I like ascendant as lot as a system for a supers game. One problem with running any new system is getting players to make their characters; the examples this book gives of general archetypes and specific characters are both pretty usable for this, as is the brief advice on what options exist to customize a given example, or recommended tips for playing a character built like that. All the in character worldbuilding and background stuff is also cool, and useful as the setting doesn't (yet) have a massive backlog of comics to draw on.

The first thing I noticed when flipping through the book is the difference in the art from the core rulebook. The more sexual and violent art that was in some parts of the core book got dialed back here, which I think was for the best. The overall quality of art was improved as well, the inking and coloring especially is way cleaner and pops better. Very high production values here, great job by the art and design team.

The text itself is interesting and fun to read, but particularly importantly -- it's very USABLE for players and DMs. Chargen is probably the single part of Ascendant that my group found slow, and this book looks like it'll be a huge help for that. There's a chapter of hero archetypes with ready-to-play characters and easy ways to customize them.

Then there are chapters that describe the organizations and characters in the Ascendant setting (and there are some very cool characters in that roster). Each character has a classified report that can be given as a player handout, statblock, advice for the GM on how to use the more complicated characters in combat, and a story hook which can be quite detailed -- a lot of them even have very high-quality maps.

Good book if you want a fun book of lore to read through, great book if you want usable PCs/NPCs to speed up an Ascendant campaign, or even just as a collection of interesting concepts for comic heroes and villains.

Rogues Gallery is the first expansion for Ascendant, and at half the page count of the core rulebook adds a ton (10 SPs) of great new content, including over two dozen pages of new superpowers and real-world equipment to use (hoverbike anyone?) As the name suggests, the bulk of the book is given over to new characters, including nine templates for street-level characters, which is great for getting new players into the game - although Ascendant plays fast and smooth, the sheer number of options when it comes to building a character from scratch might be intimidating to new people. It's worth bearing in mind though that despite being intended for new players, all nine of these characters are solidly designed and will perform well.

Besides these starter builds, there's the six founding members each of the Russian Spetsikhotron team and the Chinese Soaring Sabres, with both of these teams intended to be able to deal with the high-level ascendants of the USA's Star-Spangled Squadron. For lower-level threats there are six members of Dark Emerald, a mercenary company that makes great use of ascendants. After that, there are 12 members of ascended terrorist organisation Exodus, ranging from the global threat that is Maximum Leader to the street-level walking bundle of chaos that is Momentum Mori - in short, a wide range of threats for your players to battle against. That's not all though - Autarch has also included nine additional ascendants of various power levels, and a dozen minor templates for everything from yetis to the final girl in all those slasher movies out there.

So besides all the new characters and kit, what else? Well first off, the clear layout and design is identical to that found in the Ascendant core rulebook, and the interior artwork is fantastic too. Everything is in full colour and full of energy. In keeping with tradition, Rogues Gallery also includes tidbits of in-universe lore in the form of news articles and leaked documents, plus full background notes for all the characters (Rootkit's being my favourite for aesthetic reasons). Whether you're playing in the official Ascendant universe or your own world of superheroes, Rogues Gallery has plenty of great material to add to your game, and I heartily recommend it for Ascendant GMs and players alike.

In short, it's another case of Autarch hitting it out of the park with Ascendant.