A Superhero's Journey

A neat little journaling game about a superhero's career. 

The core mechanics are mainly very simple, with d6-based tables to determine the hero's powers and those of their sidekick, the town under threat, and the problem it's facing. The dice pool system and rolls are child-friendly, with roll results skewing the odds of success intentionally high but not eliminating the chance of failure. However, it's worth noting that if two children are playing, there may be a risk of some conflict over who gets to be the hero and who plays the sidekick.

With seven pages of content, it doesn't quite fall neatly into the beginner-friendly children's game space it's aiming for - the recommended age is 6, but there's enough text here to put off less confident readers and the prompts are a bit too variable in their level of detail.

For example, the character creation section ends with "Finally, add names for your Superhero and sidekick, as well as a brief description for both. This can be a bit about their backstory, their looks, or their personalities." A list of examples or options to choose from could have been a useful aid for less creatively confident players.

In contrast, the retirement section is bursting with journaling prompts - there are eleven well-thought-out questions in a row to help spark ideas. While this is great for older or more confident players, the sheer number of them might be a little overwhelming for others - especially any 4-year-olds playing with support from someone older, as the game page suggests.

While I really like the concept of having a built-in conclusion, the retirement mechanic didn't quite click with me. It seemed like it could take a fairly long time to trigger if you were unlucky, which is not ideal if the player is a child with a shorter attention span. "The first time you roll the same set of numbers 3 times on the Town and Trouble tables, make a mark towards Retirement, then roll again for a new Town and Trouble. Every time after that you roll the same set of numbers 3+ times, make another mark towards Retirement and roll 1d6. [...] If you roll under the number of marks for Retirement, your Superhero is done. Write one more journal entry about their retirement."

Also, I was a little disappointed that the 'fully illustrated version' only includes two illustrations. It was nice to see four superhero designs, with a range of ethnicities represented (a Black woman, a woman of colour wearing a hijab, a man of ESEA heritage, and a white man), but I would have liked it more if the white man wasn't the sole character on the cover and the BPOC characters had been given a little more prominence.

Overall, this is an interesting game that has promise, but it seems like it could benefit from rigorous playtesting with its target audience of younger players to ensure it's as user-friendly as possible for them. 3/5 stars - enjoyable.