Let's Talk About Supers RPGs (Especially Ones Good For Cons)

[Reynard]

I finally landed on the game series I want to run for RPGCon in Marlborough MA in April: C list supervillains (something like the Flash's Rogues Gallery) just trying to score, while avoiding both superheroes and the higher tier villains trying to force them into their diabolical plans. These guys don't want to rule the world, they just want to make a fortune they can drink or gamble away (or maybe put their kid through school or whatever). Now that I have that decided, I am thinking about systems and I thought it might be both interesting and helpful to talk about systems here with other Supers RPG fans.

I grabbed the quickstart for Marvel Multiverse and was pleasantly surprised. I bought the "Beta rules" and was not impressed, but it looks like the system changed some. it is a little fiddly, which is a surprise with newer systems, and gives me kind of Champions vibes with Stamina and some other elements. it looks like it plays okay, but I have not played it. Is it a good con game, though? Is it easy to teach? Is all the relevant info on the character sheets?

I love Mutants and Mastermind. 2E is my favorite because it is robust and well supported, and basically became my Champions replacement. 3E is more accessible though, which it pays for in reduced options, but that part isn't really important to a con game.

I love Savage Worlds, especially SWADE, but Supers has always been the one genre with SW that I don't like. I just don't think it is generally a good fit. However, the new Supers Companions seems better (I have not run a SWADE supers game yet, but I have used the power system to make BBEGs for SWADE otherwise), and especially for this idea of low powered C-listers with just 1 or 2 schticks, it seems like it might work.

I own ICONs and Tiny Supers, but have never actually run either. ICONS gives me M&M plus Fate vibes, which is good, and Tiny seems intended to be super (heh) simple. Thoughts on those?

What other games have you had success with as a con game? What are your thoughts on some or all of the above?

NOTE: I am not interested in Masks, but I am not necessarily against PbtA games in general.

Thanks.

 

[billd91]

I used to run Villains and Vigilantes at Gen Con an increasingly large number of years ago. I think there'd still be a lot of nostalgia out there for it, but if it isn't a game you've got a lot of familiarity with, I'd skip it.

Mutants and Masterminds is my go-to supers game now in general and I think it would play well at the cons as long as you stayed away from highly variable powers like shapeshifting. That's always a hard one to work with for any newbie at the table. But for relatively simple C-list villains - it would be pretty easy to keep their powers simple.

I finally got a chance to try Marvel Heroic Roleplaying at Gamehole a couple of years ago - the one that eventually fed Cortex Prime but is now out of license/print. It's a good con game if you have access to it since the mechanics are fairly easy for inexperienced players. But, of course, it's heavily Marvel-ized in its characters and I don't know how easy it would be to make new PC villains for your proposed event. That said, there are a couple of well-known rogues galleries of lesser villains (particularly for Spider-Man) that would be easy for players to understand if you chose to lean on them.

 

[Artamo]

During COVID, I played in a Sentinel Comics campaign and we had a blast. Since each session was only about 3 to 4 hours and the adventures are episodic in nature, it should suit for a con game. It’s somewhat narrative in nature, uses challenge clocks frequently but it was easy to grasp and had what I consider the right level of flexibility with superpowers, i.e. if you have cold-based powers, it supports you doing a lot of Iceman type moves without trying to limit what you’re capable of. The other thing I liked was that you had health zones (green/yellow/red) and your powers would actually increase as the fight went on with the idea being much like comic book fights, the biggest powers come alive when everyone is at their most desperate. I would absolutely play that system again.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I finally landed on the game series I want to run for RPGCon in Marlborough MA in April: C list supervillains (something like the Flash's Rogues Gallery) just trying to score, while avoiding both superheroes and the higher tier villains trying to force them into their diabolical plans. These guys don't want to rule the world, they just want to make a fortune they can drink or gamble away (or maybe put their kid through school or whatever). Now that I have that decided, I am thinking about systems and I thought it might be both interesting and helpful to talk about systems here with other Supers RPG fans.

I grabbed the quickstart for Marvel Multiverse and was pleasantly surprised. I bought the "Beta rules" and was not impressed, but it looks like the system changed some. it is a little fiddly, which is a surprise with newer systems, and gives me kind of Champions vibes with Stamina and some other elements. it looks like it plays okay, but I have not played it. Is it a good con game, though? Is it easy to teach? Is all the relevant info on the character sheets?

I love Mutants and Mastermind. 2E is my favorite because it is robust and well supported, and basically became my Champions replacement. 3E is more accessible though, which it pays for in reduced options, but that part isn't really important to a con game.

I love Savage Worlds, especially SWADE, but Supers has always been the one genre with SW that I don't like. I just don't think it is generally a good fit. However, the new Supers Companions seems better (I have not run a SWADE supers game yet, but I have used the power system to make BBEGs for SWADE otherwise), and especially for this idea of low powered C-listers with just 1 or 2 schticks, it seems like it might work.

I own ICONs and Tiny Supers, but have never actually run either. ICONS gives me M&M plus Fate vibes, which is good, and Tiny seems intended to be super (heh) simple. Thoughts on those?

What other games have you had success with as a con game? What are your thoughts on some or all of the above?

NOTE: I am not interested in Masks, but I am not necessarily against PbtA games in general.

Thanks.

I played Marvel Multiverse at Gen Con and had a great time. It's a fun system (it helps that I like rather more complexity than most recently published supers games). Regarding M&M 3e, there is IMO rather a lot of material. What kind of "reduced options" are you seeing?

 

[Micah Sweet]

During COVID, I played in a Sentinel Comics campaign and we had a blast. Since each session was only about 3 to 4 hours and the adventures are episodic in nature, it should suit for a con game. It’s somewhat narrative in nature, uses challenge clocks frequently but it was easy to grasp and had what I consider the right level of flexibility with superpowers, i.e. if you have cold-based powers, it supports you doing a lot of Iceman type moves without trying to limit what you’re capable of. The other thing I liked was that you had health zones (green/yellow/red) and your powers would actually increase as the fight went on with the idea being much like comic book fights, the biggest powers come alive when everyone is at their most desperate. I would absolutely play that system again.

Maybe that would be fun for me for a con game, but not more than that. Too narrative for my preferences.

 

[Artamo]

Maybe that would be fun for me for a con game, but not more than that. Too narrative for my preferences.

Oh, interesting - did you play it? I think it’s narrative in the right places to give you freedom to find creative uses for powers but ultimately, i think there’s enough tactical decisions that it doesn’t feel laissez-faire. It was also my introduction to popcorn initiative and I really enjoyed that!

 

[Reynard]

I played Marvel Multiverse at Gen Con and had a great time. It's a fun system (it helps that I like rather more complexity than most recently published supers games). Regarding M&M 3e, there is IMO rather a lot of material. What kind of "reduced options" are you seeing?

Character generation in 2E (especially with the Ultimate Power book) is significantly more robust.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh, interesting - did you play it? I think it’s narrative in the right places to give you freedom to find creative uses for powers but ultimately, i think there’s enough tactical decisions that it doesn’t feel laissez-faire. It was also my introduction to popcorn initiative and I really enjoyed that!

No, I was basing my conclusion on what you said. Not a fan of narrative games, although I allow some room for genre emulation for supers. I still prefer mechanics to focus mainly on modeling the world of the game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Character generation in 2E (especially with the Ultimate Power book) is significantly more robust.

I never played 2e, but I love 3e's Power Profiles.

 

[timbannock]

For a Con, sometimes simplest is best, and Streamlined Supers is as simple as it gets while still having something to it. It's extremely open ended to how define powers, and layers a Cortex/Marvel Heroic style "effect dice" mechanic on top of a simple d20+attribute mod resolution system.

But for me, I like a little more crunch while keeping it narrative, so I'd always choose Marvel Heroic or Sentinels first, and Icons as a distant third. I personally find Tiny Supers a little too light and/or limited in covering wide power level disparity. The other systems do that last part was better.