Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Opening The Super Villain Handbook
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Christopher Helton" data-source="post: 7701041" data-attributes="member: 6804772"><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH]77029[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>While <strong>Icons: The Assembled Edition</strong> is already a superb super-hero role-playing game (available from creator Steve Kenson's <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Ad Infinitum Adventures</a></strong> and in print from <strong><a href="http://greenroninstore.com/collections/icons-superpowered-roleplaying/products/icons-superpowered-roleplaying-the-assembled-edition" target="_blank">Green Ronin Publishing</a></strong>), <strong>The Super Villain Handbook</strong> by Jason Tondro and published by <strong>Fainting Goat Games</strong> manages to elevate that system into an even greater game.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]</p><p>Tondro is like the Jess Nevins of super-hero role-playing games in that he combines a depth of knowledge in the field of comic book super-heroes with a scholar's ability to research material more deeply.</p><p></p><p>What you get with <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181639/ICONSThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">The Super Villain Handbook</a></strong> is an overview of the tropes of the various archetypes of super villains that you will find in comic books, and how to create them under the <strong>Icons</strong> rules. There is also a conversion the material in this book to the <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/191005/Savage-WorldsThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition-Conversion-Pack?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Savage World</a></strong> rules, but I haven't read that.</p><p>This book is a boon to the <strong>Icons</strong> GM, with forty-four archetypes explained and forty-eight characters that are worked examples of the archetypes. Each archetype gets roughly a page and a half of text explaining the origin of the archetype in comics, giving some examples of the archetype from comic book characters, related archetypes (which are helpful in gathering a team of villains) and how to express the archetype within the <strong>Icons</strong> rules. There is also information on how you can introduce these villains to an ongoing campaign, and make them part of your game world.</p><p></p><p>The character write ups are robust and follow the <strong>Icons</strong> rules without any houserules, or need for additional supplements. Each write up has a back story for the character, as well as some suggestions on how to use them in play. Tondro leaves no stone unturned, and the write ups are solid and very useful for when you need a villain for your game and don't have to time to make one up yourself. This can be a lifesaver for the GM who is busy in the real world, and doesn't have as much time as she would always like to prepare for a session.</p><p></p><p>While there are brief mentions of a setting in the text, there really isn't anything that binds the example characters to each other, or to a specific world. This makes it easier to integrate the sample villains into your home campaign, without having to strip out or change a bunch of references to a setting that your game isn't using. What setting is in the book is derived from comics and genre fiction that have fallen into the public domain, which means that the elements will likely be familiar to comic fans.</p><p></p><p>If you would like an explicit setting, you might want to check out <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117319/Stark-City-Campaign-Setting-and-City-Building-Toolset?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Stark City</a></strong>, also from <strong>Fainting Goat Games</strong>. It is a worked out city setting for your <strong>Icons</strong> games, along with a number of new rules and material for either personalizing the <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117319/Stark-City-Campaign-Setting-and-City-Building-Toolset?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Stark City</a></strong> setting to your own campaign, or for creating your own super-hero city setting from scratch. I don't think that <strong>Icons</strong> GMs will be disappointed in this book.</p><p></p><p>Because the idea of the "redeemed villain" is pretty commonplace in super-hero comic stories, it would be easy to use the write ups and rules to make characters in your campaigns who were once villains as well, increasing the utility of the book for your games.</p><p></p><p>I think one of my favorite write ups in the book is for the <em>Power Corrupted</em> archetype, and features a new spin on the Golden Age public domain character of <strong>Stardust, The Super-Wizard</strong>. One of the strangest super-heroes of the Golden Age of comics, <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_the_Super_Wizard" target="_blank">Stardust, The Super-Wizard</a></strong> was a psychedelic and apocalyptic "super hero" who used his immense powers to mete out justice, primarily targeting racketeers, saboteurs and Nazis with his wrath. The creation of artist and writer Fletcher Hanks, Stardust was probably one of the strangest super-heroes ever created. And considering the existence of characters like <strong>Brother Power, The Geek</strong>, that is saying a lot. The character of Stardust has also since appeared in one of the volumes of <strong>The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</strong> and a minicomic by writer and artist Benjamin Marra (who is probably one of the few comic creators who could do Hanks' creation justice).</p><p></p><p>The Stardust in <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181639/ICONSThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">The Super Villain Handbook</a></strong> uses tropes similar to those used in the <strong>Marvel Comics</strong> character of <strong>Starhawk</strong> and the <strong>DC Comics</strong> characters of <strong>Doctor Occult</strong> and <strong>Rose Psychic</strong> in that the character is two different people of two different genders who share one body. Using Stardust as a villain isn't a far stretch from his appearances in the comics, his approach to justice bordered on the Old Testament, and getting hero PCs to react to a character who regularly throws thousand of criminals into space shouldn't be difficult. Unfortunately, the character is typically too powerful for most PCs to beat down, so defeating Stardust means getting his female side to come out and take responsibility for what they have done. Complicated, but it is good to see a villain in a super-hero RPG that takes more than round after round of punching to defeat.</p><p></p><p>There are forty-three other archetypes on top of this one still in the book. From Imp (think <strong>Mr. Myxzptlyk</strong> or <strong>The Impossible Man</strong>) to Terrorist to Heir to Lovecraft, there are a lot of villainous archetypes that can enrich your <strong>Icons</strong> campaigns.</p><p></p><p>My problems with the book are minor, and neither impacts the usefulness of the book. I would have liked for this book to have been in a 6x9 format, to fit better with the <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Icons</a></strong> book on my shelves. While the cover to the book is phenomenal, the interior art is of varying quality and the layout is a bit on the bland side. But, like I said, none of these issues impact the usability of the book, or the quality of the material.</p><p></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181639/ICONSThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">The Super Villain Handbook</a></strong> combines a well-written discourse on the tropes and archetypes of comic book super-villains, with an RPG "bestiary." The book gives the GM a number of great NPCs to help build their game world, as well as a number of tools that will help them to create their own villains. This book is invaluable to an <strong><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition?affiliate_id=1082" target="_blank">Icons</a></strong> GM, and would be useful for anyone who runs super-hero games.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Christopher Helton, post: 7701041, member: 6804772"] [CENTER][ATTACH=CONFIG]77029[/ATTACH][/CENTER] While [B]Icons: The Assembled Edition[/B] is already a superb super-hero role-playing game (available from creator Steve Kenson's [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition?affiliate_id=1082"]Ad Infinitum Adventures[/URL][/B] and in print from [B][URL="http://greenroninstore.com/collections/icons-superpowered-roleplaying/products/icons-superpowered-roleplaying-the-assembled-edition"]Green Ronin Publishing[/URL][/B]), [B]The Super Villain Handbook[/B] by Jason Tondro and published by [B]Fainting Goat Games[/B] manages to elevate that system into an even greater game.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Tondro is like the Jess Nevins of super-hero role-playing games in that he combines a depth of knowledge in the field of comic book super-heroes with a scholar's ability to research material more deeply. What you get with [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181639/ICONSThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition?affiliate_id=1082"]The Super Villain Handbook[/URL][/B] is an overview of the tropes of the various archetypes of super villains that you will find in comic books, and how to create them under the [B]Icons[/B] rules. There is also a conversion the material in this book to the [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/191005/Savage-WorldsThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition-Conversion-Pack?affiliate_id=1082"]Savage World[/URL][/B] rules, but I haven't read that. This book is a boon to the [B]Icons[/B] GM, with forty-four archetypes explained and forty-eight characters that are worked examples of the archetypes. Each archetype gets roughly a page and a half of text explaining the origin of the archetype in comics, giving some examples of the archetype from comic book characters, related archetypes (which are helpful in gathering a team of villains) and how to express the archetype within the [B]Icons[/B] rules. There is also information on how you can introduce these villains to an ongoing campaign, and make them part of your game world. The character write ups are robust and follow the [B]Icons[/B] rules without any houserules, or need for additional supplements. Each write up has a back story for the character, as well as some suggestions on how to use them in play. Tondro leaves no stone unturned, and the write ups are solid and very useful for when you need a villain for your game and don't have to time to make one up yourself. This can be a lifesaver for the GM who is busy in the real world, and doesn't have as much time as she would always like to prepare for a session. While there are brief mentions of a setting in the text, there really isn't anything that binds the example characters to each other, or to a specific world. This makes it easier to integrate the sample villains into your home campaign, without having to strip out or change a bunch of references to a setting that your game isn't using. What setting is in the book is derived from comics and genre fiction that have fallen into the public domain, which means that the elements will likely be familiar to comic fans. If you would like an explicit setting, you might want to check out [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117319/Stark-City-Campaign-Setting-and-City-Building-Toolset?affiliate_id=1082"]Stark City[/URL][/B], also from [B]Fainting Goat Games[/B]. It is a worked out city setting for your [B]Icons[/B] games, along with a number of new rules and material for either personalizing the [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117319/Stark-City-Campaign-Setting-and-City-Building-Toolset?affiliate_id=1082"]Stark City[/URL][/B] setting to your own campaign, or for creating your own super-hero city setting from scratch. I don't think that [B]Icons[/B] GMs will be disappointed in this book. Because the idea of the "redeemed villain" is pretty commonplace in super-hero comic stories, it would be easy to use the write ups and rules to make characters in your campaigns who were once villains as well, increasing the utility of the book for your games. I think one of my favorite write ups in the book is for the [I]Power Corrupted[/I] archetype, and features a new spin on the Golden Age public domain character of [B]Stardust, The Super-Wizard[/B]. One of the strangest super-heroes of the Golden Age of comics, [B][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_the_Super_Wizard"]Stardust, The Super-Wizard[/URL][/B] was a psychedelic and apocalyptic "super hero" who used his immense powers to mete out justice, primarily targeting racketeers, saboteurs and Nazis with his wrath. The creation of artist and writer Fletcher Hanks, Stardust was probably one of the strangest super-heroes ever created. And considering the existence of characters like [B]Brother Power, The Geek[/B], that is saying a lot. The character of Stardust has also since appeared in one of the volumes of [B]The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen[/B] and a minicomic by writer and artist Benjamin Marra (who is probably one of the few comic creators who could do Hanks' creation justice). The Stardust in [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181639/ICONSThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition?affiliate_id=1082"]The Super Villain Handbook[/URL][/B] uses tropes similar to those used in the [B]Marvel Comics[/B] character of [B]Starhawk[/B] and the [B]DC Comics[/B] characters of [B]Doctor Occult[/B] and [B]Rose Psychic[/B] in that the character is two different people of two different genders who share one body. Using Stardust as a villain isn't a far stretch from his appearances in the comics, his approach to justice bordered on the Old Testament, and getting hero PCs to react to a character who regularly throws thousand of criminals into space shouldn't be difficult. Unfortunately, the character is typically too powerful for most PCs to beat down, so defeating Stardust means getting his female side to come out and take responsibility for what they have done. Complicated, but it is good to see a villain in a super-hero RPG that takes more than round after round of punching to defeat. There are forty-three other archetypes on top of this one still in the book. From Imp (think [B]Mr. Myxzptlyk[/B] or [B]The Impossible Man[/B]) to Terrorist to Heir to Lovecraft, there are a lot of villainous archetypes that can enrich your [B]Icons[/B] campaigns. My problems with the book are minor, and neither impacts the usefulness of the book. I would have liked for this book to have been in a 6x9 format, to fit better with the [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition?affiliate_id=1082"]Icons[/URL][/B] book on my shelves. While the cover to the book is phenomenal, the interior art is of varying quality and the layout is a bit on the bland side. But, like I said, none of these issues impact the usability of the book, or the quality of the material. [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/181639/ICONSThe-Super-Villain-Handbook-Deluxe-Edition?affiliate_id=1082"]The Super Villain Handbook[/URL][/B] combines a well-written discourse on the tropes and archetypes of comic book super-villains, with an RPG "bestiary." The book gives the GM a number of great NPCs to help build their game world, as well as a number of tools that will help them to create their own villains. This book is invaluable to an [B][URL="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/131765/ICONS-Superpowered-Roleplaying-The-Assembled-Edition?affiliate_id=1082"]Icons[/URL][/B] GM, and would be useful for anyone who runs super-hero games. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Opening The Super Villain Handbook
Top