SUPERS! by Beyond Belief Games

[A.K.A. Dragonfly]

Howdy folks,

I'm a longtime roleplayer with a preference for superher rpgs. I've played just about every major superhero rpg out there, including the various Marvel rpgs, the various DC Heroes games (my favorite being Mayfair's MEGS-powered masterpiece), Heroes Unlimited, and many others, but my game of choice for more than 20 years was Champions. I then switched to M&M for about seven years, but switched back to Champions after Gary Gygax died, and sentimentality brought me back to games of my youth.

Since then, however, I've been drawn to more rules lite systems. I sampled everything out there, and just about settled on BASH UE by Basic Action Games. BASH UE is just about my favorite system, for many reasons, but this thread is actually dedicated to a little system that I like about as much, but seems woefully under appreciated. That's Simon Washbourne's SUPERS!. It's more rules lite even than BASH UE, but has an ease of play, versitility, and power that is quite commendable, and makes it perfect for certain groups that I play with. The lack of awareness of this games means that I have few people to discuss it with, which bums me out to no end.

I'm starting this thread, then, to spread the word and/or to draw out already existing fans of the system who might want to discuss it's merits, share house rules, post write-ups, etc.

Toward that end, I'll try to get the ball rolling by posting some of my write-ups of famous Marvel Comics characters. I hope you enjoy them!

I'll start with eight of the Avengers. Although the images don't reflect this, the character histories will reveal that these write-ups are inspired by the versions of the characters appearing in the animated series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Enjoy!


Marvel-AntMan by Eletarmion, on Flickr

 

[Greg K]

Hey Dragonfly,

Welcome! (I am Witness over at RPG.net).

I have played a lot of superhero rpgs as well.

I started with the original Marvel Superheroes Basic set. Later, I switched to the advanced set.

In college, I was introduced to Champions 2e or 3e during my first year of college and switched to that and played it for years.

My other favorites for a long time were DC Heroes and Marvel Superhero Adventure Game (still one of my favorites). I got to see the DC Heroes first edition during a promotion a tour and saw the what would have been official Marvel stats if Mayfair had received the rights to a Marvel game.

Over the years, I have played a lot of other supers games as well: Superworld, Teenage Mutant Ninja Heroes and Other Strangeness., V&V 1e (as a one shot), V&V: Revised, V&V Advanced/Living Legends 1 (s a Playtester), Living Legends in its current form as a playtester, DC Universe (WEGS), M&M 1e (which became my game of choice of until 2e) and M&M 2e,

In addition to the games that I have played, I have also owned the folloiwng at one time or another: Heroes and Heroines, Heroes Unlimited: Revised, Good Guys Finish Last (by Better Games), Villains Finish First (by Better Games), the Marvel Univserse RPG preview (QED/Marvel) and am familiar with several more supers games.

These days, my favorites are M&M 2e and Icons, but as I mentioned at RPG.net, I am also interested in both BASH and Supers!

I like the write-ups that I have seen by you , but do you have plans to do the versions from the comics?
I would love to both Supers and BASH incarnations of the

Avengers (e.g., versions during runs by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Walt Simonson, Kurt Busiek)

Captain America runs by Englehart, Kirby (Secret Empire, Mad Bomb Swine), Gruenwald, Stern

Daredevil: Lee and Everett, 70's version during team-up with Black Widow, Frank Miller/Klaus Janson Elektra Saga, Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli Born Again

Hulk: the original Grey Hulk, 70's Savage Green Hulk, and Joe Fix It

Ironman various armors up to and including the Silver Centurion

Spider-man during Stan Lee's run and various points through the nineties in Amazing Spiderman , Peter Parker: Spectacular Spiderman and Marvel Team Up.

Thor: 70's version and Simonson version.

 

[A.K.A. Dragonfly]

Howdy Greg!

Your list of super RPG experience is very similar to mine. How cool, however, is the fact that you got to see those Mayfair Marvel Stats! That must have been neat!

As for my write-ups - I don't really plan to do multiple versions of the characters. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes portrays pretty iconic version of the characters, so the changes would be pretty minimal anyway. Hulk would probably change the most, but it would be pretty easy to modify my current write-up to match whatever version you want. I think the show's version of Hulk is pretty Simonson, at least in tone.

Anyway, let me know what you think of Supers! and BASH UE. I find it liberating, coming from Champions and M&M. Don't get me wrong - I love those games and would happily play them again, but there is something to be said for the ease of play and flexibility of these rules lite games. What's best is that I don't feel like I've lost any of the comprehensiveness of the other, more complicated, games.

Best,

Dragonfly

 

[A.K.A. Dragonfly]

Here's the next one!


Marvel-BlackPanther by Eletarmion, on Flickr

 

[A.K.A. Dragonfly]

Here's the next one!

Marvel-CaptainAmerica by Eletarmion, on Flickr