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Four-Color Heroics Core RulebookClick to magnify
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Four-Color Heroics Core Rulebook

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The dawn of superhero comics was a very different time than the one we now live in. The Great Depression was still making lives hell, crime rates were at an all-time high and the world was careening headlong toward a war the likes of which had not seen before. We, as a society, sought escapism to ease the tensions and suffering.

For many, radio programs, motion pictures, sports and novels provided exactly that. But there was one relatively new form of escapism that catered primarily to the youth of that era and that filtered all the fears and woes of the populace into optimistic, action-filled stories of good versus evil. These tales featured men and women clad in tight, colorful costumes duking it out in dramatic (and often silly) fashion with nothing short of freedom on the line!

This new form of escapism was, of course, the superhero comicbook.

Four-Color Heroics is a short but nuanced game system designed to perfectly capture the over-the-top action portrayed in the superhero comics of the era. With this book, a handful of dice, something to use as tokens and your imagination, there's no limit to the amount of fun you'll have playing out stories of crimebusting and Nazi smashing!  


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Reviews (5)
Discussions (20)
Customer avatar
allen T September 06, 2024 4:46 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How can I create my own four color heroics rpg adventure modules featuring the published super hero comic book characters,and my own golden age super hero characters?
Customer avatar
Lee S May 28, 2024 3:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Looking forward to the villain sourcebook. Great work with this series, Cynthia.
Customer avatar
allen T April 18, 2024 2:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How can I create my own super hero rpg campaign worlds for four color heroics?
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M May 25, 2024 8:17 am UTC
PUBLISHER
It's quite easy, all told.
Customer avatar
Jabberwocky M October 19, 2023 7:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
As a publisher, I can't review the game, but I am enjoying the feel of it enough that I used it to convert Day of the Octopus from the old MSH RPG to a Silver Age setting, with Silver Age versions of Spiderman, The Fantastic Four and The Avengers. It works for that era, as well, I'm pleased to say. The characters are easy to build, the action is fast and furious, and the Impact Die is effective as a narrative tool.

Converting the characters from FASERIP to FCH took some wheedling, in particular in areas where you have heros or things like the Octodroid which have high Brawn, but low Athletics, and I'm still not sure if a -7 in a facet is the best way to handle that disparity. But the bigger issue for me is the lack of specific movement mechanics. So far, using the old Marvel Maps, I've ruled that, like in the original game, you move 1 area for each point of Action +- Athletics, but I'd love to know how you do it, Cynthia.
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Customer avatar
allen T October 19, 2023 7:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
yeah,i want to know how i can convert characters from megs or faserip to FCH Too.
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Customer avatar
Jabberwocky M October 20, 2023 2:31 am UTC
PURCHASER
I created a spreadsheet that weights the various Attributes (Action, Combat, Brainpower, etc.) versus FASERIP rankings, but even with that as a basis, there is still a lot of guesswork when, as I said, two Facets have a huge gap. The Octodroid, for example, has Monstrous Strength and Good Agility, and both of those should be covered in Action, and reflect the Facets of Brawn and Athletics, so what score do you go with?

In some cases, I average the two to get the attribute, and then use a - number for the weaker facet and a + number for the stronger (usually 2 or 3), and that seems to work most of the time, but in the Droid's case, I went the full value of 8 (Monstrous) for Action and then used a -8 for Athletics. So, not precise, but close enough for scrub work.
Customer avatar
Royce R August 18, 2023 10:48 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How about a catalog of golden age heroes and villains? (Don't forget the sidekicks!)
Customer avatar
Jeremy H July 25, 2023 1:34 am UTC
PURCHASER
The Christmas in July discount isn't displayed on this one now? I've been watching it as one of my Christmas in July buys, and the discount seems to have disappeared recently. The banner is still displaying that it is discounted, but there is no discount.
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Customer avatar
Cynthia M July 25, 2023 3:42 am UTC
PUBLISHER
How weird. Perhaps there was weirdness because this title was part of Spectrum's "Superheroic Summer Sale" shortly before the Xmas in July Sale started.
Customer avatar
Jason S May 20, 2023 5:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi,
This is exactly the system I was looking for to run an episodic superheroes campaign!
I am a little confused by Flaws.
If you create three -1 penalty Flaws, does that give you an additional 6 points(max) for other Qualities?
Thanks in advance!
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M May 23, 2023 7:37 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying the game.

As for your question, yes. Each Flaw with a -1 Penalty grants 2 points to spend on other Qualities.
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Customer avatar
Jason S May 23, 2023 9:07 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks! Also, can you clarify XP? How to earn it besides using Momentum points and how is it spent for upgrading the PC? Is there a specific amount given per task? Like defeating a villain is 20 XP?
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M May 23, 2023 10:05 am UTC
PUBLISHER
XP is gained solely by converting Momentum. When characters accomplish goals (such as defeating a villain), they are awarded a point of Momentum, which can be converted to XP as normal. As for improving characters with XP, it is handled the same as when you spend points to create characters.

The Compendium offers an alternate system for handling experience.
Customer avatar
Wyatt H May 18, 2023 10:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I love everything Spectrum and CCM have published so far, all the way back to my beat-up copy of the original CAH, so I'm definitely looking forward to picking up all three (at this time) of these! Genre emulation is so much fun.
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M May 18, 2023 10:38 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I sure appreciate that, Wyatt. I hope you enjoy FCH.
Customer avatar
Jeremy H February 23, 2023 11:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any comments on the necessity of tokens in this one? Would a basic tally work instead? Sorry, but I mostly play online nowadays and the token thing doesn't fit.
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Customer avatar
Cynthia M February 24, 2023 3:32 am UTC
PUBLISHER
You can use a basic tally without an issue. I opted to utilize tokens to speed up in-game record-keeping. It's faster to slide over some tokens than keep track on paper and such.
Customer avatar
Nathan H January 27, 2023 3:59 pm UTC
PURCHASER
If all it's got is a downward spiral, it's not a superhero "game". This simply isn't how superhero fiction works.
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 27, 2023 4:03 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I'm not sure I follow. Could you clarify, please?
Reply
Customer avatar
Nathan H January 27, 2023 4:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Cynthia,

Sure. Most superhero fiction has failure after failure(and even sacrifice), lead to a final breakthrough. An actual superhero "game" would treat failure as a later resource, not penalize it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Nathan H January 27, 2023 4:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
And I get that a lot of the early Golden Age books maybe didn't have that best writing.
Reply
Customer avatar
Nathan H January 27, 2023 4:14 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Most of the stories are basically poorly written mysteries.
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 27, 2023 4:23 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you very much for the clarification. I actually agree that most superhero fiction revolves around failure after failure leading to a breakthrough. However, that notion didn't come into existence (at least with any semblance of regularity) until the Silver Age. A massive chunk of the Golden Age stories were very short, with each issue being comprised of multiple stories. This format/length didn't allow for the storytelling nuance that would come in later eras. The stories tended to be more straightforward affairs and that's what I attempted to emulate with Four-Color Heroics. That said, if we end up releasing supplements for other eras, you can bet that I'll be taking that into account. :)
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Customer avatar
Maxwell T February 01, 2023 9:14 pm UTC
PURCHASER
So, you could flip the Momentum Rules, earning Momentum on a 1, and causing a Problem on a 10? Would that require the Impact Die to removed the pool of what "counts" toward Successes, instead just rolling it alongside but separated from the other dice?
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M February 01, 2023 9:17 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
That's an intriguing notion, despite having to work out kinks and such (namely the kink you mentioned).
Customer avatar
Eiric P January 23, 2023 3:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I want to do a review so badly! This game is perfect in so many ways!
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 23, 2023 3:22 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Wow, thanks, Eiric! I'm looking forward to seeing your review. :)
Customer avatar
Royce R January 18, 2023 3:58 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi,
I love the Golden Age and at last there's a game devoted just to the Golden Age. The Golden Age was the age of sidekicks, an era that DC is going back to take a look at. How would the character creation rules be modified to produce a sidekick?
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 18, 2023 2:04 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you!

For the time being, I would simply give a lower number of points for Attributes and Qualities to Sidekicks. The upcoming Compendium will have the official sidekick rules that allow you to buy a Sidekick GMC as a new type of Quality and will give all the details of how to create them and what benefits they grant you. As a sneak peek, I'll state that the hero gains Momentum for saving them from peril.
Customer avatar
Robert P January 17, 2023 2:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I'm taking a punt on this because the preview looks good. Plus I love light systems. :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 17, 2023 6:27 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I hope you like it. :)
Customer avatar
Chris N January 16, 2023 6:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I cannot believe that this game turned around from a random "Probably never be written, much less published," idea to a fully realized game in only a few weeks. Great game, great art, great writing. Thanks!
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 16, 2023 7:27 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Many thanks, Chris. It happened quite fast, that's for sure. :)
Customer avatar
allen T January 15, 2023 3:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is so awesome and cool.,i am looking forward to seeing print copies of this
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 16, 2023 1:41 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thank you so much!
Reply
Customer avatar
allen T January 16, 2023 7:21 pm UTC
PURCHASER
you're welcome.keep up the good work.by the way,what day will the print copies become available?,sorry to ask this question.
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 16, 2023 7:25 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
No exact date. It should be within a month though.
Reply
Customer avatar
allen T January 17, 2023 5:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Cool,thanks for telling me
Customer avatar
James R M January 15, 2023 12:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Quick question: Will there be a print on demand of this in the future? I'm a huge fan of physical copies of things and I would love to have this in that form.
Reply
Customer avatar
Cynthia M January 15, 2023 8:57 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes indeed. I'll be sending it out to the printers for a test copy in a few days.

Reply
Customer avatar
allen T January 17, 2023 5:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Cool,I should wait
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Product Information
Gold seller
Pages
23
Publisher Stock #
FCH-1
File Size:
15.46 MB
Format
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File Last Updated:
January 13, 2023
This title was added to our catalog on January 13, 2023.