Good Superhero-Game?
- Thread starter Infernal Teddy
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shilsen
Adventurer
Mallus said:
*beats own head on desk*
Oh, sure! And at least give the poor guy some credit. Thus far every time he's hit a girl she's never actually been able to hit back afterwards.
Ah, the little victories my characters have to take pride in.
Seeten said:
No, no - poor Chris (who's 17) always tries to help. It's just that a combination of luck and circumstances has had him end up punching women, and the damn talking dog has been bugging him about it ever since. And the reputation's become a standing joke in and out of character. With his luck, he'd be helping your PC and something would go wrong and end up making him punch her unwillingly.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that Ruckus (the dog) not-so-lovingly refers to Chris constantly as Douchebag? He's even started introducing Chris to people as such. I'm thinking that's going to be his superhero name. Douchebag, Defender of Justice and Hitter of Women. Oh joy!
Mallus said:
You're enjoying this, aren't you?
I think a little explanation is in order, so here's what happened to garner Chris his reputation:
1) The campaign started with the three PCs besides Joseirus joining the EVIL school and starting their first day with a few tests in the danger room to determine their capabilities. Their group consisted of Chris, Randy (the hyperactive spinning guy), Ruckus, twin psions called Adam and Lilith, and lastly - Timmy. Timmy happens to be Ruckus' owner, has no powers whatsoever, is convinced he can heal Ruckus & talk to him (because Ruckus has persuaded him that he's the source of Ruckus' strange powers), and is effectively a group complication since we have to stop fighting and save him every so often.
Anyway, the last test consists of a baby whose lollipop we have to take. Which turns out to be a horribly powerful mentalist and mind-controls and/or mind blasts most of us. We manage to get past that and complete the test, but by then Adam is badly hurt and Lilith has a breakdown and is randomly mind blasting people (including the school medics/technicians who showed up to let us out of the danger room and tend to the wounded). With nobody else being able to stop her, Chris apologizes and then knocks her cold. That's one.
2) A few days later, after having been joined by Joseirus and wrestled Cthulhu (before Joseirus threw him 500 miles in the air, dropped him in the ocean and created a tidal wave - long story), the four of us are trying to grab dinner at a restaurant which gets attacked by a pair of super-criminal siblings and their henchmen. After a quick exchange of attacks, everyone else is engaged in different places and Chris is left facing the female super-villain. This time he doesn't apologize and knocks her out.
3) A couple days later there's a situation with hundreds of people spontaneously beginning to spin wildly through the air. Chris, standing on Joseirus' flaming chariot, tries to catch a woman whirling by. Which he succeeds at, but she keeps whirling and promptly dislocates her arm. Figures.
So there's the saga of Chris and his many women. Not so bad, is it? Right?
For anyone interested, this is Joseirus, The Egyptian God of Mexican Wrestlers, living testimony to the power and flexibility of M&M 2nd Ed.
A litttle explanation is in order first. Perhaps a lot, but this isn't the place for me to discuss where ideas like Joseirus come from. I should take that up with my therapist.
Keep in mind when I joined the group, shil was already playing Chris, aka Epic, a brick whose not-too-shabby at super-wrestling himself. So I had to take a different tack, using a combination of superpowers to simulate the Mexican wrestling moves taught to young Jose Ramirez by his relative from the future (where else could the Egyptian God of Mexican Wrestlers come from?).
STR: 10
DEX: 18
CON: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA:12
Saves: FORT +5 REF +7 WILL +7 TOUGHNESS +10
DEFENSE 20/12 INIT +4 ATTACK +5 Hero Points: 2
Feats: Defensive Roll (5), Evasion (2), Move-by Action, Uncanny Dodge, Luck (1), Attack Focus -melee (5), Dodge Focus (5), Quick Change (1)
Skills: Bluff (+1), Computers (+1), Disguise (+1), Drive (+4), Escape Artist (+4), Gather Info (+2), Handle Animal (+1), Intimidate (+1), Medicine (+5), Notice (+9), Sense Motive (+12), Stealth (+5), Languages (1)
Powers:
Flight (4), Super-Stength (3), flaw: only while flying -"The Chariot of Ra"
Immunity (5): entrapment (all holds, snares, entanglement)
Super-Senses: Tremorsense
Snare (10), flaw: range Touch, extra: backlash, feat (2): affects insubstantial -"The Seven Secret Holds of Ka-Wrestling"
(the Snare is his main wrestling hold. Basically, he ties opponents limbs --or one of their souls-- into knots. They damage themselves as they try to break free.)
Nullify (9) flaw: range Touch -"The Khonsuplex"
alternate powers: Dazzle (9), visual/aural, flaw: range Touch -"The Ra-Slap", Dazzle (9), visual, extra: explosion, flaw: range Touch -"The Double Ra-Slap", Teleport (9) others only, extra: attack, flaw: range Touch, limitation: only outdoors -"The Nut-Buster"
(the Nut-Buster is Joseirus's big throw. Its a prayer to the Eqyptian sky-goddess that teleports the target high into the air... and sometimes low-earth orbit. We had to tone that down a little after the Ctulhu incident)
Device (1) /Protection 5, flaw: easily removed -"The Mask of Ramon-Ra"
Description:
As Jose: 5ft. 130 lbs. Mexican-American boy usually wearing brown corduroys, a Dragonball Z tee shirt and carrying a Nintendo DS.
As Joseirus: same, except he's shirtless and wearing a mask of gold and lapis lazuli.
You should note that Joseirus has no way to directly damage opponents. I thought that was very fitting.
A litttle explanation is in order first. Perhaps a lot, but this isn't the place for me to discuss where ideas like Joseirus come from. I should take that up with my therapist.
Keep in mind when I joined the group, shil was already playing Chris, aka Epic, a brick whose not-too-shabby at super-wrestling himself. So I had to take a different tack, using a combination of superpowers to simulate the Mexican wrestling moves taught to young Jose Ramirez by his relative from the future (where else could the Egyptian God of Mexican Wrestlers come from?).
STR: 10
DEX: 18
CON: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA:12
Saves: FORT +5 REF +7 WILL +7 TOUGHNESS +10
DEFENSE 20/12 INIT +4 ATTACK +5 Hero Points: 2
Feats: Defensive Roll (5), Evasion (2), Move-by Action, Uncanny Dodge, Luck (1), Attack Focus -melee (5), Dodge Focus (5), Quick Change (1)
Skills: Bluff (+1), Computers (+1), Disguise (+1), Drive (+4), Escape Artist (+4), Gather Info (+2), Handle Animal (+1), Intimidate (+1), Medicine (+5), Notice (+9), Sense Motive (+12), Stealth (+5), Languages (1)
Powers:
Flight (4), Super-Stength (3), flaw: only while flying -"The Chariot of Ra"
Immunity (5): entrapment (all holds, snares, entanglement)
Super-Senses: Tremorsense
Snare (10), flaw: range Touch, extra: backlash, feat (2): affects insubstantial -"The Seven Secret Holds of Ka-Wrestling"
(the Snare is his main wrestling hold. Basically, he ties opponents limbs --or one of their souls-- into knots. They damage themselves as they try to break free.)
Nullify (9) flaw: range Touch -"The Khonsuplex"
alternate powers: Dazzle (9), visual/aural, flaw: range Touch -"The Ra-Slap", Dazzle (9), visual, extra: explosion, flaw: range Touch -"The Double Ra-Slap", Teleport (9) others only, extra: attack, flaw: range Touch, limitation: only outdoors -"The Nut-Buster"
(the Nut-Buster is Joseirus's big throw. Its a prayer to the Eqyptian sky-goddess that teleports the target high into the air... and sometimes low-earth orbit. We had to tone that down a little after the Ctulhu incident)
Device (1) /Protection 5, flaw: easily removed -"The Mask of Ramon-Ra"
Description:
As Jose: 5ft. 130 lbs. Mexican-American boy usually wearing brown corduroys, a Dragonball Z tee shirt and carrying a Nintendo DS.
As Joseirus: same, except he's shirtless and wearing a mask of gold and lapis lazuli.
You should note that Joseirus has no way to directly damage opponents. I thought that was very fitting.
Last edited:
It certainly is.shilsen said:
I wonder if I'll get a chance to play some of the other members of the 41st century's "Lords of (Historical) Inaccuracy" pantheon. Like...
Vespa, the Roman Goddess of Motor-Scooters.
Glamaterasu, the Shinto Goddess of Cross-Dressing Rock Stars. Or perhaps her son, Iggyzanami, God of Performers Who Relieve Themselves Onstage.
And Hello Savior, the collectible Goddess owned by the Sandio Corporation.
AFGNCAAP
First Post
Well, there's enough huzzahs for M&M 2e that don't need further augmentation, so I'll go a different route & promote a dead system. 
IMHO, Marvel SAGA worked great. However, I'd say the Reed Richards' Guide to Everything supplement helped make the game great, & it helped fix issues/questions regarding certain things (like other sorts of skill-focused characters, as well as super science stuff & magic items) regarding the RAW in the main game book. I still prefer SAGA over the newer MURPG, though I'd prefer it to be streamlined a bit more (genericizing some of the powers a bit more, maybe using the 1-10 scale instead of the 1-20 scale, etc.).
However, IIRC, with SAGA, you can feasibly create a hero that's the same power level as some of the more notable characters. With MURPG, unless you really upped the amount of character points for creating a character, that wasn't feasible at all--the established characters had lots of experience/development under their belts to make them as powerful as they are.
Add to that MURPG's generally bad editing, and not really-well-thought-out-or-done power lists & stat write-ups (for example, not including a Leaping power, writing up Toad [as well as Hulk & other known leapers] without said power, then introducing a Leaping power in a later supplement and writing up a new NPC with said power [but never retconning that power for availability for the aforementioned characters]). Then the shell-game shuffle of power stones. Then the method of statting up Device-based characters (liek Iron Man & Thor). All in all, I don't mind shuffling a 100-card deck in comparison for a game which I feel is better overall, IMHO.
Also, IIRC, Kenson did a fair share of stuff for Marvel SAGA before M&M; in fact, he still has a collection of his articles & optional rules for Marvel SAGA online (need to find the link).
The M&M stuff looks sharp. I disagree with some of the write-ups to a certain extent (for instance, I'd argue Thor should be a higher power level, and that Spidey should be a little bit more Charismatic) but that's another argument/discussion entirely. But, I'm happy with Marvel SAGA.
(Then again, I haven't had the $$ to invest in M&M; negative experiences with Heroes Unlimited [1st & 2nd ed.] and the FASERIP d%-based Marvel RPG drove me away from dice-based supers games; and being one of the unlucky few to buy a copy of The Foundation made me wary of the concept d20-based supers from the get-go).
IMHO, Marvel SAGA worked great. However, I'd say the Reed Richards' Guide to Everything supplement helped make the game great, & it helped fix issues/questions regarding certain things (like other sorts of skill-focused characters, as well as super science stuff & magic items) regarding the RAW in the main game book. I still prefer SAGA over the newer MURPG, though I'd prefer it to be streamlined a bit more (genericizing some of the powers a bit more, maybe using the 1-10 scale instead of the 1-20 scale, etc.).
However, IIRC, with SAGA, you can feasibly create a hero that's the same power level as some of the more notable characters. With MURPG, unless you really upped the amount of character points for creating a character, that wasn't feasible at all--the established characters had lots of experience/development under their belts to make them as powerful as they are.
Add to that MURPG's generally bad editing, and not really-well-thought-out-or-done power lists & stat write-ups (for example, not including a Leaping power, writing up Toad [as well as Hulk & other known leapers] without said power, then introducing a Leaping power in a later supplement and writing up a new NPC with said power [but never retconning that power for availability for the aforementioned characters]). Then the shell-game shuffle of power stones. Then the method of statting up Device-based characters (liek Iron Man & Thor). All in all, I don't mind shuffling a 100-card deck in comparison for a game which I feel is better overall, IMHO.
Also, IIRC, Kenson did a fair share of stuff for Marvel SAGA before M&M; in fact, he still has a collection of his articles & optional rules for Marvel SAGA online (need to find the link).
The M&M stuff looks sharp. I disagree with some of the write-ups to a certain extent (for instance, I'd argue Thor should be a higher power level, and that Spidey should be a little bit more Charismatic) but that's another argument/discussion entirely. But, I'm happy with Marvel SAGA.
(Then again, I haven't had the $$ to invest in M&M; negative experiences with Heroes Unlimited [1st & 2nd ed.] and the FASERIP d%-based Marvel RPG drove me away from dice-based supers games; and being one of the unlucky few to buy a copy of The Foundation made me wary of the concept d20-based supers from the get-go).
teitan
Legend
A game I think we COULD throw into the arena is DC Heroes, MEGS, Blood of Heroes. While it technically isn't supported, you don't need much else besides the Blood of Heroes Special edition book to run a game... it is that complete and with a copy of the DC Heroes 2e you also get the screen and a few other gems like hundreds of characters you could easily change the names of or run as is... its good stuff and hopefully Pulsar can get their situation adjusted for a relaunch with some high quality work...
Jason
Jason
buzz
Adventurer
Last I heard, Pulsar was actively shopping the game to find a buyer. (Remember, the "we're working to update the site" message on thier site is from 2004.)teitan said:
I honestly wouldn't mind. They guys at Pulsar seemed dedicated MEGS fans, but man, their books were ugly as sin. And I don't mean Champions ugly; I mean custom-van, World of Synnibar ugly.
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