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Favorite superhero RPGs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 9128744" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>Champions, certainly.</p><p>The challenge of the superhero genre is that every character can play by his own rules. Magic for Zatana doesn't work like magic for Dr Strange. What Lex Luthor or Hank Pym do with advanced technology is nothing like what Tony Stark does with it. A new origin story can bring a whole alien planet (or galaxy-spanning empire) or alternate dimension into being.... it's nuts. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> No "traditional" RPG in the D&D mold could ever do that, mapping one superpower to one mechanical sub-system would be overwhelming, you could never present more than a minute sampling of what the comics have to offer without a rule set that'd fill an old-fashioned encyclopaedia.</p><p>The Champions solution was to model the effects of superpowers with mechanics, and let the players fill in the how & why with "special effects" (today, we'd say "re-skinning") and advantages/limitations that tweaked those mechanics. Downright revolutionary for 1981.</p><p>The unique initiative system using DEX/SPD and a bizarre little chart, and the first "off turn actions" I can remember seeing in an RPG, actually kinda evoked the feel of the action progressing in panels, like a comic. </p><p></p><p>Hero System, which grew out of Champions in less than a decade, is also my first choice for a universal system, too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 9128744, member: 996"] Champions, certainly. The challenge of the superhero genre is that every character can play by his own rules. Magic for Zatana doesn't work like magic for Dr Strange. What Lex Luthor or Hank Pym do with advanced technology is nothing like what Tony Stark does with it. A new origin story can bring a whole alien planet (or galaxy-spanning empire) or alternate dimension into being.... it's nuts. :D No "traditional" RPG in the D&D mold could ever do that, mapping one superpower to one mechanical sub-system would be overwhelming, you could never present more than a minute sampling of what the comics have to offer without a rule set that'd fill an old-fashioned encyclopaedia. The Champions solution was to model the effects of superpowers with mechanics, and let the players fill in the how & why with "special effects" (today, we'd say "re-skinning") and advantages/limitations that tweaked those mechanics. Downright revolutionary for 1981. The unique initiative system using DEX/SPD and a bizarre little chart, and the first "off turn actions" I can remember seeing in an RPG, actually kinda evoked the feel of the action progressing in panels, like a comic. Hero System, which grew out of Champions in less than a decade, is also my first choice for a universal system, too. [/QUOTE]
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