What's the best system to use?

[darjr]

Yea, Jürgen Hubert: is a good contact for GURPS info. I hope he joins in.

I think that GURPS martial arts and a dash of powers could do this.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

The Spellbound Kingdoms system (fair warning; I designed it) features stunting in two different ways, and it's tactical. I think it's well-suited to anime, although the existing styles are all for Renaissance-era D&D-style play. But the Combat Primer is free on my website. Check it out. Don't buy the game, though. The full version is going to come out later this summer, but you shouldn't even buy that if you're looking for anime. Just get the Combat Primer for free, and if you like the system, then re-skin and tweak it yourself for anime.

 

[coyote6]

4e and Hero both lack the incentive for the players to be awesome, though; they're fun games, but combat often ends up being "I blast him with power X, then defend with power Y." M&M is on my list for the Hero Point mechanic, among others.

I think Hero or Champions 5e actually included some kind of power stunting rule, too, but I don't know if 6e does, and I don't remember how it worked.

That said, I don't think it would be too hard to just use the M&M power stunting & hero point mechanics in Hero, with some adaptation (e.g., you wouldn't want rerolling to include the "if 10 or less, add 10" thing, obviously). Power stunting might be more complicated, in that figuring the math on a power in Hero can be somewhat more involved, but if you are willing to play it fast & loose and let the GM make the final decision on how much oomph you get from a power stunt, it ought to work.

It would be really helpful if the GM, the player, or someone was good at building powers quickly & in their head. But that's true in M&M, too.

Savage World players, I'm not familiar with the game at all; does it have 'stunts'?

It has bennies, that let you reroll. It has some mechanics (tricks, Tests of Wills) that could be adapted to mimick some (non-powered) stunts. It also encourages Fast! Fun! Furious! playstyle, and using setting rules, so depending on what exactly you want from stunts, you could be good to go.

Note that I'm not sure I'd use SW for superheroes or any really high-powered game or setting, at least using any rules I've seen (e.g., I wouldn't try to run Savage Solar Exalted or Werewolf the Apocalypse without some massive house rules). I'm just not sure how well SW extends upwards.

 

[Reyemile]

Thanks for the helpful insight, Coyote!

That being said, I think we're talking past each other a bit--the consequence of different games hijacking various common English terms. But when talking about stunts in SW, i wasn't asking about MnM style "pull a temporary new power out of your butt" style stunts, but rather Exalted "get a bonus if you describe your action to be exceptionally cool" style stunts.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's not codified into HERO, but more than one HERO game in which I've played has had a GM who did something like that.

 

[coyote6]

Thanks for the helpful insight, Coyote!

That being said, I think we're talking past each other a bit--the consequence of different games hijacking various common English terms. But when talking about stunts in SW, i wasn't asking about MnM style "pull a temporary new power out of your butt" style stunts, but rather Exalted "get a bonus if you describe your action to be exceptionally cool" style stunts.

Ah-ha! No, then, neither Hero, M&M, nor SW has those kind of stunts codified in the rules, per se -- no bonuses a la Exalted.

However, in M&M and SW, the GM could definitely give a hero point or benny for an awesome 2 or 3 die stunt, though -- then if the dice fail to live up to the description, the player could spend the point to reroll. Without checking, I'm not sure if either book calls out "great description of action" as being reward-worthy or not; they definitely both mention things in that neighborhood, though (great player ideas, great roleplaying, & the like).

With Hero, if you adapted some kind of hero point rule (and I would, if I ever run Hero again), you could give them out for awesome descriptions.

And you can give out a small bonus in any game system, of course.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Of course, you could always buy Luck in the HERO system.

 

[jonrog1]

Savage Worlds with the SUPERHERO COMPANION would do the job nicely. I cannot say enough nice things about the flexibility of Savage Worlds.

 

[Punnuendo]

Savage Worlds with the SUPERHERO COMPANION would do the job nicely. I cannot say enough nice things about the flexibility of Savage Worlds.

What he said. The Superhero Companion takes an already flexible system and kicks it up into a whole other level.

 

[Goken100]

This will damn me forever in the eyes of the 4e haters but ...

... reskinning 4e powers would be perfect, imo. The shift/push/pull aspects especially. You could rewrite the fluff without the players ever knowing.

I agree that 4e would work well, except for armor, which doesn't really fit in a modern setting.