Invincible RPG Announced by Free League

Invincible, the comic book franchise made by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, is getting a tabletop RPG by Free League Publishing. Today, Free League announced that they are publishing a Year Zero Engine superhero game based on the Invincible comics franchise. The new game was designed by Adam Bradford, a D&D Beyond founder, along with Tomas Härenstam, the lead designer of the ALIEN RPG and other games.

A Kickstarter will launch later this year, with a Core Rulebook and Starter set planned. Notably, graphic design for the project is by Johan Nohr of MORK BORG game.

In a press release announcing the project, Bradford said “Invincible is my favorite comic series, and I’ve wanted to play in this universe for many years. The way the story unfolds in a sprawling saga over the course of 144 issues – without endless retconning – lends itself particularly well to tabletop roleplaying, and I can’t wait for fans to experience their own superhero stories with the game."

“One of my very first tabletop roleplaying games was the old Marvel Superheroes by TSR, and making a superhero RPG has been a lifelong dream. I think the genre, and Invincible’s more grounded and visceral take on it, is a great fit for the Year Zero Engine game mechanics,” added Tomas Härenstam.

 

[aramis erak]

Yeah but for those us hoping for those stalenhag/ Cy_borg/walking dead content despite reassurances there would be additional releases, your picture seems to be lacking a few entries.

The Mörk Borg line isn't actually done by FL. They're just the distributor.

 

[Benji]

The Mörk Borg line isn't actually done by FL. They're just the distributor.

True, but it is them who send me PR that promises products. So I'm choosing to be grumpy at them, flawed though it may be.

 

[aramis erak]

True, but it is them who send me PR that promises products. So I'm choosing to be grumpy at them, flawed though it may be.

They have little control over things Borg. Blaming them publicly is a waste of effort. They can't do anything about it.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

It will be interesting to see how this compares to WEARING THE CAPE, which is a rather good superhero game in a modern world where supers interact with bureaucracy, can easily accidentally kill people, have serious social and family issues, and can vastly differ in tiers.

At the moment, I could very easily run INVINCIBLE using WEARING THE CAPE, so quite curious as to what it will offer that is better.

 

[Reynard]

I was reminded of this because an ad for the KS came across my Facebook feed. We are getting later into the year. Has anyone heard anything new on this game?

 

[schneeland]

Has anyone heard anything new on this game?

No major news in the meantime as far as I know. Free League is running a bit late with a few Kickstarters, so they might have decided to push the launch a bit back.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Is there a way to find out more about the Year Zero engine without buying a complete RPG? I'm unfamiliar with it.

 

[schneeland]

Is there a way to find out more about the Year Zero engine without buying a complete RPG? I'm unfamiliar with it.

Depends a bit on what you want to know. Are you looking for a general overview? Or rather Let's Plays, resources, etc.?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Depends a bit on what you want to know. Are you looking for a general overview? Or rather Let's Plays, resources, etc.?

I want to know how the mechanics work. Is there a quickstart or something, or are people just supposed to know what they mean when they say, "uses the Year Zero Engine"?

 

[schneeland]

I want to know how the mechanics work. Is there a quickstart or something, or are people just supposed to know what they mean when they say, "uses the Year Zero Engine"?

It's one of the more established game engines, but I might be a bit biased here, because I spent too much time looking at RPGs and discussing them

Short version: the Year Zero engine is Free League's "house engine" and is used in most of their games. In its most basic form, you have a d6 dice pool, which is assembled based on character capabilities (often attribute + skill). You succeed only on a 6, but you can "push" your roll, which allows you to re-roll some of the dice (sometimes all dice not showing a 6, sometimes only those with 2-5). But pushing can also have adverse consequences, and you might take a condition, temporarily loose a point in an attribute or get your gear damaged (depending on the game). This is the older and more common version of Year Zero (sometimes also called "Year Zero (dice) pool version").

To complicate things a bit, there's also a variant of the Year Zero engine that used so-called step dice, meaning you only roll two dice, but these can range from 2d6 to 2d12. This has been introduced with the Free League edition of Twilight 2000, but is also used in Blade Runner.

Generally, Year Zero is customized for the specific game, so e.g. Tales from the Loop will play different than Alien.

To get a free look at a Year Zero game, you can check out the quickstart for Forbidden Lands (Link). It's fairly comprehensive and should give you a good idea about the general mechanics.

Beyond that, Free League has affordable Starter Sets for many of their games. While not covering the full extent of the games, they are a good option if you want to try out something at the table.