The slickest superhero RPG I’ve ever seen is on sale for $20

As a board game master who loves superhero media, I run into a pretty specific problem with most superhero RPGs: I want my super games to be fast and loose, with just enough emphasis on mechanics to make the players’ specific powers and specialties count. Superhero (and supervillain) stories often involve a lot of combat and confrontation, and when my players duke it out, I want them to feel like they’re in a movie, not sitting at a table poring over pages of stats and skills to determine their best course of action.

That’s why Spectacular was a nice surprise, and once I tried it, it was an instant purchase for me – especially since the physical edition 74% off until the end of August.

I ran into Spectacular at an indie RPG day, where a friend who had just bought the set on sale wanted to try it out for the first time. So it was new to all of us – but the learning curve turned out to be pretty minimal. The settings book (also available separately as a $15 PDF) features a series of branching story trees, so the players (or a GM working independently) can choose what tone they want and then generate an engaging, detailed world out of it. For our group, building the setting together was half the fun — after an hour or so of choosing story branches and options on those branches, we had a world strange and wild enough that I wanted to read novels set there.

Spectacular‘ core rules (also available as a $20 PDF) would work fine for a normal campaign, but the set is primarily designed for pick-up-and-play one-shots. You generate characters on the fly by drawing Power and Identity cards that give you stats, with some surprisingly creative touches to the options – for example, choosing a basic Identity like “Housewife” still gives you excellent skills in “Read the Situation”, Guard, and Charm. Your stats are all on a scale of 100, and in any situation you try to roll under your stat – a basic all-in-one mechanic that’s easy to follow and makes skill challenges pass quickly.

What I really like about Spectacular‘ conflict system, however, is the “team role” mechanic, which is used to both set and play with the initiative order. It also gives everyone an extra option in combat. Roles like Leader, Controller, Tactician, Support, and so on let players interact with each other and the battle in different ways. There’s also a robust, simple assist mechanic that doesn’t cost players their own battle turns, and encourages everyone to pay attention to and engage with each other’s actions.

The characters themselves are broad archetypes (Super Soldier, Sorcerer, Monster, Tech Wizard, etc.) with various options to add nuance. Players choose archetypes individually and collectively choose a team dynamic, which gets its own sheet and comes with a reputation tracker and some background information for the team. You can Download the character and team sheets for free on DriveThruRPG if you want to get an idea of ​​the game options and a simplified overview of the rules.

The physical game does include one thing I don’t think I need: plastic trays designed to hold your character sheet, character cards, and the various tokens that affect power usage. These trays aren’t as attractive or functional as playmats, and they don’t really serve a purpose. But other than that, I prefer the physical version for the expanded decks: this game includes 105 different superpower options, which means that a lot of mix-and-match options, as most characters will have between one and three powers. The physical game also features specialized “advantage” and “challenge” dice that add complexity to actions in combat.

Overall, it’s a fun set for people who like pulpy superhero adventures, easy one-shot setups, and fast-paced narrative games that don’t completely abandon RPG mechanics. But honestly, for me, at $20 overall, it was worth it as an idea generator. Even if I’m only using the card decks and character sheets as sources for other superhero games I play, this set brings a lot of nuance to the table. I honestly can’t remember the last time I encountered this much gaming potential for the price. It’s… pretty great.