Amazing Heroes vs ICONS
Compare Amazing Heroes and ICONS side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Amazing Heroes | ICONS | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Superhero, Modern | Superhero, Modern |
| Tags | Beginner-Friendly, Rules-Light, Family-Friendly, Superpowers, Narrative, Fiction-First, Cinematic, Theater of the Mind, One-Shot Friendly, Strong GM Support | Superpowers, Heroic, Cinematic, Rules-Light, Random Character Creation, Tag-Based, Theater of the Mind, Beginner-Friendly |
| Core Mechanic | Each hero has four traits (an occupation, a body attribute, a personality attribute, and a superpower) assigned a d6, d6, d8, and d10 at creation. When the outcome is uncertain, the player rolls the relevant trait die against a difficulty of 3 (easy), 4 (normal), or 5 (hard), adding +1 if a body or personality attribute fits. Rolls of 1 or 2 on a normal or hard test inflict a condition like 'tired' or 'hurt'; a repeated condition becomes 'really [X]' and imposes a –1 penalty, and a third hurt condition defeats the hero. Defeating a villain requires successes equal to the villain's level times the number of heroes. | Effort vs. Difficulty. Each side adds a single d6 to a 1–10 ability level (acting Ability + d6 for effort, opposing Ability + d6 for difficulty); subtract difficulty from effort to find the outcome and its degree (marginal, moderate, major, or massive success or failure). Qualities are short narrative descriptors (titles, drives, catchphrases, weaknesses) that any player or the GM can activate to gain an advantage or create trouble. Activating trouble against your own hero earns Determination Points, which fuel stunts, retcons, ability boosts, and other player-side narrative interventions. |
| Dice | d6–d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Very Low | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 3 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | OGL 1.0a |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Amazing Tales | Green Ronin Publishing |
| Year | 2021 | 2014 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Mixed-age tables wanting a fast, narrative superhero RPG that genuinely works for kids aged 7+ alongside adults: sessions are designed to cram an hour of TV-style action into a single sitting. | Groups who want fast superhero campaigns where heroes can be rolled up in minutes, freeform qualities drive both advantages and complications, and the rules stay out of the way of comic-book pacing. |
| Highlights | Trait dice carry transparent in-fiction meaning at each step (d6 is 'best in your country,' d12 is 'best in the world'), so players and GMs negotiate power level by description rather than parsing stat blocks. Conditions like 'tired' or 'shaken' replace HP entirely and stack into 'really [X]' with a –1 penalty before a third instance defeats the hero, keeping damage in fiction while still tracking toward a losing point. The GM receives plot points equal to the number of players each session and spends them on cinematic moves (villain ambushes, escapes with a planted clue, perfect disguises, 'missing body' recurring foes), encoding superhero-TV pacing as a budgeted resource. | Hero creation runs through a handful of dice rolls: origin (Trained, Transformed, Birthright, Gimmick, Artificial, Unearthly), six attributes, number and type of powers, and specialties. It produces a complete superhero in minutes, with the random results functioning as creative prompts for backstory rather than constraints on concept. Qualities act like Fate aspects: any side can invoke them for in-fiction advantage, and accepting compelled trouble against your own qualities is the primary way to refill Determination Points, so personal drama directly feeds the metacurrency. Pyramid tests resolve complex challenges by stacking smaller successes (two moderate successes equal a major, two majors equal a massive), letting investigations, chases, or skill montages play out across multiple rolls and abilities with optional modifiers like Timed, Escalating, Collapsing, and Competitive to shape the challenge. |
| Considerations | Superpowers have no defined list or mechanical effects beyond a die size, so the GM must adjudicate what each novel use of a power can do on the fly. Advancement caps at d12+1 and amounts to larger dice plus secondary powers branched from a parent power, so long-running heroes don't gain meaningfully different mechanical options from starting ones. Villain fights accumulate flat successes equal to villain level × number of heroes with no incremental damage per hit, which can grind against tougher foes when most attack rolls only mark a single tick of progress. | Default hero creation is fully random (origin, attributes, and powers all come off 2d6 tables), so groups wanting a planned concept need to use the alternate 45-point buy or rely on attribute swaps and re-rolls. Combat resolves against a single Stamina pool (Strength + Willpower) with no grid rules or status conditions beyond a handful of effect powers, so brawls play fast but lack tactical positional depth. Powers are intentionally broad rather than deep (about sixty powers cover the genre), and exotic builds rely on stacking extras and limits rather than the granular menu of effects found in crunchier supers games. |