Let's take a quick look at Back Alley Games flagship TTRPG, POWERS RPG.
What is POWERS RPG?
Simply put, POWERS is a Table-Top Role Playing Game built around Super Human stories. And while we will have a default setting, the game is going to be built as a system that can support different settings and worlds.
Why a System AND a Setting?
A little bit of history here. Many years ago, I was in a game run by a friend, and we were playing the Marvel SuperHeros RPG from TSR. It was great. He had run the story so we could be in the same basic world as all the Marvel characters, but in our own characters and villains. But we still had the Marvel world to contend with. When I started running games on my own, I didn't know much of anything about the Marvel lore, and this was YEARS before the MCU. So here I was building a world and lore all my own. And there was plenty to work with.
One of the big problems with a game group that has real lives outside of the game group, campaigns and games don't get finished. So I wanted to create a setting for a game that hasn't been published since the late 90's. Yeah, not going to work for me. So I sat down and thought about what made that game great, and what I wanted to make a game great. Working on the game, I realized that if I have a history that includes characters in an other era, folks might want to play in the era. So I decided, let's split them up. I made a plan to create the game, and then create a setting that I can use for the default setting. And then I realized, I could make even more settings. So now there is the default setting, a plan for a setting in the seventies, a plan for a wild-west setting, a space setting, and even a golden age setting.
Tell Us More About the Settings
Let's just work on the default setting, and we can deal with the others later.
In this setting, you play as super-powered characters living in the long cast shadow of the last group of super heroes, Infinity. They were active in the 70's and 80's, but ended up getting nearly destroyed in the last battle with their enemies, the Legion. A Final Battle had put them behind bars, or ended them, but Infinity suffered the worst. Only three members survived, and they had very rough lives with all their friends dead. An accident, a still open missing person case, and a press conference that destroyed a legacy, there are none left as we move into the modern day.
Throughout history, there were waves of super human appearances. And between the end of Infinity and now, there have been a few making some waves, but nothing massive. Until now. More super humans are coming out again and you're at the front of it all. Answer the call and save the world.
What Other Setting Are Planned?
Part of my world was to build of the legacy of a group that no longer exists. So I thought, wouldn't it be cool to work alongside these heroes in that era? So I have some notes put together and plan on fleshing it out and writing it later.
II do have a list of possible settings, a Wild West setting, since one of the original characters actually comes from that era. And since there are aliens, I want to put together a space setting. Or multiple settings. Space is big. I'm also thinking that I might start looking at licensed settings. There is a list, and it grows, and even I don't know where it can end.
Can You Tell Me About the Game System?
Sure thing. So the old Marvel game used 2d10 as a percentile, and the attributes and power stats used a system of adjectives. Those adjectives were actually pretty useful, since different types of super humans would have a different level of stats. Random rolls on a table of adjectives meant the same number for a mutant and a big huge bruiser creature would mean that the bruiser still had a higher power. And I threw it all away.
My game uses 2d10, but a total instead of a percentile. And I decided the adjectives would have to go as well, so I created Modifiers. Positive and Negative Modifiers are extra dice you roll to add or subtract. So various Origins will define additional Modifiers, and powers give Modifiers as well.
Origins are the type of super human you are. Mutation, altered, robot, or aliens. And in each type of Origin as a sub-type. and watch out for the settings, since they sometimes will add new Origins too!
So that's a pretty good run on what POWERS RPG is. I'll be working on more with the game, and keep a watch here for more information on the game, like when I am ready to launch it!
Cover picture courtesy of https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/3815890-super-hero-business-man-in-suit-standing-and-looking-on-cityscape-view-and-thinking-business-plan-of-the-future
Thanks for Reading
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