Besides D&D, what are you playing?

[Fenris-77]

There's also Savage Worlds: Super Powers, which I'm reading through right now for inspiration and mechanics. It's got four tiers of play - Pulp, Street, Heavy Hitters, and Cosmic - for different levels of hero. I'm not a massive SW fan, but it looks ok at first glance and could be what you're looking for.

 

[hawkeyefan]

There's also Savage Worlds: Super Powers, which I'm reading through right now for inspiration and mechanics. It's got four tiers of play - Pulp, Street, Heavy Hitters, and Cosmic - for different levels of hero. I'm not a massive SW fan, but it looks ok at first glance and could be what you're looking for.

Maybe I'll check it out. Like you, I've never really taken to Savage Worlds. Maybe for this kind of genre the rules are a good fit?

For me, ideally, a game could pull off any power level, even if it's a blend of them all. But if I had to choose one, I'd do what you're saying by going with the lower end.

Especially using the FitD system as a starting point.

 

[Hoffmand]

Maybe I'll check it out. Like you, I've never really taken to Savage Worlds. Maybe for this kind of genre the rules are a good fit?

For me, ideally, a game could pull off any power level, even if it's a blend of them all. But if I had to choose one, I'd do what you're saying by going with the lower end.

Especially using the FitD system as a starting point.

For me the system was okay. But boy did I like the settings.

 

[Fenris-77]

For me, ideally, a game could pull off any power level, even if it's a blend of them all. But if I had to choose one, I'd do what you're saying by going with the lower end.

Especially using the FitD system as a starting point.

I may do some playtesting to see what happens when you move action ranks above four and/or add talents to move the effective attribute ratings past 4. It may be better to handle some or all of that via talents, IDK. That's a back burner project though. I suspect that the game starts to break down a little at that point, but I don't want to say anything definitive until I've table tested it and run some numbers.

 

[pemerton]

I've been itching for a supers game after not having played a superhero RPG in years.

<snip>

I think if you tone down the difference between characters like Hawkeye and Thor, the best way to do that is with a more narrative game. I think the potential is there with the FitD system with things like Scale and how that may be tweaked to get the desired effect. I think the crunchier a game is, the harder it is to handle these different power levels.

But, the comics have had them coexisting for years, so when you think of that, it can obviously be done. Exactly how is the question.

I don't know PbtA/FitD well enough to comment on their capacity for supers RPGing. When I look at AW it doesn't look like a good fit in itself, but I realise this family of games has moved a long way in the past few years.

My recommendation for supers RPGing is Marvel Heroic RP. I don't know how easy or hard it is to find through various channels, but I've had good experiences with it playing Marvel, adapting it to fantasy with some help from the Cortex+ Haciker's Guide, and most recently (and hopefully again tomorrow) using it for MERP/LotR.

 

[Imaculata]

A friends of mine is running a homebrew scifi campaign that had D20 Future rules at its core, but with a lot of homebrew rules as well. I helped him out with designing a grand list of scifi weapons with a system for modding each weapon and having different ammo types. So far its working pretty sweet and seems pretty well balanced.
For example: Some of the weapon mods I've come up with, double or triple the effect of point blank shot, but sometimes this benefit comes at a cost (such as the weapon has a very obvious laser targeter, making it easy for enemies to see where the shot came from). I also added restrictions, where some mods can only be added to weapons of certain size.
We also have some crazy ammo types, such as ammo that homes in on a target and can shoot around a corner (striking enemies behind cover). We took inspiration from all kinds of scifi movies.

The campaign retains a mix of fantasy and scifi however. Orcs in spaaaace!

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

My recommendation for supers RPGing is Marvel Heroic RP. I don't know how easy or hard it is to find through various channels, but I've had good experiences with it playing Marvel, adapting it to fantasy with some help from the Cortex+ Haciker's Guide, and most recently (and hopefully again tomorrow) using it for MERP/LotR.

I had good experiences when a friend hacked this game for Legend of Korra roleplaying. Cortex is a good fit for supers.

 

[Aldarc]

For me, ideally, a game could pull off any power level, even if it's a blend of them all. But if I had to choose one, I'd do what you're saying by going with the lower end.

My recommendation for supers RPGing is Marvel Heroic RP. I don't know how easy or hard it is to find through various channels, but I've had good experiences with it playing Marvel, adapting it to fantasy with some help from the Cortex+ Haciker's Guide, and most recently (and hopefully again tomorrow) using it for MERP/LotR.

I was going to recommend the same or, rather, the Cortex system in general, especially now that the Cortex Prime book has been release to Kickstarter backers a day or so ago. It's good at framing rolls in terms of various aspects: ability to be a team player, core ethical values, Fate-like character aspects, etc.

There's about one session left of Dungeon World to play, mainly to wrap things up. Afterwards, my partner elected to try Numenera.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm firm on Forged in the Dark. If I was doing supers generally I wouldn't be reinventing the wheel. For doing a gang of low-super villains though FitD is pretty ideal, and I wanted to explore the mechanics. For a high-super game I'd probably look elsewhere. I'm reading through Capes, Cowls and Villains Foul and so far it looks pretty awesome. The writers really get the genre.

 

[pemerton]

I'm firm on Forged in the Dark.

I was posting for @hawkeyefan's benefit, rather than in relation to your project. MHRP/Cortex+ Heroic would be good for a classic Supervillain Team-Up, but it's not at all gritty - which seems to be at least part of what you're going for.