Superheroes
Adapting FASERIP Character Generation to ICONS
Executive Summary: FASERIP has a character generation system that fosters balance between your superhero PCs, while still offering enough randomness to draw out your players’ creativity. Given that they draw on similar inspirations, you can easily adapt FASERIP’s character generation for ICONS. To do this, grab a copy of FASERIP (it’s free), a couple of d10’s, and use the below table:
Because ICONS doesn’t have an Endurance ability, use the dice rolls listed in blue. The rest of your character generation, however, can proceed as detailed in FASERIP.
Thus ends the tl/dr. For a more detailed background on FASERIP, ICONS, and why you should consider pairing the two, please read on…
Creativity from Chaos
Depending on one’s stomach for leaving everything to chance, a series of d6’s can determine your ICONS superhero’s:
- Origin (each with different advantages)
- Ability levels (such as your PC’s Strength, Intellect, Willpower, etc.)
- Number of superpowers
- Type of superpowers
- Power level of superpowers
- Number of skills (such as Investigation, Martial Arts, Medicine, etc.)
Half the fun of ICONS is the randos its character generation (“chargen”) inspires, characters that one would never have otherwise come up with. It’s a wonderful example of an aleatoric process: chance-determined elements drawing out one’s creativity.
(ICONS chargen is fun even if you don’t have an actual game going. There are a couple online ICONS character generators, this one being my favorite. Once upon a time I’d check news sites to “relax”. Now when I’m in a waiting room I make up superheroes instead of checking Twitter, and am saner for it.)
Not So Random
ICONS’s author Steve Kenson notes that, “the random hero-creation system in Icons is intended as a source of inspiration, not frustration” and so his game offers a point-buy option. There are also rules for exchanging ability levels (for instance, swapping your Incredible (7) Intellect and your Average (3) Prowess because you’d rather your PC be good in a fistfight than a genius) or dropping a low-powered or lame superpower for an Extra to one of your better powers (essentially, an additional use of that power).
The need for less randomness comes in long-term games where players tend to want their PCs to be balanced—meaning not having a cosmic-level PC on the same team as a street-level PC. I think this balance issue is largely mitigated by the game’s Determination mechanic (i.e., giving lower-powered PCs more Determination Points for things like power stunts or to retcon having a certain piece of equipment, etc.).
And yet…even with this mechanic, for some players it can suck if you’re in a years-long campaign as a Daredevil when all your pals are Silver Surfers and Supermen. Point-buy largely eliminates these imbalances, but at the cost of all or most aleatoricism. Players often revert to building the same PCs again and again in point-buy.
So, how can we keep PCs balanced while still allowing enough creativity where everyone isn’t making a pastiche of their favorite superhero for the 5th time? For that, let’s turn to FASERIP.
Interlude: A Brief History of FASERIP(s)
In 1984, TSR came out with Marvel Super Heroes (“MSH”). In addition to superpowers, PCs were designed around seven abilities:
- Fighting
- Agility
- Strength
- Endurance
- Reason
- Intuition
- Psyche
It’s from these we get the acronym FASERIP, which has become a shorthand for the game’s generic/non-trade dress mechanics.
MSH was popular. Modules, an advanced edition, Marvel Universe character updates, and Dragon articles were being published into the ’90s. Indeed, it retains an active community creating their own modules and sourcebooks to this day.
In 2010, the first edition of ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying came out. ICONS has been described by some fans as the lovechild of the classic MSH FASERIP and Fate, a more recent, narrative-heavy game. You can see the family resemblance in ICONS’s abilities…
- Prowess
- Coordination
- Strength
- Intellect
- Awareness
- Willpower
…with Endurance being replaced in ICONS by Stamina (not its own ability, but calculated as Strength + Willpower).
In 2015, around the same time ICONS: The Assembled Edition was coming out, Blacky the Blackball released his version of FASERIP, a neo-clone inspired by MSH and ICONS. Blacky dubbed the game a “neo-clone” rather than a “retro-clone” because it endeavored to modernize the more ’80s mechanics rather than making a strict emulation
In many ways a love note to both of those RPGs, it is Blacky’s game to which we will be referring when we say “FASERIP" the balance of this article.
FASERIP Chargen
FASERIP uses a semi-random chargen method. It starts by the GM setting a Campaign Rank, which creates the average power level of the game’s supers. For instance, FASERIP defaults at World Class, which is analogous to ICONS’s Great (6).
PC abilities are initially set at the Campaign Rank. Players then roll on the Random Ability Table six times. Because ICONS has only six abilities to FASERIP’s seven, the dice roll ranges have to be adjusted:
The first three rolls result in adding +1 to any ability rolled; the last three in -1 to any rolled ability. This creates variety among PCs’ ability ranks, with a rank or two spreads in given abilities but no character being a dud with Weak (1) or Poor (2) ranks.
Once your ICONS PCs’ abilities are set, you can proceed through FASERIP’s chargen as written. It is then the FASERIP’s semi-random system will work its magic for your ICONS supers. FASERIP recommends selecting powers starting at one rank below the Campaign Rank, and allows you to roll up to eight times on its random power tables. Players can then drop powers for benefits and to tailor your PC to your concept.
This process, while the starting point leaves much to chance, gives your players a pleasing amount of control in shaping their PC’s superpowers. Using it for ICONS, the end result will be PCs that are all different, without the gonzo mashups one sometimes gets with traditional ICONS chargen.
End Notes
Resources cited in/relevant to this article:
- FASERIP
- Gurbintroll Games (Blacky the Blackball’s site; he has produced several other neo and retro-clones, all for free, all worth your time)
- ICONS: The Assembled Edition
- The No Frills Character Generator for Icons Assembled
- Classic Marvel Forever
- Marvel Super Heroes FASERIP Universal Chart (web-based version of MSH’s combat resolution table)
