The release of the official Power Rangers Roleplaying Game is imminent and those who pre-ordered now have access to the PDF version. My curiosity got the better of me, so here is a closer look at the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game.
Disclaimer:
Normally I make my game introductions with the finished works, no matter if print or PDF, here it is still a preview. Since the books have already been printed, it is unlikely that the text will change, but the quality of the illustrations, etc. (e.g. due to compression) in the finished product may differ from what I have described here.
The world:
The Power Rangers Roleplaying Game focuses on the beginnings of Power Rangers. In addition to a brief outline of how Rita Repulsa and Zordon landed on earth and the moon, respectively, you get descriptions of various places in Angels Grove, the small town where the first seasons of Power Rangers took place. You get information about items, vehicles and zords from the first six seasons (which, after all, had an ongoing story). For enemies, you get the monsters from the first two seasons (as far as I can judge correctly). All descriptions are kept short, so that you have to research for more information yourself. During my research, I found that the official Power Rangers YouTube channel allows you to watch the older seasons. In the book, there are repeated references to later publications with more content.
The game:
The Power Rangers Roleplaying Game was supposed to use 5e. Then it was decided that an original system would offer more, which is called the Essence20 Roleplaying Game System. I’ll go into more detail on that later.
Characters have four essences (attributes), namely Strength, Speed, Smarts and Social. Five to six skills are assigned to each essence. These skills get a dice value from d2 to d12. In a test, you roll a d20 and the matching die for the skill and you have to beat the difficulty value with it. If you have a specialization for a skill, then you roll not only the skill die but also the levels below it, i.e. with a skill of d8 also a d6, d4 and d2 and take the best result of the skill dice and add them to the d20. Various rules and factors can give you an edge (advantage), then you can roll two d20 and take the better result, the whole thing is of course also available for bad starting positions, then it’s called the snag (disadvantage) and you have to take the worse result. If a character has no value in a skill, then he always rolls with snag. Nevertheless, there are more influences (perks, rules, etc.) on a dice roll, namely the dice shift. There is a table for this and positive factors increase and negative factors decrease the skill die (say a d6 to d8 or d2 to just the base d20). This can mean that you could get an automatically success or maybe are only allowed to roll the basic die d20.
When creating a character, you first choose an origin; these are characteristics of the character, such as athletic, comedic, rebellious or cynical. The Origin gives you your starting life points, your base movement range, languages and a benefit (some sort of talent). You also have the choice to increase an essence; based on the increased essence you get a few skills.
Then comes the role, i.e. the colour of your own Power Ranger. The colour gives you per level (it goes up to level 20) perks (talents/feats), a power capacity (power is used for certain perks) and shows you when you can increase your essences. For each colour it is precisely defined which essence is increased at which level. At certain levels, you can then choose further perks and thus further individualize yourself. There are also Grid Powers that you can unlock throughout the game, such as better versions of power weapons or suit upgrades. In addition to the six “standard” rangers (black, blue, green, pink, red and yellow), there is also the extended spectrum, but in the corebook you only get the white ranger. Other rangers like gold, silver, phantom and such will follow in subsequent publications.
You then have the choice of which influences the character has. Here you can choose whether you are an artist, caregiver or nomad or maybe come from the countryside. You always get a perk here. If you choose several influences, then there are hang-ups, i.e. disadvantages, which on the one hand serve as an aid for the role-play, but also present the character with problematic decisions in the course of the story.
The Power Rangers are provided with a whole range of equipment and they can request other objects, including prototypes, upgrades and the like, which requires a dice roll. The more unusual the request, the more difficult the test. Each player determines the financial situation of his character. If he wants to buy something as a civilian, this is also determined by a dice roll, the wealthier he is, the more bonus he gets. However, there are no lists of prices or difficulties for everyday objects in the ruleset.
In combat, everything starts with initiative, which is a skill in Power Rangers (and accordingly all the rules I described earlier apply here). The higher my own speed essence is, the more I can do. With Speed 1, for example, I can only move or perform an action, with Speed 3+ I can move, perform an action and get two additional free actions. What I really like is that a defense is derived from every essence. To do this, 10 is added to the respective essence. Therefore, you can try to simply get through an attack (Toughness based on Strength) or dodge it (Evasion based on Speed). Weapon effects determine what type of damage they deal or what effect they have. If the result of a test doubles the enemies defense value, the damage or effect doubles, the same principle applies to any multiple.
In Power Rangers, the fights against monsters always escalate and then the zords come into play. These can fight individually or combined. You can create your own zords using the rules, or you can use the example zords. The corebook has pretty much have all the zords from the first six seasons in it. The fight with the Zords works according to the same principle as the normal fights.
Most will have noticed that a great amount of elements I have described here sound incredibly like 5e. In my descriptions, I have also partially written the corresponding designations of the 5e. As I read the book, I kept asking myself why it had to be its own system. Many principles are the same or only slightly changed. Anyone who knows the 5e will also find their way around in the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game. A few things are different, yes. But on the whole they just could have used 5e.
Another thing that really bothered me while reading was the arrangement of the chapters and where certain information can be found. I know that this is a matter of opinion, but the rules should have been explained right at the beginning, because now you have to keep flipping back and forth. In addition, some explanations are not very precise, packed in subordinate clauses or not where you need them. I think that’s a bit of a shame. I was also surprised how heavily regulated things are, especially in combat. If you suddenly get exact measurements how much area of the object you destroy with your attack or how much mass you can lift per skill value in Brawn, then I don’t think of Power Rangers. We will see in our game test how fast combat is.
The book:
The Power Rangers Roleplaying Game has 262 pages, is in English and full colour. I have to say that I really love the cover and it made me indulge my curiosity. Inside, the illustrations look a lot different than I would have expected. Most of the illustrations look like comics from the 90s, other artworks seem a bit pixelated to me. I hope that this is only due to the preview version (see disclaimer above). If that’s not the case, then I have to say that I would be very disappointed, especially given the very high price. The PDF costs individually (the PDF is included with the purchase of the print version, but there is no delivery option to Europe right now) just under $40 and at that price the book has to live up to higher expectations. I also think it’s a shame that you get values for all Zords, but not all of them are shown with a picture. Same goes for the monsters, here you have a few enemies from the first two seasons and that’s it. Rita and the Emperor are not mentioned at all, except in the introduction. At the end of the book, you get a little introductory adventure.
Who might be interested in the Power Rangers RPG:
- Players and game masters who are fans of the first Power Rangers seasons
- People who like modifiers and how they affect rolls
- Players who want to protect the earth in the role of the Power Rangers
Who might not be interested in the Power Rangers RPG:
- Players and game masters who want the complete Power Rangers package
- People who expect a lot of background material
- Gamers who expect cinematic combat
