Cartoons as RPG Settings

[Urriak Uruk]

There are a bunch of DC properties that were cartoons...
Justice League of America (1960's)/Superfriends (early 1970s), Aquaman (1960's), Batman (1990's), Plastic Man Action Comedy Hour (1970s)...
THey don't need their own, but could be a nice supplement for the current DC game when one comes out... Noting that the powers have somewhat different limits than the comics.

Marvel has their playtest rules out, and Batman has an RPG kickstarter right now, so there's a couple options for these.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light

Visionaries and D&D are both owned by Hasbro, just saying...

 

[Aldarc]

Visionaries and D&D are both owned by Hasbro, just saying...

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That is a good point, but that does rain on my parade a bit. D&D would not be my first choice for running Visionaries.* I'm skeptical if D&D style classes are a great fit. How would the various characters even map onto distinct classes or archetypes? And the idea that wizards are NPCs and not PCs, who are mostly mundane knights with a smattering of magic, would result in a riot for a lot of D&D players. We also never see (in our brief window of 13 episodes) the characters getting anywhere near the power level of level 20 characters in D&D. I'm not sure if that sort of progression really works for the series.

* I would look at something like Cortex Prime (see Tales of Xadia or the upcoming Legends of Grayskull). Characters could have guided Distinctions like Character Concept, Animal Totem, and Vision (i.e., their ideals about the future world or magic).

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

That is a good point, but that does rain on my parade a bit. D&D would not be my first choice for running Visionaries.* I'm skeptical if D&D style classes are a great fit. How would the various characters even map onto distinct classes or archetypes? And the idea that wizards are NPCs and not PCs, who are mostly mundane knights with a smattering of magic, would result in a riot for a lot of D&D players. We also never see (in our brief window of 13 episodes) the characters getting anywhere near the power level of level 20 characters in D&D. I'm not sure if that sort of progression really works for the series.

For a D&D adaption, I'd probably have PC spellcasters as contemporary people rediscovering the lost secrets of magic. Merklynn and his ilk would be patron level entities, powerful enough to have survived hibernation during the Age of Science. The Visionaries themselves seem like good candidates for a background feat. As to the level issue, I'd just chalk that up to the narrative being cut short.

 

[Aldarc]

For a D&D adaption, I'd probably have PC spellcasters as contemporary people rediscovering the lost secrets of magic. Merklynn and his ilk would be patron level entities, powerful enough to have survived hibernation during the Age of Science. The Visionaries themselves seem like good candidates for a background feat. As to the level issue, I'd just chalk that up to the narrative being cut short.

Differences of opinion I suppose, because I still remain unconvinced that D&D would be a good fit for Visionaries. I would prefer not force an oversized square into a small, round hole. I think that I would rather not play Visionaries at all than to play such a ill-suited version.

 

[payn]

The Big O?

 

[aramis erak]

Marvel has their playtest rules out, and Batman has an RPG kickstarter right now, so there's a couple options for these.

Marvel's new system is not a happy thing... Not quite champions level math, but more math than a ruleset of that apparent weight should have.
Between way to much math to redo each level, the advancement is set to be WAY too fast, then brick wall. The math, while simple, is double+double digit most levels, and so the mathematically inept (a surprisingly large portion of gamerdom, especially since almost all the math in RPGs technically counts as algebra, with occasional dips into Trig and Calculus) are going to find it slow.

I'd rather run Sentinel Comics or AMSH for the saturday cartoon supers. Plus, newest Marvel as written doesn't do Supes level PCs justice.

 

[Tonguez]

 

[Tonguez]

Hm, that's a good point. I've only watched the first half of the first season of Samurai Jack, so I'm probably not the best person to ask. I haven't gotten to much of the high-tech stuff. I've played plenty of Lo5R, though, and that game system is pretty flexible...but I admit, robots and vehicles might be too much work in the long run.

Hm. BESM also comes to mind, but...no. I don't think that would work either.

EDIT: Maybe OVA? It looks promising, but I've never played it.

Yeah BESM would be a good for Samurai Jack

the Samurai Jack setting is super gonzo post Akupolyptic mutants, robots, technopunks, aliens, gangsters and magic.

it could work with a wuxia-style Gamma world

 

[CleverNickName]

How about this for an idea: