Magic can also be handled by Qualities, ICONS’s narrative handling of distinctive character traits that can’t be covered by numerically-rated abilities. ( See “Magic” in the Great Power! sourcebook-there are some additional helpful details on magic in ICONS: A to Z, but nothing that much changes the core mechanic discussed above.) Thus, if your hands are bound by a supervillain, your character can’t utilize his or her magic. Magic has a Performance Limit, meaning you take a page (ICONS’s comic book-twist on a “turn”) to prepare, and your hands have to be free so you can gesture to make the spell. To recap quickly, in ICONS magical heroes cast spells that duplicate the effects of other powers. But it seems to me that anything we do to heighten that sense of otherness-those different meanings, sources, methods of power-wielding-only makes magical superheroes, and so our superhero TTRPGs, even better. True, a heroic sorcerer may shoot blasts of energy or create force-field equivalents that have effects similar to certain armor-wearing or shield-wielding avengers. This makes magical supers a unique in the superhero pantheon. To that end, how a heroic sorcerer’s powers are deployed and especially where they come from - be it from powers divine, demonic, nature, or cosmic sources-imbue them with different meanings than your science or training-based superheroes. This sense of experimentation in mind, anything we can do to heighten the game’s comic book feel is worth exploring. ICONS then would seem to welcome, and maybe was even built for, experimentation. In the Assembled Edition’s intro, he specifically rejected the concept of “the one true game”. Its author, Steve Kenson, in subsequent sourcebooks has offered many fun suggestions of ways to modify the core ICONS game. Before diving in, it’s worthwhile to pause and ask, why bother tinkering with a great game system? ICONS is a rules-lite TTRPG (meaning there isn’t a ton of point-counting or math to build your characters and play the game). A sense of magical otherness, however, can remain elusive.Ĭan we modify ICONS’s game mechanics so playing magical heroes feel vastly different from other kinds of supers? Why Are We Doing This? Many superhero tabletop role-playing games (“TTRPGs”) - and especially my go-to supers TTRPG, ICONS: The Assembled Edition - will allow you to build superpowers with limitations or effects that model comic book magic.
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