BASH Original Edition Breakdown Review

BASH Original Edition Breakdown Review

$1.99 – 30 pages http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/19178/BASH-Basic-Actio…

Introduction

The overview says it was designed to be a game for kids, but others liked it too. Key terms are defined.

Character Creation

On page 3, assign 7 points between Brawn, Agility and Mind, get extra by taking a weakness or fewer powers. Ranked from 1-5.

Spend 9 points on powers or vary by changing with stats as above. Choose an origin and a power limitation to make them cheaper if you desire. Or power enchancments, which make them more expensive. You can take a bad weakness.

Types of Powers

Listed on Page 4-9 – a short but reasonable selection.

Skills

Starting on Page 9, a list of other things characters can do.

Advantages

From Page 11, even a short game like this has this nebulous other section. Things like Appeal, Celebrity, Contacts, Dumb Luck. Then the Disadvantage counterparts on page 13 and 14.

Dice Mechanic

Page 15 details the 2d6 multiplied by ability mechanic, trying to beat a difficulty number from 10 (easy) to 50 (nigh-impossible). With a tweak that if you roll doubles, you roll another d6 and add to your original 2d6. If you then have a triple, roll another one,e tc.

Combat Rules

Highest agility wins initiative and heroes win ties. All except Mental attacks are Agility vs Agility. Not a good sign when a writer can’t use loose and lose correctly, generally but this is better than the usual left-end of the curve type, thankfully. Damage is based on Brawn and you make a defense roll similarly. If the attack is higher than the defense, then damage. A bit Tunnels & Trolls style, but even simpler perhaps.

Page 16 is detailing what actions you can do, movement, attack, wrestling, knock-back. Energy points are spent on powers a la Villains & Vigilantes or Champions. A simple number in that heroes have 10 and different powers have different cots. Then rules for falling, water, shooting and blowing up, improvised weapons, collateral damage and chase scenes on 17-18 with the Vehicle list on 19.

Minions

Ratings and rules on page 20, with a listing that follows, cops, ninjas, robots, aliens.

Sample Story Arc

The Gauntlet on page 22 to 25. Sample characters on pages 27-28.

Advice for Running Bash

A page on this, experience and more powerful characters with a character sheet on the final page.

Ratings

Genre Suitability: Four Colour Heroics
Artwork: Black and White

5 out of 10 Price (lower is cheaper per page)
2 out of 10 Length (lower is shorter)
2 out of 10 Complexity (lower is easier)
4 out of 10 Playability
6 out of 10 Artwork

3 out of 5 Overall

This is a solid, deliberately short and even old school type game that would indeed make a decent introduction for people. Also it would be quickly put together and explained one-shot. Somewhere in the area of the original Marvel Super Heroes Basic Game. Definitely good for kids.

People that want a bit more granularity and variety and options are likely to quickly become bored. There is certainly room to build a BASH Advanced though.

White Picket Witches

A New England USA island setting with five supernatural families and one defunct. Which means they still might be supernatural. Emphasis on playing the conflict as per tv soap opera drama, with explicit rules for Face Offs that could be conflict from basketball to teary accusations to drowning. Required some clever media analysis to come up with this.

Also deserving of taking this and making a more meta supplement for applying this to any particular setting, the various drama/tension/places of power type mechanics so that you can Soapy Drama up whatever you like.

Similarly for horror which obviously this rather more Practical Magic style urban fantasy has elements of. FATE Core could use a horror toolbox like the crime one and like this could one could . So a couple of possible spinoffs.

A really very interesting expansion, showing again that the people putting together FATE Core have an eye for the interesting and different in the broad range they have come up with here for inclusion.

4.5 out of 5

The Fate Freeport Companion – Elegant

An elegant adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons flavour with an interesting setting. Taking FATE Core type Skills and using a FATE Accelerated minimal list that are the classic six D&D abilities brings this rich setting to life.

Full of evil cults and Hobgoblin bartenders for some classic low fantasy possibilities along with the pirates and sea monsters.

An explanation of how to do the various classes with archetype builds, magic guidelines and a very nice beastie and flavourful NPC section make this a book well worth the time. Enough so I have now read it twice.

As has been suggested, a fine FATE gateway for d20 fantasy players as well as a good game.

The only thing lacking perhaps…although the downloads of FATE core and Accelerated are easily had: is a quick cheat sheet style ladder/action/outcome summary guideline page or four in the back.

9 out of 10

Super Squadron Rules Updates

From this online magazine and from Joe Italiano himself :-

I will go through in detail later, these are generally older ones. Although he says he is working on a second edition!

RPG Review – Super Squadron Rules Updates

Includes an Enhanced Charisma table.

Avengers Coast-to-Coast – Best Avengers Value supplement

An expanded Avengers heroes and villains book for the Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set with more characters and information.

Heroes — Villains

Ant-Man I, Ant-Man II, — Absorbing Man, Ares, Armadillo, Arnim Zola, Attuma,
Beast, Black Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Byron Justinian Gamble, — Baron Zemo I, Baron Zemo II, Black Knight [Nathan Garrett], Blackout, Black Talon, Bob Cat,
Captain Marvel, Captain Ultra, — Collector, Controller,
Drax the Destroyer, — Deathurge,
Edwin Jarvis, — Egghead, Enchantress, Enclave [Carlo Zota, Maris Morlak, Wladyslav Shinski, Him,], Executioner,
Falcon, Firebird, — Fixer,
Guardsman, Giant-Man I, Goliath I, Goliath II, Ghost Rider [Hamilton Slade], — Goliath, Grandmaster, Graviton, Grey Gargoyle, Grim Reaper,
Hellcat, Hulk, Henry Pym,
Iron Man [Tony Stark, James Rhoades: Mark II, III, IV armours, — Immortus,
Ka-Zar, — Kang, Korvac,
— Lava Men, Living Laser,
Jocasta,
Mantis, Moondragon, Ms. Marvel, Mentor, Ms. Marvel, — Mad Thinker, Maelstrom [and Gronk, Helio, Phobius,], Man-Ape, Master Pandemonium, Melter, Mister Hyde, Modred the Mystic, Moonstone, Metallus,
Namorita, — Nebula [Gunthar of Rigel, Kehl of Tauran, Levan of Sark, Skunge the Laxidazian Troll,], Nekra,
Paladin,
Rick Jones, Red Wolf, — Radioactive Man, Rama-Tut, Ronan the Accuser,
Quicksilver, Quasar,
Stingray, Scarlet Witch, Starfox, Swordsman, Shooting Star — Sentry [Kree], Scarlet Centurion, Shocker, Scourge, Screaming Mimi, Space Phantom, Squadron Sinister [Doctor Spectrum, Hyperion, Nighthawk, Speed Demon], Stankowicz, Spinner, Fabian, Super Skrull, Supreme Intelligence, Spinner, Shadow,
Thor [update], Texas Twister — Taskmaster, Tiger Shark, Thanos, Titania,
— Ultron-5, Ultron-6, Ultron-8, Ultron-12,
Vision,
Yellowjacket, Yellowjacket II,
Whirlwind, The Wrecking Crew [Wrecker, Thunderball, Bulldozer, Piledriver,],

So a good deal as you can see…also has an adventure and The Avengers charter at the start among other things…hence some out of order characters…plus grouping them to save space in smaller print where the […] lists boost the bad guy numbers

I believe they leave out people like Captain America as they were in the Judges book…which maybe should get added..and the Thor is an update and Iron Man has various armour versions

ICONS Hero Pack 1

Hero Pack 1

$10.00 – http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/87767/ICONS-Hero-Pack-…

This is a good one, done in the Hauser ICONS style…complete with Saguaro and friends at the end. A bunch of characters other people made up…with some standup cutouts included to print out, which is a nice addition. Lots of characters of different variety. Not really differentiated into Good vs Evil directly, only artistically.

Archer, Adamant Levinbolt, All-Star, All American Girl, Alchemist, Atomic Roach,
Bodhivajra, Black Box, Bombardier Beetle, Blacklight, Bramble, Blue Blaze, Ballerophon, Bubba Watley, Big Ben, Bilius Vert, Blakatoa, Blue Marble, Billy Powers,
Crashman, Captain Liberty, Centurion, Catalyst, Cougar, Calamity, Camazotz, Cloud, Collider, Conquistador, Crimson Circlet, Crude,
D’Bat-Set, Diamondstrike, Doc Pliable, Doc Ignus, Dr Axiom, Dark Impetus, Dr Barracuda, Dr Sinisterfield, Desert Storm, Dr Adharma,
Englishman,
Fire-Ant Man, Frostwitch, Fulcrum, Ferd Watley,
Green Knight, General Entropy, Gravedigger, Gauntlet, Galacticron, Grey, Graykallen,
Hellbrand, Hangman,
In43ction, iRon,
Jester, Jack of the Lantern,
Kinetic, Kali,
Lady Bug, LeTraceur, Landshark, Lady Omega, Landspatrioten, Lulabelle Watley,
Mazen Wilder, Mantis-Man, Monkey’s Paw, Magic Gecko, Mentuhotep, Mephiston, Miss Tikal, Mighty Saguaro,
Nocturnal Squirrel, Nighthawk, New King in Yellow, Nightstrike, Nightgaunt, Necromancer,
Omegutan, Old Man Watley,
Phoenix, Phoenix Knight,
rONIn, Red Mountain, Rex Radium, Revenant, Rex Monday,
Speed Demon, Saurian, Spider-Fridge, Scorched Irv, Sparke, Swami, Silvermoth, Sparky the Dharma Dog, Shock Value, Skromtet,
Tinman, Tempus Fugit, Tiger Tom, Talisman, Technologist, Tinman, Trigger Mortis,
Ultraviolet, Utburden,
Vengeance, Volcano,
Whiteout, Weaver, White Witch, Whisper,
Y’Nigma,
Zeppelin, Zeno Faraday, Zen Tao, Zeitgeist,

0.08 Character Cost
1.33 Character Density

Super Squadron Adventure Book Characters

Super Squadron Adventure Book Characters

Heroes — Villains

— Blood Tie [Goons, Assassins,],
— Cobra,
Dragonfly,
— Flying Cobra Goons, Fu-She Tu,
Green Sting,
— Invigilates [Mk I, Mk II,],
— Laser Bolt,
— Fred Nerko
Pamela,
Red Eagle, Rock,
Silver Knight, Shiffon Tank,

Super Squadron Character Generation Example and book readthrough summary

Super Squadron

character generation

eight basic statistics

Strength, Agility, Charisma, Intelligence, Stamina, Public Standing, Ego, Luck

For the first 6 except Public Standing, you roll 1d20 No-name hero (or villain) Public Standing starts at 11.

2, 9, 3, 15, 10, 11

a total of 50
the rules suggest that you can reroll if you do not get a total of 60, or rearrange them if you want, but you only need to get 50

Let’s just leave them for the point of the exercise.

For Luck, roll percentage dice on a table to get the factor, basic 10 or under you have one. 44, so a normally lucky character.

next, roll 1d10 for character origin, of which there are 6. A roll of 2 means a Mutant. Born with powers, either as a result of a previous accident to their parents, or just dumb luck. An Age roll for this origin of 1d12 + 15 gives 8. So a 23 year old Mutie.

Next, number of powers. A d100 roll, the lower the more powers. Most likely is 3. A roll of 11 gives 4 powers. Lucky characters might get more.

A character with more than one power has the option of taking all their remaining rolls as automatic re-rolls of the first result. Otherwise, rolling a power twice it increase the intensity, twice damage, half cost, double duration etc., pick one.

A player may also take a weakness (the glowing green rock clause) and get an additional power. Nifty anti-munchkin note: The GM decides the weaknesses and doesn’t have to reveal all of them.

So, rolling on the Mutant Powers table, the first is 98. Which is Organic Power.

Which means the character can choose a particular animal or plant whose powers or abilities they wish to imitate. They then receive 2d4 adaptations. Some examples listed include Ant, Cactus, Eel, Fox, Mantis and Rose.

2d4 gives 3 and 4 for 7 adaptions.

Time to cogitate on those and work out if the other three powers should also be this.

Being not strong, maybe a clever, sneaky, smart type animal or plant. Not that plants are too smart.

and probably funny looking, with that charisma.

So, I believe we shall debut:

The Fruit Bat.

so assigning the other three power rolls to Organic Powers we get adaption rols of :
1+3, 2+4, 2+1 for another 13 adaption slots to go along with the original 7, a total of 20.

Generally the examples given are each adaption can give a half strength power copy.

e.g. 1/2 Heigtened Agility, 1/2 Flight, etc.

So making it easy, we’ll go for this :-

20 Adaptions

2 Enhanced Intelligence * 1/2 (+2d10) (1,10 = +11)
2 Heighted Speed * 1/2
8 Heighted Agility * 1/2 (+4d10) (5,1,7,10 = +23)
2 Ultraviolet Vision * 1/2
2 Ultrasonic Hearing * 1/2
4 Flight * 1/2

So, currently

The Fruit Bat

Abilties

02 Strength
32 Agility
03 Charisma
26 Intelligence
10 Stamina
11 Public Standing
11 Ego
00 Luck

Organic Powers – Fruit Bat

Enhanced Intelligence +11
Heightened Speed
Enhanced Agilty + 23
Ultraviolet Vision
Ultrasonic Hearing
Flight (extendable wings)
Bat Faced, small for a human

Looking at the Ability Modifier tables

Strength 02 is Puny, -1 HT (Hit Points), -3 DD (Hand to Hand Damage Mod)
Agility 32 is speedy, movement rate 80m, +05% Accuracy, +3 HT, +2 DD
Charisma 03 is Ugly, which Reaction to heroes is -10% and Villains, +10%
Intelligence 26 is Brilliant, +4 HT, +2 DD, +30% Accuracy, 9d8% to detect entrances and 8d10% to detect trap (3,6,8,6,7,3,7,2,5 = 47%) and (1,8,4,9,3,4,10,5 = 44%)
Ego 11 is Average Superbeing, 10% Compulsory Retreat (if you lose half HT or more) and 30% Willing retreat. +05 HP (hit probability) Retreating when not supposed to drops your ego and various successes/failures impact it.
Public Standing 11 is – Reaction DM

Hit Points

Formula is 1/2 * SA + 1d10 + LK + Exp + Modifiers (currently no Experience, need 40 points to get to Level 1)
So, 5 + 2 + (-1,+3,+4 = 6) = 13 HT

Action Potential

Formula is ST + 1/2 IQ + SA + 1/2 AG + LK + Exp
So, 2 + 13 + 10 + 16 = 31

Characters can train over time to increase abilities up to 20, if a Self-Developed origin, then up to 25. You gain experience while super-heroing and can get % bonuses for roleplaying.

There are tables for family details, height, weight, job and if you happen to actually be an alien artifact.

GM says in this case size determined by organic powers. Strength, Stamina and Agility give modifiers to height and weight. Female characters take off 4d4 kg and 5d4cm.

There are patrolling, paying off informants and tracing rumours rules too. Plus Encounter tables.

Ordinary Encounter 12-14 on d100 is Espionage.

Super-Villain Encounter 12-14 is Jail Break

Extraordinary Encountey 09-13 is Mutant Villain (01-70) or Hero (71-00) Encountered

If you get supebeings, an 01 means a team, 02-21 on this roll a teamup.

Initiative is 1d20 + AG + LK (Luck you pretty much get to use in everything)

AG+LK of 30 or more is multiple actions a round if you make a manoeuvre roll of

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