[AA] The Book of Powers

Discussion of the pulp roleplaying system, including hard-boiled detectives, fedora-wearing action heroes, and steampunk gadgeteers rocketing to battle.
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finarvyn
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[AA] The Book of Powers

Post by finarvyn »

This hit facebook already, so I assume it's okay to post here.
Here it is, folks--I've been waiting for Stephen Chenault to make the announcement so this is official. Releasing at Gen Con: The Amazing Adventures Book of Powers! This new sourcebook is jam-packed full of awesome. For example:

Want to play a supers game: DONE.

What about an effects-based system for gadget creation that doesn't change the core way the class works? NO PROBLEM.

How about a new kind of magic that allows you to craft custom spells on the fly? EASY.

Want to bring vampires, werewolves, angels and demons into your urban fantasy game...as PCs? YOU'RE COVERED.

All that and more are in this puppy, which is just jam-packed full of awesome!
There was also a nifty picture of the cover, but I haven't figured out how to post it here yet.

Well .... discuss! :D
Marv / Finarvyn
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by DMMike »

finarvyn wrote:This hit facebook already, so I assume it's okay to post here.
Here it is, folks--I've been waiting for Stephen Chenault to make the announcement so this is official. Releasing at Gen Con: The Amazing Adventures Book of Powers! This new sourcebook is jam-packed full of awesome. For example:

Want to play a supers game: DONE.

What about an effects-based system for gadget creation that doesn't change the core way the class works? NO PROBLEM.

How about a new kind of magic that allows you to craft custom spells on the fly? EASY.

Want to bring vampires, werewolves, angels and demons into your urban fantasy game...as PCs? YOU'RE COVERED.

All that and more are in this puppy, which is just jam-packed full of awesome!
There was also a nifty picture of the cover, but I haven't figured out how to post it here yet.

Well .... discuss! :D
Wow.

Just...

Wow.

Mike, who can't shake the feeling that he's heard something like that before. ;)
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

If you're talking about Victorious (which I assume you are since you wrote it), I honestly haven't seen a word of it and I'll lay odds this book is entirely different. As far as I knew, Victorious was a Victorian game with street-level superpowers. Angel and demon characters, vampire and werewolf characters never even occurred to me as part of it (though gadgeteers have been part of AA from day one). And an effects-based powers system is something I've been working out for YEARS for AA and something Steve and I talked about ages ago and are just getting around to now.

I've honestly got no plans to steal anything from Vicki, which fills its own niche. Even told Steve I wasn't planning to touch the Victorian with AA in the future, unless it was a discussion of full-on Gothic horror somewhere. There was no reason for the sarcastic insinuation, however.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

finarvyn wrote:This hit facebook already, so I assume it's okay to post here.
Here it is, folks--I've been waiting for Stephen Chenault to make the announcement so this is official. Releasing at Gen Con: The Amazing Adventures Book of Powers! This new sourcebook is jam-packed full of awesome. For example:

Want to play a supers game: DONE.

What about an effects-based system for gadget creation that doesn't change the core way the class works? NO PROBLEM.

How about a new kind of magic that allows you to craft custom spells on the fly? EASY.

Want to bring vampires, werewolves, angels and demons into your urban fantasy game...as PCs? YOU'RE COVERED.

All that and more are in this puppy, which is just jam-packed full of awesome!
There was also a nifty picture of the cover, but I haven't figured out how to post it here yet.

Well .... discuss! :D
It's also got a new skills system, two new methods for determining AC if people want something more concrete than the costume-based AC, it has Character Advantages (as they appear in the CKG, but with new ones), a discussion of streamlining firearms rules for people who are looking for something simpler, and a couple more things like that.

Also, here's the cover ;)
Book of Powers_sm.jpg
Book of Powers_sm.jpg (34.33 KiB) Viewed 22996 times

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by finarvyn »

I'm excited about both product lines: Amazing Adventures and Victorious. I think that the ideas from both will cross-reference a lot (being both based on the C&C engine) and this will lead to double the fun! 8-)

The way I see it....
* C&C for ancient and medieval fantasy adventures.
* Victorious for 1700's and 1800's adventures. (Including pirates and weird west.)
* Amazing Adventures for 1900's and 2000's adventures. (Including pulp and modern.)
Marv / Finarvyn
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by lobocastle »

I am looking forward to this product also.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

finarvyn wrote:I'm excited about both product lines: Amazing Adventures and Victorious. I think that the ideas from both will cross-reference a lot (being both based on the C&C engine) and this will lead to double the fun! 8-)

The way I see it....
* C&C for ancient and medieval fantasy adventures.
* Victorious for 1700's and 1800's adventures. (Including pirates and weird west.)
* Amazing Adventures for 1900's and 2000's adventures. (Including pulp and modern.)
Actually, the way I look at it, Victorious has the market cornered on Victorian play, but mixing Vicki and AA TOGETHER could make for an amazing swashbuckling 16th-century pirates/musketeers adventure, or a Weird West game. It's all the SIEGE engine, right? We can all play together to make awesome.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by DMMike »

Hello Jason,

I don't think anyone can deny superpowers are part of the pulps. Hell, this was the Golden Age of comics after all! I would point out that Victorious has repeatedly done its best to support AA, including facebook likes and repeated pointing to the AA page whenever we've come across any pulp info that we think AA players would find useful.

Yet, this book will see print before any of Victorious. I know that's due to TLG scheduling, but I'm sure you can understand my surprise as I've heard nothing about this book until I saw Finarvyn's post here. It does overlap Victorious quite a bit, as supers in V can go from street level to full on Marvel or DC style super-combat. Indeed, Victorious partly exists due to a Champions campaign that had heroes trapped in the literary Victorian world.

I know Amazing Adventures is owned by Troll Lord Games, while Victorious is only a licensed product. Which means they will naturally prefer AA as its their owned line.

Its just startling to me to face delays, only to see a supers book that is not Victorious come out beforehand. <shrug> Maybe its just the fact I've been waiting years for Victorious to come out.

Anyway, you keep on keeping on...and we at the Victorious pages will continue supporting AA!

Mike
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

Hey, Mike,

Steve and I have been talking about Book of Powers for awhile, now. It was intended to be a surprise release this year. I do understand that the Trolls are making a concerted push to get Victorious out A.S.A.P.

For what it's worth, it took 5 years from submission to publication for Amazing Adventures. Even though it's a system we all know well, developing a new game just takes a lot of time, especially in an uncertain RPG market where D&D is ruling the roost like never before.

It'll get there and I've no doubt that Victorious is going to be truly awesome. In fact, one of the guys who GMs in my Sunday game is waiting on it so he can run a campaign idea he's got in mind with it. So if it means anything to you, we're deliberately waiting on Victorious over just using AA for it ;).

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Treebore »

So Steve's e-mail a couple of weeks ago saying Victorious would be shipping by the end of July is bogus? The email today saying the Victorious books were arriving in the warehouse was bogus?

Seems to me we will be seeing Victorious before Gen Con this year. Or did the Trolls say they wouldn't be shipping us our books until after Gen Con?

Either way, Book of Powers should be readily compatible with Victorious and vice versa. Like was said above, they are both based upon the SIEGE mechanic.

The people I play with are taking a liking to Victorious over AA anyways. Why? Because Victorious has made it very easy to "build" any character you want. There are no fixed classes. As has already been discussed in some detail, as well as some rules provided for doing it, the "class building" of Victorious can be adapted to C&C as well as AA. Star SIEGE and Harvesters too, I imagine. Plus two of the people I game with, primarily Rigon, are coming up with a Star Wars rules set based upon Victorious.

So its looking to me like AA and Victorious would be getting used in a "fused" fashion anyways.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by DMMike »

Oh, I'm sure Treebore. :)

Mike
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

Treebore wrote:As has already been discussed in some detail, as well as some rules provided for doing it, the "class building" of Victorious can be adapted to C&C as well as AA. Star SIEGE and Harvesters too, I imagine. Plus two of the people I game with, primarily Rigon, are coming up with a Star Wars rules set based upon Victorious.

So its looking to me like AA and Victorious would be getting used in a "fused" fashion anyways.
Which is precisely what I'd hope would happen!

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by lobocastle »

When is this product going to be offered digital?

JLL

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by finarvyn »

I see that the printed version hit the TLG store, so I put in my order already. :)
Marv / Finarvyn
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

finarvyn wrote:I see that the printed version hit the TLG store, so I put in my order already. :)
It was released at Gen Con, and we sold through every copy we brought to the con, save for about 6.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by moriarty777 »

Available in digital now...

Victorious and Amazing Adventures are truly their own things and yet, along with C&C, maintain a wonderful Synergy.

I'm listed as a Play Tester for the Book of Powers and when I was going through the material, I can honestly say that Victorious didn't enter my mind simply because the approach and tone were different. However, with all these resources in my arsenal, anyone interested in one will invariably be interested in the other and this just means we ALL win. ;)

Except bank accounts. I see a continued depletion of funds in the immediate future!

;)

Congrats on the slew of releases guys!

M
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by old school gamer »

When will this book be available in stores?

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

old school gamer wrote:When will this book be available in stores?
I honestly couldn't say. The way distribution works these days it's hard to get distributors to show any interest in a short book (which Powers is). You could check with your FLGS to see if they can order it in; otherwise it's available direct from the Trolls!

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Morwen »

So, I'm weighing in a bit late here. I have both AA and V, and C&C, of course. I love steampunk and pirates for adventuring, and was really excited to get my copy of Victorious, which I reference a lot. My go-to game system, however, is AA. I generally convert the V modules and play them in AA. Would honestly love to see some steampunk AA modules! This isn't to say I don't use my Victorious books, I do, but I prefer the AA system. It's as you say, C&C for certain things (Aihrde! and fantasy), AA for everything else, V for reference and the occasional definitively Victorian adventure. The sweet thing is that they all work together so well. If you've played one, you don't have to learn a whole new system to play another. The builds might be slightly different (power slots in V, for example), but the play is essentially the same. I leave out the sanity rating at first, for example, in AA, and add it once the players are comfortable with the game. AA is so versatile, even customizable, really, with all the sidebar options, that you can go as simple or as in-depth as you want. I think it's the best system out there.
Anyway, that's my two cents, lol.
Jason Vey wrote:
finarvyn wrote:I'm excited about both product lines: Amazing Adventures and Victorious. I think that the ideas from both will cross-reference a lot (being both based on the C&C engine) and this will lead to double the fun! 8-)

The way I see it....
* C&C for ancient and medieval fantasy adventures.
* Victorious for 1700's and 1800's adventures. (Including pirates and weird west.)
* Amazing Adventures for 1900's and 2000's adventures. (Including pulp and modern.)
Actually, the way I look at it, Victorious has the market cornered on Victorian play, but mixing Vicki and AA TOGETHER could make for an amazing swashbuckling 16th-century pirates/musketeers adventure, or a Weird West game. It's all the SIEGE engine, right? We can all play together to make awesome.
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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Treebore »

The SIEGE engine is all about doing what is most comfortable for you to do and run. Which is why its been my longest running "go to" system for the last 12 to 13 years. In my soon to be 33+ years of gaming, I have never stuck with one system this long, for so much gaming. I have technically stuck with the Traveller 2d6 system much longer, but I have done but maybe 1/20 of the gaming with Traveller as I have with the SIEGE system. No, actually, even far less than that. More like 1/100.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Jason Vey »

Wow, thank you, Morwen! That's among the nicest compliments I"ve ever received. I think you also posted along those lines on the Facebook Page. I do plan to do some Amazing Adventures-specific steampunk stuff in the future, so stay tuned! I don't want to step on Victorious' toes, but since that game is more Victorian super heroes, I think if I stick to full-on steampunk it won't be an issue, and might even open up some doors for those who are fans of V.

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Re: [AA] The Book of Powers

Post by Treebore »

Jason Vey wrote:..l. I think if I stick to full-on steampunk it won't be an issue, and might even open up some doors for those who are fans of V.
Definitely! Do it!
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael

Grand Knight Commander of the Society.

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