#underside

Most TRPGs fall into one of two camps: Either they have a Single Canon Setting with lots of lore, or they try very hard to not have anything setting-specific at all, despite the mechanics and prose making a bunch of unstated assumptions about the setting.

By contrast, Underside has a loose setting outline. The text makes it clear that it's a game that doesn't work in any old superhero setting; one of the first things you see is a list of eight assumptions about how superpowers work and are handled in this setting, followed by two institutions and three top-tier capes that exist in some form.

It's all quite vague. The Conspiracy could be bog-standard Illuminati, or Earth Bet's Cauldron, or a more reactive SCP-Foundation-ish group, or even something like PMMM's Incubators with a dash of UFO conspiracism. You have plenty of room defining (or in this case, refusing to define) your setting's mysterious Conspiracy, but the setting needs some kind of Conspiracy.

...and most importantly, the game explains why. It explains the purpose of the Conspiracy, and the Exemplar, and the Walking Apocalypse. Why they're included, why your setting needs them, how to use them in your game.

Not only does this help justify the existence of these universal elements to GMs who don't necessarily want to follow directions, it directs experimentation and boundary-pushing. What if the Exemplar was a giant asshole that people mostly tolerate for their firepower, like Tatsumaki or Hancock? That doesn't work; the Exemplar's purpose is to be a bastion of traditional superheroism, to justify why so many people see superheroism as something aspirational. Maybe the Exemplar can be a closeted asshole? The Exemplar section gives you enough information to judge how nice they have to act and why.

It also helps establish the tone and logic of the setting, for people who haven't been thinking about Watchmen-inspired superhero media and also PMMM for years on end. By answering basic questions like "Why do the Powers That Be tolerate villains who 'play by the rules'?", Underside not only supports the internal logic of its riff on Watchmen's superhero-deconstruction, but clues less cape-brained players in to the kind of questions they should ask and answer.

Oh, I almost forgot about arguably the most important bit. The "how to use them in your game" thing. There's a lot I like about Shadowrun's lore, but much of it is basically just window dressing or scaffolding for an urban fantasy/cyberpunk mashup. The actual structure of an urban fantasy/cyberpunk TRPG mostly has to come from elsewhere, perhaps with a couple seeds from the lore. But Underside actually explains how to use the lore it gives you.

Honestly I can’t wait to finish this, but not because I want to see the front.

Look at the back!!!!!