Survivors of The Snap
A downloadable game
It's Time to Make Your Mark.
Survivors of the Snap is a tabletop role playing & story building game for 2-6 players.
Inspired by the events that follow Avengers Infinity War, it is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but may be freely adapted to any other earth-adjacent world of super abilities and astounding cosmic forces.
1 Game Master (The GM) will lead 1-5 Players on a series of missions to recover the world from it's bleakest period, where a sudden "Snap" wiped out half of all life in the universe.
Players will create their own heroes and find themselves at The Fort, a base for indie supers who need work, shelter, and community. Reporting to Ciggy & Roach, they will partake in jobs throughout the city, rising in rank as time passes them by and combative threats increase.
This system was primarily designed for the role playing podcast 20 Sided Stories, so it is light on the hand-holding and intended for groups mostly interested in Role-Playing and improv. But everything you need to get started, from maps, to world lore, to rules are inside this trusty 20 Page PDF, with a separately printable Character Sheet.
You Survived The Snap for a reason. The City needs you.
Now, go.
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I absolutely LOVED/LOVE this piece of work, and plan on using it as the base for my Marvel Multiverse RPG. I wasn't THAT excited when I read the MMRPG playtest way back when, but then I remembered reading this and...the light went on! This is quite possibly the coolest concept I've read for a supes game, and I'm almost disappointed that this story would never appear in the MCU as a movie or series. HOWEVER, we DO have it available for us gamers, and it is just RIPE with grit, attitude, and most importantly: Hope. In my opinion, this setting more than any other speaks more to the question, "what IS a hero?" and provides valid reasons for new/indie supes to appear on the scene. There's an obvious need, and the character's take up the mantle to defend humanity when the world is at its worst point. just incredibly good stuff. Thank you SO MUCH for writing this, and making the creative spark in my brain just EXPLODE with ideas. :)
This is just about the best comment I could ever hope to receive. I am so happy you found such inspiration in my work. Thank you so, so much for these kind words, friend. They are cherished.
my pleasure...absolutely loved it. :) keep making dope stuff!
This game so interesting that I’m almost annoyed that the lore is so tied to the MCU. I would really like to use it to play as local heroes dealing with a comic book Crisis that effects the whole world, but it’s not as open ended as a game like Before the Endgame. Link: https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/age-of-ravens-before-the-endgame
Even the stats on the character sheet are named after the Infinity Stones, which is great if you specifically want to play in the MCU and this version of Los Angeles, but I personally want a toolkit to create my own community of survivors.
Thanks for the feedback. What's interesting, is this is exact arc I myself went on when writing and recording this (it was very specifically made for the Marvel-themed season of 20 Sided Stories). I found myself exhausted by Marvel lore, which is why I encourage in The Rundown section for any reader to adapt the rules to their own setting. Again though, I do appreciate the observation. It's good to hear our ideas need not be bound by the media that inspires them.
You’re welcome and I agree. I say all this even though am a huge fan of both the MCU and Marvel comics. I think it’s really cool that you made a game specifically about The Blip where put so much thought into the setting and NPCs.
I loved the system.. been playing RPGs for a while. Now, how do you handle the combat? Damage? I have instituted my own way, but Id like to know how you, the designer, handle it.
Great question. You're not the first to ask so perhaps I should make an amendment. Controversially, I'll often avoid tracking health in my role playing games entirely. I like to limit how much players look down at their sheet as much as possible, to make sure they connect with one another, and have a sense of performance freedom with their improv. I usually save the risk of death for later in the story.
That said, The Power Grid is intended to have a bit of a Rock-Paper-Scissors structure; Offensive < Defensive < Tactical < Offensive, and so forth. The attacking character will roll with an Offensive skill and the defending character will have to quell the attack (Combat), or withstand it (Durability). Speed replaces initiative, but you can also make a case for Intelligence with a player who can predict the fight and form a plan. Regarding health and damage, Durability is the Skill you'll want to lean into the most. You can treat this as the amount of hit points a character has, and if an opposing roll supersedes it, then consider that skill temporarily lowered. You can also combine this with Reality to measure their ability to recover, and where to roll death saves when the time is nigh. Quite a bit of time has passed since I ran the game, but there are some examples of this in action during the 20 Sided Stories finale.
Essentially, turn order and moves come from Tactical, with fights being a series of opposing Offensive vs Defensive rolls. In the case of tie rolls, defending always wins, or you can add a personal trait into the mix. At the end of the day though, I see the stats as modular building blocks that purely exist to help players with their role play. For example, I let Eric/Scry use Combat offensively from time to time; he didn't have raw strength but he knew how to deliberately dismantle enemies. Mahsa's powers specifically came from her Personal Traits, so I leaned into those much more for her.
This emotionally-driven style is not for every group, so of course if you find your way to be more satisfactory, fun, or specific, by all means, mod away!