Wednesday Boy
The Nerd WhoFell to Earth
My group had success with a superhero game using the Fate Accelerated rules mixed with the Venture City (Fate system game) rules. I liked the Fate Accelerated/Fate system for the superhero genre over other systems because:
Everyone is capable of doing the superheroic things you see in comic books out of the box without requiring specialization. They can't do everything but you can engage in a high speed chase without needing a wheelman class or specialization. I was always amused about how the Marvel Universe Handbooks have a blurb in every superhero's entry to justify how even non-combatant superheroes (someone like Shadowcat or Cyclops) can fight toe-to-toe against ninjas, henchmen, or powerful fighting villains (like Sabretooth): "Shadowcat has the strength and agility of someone who engages in intensive Olympic-level physical and combat training daily." Fate does a good job capturing this sort of competency in combats without the character focusing on combat.
Since everyone is roundly capable and encourages narrative control, it does a good job balancing different levels of heroes. We played with characters that were basically the Flash, Storm, and the Punisher in the same group and no one left overshadowed.
Powers are generally always on. A while ago I played some version of Mutants and Masterminds at a con and it was unsatisfying because my character used some sort of resource to use my character's psionic abilities. I didn't feel like Professor X when I couldn't do a mindblast because I had no points left. In Fate your powers are always on. If your Shadowcat character wants to walk through a wall, she does it. In my experience that goes a long way in feeling like your character actually has their powers.
It's fast and easy to make a character. And because of the out-of-the-box competency there was never a need for XP/Level progression to fully realize your character. My Batman type character felt like Batman right away. I didn't have to start at Level 10 or have 4 feats to get the right feel.
Another thing that might help with designing a campaign and continuing interest in a campaign is to set it in a known universe. A known universe puts villains, heroes, organizations, supporting characters, plotlines, etc. at the GM's disposal and they have automatic buy-in with the players. That's not to say your own world won't work but in my experience the superhero games that lasted longest were in known comic universes rather than ones we built just for the campaign.
Everyone is capable of doing the superheroic things you see in comic books out of the box without requiring specialization. They can't do everything but you can engage in a high speed chase without needing a wheelman class or specialization. I was always amused about how the Marvel Universe Handbooks have a blurb in every superhero's entry to justify how even non-combatant superheroes (someone like Shadowcat or Cyclops) can fight toe-to-toe against ninjas, henchmen, or powerful fighting villains (like Sabretooth): "Shadowcat has the strength and agility of someone who engages in intensive Olympic-level physical and combat training daily." Fate does a good job capturing this sort of competency in combats without the character focusing on combat.
Since everyone is roundly capable and encourages narrative control, it does a good job balancing different levels of heroes. We played with characters that were basically the Flash, Storm, and the Punisher in the same group and no one left overshadowed.
Powers are generally always on. A while ago I played some version of Mutants and Masterminds at a con and it was unsatisfying because my character used some sort of resource to use my character's psionic abilities. I didn't feel like Professor X when I couldn't do a mindblast because I had no points left. In Fate your powers are always on. If your Shadowcat character wants to walk through a wall, she does it. In my experience that goes a long way in feeling like your character actually has their powers.
It's fast and easy to make a character. And because of the out-of-the-box competency there was never a need for XP/Level progression to fully realize your character. My Batman type character felt like Batman right away. I didn't have to start at Level 10 or have 4 feats to get the right feel.
Another thing that might help with designing a campaign and continuing interest in a campaign is to set it in a known universe. A known universe puts villains, heroes, organizations, supporting characters, plotlines, etc. at the GM's disposal and they have automatic buy-in with the players. That's not to say your own world won't work but in my experience the superhero games that lasted longest were in known comic universes rather than ones we built just for the campaign.
