What SuperHero RPG do you play ?

[jaerdaph]

Again, that's because Wall Climbing is not Flying. 9 apples vs. 9 oranges.

ICONS is an "outside the D&D box" game. Don't get me wrong, I love that box through three editions, Pathfinder and a couple of retroclones (OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord). But I finally realized its core conceits can be constraining and bias my thinking with regards to other games.

 

[jaerdaph]

Superman and Robin:

"The Boy Wonder is - believe it or not - a frequent partner of Superman's. Yes, The Dark Knight's junior partner has teamed with Superman several times in order to counter crime.

Sometimes Batman has been injured, and so Superman has done his friend a favor and watched over the boy sidekick. Other times, Robin has joined Superman to tackle cases in which crime waves have impacted both Metropolis and Gotham City. Robin is also a close friend of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen."

I will do both of our intelligences a favor though and not count Super Friends.

 

[billd91]

Ever seen Superfriends and how often they artificially included scenes that made Aquaman look useful? The players will notice, too.
I sometimes like to play a power-wise underdog, but I want this to be my decision, not of the dice.

It wasn't just in Superfriends. It was all over the JLA too. But I think it really does underscore the amount of authority a GM needs in a game. Any character concept can work... As long as the GM is willing to handle it. if a JLA-based game has a GM not willing to accommodate Aquaman, he needs to be up front about it and disallow builds like him.

That said, Robin led the JLA in the 2000s before the most recent reboot. I see that and creative use of Triad/Triplicate Girl in the Legion of Superheroes as evidence that comic writing has gotten a lot better in some areas. That gives plenty of inspiration to GMs out there in doing the same in superhero games.

I would also add that an important caveat in this, handling 'loose' balance, is the game must be seen as being not limited to being a combat game. I think that applies to most RPGs, actually, and not just supers games. The more a game is about combat, the more mechanical imbalance will be noted.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Let's not forget Green Lantern partnering with Green Arrow for many years.

 

[darjr]

I've played TMNT. In my youth I loved that game. more recently I ran a game and realized we didn't use the rules as written. still that game has a fond spot in my heart.

I'd love to read a thread with supers house rule discussions.

IDE often thought a a game with fewer hard and fast numbers and more of a kind of literary like aspect idea would suite supers better. something that could loosely fit batman and robin fighting thugs in back alleys one day and then supporting Supes battling evil outer dark Godzilla like monstrosities in the depths of space the next all wile clearly BEING batman and robin

 

[Cam Banks]

As you can probably imagine, the superhero RPG I play these days is one I'm designing. You can check out more about Marvel Heroic Roleplaying here: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Promo This also shows off Captain America datafile. Release for the Basic Game book is February 2012.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[karlindel]

I have played and/or run superhero games using HERO/Champions, Savage Worlds (specifically Necessary Evil), and Mutants and Masterminds 2e. Of these, Savage Worlds is the simplest system, and HERO/Champions is my favorite for its versatility, and I enjoyed playing it the most.

 

[underfoot007ct]

HERO (a.k.a. Champions) is my game of choice. I find its system is simply unsurpassed in flexibility: I have yet to come up with a PC concept I can't model in HERO. While it is complex, most of that is due to its flexibility- you can model just about anything 10 different ways- the complexity is mostly limited to character creation. Once you're playing, nearly everything you need to reference will be on your PC sheet.

Mutants & Masterminds is also exceptionally flexible, second only to HERO in this regard, IMHO. It will also be easier to understand if you're familiar with the D20 system.

While I've not played a supers game in it nor particularly care for it, GURPS is another game quite capable of modeling a huge variety of character concepts.

Besides those, I've played a variety of superheroic games over the years. While these others may not be as good as modeling the whole supers genre as the ones listed above, they may do a better job of modeling a particular subset of the genre. For example, if you really want to play in the Marvel or DC universes, the games designed for those companies' comic lines are really where you should start looking.

Do you have a particular supers campaign type in mind?

I was thinking of a home-brew kind of game, everyone could create a super hero, rather than a Marvel or DC world. Although I might use a few comic book heros as NPC's.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Last Superhero game I played was M&M 2nd edition. Was not really good for what I wanted to do in a supers game so I am looking for a simpler system. I played DC Heroes back in college 20 years ago and that was about the right level of rules for me.

Anything new of that level of complexity?

 

[BASHMAN]

Last Superhero game I played was M&M 2nd edition. Was not really good for what I wanted to do in a supers game so I am looking for a simpler system. I played DC Heroes back in college 20 years ago and that was about the right level of rules for me.

Anything new of that level of complexity?

The aforementioned BASH! Ultimate Edition.