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Capes and Crooks: A 5e Superhero RPG

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Capes and Crooks - A 5e Superhero RPG

*New Updated Layout July 2023*

Capes and Crooks utilizes the core rules for the 5th Edition of the world’s greatest roleplaying game and adds its own unique twist. You will take on the role of a superhero (or a villain if you prefer) and completely customize your character with unique origins, roles, powers, and alter-egos. With a group of friends and a bit of imagination, you will strike out on dangerous missions and terrifying challenges, from stopping bank robbers and handling deadly hostage negotiations to slaying monstrosities created from a mad scientist’s experimentations. You will also have to deal with the realities of a law and order society that doesn’t exactly look kindly on those with powers. This book contains a world setting, character creation rules, equipment, powers, enhancements, magic items/tech, monsters, villains & NPC’s, and a full adventure. 

Capes and Crooks takes place in the ultra-modern world of Terra, a place of science, technology, evolution and even ancient lost magic. 25 years ago people around the world found themselves mysteriously imbued with fantastical gifts. Now called deviants, these people take on many roles as they struggle to find their place in this new world. Some wish to use their gifts to help others, some to gain wealth and power, and some to do evil to satisfy their darkness. In a world where what is right, and what is the law often conflicts, how will you choose to use your powers and conceal your identity from those who wish to stop you?

 There will always be good and evil; light and dark. There will always be Capes and Crooks!

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5E SUPPLEMENTS

Exotic Equipment Perks Memorable Monsters Weapon Perks Challenge Accepted! Challenge Accepted II Unearthed Tips and Tricks: Volume I Unearthed Tips and Tricks: Volume II Fantastic Terrain Fantastic Terrain 2 Witiker's Well of Wondrous Magic Items Words of Power! Aelx's Bombastic Oddities Bountiful Bounties: Notice Board Quests for your Adventurers

PLAYER OPTIONS

 Extraordinary Player Options Gambler: Martial Class Fantastic Feats of Forgotten Realms  Brawler A Path for Barbarians GUN Mage A Sorcerous Origin Oath of the Voidwalker: A Paladin Sacred Oath War Chanter A College for Bards 334259-thumb140.png Cleric: Warmind Divine Domain  Werecat: Playable Race Druid: Circle of the River Rogue: Elemental Blade Roguish Archetype Fighter: Sky Breaker Archetype Ranger: Bladedancer Archetype Warlord: Martial Class

ADVENTURES

Extraordinary ExpeditionsThe Dark Tide of Damodan  Unearthed Adventures: Volume 1 Unearthed Adventures: Volume 2 Unearthed Adventures: Volume III

STAND-ALONE RPGS (5E COMPATIBLE)

 Capes and Crooks: A 5e Superhero RPG The Living Testament: The Three Magi  

BUNDLES

Unearthed! Crit Academy Best Sellers [BUNDLE] Crit Academy's Class Collection [BUNDLE] Adventurer's Bundle: Player Options Heroic Dungeon Master Resources [BUNDLE] Candlekeep's Dungeon Master Collection [BUNDLE]

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Reviews (2)
Discussions (17)
Customer avatar
Curtis T November 13, 2023 1:27 am UTC
Love the game,
Running 6, 4 hour one shots at gaming Con in 2024.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H November 19, 2023 1:18 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
That sounds awesome! Do you have a particular part about it that stands out to you?
Reply
Customer avatar
Curtis T November 25, 2023 8:13 pm UTC
For my group it the ease of the system, lots of great Superhero RPGs out, but the systems is overly complicated. 5e is not hard to use and easy for new players to pick up.
Customer avatar
Ronan F August 02, 2023 4:03 am UTC
Why is this so expensive?! $7,777.77?! That's more than most people's annual salary!
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 02, 2023 11:58 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Well, that is a strange glitch! We certainly didn't change the price. Not sure how that happened but it should be fixed now.
Reply
Customer avatar
Ronan F August 05, 2023 6:29 pm UTC
Thank you. That was really weird.
Customer avatar
Tanner T May 16, 2023 1:45 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is there a way to get fillable PDFs for character sheets?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H May 17, 2023 12:41 am UTC
PUBLISHER
On page 11 there is a link to download a zip file of character sheets including a blank fillable PDF.
Customer avatar
Stacie W January 27, 2023 1:57 am UTC
Is this going to see print?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 27, 2023 11:39 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes! We currently have someone working on re-doing the layout for print on demand. Stay tuned!
Reply
Customer avatar
Stacie W May 18, 2023 2:44 am UTC
Staying tuned. :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H November 22, 2023 11:47 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Print is now available. :) Hope you're still interested.
Customer avatar
Robert R August 24, 2022 10:00 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm curious about something. Are Speedsteers intended to have terrible AC? They can't use their 1st level features at all while wearing armor, but they don't get ANY bonus to AC, so they just have to rely on the base AC of 10 + DEX mod.

That seems like an oversight, especially since the description specifically says "Their natural speed makes them incredibly difficult to hit".

Perhaps giving them an AC of 10 + DEX mod + proficiency bonus while unarmored would be balanced? Also seems thematically appropriate, given that the Speedster would increase in proficiency at using their speed defensively as they gain experience.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 24, 2022 10:46 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Robert,
Thanks so much for the follow up. Yes this was an oversight in this mechanic. It is supposed to reference non kevlar threaded cloth armor. This should boost the speedsters AC by 2. Additionally, there are a number of abilities that reduce it's ability to be hit; such as speedsters defense and after image for example.

I have added the adjustment to our corrections document and will clear up this detail in our next update.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Reply
Customer avatar
Robert R August 24, 2022 9:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ahhh, that makes way more sense!

Glad to hear that you've got an update in the works with corrections for stuff like this. I actually have two small things that I'm hoping you can add to that document, in case they aren't already there:

1. Several Roles say that their starting HP is a die-roll, rather than a fixed amount. Gadgeteer, for instance, says starting HP is "1d8 + CON mod", which is clearly supposed to be "8 + CON mod". Along the same lines, Jumpers have a Stamina die of d8, but their HP is specified as being determined by a d6. I'm guessing the HP part is a copy/paste typo.

2. Gadgeteer's Target Assist is worded in a way that disqualifies At-will Powers which perform ranged weapon attacks from getting the bonus, since At-will Powers don't use the Attack action. Admittedly, there's only one such power (Cryofoam), but since Cryofoam says that it's a "ranged weapon attack", I think Target Assist should logically help with it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 24, 2022 10:30 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Awesome! Thanks for the direction. Due to Kickstarter failure our budget was much smaller than we hoped. So some errors flew under the radar.
Customer avatar
Robert R August 15, 2022 6:34 am UTC
PURCHASER
Really enjoying the C&C game I've been playing with some online buddies for the last few weeks. The Superheroes theme on top of the familiar system of 5e is a really good combo.

My only real complaint is that the sourcebook needs some serious copy editing. There are numerous minor errors throughout, and searching can be a major pain due to some things being named inconsistently in different places (e.g Force Armor vs Mage Armor).

It'd also be a huge improvement if the different types of powers (At Wills, Superpowers, Enhancements), Origins, Alter Egos, Roles, etc had different colored backgrounds, so you can tell at a glance what kind of thing you're looking at. They also really should be in alphabetical order within each section.

This is really just a presentation issue that could be corrected quite readily, though.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 15, 2022 11:27 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks so much for the feedback Robert. After the failure to raise funds on the Kickstarter our budget was severely limited. Since we have had some good reception and feedback we will be looking to hire some skilled team members to bring it to print on demand, likely with some new layout. Or at least some necessary adjustments as well as corrections.
Customer avatar
Bradford W August 14, 2022 12:21 am UTC
PURCHASER
I definitely would get a paper version of this. What ever happened to the pod option?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H August 14, 2022 12:41 am UTC
PUBLISHER
We plan to add a POD option soon. We initially didn't just due to the cost and the Kickstarter to fund this project failed. Sales have been pretty good though and we are recouping our losses so we can pay for the POD layout now.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H November 22, 2023 11:48 am UTC
PUBLISHER
If you're still interested, the POD is now available. :)
Customer avatar
Stacie W July 09, 2022 9:16 pm UTC
Does this require the D&D 5e PHB?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H July 09, 2022 9:26 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
No. All the rules needed to play are included.
Customer avatar
Homer W June 18, 2022 11:36 pm UTC
I wished I would have seen your Kickstarter because I would have backed this.
Customer avatar
Nicholas F May 30, 2022 3:44 am UTC
PURCHASER
Most of the powers are meant to be picked up by any roles right? Aside from the few that say otherwise?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H May 30, 2022 10:28 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes sir!
Customer avatar
dean D April 10, 2022 7:05 am UTC
Hello, just a quick question, could you give me a list of the superhero classes within the game and can you also use the original 5e D&D classes as well?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H April 10, 2022 7:31 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Dean,
Capes and Crooks contain the following classes. Though, there are no subclasses. It's an ala cart system that basically allows the player to design their own subclass.
Brute,
Crime Fighter,
Element Controller
Exosuit
Gadgeteer
Jumper
Mystic
Psychic
Shapeshifter
Speedster

They are designed to work in tandem with other D&D classes.
Customer avatar
David V March 13, 2022 10:11 pm UTC
Physical copy of the book. Maybe POD
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H March 14, 2022 1:46 am UTC
PUBLISHER
We definitely would have loved to offer POD and maybe in the future we can add it but since the Kickstarter for this project failed and left us in the hole money-wise we could not afford to pay a layout designer with the skills to create the print files. Instead, I just had to do it myself in Microsoft word :( The good news is that the book is selling pretty well so hopefully we can re-visit the POD in the future.
Reply
Customer avatar
Carl M April 02, 2022 10:22 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi Justin. Hope you'll forgive the unsolicited suggestions. I do a bit of self-publishing on here too. You can a create a quick POD from Word in this way, all using free software too. 1) Save the doc as a PDF from Word. 2) Split the PDF into individual pages. 3) Convert each page into JPEGS. 4) Insert them into Scribus as full page graphics. This also means you can edit individual pages for typos rather than the whole document. Perhaps not as good as a professional job but something I have done successfully at my kitchen table.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H April 02, 2022 2:51 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Carl,
Thanks so much. Was not aware this was a thing. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. One of the biggest issues we have when printing on our own is the CYMK color for the art, along with proper gutters and other things. I will certainly look into this. Thanks.
Reply
Customer avatar
Carl M April 02, 2022 6:49 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Glad to help. :-)
Reply
Customer avatar
BENJAMIN N November 21, 2022 4:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
I really like this idea for making a POD product on the cheap. I was wondering, Carl, what PDF program you would use to split the PDF document into separate pages?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H November 22, 2023 11:54 am UTC
PUBLISHER
If you're still interested, Capes and Crooks is now available for POD. :)
Customer avatar
Rudy T January 29, 2022 7:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello! I just have a few questions about Capes and Crooks.

1). How are power levels handled such as starting players at street level or above?

2). Is there attribute charts for how fast you can run, how much you can lift, etc and are these things pretty well defined?

3). How is character progression handled?

Thanks!
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 30, 2022 8:36 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Rudy,
Great Questions.
1. There are 20 levels and every 5 can be considered a different tier. For example Tier 1 (1-5) would be street level vs Tier 4 15-20 could be Cosmic level strength.
2. There are rules to define how much a character can lift and their speed. But there are a few powers that break these rules and some that can be left to GM discretion.
3. I think you're asking about XP vs Milestone? While we recommend Milestone, XP goals for leveling are also included.

Capes & Crooks is based on the 5e ruleset. So that can give you an idea of some of the core mechanics. A great example of this is the speedster. While it certainly moves significantly faster than all the rest of the builds. Its core feature essentially works like a time stop mechanic. This made it easier to capture the speedster feel.

I hope this answers your questions. :) Thanks for showing interest.
Customer avatar
Alex V January 25, 2022 1:29 pm UTC
Seems that product didn't need to be kickstartered after all to be published
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 26, 2022 2:28 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Well, we certainly got it out. But not without its challenges (even on going still). Little or no budget certainly comes with its challenges. lol. But fortunately aside from the occasional errors found from updates that we missed, it's being received very well.
Customer avatar
Franz J January 23, 2022 6:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi,
I have a few questions,
- Is there a powers list in the book?

- On the heroic advancement table (pg.30), on level 20 you get the “heroic moment!” feature. Where is “heroic moment!” feature described?

- Also on the heroic advancement table (pg.30); at levels 11, 13, 15 & 17 you get a 6th level, 7th level, 8th & 9th level signature power. Yet the signature powers don’t appear to have the power level listed in their descriptions. Is there a list of the power levels for signature powers somewhere in the book?

- when the brute role has indomitable defense active (pg.33) are they able to use at will powers?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 25, 2022 1:12 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Great Questions Franz.
Unfortunately, there is no general list for the powers. Page count was already high so we opted to not include that, along with a few other options.

The heroic moment has changed over playtest versions. Somehow the advancement table still references the power levels. Those were removed during the most recent rules update. All Signature powers had their strength adjusted to be more in line with each other. I have updated the product file to reflect these changes.

The brute can still use at-will powers while using indomitable defense. They just can't use any that would require concentration.

I hope this helps.
Reply
Customer avatar
Franz J January 25, 2022 6:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi Justin,
Thanks for responding. I have a few more questions.

On pg 98 it says that every power has a level from 0 to 9. Is this no longer the case?

If a signature power no longer has a power level, what is the effect or benefit of using a signature power to fuel a lower level super power?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 26, 2022 2:25 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Correct. The levels were changed to 0-5. The signatures are all now balanced to a higher level to be equal. As for the benefit of using it to fuel a superpower, due to the limited availability of power slots, a character may have access to a signature power, but prefer to swap it with another one. This allows the free signature slot to be treated as another power slot, but not the other way around. We will be making updates to better reflect these mechanics to ensure they are easier to understand. Our team is small and a few updates slipped by in some of the text.
Customer avatar
Jeffery C January 18, 2022 7:56 pm UTC
Just a heads up for anyone checking out reviews: the reviewers Ian W. and Elliana E. work for Crit Academy, the group that put out this book. Ian Wood is the co-host for the flagship podcast and Elliana Eitniear works as an editor for the same group. This does not mean the product isn't a good product, but it is something I would expect reviewers to disclose before posting a 5 star review.

I cannot provide any input about whether they directly worked on this game, as that information has been difficult to come by without a preview or purchase of the product.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin H January 20, 2022 3:24 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes they are both a part of the podcast. Both did disclose that they were playtesters of the product. Elliana did write for the product and her name is listed as an author here on the main product page. Ian did not write for the product. Both gave their opinions based on the playtest which occured before Elliana contributed to the final product We would certainly love some more reviews from purchasers so we look forward to hearing your thoughts!
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