ION Guard is a setting/organization supplement for the ICONS game that presents a new intergalactic organization of heroes. All of the ION Guard’s members wear a golden ION Fist, which provides them with a suite of superpowers including flight, blasts, a force field, and life support. This will sound very, very familiar to most of you (and if not, just wait for a certain movie coming out soon…), and there’s no question that the organization is a tribute to the Green Lantern Corps. The focus is on the intergalactic organization itself, but you could also use it to build an Ion Guard character who just adventures on Earth. The 58-page pdf is heavy on flavor and light on rules elements, so it will easily translate to other superhero systems. (In fact a separate edition is already available for BASH!) It provides a wealth of detail on the history, goals, resources, structure, and enemies of this organization – although, this being a supplement for a supers game, fortunately not excruciating detail. The story elements are solid and definitely fulfill (my) comic book expectations – it includes elements like the ION Guard Oath that add simple, but crucial, flavor for your character. The crunch is rather light, but it does provide information on some of the equipment and (most importantly) rules for generating ION Guard characters. The latter obviously dispenses with the default random character generation in favor of powers and statistics appropriate for an ION Guard. Personally I would have preferred more room for customization; prerequisite ability scores and an (almost) fixed suite of powers make these characters too homogeneous, so a group of ION Guards would really need distinct personalities to maintain their uniqueness. There are no fixed qualities or challenges, but the example characters still have almost identical choices there (all tied closely to the Guard). The most interesting section for me describes several villains: a former ION Guard corrupted by his own power; a race of sorcerers who exploit the ION Guard’s weakness against magic, and a monstrous world-eating being who is essentially unstoppable without trickery (think Marvel’s Galactus), although his superpowered minions are at a more normal level. These villains are well-tailored to the ION Guard and all have a lot of potential for classic comic-type stories. All in all, this is a solid supplement full of good flavor, and I recommend it if you are looking for an interesting intergalactic organization for your ICONS game – complete with a solid history and some great villains. Personally I would prefer more varied characters, but it certainly works fine for a player looking to fill the Green Lantern archetype. The low level of crunch also makes this attractive for conversion to other systems. However, if you are going to convert the rules elements that are already there, you may just want to research the Green Lantern Corps itself!

Note: I received a free review copy (in pdf form) of this title through RPGNow.