G-Core Deluxe Superhero Roleplaying Breakdown Review – Jay Libby
71 Pages
Table of Contents – Page 2
Foreword – Page 4 – Reminiscences by Bob Cram
What is a Game – Page 5 – Some general advice
Character Creation Flow – Page 7 – Steps to Follow
1: Type
2: Origin
3: Assign Points to Physical and Mental stats
4: Pick your powers and assign points
5: Pick your Special Focus…assign points to careers and Power Stunts
6: Pick Flaws or Weaknesses
7: Determine your Resources
8: Buy any extras. Armor, gear, weapons.
9: Personal description.
Then a sample character generation, Mr Tinker.
HERO TYPES – Page 8
There are several, from Cop to Student to Genius and some Cosmic Hero types that have varying point totals to assign to Physical and Mental Abilities in 10 point blocks. They have different Special Focus and Flaws.
Modelling Nightblack again we’ll take Vigilante, Physical pool 60 and Mental Pool 50, Special Focus, Martial Arts or Weapon +10. So that works.
The FASERIP abilities here are Rumble, Agility, Might, Moxie, Smarts, Perception, Spirit. Doubling adjective start letters not so good perhaps.
RAMMSPS.
R: 20
A: 10
M: 20
M: 10
S: 20
P: 10
S: 10
ORIGINS – Page 11
Alien, Android, Demi-God, Experiment, Cosmic, Evolutionary, Sentient Robot, Human, Human: Accident, Human: Cursed, Human: Cyborg, Human: Experiment, Human: High Tech, Human: Psychic.
Make him Evolutionary. 50 Power Points, 10 Gear Points, 30 Free Points. Starting Popularity is -10. 1d10 free points of 3 for 30.
R: 50
A: 20
M: 20
M: 30
S: 20
P: 10
S: 10
Darkness Generation: 50
Health = 120
Wild = 40
GAME MECHANICS – Page 15
1d10 * 10 is the roll used to add to statistics and compare to Static Difficulties or Opponent rolls. Easy task is 25 and a Super Task is 100.
Wild – Page 16 – can be added to rolls in multiples of 10. It refreshes between sessions.
Damage – Page 17 – also Stacking two people’s.
Finally some tables. Popularity, statistic benchmarks, and then descriptions following.
POWERS DEFINED – Page 22
Cosmic Powers – Page 39 – with ranks – Cosmic 2 Terraform can affect a Whole Planet.
Magic – Page 43 – with tables for necessary Spirit and Intelligence.
Vehicles, Armour and Weapons – Page 46+
With the relevant statistics and point costs.
GENERICS – Page 49
A list of NPC statistics for use. Cops, crooks, kids, alligators, sharks, rats, etc. Also an environmental effects table for breathing, fire, radiation, weather and that sort of thing.
Experience – Page 56
How to get it.
Villains and how to use them.
Levels of Game Play –
Street – Abilities up to 30
Classic Comic – Abilities up to 50
Super – Abilities up to 100 with a Major Weakness
Pulp – Only one over 30
Power Failure – Page 60 – Overloading and what happens when you do it.
Character Worksheets – Page 61
Genre Suitability: Any. Street level is perhaps the weakest point for FASERIP games and would need the most tweaking, but this point buy version might handle those slightly better. Colourful heroics are fine. There are rules in here for the really Cosmic as well. So should be able to take a crack at that.
Artwork: Poor computer modelled variety.
0 0ut of 10 Price (lower is cheaper per page)
3 out of 10 Length (lower is shorter)
5 out of 10 Complexity (lower is easier)
6 out of 10 Playability
1 out of 10 Artwork
5 out of 10 Overall
This takes the Marvel Super Heroes FASERIP game and gives it a 4CS inspired redo. With point-buy by character and origin type which is an interesting mix and match idea.
With eye-battering fluro green borders and somewhat messy layout raising the decipher the difficulty level. Using a d10+Ability opposition or target difficulty check to do away with the Universal Table, further diverging from the source. For an amateur production is understandably written and you can definitely play it. It could use some early table summary use when some game concepts are introduced and also perhaps as included handout/printout separate pages at the end. There is only one included character for use.
A playable game, but it isn’t easy being bright green when reading, so have to mark it down for layout.
2.5 out of 5