Summertime has barely begun, and there has already been a steady stream of superhero comic-book movies pouring into theatres around the world! And there are still more films inspired by comics coming out later this summer and into the fall – perfect inspiration for gamers who love to play superpower heroic role-playing games!
And like the plethora of superhero movies being released, there are quite a number of game systems out there supporting superheroic roleplaying. One such game worth noting is the ICONS RPG by Ad Infinitum Adventures. Released in 2011 and designed by Mutants & Masterminds writer Steve Kenson, ICONS was nominated for not one but three different ENNIE Awards – Best Rules, Best Game, and Best New Game.
Last year, Ad Infinitum Adventures released the ICONS GREAT POWER! supplement, offering a revamp of many of the powers from the ICONS RPG release. Bundled with the Operation: Shatterstone adventure module, an index file, and conversion document, the ICONS GREAT POWER! would seem to come with quite a bit of content for the superheroic tabletop gaming fan.
ICONS GREAT POWER! Bundle
Note: The ICONS RPG core rulebook is also available from RPGNow for a Pay What You Want price. (Average contribution: $7.17)
The ICONS Super-Powered RPG GREAT POWER! Bundle is a supplement pack for the ICONS Super-Powered Roleplaying Game system from Ad Infinitum Adventures. The bundle includes the ICONS GREAT POWER! book containing well over 150 different powers for superheroes and superviallains alike. In addition, the bundle contains a handy separate index of all the powers in Great Power! as well as an adventure module, Operation: Shatterstone. A final supplement in the pack is designed to allow for conversion of powers from the earlier release of ICONS Superpowered RPG under Adamant Entertainment in 2010.
Production Quality
The production quality of ICONS GREAT POWER! is excellent, with a user-friendly layout and some top-notch writing by the designer. Love it or hate it, but the layout makes use of the Comic Sans font extensively throughout the book, but given the subject matter, seems to enhance the product overall. The designers writing style is informative and relaxed, and it’s not difficult to detect his enthusiasm for the roleplaying genre in almost every paragraph.
The book comes with a table of contents and bookmarks to assist in navigation the PDF. And it should be noted that the table of contents is linked to the pertinent page, so that every topic is just one-click away whether using the bookmarks or table of contents.
The artwork in ICONS GREAT POWER! is excellent as well, and very appropriately drawn in comic book stylings. The cover art and interior illustrations all do a great job of evoking the genre of the RPG, and greatly enhances the reading experience - the overall look and feel of the PDF is very comic book.
With Great Power…
The ICONS GREAT POWER! supplement is divided into four sections, with the largest share of the pages in the PDF devoted to the power descriptions for the nearly 200 different superhero abilities. So following a brief Introduction, the designer launches into the first section of the book to explain in general terms all About Powers, and how they can be acquired, organized, and modified. Much of this information can be found in the core rules of ICONS Super-Powered Roleplaying, but the designer expands on many of these key concepts, and provides appropriate page numbers in the core rules for easy referencing. It should be noted that the rules and specifications in ICONS GREAT POWER! supersedes the core book - which in some cases makes this book somewhat of an addendum and errata to the original rules.
The second section of the book focuses on Acquiring Powers, and provides new tables for generating a superheroes mix of abilities. The ICONS RPG uses a random method for power acquisition, and these new tables are designed to match up with any new or revised content in ICONS GREAT POWER!
The third section is devoted to the Power Descriptions, and this takes up nearly two-thirds of the total page count of the PDF. Each power description is accompanied by one of seven icons, representing the type of power it is: Alteration, Control, Defensive, Mental, Movement, Offensive, and Sensory. The power description entries include an explanation of the power, a table (if applicable) to determine the type of power effect, any extras that may be applied to a power, as well as any limits. In the ICONS RPG, extras allow a player to select an additional form of one power to substitute for another power – such as a flying extra on a fire control power. The limits increase the level of the power but reduce the scope of a power. With up to three to four different extras and limits per power, the possible customization of power is quite extensive.
And the powers cover nearly every conceivable type and idea ever used in the comic-book superhero genre, including some odd powers such as “control” powers beyond mere elemental effects, ranging into friction control, plant control, and continuum control. Some of these power sets have been notoriously difficult to define or enormously “pricey” to the character in other generic RPG power systems, but it would seem that the ICONS GREAT POWER! supplement handles them quite nicely.
The final section of ICONS GREAT POWER! discusses when it is appropriate to have powers originate from Devices. In this system, certain types of characters must only use devices for their powers, while other superheroes can decide if a device is appropriate for their character’s background story. The designer writes up some solid examples of various devices appropriate for each of the seven power types, and even provides information on incorporating movement powers into vehicle types.
At the end of the supplement, there is an appendix with information on using ICONS GREAT POWER! with the FATE CORE system. This two page section does a fairly good job of converting the contents over to FATE CORE rules, and definitely expands the potential usefulness of this product by allowing it to serve two game systems.
Overall Score: 4.1 out of 5.0
Conclusions
There may are a lot of superhero comic book roleplaying games out there for the gaming community to try out, but ICONS GREAT POWER! is definitely worth checking out. The content in ICONS GREAT POWER! is very complete for the genre, and presented in a friendly and useful way that should have appeal to many fans of comic book RPGs. And while some gamers might be put off by random character generation of superpowers, the game mechanics do allow for considerable arrangement of powers to suit a unified concept. Expanding the game supplement to include support for FATE CORE just makes ICONS GREAT POWER! more fun for more gamers.
The price on the ICONS GREAT POWER! Bundle is excellent, given the rules content and a whole adventure module. Fans of superheroic roleplaying might do themselves a favor by picking up the bundle and the ICONS RPG core rules for considerably less than other systems out there!
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary playtest copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
And like the plethora of superhero movies being released, there are quite a number of game systems out there supporting superheroic roleplaying. One such game worth noting is the ICONS RPG by Ad Infinitum Adventures. Released in 2011 and designed by Mutants & Masterminds writer Steve Kenson, ICONS was nominated for not one but three different ENNIE Awards – Best Rules, Best Game, and Best New Game. Last year, Ad Infinitum Adventures released the ICONS GREAT POWER! supplement, offering a revamp of many of the powers from the ICONS RPG release. Bundled with the Operation: Shatterstone adventure module, an index file, and conversion document, the ICONS GREAT POWER! would seem to come with quite a bit of content for the superheroic tabletop gaming fan.
ICONS GREAT POWER! Bundle
- Writing & Designer: Steve Kenson
- Artist: Dan Houser; (power icons) LORC/Game-Icons.net
- Publisher: Ad Infinitum Adventures
- Year: 2013
- Media: PDF (148 pages)
- Price: $10.00 (Available from RPGNow in PDF format)
Note: The ICONS RPG core rulebook is also available from RPGNow for a Pay What You Want price. (Average contribution: $7.17)
The ICONS Super-Powered RPG GREAT POWER! Bundle is a supplement pack for the ICONS Super-Powered Roleplaying Game system from Ad Infinitum Adventures. The bundle includes the ICONS GREAT POWER! book containing well over 150 different powers for superheroes and superviallains alike. In addition, the bundle contains a handy separate index of all the powers in Great Power! as well as an adventure module, Operation: Shatterstone. A final supplement in the pack is designed to allow for conversion of powers from the earlier release of ICONS Superpowered RPG under Adamant Entertainment in 2010.
Production Quality
The production quality of ICONS GREAT POWER! is excellent, with a user-friendly layout and some top-notch writing by the designer. Love it or hate it, but the layout makes use of the Comic Sans font extensively throughout the book, but given the subject matter, seems to enhance the product overall. The designers writing style is informative and relaxed, and it’s not difficult to detect his enthusiasm for the roleplaying genre in almost every paragraph.The book comes with a table of contents and bookmarks to assist in navigation the PDF. And it should be noted that the table of contents is linked to the pertinent page, so that every topic is just one-click away whether using the bookmarks or table of contents.
The artwork in ICONS GREAT POWER! is excellent as well, and very appropriately drawn in comic book stylings. The cover art and interior illustrations all do a great job of evoking the genre of the RPG, and greatly enhances the reading experience - the overall look and feel of the PDF is very comic book.
With Great Power…
The ICONS GREAT POWER! supplement is divided into four sections, with the largest share of the pages in the PDF devoted to the power descriptions for the nearly 200 different superhero abilities. So following a brief Introduction, the designer launches into the first section of the book to explain in general terms all About Powers, and how they can be acquired, organized, and modified. Much of this information can be found in the core rules of ICONS Super-Powered Roleplaying, but the designer expands on many of these key concepts, and provides appropriate page numbers in the core rules for easy referencing. It should be noted that the rules and specifications in ICONS GREAT POWER! supersedes the core book - which in some cases makes this book somewhat of an addendum and errata to the original rules.
The second section of the book focuses on Acquiring Powers, and provides new tables for generating a superheroes mix of abilities. The ICONS RPG uses a random method for power acquisition, and these new tables are designed to match up with any new or revised content in ICONS GREAT POWER!
The third section is devoted to the Power Descriptions, and this takes up nearly two-thirds of the total page count of the PDF. Each power description is accompanied by one of seven icons, representing the type of power it is: Alteration, Control, Defensive, Mental, Movement, Offensive, and Sensory. The power description entries include an explanation of the power, a table (if applicable) to determine the type of power effect, any extras that may be applied to a power, as well as any limits. In the ICONS RPG, extras allow a player to select an additional form of one power to substitute for another power – such as a flying extra on a fire control power. The limits increase the level of the power but reduce the scope of a power. With up to three to four different extras and limits per power, the possible customization of power is quite extensive.
And the powers cover nearly every conceivable type and idea ever used in the comic-book superhero genre, including some odd powers such as “control” powers beyond mere elemental effects, ranging into friction control, plant control, and continuum control. Some of these power sets have been notoriously difficult to define or enormously “pricey” to the character in other generic RPG power systems, but it would seem that the ICONS GREAT POWER! supplement handles them quite nicely.
The final section of ICONS GREAT POWER! discusses when it is appropriate to have powers originate from Devices. In this system, certain types of characters must only use devices for their powers, while other superheroes can decide if a device is appropriate for their character’s background story. The designer writes up some solid examples of various devices appropriate for each of the seven power types, and even provides information on incorporating movement powers into vehicle types.
At the end of the supplement, there is an appendix with information on using ICONS GREAT POWER! with the FATE CORE system. This two page section does a fairly good job of converting the contents over to FATE CORE rules, and definitely expands the potential usefulness of this product by allowing it to serve two game systems.
Overall Score: 4.1 out of 5.0
Conclusions
There may are a lot of superhero comic book roleplaying games out there for the gaming community to try out, but ICONS GREAT POWER! is definitely worth checking out. The content in ICONS GREAT POWER! is very complete for the genre, and presented in a friendly and useful way that should have appeal to many fans of comic book RPGs. And while some gamers might be put off by random character generation of superpowers, the game mechanics do allow for considerable arrangement of powers to suit a unified concept. Expanding the game supplement to include support for FATE CORE just makes ICONS GREAT POWER! more fun for more gamers.
The price on the ICONS GREAT POWER! Bundle is excellent, given the rules content and a whole adventure module. Fans of superheroic roleplaying might do themselves a favor by picking up the bundle and the ICONS RPG core rules for considerably less than other systems out there!
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary playtest copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 4.0
- - Design: 4.0 (Very cool layout; solid navigation fx; very evocative comic book feel to the book)
- - Illustrations: 4.0 (Great comic-book-ish cover and illustrations!)
- Content: 4.25
- - Crunch: 4.0 (Innovative power system; great design of difficult-to-conceptualize powers)
- - Fluff: 4.5 (Tons of fluffy comic book superhero goodness!)
- Value: 4.0 (Awesome price for a great supplement and an adventure to boot!)
