Well, if you're trying to add super-powers to D&D, did you know that
Four-Color to Fantasy already has done that. Click on the link for reviews of the book. They're fairly positive, in general. Here's one example, posted by Halifax:
"Oh my goodness!
"I have bought a few of the new superhero games from RPGNow - Deeds Not Words, Comic Book Superheroes and Vigilance, and I also have a copy of The Foundation (which was TRULY awful!). I was sent a not-quite-complete preview copy of Four-Color to Fantasy (because I nagged Morrus for a copy and promised to review it) (it was missing the contents page and a couple of extra pages which I was sent separately as .DOC files, but which will be incorporated into the final version).
"First of all, I have to say that - even incomplete - this PDF is beautiful! And, even better, it manages to be beautiful without big splashes of color or margines which use up expensive ink in your printer. The color used is just enough to look good without overly impacting on the printout cost.
"The other PDF supers games were good. But, in all honesty, I have to say that this one is the best by far. It manages to be the most modular, the most flexible and yet the most d20 all at the same time. It's not quite as epic-sized as Deeds Not Words, but it doesn't need to be (plus it's going to be supported with a line of products, such as a big superpowers book). It is also the most professional looking by a long, long way, and some of the others really had the feel of fan-created stuff about them.
"I don't quite know how to start with this review. I'll try and describe how flexible it is.
"First - the modularity of it means that you can use it with any d20 game (although it does assume standard AC rules, but Morrus tells me there will be a d20 Modern appendix available free once d20 Modern is released). This means that there is no default setting or genre attached to the game - you can set it in the pulp 30's or the near future, or even in medieval times (as in standard D&D). It's designed to cover a whole power range. So you completely choose the genre and power level of your game.
"But it's more flexible than that. Just character generation is flexible, with different toolkit style options. You can use the Hero class for a D&D style level based approach or you can use templates (weak blaster, medium flyer etc). You can design your own templates to a certain point value. Or you can just buy powers with experience points. Some of these options use the ECL concept (since they aren't using character classes/levels) so that you still have a total character level for game balance reasons.
"There are rules for handling powerful abilities which avoid the problem of massively high modifiers in a game designed for a 1-20 die roll range (as the authors say, what's the point of the d20 in a die roll of 1d20+112 or whatever?). These still maintain what I'd like to call "d20 integrity" though, and make sure the die rolls still matter however powerful you are (basically, you get more d20 die rolls instead of massive modifiers).
"There's a whole section on handling various uses of powers - using a bus as a melee weapon, or navigating at the speed of sound. This section isn't so much about the rules (although it contains rules), but rather about how to use the rules.
"I'm still at a loss here. There's too much I want to say. Little things like cool Reputation rules (much better than the Star Wars rules) [I think the table for this was messed up in my preview copy, though] or rules for Backgrounds (which I'm told are from the Spycraft game) which ensure that your character's background becomes part of the game (you buy the backgound then get XP every time it comes up in game - the GM is required to bring it up with a certain frequency or else you can cash it in for a big XP bonus). There's a whole bunch of super-feats, which are basically tricks and modifications that you have learned and apply to your superpowers (they're basically like meta-feats in D&D except a bit more colorful).
"There are 4 prestige classes, the Detective, the Mentor, the Vigilante and the Gadgeteer. They all seem pretty cool. Superpowers don't really play a part in these prestige classes, and even a non-superpowered character can qualify for then.
"The most important part of the book is the superpowers sectoin. There are about 60 powers in here, I think. They pretty much cover all the bases (I can think of a few that are missing, though). Each power is scaled with ranks, sort of like skills in D&D, so the more ranks you buy the more powerful it is. You also buy enhancements and improvements to the powers with those ranks. I admit, I would have liked to see some more exotic powers, but they do point out that this is pretty much the basic set (they cover all the common ones) and that there will be another book just full of superpowers and stuff.
"The powers are all very effect-based, whch means that you describe them how you want. For examlpe, the entangle power might be Spiderman style webbing, or Druid style plants, or telekineticallycausing wires and pipes to entangle the target. Any power can also be gadget based, too (there is a cost reduction for this, and rules on damagng and repairing gadgets, as well as tweaking them in the feld).
"There's a sort of introductory setting near the back of the book (just a few pages) which seems to me to be very Buffy-like. I don't like Buffy, so this kind of washed over me, but I can see how it would appeal to some people. It's a pretty low-powered setting, but I guess it does show how you can handle a low-power game (like a post-apocalyptic game with mutants with minor powers) as well as the epic stuff.
"One thing I'm not so sure about is the lack of magic or psionics. Some of the powers are, of course, duplicated in the D&D spell list (Invisibility, for example) and there are a few telepathic/telekinetic powers but this is very skimmed over. The book says that magic and psionics are not the same as superpowers, and aren't in the scope of this book - you're supposed to use a separate magic or psionic system, depending on the game you attach this too. Actually, I can see the Sovereign Stone magic system working well with this. This goes along with the idea in the book that regular classes should be used to round out a character.
"I think the big deal here is that you need a d20 game in order to play this (unless you want to use it with D&D), which means that on its own it might not be much use to you. There is a short "Modern Day Primer", which is a couple of pages of modern firearms and skills which you can get by with if you want to run a modern day supers game using the D&D rules, but to get the most out of it you probably want a full modern day game with driving rules, equipment and stuff. They recommend a couple in the book. I'll be using it with Spycraft, which I think is the best modern day d20 rulebook out there so far, although I haven't seen d20 Modern yet.
"So, in summary - this is the best d20 treatment of the superhero genre so far. Of course, there are some hardcover books coming out soon, and I'll have to check them out too. But I'm very impressed with this one. I think Natural d20 Press print their books a few months after the PDF, so I'm looking forward to seeing that. This is the only superhero supplement (the rest are complete games), so it is unique in a way.
"That's two great strikes from Natural 20. I didn't buy the Taverns, Fairs and Tourney book, but I think I'm going to have to now I've seen Wild Spellcraft and Four-Colors to Fantasy. Natural 20 introduced me to the PDF market a while ago with Wild Spellcraft and I'd say that only Monte Cook rivals them for quality (and I have bought quite a few PDFs since picking up Wild Spellcraft!) "
