What makes a successful superhero game?

[billd91]

I am not a fan of character advancement in superhero RPGs. I was an '80s Marvel kid, and powers stayed fairly consistent. If or when a character's power level changed, it often meant trouble! Speaking of deaths...


...and resurrections, I remember when X-Factor #1 came out. The Dark Phoenix saga had been one of the most, if not the most, dramatic moments in comics for me. Jean Grey

Spoiler

being alive, and never having been Phoenix in the first place

, felt like such a cheat. Like Patrick Duffy in the shower level cheat (only the oldsters gonna get that one). It felt crass, like a move that was made purely for commercial reasons. This impression wasn't helped by the survey tucked inside that issue. I remember one of the questions being literally, "How many X-titles would you buy a month?"

I think we can also chalk up some not-entirely-functional relationships between different writers at Marvel into the mix as well. Claremont was NOT happy about Jean being brought back.

 

[Some Dude]

I'm almost wanting to say "nothing."

Over the years it seems like every attempt eventually gets too complicated to run.

In theory I think the best example I have seen is City of Mist - but I don't own it yet, I own another game in the same line: Legend in the Mist, so this is based on an assumption that it would hold up. It's very rules light with no stats or numbers to things, just tags a lot of narrative roleplay.

And that's where the elusive solution, should it ever be found, would lie.

A system without numeric definition to things and without tactical combat. You need to describe everything in terms of narrative dramatic flow. Like a comic book.

That's the only way to have radically different scales in play, and keep them all story relevant. It's also the only way to allow "anything" without trying to detail out "everything".

Super Hero RPGs have been my main thing for most of my time in this hobby - starting in 83 when I found Autoduel Champions in looking for a supplement to Car Wars. I've tried a lot of different games, I've spent years running several of them. Some of them held up better than others. Some worked in their early editions, and then got too complicated. But even that was only when we limited our idea of a super hero to something fitting the game mechanics. In that regard even Silver Age Sentinels was too pre-defined and it's probably one of the looser flowing games I'd GM'd.

So right now I'm thinking the answer is very close to City of Mist - but maybe not exactly where that is as that is, I believe, tailored to a specific narrow sub-genre. However it may be circling around the impossible answer.

If you've never checked out Good Guys Finish Last, it might be right up your alley.

 

[aramis erak]

Tell people running Champions back in the day that.

I'm just saying I can't say I ever saw someone reduce the cost of a Multiform or a VPP just because they thought the player wouldn't use it much.

You don't buy a new VPP...
nor a new multipower... but you put a pretty narrow limit on the slot in your extant multipower.
The Multiform? sure limit it... buy it with charges. Can get prices down a good bit that way.