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

[Thomas Shey]

Its been so many years since I ran a con game with supers I don't know how much help I'd be, but my instinct is that the most recent version of Prowlers and Paragons would work well there.

 

[Reynard]

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

I had a long running supers campaign (mostly old school Champions players) that transitioned from 2E to 3E and many of them were frustrated with the limitations on building characters. I don't think it is a problem for most players, but these guys were tinkerers.

 

[Blue]

I had a long running supers campaign (mostly old school Champions players) that transitioned from 2E to 3E and many of them were frustrated with the limitations on building characters. I don't think it is a problem for most players, but these guys were tinkerers.

I played and ran Champions through multiple editions for well over two decades. Loved the system, but it is definitely rather far on the crunchy side of the spectrum to provide the wonderful, balanced mechanical flexibility it has in a non-narrative RPG way. I could see that players who enjoy both that flexibility and that crunch not having many other choices that max out both at the same time.

That said, for a Con game, I wouldn't think that's a requirement. If it's M&M 3e or something like Marvel Heroic, where the loose character building system isn't of importance since you'll have pregens you made, you don't need to hit those extremes of flexible character creation and crunch that Champions provides.

 

[Reynard]

I played and ran Champions through multiple editions for well over two decades. Loved the system, but it is definitely rather far on the crunchy side of the spectrum to provide the wonderful, balanced mechanical flexibility it has in a non-narrative RPG way. I could see that players who enjoy both that flexibility and that crunch not having many other choices that max out both at the same time.

That said, for a Con game, I wouldn't think that's a requirement. If it's M&M 3e or something like Marvel Heroic, where the loose character building system isn't of importance since you'll have pregens you made, you don't need to hit those extremes of flexible character creation and crunch that Champions provides.

Oh, sure, I was just responding to @Micah Sweet regarding 2E vs 3E broadly.

I think I want to use the new Marvel Multiverse game, mostly because it reads pretty good and it gives me an excuse to try a new supers RPG -- which are the best kinds of RPGs. Always.

 

[Artamo]

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.

So…is there any way that I can talk positively about a narrative game without you responding to tell me how you don’t like them?

 

[Micah Sweet]

So…is there any way that I can talk positively about a narrative game without you responding to tell me how you don’t like them?

Sure. I've said my piece on it. Not that I see any issue with expressing a negative opinion. They're worth just as much as a positive one.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I had a long running supers campaign (mostly old school Champions players) that transitioned from 2E to 3E and many of them were frustrated with the limitations on building characters. I don't think it is a problem for most players, but these guys were tinkerers.

If you really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty, M&M distinctly traded off some of that for speed of operation. I'm not sure how 2e would have been better than 3e in that regard, though.

 

[Reynard]

If you really wanted to get into the nitty-gritty, M&M distinctly traded off some of that for speed of operation. I'm not sure how 2e would have been better than 3e in that regard, though.

Did you play 2E? Its chargen was much more robust.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Did you play 2E? Its chargen was much more robust.

Can you provide some examples? Like I said, I came in for 3e, and while it wasn't HERO it gave a lot of options I thought, especially once you got more books in the line.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

An oldie but a goodie is Brave New World, if you can find it. It's all low level supers, and essentially it's Savage Worlds for a system.