LuisCarlos17f
Legend
After reading news or rumours about DC being sold to other company I have been wondering about a WotC version of superheroes TTRPG.
No, I am not interested into Mutants & Masterminds because this is a system freely based in d20 but not really compatible with this. I want to talk about a d20 superheroes whose monsters or characters could be exported to/imported from other D&D lines.
About the setting you haven't to worry. We could use something like the Ravenloft's spin-off "The Masque of the Red Death" but set in fictional world with the look of the pulp age (around 1930's).
The modern technology is a serious challenge for game designers because they are OP, the power balance is broken if you still with the standar D&D rules. A thug with a knife may be dangerous but many times he is only cannon fodder for high-level characters, but the same enemy with a thompson submachine gun is a more serious menace. And this become worse when enemies can use sci-fi tech as exosuits (Call of Duty: Advance Warfare), powered armors (Fallout) or mechas (Titanfall). And if you want to publish a videogame adaptation the playtesting will be even harder to avoid potential abuses by munchkins gamers.
There are some superheroes TTRPGs, even one of them, Champions, was adapted to a MMO what still is working.
D&D has got special rules like hit-points and leveling-up, and I remember no superheroes RPG with these (but Champions Online, but this doesn't try to be realistic, and if your PC is an archer or a martial artist still can face a bulletproof robot.
I have thought about to suggest some new rules:
Health levels. Losing health levels (usually by special attacks, poisons or diseases) would cause (temporaly) penalty like losing Con by life-drainer undead attacks. This should be a rule easy to be understand and allowing faster combats against vampires and other creatures with life-stealer powers.
Leveling up divided into power level and "cognition level". A character or creature with high lelve but zero cognition would be like a kaiju monster, for example Godzilla or King Kong. An example of high power and low cognition would be Superman's child, with superpowers but still going to school to learn. Low power and good cognition would be for example a old erudite who has studied and known lots of things, for example Indiana Jone's father. Other example. A PC after a lot of adventures has learn to pilot an airplane but loses a combat and the reanimation almost fails. The penalty is the power level is nerfed, but the cognition isn't altered. Then he still can pilot airplanes altought this is one of the last things he learn. Other example: in a sci-fi setting like Eclipse Phase or Altered Carbon with mind uploading + digital inmorality a veteran is killed for a combat and his mind and memories loaded into a new "sleeve" or body. The power level could be different but the cognition still is the same.
Why this second rule? For games where the PCs are too powerful, and then the power level shouldn't change but the XPs can be spent for leveling up the cognition.
And my last suggestion is adding two abilities scores: acuity (astutenes + perception) and spirit (courage, faith, hope, karma/luck/fate/guardian angel/divine grace) to allow more stories about investigation or with social interactions.
No, I am not interested into Mutants & Masterminds because this is a system freely based in d20 but not really compatible with this. I want to talk about a d20 superheroes whose monsters or characters could be exported to/imported from other D&D lines.
About the setting you haven't to worry. We could use something like the Ravenloft's spin-off "The Masque of the Red Death" but set in fictional world with the look of the pulp age (around 1930's).
The modern technology is a serious challenge for game designers because they are OP, the power balance is broken if you still with the standar D&D rules. A thug with a knife may be dangerous but many times he is only cannon fodder for high-level characters, but the same enemy with a thompson submachine gun is a more serious menace. And this become worse when enemies can use sci-fi tech as exosuits (Call of Duty: Advance Warfare), powered armors (Fallout) or mechas (Titanfall). And if you want to publish a videogame adaptation the playtesting will be even harder to avoid potential abuses by munchkins gamers.
There are some superheroes TTRPGs, even one of them, Champions, was adapted to a MMO what still is working.
D&D has got special rules like hit-points and leveling-up, and I remember no superheroes RPG with these (but Champions Online, but this doesn't try to be realistic, and if your PC is an archer or a martial artist still can face a bulletproof robot.
I have thought about to suggest some new rules:
Health levels. Losing health levels (usually by special attacks, poisons or diseases) would cause (temporaly) penalty like losing Con by life-drainer undead attacks. This should be a rule easy to be understand and allowing faster combats against vampires and other creatures with life-stealer powers.
Leveling up divided into power level and "cognition level". A character or creature with high lelve but zero cognition would be like a kaiju monster, for example Godzilla or King Kong. An example of high power and low cognition would be Superman's child, with superpowers but still going to school to learn. Low power and good cognition would be for example a old erudite who has studied and known lots of things, for example Indiana Jone's father. Other example. A PC after a lot of adventures has learn to pilot an airplane but loses a combat and the reanimation almost fails. The penalty is the power level is nerfed, but the cognition isn't altered. Then he still can pilot airplanes altought this is one of the last things he learn. Other example: in a sci-fi setting like Eclipse Phase or Altered Carbon with mind uploading + digital inmorality a veteran is killed for a combat and his mind and memories loaded into a new "sleeve" or body. The power level could be different but the cognition still is the same.
Why this second rule? For games where the PCs are too powerful, and then the power level shouldn't change but the XPs can be spent for leveling up the cognition.
And my last suggestion is adding two abilities scores: acuity (astutenes + perception) and spirit (courage, faith, hope, karma/luck/fate/guardian angel/divine grace) to allow more stories about investigation or with social interactions.
