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.

 

[Argonaught]

The beta version of the full core book was just released for backers. Gotta say I'm disappointed in how they ended up doing stat blocks for enemies. Every NPC uses the Year Zero NPC stat block, which does make sense, but it also means that the more complex adversaries are pretty unwieldy. The game doesn't use the monster stat blocks, which are in other Year Zero games with the 6 signature abilities for ease of play. Even on a quick skim some creatures like vampire or werewolf have huge stat blocks that the GM is expected to quickly parse and read during play. A huge missed opportunity to improve playability.

I know that it's different strokes for different folks, but I'll offer a counterpoint and say I wouldn't want to use "monster" stat blocks for the named comic characters in Invincible (or any other comic universe) - I'd want the NPC stats to represent the characters more fully.

The simplified stat blocks can work for a xenomorph since they're fairly "stock" and nameless, but applying that to superheroes and villains would make all the enemies seem too same-y to me and my players. I think the minion rules can help keep things a bit easier to track for no-names, but I like having the full profiles.

My group played through the starter set adventure a few nights ago and they all asked if we could play an extra time this week to finish it (which hasn't happened in years), so we did so last night. Sure, I read through things and familiarized a bit with the stat blocks prior to playing, but I didn't find it unwieldy at all, and the final battle (without spoiling anything) felt more like a comic book crisis than anything we've played through before.

I'm digging the beta PDF and the game quite a bit...really hits the spot where lots of superhero games in the past haven't. I also saw one of the designers in Discord say that there are several other supplements coming in the future, so this will likely be a go-to for us.

 

[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.

I don't track the C7 Warhammer releases.
Mork Borg and TOR/LOTR are not theirs; they just publish them for the designers.

 

[aramis erak]

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

There's a good SRD...

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

But it's not a game engine, but a game construction kit, with rules from almost all the YZE games in a smorgasbord of mechanics.

Basically, two trees:

• d6 dice pool of Stat+Skill, each 6 is a success.
  • HP:
    • Alien
    • Coriolis: The Third Horizon
  • Damage to Attributes:
    • Mutant Year Zero
    • Forbidden Lands
  • Conditions only:
    • Vaesen
    • Tales from the Loop
    • Things from the Flood
    • Electric State
• dX+dY: (per die: 6-9=1s, 10+=2s; Dice by rating A=D12, B=d10, C=d8, D=d6)
  • Twilight 2000
  • Blade Runner

Note that both of the dX+dY games have HP.
FL has a magic item die that is steeper than the dX+dY dice are, IIRC it's 6-7=1, 8-9=2, 10-11=3, 12=4. But only one of them in a pool, and the size is by the enchantment (d8, d10, d12).

Attitude is few rolls outside combat. Roll only when really needed. NPCs only roll vs PC's; NPC-vs-NPC is always GM fiat.

 

[Teemu]

I know that it's different strokes for different folks, but I'll offer a counterpoint and say I wouldn't want to use "monster" stat blocks for the named comic characters in Invincible (or any other comic universe) - I'd want the NPC stats to represent the characters more fully.

The simplified stat blocks can work for a xenomorph since they're fairly "stock" and nameless, but applying that to superheroes and villains would make all the enemies seem too same-y to me and my players. I think the minion rules can help keep things a bit easier to track for no-names, but I like having the full profiles.

My group played through the starter set adventure a few nights ago and they all asked if we could play an extra time this week to finish it (which hasn't happened in years), so we did so last night. Sure, I read through things and familiarized a bit with the stat blocks prior to playing, but I didn't find it unwieldy at all, and the final battle (without spoiling anything) felt more like a comic book crisis than anything we've played through before.

I'm digging the beta PDF and the game quite a bit...really hits the spot where lots of superhero games in the past haven't. I also saw one of the designers in Discord say that there are several other supplements coming in the future, so this will likely be a go-to for us.

I disagree because I think that the monster stat blocks (especially ones used in Forbidden Lands) offer more variety and diversity. Yes the Invincible NPCs seem more diverse than similar NPCs in other Year Zero games, but because they don’t have unique custom abilities the same way that monsters do, my initial impression is that they won’t come across as interesting in play, mechanically speaking. Not to mention simplicity and ease of play.

 

[Bolongo]

I haven't backed Invincible, so I don't have access to the beta.
I would just like to add that I've always been frustrated by Year Zero statblocks in other games, because -
A) They don't tell you which skill belongs to which attribute, they just expect you to memorize that.
B) They don't give stats for the weapons, just a name. So they expect you to memorize or look that up every time. Come on, it's just two numbers!