I Am The Weapon. This Is A Review.

I Am The Weapon lives rent-free in my head and it doesn't even exist (outside an RTF file). It's Demon City's sister game and the only means of getting your hands on it is slam-dunking Zak's wallet directly. In short: it's a superhero TTRPG. In shorter: AH FUCK.

(1 of 2 public pieces Zak has made for the game) 

I didn't care for capes or comics once-upon-a-time. I went on with my pretentious life, turning my nose up on gross comic-lookers with their spandex and their bimbo-babes; not wanting to waste time/money (ignore how my life revolves around elfgaming for a moment). This was all until I cracked open that $20 RTF file. 

It's got dice (sorry tarot-bros) and it's got lots of tables (LOTS OF TABLES). Its skeleton is grafted from its sister's, also being based around the focus on gameplay-as-discussion its sister emphasizes.

"Coldbro blasts Inferno-Hottie with twelve miniature frosty surfboards. Hottie isn't fighting with a full deck right now and because of the elemental situation, grab another throw, Bro." 

Throws are the dice that you lock and load when you're describing what you do in the scene, you get a minimum of 1 but some other factors can hook you up. They scale from a static 2 if your ability or skill is inept to whole d100s if your powerlevel is godlike. Additional throws act as in-the-moment rerolls. Got 3 throws? Roll 3 dice and take the highest. 

(Morrison's Doom Patrol)

It's very solid and the only trad/open superhero system that I've brought myself to run/play. Your Super is randomly generated with a gigantic list of powers with A/B choices here and there to decide between. The decision making behind these tables does a great job at avoiding a hero being a wet noodle in a fight. Skills, like in Demon City, are chosen. You're also incentivized to limit and therefore further define your character. Chargen has "Boosts" that you can gather by defining weaknesses to your powers. The more severe: the more boosts. 

"Cool; I rolled up some pretty strong cold explosion attacks but I want to Boost my Toughness some. What if I can only use my blasts if I'm clearly in moonlight?" 

"Cool take a Boost and now we can define you more with a moon motif.

"Sick! What if the strength of the power weakened under anything less than a Full Moon, completely turning off during New?" 

"Go for it! Maybe something on his costume changes to reflect this waxing and waning?"

Don't play this game if you're picky or someone who wants to argue RAW instead of discussing the reality of the game's situation, it's meant to be a constant discussion; just be cool. If you want a more objective/crunchy Supers game, they're out there.

(Byrne's Fantastic Four)

There is something player-facing that I find lacking: PC progression. What's given is your standard "be heroic, become stronger," type of jam. Not horrible but a far cry from Demon City's sexiness. It at least implies that you'll be playing a long time before gaining a power. I'm talking hundreds of sessions before you "earn" another power RAW. When was the last time Spider-Man got a new power? The present villain hack also retools the advancement for dastardly acts so that's cool. 

I don't have an immediate solution for this feeling. Perhaps I'll develop downtime advancement akin to Demon City that uses the game's power Tags; if I'm a hero with 2 powers tagged occult and 1 tagged science, I can buy 2 occult and 1 science worth of those respective downtimes. I really like how FASERIP handles Karma, maybe I'll tweak with that. 

The Host section, like with its sister game, cannot be glossed over. It's got a plethora of cool setting and NPC ideas. Best of all though is Zak's breakdown of what a Cape-game is and how to capture the essence of a comic book. The advice to "put the work in" from Demon City is here tenfold with Zak putting it plainly that why Supers don't work in RPGs is due to comic books simply being a visual medium and TTRPGs... are not. 

Basically what's put forth is: if you aren't willing to draw some shit or actively surf the internet for images to help bring your evocative descriptions to life, don't bother. This is simultaneously extremely motivating and unmotivating for me. I lacked any interest to learn how to draw or anything like that prior but have been slowly learning since reading IATW. I ran a handful of sessions without worrying about art and at some point in every session, spending too much time trying to describe a villain or monster's elaborate design. "Oh well keep it simple." I've been running RPGs far too long to do that and every cool Supers TTRPG group I've seen online has cool either group-made or commissioned art. I agree that visuals genre necessity.

(Mignola's Hellboy)

But Zak's words weren't the only thing to convince me that comics are sick, just reading the good shit did. IATW presents an excellent list of recommended reading that goes over the core of what makes Cape Comics art. From the most trad to the avant-garde with an emphasis to look for your own shit. Personally, I prefer the "Transforming/Henshin Hero" motif found a lot in Japanese media like Kamen Rider. The recommended reading here, either way, focuses on the works that have the most lessons on display from an artistic, narrative, and setting perspective for the prospective IATW Host.  

(Kamen Rider Amazons)

To top it all off, there's even the shadow of an implied setting offered wherein all of the Supers and information about them has been practically wiped from the galaxy. This is very OSR in the sense that the setting is recovering from a pseudo-apocalypse; the remnants of past deeds, monuments and would-be crypts of superheroes litter the world and the PCs can do some cool exploration while picking up the pieces. Not to mention, Demon City's Pitches make a return, of course geared toward hacking IATW to fit a certain flavor of comic book to help get those creative juices flowing faster. 

(Nihei's Blame!)

I Am The Weapon, at the end of the day, is still currently in its playtest phase. Even so, it is a unique beast that demands your attention if you're into DIY TTRPGs and/or Comics. Like Demon City, it'll equip you with a unique insight of either medium all the while giving you a vehicle to explore the unique and underplayed combination that they make. 

Buy it.