ICONS - Superpowered Roleplaying

[Mercutio]

This game - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/883600/icons_cover.jpg

I broke down and bought this from Barnes and Noble the other day (using gift card from Father's Day), and have had some fun just rolling up characters. The character generation is defaulted to random, but strangely, without any alteration to my dice rolls, the concepts that have come out have been coherent. The weird concurrences are pretty cool.

In any case, below I present the first character I rolled up. Even though I'm fairly sure I won't get to play this game, the system was just so damn attractive I had to buy it. And I dig the art style, too. Anyone else take a look or own this book and think it's kind of cool? I wish I could commit to GMing another game so I could try this out. It's definitely on the rules light side of the equation, and pretty far removed, mechanically, from Mutants and Masterminds (same creator!), but keeps more than a few of the terms and aesthetics.

Anyway - I present "Steel Knuckle."
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/883600/icons_steel.jpg

Also, the entire rule system, minus the proper names and art, is actually OGC.

[Mercutio]

I got my hardcopy in the mail today. The production quality is really high, with quality glossy paper and a good stiff binding (especially for a paperback).

If anyone cares at all, I'm trying to distill the basics, in my own words, in a text file, since the rules themselves are OGL.

[Mercutio]

I spent last night and part of today working on my own character sheet. I thought I was being original, but a quick search turns up that "my idea" has been done. At least twice. Damn.

Anyway--
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/883600/icons_steel_new.jpg

And blank--
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/883600/ICONS_charsheet_blank.jpg

[BigRedRod]

I've a feeling that the mechanics here are derived from FATE, but I may be getting confused with a game sporting a similar ALLCAPS name.

[Copper]

A friend of mine has this, apparently. I've never played it, but from what I've seen and what he's told me, it was a solid purchase.

[Mercutio]

Yes, BRR, the mechanics are derived from FATE/Fudge.

You use 2d6, designating one as positive and one as negative. You roll them both and do the math, with results ranging from -5 to +5. I've seen a few variant rules suggested that all supposedly have the same numerical percentages (2d6-7, 2d6 and just change the success/failure scale to 2-12, or designate the dice as one positive and one negative, and just throw out whichever is higher in value).

I'm almost done the txt file rewriting of basic rules in my own words. I could probably just post the rules as written, since none of them are protected PI items (only proper names and art are designated as such by the OGL implementation), but I feel safer.

In other news, I'm currently dreaming up my own setting, based on my new discovery of the Price of Freedom rpg as pdfs. I played the game way back when (early 90s) and always loved it (it's almost a precursor to True20, in looking at it now), but the setting, Soviet Russia conquers America (incidentally, it was written in 1986, 2 years after "Red Dawn") is something I've always loved. So I'm working, kinda/sorta, at tailoring ICONS to work in that setting. The major things I've changed so far are the maximum Ability/Power Levels and what Origins are available (only the more "natural" ones).

I sometimes wish I was an artist so I could illustrate, too, but that's just not one of my skills.

[Mercutio]

Adamant is running a contest to stat up Captain America with the ICONS system. Winner gets a Kindle. So I figured I'd make one up using my custom character sheet.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/883600/captain%20america.jpg