Tag Archives: superhero

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 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!

Re: Animated • Avengers Retrospective

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Ten years ago today, the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series premiered. It was just the start of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, but “EMH” (for short) packed a lot into its two seasons, before the Marvel/Disney juggernaut took plans for animated series and content in a different direction.

A little less than ten years ago, I also started reviewing episodes of Avengers with an eye towards superhero roleplaying games and game design. In recognition of the 10th anniversary of one of my favorite animated series, I wanted to share those reviews of the complete first season of Re: Animated • Avengers. I hope you enjoy and … Avengers Assemble!

Champion fundraiser for Rainbow Railroad

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ChampionCoverSometimes, I wish I had the power to help, to answer the call of “save me!” in a real and tangible way. Still, I try to do what I can with what I do have, which includes publishing and imagination.

The ongoing pogrom against LGBTQ people, particularly queer men, in Chechnya has filled me with deep sadness and anger, as has the tepid response of the American government. As much as I would like to be the hero who can swoop in and save people—my people—in desperate need, the best I can do for now is to imagine that hero, breathe life into him, and ask for fellow gamers and superhero fans to donate in order to get to know him better.

So, I give you…The Champion! Chosen by the Aristos Eremenos, bearer of the Four Golden Gifts, protector of the people. All profits from the sales of this short pay-what-you-want PDF will be donated to the Rainbow Railroad, a nonprofit dedicated to doing the real heroic work: Getting people in danger out of harm’s way and to somewhere they can be safe. With persecution of LGBTQ people on the rise around the world, not just in Chechnya, their life-saving work is more important than ever. Whether or not you include the Champion in your heroic universe, please consider offering them your support. Be a hero, because the world needs more. Thank you.

Sins of the Past Revisited

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Can the Golden Age Tarnish…?

The city is honoring the legendary Golden Agents of the Second World War with a new museum, but tragedy casts a shadow over the celebration, and raises disturbing questions about America’s beloved heroes. Have “the sins of the past” come back to haunt them? Your heroes have a chance to find out, and to do something about it!

Sins of the Past is an updated new edition of a much-loved Icons adventure, written by Theron Bretz and illustrated by Dan House, including all-new art, maps, more details about the Golden Agents, plus playtest and design notes from the author, all updated for the Assembled Edition of the game, and now available on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow from Ad Infinitum Adventures!

The Terror of Tiki Pterodactyl!

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A Trip to Tropical Terror!

It was supposed to be a relaxing island cruise to get away from it all: the city, crime, would-be conquerors… but the best-laid plans…

When the cruise ship is pulled off course and attacked by strange dinosaur men, the heroes are marooned on an uncharted island and thrust into an ancient conflict between mystical forces. Can they survive the island’s hazards and save the ship’s passengers from the sinister Temple of the Spirit of Fire and overcome The Terror of Tiki Pterodactyl...?

This adventure for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying is suitable for any group of heroes and makes for a fun, off-beat change-of-pace. Give your heroes a “vacation” from the ordinary they won’t soon forget!

The Terror of Tiki Pterodactyl, written and illustrated by Dan “The Man” Houser, is now on-sale and available for download on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow!

Reign of Chaos

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Reign of Chaos cover

It’s here! Phalanx…to the Fore!

It began with Flight of the Nova-1 and progressed through Cold War Conundrum, The Nemesis Crisis, and The Metaskulk Invasion — and now the Rise of the Phalanx saga for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying comes to its climatic conclusion with Reign of Chaos, where the heroes of Victory City learn the history of their predecessors and confront the mastermind behind the looming threat from Geistspace. Can they save the city, and the world, from the vengeance of Reign…?

The Rise of the Phalanx series concludes in Reign of Chaos, written and illustrated by Dan Houser, from Ad Infinitum Adventures, available on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow!

Coming Soon: Reign of Chaos

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Reign of Chaos cover

Phalanx…to the Fore!

It began with Flight of the Nova-1 and progressed through Cold War Conundrum, The Nemesis Crisis, and The Metaskulk Invasion — and soon the Rise of the Phalanx saga for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying comes to its climatic conclusion with Reign of Chaos, where the heroes of Victory City learn the history of their predecessors and confront the mastermind behind the looming threat from Geistspace. Can they save the city, and the world, from the vengeance of Reign…?

The Rise of the Phalanx series concludes in Reign of Chaos, written and illustrated by Dan Houser, coming soon from Ad Infinitum Adventures!