Steve Kenson's ICONS: Superpowered Roleplaying from Adamant Entertainment

[jaerdaph]

[I'm posting this in General because Piratecat mentioned that the Other RPG Discussion forum is going to be merged into General Discussion - to which I say 'Bravo!']

In case you haven't heard, Icons is the new supers RPG by Steve Kenson (creator of M&M) from Adamant Entertainment. It's the complete opposite of M&M - it's lite, easy to learn and pick up, inspired by (though not a variant of) FATE and the supers RPGs of ages past. It offers both random and point buy character generation.

Has anyone else picked this up yet, and are you as excited about this game as I am? Anyone got any questions about it? Wanna start sharing hero and villain builds?

I've been itching for something new and shiny, and I have found it.

 

[Crothian]

I haven't seen ICONS, but I always thought M&M was easy to learn and pick up.

I want to know will it be at Origins so I can buy it? I haven't seen it any any local store yet.

 

[Mentat55]

I first read about ICONS on Greywulf's Lair (along with his subsequent posts on converting Iron Man and a sample combat between Galactus and Thor) and I instantly went and bought the PDF. It reminds me a lot of old Marvel Superheroes RPG, which was my first exposure to the genre way back when.

I really would like to give this system a whirl as soon as possible. As it is, I've spent probably 2-3 hrs over the last few days randomly generating characters. I came up with all sorts of stuff, but the most classic was a brick with Strength 9 and lots of defensive powers.

 

[coyote6]

I think it just went to the printers recently. Maybe some early copies? GMSkarka would be the one to ask.

I have my PDF, and we rolled up a couple of characters, but we haven't played it. I think a friend's group is going to start a game (they're in Las Vegas, though).

 

[Doug McCrae]

I'm very interested in this game. Icons, M&M 3e and HERO System 6e are all out, or coming out soon, and I'm wondering which to get, possibly all three.

 

[Votan]

I am hoping to own it as soon as it comes out as a print copy. The determination points as a balancing factor is a really cool idea and captures the comic book feel where lower powered heroes can be important through sheer grit: think Wolverine versus Magneto or Batman teaming up with Superman.

Very cool ideas here and nice and lightly designed (which is also a plus).

 

[SuperChris]

Just picked up the PDF of Icons. Looks pretty good. Reminds me a lot of FASERIP Marvel, but with "modern" makeover.

Not sure I like the dice mechanics. The 1d6-1d6 rule is a non-starter for me (as in, I'm not going to bother because it is too goofy), but the 2d6-7 version looks playable. Makes me wonder why he didn't just go with a 3d6 curve.

I think this will be a good RPG to start my son on.

-SC

P.S. Not sure where this anti-M&M feeling comes from. I found it to be much simpler than, say, HERO.

 

[Kenson]

Just FYI, if you're interested in ICONS, there are forthcoming e-reader versions, all the proceeds from which will go to support cleanup of the Gulf oil spill. Here's the Adamant press release.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

P.S. Not sure where this anti-M&M feeling comes from. I found it to be much simpler than, say, HERO.

M&M, IMO, is simpler (and vastly faster) in play than Hero, and it's much simpler for GMs who do a good deal of improvisation, but when you right down to building power-sets, it's not simpler than Hero.

(All that said, I was a Champions player years and years ago, and for me M&M blows Hero out of the water.)

 

[Votan]

Not sure I like the dice mechanics. The 1d6-1d6 rule is a non-starter for me (as in, I'm not going to bother because it is too goofy), but the 2d6-7 version looks playable. Makes me wonder why he didn't just go with a 3d6 curve.

Perhaps the designer wanted a clear middle value (e.g. 7 on 2d6) rather then the 10.5 that would happen with a 3d6 distribution. It is kind of elegant, from a design point of view, to be able to determine what a dead average result looks like as an exact number.

2d6 is also less strongly bell curved than 3d6 so it includes reliability with a more frequent rate of extreme results which may be important to the genre.