Spes Magna Games

Last week, I got my print-on-demand copy of Alan Bahr’s Tiny Supers, published by Gallant Knight Games. (Nota Bene: The first link in the previous sentence is an affiliate link.) In my last post, I offered my initial thoughts, praises, and criticisms for Tiny Supers. I also presented the heroic Shaolin Beaver as a Tiny Supers character.

Speaking a superheroes, if you’ve never seen The Pumaman, you have missed one of the worst movies ever filmed. The plot is jaw-dropping. You see, a really long time ago, aliens visited the Aztecs, became the Aztecs’ gods, and, it would seem, one alien took a human wife. Their son was the first Pumaman, a demigod with superpowers and a mind-controlling mask made of gold.

Fast forward to the late 70s/early 80s. The evil Dr. Kobras (played with minimal investment by Donald “I Won Four Lead Actor Tony Awards” Pleasence) has acquired the mind-controlling gold mask and a collection of crude mannikin heads resembling important men. Kobras plans to use the mask and the heads to mind control his way to world domination.

Meanwhile, American Tony Farms gets chucked out a window by Vadinho, the hulking yet wise Aztec who is the last high priest of the alien Aztec gods. Vadinho knows that Tony is the only living descendant of the first Pumaman. With the aid of a magic belt and Vadinho’s coaching, Tony learns to use his Pumaman powers in order to save the world. The Pumaman’s powers? Well, just like a puma, he can fly and phase through solid objects. Also, he’s got really good eyesight and is super-strong.

As ridiculous as all that sounds, it’s ridiculouser watching it unfold on the screen. How ridiculouser? Well, Pearl forced Mike and the bots to watch The Pumaman on Mystery Science Theater 3000 back in 1998.

Which, of course, brings us to Pumaman for Tiny Supers.

Pumaman
Real Name: Tony Farms
Belief: “I am the Pumaman, guardian of the world!”
Weakness: “I’m a ladies’ man. No, really! I am.”

Archetype: Paragon
Archetype Trait: Extra Power. Select an additional Power from the Power List.
Stress: 7

Powers:
Armored (Tier 1). You reduce all damage by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
Flight (Tier 1). You can fly, moving to near the speed of sound at your peak. It takes you two actions to reach your top speed.
Phasing (Tier 1). You may become incorporeal. You may not interact with physical objects and cannot be harmed by physical attacks, although energy attacks are still effective. You may only move at half your normal rate while you are incorporeal.
Super Senses – Sight (Tier 1). You ignore any penalties for having your sight impaired or reduced (such as ignoring blindness).
Super-Strength (Tier 1). If you don’t have it, you gain the Strong Trait. Your Melee attacks do +1 damage.

Traits: Educated, Strong
Mastered Weapons (3d6): Puma Claw Strike
Proficient Weapons (2d6): Punch

Tags: superhero games, Tiny Supers

A hodgepodge sort of post today as I wind down my first work week of remote teaching and prepare for the first Saturday d20 Modern game GMed via some sort of videoconferencing thing. First up, two items for 5E D&D.

Cnagaire’s Thunderous Transposition
3rd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You and another creature teleport, switching spaces. You appear in the creature’s previous space. The creature arrives in your previous space with a thunderous explosion. Choose a creature within 60 feet that you can see. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails the saving throw, you and the creature both teleport, switching spaces. When the creature appears, a wave of thunderous force sweeps out from it in a 15-foot cube originating from the creature. Each creature in the cube, including the creature that teleported must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 3d8 thunder damage. Creatures that fail the save other than your original target are also pushed 10 feet away from the teleported creature. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and isn’t pushed.

In addition, unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 10 feet away from the center of the effect, and the spell emits a thunderous boom audible out to 300 feet.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd.

Cnagaire’s Knocker
Wondrous item, rare (attunement required by a sorcerer, warlock, or wizard)

This somewhat grotesque brass door knocker weighs 1 pound. It has 10 charges and regains 1d6+4 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the knocker corrodes into powder. With a command word as a bonus action, you can affix the knocker to a door or wall. You can then use an action to knock on the door or wall for one of the following effects.

Door Effects. You cast one of the following spells: unseen servant (1 charge), knock (2 charges), or conjure minor elementals (4 charges).

Wall Effects. You cast one of the following spells: clairvoyance (3 charges), stone shape (4 charges), or passwall (5 charges).

And now that tiny review mentioned in the post title.

This week, I got my print-on-demand copy of Alan Bahr’s Tiny Supers, published by Gallant Knight Games. (Nota Bene: That’s an affiliate link in the previous sentence.) It’s a lovely book. The cover features a quartet of brave heroes unconcerned that they’re surrounded by an army of robots. The first 15 or so pages cover the rules of play. The next 23 or so pages describe how create a hero (or villain), including descriptions of powers (called Power Traits) and traits (called Traits). Character creation starts by selecting an archetype (such as Defender or Gadgeteer). The player then customizes the archetype. It is all very rules-light, which fits the TinyD6 way of doing things. Pages 44-260 of Tiny Supers describe and explain various settings, including stats for several heroes and villains (although, in my opinion, not enough stats for the latter).

I’ve read the sections on game play and character creation, and skimmed the settings material, pausing to read a page or two here and there. Regarding the game play section, I think too much of it is cribbed from Tiny Dungeon, pretty much word for word. This is all perfectly legal, of course. Alan Bahr wrote Tiny Dungeon; it’s his to use and re-use. Still, I found the explanations a bit jarring at time.

For example, the rules for Obstacles in Tiny Supers mention “bartering with shopkeepers”. That’s something that comes up a lot in fantasy games (such as Tiny Dungeons), but, in my experience, that sort of thing never really comes up in a superhero game. I got this same disconnect in the sections that talk about weapons and magic, the latter even talking about how “Spell Readers may find magic scrolls out on their adventures”. Again, this makes all sorts of sense in a fantasy setting, but, in all my years of playing all sorts of superhero games, finding magic scrolls (or treasure of any sort) rarely if ever comes up.

Now, to be fair, this is a minor complaint. What I perceive as a disconnect between what’s described and the genre of the game doesn’t take away (or add to) the playability of the game. It just sort of niggles at me a bit.

So, with all that out of the way, here’s the amazing Shaolin Beaver for Tiny Supers.

Shaolin Beaver
Real Name: Edward
Belief: “I wander the land, doing good.”
Weakness: “I must find my people.”

Archetype: Expert
Archetype Trait: Mastery. You may not select more than 1 Power. You must trade out the rest of your Powers for Traits from the Trait list. However, you gain 2 additional Traits.
Stress: 6

Powers: Super Movement – Swimming (Tier 1). You do not have to Test to swim (treat it like normal movement).
Traits: Acrobat, Brawler, Cleave, Detective, Insightful, Martial Artist

Mastered Weapons (3d6): Tail Slap
Proficient Weapons (2d6): Unarmed

Tags: 5E D&D, magic items, spells, superhero games, Tiny Supers