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Can't You See We've Got ICONS On The Mind
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<blockquote data-quote="Christopher Helton" data-source="post: 7689383" data-attributes="member: 6804772"><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH]72546[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>As long as we’re exploring the lighter side of gaming, let’s go into a genre that is near and dear to my heart: super-heroes. Last year at <strong>Gen Con</strong>, I picked up a copy of Steve Kenson’s latest super-heroic role-playing game <strong>Icons</strong>. One of the big <strong>Gen Con</strong> releases (for me at least) was a new edition of the game. While I liked the fundamentals of the first edition of the game, it came across as rushed and unfinished, so I was excited to see what would happen to the game if it had a bit more polish put to it.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]</p><p></p><p>I wasn’t disappointed. <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition&affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Icons: The Assembled Edition</a></strong> was the game that I had hoped that the first edition would have been. The book grew in size as it took material and new powers from supplements to the first edition, and incorporated them into the core rules. <strong>Icons: The Assembled Edition</strong> was produced by Kenson’s <strong>Ad Infinitum Adventures</strong> and is published and distributed in print through <strong>Green Ronin Publishing</strong>.</p><p></p><p>Let’s start with addressing a couple of points that will likely be made by readers.</p><p></p><p>The art in <strong>Icons</strong> is by artist Dan Houser. The progression in Houser’s art from the first edition of <strong>Icons</strong>, through the supplements and into this edition, demonstrates a great deal of progression. Houser is a stronger, more confident, artist than he was when the first edition. The art is very much in the style of <strong>Batman: The Animated Series</strong>, which for some gives the game a “cartoony” feel. While it is definitely more cinematic (as befits a generic super-hero game), there is no default assumptions in the rules that would keep you from running grittier games. While the art may not be for everyone, the rules do not assume that you have to run an animated-style of game.</p><p></p><p>Second, both the <strong>Fudge</strong> and the <strong>Fate</strong> rules were thrown into the mix for this game, but <strong>Icons</strong> isn’t a <strong>Fate</strong> game, and it doesn’t play like <strong>Fate</strong>. Qualities, which are <strong>Icons’</strong> equivalent to aspects, have more of mechanical backing to them, than do aspects. Where <strong>Fate</strong> is more freeform in the use of aspects, “I have an aspect of ‘Big Science Brain,’ can I invoke that for a bonus to this roll?”, <strong>Icons</strong> has a process that works almost like the stunts in <strong>Fate Accelerated</strong> that you have to go through to “activate” a quality. You basically do a “Because I have [quality], I get [advantage/trouble],” and then the GM and player determines if a point of Determination is spent, or if there is another mechanical criteria that will activate the quality.</p><p></p><p>It sounds more complicated when typed out than it actually is in play, but I also wouldn’t be explaining it in play by comparing it to <strong>Fate</strong> either. One thing that I like about the changes made to the game between the first edition and the <strong>Assembled Edition</strong> is that Kenson distanced the <strong>Icons</strong> rules from the <strong>Fate</strong> rules. I like the <strong>Fate</strong> rules, a lot, but the two games were similar enough, but different enough, to cause confusion</p><p></p><p>Determination is the game’s equivalent of Fate points. But, the mechanic draws inspiration not just from Fate points, but also from the Karma mechanic from the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> role-playing game.</p><p>Character creation is fast and easy, and while the base assumption is that characters will created randomly, there are optional rules scattered throughout the character creation section that help out those who may not want random characters. I don’t have the same problem with random character creation in super-hero games that I have in other games. You are more likely to get some of the weird character combinations that you can find in super-hero comics through random character generation, so for this sort of game this is a feature for me.</p><p></p><p>It won’t take much to realize that <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition&affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Icons</a></strong> is an homage to the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> RPG that <strong>TSR</strong> published back in the 80s. <strong>Icons</strong> isn’t a clone of that game, in fact much of the older game is rephrased with newer mechanics, and the classic Universal Table isn’t used, but Stunts in <strong>Icons</strong> are very much the old FEAT system, and the column shifts of the Universal Table are replaced by degrees of success. However, in play, these differences are cosmetic and the feel of play between <strong>Icons</strong> and <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> is remarkably similar.</p><p></p><p>Resolution in <strong>Icons</strong> is pretty simple. The player rolls a d6 and adds it to the appropriate Ability (what <strong>Icons</strong> calls attributes), and the GM rolls a d6 and adds it to the appropriate Ability. The GM’s roll is called the difficulty, and the result is subtracted from the player’s roll, which is called the effort. This will give you the outcome, or your degree of success of the roll. Then, like with the colored FEAT results on the <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> Universal Table, you will know how well (or poorly) that your character did. Specialties (<strong>Icons</strong> version of skills, or talents from the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> game) can modify the roll, as can the expenditure of Determination. People who have previously only played the first edition of <strong>Icons</strong> will notice that the default assumption of “only players roll” has been changed in the <strong>Assembled Edition</strong> to the popular optional rule of both the player and the GM rolling. I think that this is a change for the better, even though nothing has changed mechanically (just who rolls one of the dice).</p><p></p><p>There are no automatic successes, no “narrative control,” or any other newfangled gaming technique to “interfere” with your gaming. No Fate dice are used in the playing of this game. The scale of abilities is more compressed than with some other super-hero RPGs, compared to Kenson’s <strong>Mutants & Masterminds</strong> or the <strong>DC Adventures</strong> RPG based upon it (both from <strong>Green Ronin Publishing</strong>), so that lack of granularity may be a problem for some, but I think that is a minor issue and it fits with the emulation of the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> game as well.</p><p></p><p>From a play perspective, you end up getting an equivalent feel from <strong>Icons</strong> that you would have had during play of the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> game. This was a huge selling point for the game to me. I put in a lot of hours of play with the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> game in college, and finding an in print game that can give me a similar play experience to that is a good thing. Converting from the classic <strong>Marvel</strong> game is pretty simple, too. While the numbers in <strong>Icons</strong> are different, the scale for the benchmarks are similar enough to be able to run classic <strong>Marvel</strong> adventures and characters in an <strong>Icons</strong> game with just a little squinting on the part of the GM. If, like me, you have a lot of material for the classic <strong>Marvel</strong> game, this is helpful.</p><p></p><p>All in all, <strong>Icons</strong> is a strong competitor in the super-hero gaming niche. Play is fast, and reminiscent of the style of play from the classic <strong>Marvel Super-Heroes</strong> RPG. If these are the "qualities" that you are looking for in a super-hero RPG, I suggest checking the game out.</p><p></p><p>There are also a number of <strong>Icons</strong> adventures and character resources available from Kenson’s <strong>Ad Infinitum Adventures</strong> available on the <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/4166/Ad-Infinitum-Adventures/subcategory/8191_9143/ICONS?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank"><strong>DriveThruRPG</strong> sites</a>. <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/114170/ICONS-Great-Power?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Great Power</a></strong> also expands the character creation rules, and offers more powers for your <strong>Icons</strong> characters. I think this is definitely a “must have” for groups wanting to play <strong>Icons</strong>.</p><p></p><p>I also suggest the <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117319/Stark-City-Campaign-Setting-and-City-Building-Toolset?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Stark City Campaign Setting and City Building Toolset</a></strong> from <strong>Fainting Goat Games</strong> for the GM starting an <strong>Icons</strong> game. Having a ready-made setting helps the harried GM out immensely, and <strong>Stark City</strong> is designed in such a way that customizing it for your individual group’s needs (and to help fit your group’s super-heroes into the setting) is pretty easy. Like <strong>Great Power</strong>, <strong>Stark City</strong> was designed for the first edition of <strong>Icons</strong>, so it will take a little work to convert between the two. Kenson has provided <a href="http://stevekenson.com/2013/04/27/great-power-conversion-notes/" target="_blank">some guidelines</a> <a href="http://stevekenson.com/2014/05/05/icons-assembled-whats-different/#more-908" target="_blank">for conversions</a> between <strong>Icons</strong> and <strong>Assembled Edition</strong> material at his blog, so that will make a good starting point. Even with the conversion work, <strong>Stark City</strong> is a great city supplement, and would help to greatly cut down on the work of a GM.</p><p></p><p>Last, but not least, if you are a fan of the <a href="http://herohappyhour.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Hero Happy Hour</strong></a> web comic from <strong>GeekPunk</strong>, you should check out their <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/146245/Hero-Happy-Hour-Barroom-Buddies--Bad-Guys?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Hero Happy Hour: Barroom Buddies & Bad Guys</a></strong> supplement for Icons up at the <strong>DriveThruRPG</strong> sites. It gives you some quirky heroes and villains that fans of the DeMatteis and Giffen <strong>Justice League</strong> comics from the 80s will enjoy. Plus, it’s a buck.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Christopher Helton, post: 7689383, member: 6804772"] [CENTER][ATTACH=CONFIG]72546[/ATTACH][/CENTER] As long as we’re exploring the lighter side of gaming, let’s go into a genre that is near and dear to my heart: super-heroes. Last year at [B]Gen Con[/B], I picked up a copy of Steve Kenson’s latest super-heroic role-playing game [B]Icons[/B]. One of the big [B]Gen Con[/B] releases (for me at least) was a new edition of the game. While I liked the fundamentals of the first edition of the game, it came across as rushed and unfinished, so I was excited to see what would happen to the game if it had a bit more polish put to it.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] I wasn’t disappointed. [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition&affiliate_id=1082"]Icons: The Assembled Edition[/URL][/B] was the game that I had hoped that the first edition would have been. The book grew in size as it took material and new powers from supplements to the first edition, and incorporated them into the core rules. [B]Icons: The Assembled Edition[/B] was produced by Kenson’s [B]Ad Infinitum Adventures[/B] and is published and distributed in print through [B]Green Ronin Publishing[/B]. Let’s start with addressing a couple of points that will likely be made by readers. The art in [B]Icons[/B] is by artist Dan Houser. The progression in Houser’s art from the first edition of [B]Icons[/B], through the supplements and into this edition, demonstrates a great deal of progression. Houser is a stronger, more confident, artist than he was when the first edition. The art is very much in the style of [B]Batman: The Animated Series[/B], which for some gives the game a “cartoony” feel. While it is definitely more cinematic (as befits a generic super-hero game), there is no default assumptions in the rules that would keep you from running grittier games. While the art may not be for everyone, the rules do not assume that you have to run an animated-style of game. Second, both the [B]Fudge[/B] and the [B]Fate[/B] rules were thrown into the mix for this game, but [B]Icons[/B] isn’t a [B]Fate[/B] game, and it doesn’t play like [B]Fate[/B]. Qualities, which are [B]Icons’[/B] equivalent to aspects, have more of mechanical backing to them, than do aspects. Where [B]Fate[/B] is more freeform in the use of aspects, “I have an aspect of ‘Big Science Brain,’ can I invoke that for a bonus to this roll?”, [B]Icons[/B] has a process that works almost like the stunts in [B]Fate Accelerated[/B] that you have to go through to “activate” a quality. You basically do a “Because I have [quality], I get [advantage/trouble],” and then the GM and player determines if a point of Determination is spent, or if there is another mechanical criteria that will activate the quality. It sounds more complicated when typed out than it actually is in play, but I also wouldn’t be explaining it in play by comparing it to [B]Fate[/B] either. One thing that I like about the changes made to the game between the first edition and the [B]Assembled Edition[/B] is that Kenson distanced the [B]Icons[/B] rules from the [B]Fate[/B] rules. I like the [B]Fate[/B] rules, a lot, but the two games were similar enough, but different enough, to cause confusion Determination is the game’s equivalent of Fate points. But, the mechanic draws inspiration not just from Fate points, but also from the Karma mechanic from the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] role-playing game. Character creation is fast and easy, and while the base assumption is that characters will created randomly, there are optional rules scattered throughout the character creation section that help out those who may not want random characters. I don’t have the same problem with random character creation in super-hero games that I have in other games. You are more likely to get some of the weird character combinations that you can find in super-hero comics through random character generation, so for this sort of game this is a feature for me. It won’t take much to realize that [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition&affiliate_id=1082"]Icons[/URL][/B] is an homage to the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] RPG that [B]TSR[/B] published back in the 80s. [B]Icons[/B] isn’t a clone of that game, in fact much of the older game is rephrased with newer mechanics, and the classic Universal Table isn’t used, but Stunts in [B]Icons[/B] are very much the old FEAT system, and the column shifts of the Universal Table are replaced by degrees of success. However, in play, these differences are cosmetic and the feel of play between [B]Icons[/B] and [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] is remarkably similar. Resolution in [B]Icons[/B] is pretty simple. The player rolls a d6 and adds it to the appropriate Ability (what [B]Icons[/B] calls attributes), and the GM rolls a d6 and adds it to the appropriate Ability. The GM’s roll is called the difficulty, and the result is subtracted from the player’s roll, which is called the effort. This will give you the outcome, or your degree of success of the roll. Then, like with the colored FEAT results on the [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] Universal Table, you will know how well (or poorly) that your character did. Specialties ([B]Icons[/B] version of skills, or talents from the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] game) can modify the roll, as can the expenditure of Determination. People who have previously only played the first edition of [B]Icons[/B] will notice that the default assumption of “only players roll” has been changed in the [B]Assembled Edition[/B] to the popular optional rule of both the player and the GM rolling. I think that this is a change for the better, even though nothing has changed mechanically (just who rolls one of the dice). There are no automatic successes, no “narrative control,” or any other newfangled gaming technique to “interfere” with your gaming. No Fate dice are used in the playing of this game. The scale of abilities is more compressed than with some other super-hero RPGs, compared to Kenson’s [B]Mutants & Masterminds[/B] or the [B]DC Adventures[/B] RPG based upon it (both from [B]Green Ronin Publishing[/B]), so that lack of granularity may be a problem for some, but I think that is a minor issue and it fits with the emulation of the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] game as well. From a play perspective, you end up getting an equivalent feel from [B]Icons[/B] that you would have had during play of the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] game. This was a huge selling point for the game to me. I put in a lot of hours of play with the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] game in college, and finding an in print game that can give me a similar play experience to that is a good thing. Converting from the classic [B]Marvel[/B] game is pretty simple, too. While the numbers in [B]Icons[/B] are different, the scale for the benchmarks are similar enough to be able to run classic [B]Marvel[/B] adventures and characters in an [B]Icons[/B] game with just a little squinting on the part of the GM. If, like me, you have a lot of material for the classic [B]Marvel[/B] game, this is helpful. All in all, [B]Icons[/B] is a strong competitor in the super-hero gaming niche. Play is fast, and reminiscent of the style of play from the classic [B]Marvel Super-Heroes[/B] RPG. If these are the "qualities" that you are looking for in a super-hero RPG, I suggest checking the game out. There are also a number of [B]Icons[/B] adventures and character resources available from Kenson’s [B]Ad Infinitum Adventures[/B] available on the [URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/browse/pub/4166/Ad-Infinitum-Adventures/subcategory/8191_9143/ICONS?affiliate_id=1082"][B]DriveThruRPG[/B] sites[/URL]. [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/114170/ICONS-Great-Power?affiliate_id=1082"]Great Power[/URL][/B] also expands the character creation rules, and offers more powers for your [B]Icons[/B] characters. I think this is definitely a “must have” for groups wanting to play [B]Icons[/B]. I also suggest the [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117319/Stark-City-Campaign-Setting-and-City-Building-Toolset?affiliate_id=1082"]Stark City Campaign Setting and City Building Toolset[/URL][/B] from [B]Fainting Goat Games[/B] for the GM starting an [B]Icons[/B] game. Having a ready-made setting helps the harried GM out immensely, and [B]Stark City[/B] is designed in such a way that customizing it for your individual group’s needs (and to help fit your group’s super-heroes into the setting) is pretty easy. Like [B]Great Power[/B], [B]Stark City[/B] was designed for the first edition of [B]Icons[/B], so it will take a little work to convert between the two. Kenson has provided [URL="http://stevekenson.com/2013/04/27/great-power-conversion-notes/"]some guidelines[/URL] [URL="http://stevekenson.com/2014/05/05/icons-assembled-whats-different/#more-908"]for conversions[/URL] between [B]Icons[/B] and [B]Assembled Edition[/B] material at his blog, so that will make a good starting point. Even with the conversion work, [B]Stark City[/B] is a great city supplement, and would help to greatly cut down on the work of a GM. Last, but not least, if you are a fan of the [URL="http://herohappyhour.com/"][B]Hero Happy Hour[/B][/URL] web comic from [B]GeekPunk[/B], you should check out their [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/146245/Hero-Happy-Hour-Barroom-Buddies--Bad-Guys?affiliate_id=1082"]Hero Happy Hour: Barroom Buddies & Bad Guys[/URL][/B] supplement for Icons up at the [B]DriveThruRPG[/B] sites. It gives you some quirky heroes and villains that fans of the DeMatteis and Giffen [B]Justice League[/B] comics from the 80s will enjoy. Plus, it’s a buck. [/QUOTE]
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