Invincible: Vigilante City

In the Year Zero Engine RPG, Invincible, superheroes can be killed but are encouraged not to be murder hoboes. A GM can run it using the default unnamed city of the comics and Amazon series. Another option is to build a city unique to that GM and his or her group. Here are some options for a GM wanting to world build his or her own superhero setting and a look at the rules that support such a campaign.

My thanks to Free League Publishing for providing me copies of Invincible, Invincible Starter Set, Invincible GM Screen, and Invincible Power Cards to help provide continuing coverage of Free League RPGs.

The Rules

No real surprise, the rules are comprehensive and cover everything a superhero needs from powers to talents to drawbacks. Super powers are divided into attack, control, defense, modification, movement, and sensory powers.

A great addition to these powers is a d66 table of Power Sources. The Power Source are origins for how the PC superhero gained his or her powers. This includes mutation, supernatural sources including vampirism and spellcasting, galactic heritage, and more.

Most important to the GM is the rank of the superheroes. Ranks range from brand new teen heroes all the way up to cosmic champions. For this bit of world building, the rank will be street defender.

Unique to Invincible, the PC superheroes can be horribly injured and even killed. But they are penalized (lose experience points called karma) if they do the killing themselves. However, some PC superheroes are armed with pistols and rifles and are experts at combat. The Blast Power has a Boost called Deadly Blast that makes it more likely to score a critical hit and therefore a kill. The art also depicts a lot of smashed heads and dangling eyes, all of which the PCs are not supposed to do. It just is supposed to be done to them. It is a tough universe they live in.

The Setting

While the rules are robust the setting details are much sparser and will require some work on the part of the GM. Placing quite a bit of building a setting from scratch on the GM’s shoulders is not something I’ve seen before in a Free League RPG, and this change surprised me.

For example, Invincible has only a page and a half covering the city the campaign takes place in. There are no sample maps like in so many other Free League RPGs. Considering how important New York City is to a superhero like Spider-Man or Gotham City is to Batman, this omission is even more noticeable. The rules explain that the default setting of the Invincible comics and TV show take place in an unknown city. While this works for fiction, with perhaps the implied setting depicted with vibrant art and exciting action, an RPG needs a setting especially if the PCs are to fight and perhaps die in its defense.

In addition, Some of the Power Sources like Atlantean physiology, assume a level of understanding of the Invincible universe that isn’t neatly spelled out in the text. Atlanteans in the Invincible universe are fishlike for example, unlike the Atlanteans of the DC or Marvel universes. The artwork confirms this, but the Power Source would have benefited from including that in the description. The Shadowverse and other unique realms are briefly described but without a large amount of detail. A GM may need to do some research to get more information on these origins and locations.

A Setting Solution

The rules offer the suggestion of using a city the GM is familiar with. This option is easy enough, although a GM will need to really focus in on just the locations a superhero setting will need.

A different option is to use another existing superhero city, hopefully one not well known to the players, especially if they are going to make their own unique superheroes. A city designed for superheroes but unique to RPGs will be a mystery to the players while at the same time taking a bit of work and stress off the GM’s shoulders.

Vigilante City

Vigilante City for 5E – Villain’s Guide uses the rules of Dungeons & Dragons as a base but is itself based on the RPG system called Survive This!!. The city creation rules and sample city will work equally well for the Year Zero system.

The city generator uses dice drops and random tables to create a superhero setting. The details are provided using d20 stats, but similar rules from Invincible can be substituted. A GM not wanting to use a real world city can create his or her own with a few die rolls and have a setting complete with a city ready to go.

Also, in Vigilante City for 5E – Villain’s Guide is a ready made city, Victory City nicknamed Vigilante City. It is well suited for PC street defenders. This city is a massive metropolis divided into five districts. The include map and city guide cover several more areas including some areas just outside the city to the south.

Victory City has seen a rising increase in crime and violence, so much so that the city has been nicked Vigilante City. Vigilantes have sprung up in several neighborhoods to fight crime especially gang activity. The increase in vigilantism has created an unexpected rise in the arms trade, an increase in human augmentation, and the growing increasing in costumed villains. These in turn have drawn military companies and government agencies to study and exploit the rising violence to increase war profits and possible war victories.

More Adventures in Vigilante City

The description of the city includes coverage of 10 major gangs, an island of andromorphic animals, and a large collection of superheroes and villains. A GM will have plenty of ideas to draw from and dozens of superpowered options to model his or her own NPCs on. Sample adventures are also included and these could be converted as well by an enterprising GM.

What’s Next

Invincible surprised me. While the rules are solid, the GM is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting to build a world and bring it to life. I expected the setting of the comics and Amazon show to shine through. The included bits and pieces are intriguing. There is a whole supernatural element to the setting that is intriguing, galactic-spanning options, and more. But the support to carry out an entire campaign is light.

In addition, the art depicts the most violent setting Free League has put out yet (including one involving World War III by comparison and another with body horror aliens) but the text is much more comic friendly and straight forward. The PC superheroes may die horribly but if they kill, they lose karma (experience points).

An experienced GM will find a solid set of superhero rules with high lethality which is an interesting juxtaposition. With a bit of work, that same skilled GM can create his or her own setting, riddled with violence, but just waiting for superheroes to show up and save the day or die trying.

Picture credit: City, Skyscrapers, Horizon Skyline – Pixabay