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What this game is about: Silver Age Sentinels is a game about the dusk of the Silver Age in comics -- when superheroes were showing their first cracks, and dealing with real-world problems. The Batman and Justice League cartoons are the most recognizable of this type of superheroics -- media for an audience growing up.
As usual, I will be reviewing this game by chapter, then included the miscellany and final verdict. Also, whenever possible, I will be including salient quotes.
Chapter One: Introduction
As well as the obligatory introduction to roleplaying, this chapter covers the history of superheroes and comic books in general. This chapter is amazingly detailed; from the origins of superhero comics to their place in the modern world. There is little more that can be said about this chapter; it is short and to the point.
Caveat: The example of play was in size four font. I couldn't read it even with my glasses, so I can't tell you anything about it.
"Silver Age Sentinels focuses on what heroes do best -- being heroes. The four-colour pallet isn't an excuse to ignore life's rainbow of greys; rather, it deliberately focuses on what makes folks better men and women without belittling the soul or trivializing the human spirit... Heroism exists in that solitary atom, that final 1% of someone's tattered strength when he or she surrenders ego for the well-being of others, regardless of the cost, and [becomes] a beacon."
Chapter Two: Character Creation
The character creation system is an odd mixture of Tri-Stat dX and Dungeons & Dragons. Rather than going wholly point-based, characters in SAS are defined by giving them a Power Level and an Experience Level. Power Level works like it does in Tri-Stat: it defines your maximum attributes and how many power points you get to spend building your character. These power points are used to buy attributes (Strength, Constitution, and so on; +2 for 1 point) and powers (like Elasticity and Reincarnation). Experience Level works like it does in Dungeons & Dragons: you reference a chart for special abilities, skill points, and random-roll hit points. There is a bit of an overlap in the two: classes give powers, and you can spend points on the Highly Trained power to gain extra levels.
There are nine classes to choose from in Silver Age Sentinels. Acrobats get special abilities like improved defese and the ability to run on walls. Adventurers are nondescript, able to gain extra powers instead of experience. Costumed Fighters are like Batman or Punisher, gaining feats (er... 'combat techniques'). Costumed Wizards get levels of Dynamic Powers or Power Flux, either of which will let them get just about whatever power they want whenever they want it. Gadgeteers get magical items and the ability to build and fix things very quickly. Powerhouses (like the Thing) gain bonuses to powers like Superstrength, Immovable, and bonus armor. Psychics gain classic mental abilities like Mind Control and Telekinesis. Skulkers are like Costumed Fighters with better saving throws. And Speedsters... well, I think you've gotten the point by now. They don't strike me as being as complete as they could have been, but they cover most of my character concepts.
After you have allocated your levels, you take your skill points (both from classes and from your levels in the Highly Skilled power) and assign them among the game's 60 skills. Cross-class skills cost double, but skill points from the Highly Skilled power are 'classless' and never have to pay doubled cost. Combat skills cost 3 points a level instead of 1, and give +1 to attack or defense in certain situations -- an easily abused but character-history-friendly addition to d20. The skill list is largely taken from Tri-Stat, not D&D, gratefully -- I don't think I could have taken superheroes with Decipher Script and Innuendo on their character sheets.
If you run over your point budget (and trust me, in any point-based system, you will), you can add defects to bring your character back into range. SAS has the philosophy that if it can't be measured in game mechanics, it's not worth points, except in two places -- see Caveat #6 for this section.
Caveat #1: Not all of the classes are balanced. For example, every fifth level, the Costumed Wizard gains 25 points (almost 3 level's worth) of powers.
Caveat #2: Random rolls in character creation is one D&D artifact that needs to be left out of d20 games whenever possible -- and they're retained here.
Caveat #3: The most skilled classes among the 9 provided classes are the Gadgeteer and the Psychic; they get 6+Int modifier skill points per level. What, no superscientists in this game?
Caveat #4: Tri-Stat's system uses a relative attribute scale, while d20 uses a concrete attribute scale. That means that in Tri-Stat, a 12 in Campaign X is not the same as 12 in campaign Y or a 12 in campaign Z, while in d20, an attribute of 20 will be the same no matter what campaign you are in. The combination of the two systems is rough along points like these.
Caveat #5: Not all defects will limit the character. For example, Maximum Force requires you to use a power at less than full strength, but in game effects, all this means is your local energy-blaster will be getting 9 free points. Also, the points returned by the Unskilled and (at levels 5+) Not So Tough attributes are equal to or more than the cost of extra skill or hit points.
Caveat #6: SAS goes into a huge diatribe about how mental disadvantages 'aren't real' and are disallowed -- and then presents going bezerk and phobias as legitimate defects. As well as imposing their views on how to run a game onto GMs, something that the book does in few other places, what makes being scared of heights any more real than a villian's compuslion to tie up his victims (whether or not they can get away) with a specific kind of knot?
Caveat #7: SAS claims it does not use feats, but then it has 'powers' like Combat Technique, which are basically lists of feats.
Individually, these minor problems could be dealt with, but together, a point was taken off of Style.
Powers
Although technically part of Chapter Two, the power system is so large as to deserve seperate treatment, so it is put here.
The authors of Silver Age Sentinels call their game an effect-based system, but that is not only a lie, but a disservice to the game. When you want your superhero to be superfast, you don't go through a list of powers, buying Improved Sprint here and Improved Initiative there, maybe buying Walk On Water (to run so fast you walk on water) or a +8 To Domestic skills (to represent running through a room at superfast speeds, picking things up and putting them away quickly), until you have something approaching a speedster. No, you just buy however many levels of Speed you think suit your super, and are done with it. The only exception to this rule is Special Attack, although that can be argued.
The power system is a OGL version of the Tri-Stat dX power system. (I downloaded Tri-Stat dX just to compare the two, and the only thing missing from SAS would seem to be the Owns a Big Mecha advantage.) This is good because it gives you two groups of players to draw from; this is bad because there means that the game will be math-intensive. The math used in the system is simple -- but there sure is a lot of it. To determine the cost of the power, take the normal cost per level, and reduce this by the value of any reductions you have. Then, take the level of effect of the power, and add any abilities and subtract any disabilities that alter the level of the power. Now, multiply the altered cost per level by the altered level of the power. Then, add the number of ranks of any Power Modifier Values (or PMVs -- for example, to add a duration or increase the range) you attached, then subtract the values of any Restrictions you added and any Defects you linked to the power. Now, add in any modifiers that altered the effect of the power. (The good thing, for me at least, is that after a few characters straight of this kind of thing, you too will start to see what people see in Fuzion and GURPS Supers. *duck*)
I made a comparison to Tri-Stat dX, but if you're not familiar with the Tri-Stat power system, here's a quick overview. Powers come in up to 10 ranks, that come in Linear (+1 effect per rank), Slow (x2 efect per rank), Medium (x4 effect per rank), or Fast (x10 effect per rank) progressions. Powers can be modified with PMVs, a Power Modifier Value that increases the area, duration, range, or number of targets effected by your power, allowing for (say) your Shrink power to work on everyone in a 10 mile radius. (PMVs are extremely abusable, naturally, which means a lot of GM discretion will be involved in character creation. Whether this is a good or a bad thing I leave up to the reader.) Most powers also have their own specialized restricitons; you can also attach a defect to a power, if for example you have to shout out a 'hyperspeed formula' before using your powers.
Caveat #1: Computer Scanning. It is a very silly power, and I cannot think of one character in any form of media which has a power even somewhat like this, much less a superhero. What's next, Ray Of Ferrets?
Caveat #2: In an otherwise straightforwards system, there are powers that only have descriptions for five out of ten levels, and then say "GMs can easily extrapolate intermediate or higher ranks as required." Uhm... if the power doesn't adhere to one of the Progression Charts you mentioned earlier in the book, no we can't. Why not fill out the remaining five levels, I'll never know. A point was taken off of Substance for this.
Caveat #3: Special Attack is very abusable. Every special attack beyond the most expensive costs 1 point per rank, instead of 4. If you have minmaxers in your play group, you might not want to let them near this game -- they'll be throwing webs, firing explosive rounds, draining Strength, and causing 'psychic earthquakes' that cannot be blocked by normal defenses, all because the rules allow for it.
Chapter Three: Game Mechanics
This section does in twelve pages what takes D&D one whole book and notable parts a the second to do: it tells you how the game works in play.
Checks are the same as in D&D -- roll a 20 sided dice plus your skill, save, or BAB, plus bonuses and your related attribute modifier, and roll as high as you can. Percentile rolls are wholly eschewed.
Combat takes a page from Palladium; you roll to attack, the target rolls to dodge or to block. Any armor, whether from armor or a power, reduces damage, although it increases your chance to be hit by slowing you down. Combat is suitably knockback-inducing; even a 'moderate' special attack will send a super flying through a wall. (Suggestion to anyone building a character with a point or two left over: take ranks of Immovable!) Rules are included for grappling, superstrength's effects on melee weapons (if you try to add your +8d6+15 Superstrength to a 1d6 damage sword, you may well break it), how to fight a superspeedster trying to hit-and-run, dangeous environments, falling and crashing (finally, a game that combined them both), psychic combat, taking shock (similar to d20 Modern's Massive Damage Threshold, but based on the character's HP instead of the genre of the game). Because the combat system was converted to d20, there's still some math in the system, but not as much as in the Tri-Stat version (compare the number of steps for knockback in the Tri-Stat book to the number of steps for knockback in the d20 book, and you'll see what I mean).
The experience rules are also in this chapter: characters can gain more experience at any time as represented in class levels, but they can't just go out and buy a level of Superstrength whenever they have 4 points free; this is a good thing to have in a superhero game.
Caveat #1: Actions are initiative-based; you divide your initiative by your actions to see when you go. For example, if you have 5 actions and you roll a 20 on initiative, you act on Initiatives 20, 16, 12, 8 and 4. This is going to be a headache whenever you roll an initiative that doesn't divide evenly by the amount of actions you have. Plus, in d20 it's quite possible to roll an initiative of 0 or even negative; what then?
Caveat #2: Crash damage beyond 2500 mph increases by 1d6+2 for every 2500 mph, instead of continuing the progression of whenever the crash speed doubles. I'm sorry, Flash, but if someone trips you in SAS, you're chunky salsa.
Chapter Four: Weapons & Vehicles
"What would a superhero world be without the sleep vehicles and high-tech toys that so many of the costumed characters weild in their adventures?"
This chapter describes the gear system used in SAS. It is an odd combination of the broad and the detailed: a knife is just a knife, but if you purchse a gun or a car, you have pages of options to choose from. Unfortunately, the modifiers for guns and cars are almost entirely realistic enhancements; it may be possible to build the Batmobile with this system, but I doubt it. Although this is good for 'normal' vehicles, I'll be sticking with Atomik Motorwarz and Ninjas & Superspies for my tricked-out supercars.
Caveat: Again, weapons are described as dice-with-disabilities. First level characters, take note: your can of pepper spray has more armor and hit points than you do. ("Golly, Low Powered Psychic Man! Your used a Block Defense with an orange and the orange stopped the bullet!)
Chapter Five: Playing Superheroes
This chapter, as well as giving such tired but necessary advice as 'Trust the GM', describes many of the stereotypes of characters in superhero games and how to build those characters, in a very GURPS-esque fashion. Then, it goes into specifics -- things like the motivations and modus operandi of superheros in the comics, ways to give your character a distinct style, how to build a good superhero team. There's not much to say; it's a concise chapter.
Caveat #1: This really needs to be part of the character creation chapter. It's very useful.
Caveat #2: The book says there is a 'Empire City Shared World' forum on the company's forums. There's a disued roleplaying forum, and a SAS forum, but no Shared World forum.
Chapter Six: GMing Superheroes
This game has replaced d20 Modern in my eyes for the second-best chapter on running a game ever. Again, there is little to say: if you're a GM, you've seen it before in the last five games you read, but if you're not, you're not going to be reading this game anyways.
Drool Point: There's a list of adventure types with stats for a supervillian who could pull it off.
Chapter Seven: World Building
This chapter, invaluable to noncreative types like me, guides you by the hand to creating your own setting. This is where the author's experience really shines through: it seems like every question that I was even thinking about asking is answered here, plus a few that I'm not.
Drool Point: This line. "Why do you always portray my mother as a lunatic anti-mutant activist?"
Chapter Eight: Campaign Introduction
This chapter describes the (unfortunately unnamed) default setting of Silver Age Sentinels. Although predated by a few years by 'masks' like the Frisco Flyer and Archer Gold who were fighting the good fight in World War I, it took the horror of World War II to bring the atomic man about. In WWII, instead of merely having an atomic bomb project, there was also Project Anodyne. The public in the game world knows little about Project Anodyne, but we can learn the truth, by going through yellowed reports labeled 'Top Secret' and 'Do Not Release -- Destroy' -- more interesting than a flat explanation of how it worked. Project Anodyne was a success: as well as the world's first atomic bomb, the United States had the world's first atomic man: Sentinel.
From such cliché-yet-true-to-the-source beginning, the history of the setting continues, including cybernetic soldiers (Japan's 'Kikai Samurai'), radiation created monsters, the death of major characters (who, unlike Superman, don't come back), McCarthy's HAUC versus the metahumans, invading aliens (the Haud, who are suitably green), the creation of new island nations, and more holes in the combined backstories than DC itself (again, true to the source).
"Consider a veteran officer of EPD now assigned to the experimental Marvels Tactical Unit division of ESU prepping for a call. The riot armour is hot and heavy while the ballistic helmet strains the neck and reduces peripheral vision. Perhaps he's with the assult team, gearing up to break through the twisted steel and brick barricade that a meta has erected. Or possibly he is part of the sniper team, peering down the scope of his H&K PSG-1 and praying: the marvel won't sot him; if the meta turns towards the hostages, a depleted uranium bullet will puncture his force field; the met'as telekinetic blasts can't reach this rooftop." SAS is definately on the dusk of the Silver Age of comics.
Chapter Nine: Geopolitical Overview
This chapter describes the nations and international bodies of the world. There are two new nations in the world: Bekaa and Thule. Bekaa's origins are entirely mundane, while Thule's are wholly 'super': Bekaa was formed by a fortunate political climate at the right time, while Thule was founded when the german super Kreutzritter (who is called a superhero or supervillain depending on whether or not you believe the new Kreutzritter is really the son of the old german war criminal of the same name) discovered the ancient location of Thule and raised it from the sea. Bekaa excites me because it can let me ask religious questions in a non-religious game every once in a while; Thule excites me because the existance of one legendary location gives a precedence for other 'legendary' happenings becoming reality in the game world.
Besides nations, it also describes institutions like the Ascension Institute (a school and university for and about metahumans) and Egide Ubiquiste (basically, a metahuman mercenary institute).
Chapter Ten: Empire City
Empire City is to SAS what Night City is to Cyberpunk, Megatokyo is to Bubblegum Crisis, or Waterdeep is to D&D: you can set your game in other locations, but no other place could get it quite as right as Empire City. This richly detailed chapter details schools, local metahumans, organized crime, the different buroughs, and the history of Empire City.
Chapter Eleven: Major Personae
This chapter gives stats for all the iconic superheroes of SAS. They include the prerequisites (the speedster, the magician, the alien, the gifted warrior, the battlesuited warrior, the All-American) as well as a few interesting extras -- Pan and Belle are a two-hero team of enchanted children who work to save children in danger, Janus is a serial killer who specializes in superheroes, and General Winter is the living spirit of Russia, to name a few. At the end of this chapter are capsule descriptions of about twenty more supers and animal statistics.
Caveat #1: They didn't give a header for this chapter -- it just went from Chapter 10 on page 132 to Chapter 11 on page 133.
Caveat #2: Instead of rolling hit points, they seem to have just given them numbers that 'look good'. This has resulted in odd numbers, and numbers that are not technically possible..
Miscellany
Guardians of Order is still calling powers 'attributes'. Tsk, tsk.
The ad copy on the back of the book does this game an injustice in its uninspiring banality. If FATAL had a Stingy Gamer Edition, its ad copy would read something like this game's.
This book should have been called Silver Age Sentinels Second Edition for two reasons. One, taken as a whole it is simpler than its Tri-Stat cousin; two, it is a complete game, and thus is technically in violation of the d20 trademark license (unless Guardians Of Order has an agreement with Wizards Of The Coast that I am unaware of).
Silver Age Sentinels doesn't even pretend to be compatible with other d20 system games. Although this is disappointing to a d20 player like me, when you consider SAS on its own merits, that means it does the superhero genre better. For me, the con outweighs the pro, but your mileage may vary.
There needs to be some tighter editing when converting a Tri-Stat product to d20. For example, some callout boxes were copied verbatim, or with only minor changes. At least once, the book referred to a Tri-Stat attribute, and a few times, we were referred to page xx.
The book doesn't pretend to have been created by itself: occasionally, a Designer's Note will be squeezed in to give recognition to an author who has inspired the team, or even recognizing them by including them in the back story (I was amused to see the name of the CIA MK-ULTRA whistle blower). Very classy.
Guardians of Order has said they only will be doing Stingy Gamer books if the full-color rules sell well. Which is the exact opposite of what they should be doing: I didn't look twice at the Silver Age Sentinels until it was presented in the no-nonsense Stingy Gamer Edition. But I digress.
Big problem: Tri-Stat is a rollunder system, d20 is a rollover system, but Silver Age Sentinels is written as if d20 were a rollunder system. For example, an example of Mind Control from page 30: "If Doc Cemitière ordered a target to leap in front of a moving bus, the character (who presumably does not want to leap in front of the bus) would make a Willpower save with a +4 bonus: a -4 penalty for Doc Cemitière's Mind Control Level, plus a +8 bonus for an exceptionally undesirable action (since the results of the action can be deadly). If the save fails, the unlucky victim would leap in front of the bus." Notice a DC for that Willpower save anywhere? This will cause headaches all around. A point was taken off of Style for this.
The formatting of the book is odd; it's hard to tell two different kinds of headings apart.
There were some subtle suggestions in the book that Tri-Stat is the 'correct' game system to play. Unless it's part of the bibliography, I don't want to hear about other games -- I want to see how this game works.
Some of the pregenerated characters are on page 154 at the end of the superhero listing, and some are on page 50 at the end of the character creation chapter. Why?
Final Verdict
The book is lovingly written by people who know what they're talking about. However, the conversion is too rigid, and not very well 'in tune' with the d20 system, which weighs this rating down. Style: 3.
The book does stand alone, and it does cover an lot of ground -- from character creation rules to setting. I can do an awful lot with this book. Substance 4.
All in all, good things come in small packages. I have a system to my reviews, and I'm not about to change it, but despite how my system scores this book, mark my words: this game has raised my expectations of what an RPG can do. I can't wait to see more Stingy Gamer d20 products from Guardians of Order.
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