. It’s a fun, Pokemon-ish idea and gives the party some range, but I would have liked it more if it had been a regular housecat or less impressive creature than a panther.

A flying panther that Maly could ride? A pega-panther, with Vigor, Acrobatics, or even Weather Control? I love the visual here, but if Maly is going to be our thief analogue, it makes a little less sense for her to be riding a winged panther.

Much to my surprise, then, I find myself drawn to a panther with mental powers. I’ll give the panther Telepathy, which means it can read surface thoughts of other individuals (requiring a Psychic attack if it’s an unwilling target). The panther can also communicate, sending thoughts into the minds of others. This power, then, is how Maly and the panther talk to one another. I’ll also give the panther Psychic Blast, which does indeed provide the party some ranged attack options. Instead of a generic “I assault you with my mind,” I’m going to say that the panther’s stare can cause abject fear in opponents. Maly will provide some comic relief, but the panther will be scary as hell.

I don’t have enough Attribute points to make the panther as bad ass as I picture in my mind, so I’ll have to justify it as a relatively small version who will grow as his and Maly’s Rank grows. For now, I’ll put five points in Psyche and distribute the remaining nine points evenly among the other stats. With a 12 Physique, our animal companion panther will have a Vitality of 26.

Final Touches

Maly’s motivation is front of mind for me. She’s an Avenger, sworn to reclaim her inheritance and, more importantly in her mind, punish the Oakton gang responsible (I’ll have to flesh out that gang at some point). To keep things simple, I’ll say that her panther—whose name I’ve decided is Destiny—chose Maly precisely because of this motivation because he is himself a spirit of vengeance. What Destiny the panther wants to avenge, I have no idea but will figure out over time.

Equipment-wise, Maly will have a dagger and thieves’ tools, and Destiny will of course have claws (which act the same as a dagger).

Here, then, are our two-for-one character sheets:

I’m extremely pleased with what my random rolls have created here. I can picture Maly and her panther Destiny clearly in my mind, and they complement Emah and Kami well both in terms of personality, party composition, and story potential. I can’t wait to get started!

Of course, first I don’t actually have to picture them in my mind, because once again Roland Brown (drawhaus.com) has stepped in with awesome artwork for Maly and Destiny. Here is the initial sketch and final result:

art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)
art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)

Finally, here’s a little splash of fiction to get a sense of our remaining protagonist(s)…

“‘You’re no fighter,’” Maly said, her tone mocking, her pale, freckled face a mask of abject disgust. She blew out a long, exaggerated breath in frustration, her slim body seeming to deflate against the wooden wall. In a tired voice, she muttered, “I never said I was a fighter. I’m just trying to get my inheritance back!” She yelled those last words, clenching eyes shut and fists tight. With a sob, she sank slowly down to a crouch, her back still against the wall. Somewhere distant, a dog began barking.

Her tirade had disturbed an alley cat, which darted across Maly’s path, escaping the scene. The young woman opened one eye and watched it depart into the shadows, darting around crates as it went. Her other eye, of course, was swollen shut. The unseen dog continued to bark.

“Ow,” she sighed. “Yelling hurts. Everything hurts.”

She lowered her slim hips delicately to the alley floor and stretched out her legs, groaning in pain. Two fingers touched her lip, which felt puffy and split. Maly glanced left and craned her neck right to look down the narrow gap, lit only by streetlamps outside the alleyway. No sign of the cat, or anyone else this late at night.

“Just me and the trash,” she muttered. “And that damned dog.”

For what felt like almost a full bell, Maly sat there, miserable and eyes closed. At some point she placed her forehead against her knees, crying softly.

“Alright,” she sighed, sniffling. “Let’s review. I am penniless, my fortune stolen by one of Oakton’s scariest and biggest gangs. I’ve tried to get it back, and all that’s gotten me is time in a dark stinky jail, my parents disowning me, and now a bunch of scary men and women beating me up. Is that all? That seems like all.” She bonked the back of head a couple of times against the wall behind her.

“Ow,” she said, and stopped.

It must have been well past midnight now, and Maly had never known the town to be so quiet. Even the dog, it seemed, had gone to sleep. Maly sighed, only now fully realizing how much the alleyway reeked of rotting food and urine.

“What am I going to do?” she asked the darkness.

You’re going to fight, a male voice said from somewhere, low and growling. You’re going to tear the East Bay Dragons apart, person by person, brick by brick, until you have your birthright restored.

Maly yelped and scrambled to her feet. “Who’s there?” she gasped. “What?”

You’re going to fight, it repeated, and now Maly felt certain that the man’s voice had no origin. It did not echo in the confined alley, but felt instead whispered, purring, directly into her ear like a lover’s coo.

Something was moving through the shadows towards her. Maly’s breath came fast and shallow.

When she saw the twin yellow eyes, advancing in the darkness, Maly ran.

Age of Wonders: The Adventure Begins!

art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)

Age of Wonders: Kami Misaki

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying5 Comments

Today we’ll build the second of three player-characters for my next solo rpg adventure, which I’m calling Age of Wonders. Check out more about the setting and rules here, the town of Oakton here, and our first PC, Emah Elmhill, last post.

I’ll be using the same process for this character as I used for Emah. Let’s discover who will be inhabiting this world as one of our primary protagonists!

Background Rolls

As before, I love me some Background Generator tables in ICONS Origins. Indeed, it’s fun to think that my earlier exploration of ICONS led me to discover it as a tool, just as playing other TTRPGs have introduced me to all sorts of mini-game systems or other ways to enhance whatever game I’m playing. I have my pair of d6s in my hand. I’ll again log each table and results, with the roll in parentheses.

Gender (6): Female.

Ethnicity* (9): Kaizuka. Interesting! This will be my first exploration of them, since their arrival in Oakton wasn’t really covered in my history. I see them as the hardest-luck people in the town, finding the least desirable work.

*the city of Oakton has four major peoples, which are rough analogues of broad-African (Kalee), Spanish/Mexican hybrid (Mesca), English (Stone Isles), and Japanese (Kaizuka), roughly in that order from most- to least-common.

Age (8,9): 29 years old, five years older than Emah.

Manner (4): Proud, aloof, or arrogant.

Who do you value? (6): Themselves.

What do you value (8): Home or family.

Attitude (6): Neutral towards most people.

Birthplace (3): Outskirts of Oakton.

Status (10): Wealthy. Hm… interesting. That flies in the face of what I said above about the Kaizuka. She may own an elicit business or something.

Tragedy (3,2,2,3): One or more family members were murdered.

1st Past Experience (4,3): Opportunity: She found a new opportunity, whether it was a new job, a new invention, or a new way of looking at things.

2nd Past Experience (4,4): Promotion: She received a promotion or a general stepup in her career or recognition of her abilities.

3rd Past Experience (1,2,1): Gained a friend, who is like a family member to her.

4th Past Experience (5,5): Injured: She suffered an injury, and may even have lasting trouble from it, such as a disability or disfigurement.

Okay, I think I’ve got an idea. Sheesh these characters are not for the faint of heart… Emah’s story blurb, much to my surprise, turned out to be as much a commentary on sexual harassment as anything. And now I’m going to dive into the world of prostitution.

Here’s her brief bio (some of which I revised after rolling on the Crusaders Origins and Powers tables):

Kami Misaki came to Oakton when she was very young, in the cargo hold of a ship fleeing Kaizuka, an island nation across the sea. Like many Kaizukan refugees, her family was given no advantages in the Kalee-occupied town, and found themselves doing whatever work they could find. When Kami was thirteen years old, her father ran afoul of one of the many Oakton gangs, who killed Kami’s parents in retribution. Her older brother joined a rival gang, vowing revenge, and Kami stumbled into the employ of one of the town’s many brothels.

Over the next several years, Kami became one of the town’s most sought-after ladies of the night because of her stunning beauty. It was a soul-crushing life, but the madame of her brothel looked after her and protected her as best she could, becoming a surrogate mother to the lovely-but-hardened young woman.

One night, a particularly brutal client attacked Kami with a knife, wickedly scarring her face. Her value to the brothel plummeted, but the madame decided to keep her in her employ, not as a prostitute but instead to use her mind and keen insights into people for their mutual advantage. Kami became part proprietor, part advisor, and was paid handsomely for her efforts.

Hmmm… now how do I steer her towards the Adventurer’s Guild and in cahoots with Emah Elmhill? A narrative mystery to be solved.

Origin

Thank you, Background Generator! Now I’ll set the d6s aside and grab my pair of d10s for the Crusaders tables, revised for this campaign. We start with Origin, which is akin to Class in other systems.

I roll a 99, which is to Choose my Origin! Neat. Well, since Emah is a non-superpowered (which I always want to write as a slightly-pejorative “normie” because, apparently, I’m a superhero snob) PC, let’s focus on Kami as someone directly affected by the Wyrding. I’ll roll again to see if one of those options presents itself, a reroll if not: I get a 76, which is “Wyrding: Humanoid Animal/Plant.” Excellent stuff, and fits her first name well. Now, will it be animal or plant? Let me roll another d10, odds are animal powers and evens are plant powers: 6. Plant powers… here we come!

Powers and Attributes

For something as specific a concept as “plant person,” I’m going to create a special Powers table, as suggested by the Crusaders Companion supplement. Here it is:

  • 01-10   Adaptation
  • 11        Choose/Invent
  • 11-21   Armor
  • 22        Choose/Invent
  • 23-28   Elasticity
  • 29-32   Growth/Shrink
  • 33        Choose/Invent
  • 34-43   Plant Communication
  • 44        Choose/Invent
  • 45-54   Plant Control
  • 55        Choose/Invent
  • 56-65   Regeneration
  • 66        Choose/Invent
  • 67-76   Special Attack (incl. Toxic Attack)
  • 77        Choose/Invent
  • 78-87   Super Strength
  • 88        Choose/Invent
  • 89-98   Vigor
  • 99-00   Choose/Invent

I’m excited by those options! Kami will get 3 Powers rolls to begin with, and I’ll confine my rolls to only this table (which will limit the concept but ensure I use this handy table I just created). She can trade one or more of these in for various other perks, and I may do so after a couple of Powers. But first, the good stuff…

Roll 1: 28 or 82, which is either Elasticity or Super Strength.

Roll 2: 87 or 78, which is Super Strength, period. So she’s definitely a brick!

Roll 3: 50 or 05, which is Plant Control or Adaptation.

As I frequently find with Crusaders, there are a lot of different ways I could go here. She could take Super Strength twice, making her a mega-tank, but that feels weird without Armor or Vigor to go along with it. She could be able to stretch her arms like a vine, control plants, or simply not have to breathe to go along with her strength. Hm. Let me read up on these powers a bit.

While it feels like a missed opportunity to not take the rare Plant Control, I’ve found a combo from the above list that makes me happy. First, of course, Kami will have Super Strength, making her Strength Level equal to her Physique + 20 for feats of strength like lifting or throwing things, unarmed damage, and resistance to knockback. It does not, however, improve her Vitality or Physique score. In other words, she can (and likely will) be of a willowy build, despite her impressive strength.

Second, she will take Elasticity. I have a fondness of stretchy characters, and mechanically this gives her some ability to take damage, since she a) gets a 25 score instead of Alertness to defend against all forms of melee and missile attacks, and b) subtracts 10 from all bashing or lethal damage, except if blindsided or unconscious.

Finally, it just makes sense to me that she has Adaptation, or the ability to survive and act in any environment (underwater, vacuum of space, or extreme temperatures).

What these choices prevent me from doing, unfortunately, is trading one of those rolls for either Privileged Background (making her independently wealthy) or Connections (which makes sense given her long years in a brothel). As a result, I’ll have to limit how much I rely on either part of her background for her advantage. She’ll have the madame as a contact, but she won’t be able to easily tap into a whole underground network for information or sanctuary. Perhaps the madame only trusts her so far, or perhaps she’s an inherently untrustworthy boss.

With her powers done, I’ll turn to distributing her paltry 10 points to the four core Attributes, which each start at 9. I’ll give 1 each to Physique and Prowess, since she has not trained in Oakton to be a fighter. Instead, I’ll drop 4 points each into Alertness and Psyche; Kami is watchful of the world around her and strong-minded.

With a Physique of 10, it’s easy to calculate her Vitality: 30.

Final Touches

I mentioned last time that I had a narrative system in mind about Motivation that will match the PC’s powers. What I’ve rolled for Kami fits into one of the otherworldly forces I have in mind, sort of a Patron in Dungeon Crawl Classics or a warlock in D&D 5E. As a result, she will be an Architect, someone who is driven to create something of lasting value in the world. That motivation makes some sense for someone who fell into prostitution at an early age, lost their parents, and has lived on the fringes of society who has also come into power.

As I described with Emah, I’m going to handwave most of what fantasy games term equipment. Kami is not wearing anything that would constitute armor, nor does she wield weapons. She’s a social “class,” someone who gets by on charm, wits, and discernment, not fighting. Which is all to say that she does not need anything of note on her character sheet, gear-wise:

Now, the exciting part… let’s see how Roland Brown (you can contact him at drawhaus.com) visualized Kami! As with Emah, I’ll post Roland’s awesome concept sketch as well as the final artwork. You’ll see that I asked him to remove the hat to showcase her mask, though I like the look of the hat overall.

art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)
art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)

Stepping back, I’m thrilled to have my first two characters be a “scrapper” (i.e. someone who can fight with a sword) and a “brick” (i.e. someone strong and tough), and am even more pleased to have one PC directly affected by the Wyding and another who is more of a companion or witness to these changes. Story possibilities abound, and I’m already thinking that perhaps these two will meet because Kami hires Emah to a job. It will be interesting to see if the final character of the bunch is another non-powered character, making Kami somewhat of a centerpiece, or another person transformed, making Emah the white-knuckled tagalong. Or maybe something else. Will the final character also be a woman, which will make this story have a particular set of themes? We’ll find out next time!

Before we get there, though, let’s peek in at a brief piece of fiction just to get a feel for Kami’s personality and background…

“Sit, my darling,” Elyn said, waving a hand at the pillow across from her own. The room smelled faintly of rose petals and scented candles and was both clean and spare. A high window over Elyn’s shoulder added a slanting sunbeam to the candlelight.

Kami did as instructed, smoothing her silk robe before lowering herself, cross-legged, to the plush seat on the wooden floor. She bowed her head, finding it difficult to meet the woman’s eyes. Without meaning to, her fingers reached up to her left cheek.

Her madame tsked gently. “Leave it. Look at me, Kami.”

She brushed a lock of black hair, combed fine, out of her eyes and looked. Elyn Brehill hailed from the Stone Isles, her skin pale as alabaster stone and lightly freckled, her blonde hair pulled into an elaborate braid which hung over her sheer green robes. She was a truly beautiful woman, and as she’d put on weight in her later years had only become more so. Elyn was round in ways that invited the eye, and the permanent twinkle in her green eyes, the half-grin that was her natural countenance, suggested that she knew you were watching and approved. Even as the proprietor of the Golden Heron and the oldest there by a wide margin, Elyn remained one of the highest-priced and most sought-after prostitutes, and she selected her clients carefully.

“Now that you’ve healed, it’s time to talk, darling,” she said. “You were my best girl, and now, well…” This time her handwave was somehow sad.

“I’m ruined,” Kami said dully. Again, her fingers strayed.

“Leave it,” the woman admonished, her voice harder this time. “As a working girl, I’m afraid those words are true.” She sighed elaborately. “I hope they hang him for what he did to you, but we must face facts. You can’t work now, at least not at the Heron. There’s no market for the disfigured here. I’m sure another house will take you if you want to work.”

Kami’s voice seemed to answer distantly, of its own free will. “I understand. I will be out by nightfall.” She began to rise. “Thank you for…”

“For love of the Great Oak, girl, sit!”

Kami started. She willed the brimming tears to stay unshed as she settled back down, bewildered.

“Come now. Kami Misaki. You’re stronger than this,” she shook her head with disapproval, her bottom lip extending prettily. “When one door closes, another opens. You told me this, when I first took you into my employ, did you not? I understand a time to mourn the loss of your face, I do. But now it’s done. Time to look forward.”

Kami said nothing, her tears forgotten in her confusion. She watched Elyn, trying to read her meaning and body language, but the woman had always been frustratingly immune to her intuition.

Elyn, for her part, seemed to assess the young woman in front of her in equal measure. After several heartbeats, she again sighed dramatically and reached behind her. Her hand returned with a bag of red silk, something heavy causing it to bulge at odd angles and hang from its delicate strings.

“I have a gift. No, don’t open it yet. You can keep it no matter your answer, but I’d first ask you a question.”

Kami took the bag with her slender fingers. Whatever was in it seemed hard and complexly shaped, like a wooden carving of an animal. She said nothing and waited for Elyn to ask her question, though her hands and a slice of her mind puzzled at the bag.

“The question is this: Can you get over your shock and horror at this…” she waved vaguely at Kami’s face. “Setback? I need your confidence and keen eyes, not your tears and shame. There’s less room for those in the Heron than ugliness.”

“I… don’t understand,” she said honestly, fingers turning the bag over. Whatever it was, it was flat but curved.

“You were my best girl, Kami. My most beautiful, true, but more than that. I value your eyes and mind more than your face and body. Well, almost as much.” She chuckled lasciviously.

“I’m sorry. I still don’t understand, ma’am. You want me to… stay?”

Elyn’s eyes twinkled. Her dimples deepened. “Just so. I’d take you as my assistant, someone to keep those sharp eyes on patrons and the other girls, and whose mind I can use to sort through certain business problems.”

“Your assistant,” Kami whispered, her thoughts awhirl. “But, like this?” One hand left whatever was in the silk bag and strayed to her face again. This time the madame did not admonish her.

“Ah, yes. Well. Now you open the bag,” Elyn said with a smile, settling her weight back onto her own plush pillow in anticipation.

Looking down, Kami’s fingers returned to her lap and worked at the cinched top. She pulled the bag open and reached inside.

It was a delicately carved mask, made of a light wood of almost skin tone. In truth, it was more half a mask, meant to cover most of the forehead, one cheek and jawline, with an eye hole and the mask itself curving around the lips. In other words, it was meant to cover exactly the parts of Kami’s face that had been so hideously carved. A simple red ribbon was attached to each of the mask’s top corners.

“Made by Gontro, Oakton’s finest woodsmith. He owed me a favor, of course.”

Kami turned the item in her hands, examining it from every angle.

“He says he’ll adjust the straps and shape of the wood if needed,” Elyn continued. “The idea is that it molds to your face and is comfortable enough that you never need take it off. Oh, do give it a try, will you? Go on.”

This time, Kami let the tears fall freely.

Age of Wonders: Character 3!

art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)

Age of Wonders: Emah Elmhill

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying7 Comments

I’ve picked the system for my next solo game. I’ve outlined the setting and variant rules. I’ve built enough of the starting settlement to have a feel for it and the wider world. Today, it’s time for the first character to throw into that setting, playing that system, as a resident of that settlement.

I haven’t decided how many PCs I’ll make to begin my game. At least two, probably three. As with almost everything in this project, I’ll feel my way there and decide.

Background Rolls

Before I jump into Crusaders, I absolutely love the Background Generator tables in ICONS Origins. Let’s start there, busting out a pair of d6. I’ll log each table and results, with the roll in parentheses.

Gender (6): Female.

Ethnicity* (12,5,7): Mixed heritage: Kalee and the Stone Isles.

*the city of Oakton has four major peoples, which are rough analogues of broad-African (Kalee), Spanish/Mexican hybrid (Mesca), English (Stone Isles), and Japanese (Kaizuka), roughly in that order from most- to least-common.

Age (7, 4): 24 years old.

Manner (11): Detached and logical.

Who do you value? (3): Family member.

What do you value (4): Knowledge.

Attitude (10): No one will ever hurt me again.

Birthplace (6): Rural. Raised in an isolated household away from civilization.

Status (8): Comfortable upbringing, able to afford a few luxuries.

Tragedy (4): No childhood tragedy.

1st Past Experience (1,2,2): Has a friend that is a current or past romantic interest.

2nd Past Experience (5,6): Suffered a personal loss, such as the death of a loved one, a serious financial setback, or personal tragedy.

3rd Past Experience (6,1): Framed or falsely accused of something she didn’t do.

4th Past Experience (4,2): Met someone willing to teach and mentor her.

5th Past Experience (4,1): Made a connection, contact, or earned a favor from someone.

(According to the Background Generator, you roll 2d6 for the total number of past experiences, but I find this volume of results overwhelming. Instead, I’m going to stop when I think that I’ve “found the character,” which is right about now.)

Let’s put all of those rolls together into a brief bio:

Emah Elmhill was the product of an illicit marriage between a scholar from one of Oakton’s several schools and a Kalee warrior from the castellan’s personal guard (who are not allowed to marry or bear children). To raise their daughter without recrimination, they moved north to the foothills of a distant mountain. Emah’s father’s wits and her mother’s sword kept the family safe, despite the ever-present danger of the wilds, and it was an upbringing upon which she still thinks fondly.

She was nineteen years old when her mother died to a beast threatening their home. Though she had trained every day with a blade, Emah and her father could not survive alone, and so moved back to Oakton. Her father reacquainted himself with a university there, and Emah joined him as a scribe. Indeed, she quickly became a favored pupil of the school’s head, much to her father’s pride.

…at least until another scribe, jealous of Emah’s reputation, framed her for stealing a precious and ancient scroll. Though few thought Emah capable of the crime—most especially her father—the evidence was conclusive, and she was expelled.

Desperate and without prospects, Emah joined the Adventurer’s Guild, and…

Well, I suppose we’ll see what happens next. In terms of the Background Generator results, I haven’t yet worked out who her romantic interest is, and I combined both the mentor and a contact who can benefit her later (both are the school’s head). As I said, though, I’ve got a good picture in my mind’s eye of Emah. Thank you, d6s. Now it’s time for your cousins, the d10s, to take a turn.

Origin

Right now, Emah is merely a fantasy character. We’ve established that she can swing a sword, is learned, and has a variety of contacts and rivals in Oakton. But is she a newly bestowed super in this world or something else? I’ll be relying primarily on the tables from my variant rules post to find out!

My first roll is an important one: Emah’s origin (or, if you prefer, what sort of “class” she is in this story). I roll an 89 (Spy/Assassin/Thief/Guide), which can also be a 98 (Warrior). Ooo! So she’s non-powered, but hanging out with folks who are affected by the Wyrding. How interesting!

I’m seeing Emah as a noble soul, which means that Spy, Assassin, and Thief don’t really work. She could be a “Guide,” except that she’s relatively new to Oakton, where our story begins. Instead, I like the idea that she’s a scholarly Warrior, someone there to protect her friends with martial force. Warrior it is.

Powers and Attributes

As a Rank 1 character, Emah received 3 rolls on the Powers table plus 10 Attribute points to spend. Because she’s a Warrior, she can trade one of these rolls for either Armor or Weapon Master, and must trade one for the Intensive Training option (4 extra Attribute points). In other words, she instead has only 2 Powers rolls and 14 Attribute points to spend.

For the first Powers roll, I will absolutely trade it for Weapon Master. I’ve already said that her mother trained her to help defend their homestead in the wilds north of Oakton, and what’s a warrior without weapon badassery? I’ve pictured it as a sword, which is basic but cool. This Super Skill will give her three combat maneuvers when wielding her blade: Superior Strike (+5 to Prowess with her weapon, and can use Prowess instead of Physique to calculate damage), Parry (+5 to Prowess, which she can use instead of Alertness when defending melee attacks), and Disarm (she can try to disarm one-handed weapons instead of deal damage).

That leaves me one Power roll remaining: I roll 49, which can also be a 94, and yields these options: Leaping, Vigor, Psychic Sense, Telepathy, Fire Mastery, Weather Control, Gadgetry/Tech Whiz, or Weapon Master. I’ve crossed out the ones that don’t make sense for a non-powered PC with her background, but there are still four juicy options. In reading through them, Leaping and Vigor are difficult to explain without superpowers, so they’re out, and taking Weapon Master a second time would make her too skilled compared to my vision for her. So that leaves Psychic Sense, which means effectively that she can sense danger and never be surprised. Cool! That’s one of those abilities that is easy to explain in a superhuman way or a “cool action hero” way, and I like thinking of Emah as always vigilant against danger. Heck, I even rolled that her attitude was “No one will ever hurt me again.”

I then turn to Attributes, which in Crusaders are Physique, Prowess, Alertness, and Psyche. Each begins with an average score of 9, and I have 14 points to distribute among them. As a swordswoman, Prowess seems like the key stat, so I’ll spend almost half there to give her a score of 15. I’ll also give her a Physique and Alertness of 13, leaving her Psyche alone. Emah is one of Oakton’s best swordfighters and is both fit and alert. She is, however, unprepared for any sort of mental attacks.

There is one derived stat, Vitality (i.e. hit points), which is 3x Physique. Emah’s Vitality is 39.

Final Touches

In terms of Motivation, I have a sneaky system in mind that’s grounded in what each PC’s powers are and how the forces behind their abilities are prodding them to act. Since Emah isn’t one of those directly transformed by the Wyrding, however, I’m free to figure out a motivation on my own that fits the character. The central question for her is: Why would someone without powers band together with people transformed, especially when it puts her in incredible danger, against otherworldly forces?

I’ll revisit my Background rolls above: Emah values her father, knowledge, and has vowed to never be hurt like she was when expelled from the Oakton school. I take that to mean she’s guarded with others, often seeing them as threats, so Survivor works. Another option is Analyst, as she’s driven to understand why these changes in the world are happening, perhaps even to prove herself to the head of school. Put another way, do I want Emah to be a survivor, pulled along in the eddies of fate, clinging desperately, or do I want her to be the Lois Lane of the story, tagging along despite impossible danger to find The Truth.

I’m leery of damsel-in-distress narratives (note that almost all my DCC characters were women) and Emah is more warrior than scholar, so that makes my decision easier. Emah will be a Survivor, a fighter who refuses to be put down by the forces arrayed against her. Not Lois Lane so much as John McClane, then. That motivation doesn’t explain why she’s with the superpowered PCs, but I’ll rely on bonds or relationships there once I’ve made those characters. In many ways, she’ll be our story’s less comedic Sokka.

One of the things I like about using Crusaders for my system is that it doesn’t get fiddly with equipment. Indeed, the Crusaders Companion lays out how I’ll use it in game, with slight renaming on my part: There are three types of gear: 1) Tools, which are equipment necessary for the use of a Super Skill. Emah’s sword is a Tool, for example, and she receives it for free. 2) Artifacts, which are equipment that simulate superpowers, like a ring of invisibility or a flying carpet. These are going to be exceedingly rare in the world of Age of Wonders, and will be either the result of Powers rolls or will add a Power to a character. Finally, 3) Crafted Items, which are equipment that simulate powers, but do so at about half the value of a power. If Emah goes to an armorer to get kitted out, this will be a Crafted Item (and will likely involve a Luck roll to see if she can obtain it). Crafted Items could go down a long and twisting rabbit hole, but I’m going to handwave most of it. If the PCs need torches, rope, or a backpack, I’m likely just going to let them have it if it makes sense in the story. I won’t be tracking rations, arrows, and the like in this game. I can have fun with resource-management games, but Crusaders is built to be focused on action.

So Emma has a sword, and that’s pretty much it in terms of equipment. In my mind’s eye, she’s wearing what most games would call leather armor, but I’ll say that mechanically it isn’t enough protection to warrant a Crafted Item, and essentially mimics what other adventurers would wear. Her Vitality is an abstract value that, in this case, includes whatever armor she’s wearing. Everything else she’s carrying I can puzzle out as needed once I’m in the game.

The character sheet I’ve created for my game is in Microsoft Excel, because I’m a nerd. Here’s a screenshot to show what I’ll be looking at when playing:

I am a big fan of rendering my main characters so that they spring to life in my mind’s eye during writing. I feel very fortunate to have met Roland Brown to commission some artwork. Find more at his website drawhaus.com. I’ll post the original sketch as well because both are awesome. Thank you, Roland!

art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)
art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)

Stepping back, I’m psyched that my first PC is someone unchanged by the Wyrding, a witness to the changing world around her. I also like that, no matter what happens, I have a character who can jump into melee and scrap it up. It means almost certainly that I’ll have three starting characters, since I want at least a pair of “supers” at the outset (one of the nice things about solo gaming is that I can expand or reduce the roster without any real consequences). I suppose now there’s a danger that I’ll roll another non-powered character in the next two attempts, but I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.

For now, let’s do what I started in DCC, write a small warm-up fiction scene to get a feel for her.

“Emah? Emah!”

“I can hear you, Matra,” she grumbled, hunching her shoulders. “I’m just ignoring you.”

Matra tsked rubbing furiously at a wooden bowl with a gray rag. The proprietor of the Dagger and Heart always dressed somewhere between a noblewoman and a prostitute, all fine fabrics, lace, and a tightly cinched corset, showing ample bosom. Today, the bodice was black, highlighted by crimson. Her ebon hair, streaked with gray, was pulled up elaborately, with artful braids, red ribbons, and two delicate curls falling across her rosy cheeks. She was a striking woman, yet those gray streaks, the crow’s feet at her eyes, the waddle of her neck—all spoke of someone who could be Emah’s mother.

“For three days you sit there,” the barkeep scolded, her words thick and clipped with her Mesca accent. “Barely touching my fine ale, shooting anyone a needle eye if they come near. Three days I let you frown at me and darken the mood of my tavern. This is no way to live, Emah. I thought you had found a new trade? Tell to me what is so wrong.”

Emah sighed through her nose. Resting elbows fully on the bar, she straightened her back and fixed Matra with a glare. Leather armor and straps creaked with the movement.

“I…” she cleared her throat. “I don’t like waiting,” Emah grumbled, reluctantly. “It’s been a week since I joined the Adventurer’s Guild, after, well…”

“Yes, yes. No need to speak of that,” Matra said, and made a warding sign with her hand, a quick motion as if picking a leaf from her shoulder, kissing it, touching it to forehead, then throwing it away, all done in a blink.

“Right. Anyway, a full week and no assignments posted for someone new. How am I supposed to eat if I can’t work?”

“The work will come. For now,” Matra shrugged. “Be with friends. Have fun while you are young, no?”

Emah grunted. “I find myself short on friends, right now. But just sitting around is driving me…”

“Well, well, well!” a gravelly voice carried from the front door, across the slanting beams of sunlight and empty tables. “If it isn’t my favorite sight in all of Oakton, Matra Cuencela! An ale for me and the boys, eh?”

Emah’s mouth snapped shut. She returned her face to its unhappy countenance, staring glumly at her full mug. She noticed that Matra’s face flickered with worry and something like disgust, only a fraction of a moment before she smiled widely with her too-red lips and white teeth.

“Welcome, Osen. A little early for you, no? The bard will not be here for several bells.”

“Fah,” the voice behind Emah answered. “Just wetting our lips. We’ll be back later, when… Oh! And what’s this?”

Emah flicked her eyes to the right. A thin Kaizukan man, his face shining with sweat, stood near her shoulder, looking her up and down with a smile of uneven and missing teeth. His black hair was thin and stringy, touching his shoulders. She flicked eyes to the left, where two other men crowded the bar, one from Kaizuka, the other a pale-skinned Stone Islander. All three of the newcomers wore sweat-stained, simple-spun shirts and pants, with long knives on their leather belts. They reeked strongly of fish and alcohol.

“You leave my other customers alone, Osen Haro,” Matra admonished. “I will bring your ales to your table. Go on, now.”

Osen guffawed. “I haven’t done anything wrong. Have I, lass? Just being friendly. Give us your name, sweetness.”

Emah frowned and flicked her eyes to the man.

“Oh, ho! Not so friendly! No need to drink alone, I think. Come join us, eh? We’ll get to know each other.”

“To your table, all of you,” Matra said, a tinge of desperation and forced humor in her voice.

“She doesn’t like ‘em scrawny,” one of the men on the left grunted, the Islander, a thickset brute with a bald head. “Step aside, Osen, and let me get to know her.”

“We all know you’re only big up top!” Osen cackled, and the other Kaizukan man chuckled. “Let her choose after getting to know us, eh? Come, come join us, lass, and tell us of yourself. Especially since no one else is here, ha! Come, come.” Osen waved an arm grandly to the empty tavern, then put a grubby hand on her leather-clad shoulder. Emah shrugged it off, throwing him a glare.

“Stop, Osen,” Matra said sternly, her smile gone. “If you want your ale, you’ll behave.”

“What have I done?” Osen responded, but his leering eyes never left Emah’s face. The alcohol already on his breath almost made her eyes water. “She hasn’t said no. Hasn’t said a damned thing. Come on, then, lass. Too good for an honest fisherman?”

“Go away,” Emah sighed. Her muscles loosened and she found the stillness that always preceded violence. Her mother’s words echoed like reflex in her mind: Fear narrows your vision and makes you stupid. Find your peace. Stay sharp. One hand dropped to her knee nonchalantly, keeping the hilt of her broadsword within easy reach.

“You heard her!” Matra gasped, pleadingly.

“Now listen, bitch,” Osen spat. “I was being nice before.”

“Mikán anitó niwé, má nyásho wékon némát,” Emah said, slowly and clearly, the clicks of her tongue on the ancient words pronounced, as she turned to the man to regard him with half-lidded eyes. She could feel the two others tense, ready to grab her.

“What’s that?” Osen scowled. “What did you say to me?”

“Stop this! Get out!” Matra yelled. “Osen Haro, get out of my bar!”

“It’s Old Kalee,” Emah shrugged. “Very old. From the Age of Immortals. It means ‘Walk your own path; do not chase all trails.’ First attributed to the poet Nijlel, I believe, but there’s some debate.”

“The age of–? What the fuck does–” he sputtered. “Screw this and screw you!” Osen’s hand reached for his knife.

Matra screamed.

Emah’s sword had left its scabbard and cut a red line across the man’s throat before his fingers had even touched the dagger’s hilt, making a wide arc of blood as she leapt from her chair. The warrior spun on the wood-planked floor and set her balance, even as Osen Haro clutched at the fountain of gore at his throat and collapsed.

Age of Wonders: Character 2!

art by Roland Brown (drawhaus.com)

Age of Wonders: Oakton

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying5 Comments

Earlier this week, I set the stage, outlining the setting of my homebrewed solo campaign, which I’m dubbing Age of Wonders. Today it’s time to dive into the core location for my adventures, the bustling town of Oakton.

For today only, I’m gently placing my Crusaders rulebook to the side in favor of a minigame and tool that I’ve been eager to try. Pendulum is a worldbuilding assistant from one of my all-time favorite creators, Jon from Tale of the Manticore. Jon’s podcast is the reason that I first became interested in solo roleplaying, and he has long been the inspiration for me combining my solo play with fiction writing. It’s a thrill to pick up my favorite of his various Drivethrurpg creations and give it a spin.

Pendulum is a settlement builder, a way of working through the history and society of any settlement in a fantasy region, beginning at its emergence as a hamlet all the way through however large you want to make it, up to a large city. I’ll loosely show you how it works by creating Oakton, the central location in which Age of Wonders will begin. At each stage, I flip a coin to determine whether Law or Chaos rules that stage, with a narrative table in Pendulum guiding me through prompts for what happens. As you’ll see from the output below, it’s a lengthy process (Jon says it takes 6-9 hours to complete each settlement, which sounds right to me), but suuuuuuper satisfying.

Do I need this much detail on Oakton’s history before jumping into an adventure? Absolutely not. But I’m appreciative for the depth this sort of tool invites me to create, and it jumpstarts my brain on several issues in the setting that will make the characters more textured and interesting.

Here we go!

The Beginnings of Oakton

Stage 1: Law. Year 1. Ruler: Pera Luz (age 35). Population 55.

Oakton began as a collection of fishing families who arrived from ships fleeing Mesca, a continent conquered by a dragon (it was, after all, the Age of Wyrms) across the sea. They chose a location set away from the immediate coast, with access to food, water, and timber, on the eastern shore of a large, unoccupied bay, with an inland lake and wetlands stretching to the east and up into forested hills. They were led by Pera Luz, a capable warrior and bull of a woman, leader of the expedition.

The most distinct feature of the landscape was a gargantuan oak tree, inland from the bay and on the lake’s shore, the largest tree that any inhabitant had seen in their lifetime (truly like a tree given a growth potion… over 400’ tall).

Stage 2: Chaos. Year 11. Ruler: Anton Luz (age 26). Population 70.

Ten years after establishing a lakeside home, under the far reach of the mighty oak, Pera died to a wild, monstrous beast while exploring the countryside. Her four sons began infighting over who would take over the hamlet. After a brutal and bloody conflict, the eldest son Anton took the reins, with his youngest brother supporting him, another brother dead, and the last fled east*. It is Anton who dubbed the settlement Oaktown.

*This brother, Sente, miraculously survived the wilds and found sanctuary in a distant township. There he gained some renown as a fighter and became leader of the town’s militia. Any mistrust that easterners have for Oakton likely originated from Sente and his bitterness towards his brothers.

Stage 3: Law. Year 16. Ruler: Anton Luz (age 31). Population 85.

Pera’s death emphasized the danger of the surrounding wildlife, and Anton feared that other sailors may arrive from their homeland to claim their fledgling settlement. Thus the hamlet began construction of stone walls to replace the wooden palisades. By the 16th year, Oaktown had a proper, fortified defense against threats from both the land and sea. Beyond the inner keep walls, a new palisade stretched wide around the farmland and included the massive oak, which the townsfolk had begun to view as divine, a remnant of a time when gods roamed the land in the Time of Immortals.

Stage 4: Chaos. Year 36. Ruler: Anton Luz (age 51). Population 100.

Disparate ships did arrive, small pockets of refugees, but none threatening to conquer the young hamlet. During this time, the settlement faced two setbacks: First, sickness ran rampant through Oaktown, due in large part to dumping sewage into the lake. Many people died, negating any population growth from the incoming refugees and forcing the town to rethink its waste disposal. Second, an attempt to build simple roads east and south through the countryside was met with disaster as monsters feasted on anyone venturing too far beyond the palisades. Reluctantly, Anton called a halt to the roads project, declaring that the hamlet would stay insular. Feeling like a failure, he retreated to the inner keep, increasingly gone from public view. When he died, it took two days for his servants and family to realize it.

Stage 5: Chaos. Year 38. Ruler: Mara Luz (age 36). Population 90.

Anton’s sole remaining heir, his son, fell ill to the same disease that had claimed so many other residents, and died within days of his father. After a period of acute confusion, the town councilmembers decided to elect the wife of Anton’s youngest brother (who had died several years before) to lead them. Mara Luz, a black-skinned woman of the Kalee nation far south of Oaktown, became the subject of mistrust and racism by the families from the original settlers, sparking violence and unease throughout Oaktown.

Mara kept her seat of power because she was (much to her detractors’ dismay) a warrior of an ancient order and skilled with a blade. What no one knew until much later was that she had also been sent by the Kalee queen to bring Oaktown under rule because the queen saw the location as an ideal one where she might establish a trade port. Her marriage to the youngest Luz had been true love, though, and had delayed her sending word back to the queen.

Stage 6: Chaos. Year 43. Ruler: Mara Alaa (age 41). Population 65.

For the next five years, Oaktown was a nest of tension and inner turmoil, with Mara ruling with an iron fist. When an armored militia from the south arrived to formally incorporate the hamlet, many of its residents resisted even as Mara threw open the walled gates. After a brief and bloody conflict and five days of public execution (called The Hanging Days, still commemorated today), the settlement began flying banners for Queen Karpenta of the nation of Kalee. Mara abandoned her married name of Luz, reclaimed her birth name of Alaa, and continued to oversee the town.

It is believed that it was this period of rule where the town’s name began to change, as the Kaleens pronounced “town” as “ton.”

Stage 7: Law. Year 63. Ruler: Mara Alaa (age 61). Population 150.

With the rule of law established, Mara began work on the project her queen had demanded: transforming the bayside shoreline into a trade port. The construction went quickly, but the settlement was not near enough existing trade routes or other population centers to flourish. Still, a steady influx of oversea travelers and visitors from both the south and east grew the once-struggling hamlet into a village of enough residents to expand the palisade wall further. Warrior bands helped farmers and hunters beyond the walls survive against the dangerous wilds.

Stage 8: Chaos. Year 83. Ruler: Mara Alaa (age 81). Population 200.

Beginning to appear on Kaleen maps (as Oakton), the settlement began to be the target of pirates. For nearly fifteen years, Mara oversaw the village’s defense against marauders, all the while sending messages to her queen for aid. Kalee was going through a change in its monarchy with Queen Karpenta’s death, however, and could not be bothered to send ships or soldiers to defend a backwater coastal village. Oakton was left to protect itself, and did so through several bloody conflicts. It is said the heart of Oakton was forged in these years, and why its people are so defiant and fierce. If one positive can be said about this time, it is that the populace set aside their various racial infighting against a common enemy.

Stage 9: Chaos. Year 88. Ruler: Marter Moon (age unknown). Population 160.

In a particularly bloody year, an elderly Mara Alaa and her household guard were killed by invading pirates, and Oakton was claimed by Captain Marter Moon, aka Captain Bloodmoon. Moon was able to keep a grip on the now lawless settlement for five years before he was murdered in his bed by a prostitute. For the better part of a year, Oakton was a ruler-less den of scoundrels and mercenaries, ignored by Kalee’s new queen.

Stage 10: Chaos. Year 89. Ruler: Chanu Karpa (age 23). Population 150.

A sea serpent entered the bay and attacked the port of Oakton, sinking several pirate ships and injecting yet more disarray and chaos into the lives of the settlement’s people. The creature, whom the locals dubbed Berotassa, the Bay’s Fang, would occupy the nearby waters for years and further imperil arriving ships.

Later that year, a band of Kaleen warriors finally arrived to establish rule in the struggling village. The warriors battled and slew many of the worst criminals in town, a time they called the Red Spring. When the dust had settled, a young and proud warrior named Chanu Karpa reclaimed Oakton as under Kalee rule and took its rule in her queen’s name.

Oakton the Trade Port

Stage 11: Law. Year 138. Ruler: Chanu Karpa (age 72). Population 900.

In Chanu Karpa’s second year of rule, a local resident discovered a cache of gold and treasure from the Age of Immortals outside the palisade walls, within the forested hills. This discovery would make the settlement rich and, more profoundly, ignite the imagination of people for hundreds of miles in all directions.

During the next 50 years, Oakton would reestablish its port, repel Berotassa back to the sea, strengthen its walls and defenses, greatly expand its footprint inland, and become a destination township for brave treasure hunters. Proper roads were finally established between Oakton and towns to the east and south. With the influx of people came a merchant class and guild structure, plus multiple fledgling universities. The population exploded with diverse people who lived in relative peace and prosperity under Karpa’s watchful eye. The Kaleen warrior proved to be a fair and clever politician, able to satisfy guild leaders, farmers, sailors, and merchants alike. Oakton, with its ancient tree, shimmering lake, and capable leader became a jewel of the Kalee throne far to the south.  

Stage 12: Law. Year 142. Ruler: none. Population: 950.

Chanu Karpa never had children, so when she died at age 75, Oakton collectively held its breath. Would the township collapse back into years of chaos, torn apart by its diverse factions? Three candidates stepped forward to vie for the role of castellan: a) Munder Bayford, one of the town’s wealthiest merchants who claimed to be from a founding family, b) Seki Keme, a retired Kalee naval officer and one of the heroes of the campaign that expelled Berotassa from the bay, and c) Frada Pagona, the beautiful and charismatic head of the Weavers and Dyers Guild. The three were asked to appear in Kalee’s capital to petition the queen, a perilous journey that would take a full year roundtrip.

This year would be known as The Headless Year, both because of the lack of castellan and the public executions of outlaws during such a sensitive and tense time. It is also the year in which many believe the Blackpaws, Oakton’s powerful thieves guild, was founded (several wealthy families were robbed, likely initiation rites of the guild).

Over a year after their departure, Munder Bayford and Seki Keme returned to Oakton, with the former as new castellan. Frada Pagona perished in the journey, killed by monsters.

Stage 13: Chaos. Year 147. Ruler: Munder Bayford (age 45). Population: 950.

Bayford’s first five years of rule were marred by the most direct attacks from creatures outside the wall in the town’s memory. For reasons unknown, monsters threw themselves at Oakton’s defenses, killing travelers and terrorizing its citizens. Several areas of the palisade wall were destroyed and rebuilt, and one beast even made it to the inner keep walls, destroying much of it. Eventually, the frenzy of the monsters ended, and the creatures moved back into the surrounding forest and hills with no one knowing what had triggered the attacks.

Stage 14: Law. Year 162. Ruler: Munder Bayford (age 60). Population: 1500.

In the next several years, with monsters no longer actively prowling its borders, Oakton’s population bloomed. Meanwhile, across the bay, the town of Saint Oro had been steadily becoming a second (and more prominent) port trading hub, and one of the religious mechas of Kalee. Its founder was a holy man who believed fervently that the gods had not abandoned the world and would return, and when they did, they would purge corrupt settlements like Oakton from existence. Understandably, relations between the two port towns over the decades had been chilly at best.

The wealthy Bayford, however, saw an opportunity to strengthen the area’s economies and military strength by uniting. He initiated lengthy relations with the leaders of Saint Oro and their merchant guilds, establishing a joint navy to patrol the coast and removing the taxed levies each settlement had inflicted upon the other. In recognition of his efforts, the body of water between the two townships was officially dubbed Munder’s Bay, its current name.

Bayford the Builder and Modern Oakton

Stage 15: Law. Year 207. Ruler: Annet Bayford (age 67). Population: 2500.

Two years later, Munder Bayford fell ill and died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. The rule of Oakton was passed to his son Kaster, a well-respected member of the Apothecaries Guild. Kaster made it his life’s purpose to establish the largest and best medical temple in Kalee and poured the town’s funds and effort into his vision. The Eternal Shade, a towering apothecary and medical academy, became the town’s largest single structure, sitting lakeside under the Great Oak. Kaster died before the building could be completed, but his daughter Annet finished the work when she became castellan. Its completion sparked an architectural renaissance in Oakton, including several of the town’s current landmarks.

Over these decades, the merchant navy repelled two pirate invasions and Oakton’s militia established regular patrols along its outside roads. As a result, the town’s population continued to swell, and its economy prospered.

Stage 16: Law. Year 235. Ruler: Annet Bayford (age 95). Population: 3600.

In the town’s 225th year, Kalee’s Queen Suna visited Oaktown and Saint Oro, the first visit to the region of any of Kalee’s monarchs. The lead-up to the visit and its aftermath marked a six-month celebration unlike any seen in the town’s history, and establishing Queen’s Day as its most joyous holiday. Annet Bayford, a wizened but quick-witted figure, utterly charmed the queen, and gained generous funds used to complete several large construction projects.

“Bayford the Builder” is still considered the single most successful and beloved castellan in Oakton’s history, and a statue of her was erected outside the town hall following her death at age 95. Ever the planner, she passed her seat without incident to her grandson, Gilan Bayford.

Stage 17: Chaos. Year 250. Ruler: Arryn Bayford (age 45). Population 4100.

Dragon! Arriving from the north, the first dragon in Oakton’s history arrived three years after Annet’s death. Temethys, who the locals call the Red Devil, did not linger to wipe out Oakton and Saint Oro, but it did smash most of the merchant navy, burn Oakton’s docks and ships, and set a fire that raged for more than three weeks across the town. Gilan Bayford died in the fires, and his son Arryn became emergency castellan. The great wyrm settled atop a mountain to the east, now known as Devilspire, where it still sleeps today. Devil’s Day is a local holiday in which, in remembrance, residents stay indoors with loved ones, give thanks, and ignite no fires.

Saint Oro largely avoided damage from the dragon’s attack, and its religious orders proclaimed it a sign of the town’s righteous blessing, saying that Oakton was paying for its sins and greed. Saint Oro sent little aid to its sister town across the bay, which enraged Oakton residents. Any attempts to rebuild the merchant navy fell apart, and though the towns did not reinstitute levies against one another, the relationship between the two grew contentious.

Stage 18: Chaos. Year: 295. Ruler: Sendo Avina (age 51). Population: 5000.

After more than one hundred and twenty years with a Bayford as castellan, an envoy from Kalee arrived in the town’s 270th year. It seemed that Queen Mati had offered the distant-but-promising town to the cousin of a favorite noble in court. Young Estet Mukka was just 19 years old when she arrived, surrounded by Kalee warriors, with her royal writ. Understandably, the Bayford family and guild leaders were thrown into disarray.

Estet proved to be a decisive by naïve leader. During her ten years as castellan, she further alienated Oakton from Saint Oro, reestablished many of Kalee’s traditions and holidays (stamping out several local ones), and created jockeying for her favor with guild leaders that would rival any royal court. All the while, she turned a blind eye to the seedier elements of the town, allowing criminal gangs to flourish.

Then, as suddenly as she’d arrived, Estet abruptly returned to Kalee’s capital to be married, leaving the head of the Shipwright’s Guild to lead the town, a boisterous man named of Sendo Avina who Estet favored because of his quick wit and fondness of history (it is widely believed the two were lovers).

Sendo was indeed infatuated with the Age of Immortals, a time when gods roamed the world and magic was everywhere. He saw the possibility of making Oakton the epicenter of museums and artifacts of this ancient age and founded the Adventurers Guild. He promised rich rewards for historical treasures, drawing mercenaries and charlatans from far and wide. As it had 150 years before, treasure hunters abounded in Oakton and scoured its countryside.

These treasure hunters would, of course, unleash The Wyrding, beginning the Age of Wonders.

And there you have it! As you can see, Pendulum just takes you on and on. I didn’t even get to the midpoint of the prompts, and carried all the way to the end would likely see Oakton as a bustling metropolis. I’m happy with where I’ve left Oakton’s size—a medium-sized, established town—and history, though. I already have a far better feel for the place than what I could have come with on my own. Thanks again, Jon!

Next step: Let’s go find out protagonists… We’re close, now.

Age of Wonders: Character #1

Age of Wonders: Setting & Variant Rules

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying14 Comments

Happy New Year! I love that my first official post on my new project goes live on the first day of 2025.

New project, you say?

Today was supposed to be my umpteenth deep-dive exploration of superhero games, in search of a system that I wanted to run as my next solo game. Then I discovered Crusaders, a book that had been sitting on my shelf unread for months. I’m too distracted by my excitement, so I’ve abandoned my pile of games to be explored. It’s my blog, right? My muse cannot be tamed.

Deep breath. Let’s get started.

My Setting: The Age of Wonders

I’m a big believer that worldbuilding is a trap meant to paralyze GMs from starting homebrewed campaigns. I have a vague sense of what I want to do in this next solo game, based on an idea for a novel I had years ago. But I’m going to discover the world as I play rather than go deep into its history, deities, warring factions, and bestiary.

Here are the elements that are grounding me:

This is a traditional fantasy setting, with faux-medieval technology and cultures loosely inspired by fables and Appendix N-like literature. Taverns and inns have fun names, beware the dark woods, and all that.

At the launch of the game, humans are the only ancestry, living in fortified settlements scattered across the land under a distant monarch’s banner. I don’t yet know who the monarch is or much about the nation, but it’s a relative time of peace.

That said, I envision a town or city where the people are diverse, and many cultures coexist. Too much fantasy, in my opinion, is dominated by the analogue of medieval Anglo-Saxons or Vikings. They’ll likely exist here (because knights and horned helms are cool) alongside African and Latin America-inspired cultures, in a continent that is somewhat a crossroads of the world.

Monsters roam the wilderness, making travel between settlements dangerous and a need for fortified defenses. I need to flesh out what these monsters are, but they’re generally mythical beasts more than nonhuman ancestries. In other words, there aren’t Societies of Scary Things, just hungry predators who want to eat you.

The gods disappeared long ago and took magic with them. Humans are just humans, doing what they can to survive in a harsh world full of creatures mightier than them. Oh sure, people claim that they can cast spells and speak with the divine, because there are all sorts of stories of ages past where these things did exist. But, as far as anyone knows, magic died when the gods abandoned the world long, long ago. As a result, the people in this setting are generally more humanist than religious.

But ho, our heroes are manifesting superpowers! I haven’t decided if the beginning of the story will be the unleashing of wild magic into the world or if we’ll start sometime shortly afterwards. Either way, an event known as The Wyrding will grant some people amazing powers, animate long-forgotten constructs, give some animals sentience, and on and on. The Age of Wonders has begun. Is it random or is there a reason behind the changes? That’s part of the story.

Tone-wise, I’m aiming for something akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (phases 1-3, let’s look away from the multiverse stuff) meets traditional fantasy, set in an untraditional cultural setting. This story is meant to be fun, snappy, and action-packed (which is a big part of why I wanted a supers game), character centric, and with emotions that span the spectrum but fall on the more hopeful side of things. In my mind’s eye, it’s a story that starts Grimbright and moves to Noblebright as the characters grow in power. We’re beginning in a decidedly Grimbright story, though… a fantasy town with random people struggling to survive despite the titanic threats surrounding them.

“Moment’s Peace” by Rebecca Guay

That’s it. The details on any of the above and all the texture I’ll discover first by making the starting town, then the main protagonists, then through playing the game. Unlike a novel, I don’t have a story arc in mind, either. I want to find the central antagonists and tensions alongside the characters. It’s an emergent tale, one uniquely possible thanks to TTRPGs and serial fiction.

Recrafting Crusaders Tables and Variant Rules

With these broad brushstrokes in mind, let’s circle back to my game of choice.

As I mentioned last time, I’ll need to do some work on Crusaders to both fit the setting above and combine its core rulebook random tables with the excellent Crusaders Companion. As I suspected, this work was both fun and rewarding, resulting in a set of tables and rules I’m excited to implement.

Origins

Literally the first page of the rules in Crusaders, the first of several random tables, is the Origin of your hero and how you came to be a PC. It is often the most central question to any superhero TTRPG and is the place where I most needed to think through how my setting and Crusaders interact. In some ways, as well, the Origin here substitutes for “character class” in D&D or Pathfinder, helping shape what abilities the character manifests as they grow in power.

Here is where I ended up:

There’s a lot to absorb on a table like this, especially without knowing the game system intimately and with my own homebrew-setting biases littered throughout. One way of understanding this table is that, when making a new character, I have a roughly 50% chance of making someone transformed directly by The Wyrding, 15% chance of someone who’s the companion of a transformed or awakened nonhuman entity, 15% chance of a “fantasy adventurer” who wasn’t transformed but is along for the ride anyway (think Sokka in Avatar: the Last Airbender), 10% chance of someone who is wielding a newly-magical item, and 10% chance to either choose one of these options or create something new/niche. I’ll use this table for both heroes, major NPCs, and important antagonists, since they’re all created using the same process. Speaking of which, expect any PC to also begin with the ICONS Origins Background generator, which I can use mostly unaltered.

Powers

Next up are the retooled Powers tables, which is less about my homebrewed setting and more about a) combining the core rulebook and Companion lists, while also b) curating the lists to the archetypes and powers I most enjoy playing. As you’ll recall from my brief “let’s roll up a PC” foray last post, each percentile roll on a table also gives you the “flip-flop” option (so a 25 is also a 52) across all four tables, giving you a lot of say over what sort of character you’re building. The one place where a fantasy setting crept in is on the Super Skills list, but even here I was surprisingly able to use most skills unaltered.

Here are the lists:

I won’t detail my many, many tweaks from the original lists to these. Suffice it to say, I used the same “what percentage would I want each to occur in the world?” rationale as when making the Origins list. I also added a few items cross-category, so, for example, Acrobat is both a Super Skill but now also a Physical Power, matching things like Super Strength and Vigor. I was tempted to break the Physical Powers list into two lists—either offensive/defensive or separating out travel powers—to make the lists roughly equal in options, but I wasn’t sure such an endeavor gained me anything in character creation. I also didn’t do a deep dive into the flip-flop options, making sure that any number combination on each table provided vibrantly different choices. I’m going to trust that there is both enough variety and randomness in these tables to stimulate my creativity.

Motivations

Motivations are oddly anticlimactic in Crusaders. They get a relatively substantial treatment: a full two-page spread in the character creation section (by comparison, the same length as Origins and twice the length of Character Growth), yet with no real mechanical impact on the game. Motivations are there to flesh out a character and provide roleplaying depth for players, and potential plot hooks for GMs.

I’d like to make Motivations matter more in my game, either by adding Victory Points (the Crusaders equivalent of xp) or Hero Points (the metacurrency that allows PCs to flip-flop die rolls) when characters are acting in direct accordance with their motivation or achieve some story milestone. Possibly both, though I’m leaning towards Hero Points. It’s something I’ll watch once I’m playing and getting a better feel for the system.

In the meantime, long ago I created a handy Motivations list for my various characters, both in TTRPGs and writing fiction. The inspiration for this list originally came from an excellent list in the first edition of the Aberrant rpg, and I slowly added to it over time. My thought is that any character, protagonist or antagonist, can have one of these motivations.

Note that the list is technically a table I can roll on to determine a character’s motivation randomly (good use for those Dungeon Crawl Classics d30s!), though I’m likely going to choose the main PCs’ goals.

Rank and Advancement

As I’ve been saying constantly, I want to create a game with clear jumps in power, taking the PCs from “street level heroes” to godhood. When I made my sample Crusaders character in the last post, I tried using 3 Power rolls instead of 5, and 15 Attribute points instead of 18. I’ve since revised my thinking here, with the following structure for starting values and progression:

Rank in Crusaders is more a symbol of fame and accomplishment than power, so in some ways this is the place where I’m most radically altering the game. Here, Rank 5 is equivalent to what a starting PC in the base Crusaders game would be (5 Powers rolls, 18 Attribute points), which is targeted as a comic book level superhero. To get there, a Rank 1 character is relatively weak, and a Rank 10 character is relatively overpowered. Thankfully, because Crusaders isn’t a game with a defined bestiary and cast of villains, I’m going to be creating all the NPCs and antagonists from scratch anyway, so it’s not like my Rank 1 characters are going to be any more vulnerable if I don’t want them to be.

What are titles, you may be asking? And what does “Godhood” mean? I’m not sure, honestly, except to say that I like the idea of there being a “fame” element to Ranks in addition to power, and I’ve always loved earned titles in fantasy games and literature.

Critical Hits and Critical Failures

Finally, I love that Hero Points in Crusaders are so straightforward and tied to Rank. You get 1 HP per Rank at the start of each Issue, and you can cash one in to flip-flop any d100 roll. Neat. Easy. Cool.

The more I’ve played around with the system, though, the more that double-digits (11, 22, 33, etc.) feel special. The game treats them as special for character creation rolls, in which you’re meant to flip-flop; on the tables above, doubles allow you to choose your own result or invent something new. So, it’s odd to me that the same doesn’t hold true during gameplay.

I’m going to play around with doubles meaning either critical hits (if the roll is under the chance of success for a given roll) or critical failure (if the roll is over). I like this system because it means that if you’re particularly good at something—say, with an 80% chance of success—you get more chances to critically succeed and fewer to critically fail. If you’re facing a particularly tough challenge, the opposite is true. That’s elegant and fits the Crusaders ethos.

The question is: What does a critical success or failure mean when you’ve rolled it? Here I’m going to feel my way and decide depending on the situation. Eventually, I might come up with a more coherent, hard-and-fast rule for how to handle these rolls. For now, I just want them to have juice, either helping or hurting the PCs in some meaningful way.

Let me reiterate that I’m super excited about Crusaders as a game to play. My many tweaks above are a testament to that excitement rather than a criticism. So many of the game books I read had me making puzzled, hesitant notes about rules interactions that I didn’t understand or that felt odd to me. In Crusaders, however, I felt like I immediately “got” the game, and so instead found myself saying, “Aha! That means I could…” All the energy I spent crafting the above tables and rules felt like good energy, generating more enthusiasm for me to jump in and play.

Speaking of which, enough of this table-setting nonsense for one New Year’s Day. Next time we’ll begin diving into the town in which our adventure will begin, and then crafting our player characters. Fun fun! As always, hit me up with any questions or comments below.

Joyfully yours,

-jms

Age of Wonders: Oakton

Choosing a Supers System, Part 6: Crusaders

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying10 Comments

Today I continue my game explorations for my next solo play and writing project. If I’m honest, I don’t think to this point that I’ve yet found “the one,” the game system that I immediately want to put into practice upon reading. I’m happy with my process—and diving into previously unexplored rulebooks has been a joy—but so far, my white whale has eluded me. Does a TTRPG soulmate exist for the genre mash-up in my mind’s eye? Will I discover it today?

Spoiler alert:

You know my requirements well by now, but I’m looking for:

  • A superhero game that can be played in a fantasy setting, plus allow for anachronistic weapons and technology. Basically, the superpowers and fantasy elements need to be satisfying, but allow for other genre shenanigans.
  • Is neither too crunchy (if I’m consulting forums or rulebooks more often than writing, that’s bad) nor too lightweight (I need to feel like the dice are guiding the story and enhancing the narrative). I want to feel like the mechanics support the story.
  • Level-up jumps in power. My idea is that the PCs start as “street level” heroes and become demigods as the story progresses. Something will be pushing them closer to godhood, which is a core part of the story. The game should not only allow for those different levels but be fun to play at all of them.
  • No hard-wired comics tropes (like secret identities, costumes, etc.). The story will be a genre mash-up, so I can’t hew too closely to any overly specific formulas.

Today I plunge into a game that I didn’t even remember that I’d bought until I was digging around looking for a different game on my shelf. A flip through its modest, 100-page contents reminded me of what attracted me to it in the first place: namely, fun black-and-white art and a focus on the 1980’s superhero TTRPG experience. I’m guessing that it’s a game many supers enthusiasts don’t even know exists, but, well… it’s awesome.

Crusaders

Crusaders is a game developed by Olivier Legrand, released in 2022. There aren’t many reviews of the game I could find, partly because it’s a small-press game few know and partly because any web search results on “Crusaders rpg” get polluted by a d20 fantasy game by the same name, Castles and Crusades, Band of Crusaders, Crusaders Quest, and Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done. Woof. I think superhero games need to think more about brand recognition when launching.

Anyway, the intro on page 1 of the book says that the game takes place in the 1980s and is meant to emulate superhero games and comic books of that time, a time when I discovered TTRPGs in general and superhero games like Villains & Vigilantes, Marvel Superheroes,and Golden Heroes specifically. In an interview, Legrand talks about being inspired by Byrne & Claremont X-Men, Byrne’s Alpha Flight, Perez & Wolfman’s New Teen Titans, and Davis’ Captain Britain. He is clearly a kindred spirit, and Crusaders is a game that delights me from the first page through the entire book. Even the black-and-white artwork throughout manages to capture the spirit of the 1980s superhero scene. An example, from the opening page:

art by Rudolf Montemayor

Unlike those 80’s games, the rules in gameplay are massively simplified. Each character has four basic attributes, and, from that same interview: “The system is D100 based but keeps dice rolling to a minimum. Dice are only used for dramatic actions, like attacking, defending, lifting heavy things, attempting power stunts, etc. It’s a very compact, self-contained system, with very few subrules and special cases.” All rolls in the game are opposed percentile rolls, and all rolls are from the hero’s point of view—so if a PC is attacking, the player rolls the attack, but if something is attacking the PC, the player rolls the defense. Players also have Hero Points, a metacurrency that lets them “flip-flop” dice rolls (turning, for example, a 91 to a 19 result), and flip-flopping is a core part of the dice-rolling experience in Crusaders. Distances are abstracted and damage is a set value instead of rolled, both of which are meant to keep combat zippy and unencumbered, which is one of my (and my people’s) primary frustrations of old superhero games. As with most modern superhero games, villains have a “gang of thugs” representation to a single stat (called Fight), lieutenants have a bit more detail, and full villains have the same stats as PCs. Which is all to say that Crusaders is a straightforward system and easy to understand; the whole book is 102 pages, and only 21 of these are dedicated to the core game rules. I get the feeling that playing it would mean needing to puzzle out some situations, but I equally suspect that doing so wouldn’t be difficult.

Character creation in Crusaders is lovingly randomized, so let’s give it a shot…

First comes a percentile roll is for Origin, and I get Freak Accident: The hero got their powers because of a scientific experiment gone wrong or accidental exposure to radiation, chemicals, or—in the world I’m envisioning—wild magic.

Normally heroes get five Power rolls, but since I’m building a lower-level character, I’ll give myself three. I have the option to trade one or more of these rolls for additional Attribute points or perks like a privileged background or connections.

Here I’m going to depart from Crusaders and dip into the very fun Background Generator tables in the Origins supplement for ICONS, which will help me make the decision on spending Power rolls for background perks. After a whole series of rolls, I get a 38-year-old, male, who is friendly and outgoing, who values a mentor or teacher as well as his reputation. He believes that respect is earned, not given away. He was born middle class in a city and, as a child, his family was divided by conflict. He has a foe who’s a family member and a friend who’s a current or past lover. He’s suffered from a physical or mental illness, but he’s renowned for something he’s done.

As always, that’s juicy and gives me a lot to think about and build. It does not, however, suggest that I need to trade in any of his Power rolls. So back to the Crusaders book I go, and with each roll I can flip-flop the numbers (so a 70 can also be 07), and, thanks to the Freak Accident origin, can choose from either of those results across any of the four Powers tables.

Roll 1: Armor or Super Senses or Clairvoyance or Telekinesis or Energy Manipulation or Magnetic Control or Acrobat or Scientist.

Roll 2: Energy Blast or Super Speed or Psychic Blast or Telekinesis or Fire Mastery or Magnetic Control or Detective or Scientist.

Roll 3: Armor or Energy Immunity or Illusions or Psychic Blast or Energy Manipulation or Fire Mastery or Acrobat or Detective.

Holy cow that’s a lot of options, and demonstrates how the seeming randomness of Power rolls allows for a lot of flexibility to craft a PC I’d enjoy playing. In addition, there is a Crusaders Companion that has even more Origins and Powers to add to the mix. I almost want to write a bunch of pages dedicated to making a series of possible characters with these same rolls like I did in my Golden Heroes deep dive, but to save time and space I’ll go with Acrobat on Roll 1, Super Speed on Roll 2, and Acrobat again on Roll 3, giving me the Supreme Power version of it. My new guy is a super acrobatic speedster. I also get an extra “improvement” on one of my powers, which I’ll give to my Super Speed.

Next, it’s time to select my character’s attributes, which are Physique, Prowess, Alertness, and Psyche. Each character begins with a score of 9 (average) in each, and I get 18 points to distribute, which I’ll dial down to 15 since this is meant to be a lower-powered hero. Since this is a physical character, I’ll leave Psyche at 9, bump Prowess and Alertness each to 15 (well-trained and watchful, respectively), which leaves me with a Physique of 12 (fit). My Vitality (i.e. hit points) is 36 (Physique x3) and my Rank is 1 (more on this in a bit).

Sadly, Crusaders hasn’t made a form-fillable character sheet available, but here are the final stats:

Sam Merita

Origin: Freak accident

Motivation: Gallant (ego thrives on recognition and the admiration of others)

Rank: 1   Hero Points:  1

Physique: 12

Prowess: 15

Alertness: 15

Psyche: 9

Vitality: 36

Powers & Advantages:

1) Acrobat

  • Acrobatic dodges: In combat, can forfeit attack for +5 Alertness vs. all melee and missile attacks
  • Leap: 9m
  • Break fall: Reduce damage from any fall by 20
  • Dazzling attack: In melee, can attack two different opponents in one round
  • Swing into combat: At the start of a fight, can Charge with +5 damage

2) Super Speed

  • Outside of combat, can run 75 km/h.
  • In combat, +5 Alertness to initiative and defense
  • Each round, can use either 2x Movement actions or 2x Attacks or can combine Movement & Attack
  • Like a fish: Gains all benefits when swimming as well as on land

If I were making a character that I intended to play, I would write out a brief backstory, incorporating my rolls from Origins and tying it to the world. For now, you get the idea. Crusaders’ character creation process, I have no doubt, would generate fun and interesting characters with which to play in my world. I would probably play around with the number of powers and how many Attribute points a Rank 1 character receives in my world, but it wouldn’t take a lot of fiddling to get it just right for what I’m envisioning.

Why Crusaders Works For Me

Look, nostalgia is a powerful force. I don’t know what someone who didn’t fall in love with superhero TTRPGs in the 80s would think of Crusaders. My guess is that the twenty- and thirty-somethings of my regular gaming group would squint and wonder what the big deal was. “Seems pretty sparse on the rules,” they might say, or “Ew, random character generation,” or maybe even, “That art seems a little derpy.”

For me, though, Crusaders has a je ne sais quoi that I can neither explain nor feel the need to try. It’s just great. Good job, Olivier Legrand… you’ve managed to capture the spirit of character creation from my early teens while making a combat system that isn’t bogged down in math and simulationism. Everything about the look and feel of reading the rulebook makes me happy. More importantly: It makes me want to pick up dice, roll up characters, and jump into a game. I wish the game had more random tables, plus more examples of gameplay, more optional rules, any VTT support, a more vibrant online community, and a mess of supplements. I do. I wish these things. But as a barely two-year-old game by an individual game designer, it’s fine just the way it is. It’s got a spark that many bigger-press games don’t.

In addition, despite any warts I’ll outline in the next section, leveling up in Crusaders works just as I’d want it to for this project, and better than any game I’ve covered to date. Every character has a Rank, from 1-10, that symbolizes that character’s reputation and experience. Players begin each “episode” (i.e. game session) with a number of Hero Points equal to their character’s Rank. Those Hero Points get spent to flip-flop rolls during sessions. Each jump in Rank allows PCs to add improvements to powers or points to Attributes. And in a world where I limit myself to 3 Power rolls instead of the typical 5, I can also weave whole new powers onto the Rank track, perhaps something like one new power at Rank 3 and every other Rank thereafter. Which is all to say that Crusaders’ advancement system both works with my original concept and is easy to tweak and tune to my needs.

Indeed, I was so flabbergasted by how strongly Crusaders had pulled me into its nostalgic embrace, I ran back to my bookshelf and pulled out Mighty Protectors (also called V&V 3.0, the 2017 update of Villains & Vigilantes) and Squadron UK (the 2012 update of Golden Heroes) to read through them both. Recall that I’d rejected both games in my initial screen of what games might work for me. However, it occurred to me, maybe all I was searching for was a modern 80’s game, and these other games might improve upon what had so charmed me in Crusaders. Imagine my surprise when much of the licensed stock art from Crusaders that I love so much is also in Squadron UK!

art by Tony Perna

But you know what? I like Crusaders more than these other two, even though they’re the spiritual successors of some of my all-time favorite games, designed by true legends of my gaming childhood. Squadron UK has more crunch to it than I want, with more of an emphasis on outlining the many Skills (both common and technical) a character possesses, and with a significantly more complicated way of handling rolls, within combat and outside of it. Mighty Protectors, on the other hand, has all the random tables I adore, and I have a feeling that character creation might make me slightly happier than Crusaders because of it. Combat, on the other hand, is still a math-y mess, and relies on precise distances and too many calculations to fit what I want. That Jeff Dee art is still friggin’ sweet, though.

My Crusaders Hesitations

The most glaring misfit between Crusaders and my project is the setting. Crusaders is set in the 1980s, though the setting is neither more detailed than that nor hardwired into the game. Like any superhero game, there are rules for medieval weapons and armor, and the distinction between “gear” and “powers” is clear. Still, Crusaders would take some work to transform into a base fantasy setting. I would likely need to tweak Origins, Powers (especially Super Skills), and figure out how to deal with equipment in a way that fit the other mechanics without bogging down the game’s brisk pace or overpowering the PCs. Every monster and foe in a fantasy setting is one I’d have to create myself. The labor involved here isn’t zero.

In fact, the more I stare at the rulebook (so far, I’ve read it cover to cover twice), the more I see things that I’d alter. I’ve already talked about loving the Rank and progression system, but also wanting to fiddle with it to allow “street level” heroes to achieve cosmic power levels. I absolutely love the options in the Crusaders Companion (which literally has the same name as a 300+ page supplement for Castles & Crusades… oy), so would immediately remake the Origin and Powers tables to include them. Long ago, I created a Motivation list that I like better than the one in the book. I think there’s an opportunity to make hazards more dynamic and interesting. And on and on. By the time I was done, I would have likely homebrewed a significant portion of the original rules. None of this work, funnily enough, sounds awful. In fact, most of it is exciting. Again, though, there are barriers between the book as written and my ability to jump in and play.

Finally, like a lot of small-press games, there isn’t a vibrant community online generating discussion and materials to inspire me. The Crusaders Facebook group currently has only 79 members, including me, and Facebook is us oldfolk’s primary way of connecting (and there’s no Discord server I could find). No virtual tabletop support for the game exists. The one saving grace, as far as I can tell, is that Olivier Legrand himself is still passionately plugging away at creating supplements and is accessible. Maybe I don’t need a community if I can email the game’s creator with my hairbrained ideas? Hard to know.

Yes, I’m throwing out hesitations and then immediately rebutting them. I’m seeing the problems of Crusaders, but I’m like a kid who just got his first beat-up car… its flaws are endearing.

One Game to Rule Them All

I spent a full ten minutes staring at my screen, wondering if I’m done. I really, really like Crusaders and, though it doesn’t precisely fit what I want to do without significant tweaking, the process of making those tweaks doesn’t daunt me. It’s funny to compare my reaction to changing parts of Crusaders against systems like City of Mist, Scion, or even Prowlers & Paragons. I haven’t played any of them, but there is something I innately understand about the mechanics of Crusaders that feels familiar. Again, it’s speaking directly to my 1980’s teenage brain.

Back to my central question: Am I done? Has the search ended?

On one hand, what I need to remember is that Crusaders was a pleasant surprise. I had no idea that I would love it, much less consider jettisoning my process halfway through to jump in. Perhaps another system is lurking on my pile, ready to dazzle me even more and without all the adjustments needed.

On the other hand, this is the feeling I want to have with whatever game system I choose, a decisive YES! in my bosom. This entire deep exploration process was meant to find me a game system that made me want to jump into a homebrewed solo game. If I’m excited about Crusaders, why keep looking?

After much contemplation, I’ve decided that I look for games like I shop for clothes: When I find something that fits and I like, I’m done. There are no less than five more games on my “to be explored” pile, at least two of them, I think, would give Crusaders a run for its money. But the systems are all so different… I’ve flipped through them all, thinking about my next post, and suddenly a task that was bringing me energy is draining it away. I want to get started.

Let’s do it: Crusaders is my game of choice!

Age of Wonders: Setting & Variant Rules

Choosing a Supers System, Part 5: Cortex Prime

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying1 Comment

Game number four of my deep-dive exploration of superhero games that can be played in a fantasy setting. Sometimes I wonder what’s wrong with me, that this is how my brain works.

By now you’re aware that I’m envisioning a new solo-play venture, one that involves a genre mash-up and thus a particular set of requirements for choosing my next game. These by-now-familiar requirements are:

  • A superhero game that can be played in a fantasy setting, plus allow for anachronistic weapons and technology. Basically, the superpowers and fantasy elements need to be satisfying, but allow for other genre shenanigans.
  • Is neither too crunchy (if I’m consulting forums or rulebooks more often than writing, that’s bad) nor too lightweight (I need to feel like the dice are guiding the story and enhancing the narrative). I want to feel like the mechanics support the story.
  • Level-up jumps in power. My idea is that the PCs start as “street level” heroes and become demigods as the story progresses. Something will be pushing them closer to godhood, which is a core part of the story. The game should not only allow for those different levels, but be fun to play at all of them.
  • No hard-wired comics tropes (like secret identities, costumes, etc.). The story will be a genre mash-up, so I can’t hew too closely to any overly specific formulas.

After three narrative-light systems in a row, it’s time to turn to something different. Today is my first (and only, at least for this series) dive into a true “setting agnostic” game, not built for any one genre, but meant for games in any of them.

Cortex Prime

Truth be told, I didn’t know that Cortex Prime existed until recently. Instead, I knew Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, a 2012 game by Margaret Weiss Productions and by far my favorite (out of five!) TTRPGs made under the Marvel banner. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying received rave reviews and introduced several innovative mechanics well-suited to the superhero genre. Sadly, the company lost its Marvel license within a year of launching the game and thus disappeared as quickly as it appeared. My sense is that if Margaret Weiss had retained the license, MHR would be talked about today as much as FASERIP, and likely would have spawned Cortex Prime—a generic system using the same engine as MHR—sooner. Instead, designer Cam Banks took the guts of that original game to a 2017 Kickstarter, and Cortex Prime released three years later. It may have sat dimly in my awareness the past few years alongside systems like Genesys and Cypher, but I had mostly steered away from generic systems towards more specific and unique game experiences. At some point this year, I made the connection between Cortex Prime and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, rubbed by eyes in disbelief, and promptly ordered the core rulebook.

The first thing to say about Cortex Prime is that it is beautifully produced. The cover, the interior art, the graphics used to explain game concepts, the layout… it’s all stunning. If the Supers! RED rulebook sits on one end of a sensory-stimulation spectrum, Cortex Prime is on the other.

It’s also a relatively unique rulebook in two ways: First, it reads like a “Game Design 101” textbook as much as a game instruction manual. Everything beyond the core mechanics in Cortex Prime is modular, and optional rules (called, in fact, “mods”) take up more room than the base rules, each painstakingly considered and guiding when you might use or not use that option. Because it’s a generic system, everything has a specific and technical term abstracted away from any one genre, and it’s a game that requires you to think beyond those technical terms to their application. Second, and relatedly, the book is targeted at Game Masters, not players. Because of its modular, design-the-game-to-your-world nature, Cam writes the book to bring GMs into the game design tent, letting them choose what sort of game they want to play. Cortex Prime is the single most earnest attempt I’ve seen to allow GMs to run the very specific game they want to play.

A number of great reviews of the system exist, and I’ll link to a few here by Mephit James, Gnome Stew, and Jeff’s Game Box. The best summary of the core mechanics are from a terrifically-written review by Cannibal Halfling, which I’ll quote here:

“Cortex is at its core a ‘roll and keep’ dice mechanic. For any challenge the player assembles a dice pool of around three dice, rolls them, and keeps the highest two results. Depending on which of your character’s traits are relevant to the roll, you could be rolling d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, or d12s, with d6 being average, larger dice being better, and d4 being much less good, especially considering the high probability of rolling a 1. All dice rolls are opposed rolls; the base dice pool that the GM rolls is two dice whose size vary depending on the difficulty of the task.

There are two other mechanics which depend on the die results. First is the Effect Die. Once a player chooses the two dice they wish to keep, they choose the largest remaining die to be an Effect Die. The Effect Die determines the impact of certain dice rolls, and is dependent on the size (rather than result) of the chosen die. This does mean that it might sometimes be advantageous to choose a lower absolute result (provided it still meets the threshold for success) if it produces a larger Effect Die. Second result-based mechanic is the Hitch. A Hitch occurs when a player rolls a 1 on one of their dice. A die showing a one cannot be chosen for results or for the Effect Die. While there are no direct consequences beyond that for rolling a one (only rolling all 1s is considered a critical failure and is called a Botch), the GM may choose to spend that 1 on the roll to create a Complication. Complications, and their positive counterparts Assets, represent circumstances or items that exist in a scene, much like Aspects in Fate. A GM can add the die value of a relevant Complication to the dice pool that opposes a character’s roll, while the player can do the opposite with a relevant Asset. When a character creates an Asset, they may use the Effect Die to determine its die size and therefore its impact on the scene. The other core mechanic of note is the Plot Point System. Each player starts play with a Plot Point, and when the GM activates a Complication from a player rolling a 1, they also give that player a Plot Point. Plot Points can be spent on activating abilities, counting more dice in rolls, and preventing a character from being Taken Out of a Conflict. As more options are defined, so too are more ways to earn and spend Plot Points.”

For the previous games, I made a sample character to test out the system. I can’t do that here, because to make a character in Cortex Prime means first making a dizzying number of choices about what mods exist in a particular world. Are we defining characters by Attributes, Skills, Roles, Powers, Relationships, Affiliations, Values, or something else? What do the superpowers do in this world? What factions exist that characters can join? Etcetera etcetera etcetera. Every character sheet in Cortex Prime is unique to that GM’s vision for the world. Take, for example, the same character sheet on the game’s website, for their sample Hammerheads (sci-fi) setting:

Everything on the sheet above—the three Attributes, the Training Packages, how Relationships work, what Distinctions matter—it’s all a setting-driven choice that the GM made before a player ever got involved. The possibilities are dizzying, and means that, once a GM has done the work of designing the world, everything in it bends towards the specific setting and stories in that setting.

Why Cortex Prme Works For Me

In a lot of ways, Cortex Prime is my wildest dream come true. It is a system designed for genre mashups, to allow GMs to feel unconstrained by any pre-existing setting. This is exactly what I’ve been searching for in this exploration. Reading through my criteria at the top of this post, it’s hard to see how any of the next game systems are ever going to address my criteria better than Cortex Prime. I get the strong sense that I could spend months worldbuilding and turning all the modular knobs to create exactly, EXACTLY what I want to do. Heck, once I’d done this work, I would have a game sourcebook in my hands that I could use far beyond my own solo play adventures. I would be tempted to consider writing adventures for my world and publishing them, surely reaching out to my regular game group to start a campaign. It’s kind of like a dream come true for homebrew worldbuilders.

What about jumps in character leveling, something that I’ve been using as a primary screen against other systems? You guessed it: There are mods for that too. Character advancement is its own section in the Cortex Prime rulebook, and I could make leveling up as milestone-driven or dramatic as I want.

Finally, once the world and game are built and all that knob-fiddling is done, the game has exactly the balance between crunch and narrative that I’ve been seeking. The mechanics are clear and easy to execute, and the decisions lead to exciting story moments. Even though the book often reads like a dense technical manual, it’s obvious that the density of mechanics is meant to allow the GM to make choices before players get involved, but that gameplay is meant to be fluid and fun. Look back to the game that launched the system in the first place, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. In a lot of ways, MHR is an example of what Cortex Prime looks like once the GM choices are done.

The cherry on top: Because it’s a new game with such a wide scope and elegant presentation, the community around Cortex Prime is still vibrant. Unlike some other games I’m considering, I have no doubt that there would be plenty of people with which to bounce ideas or to lend inspiration. Moreover, I expect more and more setting books will be released over time, providing a whole ecosystem of Cortex Prime ideas to mine.

So, am I done? Did I find my perfect system? It sounds like it, right?

My Cortex Prime Hesitations

On average, I think each page of the ~250-page Cortex Prime rulebook took me more time to consume than any other game book I own. I had to reread sections multiple times to grok it and connect what I was learning with other sections, taking breaks between sections to allow my mind to breathe. It’s the only rpg book in memory that I’ve brought on an international business trip so that I could have the long plane rides to read it without distraction. To be clear: I’m not criticizing the book’s presentation or layout. For me, learning Cortex Prime is akin to learning a new language. Cam Banks has invited me to become a game designer and given me tools to do so. It’s as if I started the process of finding the perfect car for myself and stumbled upon a custom-kit dealership, where I can have any unique car I want if I’m willing to learn how to build it.

What I’ve come to realize, though, is that I’m not fundamentally a game designer. At best, I’m a competent GM who is comfortable homebrewing certain rules and tweaking settings to my taste. I’m a writer first, game player second. I don’t aspire to publish my own game system. Jumping back to my analogy, I’m a car enthusiast, not a mechanic—I want to buy a car and have someone give me the keys, complete with a maintenance plan if I run into trouble later. It’s clear to me that Cortex Prime offers the exact game experience I want for my project, as long as I’m willing to put in the significant work to assemble it from parts. Is that the work I want to do? I don’t think so. Everything about Cortex Prime feels tantalizingly full of possibilities but frustratingly far away.

I have two additional quibbles, but they are minor compared to the daunting, steep learning curve of building the system to my homebrewed world. First, as I’ve said throughout this series, Dungeon Crawl Classics titillated me with the story possibilities inherent in random tables. The more randomness I can insert into my process, the more that I surprise myself in my storytelling. Unless I want to build the tables myself, nothing about character creation in Cortex Prime is random. I’m sure that Cam Banks would encourage me to build those tables, but it’s just another step to a long process before I get to play and write. Woof.

Second, it sounds like there is some collective handwringing in the Cortex Prime community about how licensing works with the system (another article on this topic is here). In other words, once I’d put in the months of fiddling with the system to have it exactly represent my homebrewed, mashup setting, how public could I be with the choices I’d made? If I wanted to start releasing bits on this blog that became my own specific character sheets, powers lists, etc. – who owns those? It makes sense that there are legal questions there, because as I said, the Cortex Prime book feels uniquely like a game design toolbox more than a typical game rulebook. I don’t have specific goals or an endpoint in mind for this project (and honestly am not particularly ambitious about it), but I’d hate to regret choosing it as a system without fully educating myself on how licensing works. Add this step to the long lists of things I’d have to understand before beginning to play, which just all makes me want to sigh heavily.

One Game to Rule Them All

If it’s not obvious, I’m incredibly impressed by Cortex Prime as a system. It’s brilliant and unlike anything else I have on my TTRPG shelves. Kudos all around to Cam Banks and anyone else who created it.

It’s also a sobering game to explore. On the one hand, Cortex Prime delivers exactly what I want, as long as I’m willing to put in upfront work to create it. My resistance to doing that work is palpable, however, and makes me realize that I want a game that satisfies my requirements without needing to design the game myself. Back to my car analogy, I’d rather spend more time test-driving cars, finding the best one of the options available that I can drive right off the lot, than learning the skills necessary to build my own from a kit. There’s a reason that I spend time playing games and writing fiction and don’t spend that same time designing games. I hadn’t been forced to confront my missing game-designer gene until Cortex Prime.

As a result, I’ll keep it as an option, but distantly behind the others. If I truly can’t find something that works for me—or if I find myself with tons of free time and a willingness to crack my designer knuckles—it’s cool to know that Cortex Prime is there waiting for me.

Top Contender: ICONS

Second: Supers! RED

Third: Cortex Prime

Not currently in consideration:

Choosing a Supers System, Part 6

Choosing a Supers System, Part 4: ICONS

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying3 Comments

Another post, another quest for my soulmate game.

By now you’re aware that I’m envisioning a new solo-play venture, one that involves a genre mash-up and thus a particular set of requirements for choosing my next game. These requirements are:

  • A superhero game that can be played in a fantasy setting, plus allow for anachronistic weapons and technology. Basically, the superpowers and fantasy elements need to be satisfying, but allow for other genre shenanigans.
  • Is neither too crunchy (if I’m consulting forums or rulebooks more often than writing, that’s bad) nor too lightweight (I need to feel like the dice are guiding the story and enhancing the narrative). I want to feel like the mechanics support the story.
  • Level-up jumps in power. My idea is that the PCs start as “street level” heroes and become demigods as the story progresses. Something will be pushing them closer to godhood, which is a core part of the story. The game should not only allow for those different levels, but be fun to play at all of them.
  • No hard-wired comics tropes (like secret identities, costumes, etc.). The story will be a genre mash-up, so I can’t hew too closely to any overly specific formulas.

I have another “lighter weight” game system on my pile, so I figured it would make sense to tackle it next in direct comparison to Supers! RED andProwlers & Paragons. It’s also the most popular of the three systems: It’s time for ICONS!

ICONS

ICONS (yes, it seems to be always capitalized, though it’s not an acronym… yell it with me now) is the brainchild of Steve Kenson, longtime TTRPG veteran and original designer of Mutants & Masterminds, probably the most popular and played superhero game of all time. In listening to interviews with Steve, it sounds like he was trying, with ICONS, to create a more accessible game than M&M, something that gamers of all ages could jump into with minimal start-up costs. This goal is further emphasized by the presentation of the core book (the “Assembled Edition” is the 2014 revised book, and seems to be the definitive ruleset), which features Saturday Morning Cartoon-like artwork from Dan Houser and is pocket-sized. Everything about ICONS is non-threatening and kiddie, which I’ll admit for me at first was a turn-off.

The bones of the game are steeped in Fate Core, a rules-light, narrative-focused system. Every opposed test includes rolling a single d6, adding the value of the Attribute or Power you’re using (always on a scale of 1 to 10), and comparing the result to another single d6 plus the opposing ability. Dead easy. Results of these tests have a narrative range (seven possible outcomes, from “Massive Success” to “Massive Failure”). Each character also has descriptive, non-numerical Qualities (e.g. “I can do this all day” or “All-American hero” might be on Captain America’s sheet), and players or the GM can invoke (using Determination points, the game’s metacurrency) these Qualities either for or against the PC. Stamina is the “hit points” stat, a combination of a character’s Strength and Willpower. Range and time in combat are both abstracted. All these points are like the previous two games I’ve explored and seem characteristic of many narrative games. I’ve read some reviews annoyed that ICONS uses many of the same mechanics as Fate Core but changes the terms unnecessarily. Since I’ve not played any Fate proper games, I’m blissfully unaware of these issues.

Sitting on top of these relatively basic mechanics are a metric ton of wrinkles and optional rules that make ICONS deceptively deep. Characters can combine effort to overcome otherwise-impossible opposing numbers, or the GM can set up “pyramid tests,” which are multistep challenges that simulate things like stopping trains from colliding. Players can retcon the fiction and use their powers for creative stunts. The game’s lethality is a choice, as are things like sustaining injuries. The list goes on and on, and that’s just from the 2014 rulebook. Over the past ten years, a metric ton of splatbooks, supplements, and additions have piled up, much like my bae Dungeon Crawl Classics. Unlike DCC, Steve Kenson has managed to collect many supplements into a few “greatest hits” books. For me, the best are Great Power, which adds a bunch of new powers to the base game, Origins, which expands the character creation process and introduces Knacks and Specialties, and ICONS Presents!, a 2019 summary of all sorts of variant rules and additions to the game. Included in this last book is a whole section on playing ICONS in a fantasy setting!

Character creation in ICONS is meant to be random (though there’s an optional point-buy way of making characters, the reverse situation from the last two games I explored) and is supposed to go quickly. So… let’s try it out!

To simulate what I want to do in my game, I’m dipping into ICONS Presents! for the alternate “fantasy hero” tables. I’m also going to roll on the very fun Background tables in Origins to flesh out the character. And, to fully stretch all the supplements I own, I’ll also use the expanded Powers tables in Great Power.

My first table is Origin, and I roll a 1 on a d6: My character is Arcane, with an innate gift for magical power. I also receive an additional arcane Knack.

I next roll on Archetype, a get a 5 on a d6: Stealth, adding +2 to my Coordination and Awareness. Cool. It’s an arcane trickster or thief of some kind.

Now it’s time to roll up my Attributes on 2d6, consulting a slightly modified table for Fantasy. Here is what I roll:

Prowess (ability to fight): 3 (Average)

Coordination: 6+2 from my Origin: 8 (Amazing)

Strength: 6 (Great)

Intellect: 6 (Great)

Awareness: 5+2: 7 (Incredible)

Willpower: 2 (Poor)

I then get to swap two Attributes, and I’ll swap Strength and Willpower. Whoever this person is, they’ll be a slight, agile, headstrong person, but not particularly musclebound.

Next I would roll for powers, but the Fantasy rules say to pick a few Knacks instead. I’m actually going to do a bit of both, selecting 2 each of Knacks and Specialties (their “fantasy” profession and skills), then rolling for a single Power.

For our magician-thief, I’ll pick Vanish and Escape Artist as Knacks, plus Stealth and Occult as Specialties. My character was, I’ve decided (at least until rolling up the background information), an Indiana Jones-like relic hunter before acquiring otherworldly abilities.

What was that Power? I roll “Offensive” and then “Dazzle.” My character can overwhelm an opponent’s senses somehow. Cool, and mighty handy given a PC who wants to mostly get out of combat instead of fight.

Now I turn to rolling up my character’s Background. After a whole bunch of rolls, I come up with a female, pale-skinned, seventeen-year-old who is a fun-loving and playful person. She values a mentor/teacher and yearns for love. She believes that people need leadership and guidance. She grew up in a rural community and was well-treated, at least until her entire family was betrayed by a loved one and lost everything. She then found a mentor and a windfall. Excellent stuff, random tables! I’ve got her in my mind, and as such writing her origin and Qualities is simple.

Here’s where I ended up:

The character creation process took me quite a bit longer than, say, Prowlers & Paragons, but that’s partly because I was flipping through four separate books. I have no doubt that it would become a fast process with practice. More importantly, it was fun, and generated a character that I could immediately drop into the story I’m wanting to tell.

Why ICONS Works For Me

It’s clear that Steve Kenson has put a lot of love over the past dozen years into ICONS, and it’s built on a Fate Core system that’s tried and true. As a result, ICONS is an intuitive system that is not only easy to understand but easy to tweak. I made a judgment call on what to use between standard superhero random character generation and the fantasy alternate tables without feeling self-conscious about the decision, even though Meri was my first character. Because the game always comes down to a single d6 role plus a single value, there’s not a lot to bog down speed of play. I love that the timekeeping system out of combat is divided into chapters, issues, and series, which sounds perfect for serial fiction. Which is all to say that ICONS’ core mechanics are easy to digest, easy to use, and I can easily see it working in my homebrewed world. With the four books I already own, I’m ready to play.

Although I didn’t think of it as a requirement when I began this process, I’m finding that random character generation is foundational to me being interested in the character creation process. Recall that I’m coming off six full months of Dungeon Crawl Classics, which is likely the most random-table heavy game in any genre. So much of solo play is combating my paranoia about overly railroading the story, and the randomness of rolls is what generates my surprise and delight. I’m already more interested in the character I made above than either of the Evlyn Towers I made with point-buy systems.

The level of support for ICONS is also heartening. There are tons of books, from both Ad Infinitum Adventures (Steve’s company) and third parties. I found no less than a dozen form-fillable PDF character sheets online, for example. There are Wiki and Facebook pages and a Discord server. The community feels dormant, but there’s still a faint heartbeat there. And hey… there’s even VTT support! I haven’t used Fantasy Grounds VTT before and have heard that it’s an expensive endeavor, but it’s nice to know that it’s there if I need it.

My ICONS Hesitations

My two hesitations on ICONS are related. First, because everything in the game is based on a 10-point power scale and every roll is a single d6, the power spread in the game doesn’t feel huge. As a result, I’ve read some forum comments that it might be a better game for low- and mid-level play instead of cosmic-threat level. It’s not a game that has particular rules for “street level” or “superheroic” play, because I don’t think those distinctions really exist in ICONS.

…Which means that it’s difficult to envision what “leveling up” looks like, when what I’m seeking are clear jumps in power once the character hit story milestones. There’s a section in the rulebook that discusses how to give Minor, Moderate, and Major Achievements, and Major Achievements (increasing Determination, adding Powers, etc.) might be enough, especially if I ignore the other two. It’s an open question, though, and one I probably wouldn’t sort out until I was already deeply invested timewise into my campaign. It would be a shame to get six months into a solo campaign, only to realize that I’m going to have to switch systems to fully realize the higher levels of play I had intended when I began.

I also don’t love juggling so many books to play, which is the same complaint I had with DCC. But I can’t really ding other systems for not having enough supplemental material and then complain that ICONS has too much material that I want to use. Consider this a minor irritant, not a reason to play another system.

One Game to Rule Them All

Of the three lightweight systems I’ve explored these past few weeks, it’s clear to me that ICONS is the best fit for what I want to do. The question is: Does moving it into first position on my list mean that I absolutely won’t come back to Supers! RED? For now, no. Yes, ICONS has the better character creation system, and far better support and materials. Supers! RED is different enough mechanically, though, that I may end up deciding that I want its narrative flexibility (particularly how it handles multiple Resistances) and the clear ladder of power levels. Heck, I could even see using the random tables in ICONS to generate the concepts for Supers! RED. So for now, I’ll keep both on the list:

Top Contender: ICONS

Second: Supers! RED

Not currently in consideration:

Choosing a Supers System, Part 5

Choosing a Supers System, Part 3: Prowlers & Paragons

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying5 Comments

It’s my second of many superhero TTRPG deep dives (links at the end of each installment to the others)!

Why am I suddenly diving into so many games? I’m planning to continue my solo gaming experience, but this time using a homebrewed world, story, and characters. The setting I’m envisioning is a genre mash-up, basically superpowers layered onto traditional fantasy, with a sprinkling of technology. Could I have started with something simpler? Heck yes, and maybe I should have done so. But I’m enjoying the specific requirements for a project like this one, and using it as an excuse to pour over some games on my shelf that I’ve either never read or have wanted to take for a test spin. Choosing the system has become a time-consuming tangle, but it’s been fun so far.

Speaking of requirements, I’ve articulated them as:

  • A superhero game that can be played in a fantasy setting, plus allow for anachronistic weapons and technology. Basically, the superpowers and fantasy elements need to be satisfying, but allow for other genre shenanigans.
  • Is neither too crunchy (if I’m consulting forums or rulebooks more often than writing, that’s bad) nor too lightweight (I need to feel like the dice are guiding the story and enhancing the narrative). I want to feel like the mechanics support the story.
  • Level-up jumps in power. My idea is that the PCs start as “street level” heroes and become demigods as the story progresses. Something will be pushing them closer to godhood, which is a core part of the story. The game should not only allow for those different levels, but be fun to play at all of them.
  • No hard-wired comics tropes (like secret identities, costumes, etc.). The story will be a genre mash-up, so I can’t hew too closely to any overly specific formulas.

My previous exploration tackled Supers! RED, a game that I’d bought after reading its glowing reviews but that I’d never sat down to read cover to cover. The other game in this vein is Prowlers & Paragons, also bought when I was in a superhero TTRPG buying frenzy because of how many people said they love it. What’s different about P&P is how many folks declare loudly that it’s their favorite supers system. When I added it to my “to be explored” pile, it was in large part to give me an excuse to understand what everyone was raving about. Let’s jump in!

Prowlers & Paragons

Prowlers & Paragons was first released in 2013, with the “Ultimate Edition” launched via a 2019 Kickstarter. Before I sit down to read a rulebook for the first time, I often search through easy-to-find game reviews to orient my brain. What’s fascinating (and exciting) about P&P is how many old-school lovers of Champions swear by it, and it seems to be a haven for people who, for whatever reason, bounced off Mutants & Masterminds. Hey, I’m a lover of Champions! I bounced off M&M (at least gameplay… I still love making characters)!

Check out this comment, from Richard in the above DMs Guild forum: “I would recommend this game for players of games like Champions or Mutants & Masterminds who find the math oriented nature of combat to feel very clunky and not very comic book like. Likewise I feel that fans of other narrative games, such as Cortex Prime, could look at this and have a good alternative game to use if their players want more crunch in the character creation. Alternatively I could see this game being used to create a really good fantasy game as well. I have often used super hero rpgs to run Dungeons & Dragons games. I feel character creation is much more fun in such situations and combat tends to work better.”

Squeee!!

In terms of how the core mechanics work, I’m going to use another quotation, this time from a 2022 review from Timothy S. Brannan: “The game mechanic is very basic and very easy to use. Every trait, ability, power, or what have you has a score. Figure out what you want to do, find the right combination, add those numbers up, minus any negative modifiers, and then roll that number of d6s.  “2s” and “4s” are one success, “6s” are two successes.  Compare that to the Thresholds table and you will know by how much you succeed, or fail.”

In a lot of ways, then, Prowlers & Paragaons shares its base DNA with Supers! RED. Everything has a d6 value, and gameplay involves rolling pools of dice. The difference here is that you aren’t adding the dice values in a pool, but instead counting the number of successes. As a result, dice pools in P&P can get large, since the game doesn’t care about your ability to do much math. The book routinely uses pools of 12d6 or more. If you like fistfuls of dice, this is a great game for you.

Combat is the crunchiest part of P&P, with specific terms like “active and passive defense” and “subdual damage,” but everything is theater of the mind and based on the basic mechanics from the review quoted above. Range and movement are abstracted to provide narrative flexibility, and a GM can decide how much things like size and cover matter to combat (or not). There are multiple pages of combat maneuvers, including rules for grappling, stunts, ambushes, defending others, etc. My general sense in reading the rulebook is that the non-combat parts of P&P are about who the narrator is, with a lot of open space to describe what’s happening. Combat, on the other hand, becomes more scripted, with clear initiative order and Health tracking. I’m not sure how I feel about the balance here without playing it.

Also like Supers! RED, character creation in P&P is a point-buy system with an optional random generator if you need a launching pad for ideas. The main differences between the two are a) the overall pool of points is larger (for street-level heroes, I used 12 for Supers! RED and 75 for P&P), b) P&P has more Attributes and Talents, which is what soaks up a lot of those extra points, and c) Flaws serve a different purpose. In Supers! RED, the equivalent of Flaws give you extra points to spend. In Prowlers & Paragons, though, Flaws create roleplaying situations in which you can receive Resolve points, the metacurrency that allows players to add dice, reroll dice, or add narrative features to a scene.

Because there are so many parallels between the two, I thought it might be fun to try and recreate my character Evlyn from the last post to see how it might differ here:

Comparing the two Evlyns from Supers! RED and P&P, you can see that, even with a street level hero, there is more detail here. Indeed, I’ve heard new players sometimes feel intimidated by the sheer number of Attributes, Talents, and Powers, especially if they’ve entered expecting a “light mechanics” system. That said, most of that sheet is fluff (though I like the many ways to add flavor), and since everything is expressed in a simple Xd format, once you’ve stared at a few characters sheets it’s all easy to grasp. Making my first PC took a little more time than Supers! RED, but not much. Like any points-buy system, the biggest trick was the “add one point here, take away two there” fiddling at the end to make sure I used exactly 75 points. Overall, I felt that I had plenty of points and options to make the character from my mind’s eye.

Why Prowlers & Paragons Works For Me

I worry that Supers! RED is too light mechanically, and Prowlers & Paragons is a definite step up in complexity. Combats can get crunchy, and things like chases and hazards are handled in “goals,” or multiple steps to resolve the situation. Because the “who gets to narrate” question is a core focus of the game, it’s a little odd to think about it in solo play. Thankfully there’s a “traditional results” variant rule that creates a table reminiscent of Blades in the Dark, changing the narrate-and-respond structure of resolving actions into “failure,” “success,” or “failure/success with a twist” which the GM can dictate. I love those mechanics, and it’s something I often find myself weaving into other TTRPGs. Also, like Supers! RED, we have tiering of enemies into Villains (full stats), Foes (same stats, half health), and Minions (one xd6 value), which creates encounters where PCs can feel especially super. Which is all to say, Prowlers & Paragons seems to have a lot of things I want out of my next game.

The system also has easy, clear jumps in power level built into the system since everything is based on point-buy character creation. Check out this glorious table from the core rulebook:

Perfect! I can easily see, instead of allowing PCs to spend the incremental Hero Points they receive at the end of each successful adventure, forcing them to save up until reaching a certain threshold. This sort of sudden jump in ability is, mechanically, what I’m hoping to create, and P&P makes this part of the storytelling easy and straightforward.

Finally, I want to say it’s a minor thing, but the more superhero game books I read, the more it matters to me: The Prowlers & Paragons book is gorgeous. Some of the art makes me wish it was a full comic book, and the layout is clean and easy to follow. Bouncing around chapters to find information is easy. The writing is clever and often delivered with a wink. After half a year with Dungeon Crawls Classics’ absolute monster of a rulebook and its scattered supplements, it’s delightful to have such a well-assembled book.

My Prowlers & Paragons Hesitations

Despite the quotation earlier in this exploration, I think the base P&P game requires some work to make it fit cleanly into a fantasy setting. Several of the Talents–Professional, Science, Technology, and Vehicles–are aimed at a decidedly modern comic book experience, and missing are things like Lore and Magic/Arcana. Similarly, several of the descriptions for Motivations, Flaws, etc. lean heavily into modern comic book tropes. None of these problems are crippling to my ability to play it in a fantasy setting, but it’s not out-of-the-box ready. As I’ve said before, I’m leery of homebrewing a system before I’ve even had a chance to play it as intended, and though the core game here is simple to grasp, it’s unlike most other TTRPGs I’ve played.

The biggest stumbling block for a fantasy setting is Gear. For me, equipment in P&P is caught in a weird limbo between narrative and crunchy. Characters can basically have whatever mundane gear they want, but these items often have mechanical boosts or effects. At some point, equipment is good enough to justify becoming its own Power, but that point isn’t obvious to me. Armor and weapons have tags that have defined mechanical impacts as well, some of which mimic Perks or Flaws that would normally cost or give you Hero Points. When thinking about a fantasy world where the PCs have superpowers but others don’t, the whole thing feels like a mess to sort through. I wish there was a P&P supplement that fully explored alternate settings like sword-and-sorcery or cyberpunk, which would help me feel more confident in how to navigate the many issues I see ahead.

I have a few other minor gripes about the system that already make me want to fiddle with it. For example, why doesn’t a character’s Motivation, which is given more than a full page in the book, somehow provide ways to generate Resolve? Another example: when making Evlyn, the only distinction between Blink and Teleport seems to be about combat, and so buying both felt overly taxing on my points build. I read in some reviews that P&P is easy to “break” from a balance perspective, and I’m just beginning to sniff at the edges of this problem even from a single read through the book. There is a way that a highly crunchy system like GURPS Supers or a highly abstracted system like Supers! RED works better for me, which is a surprise to discover.

Finally, I’m bummed to see that Prowlers & Paragons neither has a vibrant, active community nor even a creator website where I can find discussions, alternate rules, sample builds, etc. for inspiration (though I do believe a small Discord server exists). There’s no VTT support that I can find. These absences aren’t an enormous barrier, but they are discouraging to my confidence for committing to it for more than a one-shot foray.

One Game to Rule Them All

When I began my exploration into Prowlers & Paragons and reading reviews, I was sure that it would rank ahead of Supers! RED. Much to my surprise, I can more easily see committing to Supers! RED, and, while writing this post, often found myself thinking “this would be easier to figure out in Supers! RED than here.” My worries about Supers! RED being too lightweight and thus not keeping my interest remain, but P&P simply didn’t pull me in, despite its flashy presentation. In fact, if Supers! RED had the same art and layout, I’m pretty sure that the decision would have been ridiculously easy to make.

To be clear: I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum; if P&P is your favorite supers system, that’s great. Feel free to argue with me in the comments. For me and for this particular project, however, I see too many ways it doesn’t quite match my hopes for it, despite the ridiculously-lovely rulebook.

As a result, our top contender hasn’t changed…

Top Contender: Supers! RED

Not currently in consideration:

Choosing a Supers System, Part 4

Choosing a Supers System, Part 2: Supers! RED

On By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying4 Comments

Last time, I outlined my dreams for my next project: Continuing the solo-play, serial writing I’ve done the past year with Dungeon Crawl Classics, but in a fantasy-superhero mash-up story of my own creation. Because DCC doesn’t do superheroes, I’ve opened the door to another TTRPG as the underlying system I’m playing. My general instinct has been that it’s easier to adapt a superhero game to a fantasy setting than taking a fantasy game and adding superpowers. I’m also open to more setting-agnostic games, especially ones that have both fantasy and superhero supplements.

The special requirements for the game I choose are:

  • A superhero game that can be played in a fantasy setting, plus allow for anachronistic weapons and technology. Basically, the superpowers and fantasy elements need to be satisfying, but allow for other genre shenanigans.
  • Is neither too crunchy (if I’m consulting forums or rulebooks more often than writing, that’s bad) nor too lightweight (I need to feel like the dice are guiding the story and enhancing the narrative). I want to feel like the mechanics support the story.
  • Level-up jumps in power. My idea is that the PCs start as “street level” heroes and become demigods as the story progresses. Something will be pushing them closer to godhood, which is a core part of the story. The game should not only allow for those different levels, but be fun to play at all of them.
  • No hard-wired comics tropes (like secret identities, costumes, etc.). The story will be a genre mash-up, so I can’t hew too closely to any overly specific formulas.

I’ve discussed the dozens of popular games that I’ve already discarded from consideration, including all the behemoths in the genre and some of my personal favorites. Today I begin my dive into the eight (yes, last time I said seven… but comments on the last post here, plus Facebook and Reddit discussion, convinced me to add one) games I’m still actively pondering. Truly, I still have no idea which one I’ll choose, but I’m hoping this series will untangle my brain. Each post is meant to be a full dive and exploration, to really pressure-test each system against my needs and wants.

Let’s kick things off! First off is one of the games on the pile I know the least…

Supers! RED

Probably the most annoying thing about Supers! RED is its name, which is just generic enough to make web searches difficult. It’s an abbreviation for Supers! Revised Edition, a 2014 revamp of a game originally published in 2010 by a different author. Any reviews and play-throughs I can find on the game use the “RED” nomenclature, though, so Supers! RED it is. Also, sometimes SUPERS! is all caps, but inconsistently, so shhh.

The original Supers! is a lightweight game system, using handfuls of d6s in a way that I think originated from the West End Games Star Wars system. I don’t own the original Supers! book, but here’s a nice interview with the RED authors describing why they decided to revise it and what improvements they made. Suffice it to say, they clarified rules, filled in gaps not covered (like how you break things or grappling rules), improved the presentation, and added examples and optional rules—so the game is essentially the same, but polished up and with more options. In other words, if you want to buy the game, get Supers! RED by Hazard Studios, not the original.

The core mechanic is that each attribute, skill, and power have an xd6 value, which you roll whenever you want to do something. In combat, opponents also roll abilities or powers to defend themselves, setting the DC to succeed. Each character has four resistances (Composure, Fortitude, Reaction, and Will), and PCs (not the GM) choose when taking damage which resistances to lower, so each character effectively has four distinct “hit point” pools. Indeed, one of the strengths of the system is that the PCs have a good amount of control over how to interpret what happens and why, while still grounding these decisions in dice rolls. For a tutorial on the basic system, check out this short video. Watching that video alone, it’s apparent that Supers! RED is easy to figure out, has a lot of narrative wiggle room, and adapts easily to multiple genres (there’s no functional difference between, for example, an arrow and a laser).

On top of that basic system are several tweaks that give the game some depth. There are combat maneuvers, Competency dice (the game’s meta-currency to give players an edge), power boosts and complications, PC advantages and disadvantages, plus optional rules for dice caps, pushing actions, wild dice, and alternate damage. Even without the options (the one I like best is adding a “wild die” to each dice pool that explodes, making actions have the potential for more dramatic effects, since the level of success matters when determining results of an action), there are interesting trade-offs in playing Supers! RED that hopefully keep the game fun to play despite its seeming simplicity.

One more thing I love (which is similar to my favorite supers game Sentinel Comics RPG): Enemies have different levels of complexity based on how important they are to the story. Major villains are built like PCs, with all the same Resistances and access to abilities. Major lieutenants are “henchmen,” and have an xD value, scaled to the threat they represent and what they use for all attacks and defense. “Mooks,” meanwhile, are groups of nameless enemies with a single xD value. Mechanically, henchmen and mooks are identical but get interpreted differently, one as an individual and one as a mob. This system allows PCs to feel like real superheroes, tackling piles of low-level enemies at a time and making bigger threats feel like final bosses.

To wrap my head more fully around the system, I made a starter character, keeping it a low-powered PC with a more classic fantasy base. Here she is:

I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs of what’s on the sheet, but a few quick notes: You can see that from all the white space that the system does not contain a lot of detail (although admittedly this is a low-level “pulp hero,” about as basic as it gets). It was easy for me to grasp the character creation process, what trade-off choices I was making, and how to build what was in my mind’s eye, even only reading through the book once. Start to finish, Evlyn took me about fifteen minutes to make.

Interestingly, there isn’t anything particularly “fantasy” about Evlyn when looking at the sheet, though I had a fantasy trope in mind when building her—namely, the bookish scholar pulled unwittingly into danger. What’s heartening is that, although she’s meant to be a scholarly and investigative character, Evlyn is still useful in combat. As far as I can tell, in fact, there’s no such thing as a “useless in combat” Supers! RED character because of the open-to-interpretation nature of the Aptitudes and Powers, and the flexibility to attack or defend with anything on your sheet that has a d6 value as long as you can explain it.

Why Supers! RED Works For Me

As the above section illustrates, Supers! RED is an incredibly flexible system, grounded in creatively explaining how the few words and dice-value on a character sheet interact. Falling off a building? I’ll use my Ice Powers as a defense, creating a frozen slide to keep me safe. Someone’s throwing knives at me and hits? The damage is to my Composure, because they didn’t physically hit me but now I’m freaking out. I’m attacking a group of 2D mooks, doing 1D damage? I land on one of them, then spin a kick, sending a second one into a third, cutting my number of foes in half before they can blink. All the rules in Supers! RED are ways of increasing or decreasing the number of d6 used, and the effect adds or subtracts from the available d6s next time. It’s elegant and open to whatever interpretation works in your game. As a result, it’s a system that can basically work in any genre, all with a 168-page rulebook and nothing else. For a genre mash-up game, that’s a boon. In fact, I took glee in a Reddit comment from a player that said they’d played a multi-year Supers! RED fantasy, sword-and-sorcery campaign without superheroes.

Speaking of campaigns, I love the game’s clear scaling of power levels. Pulp heroes are 10-15D total in value, all the way up to cosmic legends of 50D value. I can imagine starting my PCs at 12D characters like Evlyn, awarding them Competency Dice each milestone or adventure, and letting them spend those Dice to improve their Resistances/Aptitudes/Powers, purchase Boosts/Advantages/Powers, or reduce Complications once they’d hit 15D, and then every 5D after that. After only eight “level” jumps, the PCs would have moved from barely enhanced humans like Evlyn above to a true cosmic demigod. This is exactly the sort of power jump that I consider a core part of the game I run next.

Because of the sparse, easy-to-understand system, making NPCs on the fly or improvising situations appears absurdly easy. The deeper I went into the rulebook, the more I thought that I could convert any adventure in any game system into Supers! RED without hassle. For a GM, the game is silly-easy to prep and requires simply the ability to translate situations into appropriately sized d6 pools. Oh, there’s a wildfire? That’s a 3D hazard. Twenty lizard men come pouring out of a fissure in the earth? Let’s call those two 2D groups of mooks, oh and let’s say they have a leader who’s a bruising 3D henchman leader. The simplicity of Supers! RED keeps the focus on vivid description and away from rules lawyering.

My Supers! RED Hesitations

I have one big worry about Supers! RED and three smaller ones. My largest hesitation is probably obvious: The system may be too lightweight to be satisfying. Making Evlyn’s character sheet was easy. Staring at it, though, it’s difficult to find inspiration for creativity. She has four Aptitudes and one Power… those five values must literally explain every single action she makes, adventure after adventure, until she levels up and adds 1-2 more (and that assumes that I add Aptitudes or Powers instead of solely increasing the value of those she already has). Will I get bored describing enemy after enemy in similarly restrained ways? Is a 3D fire elemental going to feel different enough from a 3D gang of skeletons to be interesting? The strength of Supers! RED is its open-to-interpretation, narrative focus, but I’m looking for something that gives me a feeling of tension and exhilaration when I roll the dice. I’m worried that I may not be giving myself enough narrative tools to enhance my writing versus simply, you know… writing.

I’ll cover my other three gripes quickly because they’re all minor. First, Supers! RED has very little support as a game system. There are no player or GM forums, there’s no module on Foundry VTT or any other virtual tabletop, and few supplemental books exist by Hazard Studios or other third parties. That’s fine, but I often mine forums and supplements for inspiration, ask questions of fellow GMs, and use the VTT to immerse myself in the game experience. None of that is possible here.

Second, I’m surprised to find that the lack of randomness–both in character creation and game play–is an unwelcome shock after playing so much Dungeon Crawl Classics (which is famous for how laden it is with random tables). There’s a random character creation variant process at the back of the rulebook, but it doesn’t really work for me and honestly feels a little half-baked. Thinking about it, I would probably make random characters in a different system, then quickly translate them into Supers! RED. That’s a fine workaround, I suppose, but strikes me as pretty silly if I’m going through all of this trouble to pick my game system of choice.

Finally, as someone who almost became a comic book artist after college, I’m utterly uninspired by the artwork in Supers! RED. I feel terrible saying it out loud, because I know how difficult good artwork is. A real joy about PF2E, however, is the rampant Wayne Reynolds art. DCC is famous for its old-school approach, led by Doug Kovacs. Heck, Johan Egerkranz is almost the entire reason that I bought physical copies of Dragonbane and Vaesen. For me, the art in a game is best when it sets my mind on fire with possibilities, wanting to lose myself in the world. Any superhero game is trying to attract comic books fans, which is a visual medium defined by its artists, so I’m a little baffled when supers TTRPGs get this wrong. With Supers! RED, I’m distracted by how little I enjoy looking at the book. Add to “the art problem” the lower quality paper and print from my print-on-demand copy of the rulebook, and I find the sensory experience of the game frustratingly poor. I am looking past a lot of blech to see the possibilities in this game.

Are any of these last three reasons enough to ditch Supers! RED as my chosen game? Absolutely not. It’s the lightweight gameplay that’s the primary worry. But since I have seven more systems (unless I continue to find more… lord help me) to consider, I suppose that everything is a factor. Speaking of which…

One Game to Rule Them All

I have a feeling that, at the end of this assessment process, I will have a pile of games that weren’t exactly right for my current project but that I desperately want to take for a test spin. In future installments, I’ll take the time to rank each system here. The game at the top will be the one I choose to solo-play next, but a handy ranked list will help kickstart me next time, if there is a next time. For now, though, I’ve only done one full exploration, so this section is as sparse as it gets:

Top Contender: Supers! RED

Next time: The exploration continues! If you have thoughts about this system or others I should add to my pile, I’m all ears!

Choosing a Supers System, Part 3