Now Longshot City (2023)? That’s where Troika starts getting really weird. Ironically, by getting a little more conventional: it’s a super hero game.
This is immediately interesting because the majority of supers games to this point tend to be rules heavy, and Troika tends to be…not. Most supers RPGs are arranged around providing players with the tools to create the exact character they envision with the precise powers and Troika…has no real way of doing that. In fact, Longshot City keeps the core randomness of Troika’s character generation, only with more advanced skills (read: superpowers) and the addition of (random) secret origins. I think it works. It is nice to see supers freed from particularity.
The world is defined, as with core Troika, through the provided selection of NPCs (heroes, villains, more complicated folks) and a map of the city with labeled districts and illustrations of the dominant building types for each neighborhood. It is kind of amazing how much world-building this accomplishes. This should be all the fuel an average supers comics fan needs to run a game on the fly. More important than specifics of the world is the mapping system for neighborhood patrols and, especially, the conspiracy board, which allows you to map out foes and how they are all connected; this is pretty ingenious and liftable for any sort of RPG.
Favorite thing: the knock-out table. Super heroes rarely die and when they do, it is almost never forever. This gives players random outcomes for when their characters get knocked down. Dead? Come back next time in a grimdark costume! Or get replaced by a clone! Slip into a coma dream with your friends! Unlock hidden memories! There’s a plethora of outcomes that will draw the game in new directions and change a character without killing them off. That’s grand! I should also note that this box set is chock full of stuff and straight up gorgeous, featuring art from Evlyn Moreau, JeCorey Holder and Boson Au. In addition to the core rulebook, the tray contains dice, a pad of character sheets, several smaller character reference bookmarks, a deck of NPC cards, a token bag and, I learned just this moment, inside the bag are two stickers and an embroidered patch. And that’s not all! Under the tray are hidden two sheets of tokens, several sheets of standees, a big version of the map and a very sturdy reference screen. I have no idea if this is just the Kickstarter box or all this comes standard, but it sure feels DEEEEE-lux.
