Silver Age Sentinels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Silver Age Sentinels | |
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| Designer(s) | Stephen Kenson, Mark C. MacKinnon, Jeff Mackintosh, Jesse Scoble |
| Publisher(s) | Guardians of Order |
| Publication date | 2002 (both editions) |
| Genre(s) | Superhero fiction |
| System | Tri-Stat dX (variant) d20 System |
Silver Age Sentinels was a superhero role-playing game published in 2002 by Guardians of Order, creators of Big Eyes, Small Mouth, an anime-themed RPG.
Silver Age Sentinels featured an original game world heavily inspired by classic "four-color" DC and Marvel comic book series, updated to modern political and moral sensibilities. The Empire City Universe (referred to after its central location, an alternative version of New York City) had a distinctive history and set of archetypical characters who provided much of the game's initial appeal.
The original system was a variant of the Guardians of Order Tri-Stat system, later ported into a generic form called Tri-Stat dX. It expanded the system considerably, adding additional modifers to allow more customized powers and characters. It also used the ten-sided die (d10) as its base die as opposed to the six-sided dice used in Guardians of Order's previous RPG titles.
A d20 version, using a similar power creation structure modified for compatibility with the d20 System line, was released two months after the Tri-Stat version. Many of its concepts were adapted to the d20 version of Big Eyes, Small Mouth.
The original Deluxe version was a full color hardcover, while the Unlimited version was hardcover with a full color cover only. Silver Age Sentinels d20 System version was also hardcover with a black and white pages. The d20 Stingy Gamer Edition was softcover.
The game was also the basis for a book based on Warren Ellis's The Authority. That game featured a much higher power level, and used twelve-sided dice (d12) as its main action resolution.
Interestingly, one of the main villains described in the book was named Green Ronin, perhaps named after the company of the same name. Green Ronin Publishing was a professional rival to (the now defunct) Guardians of Order, and they came out with Mutants and Masterminds (another superhero RPG) at roughly the same time as Silver Age Sentinels' release. Another of the main villains, Iron Duke, is based on a real person, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Two anthologies of creator-copyrighted short stories tied to the SAS universe were published by Guardians of Order. Path of the Just (2003) featured an introduction by Denny O'Neil and included stories by John Ostrander, Steven Grant, and Ed Greenwood. Path of the Bold (2004) featured an introduction by Elliot S! Maggin and included stories by Robert Weinberg, John Kovalic, and Mike W. Barr. Both anthologies were edited by James Lowder.
