EMPOWER

(Cover art by Alex Reeder, @alexreederart)

Empower: With great power comes great creativity... Empower: More than meets the eye-laser… You know what, maybe this one doesn’t need a subtitle.

EMPOWER is a system-agnostic and genre-agnostic framework for players and GMs alike to encourage a more creative, outside-the-box approach to using superpowers. That was an unnecessarily long sentence. Let’s break it up!

EMPOWER is system-agnostic. While it’s not a full game in itself, it is designed to be used with pretty much any other tabletop roleplaying game you have on hand. That doesn’t mean it is completely without its own mechanics though – in this module you’ll find a set of standalone rules to make this new approach to superpowers work. 

These rules are designed to work “in a vacuum” (I’m sure there’s a Superman reference in here somewhere), and don’t rely on a larger system framework. That said, you will find the few spots where the EMPOWER system does interact with the base game highlighted throughout the module. 

EMPOWER is also genre-agnostic. Yes, it was originally designed specifically with superpowers in mind, but honestly, that’s really just a thin coat of paint you can easily scrub off. This system should work just as well as a fantasy magic system, a way to introduce some rad martial arts, or heck, try using it in a sports-themed game and let me know how that goes!

When to EMPOWER your game

So what does EMPOWER do exactly? It allows you to flesh out your TTRPG character’s superpower(s) so that they become more than just modes of attack or one-off moves. With this module, you give your players the chance to think creatively about how they want to utilize their superhuman abilities. EMPOWER can either add to the way your base game handles superpowers, or replace the existing system – I’ll leave that choice up to you! 

Note: EMPOWER does not include any rules to generate superpowers from scratch. You’ll either have to come up with a power yourself, use another game (if it has those rules), or use an external tool to generate a power. I believe in you though, we’ve all seen enough anime and read enough comics, right?