Best system/setting for Super-Heroes?

[Thotas]

I'm going with the choice of DC Heroes (which as stated above can be found -- if you look real hard -- as "Blood of Heroes" now) or the much praised Mutants and Masterminds. As far as choosing between the two, I would point out that the creators of M&M must've been familiar with DCH 'cause, though no one seems to aknowledge it, M&M is very clearly a spefic d20 adaption of DCH, not just superhero games in general. As to the quality of DCH?
If you took it's basic concept and PC layout, shoe-horned in the original West End Star Wars version of how a stat worked to smooth out that horrid doubling progression and eye-strain inducing comparison AV/OV/EV/RV chart (the one flaw in the game, but admittedly a Huge one) and grafted on Alternity's 3-kinds-of-damage rules and handed that to the creators of D&D 3.0, you'd have created ...
Best. RPG. Ever.

 

[Psion]

I'm a big fan of the DC Heroes system as well. However it is sort of still in print. The game continues on without a DC license as Blood of Heroes from Pulsar games (www.pulsargamesinc.com). I don't have a copy of this version, but it does claim to use the system.

Due to being stung by Wizards' attic, Pulsar games was effectively defunct, and it was effectively impossible to find a copy of BoH.

Some interested parties managed to purchase the remnants of pulsar with hopes of getting it back on its feet, but I hadn't heard they were back to distributing yet.

 

[countgray]

I gotta say that I love Champions and I think it is the very best super-hero style roleplaying system ever. It gives you the tools to create any kind of superhero you want with any kind of power and the system is very balanced so that a speedster with very different powers from a gadget-guy or a superman type of strong hero can group up with a guy that shoots ray-blasts and everyone will be evenly matched and capable in their own way.

You aren't locked into classes. It's a point based system where everyone starts out with say 100 points or 200 points or wherever the GM thinks would be a good starting power-level for your group, and you buy abilities and powers with your points up to the limit. Depending on your character concept you can make a very focused character with one or two very powerful abilities, or you can be a jack-of-all-trades with a lot of different powers of lower levels. You can be anything that you can imagine (up to the point limit that your GM sets)

There are disadvantages too that you can take (such as strange looks like the Thing, or secret identity that you have to protect, or phobias, or hunted by an evil organization, or uncontrollable rage, or vulnerabilies to Fire or Kryptonite or an arrow in the heel, etc.) that pose problems for your character but give you points back that you can buy more powers elsewhere to boost you up. These disadvantages also make your character more interesting, can help you create your backstory and can help the GM with plot points to get the game going.

There is a little math involved, but once you get the hang of it it is an infinitely adaptable and elegant system that will let you run any kind of game with any kind of character or powers. I have played in Superhero campaigns using the Hero System rules, and in a fantasy campaign where it worked very well too. I used it for a 1940's pulp-style campaign once (sort of a cross between Indiana Jones & Call of Chulhu) that went over very well. The system is not just limited to Super-heroes but is by far and away the best system suited to gaming in that genre.

I just can't recommend Champions highly enough. You can find lots of supplements too detailing Cities, villains, organizations, etc. for use with your superhero campaign. There have been a lot of adventures written for Champions over the years (a lot of them out of print) that you can pick up in used bookstores and on the net that are a ton of fun and might help you get ideas for adventures, examples of NPC's etc.

Hope you have a fantastic time with your campaign whatever system you choose!

 

[Brian Chalian]

Now my knowledge of systems doesn't go much farther beyond Alternity, Dnd and Vampire so I hoped some of you could tell me which system/setting you have found most useful when running such a campaign.

I've played DC Heroes, FASERIP Marvel, Marvel SAGA, Mutants & Masterminds, GURPS Supers, and Heroes Unlimited.

My favorite so far is Marvel SAGA. It's light on the rules and fast to play. The biggest drawback are that the artwork on the cards can spoil the mood if you aren't playing in the Marvel Universe and the fact it's out of print.

GURPS Supers is rules heavy and favors realism over plausibility, making it very deadly. If a metahuman can throw a car, he can punch a human in half. In print.

Heroes Unlimited is fun, but the rules are weighted so that guns are better than super powers. Very odd position for a supers game. In print.

But I would never play DC Heroes, FASERIP Marvel, or Mutants & Masterminds again.

The power levels for DCH climb too high too fast for my taste. Using a WW analogy, if you had two dots in Strength and raised it to three dots, you'd now be twice as strong.

FASERIP Marvel and M&M have the same problem: unbeatable DR. I'm talking 3.0 Iron Golem DR. We tried playing the adventure included in the M&M book. We must have sat there for two hours trying to affect the French League in the first encounter. The only one we managed to affect at all was the speedster. He took damage now and then.

If you have to play d20, you are better off slapping the pre-erratta 3.0 psionic monster template onto d20 Modern characters and calling the at-will spells "powers." I'm not even kidding.

 

[Ranger REG]

My vote is on Mutants & Masterminds. Very playable, very easy and simple to create characters, no classes but offers suggested "archetypes" (templates found in many other game system). And you only need one die: d20.

Champion is the best but also complex. Like D&D, it's been around long enough to undergo many improvements (currently using the Hero System 5th Edition), so it has the advantage over the newcomers, even Mutants & Masterminds. But I wouldn't dismiss MnM yet.

 

[pointyman2000]

Champions and maybe Silver Age Sentinels. I'm curious about Mutants and Masterminds, but I've seen the previous two at work and they emulate comics very well.