Can ICONS Do Gritty?

A sentiment I've seen on occasion is that ICONS is only good for Silver Age-y, bright and shiny superheroics.  I think some of that is due to the artwork in the official products, which is intentionally rather cartoonish.  But the rules themselves are pretty style-agnostic, and cover lethal damage on page 70.  So, really, it's just a matter of perspective and description.  Like anything else in a superhero game, it's a matter of what you want to emphasize.

Which brings us to this charming fellow...

Arbalest
David Armbruster
Gimmick

Prowess  7
Coordination  5
Strength  6
Intellect  5
Awareness  6
Willpower  4

Stamina  10
Determination  2

Specialties
  Criminology
  Acrobatics

Powers
  Blast Device 4 (Shooting)
  Swinging Device 5
  Invulnerability Device 3

Qualities
  Catchphrase : "Go Ahead And Run, You'll Just Die Tired."
  Connections : Armbruster Industries
  Connections : Detective Andrew Drake (Maverick Cop)
  Epithet : Scourge of the Streets
  Motivation : Justice

Challenges
  Enemy : Little Augie Caesar
  Enemy : The Octofather
  Personal : Cruel
  Social : Obsessed

Point Total  47

Origin
From birth, David Armbruster was marked for greatness.  His father, Owen Armbruster was a renowned industrialist and philanthropist, but he also subscribed to some unusual notions of child-rearing.  David was raised by a team of specialists, top men and women in their fields.  From an early age, he was put through strenuous physical exercise and training.  His mind was similarly challenged, as were his senses.  In short, David was being raised to achieve the very peak of human potential.  The elder Armbruster did this out of a true sense of public service.  He dreamed that, one day, everyone would benefit from such an regimen and humanity would progress far beyond its current achievements.

As he grew older, David's education included ethics and philosophy, along with the practical skills he would need to one day run his father's company.  In short, he was shaped into a veritable superman.

And then, it all came crashing down.  Owen Armbruster died, cut down by a mobster's bullet in an ill-advised attempt to rob a charity benefit.  For all his education, David lacked the means to cope with the loss of his father.  He became obsessed with justice and with destroying the criminal element in Meridian.  He threw himself harder than ever into his physical training, incorporating martial arts and weapons skills until he became as expert in them as he was in everything else.

Taking up a crossbow (a nod to the Armbruster coat of arms), he donned a costume and stepped into a world of violent retribution.  The criminal underworld would pay for what they took from him. And he won't stop until they're in prison or in the grave.

Can ICONS do gritty?  Hell yes, it can.

They Came From Beneath The Earth!

M.O.R.L.O.K.
Artificial

Prowess  4
Coordination  4
Strength  6
Intellect  5
Awareness  5
Willpower  6

Stamina  12
Determination  *

Specialties
  Stealth Expert

Powers
  Paralysis 4
  Burrowing 5
  Life Support 5 (Breathing, Eating, Heat, Pressure, Radiation)

Qualities
  Epithet : The Terror From Below!
  Motivation : Kill All Humans!
  Catchphrase: HSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Challenges
  Social : Hideous Monster
  Weakness : Bright Light
  Personal : Controlled by HADES

Point Total  46

Origin
Created in a HADES lab, by means unknown, the M.O.R.L.O.C.K.s are bestial brutes with one mission in life:  Kill All Humans!  Their origins are shrouded in mystery; no one can say which twisted mind birthed these foul creatures!  None can say what M.O.R.L.O.C.K. even means!  All we do know is that they come from below!  Infiltrating our cities through the sewers, they live only to prey!

Reap The Whirlwind!

Cyclone
Sharon Robertson
Gimmick

Prowess  2
Coordination  4
Strength  5
Intellect  6
Awareness  6
Willpower  6

Stamina  11
Determination  4

Specialties
  Aerial Combat
  Science (Meteorology)
  Acrobatics

Powers
  Blast Device 5
  Elemental Control Device 5 (Air)
    Moving
    Defending

Qualities
  Motivation : Protect the Innocent
  Catchphrase : Reap The Whirlwind
  Identity : WCBN Meteorologist Sharon Roberson
  Connections : EUREKA

Challenges
  Enemy : Thunderhead
  Personal : Loves Raymond Gregory
  Personal : Obsessed With Weather

Point Total  42

Origin
Ever since she was a little girl, Sharon Roberson was fascinated by the weather.  She majored in Meteorology, graduating at the top of her class.  With her looks, a career in television was almost guaranteed, but Sharon wanted more.  She took weather and public safety very seriously.  It was this that drove her to seek the assistance of EUREKA in designing a flying suit that would allow her to study weather conditions up close and personal, without the limitations of a conventional aircraft.  The Cyclone suit was a success, and on her first field test, the examination of a tornadic thunderstorm, Sharon encountered Thunderhead, a potent weather controlling villain.  Although she was unprepared for a superhuman encounter, Sharon found herself having to fight for her life in the skies over Meridian!

Thinking quickly, she used the vectored air propulsion system to first protect herself, then blast Thunderhead from the sky.  Within minutes, the villain was in custody and Meridian had its newest superhero.  Sharon still works at the TV station, even though her bosses make her wear her costume on the air.  Her newfound second life has made things difficult in her young marriage, especially since her husband is a police lieutenant tasked with superhero liaison.

Returning to ICONS

A bit less than a year ago (by about four days), a random combination of words inspired me to create an ICONS character.  That post unleashed a burst of creativity that saw me post here pretty regularly for the next few months.  Then things fell off again.  I'm still not where I want to be creatively, but there's an old saying that goes, "Fake it until you make it."  So, I'm going to try to get back into the swing again.  I found a way to once again create the character art I find necessary to my ICONS project, and to celebrate, I present the first in what I hope will be a new series of writeups:

Doombringer
was Ezra Carruthers
Transformed

Prowess  5
Coordination  5
Strength  9
Intellect  4
Awareness  5
Willpower  4

Stamina  13
Determination  *

Specialties
  Occult Expert
  Wrestling

Powers
  Elemental Control 5 (Darkness)
    Shaping
    Moving
  Binding 5
    Affects Incorporeal

Qualities
  Epithet : Black Bones, Blacker Deeds
  Motivation : Bring Down The Elder Dark
  Identity : Servant of the Elder Dark

Challenges
  Social : Horrifying Skeletal Form, Unsettling Aura
  Personal : Insane

Point Total  45

Origin
Ezra Carruthers was born into a comfortable, boring upper class existence.  While his family weren't the cream of British society, he wanted for nothing.  Except entertainment.  Nothing ever seemed interesting enough.  He flitted from one hobby to another, one major to another, never settling on anything except his own pleasures.

Then, one night in 1974, backstage after a Maxwell Demon concert, he met the woman who would change everything.  Stacy Lynn Boyd was an American expatriate who called herself "Monica Thorne."  She claimed to be a channel to higher powers, and made quite a stir in the staid (and mostly male) London occult community.  While it wasn't love at first sight, both Ezra and Monica saw something in the other.  Ezra found himself entranced not only with the exotic beauty, but with the new world she opened up to him.  Monica saw in Ezra something of far greater value: a potential host for a great supernatural power.

For Monica, it should be noted, was anything but a poseur.  She'd summoned her first demon when most girls were having their sweet sixteen party.  By age eighteen, she'd allied herself with something she called the Elder Dark, a powerful magical entity from outside our reality.  Although the time for the Elder Dark to fully manifest in our world was decades, if not centuries away, she believed by bringing forth his mightiest servitor, she might hasten the process.

For months, Monica kept Ezra entranced, dangling tidbits of mystical knowledge before him, and indulging his physical lusts.  On All Hallows eve, she led him to a gathering of her coven, in the wilds of Cornwall, ostensibly to initiate him into her cult, but in truth, to summon Al-Gereshki, called the Doombringer, Herald of the Elder Dark.  On that storm-lashed hillside, Ezra Carruthers ceased to be.  Stripped of all flesh, his bones turned to obsidian, a malevolent mad intelligence took up residence in his skull.

Although Thorne's cult was discovered, defeated, and scattered, the Doombringer remains firmly a part of this reality.  Driven solely by a desire to bring about the time when the Elder Dark can manifest, it launches its own plots to wreak terror, but also joins up with those it deems advance its cause.

Dice. Bag.

My current go-to set:

I change out dice according to whims of mood or bad luck.  These are some Gamescience polys I bought a few years ago.  The inking on them stank, so I took a yellow crayon to them.

They go in here:

It's nothing special, but it's the same bag I've used since I got it as a present on Xmas day, 1980.  Just simple black suede leather.  It's probably as close to a personal totem or fetish that I have, as I've pretty much carried it constantly in whatever book bag I've had for the past 30+ years.

Finding The Path To Adventure

Back in December, I bought my son the Pathfinder Beginner Box as a Xmas present.  Unfortunately, he received a couple of video games as presents, so it got relegated to the "Interesting, but not a video game" pile.  I, on the other hand, read it and found it pretty nifty.

Fast forward a few months and the boy asked me out of the blue when we were going to game again.  I told him I didn't know (because my last few attempts at getting a group together to play at the house haven't met with much success) but I'd see what I could do.

The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced we could just do something one-on-one with the PBB.  After looking over the character sheets, I really couldn't see a reason why he couldn't just run all of the PCs and I'd do the GMing duties.  With my wife out of town for the weekend, we sat down this morning and played through the module that came in the box.

(And yes, I said "played through."  We completed the entire thing in about three hours.  Four combat encounters and a couple of roleplay/diplomacy/problem-solving encounters.  It played pretty fast.)

The heroes of Sandpoint braved the dark depths, slew goblins, a spider, a fell water beast, dispatched undead, and drove off Blackfang, a most vicious and vile black dragon.  Along the way, they befriended a tribe of squabbling goblins by returning a treasured toy to them, and completely misunderstood the purpose of a magic fountain.

I've been impressed with the physical quality of the PBB from the beginning, but this was my first chance to put it through its paces.  Of course, I've been playing Pathfinder for a couple of years now, but it was my first time GMing it.  The adventure provides an excellent mix of combat and non-combat encounters, the challenges were appropriately threatening without being overwhelming (Blackfang got off one acid blast: it dropped the fighter to 3 HP and the cleric to 0, which created a rather tense moment).  Even though the boy was playing all the PCs, each one had multiple opportunities to shine (or fail).

He wants to play some more. I guess I need to see about scaring up some more players (his age or otherwise).

Bree Yark, Bree Yark! It's A Helluva Town!

So, I playtested 5th Ed/DNDNext this evening.  I had a jolly good time playing Feredir the Blatant, an orange-haired, orange-robed Elven Wizard (on the spur of the moment, I decided The Blatant are an order of Elven Wizards who believe magic should be anything but subtle.  Thus, the orange robes, which stand out in their sylvan glades).

We killed the goblin leadership and the rest of their mangy bunch declared us their new chiefs.  We tried taking on the hobgoblins, but had to turn tail and run before clearing out the kobold nest.

Overall, this felt more like D&D than anything I've played in the past decade, with the exception of Castles & Crusades. With four players, we got through multiple fights, and covered quite a bit of real estate over the course of four or so adventuring days.

About the only thing I didn't like was that for most of the forays into the caves, I didn't feel like my character was in much danger.  In two expeditions into the goblin complex, including the ogre fight, I only lost four hit points total, and with the ability to heal back overnight, I didn't feel particularly inconvenienced.

Other than that, I can't really complain.  Also, I came up with a "terrific" song to commemorate the event.


Bree-Yark, Bree-Yark!
It's a helluva town,
The catacomb's up,
And the dungeon is down!
It's deep dank foetid
Hole in the ground!
Bree-Yark, Bree-Yark!
It's a helluva town!