Review: Everyday Heroes - Escape From New York Cinematic Adventure

New America has not been the same since WW III or well since it was just regular old America. The war pushed America towards a totalitarian regime and they built a wall around all of Manhattan making it an island prison. This island is now run by many different gangs including the Hippies, The Broadway Boys, the Wharf Rats and of course the Fat Cats. This is the campaign setting for Everyday Hero's newest Cinematic Adventure, Escape From New York published by Evil Genius Games and designed by Sigfried Trent

For those that missed the 1981 cult classic Escape From New York. This was a John Carpenter film that was co written by Nick Castle who played Mike Myers in the 1978 horror hit Halloween. The movie Escape From New York features Kurt Russel as Snake Plissken a former special forces soldier being sent to Manhattan after being convicted of robbing the federal reserve. Luckily for Snake the Air Force One was hijacked and the president along with some sensitive documents made it out in an escape pod that landed in ...you guessed it Manhattan. So in exchange for a full pardon Snake is sent in to the gang infested Manhattan prison complex to extract the president.

This brings us back to Everyday Heroes, If you are not familiar with the role playing system it uses the open license from Wizards of the Coast (The folks who bring you D&D). This license lets them use the core mechanics of the system and put their own spin on it. Rather than delving in dungeons and fighting owl bears in the woods Evil Genius Games puts you in the role of a modern hero. This is the part were I will let you know that you will need the Everyday Heroes Core Rulebook to play the Cinematic Adventures of which there will be at least 8 of them released by Evil Genius Games in 2023.

"Where’s the President?" - Snake Plissken

Escape From New York Cinematic Adventure is choked full of movie goodness and supporting information to help you run the Liberty Lost Adventure or create your own adventure in the Escape From New York setting. The book starts you off with a lot of the timeline and details of whats happened in this setting and some of the details on the New York Maximum Security Prison. The second part of the book presents the setting specific classes, professions and backgrounds along with the associated feats and equipment.

The new classes Street Warrior, Motorhead, and Gutter Rat are very detailed and layout all you need to play these classes. There was a lot of thought put into these classes to make them fit into the setting. Since actual firearms are rare inside of Manhattan there is a section of equipment that includes improvised and air powered guns. The vehicle section is pretty interesting as it allows for very custom vehicles to be added into your adventures.

The new rules added into this Cinematic Adventure are well thought out an will not add a lot of weight or learning curve to the game.

The new rules added into this Cinematic Adventure are well thought out an will not add a lot of weight or learning curve to the game. There are three basic things they added the biggest is a street cred system to reflect your status within the different gangs that control Manhattan. There is one minor tweak that clarifies if a weapon has 2 different damage types players may use the one that causes the most damage. Then finally there are rules for the Crazies Disease (this part of Escape from NY did not hold up to time). To be true to the movie there are rules for the disease that was caused by the chemicals used in WW III that causes psychosis in its victims.

The last section of the book has adventure ideas, a compendium of player and non player characters to use and the Liberty Lost adventure. There is a lot here for people wanting to run games beyond the Liberty Lost adventure. There is a DM guide at the start of the chapter that gives a lot of plot ideas for your own adventures with the supporting characters in the back of the book, this will make it easy for even the more green DMs. The Liberty Lost adventure is a 3 part adventure that will take you throughout Manhattan trying to diffuse a nuke that was placed inside of the Manhattan Prison Complex. Everything is explained in plain language and presented in a easy to understand format. There are even pages with maps on them that you could use at the table or online.

Evil Genius Games Release Schedule 2023

I have watched Escape from New York many times in my youth and this brought it all back. If your into role-playing and you are even remotely curious about the movie Escape From New York, you will enjoy Escape From New York: Cinematic Adventure. Also do not forget to check out all the Cinematic Adventures that Evil Genius Games are putting out this year.

Players: 3-5

Year Published: 2023

Recommended Ages: 16+

Time to Play: N/A

A copy of Escape From New York: Cinematic Adventure was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for review purposes by Evil Genius Games.