Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley’s Image Comics series Invincible is coming to tabletop. Crowdfunding via Kickstarter, Skybound Entertainment and Free League Publishing are turning the Invinciblecomic book series and Amazon streaming series into a tabletop roleplaying game. The Kickstarter campaign offers the core rulebook, starter boxed set, a variant cover comic book, and dice. With a comic book superhero translating to an RPG, I reached out to comic book artist Steven Cummings and comic book author John McGuire about their experiences playing superheroes in RPGs.
WHAT IS INVINCIBLE? (Major spoilers ahead)
Invincible is the 145-issue (#0 to #144) Eisner Award-nominated comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley. Published through Image Comics and Skybound Entertainment, the series inspired toys, games, and a Primetime Emmys-nominated Amazon series.
Effectively, the story is ‘What if Superman were evil and your dad?’ Mark Grayson’s father is Omni-Man, the most powerful hero on the planet. However, when Mark starts to display his powers, he learns the truth, dad didn’t come to save Earth but to conquer it. Mark must grow up quick in order to stop the most-powerful hero there is and save the world. For more foundation, here’s a video sharing Invincible’s origin from across the first 22 issues of the series.
Art by Steven Cummings from Rifts Chaos Earth First Responders, Palladium Books copyright Rifts, 2025
WHO ARE THESE COMIC BOOK CREATORS?
Steven Cummings is a freelance comic book illustrator for Marvel Comics (including Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Ahsoka, and Champions), DC Comics (Deadshot), and Image Comics (Wayward comic book series with author Jim Zub) as well as tabletop roleplaying games like Palladium Books’Rifts® and others. I asked Steven Cummings to share his favorite superhero roleplaying games:
“Marvel Superheroes was my favorite [superhero roleplaying] game. I absolutely love supers RPGs, and have picked up several over the years including DC Heroes and Champions, and I would love the chance to jump in on any superhero RPG if given the chance.”
John McGuire authored several independent series including The Crossing and The Gilded Age as well as In Our Dreams Awake of which I am co-author (the third issue is on Kickstarter now). John has written some 5e zine content like Love’s Labour’s Liberated and Love’s Labour’s Liabilities. John McGuire’s history with superhero RPGs touches on some of the same games as Steven:
“I’ve played a couple of games of Champions at conventions (so maybe a total of twice). Way back in the day we would play the TSR Marvel RPG, probably a dozen times plus one additional time at Dragon Con this year. Weirdly, the one I’ve played the most is the Aberrant RPG from White Wolf that was their answer to the superheroes game. I GM’d the campaign that probably lasted around a year playing three times a month.”
INVINCIBLE’S CREATORS
The Invincible RPG core rulebook and starter set feature illustrations by comic book series artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley along with graphic design/layouts by MÖRK BORG’s Johan Nohr. Since this is a comic-centric project, I wanted to get these two comic book creators feelings as to how important it is for the series artist to provide illustrations?
Steven Cummings, professional comic book artist, felt the series artist is a critical element:
“I think it is absolutely important to have the original art team working on the rules book. No matter how good the writing is for the comic book the art is responsible for more of the feel that the reader picks up and to make a game based on that without that feel is hard to imagine. An example of this by the way is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game from Palladium which not only had art from the comic series as spot art they also had the original artists for turtles do a new cover and a short story comic book for the rule book which only added to the fun.”
John McGuire wants to see the original artists and more visualizing this universe:
“For something like Invincible, a lot of the character of the comic comes from those artists’ work. So it only feels natural that their efforts not only be included in the book, but they should feature very prominently. That said, given the amount of artwork likely needed for a project like this, I think it would be amazing to not only feature some other artists to get their ‘takes’ on the characters, but have them be able to put a little bit of a stamp on the universe overall.”
THE FIRST OF MANY?
So far, Free League’s Kickstarter is finding its audience. With a positive reaction from fans, I asked Steven and John if they want to see more, maybe an Image Universe TTRPG? Steven Cummings expressed his interest:
“Yes, that would be wonderful. Marvel jumped on this a few years ago with their current RPG but it would be great to see more IPs get turned into games. Perhaps a united image world (so to speak) RPG? Something like that would get my dollars and attention. BUT the one issue is that it would need to be a unique system that doesn’t feel like an extant game and with all the games already out there could someone actually pull that off?”
John McGuire went further:
“I always love seeing what various developers try to do with their superhero games. I think one of the biggest obstacles for any of them is always the street level vs. the galaxy-wide heroes and how to balance the two. I’m not completely convinced any system has completely solved that problem, but I am also a big fan of the Year Zero system in the various games I’ve played in the past (Tales from the Loop, Blade Runner, ALIEN), and it seems to work well in multiple genres already. So I’m highly interested in seeing what that system allows them to do, how flexible is it, and overall… how does the game run?”
NEXT TIME, THE INVINCIBLE – SUPERHERO ROLEPLAYING QUICKSTART
In the conclusion to this two-parter, I’ll talk to Steven and John about the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Quickstart, which is free on DriveThruRPG, and the mechanics of the system. If you want to see how this game runs, check out the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Quickstart on DriveThruRPG. Then head over to Kickstarter for the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying from Free League Publishing and Skybound Entertainment before it ends on October 16 2025 3:00 PM EDT.
Egg Embry worked with John McGuire and Steven Cummings on different comic book projects. Egg participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, Kobold Press Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, Kobold Press, and Amazon.
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