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FOREWORD

Truth & Justice (T&J) is a superhero RPG designed by Chad Underkoffler (AKA chadu) that tries to import the comic book story style into supers roleplaying. It falls in the rules-light camp, but it's not an extreme case. On a scale of 1 to 10, with the ends being 'make believe' and Rolemaster, I would rate T&J as a 4 or 5. This review is based on a complimentary copy (I know it's in the sidebar, but I like to state it upfrint) I received and used to run a two-session playtest. I'll describe each chapter briefly, state my opinions about its contents and describe some of the things that came up during my playtest session.

APPEARANCE

T&J is a 6.9 Mb PDF that can be acquired through RPGNow or e23. It has a simple layout consisting of two-column text, superhero drawings and treated images. There's also a print-on-demand (POD) book that costs US$ 25, but if you have bought the PDF, you can deduct its price from the book one. Also, if you buy the POD version, you get the PDF for free. I haven't seen the book, but I heard it has a good production value and its good quality surprised some of the buyers.

The text has a few typos, mostly missing letters and such, but some of them -- ranks and numbers -- caused a bit of confusion while I was trying to understand the rules (see below). This problem is solved by the errata file available at the T&J site, which will be incorporated in the second 'printing' of the PDF, around the middle of October. If you want to buy the POD version, I suggest waiting for the PDF update, since books bought before that will not be replaced by Atomic Sock Monkey Press (ASMP), unlike the file, whose buyers will be able to download the updated versions.

One thing I would like added to each page's header is the chapter number. Several times I found myself wondering what chapter was I reading, especially when the text referred to information in the other ones. Also, whenever I flipped my printout open in search of a piece of information, I wasted some time trying to locate myself. The lack of an index (although there's a fairly complete table of contents), together with the fact that some key rules are spread throughout two or three chapters, intensified the information location problem. After you a while, you get used to where everything is, but in the beginning is a bit of a pain.

I'm not particularly interested in RPG books' art -- I did buy GURPS 3e books for several years --, but there was something that bugged me about the drawings in T&J: they had a cartoony feel. See, due to some neurological quirk of mine, I tend to associate rules-light games with humor, and the art in T&J did nothing but reinforce that, even though the game is not a humorous take on supers. I understand some of the pictures were intentionally satirical, like the one in page 52. However, most of the drawings had that feel, which constantly shattered some of the mood. I wish some of the art was more like the Snow Owl picture in page 54. Even though it was done by the same artist that did some of the other cartoony pieces, I think it captures the spirit of a Silver Age comic book, one of Chad's target setting for the game.

BREAKDOWN

Chapter 1: The Superhero Genre

Here Chad describes the genre and the T&J philosophy. The idea is to have the 'mad, beautiful ideas' (telepathic apes, power-granting radioactive meteors and teenagers wielding the power of the sun, to name a few) that characterize the comic books in your games, without subjecting them to realistic physics and the like. In Chad's opinion, the inherent silliness of these ideas is part of what constitutes the genre. According to him, you don't need to have all the tropes associated with superheroes in a campaign, but some of them should be present. A list of such tropes -- alternate earths, change & status quo and origin stories, among others -- is present at the end of the chapter. It is quite comprehensive, although Chad missed archenemy (there's a rogue's gallery entry, though). There's a clear slant towards Silver Age comics, which is ok, since it is one of the main inspirations for the game, but it might give the impression that it's all that can be simulated, a notion that Chad (and I) does not share, since one of the sample settings at the end of the book it's a 'supers in the real world' type.

This chapter also includes a quick analysis of the superhero style of stories using Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism concepts. The styles are Grim 'n Gritty, Cinematic, Four Color and Animated. I must confess I had to read these definitions twice to get the hang of them, but I guess that is mainly due to not being familiar with Frye's concepts. This section could have included suggestions on how to adapt each style's characteristics mechanically in the game. For example, in a Grim 'n Gritty game, characters recover 1d6 damage ranks after a scene, instead of the usual 2d6. A key concept of this game, explored in the other chapters, is introduced here: scale, which is divided into normal and super. The former encompasses all the mundane stuff you find in the world. The latter is the extraordinary stuff, like giant atomic monsters and super-strong bank robbers.

I think this chapter is missing a clear mission statement. There's nothing here that explains explicitly what's different about T&J, what sets it apart from other superhero RPGs. The often-mentioned notion that T&J lets you put Batman and Superman in the same adventure and have both be equally effective is nowhere to be found. Not even a simple generic description, like the one I used in the opening of this review's Foreword is resent. In my opinion, there must be some sort of signaling to the reader that T&J's take on the superhero RPG is different. It could even be something amusing, like Jason Puckett's quote (from the T&J mailing list) while trying to sell a friend into playing the game: "it has combat rules that explain why Peter Parker's life is so messed up".

Playtest: I paused my ongoing Unisystem Planetary campaign to run the playtest. Due to some work-related problems, two of the four players couldn't participate, so I recruited another friend who also plays RPGs. All three players have been reading comic books for most of their lives, so it was easy to explain the philosophy behind the game. I even used the Superman/Batman example from above, which was complemented by one of the players' own: that fatidic issue of Spider-man where he beats the living daylights out of Firelord, former herald of Galactus. Based on the preview, this same player had the feeling that T&J was a humorous attempt at the genre, a notion I dispelled.

Chapter 2: T&J Rules Overview

This chapter is available as a free preview, but for the sake of completeness, I'll talk about it, concentrating on the main points. There are no attributes or skills in T&J. Everything is covered by Qualities (hence the name of the system, Prose Descriptive Qualities), traits that can represent anything, including personality (Thoughtful, Obsessive), physical skills or characteristics (Gunplay, Handsome), mental abilities or skills (Sports Trivia, Speed Reading), social ties or abilities (Friends in the Force, Intimidating Guy) and professional fields (Teacher, Bounty Hunter). A Quality's penumbra is what it's covered by it. Each Quality has a rank that can be either Poor [-2], Average [0], Good [+2], Expert [+4] or Master [+6]. The associated number is the Modifier, which can be added to a 2d6 roll -- the game's resolution mechanic -- whenever the action to be performed falls within the Quality's penumbra. For example, a character with Good [+2] Lawyer would be able to add 2 to the roll when it related to legal questions, judicial lore, hanging out with fellow lawyers or judges, and even in debates and such. If more than one Quality is appropriate for a roll, they can be added together. An Expert [+4] Cop that had Good [+2] Raised by Shaolin Monks would add 6 to the roll when fighting a criminal hand-to-hand. So, if a player wants, it can create a very powerful character. As noted in the text, this means sacrificing versatility for specialization, though. Positive modifiers mean the Quality is a Strength, a negative one identify a weakness. This distinction can be applied to the same Quality. Loves Mary Sue can be a Strength when it allows the hero to overcome obstacles in his life and find new energy to confront problems. On the other hand, as a Weakness, it's a constant source of problems for the character.

Task resolution in T&J is divided into three types: Simple, Complicated and Conflict. The first one covers those actions that are almost automatic for the character; those with Difficulty Ranks (specific target numbers are also associated with each Quality rank) lower than the appropriate Quality one. In these cases, there's no need to roll. Complicated situations require a roll, either because the difficulty is higher than the Quality rank or because randomness is desired. Conflict situations feature an active resistance to the character's attempt and need not be restricted to combat, with seduction and racing being just two other examples. In Conflict situations, both sides roll and the highest result wins.

Damage can be physical or mental (called Failure, in this case). It is divided into normal- or super-scale and results from the difference in the rolls of Conflict situations. So, if one party rolls a 10 and another a 7, the damage is 3. Super-scale attacks also add the target number (TN) of the rank to damage against inanimate objects. So, in the previous example, an Average [0] (TN 7) super-scale attack would result in 10 points of damage. The Super-Strength power is the only free way to do super-scale damage to living beings. This simulates how certain powers in comics can cause massive property damage, but only knock characters out. Later, in the powers chapter, you learn that any superpower can do super-scale damage to people, but that requires spending one Hero Point (HP). This rule confused me, since there was no mention of it in this chapter. I even thought it could be a typo, a leftover from a previous version of the game.

Each point of damage corresponds to one Quality rank, so when the character is damaged he must downgrade his Qualities. If he takes 2 damage points, he would have to lower his total Quality ranks by two. For example, if he had two Good [+2] Qualities, he could lower all of them to Average [0]; or leave one intact and lower the other one to Poor [-2]. When a Quality is lowered from Poor [-2] to nothing, the character zeroes out, loses the conflict. Some people raised the possibility of a death spiral, but I didn't see it during my playtest. Since the Qualities that will be downgraded first are not usually related to the conflict and the character can judiciously spend HPs to counter his penalties, the phenomenon shouldn't be common.

The Quality the character chooses to take the first hit and the one that leads to zeroing out generate Story Hooks for the gamemaster, subplots related to the Quality. This mechanic is the source of Jason Puckett's quote above, in that Peter Parker's constant work and relationship problems could be mapped in T&J with him the Photojournalist and Loves Gwen Stacy/Mary Jane Qualities to take the first hit in a fight. It is a great system that can happen when you are drawing that GM's block, although some Qualities, like Stealth, can prove a bit challenging.

Playtest: Explaining the rules took less than five minutes. My players liked the idea of Qualities. They thought it avoided a problem that sometimes happen in systems with discrete skills, in that a player might forget to buy skills that are appropriate for the character's concept. The damage system, on the other hand, was considered a bit odd.

Chapter 3: Characters

Building a hero in T&J follow regular steps, like choosing a name and an uniform. Certain choices have mechanics implications, though, Motivation, for example, is not just what propels the character in his fight for justice, but also a way for the player to earn HPs. Whenever a hero is confronted with his Motivation, he can either ignore it by paying a HP, or act on it and receive 1d6 HPs. Motivation should not be seen as a limitation as to what a character will combat. Just because a hero's Motivation is 'fight evil corporations', it doesn't mean he won't go after street criminals.

Qualities and Powers are chosen by assigning a set number of Ranks to them. Although the book offers several preset distributions, like one Expert [+4] and three Good [+2] or one Master [+6] and two Good [+2] for Qualities, and six Average [0] or one Master [+6] for Powers, the systems boils down to a certain numbers of Modifier points that can be distributed freely: 10 for Qualities and 6 for Powers. So, if you want a Good [+2] Quality, you allocate two points to it; an Expert [+4] Power would require four. For this purpose, Average [0] Ranks count as one Modifier point. When choosing Qualities, players also have to select one Weakness, a Poor [-2]-ranked trait.

Stunts (first mentioned in Chapter 2) are touched upon here because characters can begin the game with one or two of them per Power. Since the main rules for them are in Chapter 4, I'll leave my comments for that section. But I'll say that this is one of the great things about T&J and, probably, one of the hardest to properly adjudicate.

HPs are fully explained in this chapter. Like many of you may have suspected already, HPs are T&J's dramatic editing mechanic. They allow the characters to find clues, energize stunts, increase damage, better their chances of success, recover damage and affect the setting. One of the abilities empowered by HP that I thought a bit contrary to the game's philosophy was the one that requires HP expenditure for using offensive power defensively, and vice-versa. This seems to punish creativity, so I ignored it in my playtest. There are several ways to earn HPs, which include the already mentioned Motivation, doing heroic actions, being affected by a limitation or a vulnerability, team spirit and having a Revoltin' Development happen to the character. These are the occasions when the GM railroads the hero to further the plot. New characters start the game with five HPs and can have up to a maximum (MAX) of 10 in their HP Pool. If they earn more than that, they must burn the excess the next round or lose it.

MAX is also related to advancement and by spending it a character can increase his Qualities and Powers, or buy new ones. MAX can also be increased. Whenever a hero gains HPs, the GM makes a tick next to his name. When the number of ticks is equal to MAX, the maximum number of HPs that can be held in the pool increases by one and the ticking resets. Ticking can be Slow (one tick per HP gain occasion) or Fast (one tick per HP gained). I recommend the former, since the ease with each HPs can be acquire and their relative large numbers will probably make characters advance too fast, something that is dissimilar to the source material being emulated.

Villains have the appropriately named Villain Points (VP). They can use them for impossible escapes, setting up Revoltin' Developments, 'really' being a robot double when captured etc. This is nice, but the text doesn't say how much VPs each one of those cost.

Playtest: Character creation was a breeze and the game up and running in short time. Since some of the concepts ere not completely gelled in the player's head, I allowed tweaks in the characters between session. In the end, we had Urutu, a Captain America analog that resulted from the Brazilian super-soldier program, Delta 49, an exiled chronoagent that has force manipulation, and Black Jaguar, a feral mutant. Urutu had an invulnerable shield as his sole power. Like Cap, he used it both for defense and offense. I didn't see any reason for charging him HPs like the rule I mentioned above required, since this was, in my view, a normal application of the power. HP earning was plenty during the game and the players spent them a lot as well, mostly to increase their chances. They never used them to alter the setting, but that also happens in the Unisystem Planetary campaign, which makes use of Drama points.

Chapter 4: Superpowers

T&J superpowers follow the same model of the Qualities, in that you write down your power and assign a Rank to it. The chapter includes a list of abilities that covers the regular staples of the genre, such as super-strength, superspeed and flight, among others. It also features a brief section on do-it-yourself (DYI) powers, for those times when to create their own abilities. This is not too difficult if you use the default list as a basis and follow the DIY instructions. The free supplement Dial S for Superhumans can also serve as inspiration for new powers. For those of us who like benchmarks for a power's performance, even though one might argue that comic book powers do not have them, there's an Intensity Chart with columns for duration, range speed, area, weight, force, energy and money. It's a bit too steeple, but in the text Chad talks about changing the benchmarks and adding new columns.

Limitations and vulnerabilities in T&J are ways to earn HPs. If a player puts a limitation on the character's power -- say, state that your force manipulation doesn't work against the color yellow -- he'll get a HP when you his confronted by it and another one if he manages to overcome it. Vulnerabilities -- kryptonite, for example -- cause damage, but net the character 1d6 HPs.

Meta-Powers, Quasi-Powers and Intense Training complete the chapter. The first is a sort of overarching power that allows the character to have seemingly unrelated abilities that are united only by common theme. The advantage of using it is that you get to pick several powers for free at two Ranks below the Meta-Power one. For example, a Master [+6] Kryptonian could have super-strength, flight and invulnerability (and a few other powers) all at Good [+2], while an Expert [+4] Vampire might have Average [0] shapechange, domination and mist form. The downside is that once the character takes damage, he cannot he must lower the Meta-Power Rank and, consequently, all of the subpowers' as well. The rules also state that Meta-Powers, while suggested by the players, must be written up by the GM, should include a limitation and can be used by NPCs. Quasi-Powers, on the other hand, are superhuman abilities taken as Qualities. They are usually less powerful than their powered versions and include a limitation. Intense Training is the 'Batman Option', where the character switches his Power Ranks for Quality Ranks. It seems the math involved make it more profitable to exchange several Average Ranks instead of one Master, but I haven't really looked at that, so I can't comment.

This chapter has full rules on Stunts. As I mentioned above, they one of the best mechanics in T&J, one I think is missing from most supers RPGs. The idea is to allow the players to expand the boundaries of their powers, using it for things not necessarily associated with the ability (Master [+6] Rank Qualities can also have Stunts). Stunts come in two flavors: Spin-off and Signature. The former is an attempt to use the power to do something that falls outside its penumbra, but that can be rationalized as being accomplishable by it (using your webbing as a shield, using superspeed to vibrate through a wall). Spin-off Stunts have a Rank -- which is the one you use for the roll -- two levels below the stunting power's. Signature Stunts are techniques that enhance one aspect of the power (anime 'named attacks', martial arts special moves). They always cost at least one HP to use, have a starting Rank one level below the stunting power and, besides adding their Modifier to the roll, also add the stunting power's too. This makes them extremely powerful at high Ranks. After repeated uses, the character can turn a Spin-off Stunt into a Signature one by spending one point of MAX. Both types of Stunts can also have their Ranks increased for an attempt by spending extra HPs.

I read the rules twice and I still couldn't tell for sure what Rank a Signature Stunt started with and if it required the expenditure of HPs. The text is not clear and a couple of typos in Manticore's description compound the problem. I had to post the question to the mailing list in order to finally settle the question. Another problem with Stunts, but this has nothing to do with the rules, is that it's hard to adjudicate them. The distinction sometimes is not that clear cut. Trying to decide what's a Spin-off and what's a Signature can take a while. Dial S for Superhumans can be a good source for that, and a kind of Stunt database on the net would be even better.

Playtest: Delta 49 had Force Manipulation as a Meta-Power. This raised the question of whether he could use its base Rank for rolls. The rules seem to indicate that any rolls should be done with the subpowers' Rank. Period. However, on the mailing list, Chad said that depended on how the power was described. So in Delta 49's case, it was ok to use the base Rank for creating and manipulating constructs. If it was described as Power Ring, then no. Urutu spent his Master [+6] power slot to have an invulnerable shield. As a Signature Stunt, he wanted a shield-throw maneuver. I allowed it, but soon noticed it made him quite competent, since he added 10 (6 from the Master shield and 4 from the Expert Stunt) to the roll. It can be argued that throwing a shield is more a Spin-off Stunt, but since Cap. America does it and Urutu had been active for more than 20 years, I allowed it. A similar thing happened with Black Jaguar, who had Master [+6] Jaguar Instincts (described as a Ninja-like Quality) and an Expert [+4] Unseen Prowl Signature Stunt to simulate those stories where a character infiltrates a villain's base off panel. On an average roll, Black Jaguar will get a 17, so, unless there are some really over the top security measures, he will sneak in anywhere he wants.

Chapter 5: Super-Conflict

This chapter the information on conflict. It has rules for initiative, using multiple abilities, attacking multiple targets, recovering damage and combat options. It also touches on using offensive powers for defense. Here, it explains that charging HPs for it is optional and can be eliminated if the GM considers the use appropriate. A super-conflict that does a good job of highlighting the main points of the system example closes the chapter.

One thing I noticed is that it takes a while to gauge how many Qualities, Powers and Ranks an opponent should have. Even though most of those may not be applicable in a battle, they will function as 'hit points' and let him endure the beating for a long time. This isn't a major problem, since you can zero him out when you think he has fulfilled his role or the combat is taking too long. After a few sessions, the GM should have a better grasp of the balance required.

Another point that wasn't clear to me is when player characters (PC) gain Failure Ranks. For example, if a PC wants intimidates a thug into dropping his weapon, they roll. If the PC wins, the thug takes Failure ranks and drop his weapon. What happens if the situation is reverse? I usually don't roll influence-type actions against PCs, so in my games they would never accumulate Failure Ranks from those. According to Chad (via mailing list), in this case the GM could roll and if the PC lost, he would take Failure Ranks, but would only drop his weapon if he zeroed out.

Playtest: Conflict is quick. There were two major combats in the adventure and they lasted four or five rounds, taking 10 to 15 minutes tops of real time. Although still a bit tactically oriented in the first combat, my players soon were in the spirit of the game and did some cool moves. Delta 49, for example, created a bottle to imprison the water manipulator, who escaped later by increasing his pressure and popping the bottle's cap. This was one situation where we were in doubt if Delta 49 should have gotten Failure Ranks. On the mailing list, Chad said that if the Force Manipulation was linked to his will power, which was the case, then yes. Some of the opponents had more than Ranks than I thought necessary, making them more resilient than I want. I adjusted that during combat easily enough.

Chapter 6: Gamemastering

Chad opens this chapter stating that T&J is a high-trust game, i.e., it requires GM and players to be sure that no one will try to screw the other over. This is important, since T&J is more prone to derailing than other games if the everybody is not on the same page. This section also has general advice on setting creation and adventure design, as well as running the game. Some adventure options are named after comics, like The Two-Page Spread and Retcon It!. I especially liked Title Character, where it's assumed that each session happens in one of the characters solo magazines, enabling the featured hero to have a bonus to his actions or to dictate a single plot, setting or NPC point. Animal and vehicles rules appear here too and follow the same system, using Qualities to reflect their abilities. Six character write-ups (three heroes and three villains) grace the chapter's end

Playtest: I recycled an adventure from another superhero campaign of mine. It was great fun converting the villains to T&J, both because of the easy and of the fact that I created these characters when I was a teenager. In fact, I kept thinking about all the other supers I created and tried to fit them into the game's model. Sometimes, it's difficult to isolate the key points of a character and translate them into Qualities, and you might end up with an inflation of traits.

• Layout: 3
• Art: 3
• Coolness: 5
• Readability: 4

• Content: 5
• Text: 4
• Fun: 5
• Workmanship: 5