Any Supers Game that feels Super?

[jdrakeh]

Longshot City by Melsonian Arts Council is built on the chassis of Troika, but brings a lot of that Marvel Super Heroes (TSR) feel with random roll character creation.

 

[grankless]

I think super hero role-playing probably works better with a more narrative structure, but I am pretty new to such games. Something like Blades in the Dark might work well. Actually the Princess World hack of BitD I have been using could be a good start. There each princess has a specialty, such as "Rose, princess of Flame" or "Clara, princess of waves" and whenever that specialty is relevant, you gain an additional die. Compared to base BitD this is really cheesy, but it works, feels heroic, and makes each princess unique. Considering the almost unlimited scope of possible superpowers, its impossible to write detailed rules for each.

What does PbtA stand for?

Capes In The Dark by seasidesepulchre Check out Capes in the Dark, since you like Forged in the Dark games. There's anohter superhero one out there but I forget the name.

 

[Umbran]

I vote that Masks is a great game, but it isn't a "supers game". It is a teen angst game with superpowers. There's a difference.

I always liked the "FASERIP" Marvel Super Heroes, from TSR. It is not a "balanced" system, for pretty much any meaning of that term, though.

These days, if I wanted to run supers, I would probably go with the Sentinel Comics RPG.

 

[Umbran]

Huh.
I just realized one could probably come up with a really fast-playing Supers RPG by blending FASERIP and Fate Accelerated.

 

[Blue]

There's always the problem of how you can model a team like the Avengers or the Justice League who have members like Thor & Superman working shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Batman, Hawkeye, or Black Widow. Without some sort of narrative system, it's tough to have something challenging Superman that Batman can tangle with.

This one of the strengths of Marvel Heroic Rolplay. Thor and Hawkeye can go out on a buddy's drinking night, with unexpected entertainment from Loki, and it all works out.

 

[Squared]

I know you said your preference was for narrative games but I'm going to throw this one out there anyways.

Prowlers and Paragons Ultimate Edition is an awesome game, a solid rules medium game. It manages to capture the feel of a game like Mutants and Masterminds while being much easier to run and build characters for. Game play is fast and combat breezy.

We recently changed from Mutants and Masterminds because half of the table could not make their own character sheets and even when someone else made one for them they just did not know what was on it. Now everyone can make their own characters quickly and there are few questions about what a power does, it mostly just does what it says on the tin.

The game manages to walk the line between mechanical complexity and ease of use. While at the same time providing a good amount of detail to support the roleplay.

^2

 

[Starfox]

The Marvel game from TSR has got good things said about it, and so has the DC Heroes game. I think I bought that at some con, I need to check my bookshelf. Prowlers and Paragons does sound interesting too. I also found this Savage Worlds hack announced here on ENworld. Savage Worlds might be a suitably quick-and-dirty game for what I want. I looked for a Blades in the Dark hack for superheroes. There is Girl by Moonlight. Seen it in a shop but don't know much else.

I am not planning to start a supers game, I just thought about them and how disappointed I have been with the ones I tried, so I wanted to ask.

 

[Lord Shark]

Huh.
I just realized one could probably come up with a really fast-playing Supers RPG by blending FASERIP and Fate Accelerated.

That's basically Icons, which traces its DNA to both FASERIP and Fate. Along with Cortex/MHR, it's one of my favorite supers RPGs.

 

[Starfox]

This one of the strengths of Marvel Heroic Rolplay. Thor and Hawkeye can go out on a buddy's drinking night, with unexpected entertainment from Loki, and it all works out.

Is Marvel Heroic Roleplay available today? I remember it as a TSR game.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Is Marvel Heroic Roleplay available today? I remember it as a TSR game.

There are a number of retroclones and OSRs of it.

Edit: Aaaand as the people below indicated, I've confused it with MSH (I'm actually much fonder of MHR, so I have no excuse).