Theory of Games
Storied Gamist
Great game and there's been a couple of clones. Squadron UK was the one I'm remembering right now.
Favorite Superhero TTRPG
- Thread starter Theory of Games
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Ooh? Champions was the game that really hooked me on RPGs back in the day.
MichaelSomething
Legend
I'm running a M&M game right now. Being related to D20 systems, transitioning from my largely D&D experience made it work well enough. It is taking longer than I like to grok the particulars.
Currently my group is assisting Keanu Reeves (and Elon Musk) as they expell the forces of Ultralord from the fortress of Keanu.
Currently my group is assisting Keanu Reeves (and Elon Musk) as they expell the forces of Ultralord from the fortress of Keanu.
Thomas Shey
Legend
The old Nile Empire absolutely had low to sometimes moderate superheroes in it.
Thomas Shey
Legend
I had a power-and-skill system for an old game called Superhero 2044 that was, more or less, Hero's predecessor. I can still see some phrasing oddities of mine laying around the rules.
Wofano Wotanto
Hero
Aramis has already done a lengthy post that I don't want to either duplicate or contradict here, so I'm going to point you at one of the index pages on my blog with my (incomplete) musings about the game for you to look at at your leisure. Hopefully there's some content there that will be useful for you, and you can always ask questions either in the comments there (which would be more convenient for me) or here and I'll try to help. I'm very much a fan of the game for one-offs, shorts arcs, and ongoing campaigns up to about 50 sessions in length, although I think it needs some tweaking to go much beyond that (where mounting "experience" in the form of collections outpaces the encounter design system).
You mentioned having played MHR, and it's probably the closest thing out there (if a dead licensed game can properly be called "out there") to SCRPG, sharing designers and enough mechanical elements to be familiar. The two are sort of funhouse mirror reflections of their Cortex ancestor, with SCRPG maybe being the more divergent of the two.
hawkeyefan
Legend
I've played most of the major ones over the years, though some far more than others. I've never really clicked with the heavier systems like Champions. They just don't feel like comics to me.
My favorites that I've played recently:
- Galaxies in Peril- this is a Forged in the Dark take on superheroes, and it works surprisingly well. The system for powers is almost absent... you simply pick what kind of powers you want, that fit with your playbook, and that's it. It works really well. I think the default setting could be tweaked a bit to better suit the team and downtime elements, but other than that, it's a highly functional game and we had a great year-long weekly campaign of it.
- Marvel Superheroes RPG- the classic by TSR. I broke it out recently to play with my 6 year old. The game not only holds up really well... I think it was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Degrees of success, player facing mechanics, player resources to influence play. The whole karma system to incentivize decision making and present difficult choices. It works really well, it's very simple, and also robust. Absolutely a blast to play and it flows really well. For the most part, all you need is the Universal Table to run a game.
- Masks- I only played two sessions of this, but it's a fantastic game. As others have said, it's very much focused on the identities of the characters more than just super-heroics. But that's what makes it so compelling. Most superhero comics... or most good ones, anyway... aren't just about the powers and the fights. They're about the characters. And this game ensures that happens... play is absolutely about the characters and their identities... not just the superhero masks that they wear, but the kind we all wear.
My favorites that I've played recently:
- Galaxies in Peril- this is a Forged in the Dark take on superheroes, and it works surprisingly well. The system for powers is almost absent... you simply pick what kind of powers you want, that fit with your playbook, and that's it. It works really well. I think the default setting could be tweaked a bit to better suit the team and downtime elements, but other than that, it's a highly functional game and we had a great year-long weekly campaign of it.
- Marvel Superheroes RPG- the classic by TSR. I broke it out recently to play with my 6 year old. The game not only holds up really well... I think it was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Degrees of success, player facing mechanics, player resources to influence play. The whole karma system to incentivize decision making and present difficult choices. It works really well, it's very simple, and also robust. Absolutely a blast to play and it flows really well. For the most part, all you need is the Universal Table to run a game.
- Masks- I only played two sessions of this, but it's a fantastic game. As others have said, it's very much focused on the identities of the characters more than just super-heroics. But that's what makes it so compelling. Most superhero comics... or most good ones, anyway... aren't just about the powers and the fights. They're about the characters. And this game ensures that happens... play is absolutely about the characters and their identities... not just the superhero masks that they wear, but the kind we all wear.
Theory of Games
Storied Gamist
I got Worlds but only glanced at Galaxies. I'll take another look since I like FitD.
PrunellaUK
Tea-stained crumpet-ridden idiot
My first superhero RPG was Chaosium's Superworld in 1984 or thereabouts. Since then I've sampled almost everything in the genre.
A lot of supers games are more wargame than rpg, with a big emphasis on fighting, and complex mechanics for handing a wide variety of interactions. Superworld and Champions fit into this category, but I've always found them to be overwrought, and appeal to a certain kind of min-max player.
I lean towards lighter games to get out of the trap of constant battles, and move towards a more narrative approach. Obviously the '80s-era Marvel Super Heroes RPG was a step in that direction. But honestly, I always felt that Golden Heroes (still around in the form of Simon Burley's Squadron UK, which you can find here) is one of the best of that early era. At least fights were swifter, and it gave a lot of throught to the metagame structure around the fights.
Of the more recent systems I feel that MASKS does some really interesting things with narrative storytelling is certainly pushes closer to my ideal. The Sentinel Comics RPG system is at the crunchier end, with a dice pool mechanism that might tax players suffering from brain fade at the end of an evening session, but otherwise does a lot of really interesting things, particularly with regards to integrating the environment into contests.
However, although systems like the Cypher System's Claim the Sky, the Marvel Multiverse Roleplay Game and Savage Worlds Superpowers Companion all have good things to recommend them (even if they are still a bit fighty) I'd probably run FATE's Venture City as my personal preference. It's FATE, it's focus is storytelling, you are less likely to get bogged down in dreary, dragged-out tactical battles.
A lot of supers games are more wargame than rpg, with a big emphasis on fighting, and complex mechanics for handing a wide variety of interactions. Superworld and Champions fit into this category, but I've always found them to be overwrought, and appeal to a certain kind of min-max player.
I lean towards lighter games to get out of the trap of constant battles, and move towards a more narrative approach. Obviously the '80s-era Marvel Super Heroes RPG was a step in that direction. But honestly, I always felt that Golden Heroes (still around in the form of Simon Burley's Squadron UK, which you can find here) is one of the best of that early era. At least fights were swifter, and it gave a lot of throught to the metagame structure around the fights.
Of the more recent systems I feel that MASKS does some really interesting things with narrative storytelling is certainly pushes closer to my ideal. The Sentinel Comics RPG system is at the crunchier end, with a dice pool mechanism that might tax players suffering from brain fade at the end of an evening session, but otherwise does a lot of really interesting things, particularly with regards to integrating the environment into contests.
However, although systems like the Cypher System's Claim the Sky, the Marvel Multiverse Roleplay Game and Savage Worlds Superpowers Companion all have good things to recommend them (even if they are still a bit fighty) I'd probably run FATE's Venture City as my personal preference. It's FATE, it's focus is storytelling, you are less likely to get bogged down in dreary, dragged-out tactical battles.
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PrunellaUK
Tea-stained crumpet-ridden idiot
I'll just add that Aaron Allston's Champions supplement Strike Force contains two pages that are probably the most essential reading in all of roleplaying. In other words, his 'blue book' system. To be honest a lot of modern online roleplay, particularly via clients like Discord, does exactly what Aaron Allston was recommending back in the mid-'80s. But it was good to be there when the idea sprung, fully-formed, like Athena from the brow of Zeus.
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