Quote from: RPGPundit;422702RPGPundit Reviews: Icons

 The result is a version of Fate so different from any of those other Fate games out there that some of the hardcore (particularly the pretentious Fate-Swine who like all the worst games using that system) have publicly stated on internet forums that Icons is somehow "not Fate".  
It absolutely IS a Fate system game; its Fate done right, being used in exactly the way it should be.  

Since it was Kensington himself running around RPG.net stating intently, "Icons is not Fate", I think your theory of "Pretentious Fate-Swine" may be a bit, well, false.

If Kenson is telling people Icons is not based on Fate, he's lying through his teeth.

And freaky, because he mentions that he wrote Icons because he wanted to play around with Fudge and Fate in the intro and they are fully referenced in the Open Game License at the back of the book.
However, saying it's not Fate, and saying it's not Fate based are two different things. I've got True20, for example, and whilst it might be based on D20- it is not D20.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;422762I have to say, I bought the Folio and I think there's room for improvement. It feels like alpha software to me. I've gotten some moderate utility out of it, but I think it could be a lot better.

I can't get it to work at all on my Mac, which meets all the system requirements.

Quote from: TristramEvans;422929Since it was Kensington himself running around RPG.net stating intently, "Icons is not Fate", I think your theory of "Pretentious Fate-Swine" may be a bit, well, false.

Who is "Kensington"?

RPGPundit

Quote from: Aos;423066I can't get it to work at all on my Mac, which meets all the system requirements.

I'm using Linux, and it runs, but it's buggy. Text fields disappear and reappear. The character sheet output... well, the less said about it, the better. It's OK for quickly picking from a power list, but I just export the text code into something else.

It's the software equivalent of the 1977 Pinto. It'll get you where you're going, but only just.

Well thanks to GMS and Adamant's tech guy, Danial Gallant, it's working now.
Also, the more I read the more I like the game. I may convert my BASH game over.

There are some great free resources for Icons here:

http://icons-truth-justice-and-gaming.wikispaces.com/

The site includes an interview with Steve Kenson where he says:

"ICONS is everything Steve likes about old school pick-up style superhero RPGs, combined with things he likes about FATE."

Read more here:

http://icons-truth-justice-and-gaming.wikispaces.com/Steve+Kenson+Talks+ICONS

That wiki is really cool.

Quote from: danbuter;423027If Kenson is telling people Icons is not based on Fate, he's lying through his teeth.

I don't think he's ever said that. People are distilling down comments he's made into the "not fate" bullet point.

For myself, I see exactly where he's coming from. Regardless of what the underlying engine is, the feel of ICONS is an updated Marvel FASERIP to me.

Quote from: Vigilance;423529I don't think he's ever said that. People are distilling down comments he's made into the "not fate" bullet point.

For myself, I see exactly where he's coming from. Regardless of what the underlying engine is, the feel of ICONS is an updated Marvel FASERIP to me.

Yeah, there's as much FASERIP in there as there is FATE.

Quote from: Vigilance;423529Regardless of what the underlying engine is, the feel of ICONS is an updated Marvel FASERIP to me.

Yes!  This is the exact vibe I got from Icons!

Quote from: Vigilance;423529Regardless of what the underlying engine is, the feel of ICONS is an updated Marvel FASERIP to me.

How?

I want to hear more about this.  I like Fudge, but Fate and its Aspect play completely lost me.   Tagging Aspects feels like clicking icons to me.

Thanks for the review Pundit. Nabbed the pdf from RPGNow, I am really liking what I read. Might have to do a one-shot test drive with the wife this weekend

There is one fairly serious omission in the Icon’s rules, which I became aware of a couple of days ago while preparing to run a campaign using the system. One thing I do is to ‘dry-run’ new rules solo, so I get a feel for them and how they play – it also helps spot rules issues!

What my dry run quickly showed up is that there are no rules explaining how villains use determination, or even if they are allowed to. All the example villains have qualities, but have no determination points to tag them with. In addition, because only the players roll the dice, it’s not clear how villains get any benefit out of tagging one of their qualities.

A trawl round the internet found a thread on rpgnet where the author implies that villains can spend determination, and that if they do so the points are given to the players. However, there is no explanation about how this works exactly, how many points of determination the villain has, or what effect tagging a villain’s quality has in the game.

Hopefully the Villainomicon supplement (which should be out soon), will include official rules covering this issue or, even better, Adamant will publish errata explaining what should be done.

Until then, as a house rule, I’ve decided to give villains determination in the same manner as heroes (ie 6 – powers). Villains in a team with get a ‘villain team pool’ just as heroes do. I’ll let the villains use their determination in the same manner as a hero, except that a ‘determined effort’ will apply a -2 modifier to a hero’s reaction test per point spent. I won’t be giving the points spent by villains to the heroes (if I did the points heroes spent would need to be given to the villain, which means they will never run out). However I will give the villain a determination point if the heroes compel one of the villain’s challenges.