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Sentinel Comics The Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
- GenresGamingRole Playing Games
438 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 8, 2021
This is perhaps the superhero roleplaying game that best replicates the feeling of reading a comic book. Rather than squeezing a superhero theme into an already existing game system, this system was created from the ground up to give players a superhero narrative experience. The character creation system is streamlined in order to make it easier for players to create characters.
The game itself is conceptualize in terms of panels, issues, and collections. A a player's turn is a panel. A session is an issue. A story arc is a collection. That makes it a lot easier for the GM to plan stories for this genre.
There is a strong emphasis on GM and player collaboration. To give an example, one aspect of the game is twists. When players try to overcome obstacles but don't roll high enough, there is an option to succeed if the player accepts a twist. The twist in created by the GM and the player. If the player doesn't want to take a twist, then they can opt to fail the overcome action. Another example is that GMs cannot kill player characters. When a character hits zero hit points, the player decides how their character was taken out of action. To give a few examples, a character might get knocked out, tied up, locked in a closet, have to go back to headquarters to charge a ring, and so on. A player also has the option to kill their character if they feel it suits the story (or if they just want to make a new character). I'm always a fan of game systems that make the storytelling experience more democratic.
The art in this is really beautiful, too. The world is based on Sentinel Comics, which is an IP based on a popular card game. The creators of this world did a good job of using character archetypes, so you can recognize your favorite DC and Marvel characters in this world, and sometimes they are mixed. For fans of comics, it can be a lot of fun to figure out the inspiration for each character. Also, since this is not set in either the DC or Marvel universe, players won't be burdened with fitting their characters into an already existing world.
Overall, this is probably one of the best RPG books I've bought in a long while. I hope that more people get a chance to try out this system.
The game itself is conceptualize in terms of panels, issues, and collections. A a player's turn is a panel. A session is an issue. A story arc is a collection. That makes it a lot easier for the GM to plan stories for this genre.
There is a strong emphasis on GM and player collaboration. To give an example, one aspect of the game is twists. When players try to overcome obstacles but don't roll high enough, there is an option to succeed if the player accepts a twist. The twist in created by the GM and the player. If the player doesn't want to take a twist, then they can opt to fail the overcome action. Another example is that GMs cannot kill player characters. When a character hits zero hit points, the player decides how their character was taken out of action. To give a few examples, a character might get knocked out, tied up, locked in a closet, have to go back to headquarters to charge a ring, and so on. A player also has the option to kill their character if they feel it suits the story (or if they just want to make a new character). I'm always a fan of game systems that make the storytelling experience more democratic.
The art in this is really beautiful, too. The world is based on Sentinel Comics, which is an IP based on a popular card game. The creators of this world did a good job of using character archetypes, so you can recognize your favorite DC and Marvel characters in this world, and sometimes they are mixed. For fans of comics, it can be a lot of fun to figure out the inspiration for each character. Also, since this is not set in either the DC or Marvel universe, players won't be burdened with fitting their characters into an already existing world.
Overall, this is probably one of the best RPG books I've bought in a long while. I hope that more people get a chance to try out this system.
May 16, 2021
New superhero RPG. I like that this works on a quite abstract level rather than the simulation its approach of older games in this genre. Does recall Hero/Champions in one way - you rename abilities to match whatever power you assign to them, as in that older game you bought the effect of powers and defined them however you wanted.
Manages character creation either through a set of dice rolls with flexibility and choice at each point or by selection to create a specific concept.
Has a nice mechanic where as things get more serious or heroes are weakened they unlock stronger abilities. And features “twists” where players may succeed but at a cost.
Uses comic panels of players at the table to illustrate rules, which is nice. Generally a good read, and has inspired me to want to run this.
Manages character creation either through a set of dice rolls with flexibility and choice at each point or by selection to create a specific concept.
Has a nice mechanic where as things get more serious or heroes are weakened they unlock stronger abilities. And features “twists” where players may succeed but at a cost.
Uses comic panels of players at the table to illustrate rules, which is nice. Generally a good read, and has inspired me to want to run this.
November 7, 2025
I used to collect every superhero roleplaying game in print. My reading list will pretty easily indicate why. I like superheroes. I LOVE comic book roleplaying. It’s the most fun kind of roleplaying there is! Soap Opera plus Violence! What’s not to like?
I’ve stopped collecting them since any idiot with a word processor can publish his masterpiece and honestly there are very few new and good ideas. But I still pick them up occasionally if they are interesting and/or cheap.
This one was both.
I do have the board game this is based on but I have never played it.
The “Intro” has nothing particular new or interesting but I do like that it specifically acknowledges the Silver Age as a theme.
I also like that it ‘speaks the unwritten part’ which is that players are allowed to come up with details of their environment. I’ve always played this way and can’t imagine an RPG that is not played this way, but I have discovered that this is an alien concept to a lot of players and GMs.
”Playing the Game” gives an overview of the rules. I’ve always like “Game Moderator” as a attribution for GM. I am also a fan of the 2 to 4 hour session. In the olden days it was in fact common to play for 6 to 8 hours. It was just as dumb then as it is now.
It’s also extremely clever to treat Scenes as either Action, Social or Montage!
The overview of the character sheet is traditional in some ways but interesting in not only are there two basic “principles” the hero lives by but Major and Minor Twists to those principles. I’ll see what this means later.
You are also keeping track of your ‘back issues’ (sessions) and ‘collections' (six sessions).
Much like FATE games player characters cannot die unless they decide to. Being taking ‘out’ means whatever the player decides it means. So, there are only rewards for stupidity.
This game is starting to feel much more like a board game than an RPG.
So most things in the game seem to be picking dice and their sizes and rearranging them. That’s why all dice pool systems are ultimately roll-playing. The dice are the focus on everything. Story goes out the crapper.
I’m starting to see this game as FATE-like in that there are roughly six moves: Attack, Boost, Hinder, Overcome, Defend and Recover and you can describe them any way you want, but it’s all really a die roll.
More FATE-like crap is in the Collections feature. You can call upon a previous adventure - in your ‘comic collection’ of adventures - to give you the ability to change a number on a dice, establish a fact about a scene or ‘invoke’ a collection instead of taking a minor twist. Now this is essentially a freebie as it states the GM should not be too rigorous in applying it.
It is absolutely storytelling game stuff as it is NOTHING that is EVER done in any comic book anyone has ever read or written. It’s pure “cuteness” that breaks immersion and “winks” at the audience. And of course, is completely broken if not every hero has the same amount of previous adventures.
Montage scenes are the same type of stuff. Players get to ‘narrate’ what happens in their montage scene giving them automatic healing or a bonus that can be applied next scene. The example gives one character the ability to heal another’s wounds with TELEPATHY!
This isn’t a game about being a superhero - it’s a game about reading a comic book!
It’s nice to see a page devoted to Social Scenes. Sad that the only thing you can do in them is gain a Hero Point for having one.
The Example of Play is four pages long. A fight between four heroes and a swarm of robots. And it’s all mechanics. Sure, that’s what an example is supposed to be, but this is nuts.
”Creating Heroes” is the character creation methods. It gives both a random and non-random method of building characters.
As far as balance goes, it basically says “Sucks bein’ you.” If you get lower dice than others through either method. That’s a pretty lousy way of approaching game balance.
”Guided Method: Step by Step”
I do like the idea of rolling or picking a Background which determines what types of Principles you have. That’s something that I could see being useful in any superhero game.
The Power Source table and restrictions is a little iffier. But the idea is pretty sound.
Archetypes are even weaker. If I bothered to look I could easily find too many characters published in comic that don’t fit these easily. This is an RPG artifact (ie, classes) rather than a storytelling idea.
Personality is another one that I’m not sure works at all.
“Red Abilities” I’m guessing are something like the Human Torch’s ‘Nova Blast’. Something that rarely comes up and is very consuming to do. But that’s just a guess. It hasn’t really been explained very well up to this point.
Retcon is a little janky. You get to change something you’ve rolled. The example they give is to simply rename an ability. Uh. Okay. Thanks for permission!?!
On the one hand, they very much have decided the type of superheroes they want in the game. I’ve got no problem with that and it avoids the problem of the guy who wants to make the Disintegrating Death Touch Loner superhero.
On the other hand, mechanically it’s all just shoving dice around and changing their sizes. Something that has NEVER worked in any RPG, but so-called ‘game designers’ keep trying it again.
The Power Sources however, is just plain nutso complicated and it looks like it gives you a choice of basically two yellow power stunts and one green power stunt. I’m not sure about them. The read like they match the Power Source, but the actual game text just reads like shuffling dice.
Reading these powers is agony because it’s obvious that some thought went into defining the categories and powers to reflect the appropriate background.
Then I read the description of the powers. For example 'Twist Reality'. After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool. So my ability to ‘twist reality’ comes down to a reroll? Have you ever READ A COMIC BOOK!?!?
Archetypes is based on the completely idiotic idea that superheroes are or should be created based on ‘types’. This was first seen in the Champions RPG and was just as stupid then. That’s not how comic book characters are created and doesn’t do an RPG any good at all. Think about it. Pick a superhero, then pick an Archetype. Then pick the four or five other archetypes it fits into. Even a Speeder is also a Shadow, Close Quarters Combat, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator, Transporter, and Wild Card.
In this game it is used EXACTLY the same way that Background is used, making it redundant and giving a bunch of little powers to a hero. Except all the powers work out to manipulating dice.
”Personality” follows the same pattern. Choose or roll a personality trait. Say ‘Jaded’. Make up a quality based on your hero’s backstory. Assign d8 to it. Out-Ability: Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice. Choose two Red abilities from the list in the next session. With minor variations they are all pretty much exactly the same. Just dice shuffling.
”Red Powers” are again, a descriptive word, but a dice shuffling. For example: “Critical Eye: Select a target. Boost using [quality]. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. That bonus must be used against that target before the end of your next turn or it is wasted.” Gee, what comic book did they get that from? I’ve read a LOT super power RPGs (my collection is listed online!). This is the worst description of powers I’ve ever read.
”Step 6 Retcon” is another way to move your dice around or take a power from another category or just take another Red Shift power.
”Health” is a way to manage your Green/Yellow/Red status with hit points.
“Powers, Explained“ has a terrific list of Silver Age powers that would work really well in an RPG if they were only fleshed out a little. Unfortunately in this game they are not.
“Hero Advancement“ says that every six scenarios played you can switch powers, qualities, principles and abilities as long as they are the same die size. Just. Like. In. Comics.
Or simply just major rewrite them. I just can’t imagine what the games of these authors would be like. It sure stinks of Storytime rather than Role-playing.
”Moderating the Game” talks about using the Scene Tracker to go from green to red. It also details how the villains, minions and bystanders are treated (one dice and a description).
Talking about Villains they seem to always have access to ALL of their abilities!! Why can’t heroes do that? That’s the way it is in comic books!
”What Villains Do” really gives away the game.
”Villains can do any of the basic actions: Attack, Defend, Boost, Hinder and Overcome.”
So this game is really just a “FATE” game disguised as super-hero game. In other words, you can do ”anything” as long as you can convince the GM it’s one of those five things. And of course, the GM doesn’t have to convince anyone.
This may work for some groups. I can’t imagine who. But it’s not how comic books work - at least not good ones.
And unfortunately as beautiful as this book is - and it is pretty. I just see no more worth in reading it.
It seems way over-complicated, way too fuzzy-wuzzy and hand-wavy to have a fun game. As soon as one player figures out it doesn’t matter what powers you have, every power can do ANYTHING cause there are only really 5 ‘moves’ then every player will figure that out and all the drama and entertainment value will go out the window.
I’m going to shelf this as another thing I bought and never played. DNF.
2 stars because it’s very pretty.
I’ve stopped collecting them since any idiot with a word processor can publish his masterpiece and honestly there are very few new and good ideas. But I still pick them up occasionally if they are interesting and/or cheap.
This one was both.
I do have the board game this is based on but I have never played it.
The “Intro” has nothing particular new or interesting but I do like that it specifically acknowledges the Silver Age as a theme.
I also like that it ‘speaks the unwritten part’ which is that players are allowed to come up with details of their environment. I’ve always played this way and can’t imagine an RPG that is not played this way, but I have discovered that this is an alien concept to a lot of players and GMs.
”Playing the Game” gives an overview of the rules. I’ve always like “Game Moderator” as a attribution for GM. I am also a fan of the 2 to 4 hour session. In the olden days it was in fact common to play for 6 to 8 hours. It was just as dumb then as it is now.
It’s also extremely clever to treat Scenes as either Action, Social or Montage!
The overview of the character sheet is traditional in some ways but interesting in not only are there two basic “principles” the hero lives by but Major and Minor Twists to those principles. I’ll see what this means later.
You are also keeping track of your ‘back issues’ (sessions) and ‘collections' (six sessions).
Much like FATE games player characters cannot die unless they decide to. Being taking ‘out’ means whatever the player decides it means. So, there are only rewards for stupidity.
This game is starting to feel much more like a board game than an RPG.
So most things in the game seem to be picking dice and their sizes and rearranging them. That’s why all dice pool systems are ultimately roll-playing. The dice are the focus on everything. Story goes out the crapper.
I’m starting to see this game as FATE-like in that there are roughly six moves: Attack, Boost, Hinder, Overcome, Defend and Recover and you can describe them any way you want, but it’s all really a die roll.
More FATE-like crap is in the Collections feature. You can call upon a previous adventure - in your ‘comic collection’ of adventures - to give you the ability to change a number on a dice, establish a fact about a scene or ‘invoke’ a collection instead of taking a minor twist. Now this is essentially a freebie as it states the GM should not be too rigorous in applying it.
It is absolutely storytelling game stuff as it is NOTHING that is EVER done in any comic book anyone has ever read or written. It’s pure “cuteness” that breaks immersion and “winks” at the audience. And of course, is completely broken if not every hero has the same amount of previous adventures.
Montage scenes are the same type of stuff. Players get to ‘narrate’ what happens in their montage scene giving them automatic healing or a bonus that can be applied next scene. The example gives one character the ability to heal another’s wounds with TELEPATHY!
This isn’t a game about being a superhero - it’s a game about reading a comic book!
It’s nice to see a page devoted to Social Scenes. Sad that the only thing you can do in them is gain a Hero Point for having one.
The Example of Play is four pages long. A fight between four heroes and a swarm of robots. And it’s all mechanics. Sure, that’s what an example is supposed to be, but this is nuts.
”Creating Heroes” is the character creation methods. It gives both a random and non-random method of building characters.
As far as balance goes, it basically says “Sucks bein’ you.” If you get lower dice than others through either method. That’s a pretty lousy way of approaching game balance.
”Guided Method: Step by Step”
I do like the idea of rolling or picking a Background which determines what types of Principles you have. That’s something that I could see being useful in any superhero game.
The Power Source table and restrictions is a little iffier. But the idea is pretty sound.
Archetypes are even weaker. If I bothered to look I could easily find too many characters published in comic that don’t fit these easily. This is an RPG artifact (ie, classes) rather than a storytelling idea.
Personality is another one that I’m not sure works at all.
“Red Abilities” I’m guessing are something like the Human Torch’s ‘Nova Blast’. Something that rarely comes up and is very consuming to do. But that’s just a guess. It hasn’t really been explained very well up to this point.
Retcon is a little janky. You get to change something you’ve rolled. The example they give is to simply rename an ability. Uh. Okay. Thanks for permission!?!
On the one hand, they very much have decided the type of superheroes they want in the game. I’ve got no problem with that and it avoids the problem of the guy who wants to make the Disintegrating Death Touch Loner superhero.
On the other hand, mechanically it’s all just shoving dice around and changing their sizes. Something that has NEVER worked in any RPG, but so-called ‘game designers’ keep trying it again.
The Power Sources however, is just plain nutso complicated and it looks like it gives you a choice of basically two yellow power stunts and one green power stunt. I’m not sure about them. The read like they match the Power Source, but the actual game text just reads like shuffling dice.
Reading these powers is agony because it’s obvious that some thought went into defining the categories and powers to reflect the appropriate background.
Then I read the description of the powers. For example 'Twist Reality'. After rolling during your turn, you may take 1 irreducible damage to reroll your entire dice pool. So my ability to ‘twist reality’ comes down to a reroll? Have you ever READ A COMIC BOOK!?!?
Archetypes is based on the completely idiotic idea that superheroes are or should be created based on ‘types’. This was first seen in the Champions RPG and was just as stupid then. That’s not how comic book characters are created and doesn’t do an RPG any good at all. Think about it. Pick a superhero, then pick an Archetype. Then pick the four or five other archetypes it fits into. Even a Speeder is also a Shadow, Close Quarters Combat, Flyer, Elemental Manipulator, Transporter, and Wild Card.
In this game it is used EXACTLY the same way that Background is used, making it redundant and giving a bunch of little powers to a hero. Except all the powers work out to manipulating dice.
”Personality” follows the same pattern. Choose or roll a personality trait. Say ‘Jaded’. Make up a quality based on your hero’s backstory. Assign d8 to it. Out-Ability: Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice. Choose two Red abilities from the list in the next session. With minor variations they are all pretty much exactly the same. Just dice shuffling.
”Red Powers” are again, a descriptive word, but a dice shuffling. For example: “Critical Eye: Select a target. Boost using [quality]. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. That bonus must be used against that target before the end of your next turn or it is wasted.” Gee, what comic book did they get that from? I’ve read a LOT super power RPGs (my collection is listed online!). This is the worst description of powers I’ve ever read.
”Step 6 Retcon” is another way to move your dice around or take a power from another category or just take another Red Shift power.
”Health” is a way to manage your Green/Yellow/Red status with hit points.
“Powers, Explained“ has a terrific list of Silver Age powers that would work really well in an RPG if they were only fleshed out a little. Unfortunately in this game they are not.
“Hero Advancement“ says that every six scenarios played you can switch powers, qualities, principles and abilities as long as they are the same die size. Just. Like. In. Comics.
Or simply just major rewrite them. I just can’t imagine what the games of these authors would be like. It sure stinks of Storytime rather than Role-playing.
”Moderating the Game” talks about using the Scene Tracker to go from green to red. It also details how the villains, minions and bystanders are treated (one dice and a description).
Talking about Villains they seem to always have access to ALL of their abilities!! Why can’t heroes do that? That’s the way it is in comic books!
”What Villains Do” really gives away the game.
”Villains can do any of the basic actions: Attack, Defend, Boost, Hinder and Overcome.”
So this game is really just a “FATE” game disguised as super-hero game. In other words, you can do ”anything” as long as you can convince the GM it’s one of those five things. And of course, the GM doesn’t have to convince anyone.
This may work for some groups. I can’t imagine who. But it’s not how comic books work - at least not good ones.
And unfortunately as beautiful as this book is - and it is pretty. I just see no more worth in reading it.
It seems way over-complicated, way too fuzzy-wuzzy and hand-wavy to have a fun game. As soon as one player figures out it doesn’t matter what powers you have, every power can do ANYTHING cause there are only really 5 ‘moves’ then every player will figure that out and all the drama and entertainment value will go out the window.
I’m going to shelf this as another thing I bought and never played. DNF.
2 stars because it’s very pretty.
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