On February 8th, the folks involved with the BAMF Podcast announced the winners of their 2017 BAMFsies Awards. Once again, I was honored to be one of the judges, and there's some great superhero gaming stuff for you to check out from last year. As well, don't miss out on the giant superhero sale going in celebration at DriveThruRPG.
MIGHTY PROTECTORS
DriveThruRPG is currently celebrating the BAMFsies Awards, of which I was proud to once again be a part. Myself, Steve Kenson, Chris Rutkowsky, and Crystal Frasier were all judges this year, so I’ve selected the Judge’s Choice from each, plus the Gamer’s Choice Award for the year, to spotlight. Time to dive into the best of the superheroic gaming action of 2017!
This one is Steve Kenson’s choice, so I’ll let his words take the stage – “2017 was once again a great year to be a superhero gamer, and it was hard to choose just one product, but ultimately, The Mighty Protectors won out for me. You see, the classic Villains & Vigilantes was the first superhero RPG I ever bought and played back in the 1980s, and The Mighty Protectors is the latest incarnation of that system, by its creators, Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, featuring Dee’s art, both classic and modern.” Click here for more of what he had to say.
You can combat the forces of evil! Find their hidden enclaves with your super-senses, and bust your way in with powerful fists! Use your incredible agility or invulnerability to ward off their attacks as you blast away with energy bolts, or confront them with your martial arts or weapon skills! Drag them squirming and cursing to prison, to be brought to justice! Become a champion of truth and an idol of millions!
Villains and Vigilantes – the world’s first complete superhero role-playing game – is back again. V&V 3.0 Mighty Protectors® features dynamic random & point-balanced character creation, accessible fast-paced rules, brand new powers, streamlined mechanics, all-new illustrations, and an imaginative, far-ranging campaign setting – The Mighty Protectors® Multiverse – created by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee!
INSTANT CIRCUS IS GOING TO GET YOU!
Today features Crystal Frasier’s choice as we celebrate BAMFsies Week! It’s a straight-up adventure (with that classic “module” feel from the 80s) for Mutants & Masterminds. Here’s what Crystal has to say about Instant Circus Is Going to Get You! –
“It’s a classic, silver-age-minded adventure built around the classic “evil circus” trope that was everywhere in comics back in the age when they had an official cap on the number of gorillas you could use every month. Also, you get to fight an elephant! That’s classic superhero action.”
The circus has come to town, but it’s not the kind anyone should attend! A troop of super-powered villains have been hired to put on a show as a cover to test a powerful new crowd-control product. Unfortunately, the citizens of the fair city are the unwitting guineas pigs. Even some members of the local police force have fallen prey to these criminals. Can a team of costumed vigilantes to any better?
Which leads to the question: Will this instant circus get you too?!
Heroic Havoc #1: Instant Circus Is Going to Get You!™ is a scenario for Mutants & Masterminds™ characters of Power Level 10 to 11. This module includes write-ups of the villains (with drawings and backgrounds), a map of the encounter areas, introductory material to assist getting the heroes into the encounter, and suggestions for follow-up adventures.
SENTINEL COMICS RPG STARTER KIT
As we roll on through BAMFsies Week, today we focus on one my Judges Choice selections, the Sentinel Comics RPG Starter Kit. This is what I had to say about it on the BAMFsies site –
“Based on the insanely popular cooperative card game, Sentinels of the Multiverse, this is one that’s been long-awaited by fans dying to know more about the world and stories promised in the flavor text of those cards. It’s a very interesting game design, and this “starter kit” is a good idea all the way around. Traditional superhero RPG fans may or may not take to the rather different approach the designers took here, so having a way to get the sense of it without going “all-in” is the right move. Fans of SotM will recognize not only all of the characters, but how the RPG mechanics directly reflect the way those characters play in the card game.”
In the Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game, you and your friends play as comic-book heroes – either from the pages of Sentinel Comics or from your own imagination! Join forces against terrible villains and fight in dangerous environments, all in a tabletop roleplaying game!
The Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game Starter Kit comes with everything you need to play your first entire super-heroic campaign! This starter kit comes with a ton of information and gameplay content across thirteen booklets.
CONTENTS
1 Gameplay Guide
6 Adventure Booklet
5 Freedom Five Character Booklets
1 Unity Character Booklet
You are the heroes of Sentinel Comics!
In these six exciting adventures from the pages of Sentinel Comics, you play as the Freedom Five and their former intern Unity in the timeline gap between the end of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game and Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game. Each hero has their own booklet, detailing who they are, how their character sheet works, and what they can do. All this, plus the Gameplay Guide, add up to a total of 13 booklets included in this Starter Kit!
Heroes, you must help rebuild Megalopolis and reunite the hero teams of the world, all while staving off attacks from the villains who threaten us all! Can you uncover who is behind these attacks before it’s too late?
SAVE THE DAY ADVANCED RULEBOOK
Today is the last Judges Choice award for BAMFsies Week, and this one is by Chris Rutkowski. Here’s what he had to share regarding Save the Day Advanced Rulebook –
“I originally picked Save the Day because I liked the way the system did a “Race and Class” style approach to character creation, but did so in a way that fit the genre conventions of superheroes, instead calling them Origin and Class. A character is built by combining two halves of a sheet, making many combos possible and generating a hero very quickly. Powers and abilities can come from your origin as well as your class. So two characters with the same power set might be very different from one another. The cartoony art design was also a nice touch.” For more of his review, click here.
For use with Save the Day RPG.
This book is an attempt to expand the options available and let you create a character without the limits of Origin and Class.
This book also provides a system of tweaking existing powers to make them more individual and unique. Characters can be fine-tuned with Tweaks that broaden the powers available to players and GMs.
Rules are presented to help create consistent Gear and Vehicles as well as robots and hidden bases. Real-world examples are also described in game terms to help players and GMs better imagine the scale and range of the items described in the game system. This may contradict some of the examples available in the Basic Rulebook so use the Advanced Rules and the upcoming Gear books as a guide as they are more accurate. A discussion of Gear items as plot devices wraps up the Gear chapter.
Finally, guidelines for running more free-form “theatre of the mind” campaigns are presented to help you transcend the game table with only the power of your imagination to drive your story.
DARREN WATTS' GOLDEN AGE CHAMPIONS
Not only was Darren Watt’s Golden Age Champions one of my Judges Spotlight selections, it also won the Gamer’s Choice poll, making it the top superhero product of 2017 for BAMFsies Week. As as I said in my Spotlight text –
“No one brings the combination of loving enthusiasm and faithful research and rendition to an idea like Darren Watts, making his Golden Age Champions sourcebook an invaluable resource for anyone who has an interest in the early days of superhero comics. Gamers and comics fans alike will find tons to love, whether they’re Hero System fans or not.”
SMASH THE AXIS!
The Golden Age of Superheroes began in 1938, when a new kind of hero emerged from the pages of comicbooks in full color for a dime! Now you can experience high-flying adventure set in the days before, during, and after the Second World War, fighting for justice and freedom while armies march and cities burn!
Darren Watts’s Golden Age Champions 6th Edition expands the Champions Universe back to the earliest days of the Modern Age of Heroes, and includes:
• a thorough examination of the Golden Age as a genre, with discussions of the types of stories, themes and characters appropriate to the period (and how and why to break those rules when you need to!)
• a detailed history and description of the world of the Golden Age, including a monthly timeline spanning from 1938 to 1949 covering Politics & War, Science & Technology, Arts & Entertainment, Life & Times, Crime & Weirdness, and the history of the Champions Universe!
• an extensive section on creating Golden Age characters, including a thorough discussion of archetypes, seventeen character templates, and information on Skills, Talents and Perks for the era.
• twenty-seven heroes and thirty-seven villains, from all sides of the war and every corner of the world (and a few other worlds besides!), along with information about the activities of characters from the modern Champions Universe during the period.
• the guns, vehicles and gear of the Golden Age, both real-world and madly scientific!
• advice on how to run long-term campaigns set in the Golden Age, from a GM who has run several that lasted for years!
So buy some war bonds, plant your Victory Gardens, and Keep ‘Em Flying, Heroes!
-----
So as you're reading this, I am likely trying not to panic too much as we get ready to launch the biggest, most epic Big Epic Game I've ever attempted. The entire program is called Freedom Squadron: Psi-War, and naturally it's for the Freedom Squadron setting we are Kickstarting on 10 March 2018.
In case you missed it on social media, I did a teaser that features some new Savage Worlds content you'll find in the book -
FIGHTING STYLE
Requirements: Novice, Martial Artist, Fighting d8+
The many, many forms of martial arts worldwide constitute a huge panoply of specializations and focused styles of combat. This Edge represents intensive training and focus on one of those styles. When this Edge is taken, select one of the following styles and its benefits; a character can take this Edge multiple times, representing her training in more than one Fighting Style.
• Accurate Style: You've trained in focusing your motion and your strikes for maximum accuracy. You gain +2 to Fighting attack rolls when you do not Move. This may not be combined with Frenzy/Improved Frenzy strikes or other multiple-attack options.
• Brawl Style: You know how to take a punch, and how to make your attacks count. You gain +2 to soak damage from Fighting attacks, and you do +1 damage with all bare-handed attacks.
• Evasive Style: You know how to throw up a flurry of blocks and move fluidly in combat. You gain +1 Parry when you move at least one-half your Pace; this bonus lasts until your next action. You also gain +2 Parry when Defending and +2 on Full Defense rolls...
(There's also Fast, Grappling, and Power styles, which will appear in the full book.)
Hope you enjoy this, and enjoy your weekend!
The Adventure Continues!
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
MIGHTY PROTECTORS
DriveThruRPG is currently celebrating the BAMFsies Awards, of which I was proud to once again be a part. Myself, Steve Kenson, Chris Rutkowsky, and Crystal Frasier were all judges this year, so I’ve selected the Judge’s Choice from each, plus the Gamer’s Choice Award for the year, to spotlight. Time to dive into the best of the superheroic gaming action of 2017!
This one is Steve Kenson’s choice, so I’ll let his words take the stage – “2017 was once again a great year to be a superhero gamer, and it was hard to choose just one product, but ultimately, The Mighty Protectors won out for me. You see, the classic Villains & Vigilantes was the first superhero RPG I ever bought and played back in the 1980s, and The Mighty Protectors is the latest incarnation of that system, by its creators, Jeff Dee and Jack Herman, featuring Dee’s art, both classic and modern.” Click here for more of what he had to say.
You can combat the forces of evil! Find their hidden enclaves with your super-senses, and bust your way in with powerful fists! Use your incredible agility or invulnerability to ward off their attacks as you blast away with energy bolts, or confront them with your martial arts or weapon skills! Drag them squirming and cursing to prison, to be brought to justice! Become a champion of truth and an idol of millions!
Villains and Vigilantes – the world’s first complete superhero role-playing game – is back again. V&V 3.0 Mighty Protectors® features dynamic random & point-balanced character creation, accessible fast-paced rules, brand new powers, streamlined mechanics, all-new illustrations, and an imaginative, far-ranging campaign setting – The Mighty Protectors® Multiverse – created by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee!
INSTANT CIRCUS IS GOING TO GET YOU!
Today features Crystal Frasier’s choice as we celebrate BAMFsies Week! It’s a straight-up adventure (with that classic “module” feel from the 80s) for Mutants & Masterminds. Here’s what Crystal has to say about Instant Circus Is Going to Get You! –
“It’s a classic, silver-age-minded adventure built around the classic “evil circus” trope that was everywhere in comics back in the age when they had an official cap on the number of gorillas you could use every month. Also, you get to fight an elephant! That’s classic superhero action.”
The circus has come to town, but it’s not the kind anyone should attend! A troop of super-powered villains have been hired to put on a show as a cover to test a powerful new crowd-control product. Unfortunately, the citizens of the fair city are the unwitting guineas pigs. Even some members of the local police force have fallen prey to these criminals. Can a team of costumed vigilantes to any better?
Which leads to the question: Will this instant circus get you too?!
Heroic Havoc #1: Instant Circus Is Going to Get You!™ is a scenario for Mutants & Masterminds™ characters of Power Level 10 to 11. This module includes write-ups of the villains (with drawings and backgrounds), a map of the encounter areas, introductory material to assist getting the heroes into the encounter, and suggestions for follow-up adventures.
SENTINEL COMICS RPG STARTER KIT
As we roll on through BAMFsies Week, today we focus on one my Judges Choice selections, the Sentinel Comics RPG Starter Kit. This is what I had to say about it on the BAMFsies site –
“Based on the insanely popular cooperative card game, Sentinels of the Multiverse, this is one that’s been long-awaited by fans dying to know more about the world and stories promised in the flavor text of those cards. It’s a very interesting game design, and this “starter kit” is a good idea all the way around. Traditional superhero RPG fans may or may not take to the rather different approach the designers took here, so having a way to get the sense of it without going “all-in” is the right move. Fans of SotM will recognize not only all of the characters, but how the RPG mechanics directly reflect the way those characters play in the card game.”
In the Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game, you and your friends play as comic-book heroes – either from the pages of Sentinel Comics or from your own imagination! Join forces against terrible villains and fight in dangerous environments, all in a tabletop roleplaying game!
The Sentinel Comics Roleplaying Game Starter Kit comes with everything you need to play your first entire super-heroic campaign! This starter kit comes with a ton of information and gameplay content across thirteen booklets.
CONTENTS
1 Gameplay Guide
6 Adventure Booklet
5 Freedom Five Character Booklets
1 Unity Character Booklet
You are the heroes of Sentinel Comics!
In these six exciting adventures from the pages of Sentinel Comics, you play as the Freedom Five and their former intern Unity in the timeline gap between the end of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game and Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game. Each hero has their own booklet, detailing who they are, how their character sheet works, and what they can do. All this, plus the Gameplay Guide, add up to a total of 13 booklets included in this Starter Kit!
Heroes, you must help rebuild Megalopolis and reunite the hero teams of the world, all while staving off attacks from the villains who threaten us all! Can you uncover who is behind these attacks before it’s too late?
SAVE THE DAY ADVANCED RULEBOOK
Today is the last Judges Choice award for BAMFsies Week, and this one is by Chris Rutkowski. Here’s what he had to share regarding Save the Day Advanced Rulebook –
“I originally picked Save the Day because I liked the way the system did a “Race and Class” style approach to character creation, but did so in a way that fit the genre conventions of superheroes, instead calling them Origin and Class. A character is built by combining two halves of a sheet, making many combos possible and generating a hero very quickly. Powers and abilities can come from your origin as well as your class. So two characters with the same power set might be very different from one another. The cartoony art design was also a nice touch.” For more of his review, click here.
For use with Save the Day RPG.
This book is an attempt to expand the options available and let you create a character without the limits of Origin and Class.
This book also provides a system of tweaking existing powers to make them more individual and unique. Characters can be fine-tuned with Tweaks that broaden the powers available to players and GMs.
Rules are presented to help create consistent Gear and Vehicles as well as robots and hidden bases. Real-world examples are also described in game terms to help players and GMs better imagine the scale and range of the items described in the game system. This may contradict some of the examples available in the Basic Rulebook so use the Advanced Rules and the upcoming Gear books as a guide as they are more accurate. A discussion of Gear items as plot devices wraps up the Gear chapter.
Finally, guidelines for running more free-form “theatre of the mind” campaigns are presented to help you transcend the game table with only the power of your imagination to drive your story.
DARREN WATTS' GOLDEN AGE CHAMPIONS
Not only was Darren Watt’s Golden Age Champions one of my Judges Spotlight selections, it also won the Gamer’s Choice poll, making it the top superhero product of 2017 for BAMFsies Week. As as I said in my Spotlight text –
“No one brings the combination of loving enthusiasm and faithful research and rendition to an idea like Darren Watts, making his Golden Age Champions sourcebook an invaluable resource for anyone who has an interest in the early days of superhero comics. Gamers and comics fans alike will find tons to love, whether they’re Hero System fans or not.”
SMASH THE AXIS!
The Golden Age of Superheroes began in 1938, when a new kind of hero emerged from the pages of comicbooks in full color for a dime! Now you can experience high-flying adventure set in the days before, during, and after the Second World War, fighting for justice and freedom while armies march and cities burn!
Darren Watts’s Golden Age Champions 6th Edition expands the Champions Universe back to the earliest days of the Modern Age of Heroes, and includes:
• a thorough examination of the Golden Age as a genre, with discussions of the types of stories, themes and characters appropriate to the period (and how and why to break those rules when you need to!)
• a detailed history and description of the world of the Golden Age, including a monthly timeline spanning from 1938 to 1949 covering Politics & War, Science & Technology, Arts & Entertainment, Life & Times, Crime & Weirdness, and the history of the Champions Universe!
• an extensive section on creating Golden Age characters, including a thorough discussion of archetypes, seventeen character templates, and information on Skills, Talents and Perks for the era.
• twenty-seven heroes and thirty-seven villains, from all sides of the war and every corner of the world (and a few other worlds besides!), along with information about the activities of characters from the modern Champions Universe during the period.
• the guns, vehicles and gear of the Golden Age, both real-world and madly scientific!
• advice on how to run long-term campaigns set in the Golden Age, from a GM who has run several that lasted for years!
So buy some war bonds, plant your Victory Gardens, and Keep ‘Em Flying, Heroes!
-----
So as you're reading this, I am likely trying not to panic too much as we get ready to launch the biggest, most epic Big Epic Game I've ever attempted. The entire program is called Freedom Squadron: Psi-War, and naturally it's for the Freedom Squadron setting we are Kickstarting on 10 March 2018.
In case you missed it on social media, I did a teaser that features some new Savage Worlds content you'll find in the book -
FIGHTING STYLE
Requirements: Novice, Martial Artist, Fighting d8+
The many, many forms of martial arts worldwide constitute a huge panoply of specializations and focused styles of combat. This Edge represents intensive training and focus on one of those styles. When this Edge is taken, select one of the following styles and its benefits; a character can take this Edge multiple times, representing her training in more than one Fighting Style.
• Accurate Style: You've trained in focusing your motion and your strikes for maximum accuracy. You gain +2 to Fighting attack rolls when you do not Move. This may not be combined with Frenzy/Improved Frenzy strikes or other multiple-attack options.
• Brawl Style: You know how to take a punch, and how to make your attacks count. You gain +2 to soak damage from Fighting attacks, and you do +1 damage with all bare-handed attacks.
• Evasive Style: You know how to throw up a flurry of blocks and move fluidly in combat. You gain +1 Parry when you move at least one-half your Pace; this bonus lasts until your next action. You also gain +2 Parry when Defending and +2 on Full Defense rolls...
(There's also Fast, Grappling, and Power styles, which will appear in the full book.)
Hope you enjoy this, and enjoy your weekend!
The Adventure Continues!
Note that I use affiliate links in all my posts as a way to generate additional revenue for my efforts; I make my Picks and other article choices, however, based on the desire to share a wide variety of things with you. Thank you for your support.
Sean Patrick Fannon
Writer & Game Designer: Shaintar, Star Wars, Savage Rifts, much more
Please check out my Patreon and get involved directly with my next projects!
