FASERIPopedia Rules Cyclopedia

FASERIPopedia is a retro-clone successor of the original FASERIP system using the OGL 1.0, created solely by a one-being team. It weighs in at nearly 400 pages. It is designed to be an all-in-one compendium of the original rule concepts plus additional options and resources for both Players and Judges.

For those not familiar, the original FASERIP system was designed by TSR for Marvel Comics, and the resulting game was officially called the Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game. The term FASERIP comes from the 7 primary character attributes of Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche. The system is designed to be able to replicate anything that can happen in a comic book world, and it succeeded at doing exactly that.

FASERIPopedia Chapter Overview

Chapters 1-5 covers the introduction, the basics of the Rank and Value-based resolution system and the character creation process. (p.9-145)

Chapters 6-9 details tactical and distance movement, as well as movement through space and time, along with some new options, including a suggested set of rules to govern time travel – a common comic book staple.(p.146-163)

Chapters 10 reviews combat options and details the results of offensive, tactical, and defensive actions, plus adds a few new actions to the system. (p.164-186)

Chapter 11 covers the karma based character advancement options with choices ranging from increasing abilities to inventions to official teams. (p.187-203)

Chapter 12 introduces optional rules for Kaiju: extreme giant monsters of comic book and cinema fame. (p.204-208)

Chapters 13-15 gives new options for a multitude of places: dimensional realms and refuges as well as comic book microstates. (p.209-231)

Chapters 16-19 provides numerous sample beings ranging from realistic to mythological and include sample NPCs and organizations – complete with catchy acronyms. (p.233-302)

Chapters 20-23 finish off the book with a multitude of equipment, weapons, vehicles, steeds, and some random tables for places, encounters, and events. (p.303-395)

System and Character Creation

Chapter 1 – Basic system

FASERIPopedia uses the d100 Rank/Color/Value resolution system.
Briefly, there are a total of 18 possible Ranks ranging in capability from helpless to cosmically powerful. Action and Conflict resolution is done by rolling d100 or 2d10 to come up with a result of 1-100. This result is cross referenced on the Rank Outcome table to come with one of four colors: White (fail), Bronze (fail or success depending on action), Silver (success), or Gold (big success). The higher the Rank of ability being used for the action, the better the chance of getting a successful color. Better color results often grant bonus effects to an Action appropriate to a comic book world. Value is the numeric value of the Rank and is used to inform damage and durability/health.

This system allows for several quick ways of resolving an action or conflict and getting back to the story: by Rank comparison (the higher rank wins), by Color (the result specified on the table for the Action, or in the case of opposed rolls whomever rolls the higher color wins), or by Value (higher value wins).

In the original, the results of what happened on a success/fail with each action and the Rank/Color Value table were all part of a single universal table, but in FASERIPopedia, this information has been broken out into multiple tables between this chapter, the movement chapter, and the combat chapter.

Chapter 2 – Creating characters

Creating a character starts with the Origin story and what Type of event granted the character their powers. FASERIPopedia provides a multitude of options for Origin and Type as well as a table for random generation. The Origin and Type results will determine how the FASERIP primary stats are generated, and might influence the secondary stats of Health, Karma, Wealth, Popularity, Contacts, Skills and Powers.

Health is the equivalent of hit points or durability and starts equal to the sum of the numeric values of the FASE Ranks. Karma is the equivalent of experience points and starts equal to the sum of the numeric value of the RIP Ranks, unlike most games where characters start with 0 XP. Wealth is given a starting Rank, and may be influenced by Skills (which include occupations) as well as in-game actions. Starting Popularity is determined by Origin and Type, and thereafter is controlled by in-game RP choices.

Contacts my be a dependent that needs protecting, or a person one can get help or resources from. Skills lump together talents and occupations as well as general non-power abilities. FASERIPopedia appears to have combined the separate Powers/Contacts/Talents table of the original into the Origin and Type table. The Skill list more than triples the available skills and introduces Advanced skills which can be improved.

With only seven primary characteristics and seven secondary characteristics, characters are fairly simple to create and easy to reference or track during play.

Chapter 3 – Powers

Chapter 4 – Power descriptions

Powers are among the core abilities of most heroes, and FASERIPopedia provides a generous set of options to choose from including many limitations to customize with. Acquiring Power Stunts (special tricks one can do with a given power) appears to be unchanged. Like the original, Power Stunts are left up to the Judge and Player to work out the details. This section also contains the important Weights and Measures table, which provides speed, distance, range, area of effect and other important information useful when determining what can be done with a given Ability or Power.

Chapter 5 – Magic

Magic spells are treated as a kind of super power and follow the same rules. Some options regarding magical based organizations are also presented.

Moving in Time and Space

Chapter 6 – Time travel

Chapter 7 – Zoomways

The laws of time travel are a nice touch and provide a useful optional framework for handling this comic book staple. The concept of alternate histories is introduced with some suggestions for inspriation. Zoomways are a unique creation by the author which adds options for travel and provide a possible bare-bones skeleton of a campaign setting.

Chapter 8 – Time and Movement

Chapter 9 – Movement

These chapters detail various comic book forms of movement and covers what abilities are associated with each, as well as how more powerful Ranks increase what Abilities and Powers can affect. A number of initiative options are also presented to choose from. Movement is tracked by “areas” which is canonically the amount of space that can be shown in a comic book panel without losing details (or about 200 square feet). Time is tracked by rounds, which is the amount of time that passes per average comic book panel (which averages to about 6 seconds in FASERIPopedia).

Combat

Chapter 10 – Combat

FASERIPopedia again expands upon the number of combat actions available compared to the original, and provides detailed Color results for each type of action. Common situations that frequently arise during a comic book combat are also touched upon. One change from the original rules is the potential for getting both Stun and Slam effects as a single Color resolution outcome, instead of one or the other. Combat results can be influenced by karma as well, see below for more details.

Character Advancement

Chapter 11 – Self improvement

Karma are the experience points of the system. Like the original, karma can be gained by a character keeping promises and appointments or spending time with family (not always easy for the aspiring hero), as well as defeating villains, preventing crime, or saving victims of disasters. Karma is lost by performing negative actions. Karma can be spent on improving existing Abilities or Powers, acquiring new Abilities, Powers, Contacts, Skills, or inventing Equipment.

The effects of karma going negative are covered. Karma for characters being earned by player’s participation and contributions to the group are built in to the system. A new alternative method of improvement is available. Another very important point of Karma is that it can be spent to influence one’s own die rolls, giving the players a direct method of influencing outcomes, and through that the story.

A number of new options for various types of teams and their dynamics are presented. New options for headquarters are covered in detail.

Kaiju

Chapter 12 – Kaiju

Kaiju – monstrously large creatures from comics and cinema – are a staple of heroic games. FASERIPopedia offers rules for creating customized Kaiju and interacting with them. Available sizes range from hundreds of feet to thousands of feet in the case of Titan Kaiju. Possible origins are also covered in some detail.

Places

Chapter 13 – Alternate Realms

Chapter 14 – Refuge locations

Chapter 15 – Comic book Microstates

The incredible locations presented in this section can be used as battlegrounds with special environments or as destinations in their own right. They can serve as the home base of a hidden groups, the origin of an invading force, or as the hidden redoubt of secluded beings. They range from the unique to the humorous to types commonly found in other fantastical works.

Beings

Chapter 16 – Acronym groups

Chapter 17 – Animals

Chapter 18 – Creatures

Chapter 19 – Sample NPCs

The world is filled with NPCs. Keeping track of them, who they know, with whom they are affiliated, and coming up with new individuals on the spot is often a laborious chore for the Judge. FASERIPopedia provides an amazing selection or pre-generated NPCs, animals, creatures from myth and legend, and groups to choose from, along with suggested stats and powers.

Things

Chapter 20 – Items

Chapter 21 – Vehicles & steeds

Chapter 22 – Weapons

Chapter 23 – Random tables for places, encounters, and events

Over 90 pages of stuff finishes off the FASERIPopedia, complete with suggested stats and descriptions. While heavy on the tables, this section contains a plethora of ready to use items and equipment. At the very end are some random tables for places, encounters and events that Judges will find useful.

Conclusion

The positive karma:

The FASERIPopedia (as stated by the author) was designed to be a clone of the original rules, plus lots of options. In this regard, the FASERIPopedia succeeds admirably, sticking closely to the original rules with few changes, and adds numerous options. It makes for a handy encyclopedia of extras and pre-generated material which can be used as a companion to the original game, and is directly backwards compatible as a bonus. It is also able to be played as a stand-alone system containing pretty much everything needed to do so in a single book. The problem with aging type powers from the original game was address and fixed. The origin and age category tables provide a handy framework for those who need more structure to create a character background, or for those in a hurry.

The editorial tone of writing including embedded opinions, pop-culture references, and jokes will be familiar to anyone who has read the original game. The artwork ranges from the hand-drawn to digital works. The layout of text and tables is simple, easy to read and the PDF is searchable. Most lists are alphabetized making it easy to search them.

The ability to earn karma for characters not only by in-game actions but also by player actions is a common house-rule in many games, but here it is built into the system. There are a number of easter-egg nods to comics and mythologies scattered throughout. FASERIPopedia plays almost exactly like the original game: swift resolutions, quick results, and right back to gameplay and story. The ability of the players to influence die rolls and thus the story will be another big positive for many players and Judges.

As added points of interest, I have heard that they will be partnering with a comic book imprint, and they are currently looking for adventure module author submissions.

The negative karma:
The PDF lacks ‘front’ and ‘back’ cover art. The tables lack any color or shading to make it easier to scan across rows, and also are frequently split across pages. There is no internal hyperlinking or bookmarks making general navigation and finding specific sections more difficult. The copyright statement placed in the header of each page breaks the flow of readability. Including a master table of some kind or replicating all the tables from the book at the back for ease of reference would improve referencing the material. The “Shift 0” problem of the original game remains unaddressed. Some points in the Origins may not be considered “kid-friendly” by certain cultures or belief systems.

There are a couple of spots where potential rules abuse is possible involving uncapped “roll twice” on certain tables and the Scrubbing Powers rule. Some people may be bothered that the Inheritance tables do not follow the Punnett square pattern. The removal of power categories might not appeal to some. There are a few spelling and grammar misses, but considering that the nearly 400 pages was created by a one-being team, this is understandable.

***

Overall, the FASERIPopedia is a solid offering with more positives than negatives, and what negatives there are consisting mostly of presentation and searching related issues. It serves as an excellent reference, and is an inspirational retro-clone retaining the comic book speed of play of the original game. Anyone who likes the FASERIP system, likes options, likes useful reference materials, or likes a fast-paced quick-resolving game that stays out of the way of story will most likely love the FASERIPopedia. In the spirit of the original game, it gets a Shift Z rating.
(That’s a great rating: 14/18!)

Thank you for such a detailed review! I appreciate the time and thought that went into it very much.

Awesome review! Thanks for doing it!

If it were cheaper and less crunchy ( rules mechanics that slow down pacing ) i would get it .

I have so many retro clones and other rpg;s too little time !

The idea of the Marvel Super Heroes RPG being redone but the MU part of it scrubbed out is interesting.

perhaps using 100's of public domain super characters in the game world would give it a tone and style with rich yet strange lore

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G.A.W.
If it were cheaper and less crunchy ( rules mechanics that slow down pacing ) i would get it .

I have so many retro clones and other rpg;s too little time !

The idea of the Marvel Super Heroes RPG being redone but the MU part of it scrubbed out is interesting.

perhaps using 100's of public domain super characters in the game world would give it a tone and style with rich yet strange lore

Using public domain characters definitely adds some interesting stuff. But we've also struck a deal with Tidal Wave comics. Previously we licensed their characters for writeups on www.faserip.com but now we have reached an agreement to do licensed adventures and sourcebooks based on their comics as well. So going forward there will be the existing sourcebooks and also a separate line of licensed works using Tidal Wave characters and settings as well. There is currently FASERIPopedia, Lost Empires, which is public domain Africa / Lost World featuring Camilla the Jungle Queen, Cosmic Forces which is outer space, Subterranea which is underground, underworld, Tartarus and the Hollow Earth, AGENCY which is spies and other anti-hero detectives and agent types - all of whom technically use villain karma, and there will be one more BIG sourcebook with pretty much the opposite of the AGENCY stuff.

Then the Tidal Wave stuff

I thought it was very important to do a true retroclone and that means having a proper licensed comic book universe.

er..FASERIP stuff is not covered by the OGL.

The OGL does not cover ALL TSR legacy products, it only covers derivatives of D&D 3.0+, and specifically content included in the SRD.

Why did you publish this under the OGL? That literally makes no sense to me. Are you using SRD material in this?

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barna10
er..FASERIP stuff is not covered by the OGL.

The OGL does not cover ALL TSR legacy products, it only covers derivatives of D&D 3.0+, and specifically content included in the SRD.

Why did you publish this under the OGL? That literally makes no sense to me. Are you using SRD material in this?

I'm not the author, but this is a common action for game system publishers. Many people publish under the OGL since they need to license the work. Additionally, the OGL is used as an open license allowing other third parties to then make derivative works from it.

Examples of non-SRD published under the license:
Most Mongoose stuff, included Traveller, though with the recent controversy I think they're trying to move away
Pelgrane publishing, the makers of the Gumshoe system, the one I know is Trail of Cthulhu.

I'm sure you can find many more examples. It's actually everywhere in the RPG market

What do you mean "need to license the work"....from whom?

You can't just publish stuff, throw an open license on top, and say BOOM I licensed it.

I know other publishers gave also erroneously used the OGL. Not sure why...

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barna10
What do you mean "need to license the work"....from whom?

You can't just publish stuff, throw an open license on top, and say BOOM I licensed it.

I know other publishers gave also erroneously used the OGL. Not sure why...

You're not licensing the work from anyone. Games have a license so that there's a legal structure in place so that other people can develop off of based off of the work and to signalhow vigorously a company will protect it's copyrighted material. There's a number of grey areas. Most of these retro-clones operate under the established fact that the game their cloning can't have their mechanics copyrighted. So in that sense, you could not have a license as far as I'm aware, but the license says, you're welcome to base off of our game, we want you to seek permission before using specific mechanics or setting specific mechanics.

So, is the license necessary? No, but the reason there's a glut of OGL material is because the license allows copying of material and reuse without fear of a lawsuit, which makes the barrier for game creation much lower. I'm sure you've heard of what the TSR abbreviation meant, "They Sue Regularly"

The good news is - rule mechanics cant be copyrighted ( supposedly ) so hacking Marvel Faserip is doable.

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G.A.W.
The good news is - rule mechanics cant be copyrighted ( supposedly ) so hacking Marvel Faserip is doable.

Exactly....there's no need to OGL a FASERIP clone.

Just don't use any Marvel IP and you are free and clear.

If you want allow others to use your work, just state that in the text somewhere ie create your own "license"

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barna10
Exactly....there's no need to OGL a FASERIP clone.

Just don't use any Marvel IP and you are free and clear.

If you want allow others to use your work, just state that in the text somewhere ie create your own "license"

The only thing I wonder is how much of Marvel's IP has been scrubbed from the clone? I'm sure all the characters and references to them have been stripped away, but what about powers like Darkforce Generation and references to the Darkforce Dimension?

[comicvine.gamespot.com]

Sure, other companies have done things with dark energy and powers, but if it could be problematic if it's literally ripped from an old Marvel RPG sourcebook and presented the same way with the same terms.

Just got my first taste of this in the "Creatures" section....full stop for me

I don't want to learn a new bunch of terms for stat levels. Current terms (ie Feeble, Poor, Typical, etc) work just fine for me.

It would be a no-go for me simply based on that, besides I see no reason to pay $25 for a new version of what I already have both in print and for free.

There is also FASERIP which is FREE

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G.A.W.
The good news is - rule mechanics cant be copyrighted ( supposedly ) so hacking Marvel Faserip is doable.

Which honestly means you dont require an OGL to hack any TTRPG. Just dont copy/paste their created content.

Now there are some reasons to publish ( even if it's digital or print on demand ) a Re-done version of a game ( rpg ) even though most of your target audience may already have their originals.

-- Let players beat up on the new book so the originals wont get more wear and tear
-- Put all the rules into a single core book ( some rpg games have multiple books covering different aspects )
-- Those who no longer have the originals but want a physical copy of the rules ( and don't like printing and binding themselves )

--------------- This last reason was a majority of the stated reason some early Retro clones were made ( besides seeing if it was going to be legally challenged by Wizards of the Coast in 2006-2008. ( OSRIC ) and includes OSR games like Osric, Labyrinth Lord , Lamentations of the Flame Princess, etc
..................... and that was to have a rule set to reference legally when writing ( and allowing others to write and publish ) and running/using Adventures, Modules, Settings, Scenarios , new Monsters ( or heroes and villains )

People just wanted to write and publish new material for a game system they love without legal hassle . Heck Lamentations of the Flame Princess ( fantasy rpg ) MAin claim to fame is not the game itself but the edgy, weird, strange and sometimes very good ADVENTURES

Right given the WOTC and Hasbro is a billion dollar enterprise, there were not losing anything from the pittance the 3rd party market was creating. Heck it kept people playing D&D through the lean times thanks to enterprising individuals making new content for the game the loved.

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G.A.W.
Now there are some reasons to publish ( even if it's digital or print on demand ) a Re-done version of a game ( rpg ) even though most of your target audience may already have their originals.

-- Let players beat up on the new book so the originals wont get more wear and tear
-- Put all the rules into a single core book ( some rpg games have multiple books covering different aspects )
-- Those who no longer have the originals but want a physical copy of the rules ( and don't like printing and binding themselves )

--------------- This last reason was a majority of the stated reason some early Retro clones were made ( besides seeing if it was going to be legally challenged by Wizards of the Coast in 2006-2008. ( OSRIC ) and includes OSR games like Osric, Labyrinth Lord , Lamentations of the Flame Princess, etc
..................... and that was to have a rule set to reference legally when writing ( and allowing others to write and publish ) and running/using Adventures, Modules, Settings, Scenarios , new Monsters ( or heroes and villains )

People just wanted to write and publish new material for a game system they love without legal hassle . Heck Lamentations of the Flame Princess ( fantasy rpg ) MAin claim to fame is not the game itself but the edgy, weird, strange and sometimes very good ADVENTURES

The flaw in this is OSRIC and your other examples were free, and we already had FASERIP...also free.

I hear you. I guess it's only a flaw if one were to buy the core game when not free. But I wouldn't mind paying for some FASERIP superhero modules sometimes.

This may lead to a new topic: Where are all the FASERIP adventure ( module ) scenarios post 1995 written by fans or 3rd party authors?

They are in the downloads section of this site

No. I own all those - pre 1995. . Any FASERIP retroclone will hopefully have people write new adventures that can be used by all those who play TSR FASERIP type games

Are there non-TSR adventures here for download?

Again - one of the key reasons to have a retroclone - for people to write adventures for.

Years ago there was a site that had many D&D free adventures with some other rpg game adventures .

You could check by game and I saw 1 Marvel Super hero scenario out of hundreds of adventures.

Even Pendragon had more fan scenarios written for it. You just dont see that many 3rd party/fan adventures/modules for the

Marvel Superheros RPG.

I'll have to check to see if these FASERIP retro clones have any adventures written for their game

You can find Rise of the Replicants here

Hey thanks.