How Do You Like Your Super Hero TTRPG Games/Campaigns?

Super Hero TTRPG Preferences

  • Golden Age

    Votes: 10 18.2%
  • Silver Age

    Votes: 13 23.6%
  • Bronze Age

    Votes: 21 38.2%
  • Dark/Iron Age

    Votes: 8 14.5%
  • Modern Age

    Votes: 26 47.3%
  • High Crunch/Complexity

    Votes: 15 27.3%
  • Medium Crunch/Complexity

    Votes: 24 43.6%
  • Light Crunch/Complexity

    Votes: 28 50.9%
  • Narrative System Elements

    Votes: 24 43.6%
  • Aspirational or Optimistic Outlook

    Votes: 25 45.5%
  • Cynical or Dark Outlook

    Votes: 6 10.9%
  • Deconstructionist Themes

    Votes: 8 14.5%
  • Embrace the Genre

    Votes: 34 61.8%
  • Humorous

    Votes: 14 25.5%
  • Serious

    Votes: 16 29.1%
  • Melodramatic

    Votes: 15 27.3%
  • One Shot

    Votes: 13 23.6%
  • Short Campaign

    Votes: 24 43.6%
  • Long Campaign

    Votes: 28 50.9%
  • Singular Power Origins

    Votes: 7 12.7%
  • Broad Power Origins

    Votes: 23 41.8%
  • Supers are celebrities/worshiped

    Votes: 15 27.3%
  • Supers are weapons/controlled

    Votes: 9 16.4%
  • Supers are freaks/hunted

    Votes: 10 18.2%
  • Supers are normal people with powers

    Votes: 24 43.6%
  • Powers are ubiquitous or very common

    Votes: 6 10.9%
  • Powers are rare or uncommon

    Votes: 25 45.5%
  • Embrace comic book terminology and motifs in its design ("panels" or "pages")

    Votes: 10 18.2%
  • Allow different power level characters to be effective on the same team.

    Votes: 26 47.3%
  • Existing/Licensed Comic Book universe

    Votes: 9 16.4%
  • Game Specific Comic Book Universe

    Votes: 6 10.9%
  • Homebrew Comic Book Universe

    Votes: 16 29.1%

DrunkonDuty

he/him
I like the genre a lot, as regular posters may have noticed.

I could have ticked most of the boxes about style/age/tropes and what have you. Supers is a pretty flexible genre, you can do all of them, but maybe not all in the same campaign.

For games I like Champions. Love me some crunch. But also love Marvel FASERIP, it delivers the fast paced action.
 

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billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)
The most important element is to embrace the genre, so it’s the only answer I checked. Everything else is negotiable.
Actual situation: If I’m running a Claremont Academy (school for teen supers) Mutants and Masterminds game, and you’ve got a decent attack power, WHY ARE YOU INSISTING ON PACKING A PISTOL, Karen?!?
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
The Bronze Age is usually roped off at the death of Gwen Stacey or Speedy's drug addiction. The Iron Age is a little tougher but I have heard DKR as a starting point, or the appearance of Venom. But, yeah, it's pretty fuzzy.

Personally I like to think of Kingdom Come and Marvel's as the "Modern" Age beginning. Some people create borders of a nuSilver Age with the advent of the Ultimate Universe but I don't really buy it.

I stopped reading comics regularly when the nu52 appeared, so I don't know if today's Modern Age is notably different than the one that emerged in the late 90s and early 00s.
It is. And it makes Kingdom Come and Marvels a problematic boundary point, since the comics future they were explicitly fighting against came true anyway.
 


jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock
I like my supers campaigns in pretty much two different modes - "street level" dark games (like the television show Alphas) and moderately high powered pulp adventure (White Wolf's Adventure! RPG). Also, I prefer relatively light systems for my supers games (FASERIP, Supers!, Risus, etc).
 
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Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
I really like Narrative systems for the reason that they let different power levels work on the same team and facilitates a more 'genre accurate' experience.

I also like Pulp era (pre Golden Age) though I'm most familiar with the Bronze age
 


Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
I like the genre a lot, as regular posters may have noticed.

I could have ticked most of the boxes about style/age/tropes and what have you. Supers is a pretty flexible genre, you can do all of them, but maybe not all in the same campaign.

For games I like Champions. Love me some crunch.
Quoted for basically beating me to my own post.

I do have (many) other supers games, but I mainly use them for inspiration.

Then again, I’ll design & run a supers version of almost anything. As I’ve often said, my best campaign (of any kind) was a HERO supers game set in an expanded version of the Space:1889 setting.
 
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DammitVictor

Trust the Fungus
Supporter
Light rules, "Modern" Era (early 2000s, honestly; I feel like that Era has ended already), idealistic and genre-affirming.

My default setting for a superheroes game is to run Marvel Heroic Roleplaying with the premise (and the homebrew ruleset) of the eXiles comics, except with a broader pan-Marvel and strongly Spider-centric cast. Otherwise, I'm easily persuaded to tackle something like TMNT or Street Fighter, but I run (both of) those closer to "cinematic" urban fantasy.
 

I collected a couple Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition books several years ago.

1. Instant Superheroes
2. Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition core rulebook
3. the M&M book on Magic superheroes
4. Ultimate Power Pocketbook

I really liked using the last one because of the level of customization you could do with creating a particular superpower. I never got to play Mutants and Masterminds, but I really enjoyed creating superheroes using it's point-buy system. :)
 

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