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.