ICONS: A to Z by Steve Kenson and published by Ad Infinitum Adventures is a supplemental sourcebook for ICONS: Superpowered Roleplaying, in particular The Assembled Edition version. The material in this sourcebook was originally published as a series of 26 supplements, each covering a letter of the alphabet and a theme based around that letter. The book is covered by the Open Game License and some of it is therefore Open Game Content.
The supplement is available as a 161 page watermarked PDF as well as print on demand soft- and hardcover books from DriveThruRPG; the PDF is the version reviewed. This normally costs $10, but was purchased at the reduced price of $7.50. Of the PDF, one page is the full colour front cover, one page the front matter, one page the Contents and two pages the Open Game License.
There are, as would be expected, 26 different chapters, from A to Z, and each chapter has several pages on the chapter’s subject. This covers too many subjects to really list them all individually, but each chapter focuses on a particular subject, for example E is for Environment, M is for Magic and Z is for Zombies. Each chapter provides a variety of new rules and new ideas for playing, including such as new powers, new creatures, alternate rules to the existing ones from The Assembled Edition and new situations to handle.
ICONS: A to Z in Review
The Contents lists each chapter, which is each letter, individually, and the PDF is extensively bookmarked. The bookmarks are not just for each letter chapter, but for the various sections within each of these as well. The supplement is in full colour and is extensively illustrated, with the majority of the illustrations being around a third of a page in size although, given the top and bottom borders on each page, this actually means they take up around half of the space for text on the page. The illustrations feature the heroes and villains from The Assembled Edition, as well as some depicting other characters. Formatting is a single page throughout, and only a few spelling or grammatical errors were noted. The full colour illustrations and borders do make this less than printer-friendly, though; of course, it is possible to print out just the desired material.
The PDF, even at the full price of $10, is quite a lot cheaper than the combined price of the original 26 supplements, even after these were then discounted to $1 each. It is possible that a purchaser wouldn’t want all the material in this combined edition, in which case it can make sense to simply purchase the desired “letter” supplements, should only a few topics be wanted. Indeed, it is unlikely that any single person or group will want to use all the material, and some of the new rules and suggestions provided are probably not that compatible with others. All the rules should be considered to be optional.
Given its origin as a series of short supplements that were then collated into one book, this supplement doesn’t really have a coherent feel to it, beyond the obvious alphabetical one, but then it probably isn’t intended to. There are plenty of options provided for expanding an ICONS game into, literally, new worlds and new dimensions, and some of the original material is covered in greater depth. As stated, it is unlikely that any one group will want to, or even be able to, use all the new options provided, but ICONS: A to Z does provide a lot of new options, is well put together, and can expand an existing ICONS game.
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