Belated Find - Guardians OSR Superhero RPG

vitruvian · 02-24-2018, 10:35 PM

Just found this game while poking around through the retro-clones on Drivethru, the concept is What If? Gary Gygax had been into the superhero genre rather than pulp and Tolkienesque fantasy, so it's built on top of basically the OD&D mechanics (although they provide the option of using ascending AC), with new, superheroic origins (instead of races) and classes, an extended progression for abilities and ability modifiers, and an extensive list of Gifts, Powers, Limits, and Issues. A very nice presentation and rules set, which is not surprising considering one of the authors is David Pulver. Kind of surprised I didn't hear about it when it first came out back in 2016:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/172576/Guardians

Anyone else seen this gem and maybe have some actual play experiences to share? I got it and read through for the first time last night and am seeing a few things I might look for clarifications/errata on, and a few others I might tweak or house rule (Reduced Str when Shrinking, a pretty steep damage progression from Str that quickly outstrips defenses and other attacks, round durations and movement rates inherited from the OD&D dungeon crawling legacy), but by and large it looks like it could ably handle everything I would want a four color supers RPG to do.

02-24-2018, 10:35 PM	#1
vitruvian Join Date: Aug 2004	Belated Find - Guardians OSR Superhero RPG Just found this game while poking around through the retro-clones on Drivethru, the concept is What If? Gary Gygax had been into the superhero genre rather than pulp and Tolkienesque fantasy, so it's built on top of basically the OD&D mechanics (although they provide the option of using ascending AC), with new, superheroic origins (instead of races) and classes, an extended progression for abilities and ability modifiers, and an extensive list of Gifts, Powers, Limits, and Issues. A very nice presentation and rules set, which is not surprising considering one of the authors is David Pulver. Kind of surprised I didn't hear about it when it first came out back in 2016: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/172576/Guardians Anyone else seen this gem and maybe have some actual play experiences to share? I got it and read through for the first time last night and am seeing a few things I might look for clarifications/errata on, and a few others I might tweak or house rule (Reduced Str when Shrinking, a pretty steep damage progression from Str that quickly outstrips defenses and other attacks, round durations and movement rates inherited from the OD&D dungeon crawling legacy), but by and large it looks like it could ably handle everything I would want a four color supers RPG to do.