Kickstarter Kickstarter Announcement: The Superverse - A Superhero Campaign Sourcebook

A.K.A. Dragonfly · Jan 16, 2019

Howdy all!

The Superverse is a campaign sourcebook that supports the following RPGs: SUPERS! Revised, HERO System, ICONS, BASH! and Supergame. You can find the Kickstarter HERE.

Each system specific sourcebook includes the following:

Stats and origins for the The Freedom Ring and The Iron Gauntlet. These are the 5 superheroes and 7 supervillains originally appearing in character books that I published for the first edition of SUPERS! back in 2012. Their stats are updated for SUPERS! Revised. They remain the same for the BASH! Ultimate Edition version of the book (as the original character books were published for this game shortly after their original release). This is the first time that these characters are written-up for ICONS: Assembled, Champions Complete and Supergame. The character origins are basically the same as in the original character books, but have been slightly tweaked for purposes of better integrating them with the next item, which is …
Four interlinked adventures designed to introduce all of the above characters into your games while keeping your player characters at the forefront of the action. Thoroughly rooted in the setting, these adventures provide many options for role-playing, investigation, and combat.
New Characters and Organizations. While writing the adventures, I generated quite a few new characters, including a government-sponsored superhero team (Vanguard America), five super-powered mobsters, three agencies (AEGIS, CHIMERA, UNICORN), 10+ supporting characters (these are non-powered citizens of Del Rey), and a few others.
A Timeline of the Superverse. This timeline is compiled from all of the character origins and adventure backgrounds included in the book. It should make it easier for GMs and players to get a sense of the setting’s backstory and fit their own characters into the universe.
The City of Del Rey. Del Rey is the fictionalized version of San Francisco where the aforementioned adventures are set. I’ve tried to provide enough flavor text to give the city some personality, but have shied away from creating an overly-determined setting. The chapter on Del Rey provides details on organizations, institutions, people, and places, but only those that might make an appearance during the sourcebook’s adventures. My hope is that this approach will “leave enough blanks” for you to make the city your own.
Campaign Design Advice. This short section provides advice on how to make sure that player characters remain at the center of the narrative when running through a published universe.
Optional Rules (SUPERS! Revised only!). This includes a new option for Super Strength, minor tweaks to the Mook rules, and suggested changes for one or two Complications.
A Mass Combat System (SUPERS! Revised only!). SUPERS! Revised's Mook rules figure heavy into this system, but the options introduced here provide a new approach to truly massive battles.
As much art as we can pack into the book! Joe Singleton is the artist for the book. His Neo-Silver Age / Modern Age style is perfect for this project, which is largely inspired the comics that I grew up reading in the late-1970s and 1980s. To date, Joe has completed 42 character illustrations for the book plus beautiful cover art. He’s poised to add render a great deal more, depending on whether or not we hit the Kickstarter’s stretch goals. I love his work, so I hope that we do!
Maps. These are contingent on the project being successfully funded via Kickstarter, but The Superverse is slated to include maps for the following locations: The City of Del Rey (player and GM versions), Stellar Labs (interior / exterior), the Argyle Museum, ACME Steel, Black Rock Prison, the Del Rey County Jail, The Pier (a bayside shopping center), Fort Wayne (military base), and a desert landing site. All of these are keyed to encounters in the sourcebook’s adventures.