Discusson Thread - Supers Games

[malachi666]

Hey Guys,

I was just wondering if there was any interest in a Supers game. If so, which system is most desired / liked.

-Classic Marvel (the best part is that the books are free!)
-GURPS
-Mutants & Masterminds 2 ed
-DC Adventures - Mutants & Masterminds 3rd ed
-DC Universe - D6 Supers
-D6 Powers (more recent version of DC Universe)
-Savage Worlds (using the Super Powers Companion)

Anyways I have been flirting with runing a supers game in recent weeks. I can run a game using any of the systems above, with the exception of GURPS, I have only really just looked at this stuff.

Anyways let me know what you think?

[Stealthfox16]

I'm surprised the Heroes system isn't on that list.

I'm interested, and saturdays are best for me.

[malachi666]

To be honest I have no exposure to the HERO system at all. Is it any good?

[Oberoten]

You could look on Atomic Fusion as well, it has pretty nice rules for super-powers and even better. It is free and quite modular so you get to pick and choose what you like and not.


https://www.serenadawn.com/Download-AlienFUZION.html

One of the places to download the core-rules. (Also has a LOT of nice background material for an Aliens campaign. )

- Obe

[Sorontar]

To be honest I have no exposure to the HERO system at all. Is it any good?

When I played Champions and Dark Champions many moons ago, it was a generic in-depth point buy system that allowed you to make pretty much the Hero you wanted to make.

One of my favourite systems of all time.

HERO not having a ruleset on FG2 makes baby Jesus cry at night :)

Having said that Savage Worlds is likely the better choice for keeping the pace of the game up.

[Morfedel]

Wild Talents. Not on the list, but it should be at the top of any superhero game list, followed closely by DC Heroes, which also isn't on that list. :)

[malachi666]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the additions to the list. I am not famliar with either of those games, but I will take a look into them for sure. Now, have FG rulesets been developed for them? I would need them as I was to run the game via FG.

Thanks again.

[Morfedel]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the additions to the list. I am not famliar with either of those games, but I will take a look into them for sure. Now, have FG rulesets been developed for them? I would need them as I was to run the game via FG.

Thanks again.

Well, DC Heroes is out of print. However, for 4-color superhero gaming, it's hard to beat. It uses what's called the MEGS game system - MEGS = Mayfair's Exponential Game System.

In MEGS, everything is rated by a score - attributes, skills, powers, distance, time, knowledge, volume, wealth, etc etc. And each value of something is equal to double the previous power.

So, a 7 strength is double that of a 6 strength. Everything you do is by a simple formula. So, lets say you want to throw a car, and a car weighs, oh, 6 aps, and you have a strength of 10. You can throw the car 10-6=4 aps of distance, which was, oh, 1000 feet? I can't recall offhand, and I don't feel like digging my book out right this second :)

It went through three editions, then was purchased by Pulsar games which published Blood of Heroes, then eventually Blood of Heroes: Special Edition. BoH: SE has the best version of the rules, but its artwork, layout, and their homebrew world sucks big time. Third edition DC Heroes is the second best, and you would want to add the Magic suppliment from second edition.

Second edition had a very nice game master screen that third edition didn't, as second was a boxed set, third was a softbound cover.

So, I always tell people: buy second edition for the gm screen, third edition for the better rules, the magic suppliment for enhancing magic heroes, and Blood of Heroes: Special Edition for the best rules. I have all the above :)

Since they are out of print, you may have to hunt for them on ebay or something. MEGS is fabulous for medium to high end gaming, though it lacks the kind of granularity for low end gaming.

Wild Talents is on the opposite end of the spectrum. It uses a game system called ORE, or the One Roll Engine. I jokingly call it Yahtzee, the RPG, as you roll a pool of up to 10 d10s, and you are looking for matches. The number read on the face of the die of a match is called the height of the set, while the width is the number of dice in the set.

So, after rolling the dice, if you got three 5s, thats written as 3x5, said as "3 by 5", with a width of 3 and a height of 5. Height determines the quality of what you did, the width is the speed and effectiveness. In combat, this translates as: Width is the speed (initiative) of your action, damage is the width + or - a modifier in stun damage, killing damage, or both; height is the location of the hit (WT uses hit locations).

It's innovative in that you roll your pools of dice after declaring actions, all at once, and go from widest sets downwards, all actions being resolved at the same time without people having to wait their turn or make counter rolls.

It's a bit counter intuitive at first, a bit of a higher learning curve, and it's bell curve is a bit wonky, but once you are used to it it's REALLY fast!

Wild Talents is still in print, it's by default a very gritty game (in WT, it asks the question, if you are hit in the head by a guy who can bench press a tank, what would REALLY happen?) but it does have alternative optional rules to make it four color... though it still will only go so far compared to DC Heroes and M&M if four color is what you want.

WT is awesome, and it allows you to run games of weird settings... like, say, 4400, Heroes the TV show, etc. Want to run a game where people's powers aren't comic bookish but instead really weird, like, say, powers granted by Cthulhu as he returns to the world? WT can do it!

DC Heroes uses a list of powers. WT uses a build your own system, though they provide an impressive list of prebuilt powers as examples, but you can easily create your own, much like M&M, but even more flexible.

Wild Talents also has other spinoff games already: Godlike (actually the original game, but WT is a lot more popular - Godlike is gritty, low level superhero RPGing in the midst of World War 2), Nemesis (a free online horror game using the same system, though they are talking about putting it into print), Monsters and Other Childish Things (Children, and the relationship-eating monsters that love them), Reign (fantasy, but focused on lords and leaders), The Kerberos Club (think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), This Favored Land (Godlike, but in the Civil War), Grim Wars (sort of like Godlike, but people are either mutants or demon-summoning sorcerers in the modern day, after all of this popped up in World War 2), Star ORE (a free star wars ORE game online, but very basic I think).

I think there is also a anima mecha game floating around free online somewhere.

But the most flexible, generic, editable, build it yourself system is Wild Talents, and by far the most popular of all of those. And it's in print, so check it out! :)

Yeah, I'm a fanboy. :)

[malachi666]

WOW, thanks for that summary. I think I might take a look at the Wold Talents book. I have seen that heightxwidth system before, I just can't remember where.

Would you, or anyone else be interested in this type of game if I ran it. I have a load of ideas floating around and they are not setting dependant.

Thanks again, and please keep the ideas coming.

[Morfedel]

i might, it depends on a lot of factors, such as what day and time, plus I'm working on my own campaign, so I'm not sure if I'll have any time.

I'll certainly consider it though.

[malachi666]

Morfedel,

Are you working on a Wild Talents campaign? Could I join? Or would you already have a troup together.

As to my campaign, it won't start for a while now as i would like to review some of the systems mentioned above. I am currently in the EST.

[Morfedel]

Morfedel,

Are you working on a Wild Talents campaign? Could I join? Or would you already have a troup together.

As to my campaign, it won't start for a while now as i would like to review some of the systems mentioned above. I am currently in the EST.

Sadly, no. I have three or four friends that I try to game with regularly, and one of them hates AT with a Passion (primarily because she hates character death - ANY character death, not just hers, she even gets mad if friendly allied npcs die) and WT is gritter than your average superhero game, so I'm running a fantasy game, an ogl/d20/3.x system called Fantasy Craft.

I find it to be the best flavor of the d20 set, IMHO. Check out my post on the guild section here sin the title name with Fantasy Craft and Dawn of Worlds in the title.

[Lysander]

HERO system just went to 6th edition, and it's been major league streamlined.

One of the nits about HERO system prior to v6 is it takes awhile to make a character if you really want it to (if you want a basic character, no prob, if you want a character with lots of neat bits and flavor, it takes some time.) Once the heroes are done, the burden shifts to the GM as he writes up the NPC and villains. Even with shortcuts, it can be a chore to GM as far as prep time.

Game play itself is pretty slick though (need only d6's, but at least a dozen of them if not more), at least up to v5. Haven't tried v6, and probably won't since it's a drastic change (think 3.5e D&D to 4e D&D level change from what i've seen)

And yes, I'm a HERO system Fanboy...

(Foxbat rules!)

[Morfedel]

HERO system just went to 6th edition, and it's been major league streamlined.

One of the nits about HERO system prior to v6 is it takes awhile to make a character if you really want it to (if you want a basic character, no prob, if you want a character with lots of neat bits and flavor, it takes some time.) Once the heroes are done, the burden shifts to the GM as he writes up the NPC and villains. Even with shortcuts, it can be a chore to GM as far as prep time.

Game play itself is pretty slick though (need only d6's, but at least a dozen of them if not more), at least up to v5. Haven't tried v6, and probably won't since it's a drastic change (think 3.5e D&D to 4e D&D level change from what i've seen)

And yes, I'm a HERO system Fanboy...

(Foxbat rules!)

I'll pit my WT vs your HERO any day!

Now realize, I've played HERO before, a lot in the early days, though I haven't played the.newer editions bit from my experience WT is just simpler and more streamlined than HERO.