Icons Wave One Released! What to do with it? I've got an idea for you!

Dan Houser, artist extraordinaire and guest blogger here at the ole' THG, just sent out the pdf for Wave One of his Hero Packs (really it's technically the second one, but Wave Zero was for us awesome people who pre-ordered Icons).

If you haven't heard of the Hero Packs before, you're in for a treat! Dan takes commissions (you can read more about all he does here at rpg.net) for original superheroes for role-playing games (the Hero Packs are all specifically for Icons, but I know he'd love to draw your favorite D&D or Call of Cthulhu character as well!), stats them up, and throw a whole heap of them together in one awesome package. Not only do you get your hero in the deal, but you also get a ready-made monster manual of sorts for any super hero game! It's a fantastic idea, and probably the best supplement for any superhero game out there since you get to get in on the action.

Ok, so you've got a Hero Pack, now what do you do with it? I've been re-reading House of M from Marvel Comics lately, and it seems like just the perfect setting to get full use out of this product. The premise is simple. In an alternate reality, mutants are the most common and dominant of species while humans are on the way out. It's a world where Magneto's family is the highest royal family out there and Wolverine is in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. In other words, it's awesome.

So take your Wave One (and/or Wave Zero for those of us awesome enough to have gotten in on both!) and populate your favorite big city with tons and tons of ready-made characters. Heck, the Hero Packs are the perfect thing to bring to a convention for a demo game of Icons. Don't play Icons? The Hero Packs are still a great investment as you get background and general power levels of just a ridiculous amount of characters ready to be translated to your favorite supers system. There's really no reason not to get in on the Hero Pack action.

P.S. If you've got the Icons book, you can thank the THG Icons group for the "Searchers of the Multiverse" team on page 18! Yours truly played the leader on the left, General Entropy while Chuck was our metallic friend all the way on the right, and Andrea was the time hopping Tempus Fugit second from the left. Also I'm responsible for the badass that is "Bellerophon" in Wave One.