"The Boys meets The Black Company" System Recommendations

[Grendel_Khan]

If whatever system you pick has too large of a gap between normal and supers, you could steal an idea from that series - each super has a weakness, and finding that out could be leveraged for a chance for victory.

@Reynard isn't into PbtA (not a swipe, honestly, just mentioning for context) but this makes me think Monster of the Week could be a fun way to do supes-hunting, especially with its focus on weaknesses.

I know I'm a broken record with this point, but I don't really like how almost any game does superpowers, especially with mixed power levels...except for more narrative systems. If you're a non-supe, we don't need to know how may hexes Homelander can throw a car at you (all the hexes), and how many handfuls of dice to roll for damage. We just need to know if you got out of the way, or hit him first, or someone else intervened. Otherwise, roll all the dice you want, you're still just a dead person under a car.

 

[Reynard]

@Reynard isn't into PbtA (not a swipe, honestly, just mentioning for context) but this makes me think Monster of the Week could be a fun way to do supes-hunting, especially with its focus on weaknesses.

I know I'm a broken record with this point, but I don't really like how almost any game does superpowers, especially with mixed power levels...except for more narrative systems. If you're a non-supe, we don't need to know how may hexes Homelander can throw a car at you (all the hexes), and how many handfuls of dice to roll for damage. We just need to know if you got out of the way, or hit him first, or someone else intervened. Otherwise, roll all the dice you want, you're still just a dead person under a car.

That's all true, which is why Fate is still on the table except -- as I think I stated -- I have had terrible luck with making a successful con game of it.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

That's all true, which is why Fate is still on the table except -- as I think I stated -- I have had terrible luck with making a successful con game of it.

That's right, you mentioned Fate a bunch, which seems like a good fit. I don't know why that system is such a blind spot for me. I should give it try.

 

[Reynard]

I don't know if you have read The Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson. Similarish-enough concept (normals that through prep and tech were able to take on evil supers) that I just went searching for an RPG for ti. But unfortunately all of the recommendations were ones already listed here.

If whatever system you pick has too large of a gap between normal and supers, you could steal an idea from that series - each super has a weakness, and finding that out could be leveraged for a chance for victory.

Side note: is that story any good for an adult audience? I am not usually a YA fan, but I do like Sanderson in "small" doses (I got through about 2500 pages of Stormlight archives before I couldn't take Shalan any more).

 

[hawkeyefan]

The mention of specific weaknesses makes me think of Vaesen from Free League. That’s a monster hunting game whwre the creatures all have some kind of weakness or vulnerability that must be exploited to win.

With a little reskinning, maybe that could work?

 

[Blue]

Side note: is that story any good for an adult audience? I am not usually a YA fan, but I do like Sanderson in "small" doses (I got through about 2500 pages of Stormlight archives before I couldn't take Shalan any more).

I know some huge Sanderson fans, but I wouldn't use that to describe me. I first read him to finish off The Wheel of Time, which I started in the 90s and just needed to finish to justify the amount of time I'd put into it. Other than Reckoners the only other thing I read by him was Mistborn trilogy which I liked a good deal, especially how what could have been loose threads were instead Chekov's guns.

Young supers finding themselves and SF navel battles are two of my reading guilty pleasures, which is sort of why I picked up the first Reckoners book. (Not the SF naval battles part ) I found them quite enjoyable, call it 3.5 stars. (I'm picky, that's a good rating from me.)

Premise is that super powers started 15-20 years ago, but every single super is evil. The most powerful have ended up breaking governments and carving up nations into their own little feudal lands.

 

[Fenris-77]

The "essentials" version of the rules was only $5 so I picked it up from DTRPG. I will give it a read later and see if I feel like I can grok it.

Otherwise, I am leaning back toward my comfort zone and picking either M&M or SWADE. It will really depend on which one models bypassing the Champions' super-toughness better (either through special weapons or a trick or whatever) since that will kind of be the "win condition" for the adventures. Supers pulping PCs in one or two hits is easy in either system, and both have fail safe mechanics that PCs can use once or twice to not make it instant death (just inevitable...).

I think M&M would be really solid for what you want and would be my pick out of those two. The power builds seems to easily accommodate the weaknesses you're looking for, as well as really powerful powers, and there's also a metric ton of ways to make magic work in cool ways. SWADE would be cool, but I think M&M would be a little more nuanced and useful on the character build side.

Your whole project sounds really cool, I'd love the occasional update.

 

[innerdude]

To chime in on the Reckoners (which I have read all 3 in the series and enjoyed), in the story the effectiveness of the non-supers still largely hinges on the narrative conceit that every superhero has a hidden weakness that can potentially be activated and exploited. In my mind that general hingepoint applies regardless of system, or as @Grendel_Khan mentioned above, it doesn't matter what dice you roll, the non-supers are still just dead folks under a smashed car when Homelander arrives.

 

[Cadence]

I wish it wasn't ridiculously expensive now, but the Green Ronin "Black Company" for d20 had everything from the company to the taken to Lady.

Haven't seen it anywhere but it's forum here, but does Eternity Press's 3.5 Epic and Immortal level offer anything?

 

[Fenris-77]

I wish it wasn't ridiculously expensive now, but the Green Ronin "Black Company" for d20 had everything from the company to the taken to Lady.

Haven't seen it anywhere but it's forum here, but does Eternity Press's 3.5 Epic and Immortal level offer anything?

Importantly, the Black Company D20 product is By Rob Schwalb, of Shadow of the Demon Lord fame. He's great.