There's some really interesting ideas here, I like how you've handled villain successes, with them contributing to a Doom Pool the DM can use to impose a broader range of consequences than just injuring the players and integrating progress clocks with challenges, for example. I do wonder if you might benefit from positioning this as a 'lite' or basic version of what I am assuming will be the complete version you allude to, rather than a quick start. I say that just as it feels like a surprisingly comprehensive document front-loaded with quite a bit of explanations and lore, moreso than I might expect from a quick start. More broadly though, I also liked the schtick of tying your mechanics to the hero's origin story, which makes it stand out from some other superhero systems.
Play game
Origin Stories RPG's itch.io pageRate this game
In order to rate this submission you must be logged into itch.io and have submitted your own entry. Anyone with an account can leave a comment.
Comments
There's some really interesting ideas here, I like how you've handled villain successes, with them contributing to a Doom Pool the DM can use to impose a broader range of consequences than just injuring the players and integrating progress clocks with challenges, for example. I do wonder if you might benefit from positioning this as a 'lite' or basic version of what I am assuming will be the complete version you allude to, rather than a quick start. I say that just as it feels like a surprisingly comprehensive document front-loaded with quite a bit of explanations and lore, moreso than I might expect from a quick start. More broadly though, I also liked the schtick of tying your mechanics to the hero's origin story, which makes it stand out from some other superhero systems.
Edit: the creators have kindly agreed to remove all art using gen-AI, so the game is now requalified. Thank you for going to the effort!
Hi Ben, Jay and Rich,
Thank you for submitting to the Havoc Engine jam.
We noticed that your game uses some AI-generated art. The jam's rules don't allow AI-generated art to be submitted.
Unfortunately, as the game stands we will have to disqualify it for this jam. This is a real shame because your game is both very impressive and obviously a work of love, and the game's artist can obviously make fantastic art without the use of generative AI.
Our general stance is that we literally always prefer to see an imperfect human-made sketch to a shiny AI-generated image. Generative AI is a labour issue; our stance against it as a company is a strategic one, to fight against the ways it's increasingly used to devalue the work of writers and artists in our industry. One of the books we're currently publishing, Grossi Orchi Gay, was initially illustrated with AI by its author and is now illustrated with his extremely charming biro doodles, and it's about twice as characterful.
If you would like to remain in the jam, we would ask that you remove all AI-generated art from the submitted game. We're aware it's a hard thing to do on a deadline - if it's not something you're interested in doing, no hard feelings on our end, we just won't keep it in the jam.
Kind regards,
Jim
Hey there, thanks for the note and words. Happy to chat offline and am emailing you now. Rich is our artist and did draw all of the pieces. All of the pieces start either as hand drawn or done in KRITA [much of his creation process is on his FB page]. He does use Canva for publishing and some design. There is no generative AI programs used in creating the pieces. If Canva or KRITA are considered AI, that is our bad and will revert to using the base pieces pre-Canva. Please let me know your take as we take real art and the importance of artists not losing to AI very seriously, and Rich has been an artist across all mediums [tattoo, stained glass, ceramic, painting and drawing] for decades. Again, thanks for the heads up and look forward to a response...and also appreciate the kind words about Origin Stories. Jay
I really like the idea of a game that tells the origin story of a superhero. That's a really cool concept.
The havoc engine bits feel well implemented in the core gameplay loop of building a dice pool, rolling, and allocating successes. I like that you implemented the push/pull of allocating successes and objectives toward challenges while also having challenge clocks from PBTA games in the background. That was an idea that I also had but didn't find a great way to implement into my submission for the jam. Giving each challenge an active effect is also a great way to drive action from the players. That's something that I had in mind in my submission, but didn't get put into the text directly.
I like how you've weaved together some elements from the Havoc engine with familar elements from PBTA systems. Specifically the Stress Test feels like a great concept. I do think maybe there could be fewer Effects, lumping together some of the effects in the middle and leaning into the PBTA style of allowing either the Player or the GM to pick one of the results based on the narrative, just to simplify the process of rolling and getting back into the fiction.
The pages and panels system is pretty cool and I could see it being used to actually write/develop a real comic book as a fun exercise.
The added reference sheets in the back are a great touch as well. It makes it feel like a well-refined product.
Thanks for reviewing and the feedback. The game has evolved in our minds and gameplay for a long while. We did not want the game to be just beating up bad guys...as that's not what comics are really about. We wanted narrative play and player choice that expresses that narrative. Heroes are heroes because they have to choose what to engage with and defuse and struggle against their pasts and choices they've made. We used Challenges [like Clocks and Durability] so the team is not all slamming on the villain but rather must focus on different Challenges or face Setbacks that draw on their origin stories. It is a much richer experience for the GM and players and easier to maintain party-villain 'challenge level'. We played EtR and embraced Havoc because it gives players choice [do I counter the GM successes or go all in?] and also allows for a Doom pool of increasing tension and threat of GM reaction. It comes through in our playtests...
In play we do ask, after many Panels, for the player to describe 'what the panel looks like'. GMs also describe the GM Panels. It helps highlight the powers and abilities in a narrative image. We have created optional 'blank' Pages so players can write down/draw each Panel to create their own comic.
Regarding Stress, we thought about how comics heroes don't typically rune out of hit points and are eliminated. Instead, we thought that there should be some complications from being stressed/damaged but then clear so the players aren't hiding their heroes waiting for the 'cleric' or having to spend precious actions 'healing'. We loved FL's Aliens stress concept so made it less lethal and more heroic...
Thanks again for the feedback and read. If interested in the full rules, let me know. We haven't posted yet as we are formatting but the game rules are completely written. Keep on gaming, jay
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.