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In Short
A supplement for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition, "Escape from Alcatraz!" is money well spent if you seek a cool sourcebook that's an enemy book, adventure, and plot seed farm all at once.
The game feels quite a bit like the Iron Age for DC, a strange mix of costumed heroics and jarringly brutal plot twists: during the adventure, the rags-to-riches fan-favorite superhero Magnitude gets injected with super-PCP and procedes to tear ass. It's actually a fairly intriguing juxtaposition* for the most part.
Reccomended for those out to do some heavy duty JUXTAPOZ'N~! or for fans of Iron Age violence and (shiv) twists without the grotesque character designs. A high tolerance or flat-out love for the weird would help.
Not In Short
And now comes the in-depth look.
Look, also Feel
The fellows at TPK have gone overboard on presentation, but in a good way. The layout is a three-column style for fitting in as much content in the 88 pages (with front and back cover, and a full-page illo just after the front cover) as they can. The art is good and consistant (all done by the same artist, in fact). Despite the attractiveness of the .pdf, it downloads quickly, even on my terrible connection, and opens with a minimum of fuss and loading (compared to the far-shorter-in-page-length InSylum, whose front cover resembles an eerie Flash animation while loading--moody, but wow, that's a bad load time).
Being a .pdf, it has no appreciable weight, but the arrangement allows for quick browsing. It looks like it'd print well.
Welcome to Alcatraz, Here's Your Prison Sex.
The Introduction tips a hat to Marvel comics and, like the book it supplements, gives fair insight into the design and use of the supplement itself. This is compounded by the "How To Use This Book" section, which sets out the supplement's niche and posits a few interesting ideas. The best idea in the whole book is right on the 5th (.pdf) page: the concept that Alcatraz is a jail to contain the Iron Age. This mildly off-hand concept (and its amusing follow up--"Felons may plea bargain to get transferred to jails where the Comics Code is still observed...") alone can raise a multitude of cool-sounding campaigns, from meta-games fully aware of the Age divide to, in a weirder turn, an Alan Moore's "Supreme"-esque twist, a game where Alcatraz really is the "holding pen" for the Iron Age; a place where the universe gets glossy paper and Rob Liefeld as an artist.
This is a fairly consistant theme throughout the supplement; the .pdf is broken up not just by chapters but by bizarre yet irresistable concepts.
The book mentions The Event, a Crisis-esque moment where the world's mightiest heroes disappear (an in-genre way to keep the PCs in the spotlight, and a smart idea), but admits it's an optional element. EfA doubles as the first glimpse of a game setting, ala Crooks! for 1st edition MnM. These are, of course, take-and-leave. I like this approach, actually, very akin to Monte Cook's Event Books; take what you want and run with it.
The rest of the chapter is an extensive history of Alcatraz, including the "present history." After the historical prison closed, the superheroic prison history gets started, which is as good a cutoff point as any.
Sprinkled amongst the real history are sidebars on "alternate histories," all top-notch. There's ideas for Jonah-Hex-esque adventures in a superheroic Wild West, sanity-damaging Grant-Morrison-style trips through Fortean craziness, or even adventures straight out of underground comics; the last page of the section has a cut-out newspaper article on the ghost of Johnny Cash doing a prison tour. Some may find the ghost of Cash insulting, to which I respond: "It's! The Ghost! Of Johnny Cash! And he's rocking with Elvis!" This screams for its own disjointed comix treatment.
And Now... the Alcatraz
Following the history of Alcatraz is a map of the famed island, done in the blow-by-blow style of Chaosium's city-books. For those epic fights where the landscape gets torn up just as much, if not more, than the combatants, there's an "area toughness" below most of the areas. Good for those breaking out, or for those who want to look suitably hardcore by ramming their enemies through the storied halls of Alcatraz.
Also in the section is The Chair, a wonderfully ghoulish death implement for use against supervillians. A combination of a power-nullifier and a disintegrator, the device reduces its victims "to the consistency of a milk shake" and drains the bio-sludge below, where--in a truly inpsired moment--it is then looked over by scientists to ensure the vic is truly dead. Unspoken is weather or not the bio-sludge is then burned and its ashes spread to the four winds.
A few complaints: while the section is as thurough as it gets, I feel there's a little bit lost in the omission of how much damage the Incinerator does to some poor sap stuck in it. Elsewise, the section is excellent, and very fitting for someone out to cinematically smack down some supervillians.
Rounding out the section is a statting-up of some of the on-sight guards, doctors, and inmates, and the common equipment of Alcatraz. Also here is Magnitude, the superhero assigned to keep the place safe. Magnitude's fate is to be injected by super-PCP and raise some serious ancient monster. This can be tragic if the GM plays it right, as he's a decent kid.
The only inappropriately-placed art in the whole book occurs at the end of this section: La Nebulosa, a villianess introduced later, doesn't jibe with the rest of the section.
Not the Song by Led Zepplin
The Battle of Alcatraz is the included adventure, concerning an attempt to save the soon-to-be-executed supervillian Prince Primeval. His adoptive daughter seeks to save him from his milkshake-consistencied fate and break out whomever else she can while doing so. Adventure ensues.
Wisely, the adventure is loosely structured, with only a timeline of events that occur should the battle occur without PC intervention--chaos abounds. It's a fine choice for an evening of chaotic superheroics, though not legendary in its own right.
Butts to be Kicked
The list of supervillians housed in Alcatraz follows. It's a mixed bunch, both in power levels (ranging from level-8 just-barely-above-mooks to level-16 badass automatons) and in conceptual coolness (Kung Fu Grey on one end, Hey Look A Smart Gorilla Named King Congo [lulz] on the other).
Each character has a thurough history and, like in all the superhero entries for the supplement, includes an "intimate profile card" that gives ability score bonuses and a Public Knowledge DC. These cards are handy and a welcome addition. Each come with a nearly-full-page illustration that include character statistics, so as to not make them mere padding.
The Hollywood All-Stars start off the list, and are useful baddies. Some are amusing (e.g. Nova, the cynical Superman), others somewhat bland (Red Giant isn't distinctive enough to get over his "he's a Soviet Commie" schtick). Neutron has the best illustration--a well-composed piece where he peers from hiding in a line of fanservice-y pulp novels (including Fritz Lieber's "Green Millenium").
After the All-Stars is a list of the unaligned supervillians. Behemoth is easily the weakest, being a cross between a no-Banner Hulk and Doomsday, and is about as interesting as that combination sounds (that is, not at all); King Congo is slightly better, in that, despite being a non-talking intelligent gorilla, has a notable personality. (Interestingly, Congo's description includes the phrase "because every villian book needs an intelligent ape." To be honest, he's fully superfluous; there are enough intelligent gorillas in comics without yet another showing up.
Behemoth and Congo are aberrations in the book, however, as even "standard" bad guys, like Courrone and The Eunuch, have interesting background hooks (Courrone is popular in France; The Eunuch only seems unassuming and could be packing some dangerous, hidden powers).
The Foo Fighter is the standout here, the nadir of insane ideas: he's a Grey that knows Kung Fu. He is, simply put, awesome. He's also the most tactical enemy in the book, with a massive list of combat feats, enough to make his +2 damage bonus seem not especially limiting.
Crook is another excellent character, a Vietnam veteran turned criminal. He's an immediately likeable and memorable foe, and his character quote speaks volumes: "So you're supposed to be one of the good guys, eh? I guess that makes me one of the bad guys."
Just plain fun is Moe Mentum, a beer-bellied superspeedster with the power to create beer whenever he wants it. He's a cross between Megas XLR's Coop, Megatokyo's Largo, and The Flash, and is chockful of fun. His beer-conjuring power is 1 point, just like GURPS 4th edition's excellent Perks. This is a good thing; Perks were a great idea and need to be spread.
Many of the entries exhibit a great command over MnM's rules systems; Mourner has a death touch that drains Constitution, rather than deals damage, which is what it should do. I've seen too many "death touches" that simply deal a boatload of damage. The Con damage gets the point straight-up.
Wrapping up the supplement is The Power Primeval (not associated with the Power Cosmic), a list of enemies by Power Level, and some suggested reading/watching material.
"Is it too late to send this back to editing?"
--Ron Pearlman, after observing an incredibly minor continuity error... on the Hellboy DVD commentary track"Escape from Alcatraz!" is a fine product, but is held back from a full 5/5 by a few missteps. Perhaps my biggest complaint is that, while plenty of information is given about Alcatraz, there's not enough material exploring possible genres and stories to be told in the legendary jail.
Yes, there's plenty of material to be found, but, as always, there could be more. Off the top of my head: a section on how to run a "guard's eye view" of Alcatraz, featuring low-powered supers guarding medium-to-high-powered villians; a game where the players are trying to break out; a game where the players are trying to break in; a controversial event in which new battle equipment is tested against Alcatraz inhabitants; and so on.
There's no doubt that "Esacape from Alcatraz!" is a great product. A few shortcomings don't diminish the great work. Worth the .pdf price tag.
*--Dictionary definition of "juxtapose": a word to be used as early and as often as possible no matter the circumstances.
Things I Quoted While Reading This .pdf:
"Things have changed, Simmons. Prison hardens a man. I'm not the man you used to know." *"You were in there for, like, three hours." "Time moves slower in the can, Simmons. It was like six hours to me."--Grif and Simmons, Red vs. Blue
"You're liquefied, bitch!"--Frylock, Aqua Teen Hunger Force
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