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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

Thank you. What games use it? I might have them hiding on my hard drive.

 

[schneeland]

Thank you. What games use it? I might have them hiding on my hard drive.

To my knowledge:

• Dice pool version
  • Alien (both the original version and the Evolved Edition)
  • Coriolis (both The Third Horizon and The Great Dark, but specifics differ quite a bit)
  • Electric State
  • Forbidden Lands
  • Mutant Year Zero
  • Tales from the Loop / Things from the Flood
  • The Walking Dead
  • Vaesen
• Step dice version
  • Twilight 2000
  • Blade Runner

 

[Micah Sweet]

To my knowledge:

• Dice pool version
  • Alien (both the original version and the Evolved Edition)
  • Coriolis (both The Third Horizon and The Great Dark, but specifics differ quite a bit)
  • Electric State
  • Forbidden Lands
  • Mutant Year Zero
  • Tales from the Loop / Things from the Flood
  • The Walking Dead
  • Vaesen
• Step dice version
  • Twilight 2000
  • Blade Runner

So all the Free League games except the one I actually own: The One Ring.

 

[schneeland]

So all the Free League games except the one I actually own: The One Ring.

There's a few more (most notably: Dragonbane), but yes, The One Ring has its own system that is entirely unrelated to Year Zero.

 

[Reynard]

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

There is an SRD: https://freeleaguepublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/YZE-Standard-Reference-Document.pdf

 

[schneeland]

I guess it had to happen specifically today (this was posted 9 hours back on Facebook):

 

[Bolongo]

Is there a quickstart or something

Just go to dtrpg and search for "free league quickstart". You'll find a bunch.

 

[dbm]

So all the Free League games except the one I actually own: The One Ring.

Free League just publish that one, they didn’t write it.

 

[Reynard]

So all the Free League games except the one I actually own: The One Ring.

Something tells me you should definitely check out Dragonbane. It seems your jam.

 

[SteveC]

Something tells me you should definitely check out Dragonbane. It seems your jam.

I'll second that, I think you'd like it. Now the Year Zero system for superheroes, and specifically Invincible, will be a sell for me. I don't think it's a good fit. I do trust the designers, though, so I'll check into it.