Superhero RPGS

[EntropyDecay]

Last week I made the mistake to install the PC game "Freedom Force" once again (one of my all time favourites ). While playing it struck me that a Superhero RPG would be a great thing when our group needs the occasional bit of Fantasy pause. While not all of us read comics (including me), we really liked most of the superhero movies like Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, Blade,...

I browsed a bit through the review pages, and have some questions regarding the various superhero RPGs and comic terminology. Like I said I don't actually read comic but I like the setting. My personal comic experience comes only from some older stuff from Chaos Comics, the movies, Heroclix (which I played for a while) and of course Freedom Force.

General questions:
What do terms like Four Color (four color printing like in a newspaper?), Silver Age, Golden Age, Dark Age,... actually mean? Seems like a categorization for comics from a different time period and style of narration. Could somebody please enlighten me?

RPG questions:
From all RPGs the highest praise seems to go to Mutants & Masterminds. What kind of comic stories are playable with it? Low power (like Blade), mid power (X-Men) or high power (Superman)? Is it possible to create ordinary people that just have to discover their power over a series of adventures? Any personal recommendations for any of the other systems (M&M is my favourite so far)?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

This is not a very well informed answer, since I have the M&M rulebook but haven't played a game of it...

It seems that you can create characters of very different power levels. They recommend starting at level 10, which seems like it's around Xmen kind of power, but I can see that lower level people would be more like Robin (I'd dispute that Blade is low level, but that's a whole other thread ), and much higher level people would be more like the JLA, for example.

Not sure about definitions of four-colour etc etc. Hope my minimal advice helps!

 

[Hawkeye]

I think I can answer some of the comics related questions:

Golden Age: This is the first 15 or so years of comic books, starting with Superman in 1938. It was during this period that the majority of the DC iconic characters are established: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman Green Lantern, the Flash, The Justice Society of America etc Also created during this period are such chracters as Namor, The Human Torch, Captain America, and Captan Marvel. These are the comics that helped get kitds through WW2. The art is simpe as are the stories, but they are great fun to read.

There was a slump in comic book sales during the early 50's, due in part to a famous study that said comics caused juvinle delinquincy. Most comic book companies stopped printing super hero cmics and only DC was really able to keep them going with the big characters.

Silver Age: This is the 2nd big ear of cmocs, that started with the revamped Flash in 1958 (or so). It was during this period that DC created or recreated many characters (Green Lantern, Hawkman/Hawkgilr Metamorpho, Hawk and Dove) and also founded the Justice League of America. IT was also during this period that Marvel comics came into being and created newer iconic chracters and teams, such as Spider-man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Though style wise it probably ended in the late 70's, its official death knell was the death of he 1958 Flash in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985.

Dark Age: This probably refers to the comics from the late 80's and ealry to mid 90's. Like much of the pop culutre at the time. the stories were dark and forboding. Character deconstruction was the flavor of the day as well as "grim and girtty." The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns are 2 big stories of this period. The heroes of these stories were often more violent than their predecessors and ho no problem with using lethal force to end the villains rampage. CHracters like Wolverine, The Punisher, Chost Rider, Green Arrow and Batman were all big during this period, though Batman still refused to kill. It was also during this period that the Independent comics gave rise: Image comics in particular. Spawn, Witchblade, The Savage Dragon all have come out of this period. Event driven sotry lines were also the main force of the day. Zero Hour, The Crossing, the Terminatrix project(I am sure I am getting that one wrong) Kingdom Come etc.. As with all popular things, it became a cliche and has for the most part gone away.

Currently, comics seemed to have returned to telling stories instead of having Events, but there is still the previous chracter deconstruction in some cases, but a respect for history.

DOes that help?

Hawkeye

 

[EntropyDecay]

Thanks, Hawkeye.

Another question came to my mind: Is "Mutants & Masterminds" (or any other superhero RPG of your choice) able to cover all styles? For example, can I play a typical Silver Age campaign, where the heroes beat the villains into unconsciousness and then put them into prisons "where they will never be able to escape", or build my campaign with the "no prisoners" attitude of the dark age?

Chris

 

[mmu1]

Thanks, Hawkeye.

Another question came to my mind: Is "Mutants & Masterminds" (or any other superhero RPG of your choice) able to cover all styles? For example, can I play a typical Silver Age campaign, where the heroes beat the villains into unconsciousness and then put them into prisons "where they will never be able to escape", or build my campaign with the "no prisoners" attitude of the dark age?

Chris

Mutants and Masterminds can be used for different power levels, but not really so much for different genres. Most of the powers and feats in there are larger than life and flashy - you could easily make a "gritty" character like Wolverine, but probably not a Batman, Punisher or Blade. Although it does have provisions for both "enough damage to destroy a building only stuns any superhero" as well as "guns are not stun weapons" styles of play.

 

[WayneLigon]

General questions:
What do terms like Four Color (four color printing like in a newspaper?), Silver Age, Golden Age, Dark Age,... actually mean? Seems like a categorization for comics from a different time period and style of narration. Could somebody please enlighten me?

Four-Color derives from the four color printing process used in comics up until fairly recently (read: I don't know the time that most switched to the more sophisticated coloring available today, but I suspect it was from around 1982-1985). Generally, it refers to the Silver Age (and latter Golden Age) genre conventions. A partial list would be:

1. Superheroes do not have a great effect on the real world. Heroes and villains tend to cancel each other out.
2. They commonly maintain a secret identity.
3. Supers operating as neo-vigilantes is accepted by the legal institutions, the government and the public.
4. Villains rarely kill heroes, heroes rarely kill villains. They get locked into inescapable deathtraps or sent to prisons/asylums.

A more complete list of typical genre conventions can be found at this site; some are more tongue-in-cheek than others.

 

[Mystic Eye]

We have also just released Vigilance: Absolute Power, the expanded print version of Vigilance and its add-on, Darkness and Light. I can tell you this is a fantastic supers game but I will let the reviews speak for game instead:

Number 7 in the top 20 PDFs for the original version here at EN World as noted here:
http://www.enworld.org/reviews/top20.php

Here is the first two reviews of the printed product at EN World (by Gamewyrd) and Game Play News:

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/inde...tive&reviewer=GameWyrd&product=myst_vigilance

http://www.gameplaynews.com/reviews.php?article_id=613

This game can be used for a gritty type supers game, a silver age supers game, or any other supers genre you can imagine. It also uses every aspect of the d20 system in very innovative ways.

 

[Piratecat]

You could easily make a "gritty" character like Wolverine, but probably not a Batman, Punisher or Blade.

Oh, sure you could! In fact, that would be insanely easy, especially if you use the optional "1PP = 3 skill points" variant. No problem at all.

Interestingly enough, Sagiro here on the boards is a designer for Irrational Games, although he wasn't directly on the Freedom Force project (that was the Australian studio.)

 

[WayneLigon]

Some links to Golden Age comics sites.

Yahoo Groups - I'm sure there are more. Many of these sites also contain additional links.
All-Amazing Squadron
Atomic, Gold and Silver

Comics Spotlight
Comics of the Golden Age
All-Winners Squad

Others
Pure Excitement COmics
Golden Age Greats

 

[mmu1]

Oh, sure you could! In fact, that would be insanely easy, especially if you use the optional "1PP = 3 skill points" variant. No problem at all.

Interestingly enough, Sagiro here on the boards is a designer for Irrational Games, although he wasn't directly on the Freedom Force project (that was the Australian studio.)

Perhaps, but what I meant is that I don't think M&M would be well suited to actually running those kinds of characters (and that they wouldn't really have the right feel) just like 3E doesn't really work for "gritty" games.