D&D 5E D&D re-skinned as a Superhero game?

[i_dont_meta]

Has anybody out there attempted anything like this? I'm trying to mix things up for my group and so my idea is to do a sort-of Rifts-style approach where the PC's are transported to Eberron from various planes/worlds/etc and reskin races & classes to suit appropriately.

 

[univoxs]

Oh its been done. Use the filters in drivethrurpg and I am sure you will find things. My opinion, d20 rules are not the best fit for super heroes. There are plenty of other games that do it better.

 

[Tonguez]

I’m in the D&D isnt cool enough to do good superheroes game camp but there is Heroes Wear Masks for 5e

 

[Delazar]

What do you mean by Super-hero game, though?

All DnD PCs have superhuman abilities and resistances, especially at high-level, so I would say that DnD is by default a "super-hero" game.

Clearly, all these powers come from "magic" in DnD, but then it is a simple matter to reskin the spells and class features as superpowers.

For a Constantine/Batman kind of game, you could probably use DnD as it is.

To reach Superman levels, I guess you could integrate magic items as "powers". After all, how may times did your PC lose all his equipment?

Imagine Superman as a lvl 20 sun soul monk with a Belt of Giant Strength, and Boots of Flying. Laser-eyes, super-strength, flight, the bases are covered.

 

[billd91]

Oh its been done. Use the filters in drivethrurpg and I am sure you will find things. My opinion, d20 rules are not the best fit for super heroes. There are plenty of other games that do it better.

Mutants and Masterminds is built on a d20 chassis, but it does make significant departures to better handle the superhero genre. I wouldn't be surprised if M&M is one of the examples used by the anti-OGL forces within WotC to argue for not continuing to release editions under that license.

 

[i_dont_meta]

Basically my group is looking to "try something new" and since we're all playing remotely the only common books we all own are D&D 5E. I'm not about to try to teach somebody how to play a new system over the internet so reskinning feels like the best option. When our quarantine lifts and we can sit down face-to-face again, then yes D&D will not act as our chassis.

 

[Delazar]

Havea look at Unsleeping City (on YouTube).
It's more Dresden files than X-men, but the similarities are there.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We would need a complete new system, something like a 6th. My suggestion is to use three pillars or leveling up. One would be Kratos, the power (+hit points and bonus to attack and save checke), Sophia would be the knownledge, all the learnt skills, and Opulencr would be the extra gadgets, the item, when the videogame PC is a "Christmas tree". Then in some genres the players only could improve one or two pillars.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I don't think that 5e would lend itself to being a good superhero game. One of the tropes you expect to see in the superhero genre is each character has a relatively stable arsenal of powers they use. The constant changing of powers as you level up in 5e would be hard (not impossible, just hard) to port over to the superhero genre.

I think a better "try something new" with 5e would be for your group to play an entirely different style of game than you usually do. If your games are usually fights and combat....run a 5 session long adventure with only skill checks. Changeup the setting to take place in the renaissance and use the firearm rules. You could probably go all the way up to a steampunk Victorian time period and 5e would still churn along.

 

[i_dont_meta]

As always, feedback is appreciated, thank you. We're gunna steam forward regardless seeing as how our core group is also big comic book fans. I'll post again soon post-Session 0 with observations.