Invincible RPG Review

Yes, especially for one-shots. Invincible is an 18 out of 20 at the table, a Hit. Free League made a rulebook so good that Blaine called it a masterclass, and a setting strong enough that it got him watching the show. The catch is the rules. They're the most stripped-down version of the Year Zero engine yet, and Joe, who has played most of the others, thinks they took too much away.

What we reviewed

The Invincible Superhero Roleplaying core rulebook from Free League Publishing, based on Robert Kirkman's comic and the animated series. Blaine read the PDF, which he picked up on sale from DriveThruRPG for under $19. The hardcover runs about $60. It's a read-through: we haven't run a session yet.

RulesJoe12/20Blaine14/20

Invincible runs on the Year Zero engine, the same core as Free League's Alien, Blade Runner, Vaesen and Mutant: Year Zero. You roll a pool of d6s, and any 6 is a success. Extra 6s become stunts, so you pull it off faster or more impressively. In this game your pool is only your attribute. A 6 in Presence means you roll six dice.

Joe's favorite part is the same thing he loves in every Year Zero game. If you really need to succeed, you can push your roll: reroll everything that isn't a 1 or a 6. It costs you stress, and that's the point. Your hero can push through and win, at a price, which is very true to Invincible.

Blaine's favorite part is the injury system. You don't die at zero hit points. You start to break, with injuries that start small and work up to broken arms and a collapsed lung, and they stack the more you get hurt. Like the show, you can keep fighting while things get worse, until somebody ends up dead.

The rest of the toolkit is good too. Point-buy attributes keep heroes fair. Personality, drive and flaw pay off when you play them. Challenges like a burning building or a runaway train get a rating and a time limit, a race against the clock. The GM can roll in secret when players are exposed to disease, which stops anyone from metagaming the save. And when an NPC runs out of Resolve, their mental hit points, they run.

Joe's criticism is that they made it too simple. There are no skills at all. Attributes go higher than in other Year Zero games, but two heroes with the same Presence roll exactly the same, and the difference between them is only in the story. Without skills, the rules mostly reward fighting. If you want to play the detective who uncovers the villain, the game doesn't support it the way other Year Zero games do. As Joe put it, "I think they fixed something that wasn't broken."

Blaine's gripe is reputation. It's one score that grows or fades, and the GM decides whether you're remembered for wrecking the building or saving the person inside it. That puts a lot on the GM, who has to remember everything the players did and decide on the fly whether it helps or hurts them. Separate Fame and Infamy scores that move after each fight would have made it easy. Karma has the same problem as Improvement Points in our Cyberpunk RED review: a list of questions to work through after every session.

The upside of all that minimalism is that it plays fast. There's very little on the character sheet, and the rules would be great for new players, in a one-shot or a short run of two or three sessions.

Joe gave Rules a 12, measured against Alien and the rest of the Year Zero games. Blaine gave it a 14 for his first Free League game.

LayoutJoe18/20Blaine20/20

This is where the book shines. The art sucked Blaine in right away, and everything comes in the order you'd expect: what a roleplaying game is, character creation, combat, the world, and running the game. The cast section seems to cover every named character from the show, each with art, stats and a bio. The GM section is one of the best Blaine has read in a while. A lot of it matches advice he's written in his GM tips, and some of it he hadn't thought of. It even includes solo play rules, which are usually a free add-on.

Joe agreed and had almost nothing to criticize in the book itself. His one ding is support. There's a starter set, a GM screen, a deck of power cards and custom dice, but the game has been out a while with no campaign, and he isn't aware of one coming.

Joe gave Layout an 18. Blaine gave it a 20: "it is a master class of how to write a TTRPG book."

SettingJoe19/20Blaine19/20

The setting might be the game's strongest part, and it's why we both still want to run it. Blaine had only seen a few episodes before he read the book, and by the end he had to watch the show.

The universe section is detailed enough to come with a spoiler warning. It covers places on Earth, other planets, dimensions and the organizations, a full setting right out of the book. Blaine kept picturing scenes from the show he could run. What he missed was maps. Even a map of the GDA and its prison would have helped, and that's the point he took off.

Joe also gave it a 19. His point off was the same complaint as Layout: he doesn't think the setting or the book holds up for a six-month or year-long campaign. We both see it the same way. It's cinematic and episodic, like the show, and that's okay. Not every game needs to be a long campaign.

ValueJoe18/20Blaine18/20

Blaine got the PDF on sale for under $19, but he doesn't run games from PDFs. He liked it so much he's buying the hardcover anyway, and that's his test for an 18. It's a complete book, and he could easily run a session with what's in it. He'd have liked a small adventure in the core, but the starter set covers that.

Joe scored it at full price. The hardcover is about $60, and it's a complete game. The starter set, power cards, dice and GM screen are nice to have, but you don't need any of them. He gave it an 18 too.

If you want the hardcover, buying it direct from Free League includes the PDF.

Who it's for

GMs who want a superhero one-shot or a short run with real violence, and anyone new to the Year Zero engine looking for an easy way in. If you want a long campaign or an investigation game, it'll fight you.

The verdict

Joe: 17. Blaine: 18. An 18 at the table, a Hit. If you want a fun, violent superhero one-shot, grab Invincible. And if it's your first Year Zero game, there's a lot more to look forward to.