Evolved - Part VI (Final Thoughts)

This one will be shorter than the previous parts. 

Part I - Overview

Part II - Classes and Evolved

Part III - Doing Stuff

Part IV - Judge Material

Part V - Setting

While I've enjoyed previous comic related DCC content, Evolved: Super Heroic Time Travel Roleplaying Game is the DCC supers game I've been wanting since I posted my Rocket Raccoon stats back in 2014. Jeffrey and the Bloat Games crew really made something special with this one. 

While the 69.99 price tag may be on the higher end, I assure you that it's well worth it. If you weren't a backer you should definitely snag your copy when it becomes available to the public on 6/11/25.

I also own all four Evolved adventures and you can expect short overviews of them soon.

Gawd Almighty!

I had to share this piece by Becky Appleyard because it combines two things I love. This is a spoiler of sorts for the Baldur's Gate 3 Find the Nightsong quest.

Here's a clip of the event its referencing:

Evolved - Part V (The World of Evolved)

I really don't want to spoil things, so I won't get too specific in my discussion of the setting. In a lot of ways the setting of Evolved is much like our world. Civilizations rose and fell and mankind progressed. Things diverged when time travel was discovered in 2019. Chronal anomalies appeared in isolated places. Energy from these anomalies either killed or mutated those that came into contact with them, creating the Evolved. These anomalies allowed for travel to the dystopian future of 2051. The year 2026 and 2051 are the two eras of the game because time travel always takes individuals to 2051. That being said people and creatures from other times and alternate dimensions can be found in both times because of chronal anomalies. 

2051 is a dangerous world. The Evolved war shattered the world we know. Some familiar countries still exist, but many other smaller nations have been formed from the remnants. For example, while the United States of America still exists, it's only made up of the stats in south and some of the Midwest. Many states formed new nations that were either Evolved or human supremist. While the focus is on the U.S.A., other parts of the world are given some mention.

If you want to to know how the dark future happens, there's a nice timeline of events presented.

As I mentioned in my overview, Evolved channels and is a great tribute to the time traveling X-Men stories of the 80's and 90's. There are some definite serial numbers filed off Marvel content in this book. Here is some of it:

Metahumans not fully trusted by normal people ✅

Human supremacist organizations ✅

Metahuman supremacist organizations✅

Dark future caused by conflict between them ✅

Underground dwelling metahumans shunned by society ✅

Giant metahuman hunting robots (with different models) ✅

Militant alien empire with sites set on Earth ✅

Shapeshifting aliens that war with above empire ✅

Large headed aliens that like to watch ✅

Heroes in Evolved are essentially the X-Men (or one of their related teams), fighting for acceptance of their people and a better world. Of course, you can go the other route and have a group that is more akin to the Brotherhood of Mutants. Character will work in both times for a better world, or at least one where their side is the victor.

Evolved - Part IV (Judge Material)

In Evolved (and all other Crawl Classics games) the gamemaster is referred to as the judge. 

While it's not used throughout the beginning of the Judge section directly addresses the reader in a fun way. The villainous authors address us, their "duly subservient henchmen," the judges. We're given a multitude of excellent advice in various sidebars. The key points I like are let the dice do what they will and "let the rules bend to you, not the other way around." Many gm's (myself included) coddle players and will roll in secret. Make the stakes bigger by doing everything in the open. And don't just give abilities and such, let the players quest for them. It's so much fulfilling to earn something by doing, instead of just gaining levels.

Luck is an important part of Crawl Classics and it's use and the consequences of it are given a few pages. Since luck allows players to modify their actions, understanding it is important. We're also presented with some examples of how it can change, including the "Parker Luck" concept. As someone that loves to play characters that are unlucky for the sake of drama, this is a genre appropriate addition that I absolutely love! Evolved also uses Fortune Token which is similar to luck but can be used to affect others. This idea was cribbed from DCC Dying Earth.

Since Time Travel is in the subtitle of the game, you won't be surprised that there's advice and rules for it. It can be an overwhelming idea, but there is some good advice for making it impactful, including how to not get overwhelmed.

Those of you that know me, know that my all time favorite comic character is Dick Grayson and because of that I have a soft spot for sidekicks. They get their own (one page) chapter and honestly I could see using these rules in any of the Crawl Classics games. Essentially sidekicks are 0-level followers. There are benefits and drawbacks of having one. They are lucky and remind me of DCC halflings. However, if they die they their mentor permanently loses luck and if they are mistreated, players can no longer take a sidekick and all other sidekicks with treat them coldly or even hostile. Sidekicks gain experience (at a slower rate than players) can can gain class levels if they survive.

You won't have any issues populating your Evolved game because the authors went all in with npcs and monsters. We're presented with heroes and villains from both of the games eras. Don't want to focus on those and want to make your own? The game has you covered. There are pages of random charts that allow you to generate npcs, particularly villains, and flesh them out. There is also a random chart that let you modify stats blocks with special properties. A robust bestiary is included. This includes aliens and outsiders (which I'll go more into when I talk about the setting), creatures and people from different eras, and time warped creatures from the future. Honestly this section is pretty useful for any Crawl Classsics game. 

If you're an Evolved judge you don't need to worry. The authors have your back and present you with all the tools an advice you'll need. In my next post I'll talk about the setting of Evolved more.

Fuccubus Friday

 This is cover art for Post Malone's Big Rig #1 done by Peach Momoko.

Evolved - Part III (Doing Stuff)

From Iron Man's armor to Batman's utility belt, gear is an important part of comic books. That's why there is quite a bit of space devoted to equipment, gadgets, and vehicles. Unlike classic DCC (with its gold based economy), characters in Evolved use a system called Wealth. This means you don't have to track every penny of your character's money. No need to go through everything, but characters have access to a plethora of weapons, gear, and vehicles to help them fight. An interesting addition to the equipment charts is a listing of which time (2026, 2051) the items are available. Armor in Evolved is simplified. Instead of several different armor material types (such as plate. leather, etc.), armor is more broadly defined (light, powered, etc.). It can also be modified. The equipment chapter also includes a nice little Superhero Trope sidebar. The vehicle section includes ground vehicles, ships, and even mechs. Mechs are an interesting addition, because while they are vehicles, they're given monster stats.

At its core, Evolved combat is the same as DCC. This means that it's like most D&D derived games, but with numerous Fumble and Crit Tables. There are four different fumble tables which correspond to different weapon types. There are five different class related crit tables. There are also firearms and grenade/explosive versions of these tables. There are several foe related crit tables. Tables like these are one of my favorite parts of DCC and its derivative. 

Evolved contains robust vehicle rules. If you are familiar with the Umerican Survival Guide, they'll look pretty familiar. Again, like most games with DCC dna, there are several random charts to roll one for vehicular crits and wipeouts. And like the critical fumbles, the wipeouts are divided into types. Even in modern games, I don't use vehicles often. I feel like, in general, vehicle rules are clunky or ill-defined. That's not the case in Evolved. While there are a lot of charts and things, the rules for vehicles fall in line with the rules for everything else.

DCC Warriors are known for the Mighty Deeds of Arms. Instead of a static to hit bonus, you roll a die and proclaim that you're doing something cool with the attack. Again, this is one of those aspects that makes me love DCC. It's not just swinging your sword. Concept is dynamic. Two of the Evolved classes  can do their own Mighty Deeds. There are a few examples presented. This is extremely helpful for groups, though players are encouraged to come up with their own Mighty Deeds. Of the samples my favorite is an iconic X-Men maneuver, the Fastball Special. 

The section on combat ends with a collection of useful rules for conditions and complications in the game. Essentially it's a handy catch all for miscellaneous things that will need rules for in the course of a campaign. 

While I originally wanted to feature the rest of the games rules that I hadn't touched on in this post, I decided to break things up. My next Evolved post will focus on Judge rules and content. 

Music Monday - Kekka Orai

As I’ve mentioned previously I love My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. It was a great manga and season 1 has been fantastic. I’ve had the opening theme “Kekka Orai” on repeat for a few months now. The song’s name literally translates to “It all turned out alright in the end.”  

If you haven’t seen it here’s the opening. 

Here's a video of the artists performing the full song:

And finally here's an English cover of the song by Silver Storm:

If you want some gaming content here are Kuckleduster stats for DCC and Koichi stats for 5e.

Evolved - Part II (Classes and Evolved Abilities)

Evolved: Super Heroic Time Travel Roleplaying Game says it's "Powered By DCC" but you might wonder what that means. It means when you break it down, the core mechanics are the same. The layout and presentation is also very familiar. I touched on this in Part I.

Games start in typical fashion. Each player rolls up several 0-level characters and goes through a funnel adventure. During the adventure characters will be exposed to chronal energies, likely unlocking their Evolved Abilities (powers). The survivors will choose from one of eight Evolved classes or two non-powered classes. Additionally players will then create level 6 characters that represent their characters in the dark future of 2051. This is a really cool design feature. Sadly a lot of players never see mid and higher levels of play because of character death or games fizzling out. It's not the case with Evolved.

The following 10 classes are available to characters.

Evolved

• 
  Cerebral Adept - Evolved that focused on mental abilities (Marvel Girl, Grifter)
• Metamorph - Evolved that can change their bodies (and occasionally others)
• Movement Monarch - Evolved with powers related to movement and speed (Angel, Flash)
• Overhauler - Evolved that are mechanical masters (Iron Man, Mr. Terrific)  
• Regulator - Evolved manipulators of targets physical nature, such as transferring wounds and conditions (Sersi, Isis)
• Scrapper - Evolved that are masters of close combat, like DCC Warriors they do Mighty Deeds of Prowess (Wolverine, Deathstroke)
• Thunderstroke - Evolved that can fire blasts at foes (Human Torch, Black Lightning)
• Warder - Evolved vanguards that know how to take a hit, another class that can perform Mighty Deeds of Prowess (Colossus, Bane)

Non-Evolved (adapted from Star Crawl)

• Scoundrel - like DCC thieves these characters get by with skills and luck (Black Widow, Catwoman)
• Soldier - hardened warriors and military leaders (Nick Fury, Rick Flag)

I won't go into much detail about how the non-Evolved classes work. This is a superhero game so we're going to focus on the super. All Evolved have access to Evolved Abilities as well as a few different class powers/features. There are a total of 126 abilities which are divided into 11 different Ability Sets.  Each power is either Active or Passive. Evolved Abilities look a lot like standard DCC spells and work functionally the same. Also like spells, they take up a large portion of the book. A big difference between Evolved Abilities and is that abilities have ranked results. Each Evolved class ranks the Ability Sets. Rank 1 have lower DC's. The DC increases as the Rank rating increases. You roll for Active Abilities results every time you use them. A majority of the time you only roll once for Passive Abilities (though there are opportunities to reroll). Failed results can lead to an effect known as Siphoning which causes detrimental effects. Additionally critical failures can lead to characters gaining Faults, which mutate characters and are similar to DCC Corruption. Evolved can't Spellburn like DCC wizards, but have Chronoburn which is used in similar ways. Characters can also burn temporary look to modify their Evolved Abilities with Exploits.

With 126 different Evolved Abilities, you won't be surprised to find that all of your bases are covered. As characters are adventure, level up, and are exposed to more chronal energy their Evolved Abilities will change. They can grow or decrease in power. Additionally it's possible to lose access to an Evolved Ability. I like the impact this has on characters. 

Next time we'll look at Equipment, Combat, Sidekicks, and other crunchy bits I haven't really touched on.

Freaky Fist Grandpa

While I’ll post part 2 of my Evolved deep dive later, I wanted to share this now.

I've watched the first six episodes of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes and I love it! I read the manga  earlier this year and the series has been a faithful adaptation. Its a prequel to the main series and sets some major events in motion. It also gives us a glimpse of existing heroes and villains in their early days. It also introduces some great new characters.

While Koichi is definitely the main character of the series, Pop Step and Knuckleduster are important secondary protagonists. If All-Might is Superman in the MHA world, then Knuckleduster is Batman. He's a hard hitting mentor character that can go toe-to-toe with quirk users. Since I've been in a DCC supers mood, I thought I'd use True Vigilante to stat him out. Looking at the classes I felt that True Vigilante might be the best. He could likely be a Dark Avenger too.

Knuckleduster (10th level True Vigilante): Init +3; Atk +11 (brass knuckles, 1d6+1); Crit III/2d16; AC 15 (leather coat + dex); HD 10d8+30; HP 88; Mov. 30'; Act 2d20; SP improvised weapons, extreme violence, demolitions; SV Ref +9; Fort +7; Will +6; AL L

Red Guardian Limo Services

I’ve still not made it out to see Thunderbolts* but I hope to soon. The cast is phenomenal, the reviews have been great, and the marketing is top notch. Take for example this fun advert with one of my fav MCU characters.

Evolved - Part I (Overview)

Over the next few days I want to talk about Bloat Games new DCC-powered supers game, Evolved: Super Heroic Time Travel Roleplaying Game. Currently only Kickstarter backers have their hands on copies. Everyone else can pick it up on the street date, 6/11/25. 

The game is 480+ pages and the physical copy is a hardcover very comparable to the hardcover DCC core book. Honestly production and layout wise, you could easily guess this is a Goodman Game release, rather than a third party DCC game. Retail price is 69.99, which is definitely pricier than previous DCC comic book inspired material I've reviewed (Comic Crawl Classics and Gunzo! True Vigilante #1). However, you might guess from the page count that it's packed with material.  

Interior artwork will look familiar to fans of Bloat Games. Several pieces from Phil Stone and Runehammer that have  appeared in previous comic-inspired releases can be found. Additionally Christopher Torres is a regular artist featured in Bloat Games material and his artwork can be found throughout the book. The writing has been done by Jeff Scifert, Josh Palmer, and Eric Bloat, with Jeff being the chief designer. Jeff has previously done some DCC conversions of Bloat Games video game with the serial numbers filed off monster books.

Crunch wise this is what you will probably expect out of DCC. There are funky dice, classes, 0-level characters,  and wild fumble and critical tables that are varied by class and weapon type. There are some changes from the core rules too, but if you've played DCC or MCC, you won't have problems catching on. I'll dive more into the rules and what you get soon.

Fluff wise this 80's/90's X-Men with a healthy dose of time travel and Rifts. Most characters will be Evolved, beings granted power by exposure to chronal energy. Basically they are Marvel's mutants. There are two timelines featured. Low level play will mostly take place in the near future of 2026. High level play takes place in 2051, a dystopian world where various factions vie for power (or to simply survive). Additionally because of the unstable nature of time travel, people and creatures from any time (or world) could show up. Like the rules, I'll do a bigger dive into the setting in another post.

I think this game is amazing and I'm really excited to talk about it and tell y'all why you should pick it up. 

Comic Crawl Classics Review

Comic Crawl Classics as a DCC and MCC compatible set of superhero rules. Having read through it a couple of times, I think technically you don't need any other books, though I'd recommend a copy one of the previously mentioned games (particularly MCC).

If you've played DCC, this is going to look familiar. Character creation is similar in a lot of ways mechanically. However, there's no 0-level funnel and there's a lot more background and story involved in character creation. You need to name your superhero, come up with an alter ego, and choose a background. It doesn't matter if you're an alien, a mutant, or gained your powers accidentally, your powers work the same. 

Fame and Wealth are new character traits for CCC. Instead of keeping track of every dollar your character has a wealth score and needs to make a role when making some purchases. Fame starts at 0 and can rise and fall based on deeds. Fame can be used as an ability score or skill when interacting with the public. 

There are also no classes in Comic Crawl Classics. Everyone uses the same level advancement table. If you would like to add classes, I think you could easily layer True Vigilante on top of these rules. The game includes mental combat and in addition to HP, characters have MP (mind points). These can be lost because of psychic attacks and stress. They can potentially cause mental corruption.

You're probably wondering about powers. A majority of powers focus on them. Each character has a number of power build dice. These are used to increase a power score, up an ability score, or increase a skill (weapon or general). There are 40 powers includes. Twenty-four are active and sixteen are defensive. The power entries look a lot like DCC spells. Also like spells, you roll the dice when you use them and that determines the effectiveness. Treating powers like spells just makes sense for DCC inspired supers. The mutations presented in MCC are done the same way. The powers cover all the common ones you'll find in comics and quite a few uncommon ones.

After powers there's a page and a half of equipment and a page giving basic rules of sidekicks and superpets. The book ends with an eight page level 1 adventure set in the exciting metropolis of... Canton, Ohio in 1988. The time frame and location is odd, but the author Ed Stanek is from Canton. A team of level 1 heroes is presented after the adventure. 

Visually the book is kind of plain. The text looks like open sans. There are no borders and the layout is very old school. This also means the text is very tight. Personally I find this distracting. Just adding a space between the power entry results would have helped. There's not a lot of art, but the art that's included is good. Nearly all of it is from JE Shields and Inspector97.

While it's not as flashy as I like, this is a very solid DCC supers game. Other than the adventure, there is no setting which has advantages and disadvantages. The pdf is $15 and print is $25, which also means this is the most affordable DCC supers game (not counting True Vigilantes because those characters are unpowered vigilantes).

RIP Sabu (1964 - 2025)

Yesterday Terrance Michael Brunk aka Sabu passed away. If you aren't familiar with the "suicidal, homicidal, genocidal, death-defying maniac," he's a hardcore wrestling legend. Trained by his uncle, the original Sheik, he started wrestling in 1985 and only had his recent retirement match a few weeks ago. 

Here's a nice little tribute released by Game Changer Wrestling (the promotion that put on his retirement match):

This might sound goofy, but as a tribute I decided to stat Sabu as a 10th level Deathmatch Wrestler for DCC. If you aren't familiar with the class, I recommend checking out Judge Phil's Zine of Goodies #1. All of the SP listed in the stats are described there, with the exception of duct tape which was inspired by this incident. TL;DR he ripped his bicep open on barbwire and instead ending the match, he taped it up and wrestled for another 15 minutes.

Sabu (10th level Deathmatch Wrestler): Init +1; Atk +9 (unarmed, 1d12+1), (light tubes 1d10+1); Crit III/1d30; AC 14+ (pads, dex + combat adrenaline); HD 10d12+30; HP 116; Mov. 30'; Act 1d20 + 1d20 + 1d10; SP death die d10+2, combat adrenaline, suicide dive, duct tape*; SV Ref +6; Fort +9; Will +5; AL N

*Once per combat Sabu can take an action to duct tape up his wounds and heal 1d7 HP.

Music Monday - Gangnam Style

I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted. Went through a creative dry spell, but I think it’s past. Later today I’ll post a review of Comic Crawl Classics. Tomorrow I’ll post the beginning of a multipart Evolved review. 

Until then enjoy this German medieval metal cover of an iconic South Korean pop hit.