A superhero Sunday thoughts

[thormagni]

Hey folks,

We talked at the last game about my running a straight superhero one shot some upcoming Sunday. I don't know if anyone is still interested, but I'm willing if anyone is willing to play. I know it isn't really OGs cup of tea or Bob's, so much. I work again the first Sunday in May, so I couldn't do it then.

On a side note, ICv2 magazine has a list of the five best selling games in several categories up on their Web site. Settlers of Cataan was the best-selling board/family game and to no one's surprise D&D was the best-selling RPG, followed by World of Darkness. But coming in at No. 5 was Mutants and Masterminds, which Vince had mentioned he would be interested in trying.

The list of best-selling games
http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/6654.html

I'm most familiar with Silver Age Sentinels, and I think Chris voted for that. I also got into the playtest for a new superhero RPG that I'm not at liberty to discuss in this forum, but we could play that too. If we played M&M, we could use one of my all-time favorite superhero settings -- San Angelo-City of Heroes which has a M&M version I have purchased.

 

[Fyrestryke]

I'm up for anything superhero related.

 

[thormagni]

A couple of notes on that article I liked to...

1) First, does it scare anyone else that CCGs did $800 million in sales while RPGs did only $25 million? I mean, wow. We are fading away!

2) I don't understand how "Mongoose" can be listed as one of the best-selling RPGs on one line and "Mutants and Masterminds" listed on another. I mean, are they saying all of Mongoose's books combined (Judge Dredd, Conan, the OGLs, etc.) sold better than Mutants and Masterminds? Then why wouldn't it be "Green Ronin" instead of Mutants and Masterminds and why wouldn't you count all of Green Ronin's various lines? And if we are doing it by company, wouldn't Wizards really kick butt with D&D, Star Wars, etc.? And then Steve Jackson could throw in all of its other non-GURPs game lines too and we could really have a free for all.

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

Also it has Days of Wonder as #3 for board games. That is a company, not a board game. Unless they meant Ticket to Ride, which is a board game from Days of Wonder.

800 million for card games? Nah, no big deal, I've seen Magic the gathering games in Japan, Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, so I'm sure it is world wide. Also, these card games gather kids from ages 8? and up....

 

[InzeladunMaster]

I don't understand how "Mongoose" can be listed as one of the best-selling RPGs on one line and "Mutants and Masterminds" listed on another. I mean, are they saying all of Mongoose's books combined (Judge Dredd, Conan, the OGLs, etc.) sold better than Mutants and Masterminds? Then why wouldn't it be "Green Ronin" instead of Mutants and Masterminds and why wouldn't you count all of Green Ronin's various lines? And if we are doing it by company, wouldn't Wizards really kick butt with D&D, Star Wars, etc.? And then Steve Jackson could throw in all of its other non-GURPs game lines too and we could really have a free for all.

It is my understanding that WotC is the number 1 RPG seller with 46.99% of the market share, White Wolf is in second place with 19.20% and Mongoose is the number 3 seller with 6.08% of the market.

You are right though, the entry probably should have been Green Ronin, not MnM.

As for superhero games, I am up for it, but I would prefer d20 as I hate learning new rule systems. My favourite superhero is Superman and I would like to play him.

 

[thormagni]

As for superhero games, I am up for it, but I would prefer d20 as I hate learning new rule systems. My favourite superhero is Superman and I would like to play him.

Ah, back to the D20 debate My concern about D20 is basically that when you play D20, everything feels just like D&D. Like the Old West game I ran (which I think turned out very poorly, I would like to say again) felt like playing cowboys in D&D.

I'm kind of in a quandry, really. Silver Age Sentinels has a D20 version with classes and all, unfortunately the rules are pretty buggy, especially at high power levels. Mutants and Masterminds is sorta based off of D20, however it has no damage rolls, substituting a new Damage save mechanic, has no classes or hit points, and caps all the ability scores at a 20 (anything higher, goes into super-power territory.) I have Aberrant D20, which is probably the most like D20, but it's really a dark game setting and I don't have any extra copies of the rules.

All things being equal, I would like to run a Silver Age Sentinels/Tri-Stat game, because the rules are solid and simple. It takes about 30 seconds to get the grasp of the system, really. Plus I have three copies of the rules, and a bunch of quick-start copies I can loan out.

And I was going to poo-poo running a Superman power-level game, however I was going to do a demo a few years back and I actually put together the TV series Justice League. It took a bit of power tweaking, to make everyone able to play on the same playing field, but I think they turned out pretty well. Instead of making up new characters, everybody could choose a JL team member and we could go from there. Or, I could just set it in the JL cartoon universe and even those who make their own characters could be auxiliary members of the new JL Unlimited team.

Might be a plan, thoughts?

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

I have nothing against superhero games, I'm just not fond of them. Perhaps it was the group I played with for a short time that played the old Champions rpg that turned me off from them. I do like the Tri-stat system. Very easy to play.

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

Does the tri-stat system allows character like....

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/228827

This cartoon has to be the best I've seen for super heroes...evar...

 

[thormagni]

Does the tri-stat system allows character like....

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/228827

This cartoon has to be the best I've seen for super heroes...evar...

Oh my. That was great! Love Moses and the 10 commandmants surfboard.

 

[Odovacar's Ghost]

I only recognized two of the voices. One was an imitation of Sean Connery and the other was that wrestler dude (snap into a slim jim)...randy savage? Didn't recognize the other.