Atomic Robo the RPG Review (Pen & Paper RPG Scan)

Atomic Robo premiered in 2007 as a six-issue mini-series, quickly gaining a cult following and branching out into the two ongoing titles “Atomic Robo” and “Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures”. The story chronicles the adventures of Atomic Robo, a self-aware mechanical man created by Nikola Tesla. Each story arc focuses on a different era in the life of Robo, beginning in the 1920s and continuing to the near future. The stories imitate the pulp action novels of the 30s and 40s, with a healthy mix of Tom Swift in the recipe. Robo's foundation, Tesladyne, employs “Action Scientists”, which pretty much sums up the book's approach to storytelling. Recurring antagonists include Dr. Dinosaur (an intelligent deinonychus) and the ghost (phasically fluxed corporeal entity) of Thomas Edison. The creators premiered a free webcomic release for the entire series in January 2015 as a promotion for the tenth volume of the series, “Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire.” The creators are currently running a Patreon campaign to continue support of the Atomic Robo comic.

Evil Hat Productions produced the stand-alone role-playing game in 2014 with the involvement of Atomic Robo creators Brian Clevinger and Scot Wegener. The system is based on their Fate Core product, but includes the full rule set in the Atomic Robo book. No additional books are needed.

High Concept: Atomic Robo and the Fate System should never be separated. The book series emphasizes fast action with improbable stunts, starkly astounding science, and zippy banter that proves inevitably ironic. The role-playing game uses Fate's variable attributes and flexible stress track to force game structure to imitate art. Characters tag their aspects and spend fate points to influence the story and make themselves more successful. When it's time to break out the action science techno-babble, the elaborate challenge system for Brainstorms enables players to break out the dice and gabble away with a reasonable chance of inducing a variable phase flux field in the transphasic modulator simply by reversing the polarity of the power coupling and aligning the rheostat 90 degrees to reality. And if that doesn't work, a good, solid punch usually does the trick. This is the kind of thing at which Fate excels.

Trouble: As with all Fate games, Atomic Robo requires massive amounts of buy-in and creativity on the part of the players. On the spectrum of role-playing games, Pathfinder would be on one end as a technically detailed tactical tabletop simulator and Fate occupies the other end as an exercise in group storytelling. There is a limited amount of tactical gaming in the system, enough to satisfactorily handle a fight between Tesladyne action scientists and the men in black of Majestic 12. Atomic Robo as a game theme lends itself as much to wacky ideas and radical puzzle solving as it does to rock-em-sock-em …. fight scenes. Fate is really a pretty good match for the setting.

Phase Trio: The production value of the book is phenomenal. It's printed on high-quality, thick stock, glossy paper in full color with a satin matte cover finish that's so smooth to the touch. It contains the entire rule set for the Fate System, so no extra investments are needed. Every section is fully illustrated using panels from the Atomic Robo comic with the characters appearing in bubbles as if they're playing the game and voicing over the panels. It's priced at $35, weighs in at 300+ pages, and is the same shelf dimensions as the graphic novels so that it looks really nice next to them on your bookcase. The PDF loads quickly without any heavy background graphics and sells for only $15 on DriveThruRPG. Plus, Evil Hat is a member of the Bits & Mortar movement, so if you buy the book from your friendly local gaming store the publisher will send you the PDF version for free. My one real complaint with the production value is that a book this size really should have been a hardcover volume.

Success With Style: If you're a fan of Atomic Robo or pulp science adventure in general, this is a fantastic treatment of the genre. The book lends itself well to adventures in the style of Gil Gerard's Buck Rogers, Tom Swift, or Doctor Who. If you have any kind of interest in this genre or in the Fate System at all, this book is a superior treatment of the system over the Fate Core book, though you may still benefit from the Fate Toolkit. Action role-players to arms!

Cape Noire

“Life and death are absolutes. You get born, live and then you die. The end. Period. That is, if you live anywhere else in the world except Cape Noire. You see, in Cape Noire there are no absolutes. There is only hell and it just goes on. And on. And on.”
Ron Fortier, author and creator of Brother Bones, from the Undead Avenger Brother Bones
A game of horror, crime, and consequences.

Cape Noire is a city located along the Pacific Northwest coast; set in the 1930s, it has been described as “a cauldron of licentious humanity.” Supernatural creatures and unspeakable sciences dwell in the dark shadows and dirty back alleys, prowling and preying on the innocent population. In addition to these horrific menaces, there are the ever present corrupt city officials and openly violent mobsters. Fortunately, there is hope, a grim reckoner of justice and vengeance; it comes in the form of a supernatural boogeyman—the undead avenger, Brother Bones!

Cutthroats and Crew (Legendary Games)

Keep the Crew Close and the Cutthroats Closer! Once pirate PCs seize a ship of their own, they need experienced crews! Cutthroats and Crew brings you 10 detailed NPCs to master every part of a ship, all with individual backgrounds that can be linked together. Simple to drop into existing crews as recurring characters or as the masters of the Seagrave's Fang, this crew of scalawags may be friends or foes, raiding alongside the heroes or trying to steal their plunder! These scurvy sailors can also draw the heroes into a running feud with wereshark cutthroats on their trail (including half a dozen more NPCs ranging from untrustworthy to deadly dangerous), demanding that PC pirates honor the Pirate Code and lend a hand against an enemy that threatens every freedom-loving freebooter that ever sailed the Pirate Main and what don't wish to become slaves of the bloody moon! Cutthroats and Crew is an open-ended accessory that is a terrific resource for any oceangoing adventure, offering allies and enemies that can enrich an aquatic campaign. It is an excellent resource for the official Pathfinder RPG Pirate Adventure Path or for any campaign that spends a significant time at sea.

Fantasy Hero Complete (Hero Games)

Unsheathe your glowing swords, loose your mighty spells, and ride into glory with Fantasy Hero Complete! All the legendary flexibility and power of the renowned HERO System rules plus spells, monsters, and magic items, in addition to all of the Skills, Powers, and Complications needed to complete epic quests, delve the deepest dungeons, and thwart the devious machinations of evil gods. Fantasy Hero Complete includes everything fantasy gamers need to play. New players will love the unmatched freedom of Fantasy Hero to create and play exactly the hero they imagine. Longtime fans will appreciate the tight, concise new approach, presenting the full game system in a convenient format. So grab your battleaxe, don your Elven mail, and prepare to battle evil with Fantasy Hero Complete! Create and play exactly the hero you want. An excellent purchase for first time players and handy companion for long-time players. The HERO System, in a condensed and easy-to-use format. Includes everything a gamemaster needs to create and run anything from a single session to an extended campaign for 1-6 players.

Bizantium and the Northern Islands (Palladium)

Journey to the Island Kingdom of Bizantium, situated at the far northern peak of the Palladium World. Its vast fleets of merchant vessels and warships travel the high seas and bring untold wealth back to the kingdom, as well as exotic goods, people, customs, weapons and foreign magic. As foreign powers exert their influence on the throne, treachery and potential power grabs lurks in the shadows.

In Translation – The Strange Character Options (Monte Cook Games)

Players want options—especially in The Strange, where their characters’ foci can shift with each new limited world they visit. Character options are what In Translation delivers! This book provides a bounty of new material and new choices to help make character creation—and translation—even more fun, more interesting, and more varied.

In Translation: The Strange Character Options gives you:

• More than fifty new abilities for the three character types. Explore new moves for vectors, new revisions for paradoxes, and new twists for spinners.

• New descriptors, bringing the total number to more than thirty. Choose from options like Addicted, Crazy, and Slacker (because sometimes a character is best defined by a negative trait) as well as many standard descriptors like Introverted, Kind, and Jovial.

• Dozens of new foci, bringing the total to more than sixty available as characters translate between recursions. New foci include Builds Robots, Calculates the Incalculable, Casts Spells, Grows to Towering Heights, Pilots Starcraft, and more.

• Options for advancement beyond the sixth tier.
  

Warhammer 40K RPG: Enemies Within (Fantasy Flight Games)

“Our enemies prowl in the shadows of shining cathedrals. They scuttle in the darkness of dank underhives. They lurk in the corners of gilded palaces. They even dare to stand openly, hiding behind false faces and honeyed words. They are everywhere that man live and breathe – and so we must always be ready to face them with fire and the Emperor’s wrath!” –from the Epistles of Inquisitor Kharkov Cults fester throughout the Askellon sector. Only the valor and vigilance of the Ordo Hereticus prevent the Imperium from tearing itself apart in a blood-soaked spasm of fear and madness. These men and women of the Inquisition stride through worlds rotting beneath the heresy of cultists, mutants, and witches. It falls to these fearless Acolytes to bank the coals and stoke the flames, bringing the purifying fire of the Emperor to every corner of the galaxy. To save the lives of billions, millions more must burn. Enemies Within is a supplement for Dark Heresy Second Edition, bringing new backgrounds, talents, and roles for you to join the Ordo Hereticus in their thankless quest. You may rise from the Adepta Sororitas to take the Sister of Battle elite advance, or you may take up new weapons and items specially suited to rooting out heretics of all kinds. New planet types offer grounds for your inquests, while a host of unnatural cults offer the seeds for countless campaigns. With the cult and plot generator in this supplement, the possible adventures are truly limitless. Prepare to face the enemy within!

XP Award

Winston Crutchfield is the publisher and small business service provider at Critical Press Media. His current RPG project is Opposing Forces: A Tactical Manual and Gallery of Opponents for the Fate System. If you have requests or suggestions for reviews or new information for the scan, you can find him on the Christian Geek Central forum as "MindSpike". May your crits flow like water!