A very detailed prison facility for a supers-themed RPG, complete with maps, security systems, staff, and much more. The Big House is presented in a system-generic format that allows easy conversion to most any ruleset, and includes several story arc examples to give GMs some inspiration for their games. There are even prison roster forms, to help the GM keep track of the supervillains incarcerated within. The format is clear and easy to read, and the art is very good.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Big House is a generic supplement by Scaldcrow Games that you can use as a superpowered prison for any supers RPG. It is 48 pages and stat-free, although it does have a system of icons to help you gauge how a given NPC should compare to your PCs experience-wise, as well as the level of threat they should pose. Similarly, important skills for each NPC are given on a 1-10 scale that you can use to judge where it would fall in your system of choice. A full map of the prison is included, with staff, security measures and so on, plus a handful of adventure seeds and a big worksheet of the cellblocks so you can track who is locked up where.

WHAT WORKS: I love the system for generically statting up NPCs and such, with a clearly defined scale that you can use to compare to your system of choice. If you're not a map-guy, and I'm not, ready made maps are even better.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: There are a lot of "see page. XXX" placeholders in the version I reviewed, and if you're fairly new to your system of choice, this is going to of limited usefulness to you, as the appropriate scaling may not be readily apparent.

CONCLUSION: Perfect for a GM that knows their system well but doesn't want to put the time in to detail every last aspect of a prison for their setting. I can't call it a must-buy because a) most existing settings already include a super prison and b) it certainly isn't the most helpful for beginning GMs, but it is still a very well-done product.

A pretty good book for running a prison set in a world of super heroes. It tells you just about everything you would need to know about a prison equipped to hold super powered criminals. The layout is nice and there is a lot of information here.

The fact that this book can be used with any system is nice, the book gives you guidelines as to the relative power of the characters and items within so you can port in the appropriate stats for what ever system you are running. Nice touch.

I was impressed with the art in the book overall. there wasn't a whole lot of it and it was mostly in black and white but it was still rather nice. the map of the prison could have been better, but that is just nit picking.