What makes a successful superhero game?

[Some Dude]

A system that is capable of allowing heroes of differing power levels to work as a team without the high powered heroes completely overshadowing the lower powered heroes. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying for example.

I'm thinking of the Endgame movie where the spaceship is raining down missiles on everyone and they are all hiding and such, then Ms Marvel comes to just fly through the ship and take everything out. Begs the question of why she couldn't just fly through Thanos to end the whole problem. It was a letdown to me. The game needs to have a way to let cosmic universe supers play at the table with local neighborhood supers. There is a big gap between the two. Like someone showing up at the D&D table with a 20th level PC when the rest of you are 3rd level.

If Aunt May can operate alongside the Avengers, Spider-Man becomes largely irrelevant.

Traditionally, even games that can model a wide range of power/ability levels (think Champions or DC Heroes) have adventures that recommend a power level in actual play. So, yes, these characters can all exist in the same sandbox. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're intended to fight side by side.

There's nothing wrong with newer or more narrative games that use metacurrencies or some other balancing factor to allow low-powered characters a fighting chance. But there's also nothing wrong with a superhero game or campaign picking a lane and staying in it.

 

[overgeeked]

If Aunt May can operate alongside the Avengers, Spider-Man becomes largely irrelevant.

Traditionally, even games that can model a wide range of power/ability levels (think Champions or DC Heroes) have adventures that recommend a power level in actual play. So, yes, these characters can all exist in the same sandbox. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're intended to fight side by side.

There's nothing wrong with newer or more narrative games that use metacurrencies or some other balancing factor to allow low-powered characters a fighting chance. But there's also nothing wrong with a superhero game or campaign picking a lane and staying in it.

The whole bit about not being able to emulate the comics is a big sticking point for some people.

 

[Some Dude]

The whole bit about not being able to emulate the comics is a big sticking point for some people.

Which I totally get. My favorite superhero game is Golden Heroes. Not even because I think it's the "best" superhero game. I don't. But because it's the game that - for me - most captures the "feel" of my favorite comics as a kid (read: early '80s Marvel).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But there's also nothing wrong with a superhero game or campaign picking a lane and staying in it.

The big question with a lot of those is whether they actually are in a lane, or are in the lane they say they're in though.

Like, what happens to Aunt May when a super-strong (like Dr Doom but not Hulk-ian levels) villain punches her in the gut (not specifically intending to kill her) is kind of a big marker here. In some games, she'll just explode/be atomised - in that case, no, that was never a "superhero" game, that was just a The Boys game pretending! In others she'll not explode but basically be mortally wounded/dying/insta-dead - still not really what most people would consider superheroic unless they were looking for real Image-era edgelord stuff. In others, still, she'll be incapacitated, but in no danger of death because death wasn't intended, and it wasn't up to the dice whether it happened, and I think more people would expect that in a superhero-game context.

 

[overgeeked]

Which I totally get. My favorite superhero game is Golden Heroes. Not even because I think it's the "best" superhero game. I don't. But because it's the game that - for me - most captures the "feel" of my favorite comics as a kid (read: early '80s Marvel).

I don’t think I know anything about that one. I’ll have to check it out.