Superhero RPG w/o the kitchen sink?

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'd recommend:

Aberrant
Heroes Unlimited
And The original DC Heroes RPG.

I meant to mention Aberrant!

As for the others, both still have a bit of kitchen sink. DC Heroes does because, well, it's built on DC comics and tries to cover the bases.

Heroes Unlimited does as well, though to a lesser extent: the power origin categories (as I recall) were aliens, training, gadgeteering, science, robotics, and mutants, but the way they handled power selection and power level seemed to generate fewer Über PCs.

Changoo, what, exactly is your goal?

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

The Paragons setting for Mutants&Masterminds might work, since (I believe, do not have the book) it ties all powers to a dimension of collective human consciousness.

Gestalt does a similar thing, though it narrows the concept even further by focusing on powers coming from concepts. (M&M and HERO versions available.)

A Wild Cards sourcebook exists for M&M. In that universe you were either mutated by an alien biowar virus or are an alien.

Godsend links everything to either two alien races or to an Atlantian protective failsafe (it's been a long time since I read a review).

 

[phoamslinger]

it's really intended as more of a miniatures system but you might check out Superfigs.net and adapt what you need. it still has a bunch of powers, but they are still a relatively low finite number of them.

 

[karlindel]

If you want a focused setting that limits what super-powers are available, you might want to look at Mutant City Blues. It is designed as a police detective game in a world with mutant powers. The powers are interconnected, so it is expensive to buy powers that are not close to one another on the web. It limits options, but it also means that knowing what powers are used can help with investigations.

 

[coyote6]

Brave New World seems to have been more focused, though I never really got into it.

Wild Cards is a setting that's a bit more limited. There are a few aliens, but they aren't like Kryptonians; there are people that look like wizards, super-inventors, demons, or whatever, but they're really just people with weird, ultimately psionic-based, super powers.

There was a GURPS Wild Cards book, but it's long out of print. The more recent, and still (AFAIK) available, version is for Mutants & Masterminds 2e.

Personally, I wouldn't (and haven't) had a problem with using HERO or M&M or whatever, and just saying "your characters must fit in these constraints".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Brave New World seems to have been more focused, though I never really got into it.

Wild Cards is a setting that's a bit more limited. There are a few aliens, but they aren't like Kryptonians; there are people that look like wizards, super-inventors, demons, or whatever, but they're really just people with weird, ultimately psionic-based, super powers.

There was a GURPS Wild Cards book, but it's long out of print. The more recent, and still (AFAIK) available, version is for Mutants & Masterminds 2e.

Personally, I wouldn't (and haven't) had a problem with using HERO or M&M or whatever, and just saying "your characters must fit in these constraints".

QFT from start to finish.

BNW is a good game, but I haven't looked at it in a while. Wild Cards is a great setting, very flavorful. Another to look at would be Silver Age Sentinels. And if you go with Heroes Unlimited, check to see if you can find the Justice Machine or Cosmic Enforcers sourcecooks.


But any of the major point based systems- HERO, M&M, GURPS: Supers- can easily be limited to run whichever way you want.

 

[Sorrowdusk]

Among published games I will second both Godlike and Underground as non "anything goes" super-settings.

Godlike is low-powered supers in WW2 and typically a hero will have only a few aspects of a power. In fact there is a specific list of what's not possible in the game universe, things like time travel, mind control, and super-science. Combining this with the campaign concept that everyone is in the military during a war and you have a very strong focus for players and the GM to work within. It's set during WW2 real-world as altered by supers so it has a specific historical time period and contains a bunch of notes and vehicles/weapons from that time.

What.

A WWII supers game, with NO Nazi Super Science? C'mooooon.

On a side note, I find it ironic its a low powered game, and yet its called 'Godlike'-I'll have to read up on it.

 

[prosfilaes]

BNW is a good game, but I haven't looked at it in a while.

Brave New World was one of the few RPGs I've got rid of. The classes presented in the main book felt random and incomplete, and I was impressed neither by the system nor the world. Add to that the fact the authors were open about the fact they were holding things back for later books, and I sold it in a heart beat.

But any of the major point based systems- HERO, M&M, GURPS: Supers- can easily be limited to run whichever way you want.

The 4th Edition GURPS Powers, which is the descendent of most of the crunch from GURPS Supers for 3rd edition, explicitly separates powers and their sources, like air, death or antimagic, versus psionic, super or divine. I haven't tried it, or reread it in a while, but it should make specializing the powers easier.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Brave New World was one of the few RPGs I've got rid of. The classes presented in the main book felt random and incomplete, and I was impressed neither by the system nor the world. Add to that the fact the authors were open about the fact they were holding things back for later books, and I sold it in a heart beat.

Eh, it's not for everyone, but neither was Underground. I do remember it struck a chord within me when I bought it. I was a big fan of the comics that inspired it.


Brave New World (role-playing game)

 

[Wednesday Boy]

....you could go through the list for Hero, Icons, Mutants & Masterminds, etc., and delineate which powers characters could and could not have.

...with games like HERO, you can make them as focused or wide-open as you want.

...develop your setting and then make clear to your players which powers/abilities fit and which don't. It's also very easy to reskin different powers to make them better fit your vision.

.Personally, I wouldn't (and haven't) had a problem with using HERO or M&M or whatever, and just saying "your characters must fit in these constraints".

.But any of the major point based systems- HERO, M&M, GURPS: Supers- can easily be limited to run whichever way you want.

That's how I'd go about it. Find a system that you like and set the parameters that your players have to create a character within. If you want it to be more of an X-men mutants game than an Avengers kitchen sink game (i.e., no tech superheroes, no exceptional human superheroes, or no god superheros), set that as a base that the players have to aspire to. And get them to pitch you their character concepts well before the game starts so you can critique what they have and give them suggestions on how the character can fit into your concept if it doesn't already.