d20 Super Heroes --- coming in July '06 from WOTC

[Dragonblade]

Well, let's not have a flamewar about whether we're going to have a flamewar. That is not the super hero way.

I spit Coke all over the keyboard. Seriously, that was funny.

 

[Acid_crash]

Well, let's not have a flamewar about whether we're going to have a flamewar. That is not the super hero way.

Y'know what was an awesome book? That MSH Ultimate Powers Book. Funny, well-written, extremely useful. I lost mine in 1990 when we moved, and I still mourn its loss.

Hey, Vig --- I'll send you the draft of [Secret Project] this weekend. I believe I have set the bar for [Secret Project's genre] d20 games.

I had the Ultimate Powers Book... bought it, photo copies the enitre book so I didn't lose it. I moved from Germany and stupidly put both in the same box...

somehow I still have all my other MSH products still to this day, but no UPB..

It's a sad memory for me still. Talk about a useful product to have today.

 

[wingsandsword]

I'm going to say something that's unpopular, but I've got to say it. I haven't bought Mutants and Masterminds, and I'm not interested at all in getting it. If they do release a d20 Superheroes book for d20 Modern, I'll buy it the day it comes out.

I like d20 Modern, a lot. The idea of a modular "superpowers" suppliment for it interests me a lot. I don't want to re-learn yet another d20 variant with a point-buy subsystem. Personally, I'd love it if they made superpowers a series of templates, feats, and advanced/prestige classes. Many superpower sets I think could be really well represented by templates, or new races, and a few as advanced classes.

Really, I sincerely hope d20 Superheroes does not have any complex point-buy system for powers like Hero, Silver Age Sentinels, or from what I understand, Mutants and Masterminds. It really just makes things a lot more complicated than it's worth (IMO), and d20 already has the framework of classes, races, templates, feats, and even spells/psionics for weird powers, yet another system just seems to be something "bolted on", much against the basic design concepts of d20 being an integral system.

In my mind, my favorite superhero game was actually Brave New World (yeah, I'm the one guy who liked it), and I even wrote up a homebrew d20 Modern conversion (where most power packages were LA +3 templates).

 

[Ranger REG]

Really, I sincerely hope d20 Superheroes does not have any complex point-buy system for powers like Hero, Silver Age Sentinels, or from what I understand, Mutants and Masterminds. It really just makes things a lot more complicated than it's worth (IMO), and d20 already has the framework of classes, races, templates, feats, and even spells/psionics for weird powers, yet another system just seems to be something "bolted on", much against the basic design concepts of d20 being an integral system.

Try Palladium's Heroes Unlimited RPG, using the same level-based rules system that powers TNMT, Robotech, Palladium Fantasy, and Rifts.

In my mind, my favorite superhero game was actually Brave New World (yeah, I'm the one guy who liked it), and I even wrote up a homebrew d20 Modern conversion (where most power packages were LA +3 templates).

For a moment there, I thought you were going to say you like Foundation, the very first attempt at d20 superhero RPG, way before d20 Modern was released.

 

[JPL]

Put me in the grognard camp too then. MSH is the game the rest of us try to capture the feel of.

Chuck

Well, MSH was my first RPG...and for several years, my only RPG. And I'm no more objective about the first game I loved than I am about the first music I loved or the first woman I loved.

Y'know, my latest theory [henceforth, "the JPL doctrine"] about a successful game is that it's mostly about the GM and the players understanding and appreciating and setting out to emulate the genre we're playing in. That's like synchronizing your imaginations. The rules also help, but that's secondary to having everyone on the same page concerning the conventions of the genre, the level of realism, what is expected of the heroes, etc.

To a bunch of comic nerds circa 1988 playing MSH, that was never a problem. We understood how heroes acted, and what they were able to do, and we played accordingly.

Today, my best games are the ones where I can get the point across --- "this is Fu Manchu crossed with Indiana Jones" or "this is Sliders meets a grown-up multi-sibling Johnny Quest" --- and everyone is on the same page.

 

[teitan]

Ah yes, and so it begins.

An Amazon link expressing the MERE future existence of this product, having the audacity to attempt to rival M&M like it does causes this reaction ("can't compete" ... "lucky if it's half as good")?

I cant wait for the endless flame wars that will occur when the product actually appears.

Chuck

Dude, seriously, look at the track record for D20 Modern products. While not bad, they are certainly disappointing...

J

 

[teitan]

I could see this new Superheroes thingy bing feat based, similar in style and function to the way that Alternity approached superheroes in their Beyond FX supplement. I don't know how that worked out but I could definitely see it done similarly.

J

 

[Psion]

Well, MSH was my first RPG...and for several years, my only RPG. And I'm no more objective about the first game I loved than I am about the first music I loved or the first woman I loved.

I often wonder what I saw in the first woman I loved.

And we'll not get into some of the music choices of my youth...

Ahem.

That said, following the tune of the rest of the post, for us, MSH did the job but was always sort of substandard. DC Heroes was an instant hit and we dumped MSH almost immediately upon learning it. It did a much better job of emulating the genre for us.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Given the rather sad state of the world these days

People need their heroes, they need something, someone to look up to, something greater than themselves.

There's always the possibility that d20 Supers will be M&M, or Blood & Vigilance, or 4C2F, etc.

They're all Open Content, after all. d20 Supers doesn't have to compete with them when it can be them.

 

[Ranger REG]

There's always the possibility that d20 Supers will be M&M, or Blood & Vigilance, or 4C2F, etc.

They're all Open Content, after all. d20 Supers doesn't have to compete with them when it can be them.

Maybe I missed the little label, but I thought d20 Superheroes will be a d20 Modern themebook supplement, kin to d20 Apocalypse, d20 Cyberscape, etc.