What's your favorite superhero TTRPG and why?

[Thomas Shey]

That may be - but as a 4e fan three hours seems like far far too long for me.

At a certain point, paying attention to more things is going to have more handling time. Hero has at least three things to track somewhat regularly (Stun, Endurance, how Recovery interacts with those), a lot of meaningful options in terms of manuevers, and many characters have additional options of their own (power options in multipowers or martial manuevers). Since its also not a sudden-death system (barring the old broken Killing Attack "stun explosion") so you're going to have to do more than one hit to put an opponent down--probably at least three assuming an opponent super (this is the flip side of getting at least a little time to figure out things aren't working for you before you go down yourself). With the eight people I quoted, the fact each of them might use 25 minutes each across the course of a combat just can't seem that excessive to me.

Not all of those things might be considered valuable (there's persistent discussion of whether Endurance is really necessary), but the more of the others you strip off, I can't think makes the game play worse; I don't think too many of the others on my list would cut that down by more than 20% per person; people still need to make decisions and people still have a certain number of hits they take before going down. The only difference, really, is a bit of bookkeeping.

(It should be noted that you could like reduce that time further with really simple characters and/or really decisive players, but I'm not going to assume those--its certainly not what I'd expect in my games no matter what system was used.)

 

[MidnightBlue]

I own/play/run lots of RPG genres, but there is definitely a special place in my heart for Supers games. TSR Marvel Superheroes was the first game I bought after D&D red box. While there is something I like about all of many RPGs I own...if I had to pick...let's say three of them:

Tied for first would be Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (Cortex Plus) and City of Mist. Both offer EXACTLY the freedom I want in character creation as a player and ease of threat creation/mechanics as a GM. The Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game book is by far, hands down, the best $20 I ever spent on gaming in my 36-ish years of RPG gaming. I feel like I can play any character or run any game with that little red book.

In 3rd place I think I'd put the Smallville RPG (Cortex Plus Drama System). Using Relationships and Drives as your major attributes is an interesting conflict resolution system and makes the greatest of Gods on the same level as the meekest of sidekicks when it comes to dramatic roleplaying. The other major draw for me is the Pathways character creation system. This is one of the most fun and enjoyable Session Zero drives I've encountered. As the players take turns going through the stages of the Pathways' process, they are fleshing out their characters sheets, but also adding locations and NPCs to the "Pathways Map" of the world surrounding those characters. They also add statements that tie the PCs, NPCs, and locations together. Once the creation process is done, the GM (or Watchtower, to use Smallville's terminology) has a pretty great setting and NPC base to build adventures on that are already tied to the PCs with backstory and significance, she/he knows what drives the PCs, and what relationships are important to those PCs. It makes developing scenarios that will speak to the characters much easier right off the bat.

As I said, there are many out there I love for various reasons (setting, concept, system mechanics, license, etc.), but these three scratch most of my supers itches the best.

Honorable mentions: Godlike & This Favored Land (gritty WWII & American Civil War supers respectively), Better Angels (over the top cheesy villains as actual superheroes as they distract their possessing and power granting demons with flash instead of giving them true horrific villainy), Aberrant and Adventure!, and, of course, TSR Marvel Superheroes and Mayfair DC Super Heroes will always hold special places in my heart and on my book shelves. I could go on and on and on praising my choices or listing other amazing selections from my shelves...so I'll just stop there...grudgingly...

 

[pemerton]

Tied for first would be Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (Cortex Plus) and City of Mist. Both offer EXACTLY the freedom I want in character creation as a player and ease of threat creation/mechanics as a GM.

It's great to see someone praising the PC gen in MHRP. I agree - and when I've adapted the system to fantasy/LotR RPGing have likewise found it straightforward to create PCs like Gandalf, a Dunadan ranger, Dwarf adventurer, etc.

I've never understood this attack on MHRP that it doesn't have a PC gen system.

 

[Neonchameleon]

It's great to see someone praising the PC gen in MHRP. I agree - and when I've adapted the system to fantasy/LotR RPGing have likewise found it straightforward to create PCs like Gandalf, a Dunadan ranger, Dwarf adventurer, etc.

I've never understood this attack on MHRP that it doesn't have a PC gen system.

I think what MHRP doesn't have is a balanced PC gen system. It doesn't put some things in bounds and others out and try to make the characters roughly even mechanically.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It's great to see someone praising the PC gen in MHRP. I agree - and when I've adapted the system to fantasy/LotR RPGing have likewise found it straightforward to create PCs like Gandalf, a Dunadan ranger, Dwarf adventurer, etc.

I've never understood this attack on MHRP that it doesn't have a PC gen system.

Some of us want--or in some cases outright need--more structure than modelling provides.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think what MHRP doesn't have is a balanced PC gen system. It doesn't put some things in bounds and others out and try to make the characters roughly even mechanically.

The argument is that it doesn't make those differences pronounced enough that's a big deal. I'm not really sold on that (and of course, the system not easily handling pronounced differences is only a virtue from a certain POV).

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't have a lot of experience with superhero TTRPGs, but I really liked the X-Men clone that I ran with D20 Modern back in the day. It's the only one I can vouch for.

 

[Sithlord]

Mutants and masterminds hands down. But great times with FASERIP and MEGS

 

[Blue]

Champions was my #1 hands down favorite. But frankly it was because I was in some really superlative campaigns of it, and the first superhero sysem I ran. Started with 2nd ed, all the softcovers, but the BBB (Big Blue Book, a/k/a 3rd) was my favorite edition. I've heard good things about FREd (Fifth Revised Edition). Yes, it's combat can be long - I put it around 4e paragon levels in terms of time needed once you get past the learning curve. We used to do a yearly crossover even between different campaigns but with a single DM, and with 18-22 PCs plus villains (often on different battlefields but using the same phase count) it could last for three and a half to four hours. But with a normal group it was 45-60 minutes for a good combat, or quicker dealing with agents and mooks. Recently went to play 6th Ed and found it missing nostalgia that I was expecting that left me cold.

I haven't played Champions for over a decade. Several times a year I make characters. That's the staying power of it for me.

Marvel Heroic Roleplay (and now Cortex Prime) - Thor and Hawkeye go out on a drinking buddy night and fall into adventure and the system doesn't blink an eyelash at the differences in power level. Also that XP was not about growing more powerful, but character growth and unlocking options.

Various Fate. Venture City I did the most with. Read Wearing the Cape because I like the novel series but never got a chance to play it. Ran just freeform Fate with aspects for pwoers for non-TTRPG people with no notice and they loved it. I've read Spirit of the Century and Shadows of the Century but haven't run them.

Played both V&V and M&M back in the 1900s. (Heh, I liked writing that.) Didn't work for me as much. Probably the first edition of both and never revisited.

TMNT and other Strangeness was the Palladium system which I was never a fan of. Still, loved the source material. Heroes Unlimited, also Palladium, didn't even have that going for it.

Read FASERIP but played very little.

Modern ones I haven't tried but have been told to give a try include Sentinel Comics, Masks (young supers coming into their own), Worlds in Peril (PbtA), Galaxies in PEril (Forged in the Dark successor)

Really, really want to get into a good supers game with a lot of inter-party drama and RP, like a Young Justice or Teen Titans, though it doesn't need to be young heroes.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Favourite is Champions. I like the depth to which you can fiddle with character creation. Also love the flexibility of the combat system. I haven't gotten to play it in... oh maybe 5 years. <sigh>

Lotta love for Marvel FASERIP. It's quick and fun. The karma mechanic allows for very superhero-ey style.

I have the Sentinels CCG and love the heck out of it. I dare say I will get the RPG at some point just to show the love.