Fat (Loot) Cave: Base Raiders Fate Core

FORTRESS OF TURPITUDE

I love, love Base Raiders. Every time I revisit the concept, I’m struck by how cool it is. It manages to do something completely new with supers gaming and traditional dungeon crawls. The short pitch: all of the world’s superbeings have vanished and it’s clear they’re never coming back. A few stragglers remain: d-listers, sidekicks, those with latent abilities.More importantly: all of the superbeings’ STUFF stayed behind. There are dungeons scattered across the world: lairs, secret bases, island fortresses. Now a class of “Base Raiders” has emerged hunting for wealth, DiY superpowers, secrets, or beyond.

I ran Base Raiders for the final game in my Gauntlet Hangouts “Month of Fate” trilogy. It originally used the “Strange Fate” rules of Kerberos Club. I’d run it using that once before, but wanted something lighter, more manageable, and associated with more recent Fate Core. I’ve also run it using Action Cards and have written up a partial hack for using 13th Age with it. But this time I went with stunt-based Fate adaptation.

MECHANICS

I took elements from Atomic Robo and Venture City Stories for this. However I skipped the power FX elements from the latter. In play they’ve been more confusing than interesting. Instead I built everything on straight stunts and bundled those together into a power set with a narrower drawback element. Players could consider their Power Stunt Set title as an additional aspect.

Once per story, players could mark their drawback element to boost the power set. If they did so, they could add +4 to a roll OR mitigate all damage from an attack. This then triggered the drawback. This gave one of three effects: Burn-out means they lost the power set until they had time between scenes to cool down. Debility gave a negative aspect with two free invokes for enemies. Collateral Effect meant something of value gets damaged. This approach needs work. While some of Venture City Stories' collateral effects don’t make as much sense in a base, my approach felt a little weak as well.

I also went with a tighter skill list: Aim, Athletics, Deceive, Fight, Investigate, Knowledge, Physique, Provoke, Rapport, Stealth, Tech, Thief, and Will. It worked decently, although given the nature of the set-up, Tech became a potent fallback skill. It might be different in a magical super base. I’m not sure if that needs to get broken up in some way. I also used the fifth action type: Discover.

LOOT BOXES & MICROTRANSACTIONS

As a dungeon-crawler, Base Raiders means loot. The original version has an involved system for tracking this with weight and cash value. I wanted something different. I came up with the idea that characters could make a single salvage check in a room (with investigate, knowledge, tech, or thief). Only one person could make the roll, but they could get the assist bonus from their party. Each shift of success would translate into 1 Loot point, meaning valuables they could sell when they got home. As well, they could choose to give up two shifts to get Intel or Gear. Each Intel could be spent to later ask a question or establish a fact. Each Gear could be spent to produce something specific or grant a +2 to a roll.

It’s not a bad system and gave us something concrete to work from. Rooms could have “items” outside of this scheme. Originally I’d intended to set difficulties for different rooms depending on how hard it would be to get good stuff from them. In practice, I skipped that and used a default 0 difficulty. That made it more colorless, so I should have stuck with my original approach.

MY SO-CALLED DELVE

I ran the adventure from the back of the core book. You can see the sessions here (Session One, Session Two). I made a couple of changes from my previous runs. First, I left out the “legwork” phase of finding the location of the base. In that past that had eaten up more time than I’d cared for. I did some basic connection building instead. Two, I used a ‘satellite’ base, something from the original which I’d skipped before. That offered a nice bit that I’ll use again in the future. Three, I had some “friendlies” in the base. I chose that for session two because of a background detail one of the players had come up with (that he was one of several clones of an evil mastermind).

I dug the session, though I ended up compressing more at the end than I wanted. I could have easily had another session or two. Because I’ve been exposed to more dungeon-crawly adventures recently via The Gauntlet and Fear of a Black Dragon, I’ve been thinking about how you might adapt existing fantasy modules to this. In particular I wonder if you could do a “superhero funnel”? Overall I had a good time and I’ll definitely run BR again next year. I’m hoping that designer Ross Payton returns to this setting. It’s solid and worth developing.

Below are the six re-gens I used for the game. The players chose the first four characters (Aurelio the Mongoose, Denny Blackstone, Doctor Epsilon, and Raz (aka Razputin).

You're a potent martial artist trained from photocopied ancient scrolls

What made you decide to take a risk on a mail-order superhero course?

What's kept you from continuing on with your training?

What do you want most out of your superhero life?

High Concept: Taught by Visions from an Atlantaen Dojo

Trouble: Unfinished Training Course

Drive: Strong Must Protect the Weak

Refresh 2

Great (+4): Fight

Good (+3): Athletics, Physique

Fair (+2): Investigate, Knowledge, Provoke

Average (+1): Deceive, Provoke, Stealth, Thief

STOIC POWER SET

• Drawback: Lockdown (debility)
• Armor: 2
• You gain an additional physical stress box.
• Whenever one of your physical consequences begins to recover, it gets renamed and moved to the next lower consequence slot, if available. This clears away mild consequences immediately. Additionally, at the end of a scene, if you have any mild physical consequences—whether they are recovering or not—clear away automatically.

IRON CYCLONE TECHNIQUE POWER SET

• Drawback: Chi Inflammation (burnout)
• When you Fight a close group of targets, you deal full damage shifts to all of them.
• You ignore the first 2 points of protection of any target you strike.
• In a physical conflict, you always act first. If someone else in the conflict has a stunt that gives them the same ability, make an Athletics roll to see who goes first.
• When you use Fight to defend in melee and succeed with style, sacrifice your next action to immediately inflict an attack on your opponent at the shift value of your defense. For example, if you get four shifts on your defense, you’d deal a 4-shift hit to the attacker. You can’t do this again until you have another “next action” to spend (after your skipped turn goes by).
• You are preternaturally graceful, and gain +2 to Athletics when leaping, balancing, or otherwise demonstrating your agility. In addition, you have a prodigious leap: leaping up to a second-story window or from rooftop to rooftop across a wide alleyway is a simple task that, without further complication, requires no Athletics roll.

You're a street-dirty bearer of magical powers

What do your powers look like?

What illness are you suffering from?

What price did you pay to get your magic?

High Concept: Gutter Mage

Trouble: Slowly Killing My Body

Drive: Know All the Secrets

Refresh 1

Great (+4): Knowledge

Good (+3): Contacts, Stealth

Fair (+2): Deceive, Provoke, Rapport

Average (+1): Athletics, Investigate, Physique, Will

HEX & JINX POWER SET

• Drawback: Karmic Justice (burnout)
• You may use Knowledge to defend against attacks. When you use Knowledge to create a problematic aspect on a target, you always gain +1 invoke.
• You may use Knowledge instead of Aim to attack at range.
• Once per scene, you may ask the GM a question about future events, the likely outcomes of your actions, or any other information you can only access through seeing the future. The GM must answer as honestly as possible, but may be vague.
• You can fritz out nearby machines using Knowledge. Something computerized will put up Fair (+2) opposition, and more complex and powerful computers will offer greater opposition.

GONZO SORCERY POWER SET

• Drawback: Exhausting (debility) *note: all of these effect are potent, but have problems*
• You can use Aim to shoot every target near you at full strength. However, if you do so you will always hit something or someone you don’t want to.
• You can blow open the door to a bank vault, destroy a reinforced wall, or otherwise eradicate an obstacle. This is slow and imprecise and will tear up the entire room.
• You can create a temporary army of duplicates, but you can’t control them. This creates a swarm of you-NPCs under the GM’s control.
• Once per scene, if someone is taken out (including you), you can draw on crazy sorcery. Not only does this completely negate all the stress which would have caused the target to be taken out, it also clears your target’s highest consequence. After that, your magic goes haywire while dishing out some collateral damage.

You're a clone of a now vanished super-villain

What was Dr. Pangloss known for?

How did you break away from your mental or physical conditioning?

Who has been hunting you?

High Concept: Genetically Augmented Intellect

Trouble: Clone of Villainous Dr. Pangloss

Drive: Transhumanism for All

Refresh 1

Great (+4): Investigate

Good (+3): Aim, Tech

Fair (+2): Deceive, Knowledge, Will

Average (+1): Fight, Provoke, Rapport, Stealth

IMPLANTED MEMORIES POWER SET

• Drawback: Visions of a Villain’s Life (debility)
• You get a +2 to Knowledge, Investigate, and Tech rolls whenever they involve science, technology, engineering and/or mathematics.
• Whenever you succeed with style on an overcome action to repair a piece of machinery, you can immediately give it a new situation aspect (with a free invoke) reflecting the improvements you’ve made, instead of just a boost.
• Once you see how someone fights, you can exploit their weaknesses. When someone deals physical stress to you in a conflict, you gain +2 to all attack rolls against them until the end of the scene.
• You have any number of fantastically useful contraptions tucked into your utility belt. You can spend a fate point to create just about anything you could possibly carry on your person.
• You have a disguise maker which can alter your face, build, and voice at will in order to become a completely different person. Once you spend time interacting with someone, you can imitate them near-perfectly. Gain a +2 bonus to Deception to oppose others trying to see through your disguise.

PROTOTYPE WEAPONRY POWER SET

• Drawback: Field Test Errors (burnout)
• When you attack with Aim, you have Weapon 2. Additionally, when you make a successful attack, you may trade in 2 shifts to Create an Advantage on the target. You may do this multiple times.
• You throw out energy blasts quickly and accurately enough to intercept other projectiles. You can defend using Aim against ranged attacks.

You're a mentalist who fled from a dangerous organization

What illness is your sister suffer from?

Who did you run away from?

What distinctive effect or trace do your powers leave behind?

High Concept: Psychic Agent on the Run

Trouble: Illegal Tenno-Kanna Training Program Dropout

Drive: Find a Cure for my Sister

Refresh 1

Great (+4): Will

Good (+3): Deceive, Rapport

Fair (+2): Contacts, Investigate, Tech

Average (+1): Athletics, Knowledge, Stealth, Thief

MIND LASH POWER SET

• Drawback: Echoing Backlash (burnout)
• You may use Will to make ranged attacks against living targets. This ignores Armor and only requires line of sight.
• Questioner. You have a +2 to Discover actions when directly questioning a target face-to-face.
• You can silently & mentally communicate with persons you know at any distance.
• Once per scene you may mark mental stress in place of physical.

TELEKINETIC POWER SET

• Drawback: Cyclone of Damage (collateral effect)
• You can move physical objects to make attacks with Will.
• You can use Will to lift large objects. Lifting something human-sized is a Fair (+2) obstacle, while a car is a Great (+4) obstacle.
• You can erect a barrier between yourself and another area, which lasts until the end of the scene or you will it away. This barrier is transparent, but no matter can pass through it. When someone attempts to attack through the barrier, or attacks the barrier itself, you intercept the attack, using Will to defend. If the attack succeeds, you may either take the shifts as mental stress or allow the barrier to shatter and take mental stress equal to half of the shifts, rounded down. You may erect multiple barriers, but each active barrier after the first reduces your Will roll to defend by one.
• You can move vertically through the air as easily as moving along the ground. Use Will to overcome obstacles or create advantages related to flying.

You're an escapee from a super-laboratory

Have you always been this way? If not what were you before? If so what do you recall of your "birth"?

How reptilian are you? What do you look like?

What do you know about the person(s) who did this to you?

High Concept: Engineered Reptilian Assassin

Trouble: Scaly Abomination

Drive: Find the Truth of My Past

Great (+4): Fight

Good (+3): Physique, Stealth

Fair (+2): Athletics, Provoke, Thief

Average (+1): Aim, Investigate, Knowledge, Tech

Refresh 1

COMBAT ENHANCEMENTS POWER SET

• Drawback: Ruthless Frenzy (collateral effect)
• As long as you’re using brute strength, you get a +2 to Physique rolls and a +2 to Fight rolls. 
• You have Armor: 2 against physical attacks like punches, stabs, gunshots, and getting thrown through buildings.)
• You can leap off the wall to put a little more punch into your punches. You gain +2 to Fight if you can attack someone by jumping off a wall.
• If you can see a projectile coming, you can get out of its way with some clever gymnastics. You gain +2 to defense rolls when dodging ranged attacks.

MUTANT CHAMELEON POWER SET

• Drawback: Vitality Drain (debility)
• You can blend with the background, granting you a +4 bonus to Stealth rolls to avoid visual notice.
• Fade Away. You can choose to disappear—leave a scene—anytime. Spend a fate point to come back.
• You can move along any solid surface, even upside-down, as easily as you move along the ground. In addition, you get +2 to Athletics while navigating obstacles that involve climbing.
• When you Create Advantage from surprise, you always gain an extra invoke.

You're the former protégé of a now missing famed vigilante

What was your mentor known for?

What happen that causes your flashbacks?

Who do you go to for equipment and repairs?

High Concept: Shadowy Rooftop Avenger

Trouble: Sidekick Without a Master

Drive: I Will Solve the Mystery of Ragnarok

Great (+4): Athletics

Good (+3): Fight, Investigate

Fair (+2): Aim, Provoke, Stealth

Average (+1): Contacts, Knowledge, Physique, Thief

GRIMDARK VIGILANTE POWER SET

• Drawback: Flashbacks to Capture (debility)
• Once per session, at the cost of a fate point, you can reduce the severity of a moderate consequence that’s physical in nature to a mild consequence (if your mild consequence slot is free), or erase a mild consequence altogether.
• When you create an advantage on an opponent using Provoke, you can use your free invocation to become the target of that character’s next relevant action, drawing their attention away from another target.
• Hardcore Parkour. +2 to overcome actions with Athletics if you are in a chase across rooftops or a similarly precarious environment.
• Always a Way Out. +2 on Burglary rolls made to create an advantage whenever you’re trying to escape from a location.

BIONIC ARM POWER SET

• Drawback: Out for Repairs (burnout)
• You gain +2 to Physique in all situations that require pure strength.
• Add an additional +2 bonus when using Full Defense to defend yourself in combat. If used to defend others, gain 2 Armor Rating instead.
• Add +2 Weapon Rating to an attack where you also invoke a consequence the defender has.
• Spend 1 Fate Point as an opponent is about to make a Fight attack against you. You may interrupt this attack with an attack of your own. This attack does not count against your next action. If your opponent is still active, he may then attack normally.

Crossover of the Dead: Masks: ANG meets Ex-Heroes

HEROES ALWAYS RETURN

I’d hoped to sink my teeth into Mask: The New Generation more than I managed to. I’d been thinking about and planning my Masks spin on Peter Clines Ex-Heroes series and Paradigm Concept’s Rotted Capes rpg for a few weeks now. Here’s how I set that up:

It has been less than a year since the Outbreak, since something caused the dead to rise. Heroes fought against the tide, only to succumb themselves. Pockets of humanity remain, isolated and under threat. You play young heroes, trying to protect your community of survivors. But even though you possess great powers, you’re still kids. Older wounded heroes, adult leaders, and non-powered survivors regard you as untrained, irresponsible, and even dangerous.

In this setting frame, you deal with Masks’ issues of identity and self-image. But you also have a consistent deadly threat and restricted location. For this game, you’ll select from a limited set of playbooks. We’ll have a couple of environmental moves dealing with Resource Raids, Building, and the Community. You’ll get to pick projects to work on to build up the camp and give it a fighting chance against the zombie horde and even deadlier z-supers.

OUR PLAY

I planned to do character creation and building in the first half of session one and then play. We did that, but I think the game was cursed. For the first session I had a player drop just before we started. Luckily I roped Sherri in. Then we had technical problems that ate up a half-hour. Still we had a good time and set great things up. But for the second session, I missed a waitlisted player until just before the session start. I got him in and up to speed, but I felt like a dolt. To compound that, one player lost internet just before the game so they had to bag out and another player forgot the session. So we did the session with two players from S1 and a new player.

I dug it, but it went well due to good players more than my skills as a GM. I’ll need to try this setting again. We really didn’t get a chance to engage the new moves and concepts I developed. We interacted with the zombie threat and the world, but only a little. Below you can see the setting material, changes, and new mechanics I created.

You can see the two sessions I ran: Session One, Session Two

PLAYBOOKS

Please choose from the following playbooks.

• BEACON
• BULL
• DELINQUENT
• JANUS
• LEGACY
• NOVA
• PROTÉGÉ
• REFORMED
• TRANSFORMED

Please note Alien, Hidden Civilization, and Extra-Dimensional origins are off-the-table. Those change up the premise, so I’d like to keep those out.

This set up is shamelessly stolen from the Ex-Heroes series of novels (in turn based on someone’s supers campaign). We’ll be defining the setting a little in play, but the following facts in the fiction are established.

1. Six months ago, a zombie outbreak began in a major metropolitan area. At first, it seemed a simple supervillain plan. But soon that exploded and quickly spread to other areas. Heroes went to fight against this menace…and died.

2. And then came back to life, turned into Z-Supers. While normal zombies are mindless, Z-Supers are not. They’re cunning, retain many of their abilities, and can speak. But they’re also driven by their hungers and seemingly impossible to negotiate with. The one advantage you have is that they’re jealously territorial and will often fight each other for dominance.

3. As cities fell and the plague spread across the globe, researchers struggled to find an answer. While they could not find a cure, they discovered the source. A superhero known as the Undying had been struck down in a fight with Plague Master. The Undying’s powers, overwhelmed by the disease killing him, metamorphosed him into a new creature, the first Z-Super. The change affected the infection and created a super-powered virus.

4. No cure has been found. No resistance has been discovered. And now with most scientific facilities overrun, it seems hopeless. For purposes of these sessions, a cure is off the table, something to hope for, but not yet possible.

5. You are young heroes in Halcyon City. Heavily populated by supers, much of it has been devastated in battles between Z-Supers. But that mutual destruction has given you some breathing room.

6. You have taken over the Halcyon City Entertainment Center and Sports Complex. It combines an indoor arena, stadium, and mall. Barriers have been built around the facility and it is fairly secure. You currently have a population of 1,451 persons.

7. Everyone knows superbeings caused this plague. Despite acts of heroism, there’s an undercurrent of fear.

8. The compound’s run by a council of normal people, plus one non-powered superhero who revealed their identity. There are a handful of active Adult Heroes. They support the council and undertake large-scale, “important,” missions. They don’t have time to deal with younger heroes. They’re a risk. So they tell you to do minor tasks and stay in the compound. But more often they’re dealing with their own work and can’t monitor you.

9. We’ll define names, especially if we connect those to your backgrounds (mentors, role-models, family members, etc). I imagine there might also be a few seriously injured or depowered supers in the compound. As well, the line between hero and villain has been blurred. Any super might be one or the other. I’m including The Reformed playbook in case anyone wants to play a villain.

10. I will have some slightly changed relationship questions for each playbook and an entirely new set of “How you came together” questions. I’ll also have a few tweaks for some of the roles (Janus, Legacy, etc). I’ll post those before the game. You’ll get to choose some project(s) you’re working on and I’ll throw some incidents at you in play.

11. If you get bitten, there is an Infected move.

NEW MOVES

SCAVENGE

When you look for stuff in the rubble, Roll +Superior. On a hit you find something valuable. On a 10+ pick 2; on a 7-9 pick 1:

• Resources for a project. Add a segment when you return.
• Gifts. Gain +1 to Comfort and Support or Fit In
• Important goods to use as leverage
• Something significant to your past life. Clear a condition or add one to the team pool.

On a 7-9 your efforts attract attention.

GUARD DUTY

When you stay on watch, you may Defend someone scavenging. Follow the usual rules. If you get a hit, you may name someone who won’t be targeted by the zombies. If you fail, you must name an NPC who is hit.

FIT IN

When you try to make yourself part of the normal community, roll +Mundane. On a 10+ you manage to establish some rapport. Gain a friend, clear a condition, or take +1 forward for interactions. On a 7-9 you connect with some, but alienate others.

PROJECTS

Describe a project you’re working on and identify an area: Hope, Security, Food, Tech, Infrastructure, Knowledge. Each of these begin at -2 for the Enclave. Choose what you’re rolling on.

On a 10+ you increase the clock for this area by three segments. On a 7-9 you add two, but create a complication. On a failure, you still mark one but you lower another clock.

INFECTED

When you Take a Powerful Blow from a zombie and roll 13+, you may choose to have your character infected. At the start of session, roll +Freak. On a 10+ you’re aware of your infection and can choose how to deal with it: running away, sharing the secret, etc. On a 7-9 you’re unaware of the infection. On a 6-, you remain unaware. Mark a condition which may not be cleared by normal means.

If you ever have all of your conditions marked for any reason, you become a zombie and the MC takes your character.

PLAYBOOK CHANGES

Note that I didn’t go through and make changes to any of the playbook moves. I’m sure you could, but at a glance most of them work. You can make any necessary changes on the fly. These changes also assume a short game, so I cut the number of some picks.

THE BEACON

Change Backstory Q4 to “Why have you stayed in costume, despite your lack of powers?”

Change Relationships Q1 to “____________________ is knows how to survive, and you take every chance you get to hang out with them.”

Change Influence to “You are terrified and excited to be here. Give Influence over you to three of your teammates.”

For the Beacon’s Drives, I replaced three which didn’t fit with these: Find and rescue survivors; Earn respect of the compound’s leaders; Save someone from a zombie attack.

THE BULL

Change Backstory Q4 to “What scares you most about the zombie plague?’

THE DELINQUENT

No change

THE JANUS

Not a change, but Backstory Q2 should consider the new context of the compound and post Z-society. “Why do you still keep a secret identity?”

For Secret Identity, change relevant section to:

“Your mundane life comes with an obligations. Choose one or more…

Duties: Watch-person, custodian, cafeteria, farmer, student, health-care aide, messenger, mechanic

Home: Caring for injured family member, younger sibling, broken parent, black marketeer relative

Social: Significant other, best friend, close relative, mentor, ex-significant other.”

THE LEGACY

Change Backstory Q3 “How does the public perceive your legacy now?” and Q4 to “Did you want to take on this mantle?”

For Legacy, change the relevant section to:

“Your legacy is an important part of Halcyon City. How happened to your predecessor(s) in the outbreak?

Name the different members of your legacy (at least two):

____________________ is depowered/injured, but lives in the compound.

____________________ is among the handful of heroes still living here.

____________________ is the next possible member of your legacy.

____________________ has become a zombie...and is still at large.

____________________ is among the normal humans and opposed to supers.”

THE NOVA

Change Backstory Q4 to “Why do the civilian authorities want to contain/control your powers?”

THE PROTÉGÉ

Change Backstory Q3 to “What is your mentor’s current state in the enclave (in command, hidden, injured, something else)?”

Change Relationship Q1 to “You and ____________________ teamed up a few times before the zombie outbreak.”

In Mentor’s Resources change relevant section to,

“Choose up to three resources that your mentor gave you and the team:

A hidden set of rooms, a supercomputer, communicators, surveillance equipment, a chem lab, a med lab, a weapon of last resort, security systems, simple robots, a food stash, a workshop, a cache of conventional weapons and parts, a secret escape route out of the enclave.”

THE REFORMED

Change Backstory Q4 to, “Who outside of the team still doesn’t trust you?”

For Past Villainy change relevant section to,

“You have ties a villain from your previous career who lives in the compound. Choose a specialty and a status for them. You begin with two obligations to them

You have ties to a villain from your previous career not in the compound. Name them. Are they missing, turned zombie, staying alive independently, or something else?”

THE TRANSFORMED

Change Backstory Q4 to “What do the civilians fear most about you?”

THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE

• Need to have more questions and table time to develop the Compound. It’s such an important part of the setting, we need more world building of that. I should draft some established places and names with questions. For example, where do you live in the compound? (the last theater of the multiplex, the baseball field dugout, the gymnasium, food court, the furniture store, etc) Who do you trust/mistrust among the civilian authorities? (list of names). That would help flesh this out more.
• Might also help to have a sketchy or half-filled in map.
• Do I need additional individual playbook moves? For example, should there be a Bull move for rushing through a zombie horde? Or a Protégé move for impressing authorities?
• I winged the team formation questions—I need to develop them more. I want to take as a default assumption that they joined together during the crisis but before they got to the compound. Also should retool the Backstory questions even further to tie them into the setting.
• Given what they’ve gone through, should the PCs start with an additional advance or maybe even their Moment of Truth unlocked?

The Year in Superhero RPGs 2015

LOOKING FOR A REBOOT

This was a strangely and perhaps mercifully thin year for Superhero RPGs. Only a single completely new game released in printed form. Even that reused an earlier system. Some lines got support but generally they remained static. Compare that to 2014 where we saw a dozen new supers rpgs (Cold Steel Wardens, Valiant Comics RPG, Worlds in Peril, and many more). It also marked another year where we didn’t have licensed super RPGs from the big two in active circulation. Marvel Heroic vanished at the end of 2013 and DC Adventures continued to be sold at a deep discount during the Green Ronin Holiday sale.

But it was a decent year for supers in other media. In board games we had continued support for Hero Clix, Marvel & DC Dice Masters, Marvel Legendary, Sentinels of the Multiverse, and the DC Deckbuilding Game. We also saw a few new products- Heroes Wanted, Sentinel Tactics, the V&V Card Game, and SuperPower SmackDown!—none of which made a real splash. In video games we got Batman: Arkham Knight and Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham. On TV we saw Powers, Daredevil, Guardians of the Galaxy, Supergirl, and Jessica Jones. In film Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant Man, and Fantastic Four. So a respectable year, if not flashy. Surprisingly television's the real stand out among those. 

I have a Patreon for this project. If you like it, consider becoming a backer or resharing these lists to spread the word.

CANON PUNCTURE

I begin with core books here. I include Kickstarter projects if they actually released in 2015. I give pdf-only releases their own entry if they’re notable, of significant size, or come from a major publisher. I’ve consolidated a ton of material into several ”Miscellaneous” items at the end. I’m sure I missed some releases. If you spot them, leave me a note in the comments.

History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs

History of Superhero RPGs

History of Horror RPGs

History of Universal RPGs

Samurai RPGs

History of Wild West RPGs: First Fifteen

1. AMP: Year Two

AMP remains one of the most interesting superhero projects out there. It began with AMP: Year One, detailing the recent appearance of amplified humans. This volume moves the story forward while adding new powers, concepts, and foes. I interviewed designer Eloy Lasanta about his work. You can see that here. Striking ly, AMP takes a "meta-plot" approach. That dropped of fashion in rpgs after the end of old World of Darkness. Lasanta handles this line smartly, keeping it limited to one product line. He’s also shown his mastery of Kickstarter projects in both delivery and conception. His backers get to see where the setting goes and absorb new ideas for their own campaigns. He’s been good about interacting with his community and taking feedback.

Besides AMPP: Year Two, Third Eye Games released several support products for the AMP line. Most important might be the various affiliation guides, describing major groups in the setting (The Changelings Affiliation Guide, TRAC Affiliation Guide). They also bundled together several pdf scenarios into one collection, AMP Adventures.

2. Extreme Earth

We've seen supers dystopian approaches in comics (The New Statesmen, Marshall Law), events (Age of Apocalypse, World's End) and RPGs (Underground, Brave New World). Extreme Earth returns to that territory, taking old elements and stretching them further than we've seen. Government control and public backlash usually exists as a hanging threat, a front to be be fought against (consider AMP and Aberrant). This setting makes that front and center. Those controls have already arrived.

This is a world like ours but in much worse shape. It had fewer natural resources than our own. Shortages combined with disastrous climate change has created chaos. Corporations and private military organizations have seized greater influence. All of that’s made more dangerous by Super Talents, a force every faction wants to control. These arose out of post WW2 experiments. There's echo of Garth Ennis' The Boys in tone and set up. Extreme Earth combines an Iron Age sensibility, a grounding in realism, and anti-hero revolutionaries.

The first 30+ page chapter sets up the timeline, technology, and current situation. Chapter two introduces FIST, the Department of Federal Investigations into Super Talents. Imagine a nastier SHIELD with a public version of the Suicide Squad at its disposal. Chapter three looks at who you might actually interact and what you might actually do in the setting. It has some interesting ideas and follows that up with a sample adventure. That assumes a PC group acting as black ops agents for FIST or another organization.

Extreme Earth had a successful Kickstarter; I backed the project. The designers created multiple versions of the setting. That offers one for each of most the major superhero systems: M&M, Fate Accelerated, Supers!, ICONS, Bulletproof Blues, Savage Worlds, BASH, Cold Steel Wardens, and HERO. Supers games have really embraced cross-system development in recent years. That’s awesome. I’ve looked over the M&M material and it holds together.

That being said, Extreme Earth is not my bag. I skipped out 1990's comics. My vision of "Iron Age" is more confined to Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight, and other late '80's approaches. There vigilantes struggle with moral issues, tragedies, and responsibilities. That's part of why Cold Steel Wardens appealed to me. Extreme Earth is dark, nasty, nihilistic, violent, and strapped with weapons. That's not what I enjoy. As well the setting's pretty deeply written; that makes it tough to lift material for other games. It's also weirdly unbalanced in presentation. For example, EE spends a lot of time detailing the personalities and background of super NPCs. There's six pages on a single superteam member, Nightshade. Many others get similar treatments. That feels like overkill. It's missed opportunity; piling things on rather than offering more material and ideas.

On the other hand if you're looking for a generally well-written and excellently illustrated dystopian supers setting, Extreme Earth could fit the bill. It's certainly more adaptable than other parallel products. Who knows, I may swing back to this if I need a quick alternate world for a supers campaign.

3. Hyperville

A French supers RPG aimed at younger players, specifically 6 to 12 years old. The characters are supers defending the titular city of Hyperville. Resolution uses just a d6. The descriptions I read make it seem like it actually has a lot of details. Translated from le Grog, "A hero is defined by six qualities: strength, mind, energy, speed, intellect / instinct and aura (values ranging from -2 to 4), characteristics that are calculated from qualities (number of actions per turn, Speed of movement, reflexes, invention, deduction, super, popularity, lifting, leap, physical, energetic and mental fighting capacities, with the corresponding resistances. These heroes have powers, divided into three categories: energetic, and strange."

But it’s also describe as narratively focused, so I’m not certain. Regardless I'm glad to see something like this. We have many fantasy games aimed at children, but fewer super ones. That’s a missed opportunity. Given the popularity of superhero films and more importantly younger-skewed superhero animated series, game companies are leaving money on the table.

4. Mutants & Masterminds

Green Ronin's had just a single major release for M&M: the Cosmic Handbook. Not collected from earlier pdf releases, this offers new game material. It operates like their other genre books. The Cosmic Handbook has the twin task of doing both space supers (Green Lantern Corps, Guardians of the Galaxy) and future heroes (Marvel 2099, Legion of Superheroes). The first chapter lays out and goes over the genre conventions. That's most useful for someone coming in cold or GMs without a clear sense of what their campaign. Chapter two looks at common powers and offers some builds. It also has useful PC templates. Chapter three's focused on the GM, with advice on what players actually "do" in a cosmic series. It also has example villains, minions, and pets. Chapter four and five lay out expansions of the house "Freedom City" setting. The first covers space in the contemporary era and the second covers the setting in the year 2525.

The company also continued their pdf series, each intended for a future collected edition. Rogues Gallery offers adversaries; that has not yet been released in a single book. On the other hand the second series, the Atlas of Earth Prime, got bundled in 2016. That has brief pieces on just about everywhere in the Freedom City universe.

5. Victorious

Subtitle: “Victorian Role Playing Adventure in the Age of Supermankind.” This is, I believe, the third Victorian supers game I’ve seen (after Agents of the Crown and The Kerberos Club). Victorious comes from Troll Lord Games and uses the SIEGE Engine. That modified d20 system also powers Amazing Adventures, Castles & Crusades, and StarSIEGE. Victorious infuses a classic Victorian setting with literary characters (Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo) and vigilantes using "phastasmagoria" to battle injustice. It leans into the early LXG.

This is a relatively slim core book, with a system d20 aficionados may find easy and light. It includes seven base classes: Contrapionist, Hypnotist, Inquiry Agent, Paragon, Radiant, Strongman, and Vigilante. Character creation’s dispensed with in a little over twenty pages. The actual resolution mechanics (attacks, saves, experience, etc) is dealt with even more quickly. Most of the rest of the book, just under 100 pages, treats the setting. That has notes on travel, organizations, the Victorian era, and Bestiary. The last chapter-- "The Supermankind"-- covers a host of topics including GM advice. Incidentally, the GM is the Genteel Magistrate making it the 145^th unique name I’ve found for this role.

"Super-powers" as such come to characters as they increase levels in their class. That's a bolt on to the SIEGE mechanics. In other words, Victorious is very much a Steampunk game first and a supers game second. The publishers have supported the line-- with many supplements coming out of a highly successful Kickstarter. If you're interested I recommend checking out sharp-minded Timothy Brannan’s The Other Side Blog, which has a solid look at it. As of the writing, Victorious has a relatively high price point ($21 for a 144 page pdf) that's kept me from picking up a copy.

6. Miscellaneous: PDF Only

Electronic-only products deserving a call-out

• Comic Book Adventures is an adaptation of Heroes Wear Masks, which in turn is adapted from Pathfinder. Here's the game’s pitch, "Want to play a super hero RPG, but have no one around to game with, well Avalon is here to save you from your boredom. Yep its here at lasts, a solo system for playing a comic book super hero RPG." CBA handles this in two ways. The core rules include a modest random generator (The Patrol Chart) and Avalon Games has released several solo modules. These present a series of incidents rather than CYOA menu.
• FASERIP wears it's origin on its front cover. The many other TSR Marvel clones have been more coy. Still this is the cleanest of those retro-clones. It has crisp layout, smart organization, and a decent choice of stock art. FASERIP even has a complete index. I have only one quibble. It uses a weird colored and shadowed font for some terms in the text. That’s hard to read and a weak design choice affecting usability.
• Sentinels of Echo City calls itself a love letter to '84, it "answers the question, "what if the designers of FASERIP used the B/X system instead?"." So if you were wondering that, here you go. The designer has released several supplements, including Absolute Power which adds new character options. If you want an OSR approach to supers, this has it for you. One warning: the art's a little weak.

7. Miscellaneous: Supplements

• Black Operators: This offers a revamp for the Psi-Watch setting. That's a d20 Modern adaptation presenting a world of hidden mentalists combining espionage and supers. I missed it on earlier lists. That's a cool concept and another one we haven't seen used much.
• ICONS A to Z: A pdf series covering various topics in the ICONS universe (i.e. Aliens, Battles, Demons).
• The Enlightened Man: A Renaissance supers setting for use with Spark! and Fate Core. That's a great concept and one I haven't seen before on these lists.
• The Powers Companion: A super-powers supplement for the Victory system, a multiversal game. Plus "The Victory System is 100% backwards-compatible with the Inverted 20 System used in Hot Chicks. You can use any of the 100+ Hot Chicks: the RPG products with the Victory System." So there's that going for it...
• Strangers: Les Empires Galactiques: A supplement for the French supers rpg Hexagon. This details the greater galaxy, ala The Cosmic Handbook mentioned above.
• Superstring Multiverse Worldbooks 1 & 2: Expansions for the Superstring campaign framework. These offer new dimensions to explore in the multiverse. Volume one has a world of supergods and one of chaotic energies. Volume two has both a ‘Golden Age’ setting and a grim & gritty world for contrast.
• Thrilling Powers: A collection of powers and concepts for Worlds in Peril. Super useful for GMs and players. Worlds in Peril has an open approach to powers which can be daunting. This offers a better sense of the boundaries.

8. Miscellaneous: Campaigns

I wanted to call out three major campaign modules/settings:

• Necessary Evil 2:Breakout: Returns to the “Villains Resist an Alien Invasion” world of Necessary Evil. This is actually a prequel. In it, lower-level villains and other superbeings attempt to survive in the new created prison that is New York. It stands on its own and has a complete campaign, with the players trying to form gangs and build a resistance.
• No Soul Left Behind is an amazing supers campaign for Better Angels. In that rpg you play villains trying to contain their own demonic nature. NSLB is a teen campaign set in an experimental charter academy. It's a brilliant set up for those who like tightly plotted adventures. More than anything, No Soul Left Behind presents a great starting point for new Better Angels campaigns. That same strength makes it less useful for other kinds of campaigns. I backed it hoping I might be able to borrow ideas. There's great stuff here but it would need a lot of reworking.
• Next provides a campaign and toolkit for the Italian rpg #urbanheroes. That's a dark, Iron Age-esque rpg with some satirical content. The translated blurb reads, "If you liked this Marshall Law, America's Got Powers, Top Ten and if you think it to be a HERO you don’t just fight crime in the streets, NEXT is the adventure for you!" Looks like it has setting material for NYC, a host of NPCs, as well as a multi-part linked adventure.

9. Miscellaneous: Modules

Boiling Point is a lengthy scenario for Base Raiders. BR remains one of my favorite supers concepts and I backed the BP Kickstarter. The designer has released adaptation notes for several systems, including M&M. It does a great job of showcasing what a "base delve" looks like. This adventure splits into investigation and discovery, followed by breaking into the facility itself, located underwater. I love that detail and it elevates the whole thing.

Improbable Tales released several adventures more in this series, including Belly of the Beast and Eaters of Steel. These have three distinct versions: ICONS, SUPRS!, and Savage Worlds. Ad Infitium dropped more adventures for ICONS: Urban Jungle and Devil's Night. As well, Blessed machine released Evilution Unchained for the system. Several SUPERS! modules arrived: Havoc on Halloween, Scene Stealers 2: Bad Moon Rising, and The Heist. Centerville: City Under Siege came out for Villains & Vigilantes. That has players dealing with a whole city held hostage. Both Comic Book Adventures & Sentinels of Echo City mentioned above released adventures and NPC/scenario hook supplements. Finally To Stand Together is an intro adventure for the BASH system.

10. Miscellaneous: PDF Character Book Series

• Acts of Heroism: Heroic characters and teams. (M&M 3e)
• Algernon Files: Blackwyrm had been releasing additions to this M&M 3e series and collecting them in larger volumes. That project seems to have stalled with the last, Carapace, appearing in 2015.
• Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul: Quick Bio – Cliffhanger: Dedicated to the late, great artist Herb Trimble. This takes the character he illustrated from the earlier Omlevex supplement and presents it with Capes, Cowls, and Villains Foul stats.
• Enemy Strike Files: Villainous threats. (ICONS, M&M 3e, SUPERS!)
• Injustice for All: Supervillain characters and organizations. (SUPERS!)
• Jacob Blackmon’s Iconic Legends: Written by the titular Jacob Blackmon. (ICONS)
• Space Supers: Characters from the universe of The Great Game. (ICONS, SUPERS!)
• The Super Villain Handbook: Not a series, but a large collection. Released in 2015 for Fate Core and SUPERS!, the following year would see a “Deluxe” edition for ICONS.

History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs

History of Superhero RPGs

History of Horror RPGs

History of Universal RPGs

Samurai RPGs

History of Wild West RPGs: First Fifteen