What SuperHero RPG do you play ?

[Dannyalcatraz]

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.

OK- generic homebrews simulating what you'd find in Marvel/DC's mainstream stuff can be handled by any supers game mentioned so far. If that's your goal, its just a question of your preferences for grittiness, crunchiness, flexibility, tolerance for complexity, etc. However, the major systems (such as HERO, V&V, M&M, Marvel & DCs games) are most likely to have stats for the heroes/villains you want to yoink...or reasonable facsimiles of them, at least. That will save you some work.

 

[Dice4Hire]

The aforementioned BASH! Ultimate Edition.

Hmm, just read the first 9 pages, but seems a bit too simple, and not idea on the combat

Perhaps will look deeper, thanks for the link

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I don't currently play one, but I have played Champions, Superworld, MSH, and Mutants & Masterminds. Which means my favorite superhero game is probably Villains & Vigilantes...

 

[SSquirrel]

As usual, I'll be the lone person to mention Aberrant. The main problems I had with Aberrant were as follow:

1) Taint generation during character gen was way too easy to generate
2) Offense quickly outstrips defense (Super Strength and Quantum Blast being the biggest offenders) so that you either have to limit some of the offensive powers a bit or make sure everyone has some sort of invulnerability, armor or force fields. Knocking Q Blast down in power to match the other blast powers available like in the various elemental control powers helps as does making Super Strength's dice be rolls instead of auto successes.

If you have played the Old World of Darkness you are already familiar w/the underlying system and if not it is pretty easy to pick up. It wouldn't be hard to divorce the system from the world setting either.

I've played Palladium's various systems mentioned above as well as MSH and I own Silver Age Sentinels and 1st Ed Mutants & Masterminds. I never was much of a fan of SAS tho, just wasn't my cup of tea.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Aberrant is a fine game, but it isn't one I'd use for the typical DC/Marvel comic setting.

One of the charms of Palladium's Heroes Unlimited- at least for me- was its randomized power selection without even a nod towards balance. On a certain level, it presented quite the RP challenge.

 

[BASHMAN]

Hmm, just read the first 9 pages, but seems a bit too simple, and not idea on the combat

Perhaps will look deeper, thanks for the link

Well it is a simple system; but it is also robust. You can add more complexity to a character if you want, but you don't need to.

On its surface, there are only 3 stats with only 5 (technically 6) non-cosmic tiers of ability. For some people, that is not enough "granularity". No problem.

What if you want a character who is stronger than he is tough, or has incredible will power, but isn't super smart? That is handled with a power that augments a stat for a specific use. So there is not a seperate Strength and Toughness stat; but there does not need to be. You could have a Brawn 2 character for instance take Boost 3 (Brawn for Strength), and he would be able to treat his Brawn as if it were a 5 for all actions requiring strength (like punching through a wall) but not for parts covering the toughness aspect of Brawn. So when he gets punched himself, he soaks x2 damage, but when he punches people he does x5. Likewise, you could have a character who is incredibly intelligent but not very strong willed or perceptive. Just take Mind 2 and add Boost 3 (Mind for Intelligence) giving him a x2 roll to resist mind control or hear a noise, etc, but x5 to solve mysteries or invent a new rocket fuel.

There are a number of powers that specifically augment stats for specific uses, like Armor, Keen Senses, Danger Sense, etc.

As for the number of Tiers, stats range from 0 (below average) to 5 (strongest non-cosmic superhero), 6 tiers by default. "Normal" humans range from 0, to 1 (average) to 2 (peak human). However there is a power that any "normal" human (or superbeing) can take called Heightened that functions essentially as a half-way point between stats; effectively doubling the number of tiers.

When you take Heightened in a stat, it adds +3 to any roll with that stat, and in the case of benchmarks triples the lift benchmark of your current level. So instead of 6 tiers, there are 12; this can be used to model instances where characters are close in strength but different enough to merit distinction. So now you could have someone with a 0+ (slightly below average) and 1+ (above average) and 2+ (just beyond human ability) for stats.

Beyond the top tier there is also "Cosmic" stats in the genre section of the book (covers everything from mystery men pulp to gold/silver/bronze/iron ages, to sci-fi & fantasy supers; teen supers, and Cosmic supers as genres). Cosmic Might allows you to move planets for instance, and there is no "ceiling" once you get into cosmic stats.

In terms of complexity in combat, etc, you've got a lot of options to build upon a very simple foundation. Called shots and situational modifiers can be used to represent a myriad of events, like collapsing a pile of crates onto somebody, temporarily blinding them, etc. Stunts for example can be used to emulate a lot of comic book action, like the nick of time intervention or using willpower to shake off unconsciousness to save the world, etc. Martial Arts and some other training powers can give a character an edge in specific situations so that even non-powered heroes can prevail against powerful foes.

So at its base; yes the game is simple; but it gives the players and the Narrator options to build on if they want to.

Btw, the link I posted earlier didn't link to the bundle now offered by Cubicle 7. So people can check it out here.

 

[SSquirrel]

Aberrant is a fine game, but it isn't one I'd use for the typical DC/Marvel comic setting.

One of the charms of Palladium's Heroes Unlimited- at least for me- was its randomized power selection without even a nod towards balance. On a certain level, it presented quite the RP challenge.

I never had any problem building any Marvel characters or some of the more popular DC characters using Aberrant. All that was required was figuring out the right nova point levels. I think I basically built Spider Man and got to throw in a Combat Teleport pretty easily once.

If you replace the whole Taint mechanic w/something like Notoriety, you could certainly boost some powers by taking extra points there and end up w/more outlaw type characters. Spidey and the X-Men typically would have a higher level of notoriety as they are vigilantes and feared as mutants respectively. Yeah I believe Peter has been claimed to be a mutant before too, but that was when they were trying to paint almost the entire Marvel universe as a mutant at one point

If you had a DM who actually let you tailor powers together in Heroes Unlimited you could get some really great builds together. However, the random gen was just as likely to pair up flame form with water breathing

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

However, the random gen was just as likely to pair up flame form with water breathing

Yeah, but then it really felt like your guy was a real mutant or something! Of course, you could always wind up with just a single power, too...some of which were better than others.

Then you had to stretch yourself to figure out what to do when your buddy aced his rolls and wound up with a couple of major powers and some minor ones...while all you could do was fly.

 

[Walking Dad]

I'd like to hear more of your house rules. You could PM so as to not clutter thread. I also have my own little house rule ideas although I've not been able to play as much as I'd have liked.

...

[sblock]
Half-Powers:
Just as some powers count for two, same powers shall only counted as 0.5 for determining Determination (and costs in point-buy).

These are considered half-powers:
Aquatic
Chameleon
(Stretching) (not sure)
Burrowing
Leaping
(Swinging) (not sure; should also provide Binding as an associated power)
Wall-Crawling
Interface
Postcognition
Precognition

-------------------

New way to determine Determination:

By Power Levels
Add up the levels of all of the hero’s powers, along with any ability poits above level 6 (7 becomes 1,
8 becomes 2, 9 becomes 3 and 10 becomes 4), and divide the
sum by 6, rounding down. Subtract this value from a starting value of 6, with a minimum of 1, to
determine the hero’s starting Determination. Powers that count double in Icons have their power
level doubled before they are added to the total.
For example, a hero with Strength 8, Blast 7, Flight 5, and Invulnerability 8 has a sum total of 22
levels. This total, divided by 6, equals 3.66, which rounds down to 3. Subtracted from a starting
value of 6, this provides a starting Determination of 3. On the other hand, if the hero’s Flight level
were 7 (for a total of 24 levels), then dividing by 6 yields a value of 4, for a starting Determination of
2. Likewise, if the three powers were all level 4, for a total of 14, it yields a value of 3.5, rounded
down to 3, for starting Determination 3.
This approach takes relative power level into account, with averages similar to the default
approach, but providing a slight edge to heroes with lower overall power levels and charging a
premium for those with relatively few powers at high levels. It als provides a fairer measurement for a hero
with one ability at 7 vs another with multiple at 6.


[/sblock]

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."
...

The article says it... I also saw Superman team-up with Jimmy Olsen, but I wouldn't say they would gain the same "screen time" in what I consider a "typical" supers scenario.

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

Telepathy vs. Super-Strength = 9 apples vs. 9 oranges, yes.

But both Wall-Climbing and Flying provide advanced movement options in vertical directions. Give me one sample where someone would say: "We had all those flying heroes, but we really needed one who is really good at climbing...".

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?

I sadly cannot help you... for my brain, M&M is easier tha DC Heroes...

I think it is partly which systems you already know and how you remember them.
BTW, M&M 3e uses a DC Heroes like measurement table

 

[jaerdaph]

Telepathy vs. Super-Strength = 9 apples vs. 9 oranges, yes.

But both Wall-Climbing and Flying provide advanced movement options in vertical directions. Give me one sample where someone would say: "We had all those flying heroes, but we really needed one who is really good at climbing...".

Yes they are both movement powers, much like apples and oranges are both fruits. But at the end of the day, the ultimate Wall Crawling 10 guy is not the guy I'm going to go to to get from New York City to the opposite side of the world in the blink of an eye. That's the ultimate Flight 10 gal. If I have Flight 7, I'll fly myself to Chicago from NYC with my cape flappin' in the breeze. If I have Wall Crawling 7, I'm taking the next flight out of JFK, or preferably aboard the Ultra Supra Gang Jet device with Flight 7 or greater. 10 flying apples are still not 10 wall-crawling oranges.

Now, however, suppose I have a Wall Crawling 7 PC hero and a Flight 8 villain and they need to race to the top of the Empire State Building and who ever gets there first "wins the day". With the way the ICONS core resolution mechanic works, the PC hero could *still* beat the villain with Flight 8 to the top if he rolls well and beats the villain's score of 8 (the difficulty for the PC hero's test in an opposed test like this). Two PC heroes with similar powers could have the same friendly contest and compare their rolled test results to determine a winner.

The more I think about it though, I do think we are somewhat on the same page, so I'll leave it at that and just agree to disagree with the rest.

BTW, I hope you had a wonderful holiday!