Tag Archives: icons

Icons Annual 2

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A Year of Icons to Enhance Your Game

Icons Annual 2 is a collection of content for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying, created for the Icons Patreon online and supported by patrons and the Icons community. This collection of articles includes:

  • Rules! Expansions and in-depth looks at some of the core Icons rules, including more about Advantage, how to gain it and use it, and Power-Dives into psionics, martial arts, and super-strength.
  • Settings! Modular setting material for your games, ranging from alternate Earths like the psionic Earth-Psi or the supernatural Earth-Sigma to exciting locations from the Seven Cities of Atlantis to the arcane world of Zarcana or the dangers of the Challenge chamber! Drop them into your own setting or build whole new worlds around them.
  • Factions! Organizations and groups of characters like the WONDER Agents, the GUARD, and the famous Freedom League! Ready-made for use in your games.

Icons Annual 2 gives you a year’s worth of Icons content all at once in one, easy-to-reference book. It makes a great companion volume to Annual 1 and other essay collections like Icons A to Z or Icons Presents to supplement your options for systems, settings, and supplementary material for your Icons game!

For those who prefer their Icons content “a la carte” you can also get the chapters of Annual 2 as individual PDFs on DriveThruRPG for just $1 each, although you save by getting the whole book at once, of course. Icons Annual 2 is on sale now over at DriveThruRPG!

If you prefer not to wait until 2024, the future contents of Icons Annual 3 is being created right now over at the Icons Patreon. All you need to do is sign up as a patron!

Icons and the Open Game License

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So, you may well have heard about leaked plans for Wizards of the Coast to change the terms of the Open Game License and wondered: “Hey! Icons uses the OGL! How does that affect it?”

The simple answer is: I don’t know…yet.

Sufficient to say that this month’s pause in the Patreon comes at a good time, as I’m finding out what I can and awaiting whatever Wizards of the Coast will actually do or release by way of information. I’m giving thought to various options moving forward.

That said, I am optimistic that there is a way forward and that, one way or another, I’d very much like for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying to continue. Thank you all again for your support and, once I know more, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Icons Deal of the Day!

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Cover of the Icons Superpowered Roleplaying: The Assembled Edition game book.

Delighted to announce that the Mithral-level best-selling Icons Superpowered Roleplaying is the Deal of the Day over on DriveThruRPG! That means you can get the PDF of the Icons core book for 80% off! (Please note this deal doesn’t include or affect print-on-demand costs.) This opportunity is today only, so don’t miss out!

If you enjoy Icons and want new content every month, be sure to check out the Icons Patreon and become a patron as well! New patrons get access to “back issue” articles: The higher the tier, the further back they go!

Icons Annual 1

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A Year of Icons to Enhance Your Game

Icons Annual 1 is the first collection of content for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying created for the Icons Patreon online and supported by patrons and the Icons community. This collection of articles includes:

  • Rules! Expansions and in-depth looks at some of the core Icons rules, from pyramid tests to damage effects and more, which you can use to enhance your Icons games.
  • Settings! Modular setting material for your games, ranging from alternate Earths suitable as settings unto themselves or places for your heroes to visit, to factions and groups of characters like the cosmic Gemstar Guardians, the mythic Tuatha DeDannan, or the criminal Division. Drop them into your own setting or build whole new worlds around them!
  • Options! Optional rules and expansions for Icons, from how to keep specialties “special” and how to make your villains last longer in a fight to more on devices and equipment and answers to common game system questions.

Icons Annual 1 gives you a year’s worth of Icons content all at once in one, easy-to-reference book. It makes a great companion volume to other essay collections like Icons A to Z or Icons Presents to supplement your options for systems, settings, and supplementary material for your Icons game!

For those who prefer their Icons content “a la carte” you can also get the chapters of Annual 1 as individual PDFs on DriveThruRPG for just $1 each, although you save by getting the whole book at once, of course. Icons Annual 1 is on sale now over at DriveThruRPG!

If you prefer not to wait until 2023, the future contents of Icons Annual 2 is being created right now over at the Icons Patreon. All you need to do is sign up as a patron!

Giant-Size Icons: Evil Rising

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This Evil Unleashed

Evil Rising is a collection of seven exciting adventures for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying, introducing heroes to a variety of villains and their sinister schemes:

  • Grudge Match: The heroes come between to destructive powerhouses before they can destroy downtown.
  • Danger in Dunsmouth: Horror in a seaside town as a trio of witches see to raise an ancient monster from the deep.
  • Jailbreak! A test of a new super-prison becomes a death-trap at the hands of the Killer Gamemaster.
  • Murder of Crowes: The mysterious murder of a rural teenager leads to a spree of sinister attacks.
  • The RetConQuest: Heroes in an alternate timeline need to learn their true identities and overcome a villain who has changed history.
  • The Sidereal Schemes of Dr. Zodiac: Can the heroes prevent Dr. Zodiac from assembling the full power of all twelve of the Zodiac Gems?
  • The Skeletron Key: The theft of a military super-weapon leads the heroes to discover an even greater threat.

Hours of excitement and adventure as your Icons heroes overcome the threat of Evil Rising!

Get Evil Rising now at DriveThruRPG!

Hero Pack 1 Assembled

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Ten years ago, Icons line artist Dan Houser released the first of a series of “Hero Packs,” character collections inspired and created by the Icons community. Now the first of these has been updated for the Assembled Edition of the game. Hero Pack 1 presents a collection of ninety diverse characters from the history of Icons Superpowered Roleplaying, created and inspired by members of the Icons community and re-envisioned by artist Dan Houser.

  • Hero, Villain, or…? Some of the characters from Hero Pack are heroes, others villains, anti-heroes, or even ambiguous figures who might be hero or villain depending on the situation.
  • Inspiration! Use the characters from Hero Pack as inspiration and a jumping-off point for creating unique characters in your own Icons games!
  • Examples: The characters in Hero Pack offer examples of power configurations, abilities, qualities, possibilities and more you can use for your own games.
  • Standees: The digital version includes an 11-page PDF of printable character standees for all of the characters in the book.

Updated with all-new art based on the original Hero Pack release, with game information updated to the Assembled Edition of Icons by designer Steve Kenson. It makes a great companion volume to villain collections like Icons Adversaries or Rogues to supplement your options for allies, adversaries, and oddities for your Icons game!

Get Hero Pack 1 Assembled now at DriveThruRPG!

Icons Print-on-Demand Price Increase

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As you may have heard, changes in print-on-demand services over at DriveThruRPG will mean an increase in the cost of the “premium color” option for printed books, starting in July, roughly a 30–40% increase in cost. This is due to the arrangement between DriveThru and their printer, and not something publishers can control, apart from lowering already tight profit margins on print-on-demand titles.

I’ll be looking into some additional print-on-demand options for Icons titles, including the “standard color” option and possibly even lower-cost black-and-white versions for some titles. However, implementing these options may require a significant investment of time, and my priority is on providing monthly content for the Icons Patreon, along with updating some of the classic adventures and Dan’s Hero Pack products, so new POD options may be slow in coming. I appreciate the patience of all current and prospective Icons fans, since Ad Infinitum Adventures is pretty much a one-person production shop (me) with Dan providing artwork and some writing as well.

So, if you have been holding-off on picking up that printed Icons title, now is the time, before prices go up!

Annual Icons Patreon Memberships

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Thanks to Patreon, you can now choose an annual membership tier to support the Icons Patreon and get 10% off in the bargain! You’ll be charged for the full year up-front, minus the 10% discount, and then your membership is good for the whole year.

What You Get

This is a great time to consider subscribing to the Patreon: patrons have been enjoying monthly Icons PDFs since the start of 2021 and your patronage at the Sidekick tier or greater gets you access to all of those products. The Super and Hero tiers also get to vote on upcoming projects, monthly personal updates from me, and occasional bonus content. In two weeks, I’ll be releasing “Even More Trouble,” a deeper look at the trouble mechanics in Icons, at the Patreon’s June product.

Don’t Miss Out on the Bundles of Holding

Also, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out the fantastic Icons PDFs deals from Bundle of Holding: the 2016 Icons Bundle (updated with Adversaries and the new version of The Skeletron Key) along with the new Icons Universe Bundle. They’re only on-offer until the end of May and who knows when (or if) they will be offered again?

An Icons Two-in-One Bundle!

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It’s an exciting opportunity for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying! Over at Bundle of Holding, you can get the revival of the 2016 Icons bundle, including the all-new Icons Adversaries and an updated version of the adventure The Skeletron Key. Plus, you can get an all-new Icons bundle, featuring eleven titles added since the 2016 offer, such as Icons Presents, Rogues, and Menagerie, along with a half-dozen more adventures.

Whether you’re looking to round-out your Icons collection or start one, don’t miss out on this opportunity! A portion of proceeds from the Icons bundles goes to support the Transgender Law Center, where heroes are made. Both Icons bundles are available for 21 days, until May 31st, so don’t wait to claim yours!

GridShock 20XX

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Icons Superpowered Roleplaying is published under the Open Game License and, as you may know, offers its own Icons Compatibility license. This has allowed third-party publishers like Fainting Goat Games and Rogue Genius Games to produce—to name two examples—to produce some great third-party content for Icons.

Now Paul Vermeren, academic librarian and amateur game designer, has joined their ranks, launching a Kickstarter for GridShock 20XX, “a superhero world where something went very wrong in 1986. Reality was warped, civilization collapsed, and the world as we knew it was turned upside down. Now the bad guys are in charge of what’s left – but a new breed of superhumans called Vectors strive to restore freedom to their ravaged world. Like the heroes of the past, Vectors use their powers to address injustice directly, and with style: by punching it in the face, or blasting it with laser eyes. And with a totalitarian state called the Supremacy in control, there are a whole lot of things in need of punching and blasting.”

Paul plans to present the GridShock setting in a set of four 32-page ‘zines for ZineQuest. You can find out more, and support the project, at its Kickstarter page!