This is a sample combat using characters made straight out of the book. President Garratt is making a speech at the inauguration of the Freedom League Memorial. Silverknight is present, representing G.U.A.R.D,

Suddenly an intense wave of freezing cold sweeps across the podium; the President and her aides freeze into solid blocks of ice. *

A group of goons wearing blue jumpsuits spill across the arena, heading for the podium.

Silverknight moves to intercept them and fires his Force Beam when a massive blast of freezing cold hits him, and he is rooted; frozen to the spot and unable to move.

Round 1 – Narrative Combat

Goons x 5 (5)

Silverknight – (Ranged) Force Beam: roll 6,2 = 12 + 24 = 36

Frostorm – (Close) Freeze Gun: Roll 6,6 = 36 + 36 + 5 (goons) = 77

(Silverknight beat Frostorm’s Defence, but he has to take out the goons first. His highest roll is a 6 to he takes down all 6 of them. He was able to use his Force Field to increase his Defence.

Frostorm rolled a Critical Success with his attack though, so this can be judged to be an automatic hit. It would have hit anyway. I judged that Silverknight was frozen into a block of ice. He took 6 damage which I allocated 4 to Fatigue and 2 to Bruises.

Round 2

Silverknight has to escape from the ice – this will use Origins (the Scientific Design of the suit.) I decide this is Difficult, so I need to score 20+. Roll 3,4 = 12 + 18 (Origins) = 30 so success.

Meanwhile Frostorm has to kidnap the President. With all his goons down, he needs a different method. He creates an ice slide off the cliffs down into the ocean – the President (being in a block of ice) will float. ** This will use his Origins (Super Science.) I decide this is Very Difficult so needs to score 30+. Roll 3,5. As a Talented scientist he can modify this to 4,5 = 20 + 4 = 24. This is enough (I think) to get the block moving along the slide towards the cliff edge.

Round 3

Silverknight has a choice – he could try blasting the block to free the President or he could concentrate on Frostorm. Frostorm, meanwhile, blasts Silverknight. Silverknight decides to free the President. ***

Silverknight – Dives into combat and punches the ice block. The one that froze him needed 20+ to break so I’ll use this. Roll 2,3 – Talent is Dive into Combat so modified to 3,3 = 9 + 12 = 21. Just enough to shatter the ice block and free the President.

It also turned the roll into a Double, which means that something else happens. Silverknight chooses Option to Re-roll one die on a future die roll of any type

Frostorm – Freeze Gun (Close – he was next to the block) Roll 2,4 = 8 + 36 = 44. Just missed!

Round 4

Silverknight is in close combat with Frostorm

Frostorm uses his Superspeed (Skating) to get away on an ice slide – 3,6 = 18 + 4 = 22. This is enough to escape but Silverknight gets a parting shot.

Silverknight punches and misses, Frostorm gets away.

Silverknight gains +1 Rep for saving the President.

I didn’t use Character Points in this example combat which ight have changed things

Nice, lightweight superhero system.

By complete coincidence, I'm sure, has a number of features in common with my current fave supers RPG, Spectaculars Both give heroes 3 powers: in Comics Code, one is Attack, Defence & General; in Spectaculars they can all do anything using the power of narrative. I'm never keen on 2 different resolution systems (1d6 or d6xd6) but the latter is specifically designed to be comic book swingy, which it certainly delivers.

Both also include character-driven elements: Comics Code subplots = Aspiration/Turmoil in Spectaculars. Comics Code adds Pendragon-style Status and Heroism traits that can be called on to affect player decisions - actually, no, you don't have it in you to kill the Joker. I like this, very in genre. There's also a scenario included (yay! I love that one of the scenes relies on boring the players into action!) and some good guidance on running comic book superhero stories.

However, the tone can be a tad didactic, it's very GM-led rather than collaborative, and some of the designer's past frustrations at less creative players are clearly called out! None of these affect the game per se, but it does give it a very strong authorial voice which may not be to everyone's taste. The rules layout also doesn't quite feel right to me, but as a short one-sitting read, that's not really an issue.

Overall it's a nice little game, ideal for a quick 2 hour filler no/low prep session of superheroic fun.

I spent a very pleasent hour at Dragonmeet 2017 playing this game with its author and my ten year old son. The rules are a touch light for my tastes but my son really enjoyed designing his character and as such i think this game is a perect game for introducing young family members to our hobby. I have also ordered the super hero version for games with my kids and thier friends

Excellent game. It has enough rules to give the system a bit of weight, and its own distinct "feel". Yet it is light enough to be easily understood, explained and played. I am a huge fan of designer Simon Burley's previous superhero games (do some Googling). And Squadron UK is just as good, better in certain respects, even.

Character generation is semi-random. That is to say, random rolls, but the player has a degree of control over how the powers are developed, as they can opt to improve powers once they are rolled. Thsi is one of the great things about the system, and you will find yourself rolling chjaracters for the fun of it. The random element brings some great combinations to the table, that you may not have thought of yourself.

The power list at forst glance is not extensive, but players are encouraged to use them as a starting point, "gimmicking" them to taste, so that many different effects can be achieved.

Basic mechanic is D20 +/- modifiers, against a target number. There are degrees of success and failure. But this, like almost everything else about this game, can be modified to suit your desired style of play. Squadron UK is very customizable, and manages it without adding layers of mathematical complication. In fact, the system is streamlined compared to Burley's previous supers games, and that's a good thing.

Combat is handled in "panels", like those of a comic book. It plays very well. It flows well, and has rules for all of the clasic comic-book tropes, from grappling to being sent flying by a mighty blow!

Long-term play is aided by a system of "derived characteristics" that handle areas such as a superhero's public image, investigatory acumen and personal psychology. These can change from one adventure to the next, and have an impact on play. This nicely reflects some of the inner and outer drama of comics, and brings a sense of consequence (be it positive or negative) to a character's actions, beyond mere superheroics.

For anyone who has ever played Mr. Burley's "other" superhero game, this retains the elements that made it so beloved, while adding improvements, especially in the areas of character generation (which was already great) and character advancement.

The emulates a "comic book" style of play, rather than being simulationist. But, as previously stated, difficulties can be adjusted to suit individual tastes.

Bottom line: a fun superhero rpg with its own unique "feel", light to medium crunch, that captures the flavor of comic book superheroes perfectly. Great fun, and works for anything from one-off "beat 'em up" style fights, to extended campaigns driven by drama and punctuated by bouts of intense, superpowered fighing.

A few minor typos, but overall a great update/improvement to a classic set of superhero rpg rules.

Another excellent entry in the "Code" series of games. Does this game "do D& D?" No. And that's one of the things I like about it. This game does fantasy adventure. Don't expect all the D&D tropes of characters loaded down with dozens of spells, magic items, or...."feats" here. Your character will be based around a solid, thematic concept of your choosing, and you'll be done creating them in minutes. Is there room for advancement, adding more abilities, etc? Sure, but that's not the focus of this game. The focus is set squarely upon the story, on the "scenario" level, and on each character's own "sub-plot" level. Pick this (or any of the Code games) up if you want to get going quickly, keep things moving along, and tell some stories while rolling some dice.

I am a big fan of The Black Hack system. I have bought several of the various hacks on OBS. This was my first purchase of anything in the Supers genre. I think it has lots of potential but didn't quite hit the sweet spot for me.

The four character classes are a great encapsulation of the genre. Bricks, Blasters, Crimefighters and Uniques are all great choices for the names of the classic tropes of the genre. Very evocative and succinct. I felt that Bricks and Blasters were a bit underpowered though. It seems like you could build a Unique that could potentially outdo them but I have yet to playtest this game yet.

The Powers are also boiled down to a mere 20. I think this was a solid representation of what you'd need to play a satisfyingly diverse Supers game. Re-fluff a bit here and there perhaps, but quite good. i think some further examples of how to re-fluff powers into fitting various "Rationales" would be helpful.

One thing that bothered me about the basic TBH system is the Usage Die mechanic. I know some people love it, but I think sometimes it's too fiddly. It especially annoys me when the character's core coolfactor is pegged to a Usage Die. For example, the Brick starts off with Superstrength at Grade 1 with a Usage Die of D10. Grade 1 allows the character to lift 1 ton and it doubles at every additional grade thereafter. So, by the UD mechanic anytime the character throws a punch and uses his (sort of minor) Superstrength he's gotta roll a Usage Die.

Added to this sort of nerf UD mechanic frustration is that a Level 1 Brick could only achieve a Grade 2 rating of Superstrength but a Unique could feasibly have a Grade 4 or 5 (with a lower Usage Die of D6 though). Also, the Uniques seem to increase in overall power as they level faster than the other classes.

Also, some further utilization of the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic would be cool. And, maybe some bits about developing adversaries. Dunno... I'm probably just rambling now.

I see a lot of hope for this little game. Lots of cool stuff happening and it definitely wears the The Black Hack badge well. So, Simon... please update/tweak this one. Also, maybe adjust the layout a bit to improve the text flow/ease of reading and general aesthetics. I would gladly pay another $2 for an updated version.

The Super Hack is in some places an exact, word-for-word reprinting of The Black Hack, which means you already know the game is going to be easy to learn and fun to play. The Supers rule core allows the creation and growth of just about any power level of character you can imagine from any age of comic book history you want to play in. Character creation does involve a fair amount of imagination and close work with the GM, but the end result will be a character you will like to play and the GM can use to tell a really epic story. And, after all, isn't an epic story the reason we started reading comics in the first place?

There is a lot of good in this little book. Quick, easy to use powers and a nice use of the Usage Die

I was disappointed with how few powers were in the book (only 20). Also there is no real benchmarks so you have no way to know the difference between a character with Superstrength d6 and one with Superstrength d8.

While I can see it working for a quick pick up game, I'm not sure it would be my go to for simple supers with so few power options.

It's Steam Punk. It's simple. It includes theatrical and complete combat rules, interesting and quick character creation, and very theme appropriate and unique rules around Victorian "form". It is more storytelling theatrics and 0 tactical but it still has a minimum amount of crunch that I enjoy. I also enjoy the rule that you line up against your foes and take on one a time. Tactically this makes little sense but it is SO much more theatrical! Perfect for the type of game this is. Makes me want to go around saying "Jolly Good!" and "Good show, dear chap!" After reading through it, I certainly want to try it out!

This book does NOT include a much world background though. It supposes using revisionist earth which can be a sandbox and gives you a sample starting scenario but a little advice on working this out would have been great.

If this works out successfully in a real session, I'll be back to give my review 5 stars and an update.

This is the third iteration of Simon Burley's "Code of" RPG System, and it is even more refined than the previous two. What you have here is a very open, flexible system with just enough structure to get a group of people playing quickly, but with enough depth to it to provide plenty of interest for more than just a handful of pick up sessions. The steampunk genre is a great fit for this system, and I hope to see more iterations of this system to come.

I'm a fan of rules light gaming, but this is barely a game at all. Every character has three powers/facets of a power, no more, no less. One attack, one defense, one "other" power for use for everything else. Want some variety? A more/less powerful hero? Sorry, three for everyone. Rudimentary system at best. At a buck I would feel ripped off, but seven dollars is a crime for this half baked "game". I've been playing RPGs for three decades and I have never been this disappointed in a product.

As stated in other reviews it is very easy to learn and use. I understood the rules 5 minutes after reading and have since ran many episodes without even my pdf being anywhere near me. I used a dice app and presto instant super hero game that runs quick and allows the players to use their imagination without being dragged down by rules. I refuse to give perfect scores or I would have just for the simplicity of playing and game mastering.

A decent game for beginners or for something very light.

The illustrations, example characters, example scenarios and included "episode" are suitably retro and complement the action hero characters the character creation can spit out. Gives a feeling of being a flash Gordon or boba fett type. Its flexible (but inevitably rather nonspecific and shallow) mechanics can slot in to almost any space faring universe.

The rules seem to accomplish what it set out to do. A beginner friendly retro sci-fi romp. Nothing revolutionary but a bit of light fun.

The subplot system makes each game unique for players but puts a lot of stress on the GM to introduce new elements to scenes on the fly. It can be an interesting challenge but the book doesn't go into enough detail on how to effectively work with it. It gives you this interesting tool then pushes you out into the wilderness to implement it on your own.

In terms of writing the book seems rushed. There's some confusing explanations with an annoying number of typos and spelling mistakes with one or two that make important points difficult to understand.

On the whole the quality of the game relies heavily on the skill of the GM. If they can juggle everybody's subplots and make the world seem believable then it's fun, but lacklustre descriptions and overall bland set of rules mean that its flexible but in the same way that a piece of cardboard is flexible. It doesn't do nearly enough on its own to justify interest in it over other systems but it's alright. It's not bad by any means but it can't really be said to be outstanding either.

Since the other existing review for this product does such a good job of giving a thorough overview of the system, I will forego writing what would amount to a paraphrased version of the same.

I will say that I am a supers RPG junkie. I have pretty much all of them, and no time to play even one these days. Still, I like to buy them, read them, and check out the new twists and turns in their different approaches to a more or less common design goal.

"The Comics Code" has one of the more original approaches to that goal that I have yet to stumble across.

In short, you are "limited" to choosing three powers for your hero in this game, and, furthermore, you may only use each of those powers in a specific situation (unless you want to incur a pretty significant in-game penalty for doing otherwise). So, in this way, this is a game that seems to walk away from the usually understood contract between a player and a supers RPG: "You can create any character you want to play from the comics!"

I don't ultimately see this as a bad thing, just different, and in ways, more creatively challenging. Making "Captain America" into a character in this game might be a bit difficult, for example: if Cap's shield is his "Defence" power, then he can't use it to attack, even though he does that all the time in the comics. However, if you make Cap's shield into his "Attack" power as well as his "Defence" power, then are you saying that Cap can't punch out a bad guy without his shield?

The answer, I feel, is that: this game is not about you pretending to be Captain America. It's about creating a hero under this very specific set of easy-to-learn, quick-to-play rules, and ending up with some more limited (perhaps) characters that are not merely transparent clones of all the usual favorites (Hey, it's my version of Batman/Superman/Wolverine, etc!).

As for me, I think this game would work really well as a framework for playing some of the more light-hearted superhero-related antics, like "The Tick."

If you're into supers RPGs, but want something with a more specific focus than the usual "kitchen-sink-every-superhero-comic-ever-all-at-once" approach, this should be added to your shopping cart right now.

Note: I ordered the PDF and the Softcover. The Softcover is holding up pretty well so far, and I've read the rules about 4 times now.

OK, there are superhero games all over the place - so why bother with yet another one?

One reason is that this is a rules-light game that lets you focus on the fun part of being a superhero. This lets it capture the FEEL of the genre without needing dense mechanics to ensure that it works correctly in true four-coloured style. But the real joy of it is that it - like the very best comic books - steps back from the nuts and bolts of operating your superpowers and lets you concentrate on the man or woman inside the fancy spandex getup, explore the way they interact with the world, with fellow superheroes and the villains they come into conflict with, and lets you pose the big moral questions: what should a superpowered being do with all that power and how do they fit into the regular world?

If you happen to be a superhero, you see, there are only two ways out: die (heroically, of course) or become a villain. You might not intend to be a bad lot, you might even not be a bad lot... but how does the public view you and your actions?

The Comics Code is designed to handle these kind of questions with as much ease as it handles an out-and-out super-powered brawl.

After the Introduction, which explains all this, we move on to Chapter 1: Birth of a Hero. This explains the relatively simple process of creating your character. The basic character sheet is well designed to support this. In essence, you need three superpowers - or three facets of the same power - which are used to attack, to defend and, well, for whatever else you might need to do with a superpower. Maybe you fly or have x-ray vision or some capability that's useful for solving crimes or getting cats out of trees... there are suggestions if you are struggling, but let your imagination go wild. The whole process of character creation is illustrated with logical examples.

There are some neat features like the 'special effect' - an off-the-wall, whacky or plain spectacular thing you can do if you roll a double on 2d6 when using a superpower - or the way in which power strengths are calculated. You've got three powers, right. Take the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Assign two of these numbers to each power, then multiply them. A vast range, great flexibility, and not too taxing for the arithmetically-challenged.

That's about the limit of the rules, most of the rest is done by thinking about how you want the character to operate and distilling that down to a few phrases.

Chapter 2: Playing the Game then shows you what you can do with the newly-minted superhero. Some of this is pretty basic and serves well to introduce newcomers into role-playing. Superhero games are a good way of doing this, after all - everyone has heard of them, even if they are not so much in to fantasy or science-fiction. There's a neat sub-plot concept which gives individual characters goals or things that need sorting out to go alongside the main storyline.

The core game mechanics are simple too. A single die roll against characteristics handles most task resolution with two dice being rolled when superpowers come into action.

Because the concepts of status and heroism are written into the rules, as well as the sub-plot concept, it can become a little mechanical but if handled with care these mechanical bits ought not to impede role-playing but enhance it by giving it a framework to hang upon.

There's some advice for GMs and a section on running battles as well, with plenty of examples and ideas for using minions, ganging up on people, desperate actions and so on... and the all-important rule that participants must describe actions and effects rather than merely roll dice! There's even a rule for cheating. Wait? That cannot be right... but it is. If a character is in a desperate state he can either flee combat or cheat. Cheating means he automatically wins, but it does of course have consequences. And you have to describe a plausible way in which you fled or cheated, of course.

Finally, there's a simple sample adventure with which to try this all out. Oh yes, and some other additonal rules and ideas that you can use if you want, but which are not necessary to make the game work. The adventure is well laid out and shows how to incorporate the way in which this game functions mechanically into whatever plotline you have in mind.

Overall, this is an excellent rules-light fun-heavy superhero game built for enjoyment over realism. Zap! Biff! Pow!