What makes a successful superhero game?

[Thomas Shey]

I personally didn't care. I like the idea of supers in a world where they weren't inherently protected by the fact that they were supers. There are also alternate rules for Wild Talent and GURPS (where you don't have that problem, either) that make it more survivable.

Yeah, but not everyone is there to play Invincible (or worse), and the alternate rule for damage in WT swung too much the other way; it didn't make you just less brittle, it made everything stun damage effectively.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Huh. You can pick your powers etc in MSH, too. That’s what we did. Model the sheet after the character in your head, done. And there’s no math involved. I want to play a character with Un (100) strength. Write that down. Etc.

I have to point out open-ended modelling can be done in any game ever, in or out of the superhero genre. Saying you can do that doesn't say much.

 

[Theory of Games]

Depends on what kind of superhero tone your group's going for: Wild Talents and Champions can cover lethality a little better than most, while M&M or ICONS provides more of a "Rated-G" experience. As someone posted upthread, it's important to pick the system that best suits the style of gameplay you're searching for.

 

[Eric V]

I played MSH with the Ultimate Powers Handbook for a long time. My friends and I then found both DC HEROES (MEGS) and Champions in short order and was like "Oh snap!! We can actually CHOOSE our powersets?!?" LOL.

But to answer your question, no. It did for the time before we knew what else was out there. But once we ventured away from it, we wondered how we ever settled for it, and we NEVER went back. I don't look back on that game with enthusiasm or nostalgia at all.

Agreed. The mechanics had a hard time resolving things like they would in the comics. In MSH, Daredevil has a bit of trouble fighting and defeating 4 thugs; they're going to wear him out way more than they should. As well, DD can't really hurt Mr. Hyde, a common enemy from his run.

DC Heroes RPG solves this issue, IME.

 

[dbolack]

lol. At first you said dangerous and I was like “oh, no” then I read the rest of your post and now I’m like “OH NO!”

With friends like you... yeesh...

 

[overgeeked]

That's great and all, but then you ignored the rules of character creation to do whatever you wanted.

Yes. Because it’s a game. The people at TSR never came to our house to take back the games.

My friends and I played this when it first came out, both the basic (yellow) and the later version, with the blue box,

So did we. I still have 8 boxed sets and at least a dozen supplements and modules for MSH. It was and still is one of my top two superheroes RPGs.

and while the rules gave you the choice of picking your character origin, your ability scores you had to roll for.

You also had to roll for the number of powers and the power category, but could choose or randomly roll for the actual powers.

And there was math involved, unless you just made up what number you wanted your health and karma to be since both are secondary stats. Health is the combined F, A, S, E scores. And Karma is your combined R, I, P scores.

I meant “no math” compared to point-buy games like DCH and M&M.

So again, it's great that you did whatever you wanted to, but we played the game pretty much as written.

Cool. Shame though. MSH is so much better for some players without random character creation.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Agreed. The mechanics had a hard time resolving things like they would in the comics. In MSH, Daredevil has a bit of trouble fighting and defeating 4 thugs; they're going to wear him out way more than they should. As well, DD can't really hurt Mr. Hyde, a common enemy from his run.

DC Heroes RPG solves this issue, IME.

If I recall, part of the problem was MSH didn't have too much in the way of passive (as in, not taking up actions) avoidance. That's a real problem for characters like Daredevil or Spider-Man who are heavily based around it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, but not everyone is there to play Invincible (or worse), and the alternate rule for damage in WT swung too much the other way; it didn't make you just less brittle, it made everything stun damage effectively.

I just started rewatching Invincible! Best deconstruction of the genre IMO.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Next time I run a supers game it will definitely be Marvel Mutiverse! I've really been itching to try it out, and I got screwed out of playing it at Gencon due to bizarre ticket policies.

 

[chuckdee]

Yeah, but not everyone is there to play Invincible (or worse), and the alternate rule for damage in WT swung too much the other way; it didn't make you just less brittle, it made everything stun damage effectively.

That's why I said, I personally didn't care. It wasn't even Invincible level in all honesty. It was just the genre with superpowers, sort of like the best (IMO) Marvel movies, where you take the genre, and add what if powers.