Supers & Specials

A homemade superhero RPG built for physical table play.

An original pre-AI superhero campaign where underpowered, ridiculous heroes grew into a team through missions, powers, gear, and table-facing character sheets.

Original RPG system Roll-under d20 Printable table sheets

Supers and Specials character identity panel with player name redacted, character name, identity, and focus fields.

What This Game Shows

Supers & Specials shows a full custom-system instinct: make the rules visible, keep the character fantasy concrete, and give players a sheet that tells them what they can try next.

The project is less about publishing a rules book and more about table craft. Players had identity, focus, powers, resource limits, gear, and growth paths in front of them, so the superhero chaos stayed playable.

Turns custom superhero rules into player-facing sheets and prompts.
Uses a lower-is-better d20 mechanic with clear table examples.
Makes power growth, gear, inventory, and limits visible during play.

Game craft

A custom system with table handles.

The design gives players enough structure to improvise: identity, limits, progression, and consequences they can point to on the sheet.

What I built

An original superhero rules set with character identity, focus, abilities, power tiers, gear slots, inventory pressure, and table-facing reference pages.

What players tracked

Players could see who their hero was, what powered them, what they could carry, which powers were unlocked, and how stronger options came online.

What it shows

Kyle can build homebrew mechanics that stay legible in the room, then facilitate the comedy and pressure that come from those rules.

Table artifacts

Player-facing sheets made the system usable.

These artifacts show the game through the materials players could actually read, mark, and use during play.

Identity

Character identity was more than a name.

The sheet asks players to define who the hero is and what lens guides their powers. That keeps the absurd superhero premise tied to choices at the table.

Rules

A roll-under d20 mechanic with plain examples.

The rules page shows the core procedure in player language: compare the ability, apply a temporary modifier, and roll lower than the target number. The page is dense, but the mechanic is concrete.

Supers and Specials power slots sheet with unlock rows from level 0 through level 5.

Powers opened in visible tiers.

Power slots help players understand growth as a table object, not a hidden progression note.

Supers and Specials carrying capacity and item slots sheet with marked spaces for gear and limits.

Inventory pressure had a place to live.

Slots make gear and carrying limits visible, so resource pressure can matter without slowing the whole scene down.

Supers and Specials special items sheet for level zero items with item rows and costs.

Gear supported the superhero joke.

Special items give the campaign a practical toybox: upgrades, constraints, and small choices that help ridiculous heroes feel playable.

Supers and Specials build-a-character rules page with steps for making a custom superhero character.

Build flow

Players needed a way into the system.

The character-build page shows the onboarding work behind the campaign. Custom mechanics only help if players can enter them without needing the GM to translate every choice.

Keep exploring

More systems built for play.

Move from original superhero rules into the broader project index, or compare this with the Super Nintendo World adaptation case.

Projects & Games
Return to the full index. Super Nintendo World RPG
A familiar platform loop rebuilt for the table. Get in touch
Ask about a table, event, or custom campaign.