D&D 5E How should be a d20 Superheroes?

[Eyes of Nine]

One thing is that the Superhero genre doesn't really support zero to hero path progression. It's more like nothing to awesome singularity event. D&D's level based system wont' work with supers I don't think.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I am afraid you may be right. D&D isn't ready for characters who can lift chariots or dodge bullets. If we want a d20 version of the famous superheroes then these have to be nerfed. This challenge for game designers also happens in the videogame adaptations (Batman is a superhero, but not a metahuman), and not only for superheroes, but other franchises, for example Transformers.

Even a powered armour like ones by Iron Man or Lex Luthors may be banned for reasons of power balance.

I guess we will see a d20 version of Overwatch, Fornite: Save the World and other franchises, and maybe a new Ravenloft spin-off, as "Masque of the Red Death" but this set in the pulp age (1930's-1950's).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Golden Heroes was an excellent PnP superhero RPG. One of the things it did was throw the idea that player characters should be "balanced" completely out the window.

 

[Minigiant]

Superheroes don't really level up in the same way as PCs do and vary a lot more. So it would be more like playing monsters out the monster book and upgrading them if you don't go a "growing and evolving powers"

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

And we have to remember when the superhumans are the antagonists, for example Superman in "Injustice: gods among us" becoming a global dictator. My idea is if I recycle famous characters they are going to be "nerfed". This means if a character appears wearing something like Lex Luthor's warsuit or Iron-Patriot armor then the PCs should worry.

And we have to avoid the "Boo effect" (when the villains from Dragon Ball are defeated and the next is more powerful. If Boo had appeared in the beggining the young Goku couln't win at all).

I dare to say in a future many superheroes are going to be nerfed to allow being adapted as playable videogame characters.

 

[ART!]

You also have to ask which version of super-heroes you're trying to emulate. Video game supers definitely level up. Comics supers less so, but there's so many exceptions (Iron Man's new gizmo or suit, new clever uses for Spider-man's webbing or Johnny Storm flames, etc) that I don't think it's an issue.

Mutants & Masterminds was the first time I saw a game that could emulate Captain America being able to survive a fight with the Hulk or Thor or Superman, and it mostly had to do with feats. D&D has feats.

 

[J-H]

This just crossed my radar this morning:

Ascendant

A new superpowered role-playing game of infinite possibilities.

www.kickstarter.com

It is not D20, looks like it's mostly d100 for resolution based on degrees of success. This intuitively makes more sense for a superhero game with varying power levels. I have never messed around with a chart-based approach before, though, so no idea how it would play out in practice. Looks like there's a lot of defined terms in the vocabulary, which seems a bit annoying but probably necessary.

The question is, as always, "Can I make Skitter?" If not, then it isn't versatile enough.

 

[Tonguez]

You also have to ask which version of super-heroes you're trying to emulate. Video game supers definitely level up. Comics supers less so, but there's so many exceptions (Iron Man's new gizmo or suit, new clever uses for Spider-man's webbing or Johnny Storm flames, etc) that I don't think it's an issue.

Mutants & Masterminds was the first time I saw a game that could emulate Captain America being able to survive a fight with the Hulk or Thor or Superman, and it mostly had to do with feats. D&D has feats.

yeah a d20 system which builds characters out of feats could be used for Supers, instead of levels xp is spent on new ‘feats and powers”

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I have thought about that. My idea was the power level would be relatively fixed, unchanging, but the players could earn "storytelling points" to leveling up the "knownledge level", learning new languages, driving vehicles, fixing technlogy, first aids... feats and things like this.

 

[Beleriphon]

So, d20 Superheroes huh? Mutants and Masterminds 2E is a point buy system, pretty much the same nomeclature as d20 SRD. M&M 3E is a refinement and moves away from some of the names and processes, but should be immediately familiar to anybody used to the d20 SRD derived systems.