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]

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

A buddy of mine played it at Gencon and couldn't say enough good things about it.

 

[SteveC]

A buddy of mine played it at Gencon and couldn't say enough good things about it.

As usual, there's a pretty long discussion on Knights of Last Call.

 

[BadEye]

Oh wow, since this thread rose from the dead, I will take a moment to share that Tomas and I have been hard at work on the game these past several months, and we are making great progress. I really can't wait for fans see what we are putting together. Invincible is my favorite comic series ever, and playing these games is by far my favorite pastime, so this has been a thrilling ride!

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.

I've looked for "the one" when it comes to superhero roleplaying games for decades now, and I have yet to find any that hold up to the overall package of "captures the feel of comics" to most importantly "fun" as much as the original TSR Marvel games (FASERIP and SAGA). Both Tomas and I have been heavily-inspired by the feel and scope of those games, and I am of course neck deep in all of it and naturally biased, but I really love playing the game already.

In a meta sense, just like invincible is a love letter to superhero comics while updating things and subverting tropes, I feel like we are making a love letter to some of those great classic games.

Coming soon to Kickstarter - I hope y'all check it out!

 

[aramis erak]

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

Which was developed by a third party, initially published by Cubicle 7; when they saw the designers intended changes for 2e, said, "Not good for us. Not happening"... and FL picked up the license.
It's somewhat more "their game" than is Mork Borg... but it's not really their game, either. I tried the 2nd ed, found every change to be suboptimal, so the KS was my one and only TOR2e purchase.

 

[jian]

So, read the Quickstart now, and I quite like it.

It uses the Year Zero Engine (the original d6 pool version - roll a bunch of d6s, 6s are successes) rammed firmly into Marvel FASERIP. The attributes (FASRIP) and ranks (TY is 2 dice, GD is 3, etc all the way up to 12 dice) are basically the same. Combat lets you buy Stunts (extra benefits such as Slam, Stun, or Disarm) with extra successes. Because you can buy Extra Damage as a Stunt, that gets round the damage vs armour problem that MSH had.

The Invincible genre addition is being Broken, which mean that you can and probably will take a critical injury if you’re reduced to 0 Health. A lot of these are pretty punishing (-2 dice to checks for a few days or weeks) and that’s even before we get to fun ones like Impaled. If you get into fights in this game, expect to spend a lot of time in recovery or even traction.

(And of course this is very much in genre for Invincible - Mark spends most of his time with a concussion, that might explain some of his more daft decisions - but I do wonder how much fun a campaign where your PCs have to spend months recovering from a spinal fracture would actually be in practice. Maybe troupe style play?)

It’s also got a Rallying mechanic for getting back up after you’ve been flattened, which is very much in genre but is rare in supers RPGs - Stalwart is the main example I can think of. OTOH, combine this with the consequences of being Broken… you’d better have amazing healthcare.

All in all, I think it’s a good system for more combat-based four-colour supers - but if I were using It to run something more like Justice League Unlimited, I might remove the Broken mechanic or enforce it only for Rallying.

 

[jian]

Also, obligatory post on the statistics of the YZE. The fact that only 6 is a success means your probability of success at each rank is as follows:

• Typical (2 dice; average human): 11/36 = 30.6%
• Good (3 dice): 91/216 = 42.1%
• Excellent (4 dice): 671/1296 = 51.8%
• Remarkable (5 dice): 4651/7776 = 59.8%

I think that’s right? Please do check my maths. I think that’s fine for a superhero game where most people’s high stats will be more like 6-7 dice but their weak stats will be 2-3*. It sets the standard for reality in the game - most tasks will be difficult enough that a normal untrained person has a 70% chance of failure.

*Unless they’re Batman, who mostly has 6-7 dice in everything except Strength at 4 dice.

 

[dbm]

Those stats look right. The mechanics are presumably designed to encourage people to push…