Any Supers Game that feels Super?

[Blue]

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

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying was the most recent iteration of Marvel before the one that just came out. It was from Margaret Weis Productions (yes, the Dragonlance++ author). It is not currently available - it lost the IP license a few years back. That said, it's based on Cortex+, and Cortex Prime, the next generation of those rules, is available. And so many fans have put up Datafiles (character sheets) for various heroes and villains at various times and arcs that everything needed to run it can be purchased or legal free fan provided, but not under that title.

 

[pemerton]

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

TSR published Marvel Super Heroes. As per @Blue's post just upthread, Margaret Weis published Marvel Heroic RP, which is a particular implementation of Cortex+.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

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

You're thinking of Marvel Super Heroes, usually abbreviated MSH. All those retroclones (FASERIP being perhaps the most notable) and OSR cousins are based on it. There's a lengthy read-through and discussion of the 1986 "advanced" edition over at this link and an even longer thread for the original 1984 version here. They're pretty detailed but long, and don't treat either system with the kid gloves nostalgia frequently affords them. Both are clunky in different ways, and one of the oft-repeated observations on those threads is that many people didn't actually play by RAW but often thought they did back in the day.

TSR published Marvel Super Heroes. As per @Blue's post just upthread, Margaret Weis published Marvel Heroic RP, which is a particular implementation of Cortex+.

If MHR was still available it might have edged out Sentinel Comics on my recs (although I prefer to play in homebrew settings rather than published ones like Marvel) but I didn't want to rec a dead game that's become quite hard to find for reasonable prices on the used market already. It was extremely solid despite having had a mayfly lifespan before the license ended. That said, Sentinels is by far its closest in-print cousin mechanically, which is no shock considering Cam Banks' involvement in design. There are considerable differences but you can see the similarities easily if you're familiar with Cortex in general.

 

[Lord Shark]

Giant Corporate-Owned Comics Superhero Roleplaying is a Cortex Prime hack that recreates MHR without the Marvel intellectual property; however, it's not a complete game in itself. You need the Cortex Prime rules.

 

[cbwjm]

Though you're unlikely to find it today, marvel saga system was one I felt was really good and fast paced.

A system I like but still need to try out to see how it plays is ICONS, it seems simple enough and uses determination points which can be used to change/take advantage of the fiction, those with less powers have more determination as those with more powers tend to rely on those powers. So Batman might have 5 determination whereas Superman might have only 1.

As others have mentioned, a lot of it is based on the old faserip marvel system.

 

[Theory of Games]

WiHuh.

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

Steve Kenson, designer of Mutants & Masterminds, did: it's called ICONS. It's a perfect blend of MSH and FATE. Kind of like how M&M is DC Heroes combined with FATE.

I prefer M&M because it truly allows you to make powerful supers like in the comics. Phoenix once consumed an entire star wiping out its system in the process. Most supers ttrpgs can't touch that level of power but M&M can. It comes with a good degree of complexity but that's the price you pay in order to have a system that simulates Omega-level supers. Champions (older editions and up to 6e) can also handle cosmic-level supers.

You cannot do those kinds of supers with Marvel Heroic or Masks or most other supers rpgs.

 

[Blue]

Two supers games that are on my wishlist to play are Sentinel Comics and Worlds in Peril (or perhaps Galaxies in Peril, which I understand is a later, FitD version). Can anyone with experience on either of those two (well, three) talk about their experience with them, and if they "feel super" as per the thread title.

@Wofano Wotanto You mentioned Sentinel Comics upthread, would you share your experiences?

 

[hawkeyefan]

Two supers games that are on my wishlist to play are Sentinel Comics and Worlds in Peril (or perhaps Galaxies in Peril, which I understand is a later, FitD version). Can anyone with experience on either of those two (well, three) talk about their experience with them, and if they "feel super" as per the thread title.

@Wofano Wotanto You mentioned Sentinel Comics upthread, would you share your experiences?

I ran a campaign of Galaxies in Peril. It absolutely felt super. I was surprised how well the FitD system worked for supers. The powers really just grant fictional positioning to do things… you still use Action Ratings for your rolls. This gives things a broader approach to powers, which I think works well.

One note to make is that for my campaign, I used a homebrew setting rather than the default setting in the book (I think it’s called Mandela City?). The setting I made was less a fictional city in the US and was instead an archipelago that was basically a rogue nation in a super hero setting. I felt this was more suited to the faction and team game and would work more in line with BitD’s pressure cooker vibe and the mechanical systems that support that.

But other than that change, we played it as is and it was a fun campaign.

 

[Umbran]

Steve Kenson, designer of Mutants & Masterminds, did: it's called ICONS. It's a perfect blend of MSH and FATE. Kind of like how M&M is DC Heroes combined with FATE.

Mutants and Masterminds is cool, but it is clearly a d20-based product, not a Fate-inspired one. This is backed up by the publishing dates:

DC Heroes was first published in 1985
Mutants and Masterminds was first published in 2002
Fate was first published in 2003.

Since M&M came first, it is unlikely to be particularly inspired by or have much in common with Fate.

 

[Starfox]

WiHuh.

Steve Kenson, designer of Mutants & Masterminds, did: it's called ICONS. It's a perfect blend of MSH and FATE. Kind of like how M&M is DC Heroes combined with FATE.

I prefer M&M because it truly allows you to make powerful supers like in the comics. Phoenix once consumed an entire star wiping out its system in the process. Most supers ttrpgs can't touch that level of power but M&M can. It comes with a good degree of complexity but that's the price you pay in order to have a system that simulates Omega-level supers. Champions (older editions and up to 6e) can also handle cosmic-level supers.

You cannot do those kinds of supers with Marvel Heroic or Masks or most other supers rpgs.

Is the M&M in "Most supers ttrpgs can't touch that level of power but M&M can." Mutants and Masterminds, or is it ICONS, or something else? I'm asking because this is not at all the impression I got playing Mutants and Masterminds, it felt like it had a pretty low power ceiling, but I was not the GM and didn't read up on the system and how it scales so I may be in error.