A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Heroes Weekly, Vol 5, Issue 8, Hairpy

Heroes Weekly, Vol 5, Issue 8, Hairpy by A. J. Kenning and published by the Avalon Game Company is one in a regular series of supplements published for use with their Heroes Wear Masks superhero role playing game. This game is based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and is also compatible with Avalon’s solo superhero game, Comic Book Adventures, which is based on Heroes Wear Masks. With this being based on Pathfinder, it is covered by the Open Game License and some of it is therefore Open Game Content.

The supplement is available from RPGNow as a watermarked PDF at the regular price of $3.99, but it was purchased at the discounted price of $1. There are two different PDFs included, a full colour version and a black and white printer friendly version. The first is 11 pages long, the latter only 7, as it lacks the adverts, Open Game License, figure flats and interior illustration, as well as the various page fillers and borders present in the colour version.

The colour PDF is 11 pages, with one page being the cover, one page the front matter, one page a full colour illustration based on the front cover, one page figure flats and battle tiles, one page the Open Game License and one page adverts for other Avalon products. Five pages of the supplement, plus the figure flats, are the actual content, and the supplement is only advertised as being five pages long, so the page count is not misleading.

This supplement is a superhero or supervillain origin story, and the first couple of paragraphs are an overview of origin stories and are identical to other Heroes Weekly supplements that contain origin stories.

The content describes the Hairpy, an unusual race, and some standard details on such as traits, special features, purpose and society. Hairpies are a type of cyborg, which also gives them some special features. A final section on the Hairpy gives details on how they could be used as player characters.

The figure flats have four colour, presumably 28mm scale, flat models based on the front cover illustration but with front and rear views, and four battle tiles.

Hairpy in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks, but it isn’t really long enough to need them. The image of the Hairpy on the front doesn’t really match the description inside, and the image is fairly typical of Avalon products, being decent but not fantastic. The figure flats may be useful, as the Pathfinder game on which Heroes Wear Masks is based is very miniature-oriented. The overall spelling and grammar is better than in many Avalon supplement, but the formatting is a bit odd. The first two pages of content are two column, then the next page is one column, then another page of two columns and a final page of one column. There is no logic to this, and it would have been better to simply stick to either one column or two columns, not swap between the two randomly.

This is essentially another type of race that could be used with other Pathfinder games, at least those that have some sort of science fiction influence, as well as its intended game system. Hairpy is a bit pricey at the full price of $3.99 for the amount of content it contains, but it’s certainly good value for money for the $1 that was actually paid.