Just recently I had the pleasure of running Worlds In Peril, a superhero RPG by Samjoko Publishing that utilizes rules inspired by Apocalypse World. I bought the game about a month ahead of when I was supposed to run it, and having had no prior experience running anything using Apocalypse World or Dungeon World, I was expecting to struggle a bit.
Imagine my surprise then when (almost) everything clicked in my head in the first read.
Worlds in Peril is surprisingly well done, with rules that help emulate all sorts of superpowers without needing a ton of specific rules describing each and every power (and modifiers that change how those powers work.) It’s elegant, and focused more on telling a good tale of do-gooders punching bad guys than emulating physics by any stretch.
Character creation is a breeze, mechanically, but may trip up a few people who aren’t used to building specifically from a concept. As a game built around the Apocalypse World rules, the mechanics are a simple 2d6+Stat roll with results based off a chart depending on which Moves your character is doing. It’s very different from the games I’m used to running, so the ease of play took me by surprise.
My biggest concern about the rules would probably be the Limitations. The way that they are used is simple enough to understand, but I had to work very hard with my players to get them to understand how Limitations to a character work and how they work with Bonds. Aside from that, the rest of the rules run well.
Worlds in Peril looks great, with wonderful art and good, readable layout. There are a few bits where the writing could be clearer, but after a few re-reads and a one-shot or two I was able to get everything else in order in my head.
If you’re looking for an easy to learn (and fun to play!) superhero game, and you don’t mind a rules-lite approach, definitely give Worlds In Peril a try.
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Worlds in Peril is available from DriveThruRPG for $14.99 or roughly Php 690.00
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