What's your favorite superhero TTRPG and why?

[ShinHakkaider]

As a Storm fan I really should track this down and enjoy the hell out of it.

It's Uncanny X-Men #201 if my memory serves.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

To be fair Cyclops (who I am another fan of) takes on his teammates single-handedly not once but TWICE.
The first time after the team is clearly rattled after thier first encounter with Proteus way back in X-men #127. He sees that they won't survive another encounter with Proteus if he doesnt snap them out of their state so he goads them into a "fight". He surrenders when he sees that they've regained thier focus and even Wolverine grudgingly understands what Cyke was doing.

The second time is in X-men #175 when the team, thanks to Masterminds shenanigans believes that Cyke is in fact Pheonix and comes after him. Scott lures them into the Danger Room and takes them on there using the environment and their weaknesses against them.

As a teen reading these? made me like Cyclops all the more because all he has are his eyebeams and his tactical acumen but clearly, it's enough.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Well, as noted, Cyclops is not a low powered character. His eyebeams may well be the most bang-for-your buck on the heroic side of Marvel until you hit the cosmics, he's got an extra side order of spatical relationship awareness, and he's been using them for years by that point. His big problem as referenced earlier is that he's a glass cannon; he's fairly good at avoiding being hit, but once he does he's usually down for the count.

 

[WayneLigon]

There are any number of systems that adequately handle low-level supers (Basically, 'Heroes' level people (with a possible exception for Peter)). Big splashy four-color supers, on the other hand....

M&M does it best, I think, but the system went from something simple and clean to almost Champions-level complexity and self-reference. I'd like something more like 1e (and let me tell you, a complete core rule book at under 200 pages is a huge plus for me) where they used the later idea of the Fighting stat to break apart Str/Dex from fighting ability. But I never could quite shake the idea that there was some undefined core concept I simply did not 'get'.

ICONS is great. I'd love to play it more, since I've only ever GM'ed. The most recent ed fixed all the problems I had with it, I think.

Marvel FASERIP holds a special place in my heart. Other than M&M, I don't think any other game system handles the 'Hulk and Hawkeye are on the same team' disparity quite as well (by not handling it, actually).

 

[WayneLigon]

I have read Savage World Supers, but not played. Any feedback?

I don't think anyone answered your question, but I'm not 100% sure.
We tried both editions of the Supers rules.
We wanted to like it. We really, really did since SW was our group's big go-to system at the time.
I have never seen such a total and complete mess of a game in my life, and the second edition fixes some things but the end results are the same.
This is a system that does low-level supers very well. Once you get above the 'pulp' level of hero the wheels come off, catch on fire, and steer you into a ditch.
The main problem being that in SW, adding dice or even a '+1' mod is a big game-changer.
If you do not have 110% buy-in from everyone concerned that they simply will not push a thing above Power Level X, or never take something like enhanced speed, thing get out of hand very, very quickly.

You know how SW only lasts really until about the time you hit somewhere around the 20/25XP level or so, if I remember right?
That's your next session after the first XP spend with the Supers books.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, to be specific (and this is over and above the SW supers rules being really reluctant to let you have anything which could look like a plot breaker--something the system is generally really hesitant with--which makes it super conservative about some types of senses, mental powers, and even some movement powers) there's an ugly dynamic about how the damage-threshold system works with supers, which is made even worse by the fact the SPC has things that can cause damage dice to get up to as many as six (you only see this with heavy weapons in most of the other games, which is just as well because I think some artifacts start to sneak into the system with more about 3-4 because of the open-ended damage rolls). This means to be protected against the frequent gusting in damage, there's a tendency for characters to find some way to get pretty high Toughness (being harder to hit is a theoretical alternative, but its all-or-nothing nature means that when it fails its going to be pretty ugly). This means the routine attacks tend to bounce, even ones at a level that the same character puts out.

TLDR, it produces a system where the likely result is either one where characters get pasted good and thoroughly with some frequency, or one where its often hard to make them even notice you did anything. And non-damaging attacks aren't really a substitute for various reasons.

 

[Thomas Shey]

There are any number of systems that adequately handle low-level supers (Basically, 'Heroes' level people (with a possible exception for Peter)). Big splashy four-color supers, on the other hand....

M&M does it best, I think, but the system went from something simple and clean to almost Champions-level complexity and self-reference. I'd like something more like 1e (and let me tell you, a complete core rule book at under 200 pages is a huge plus for me) where they used the later idea of the Fighting stat to break apart Str/Dex from fighting ability. But I never could quite shake the idea that there was some undefined core concept I simply did not 'get'.

ICONS is great. I'd love to play it more, since I've only ever GM'ed. The most recent ed fixed all the problems I had with it, I think.

Marvel FASERIP holds a special place in my heart. Other than M&M, I don't think any other game system handles the 'Hulk and Hawkeye are on the same team' disparity quite as well (by not handling it, actually).

Given your apparent tastes, have you given Supers! RED a look, Wayne?

 

[aramis erak]

There are any number of systems that adequately handle low-level supers (Basically, 'Heroes' level people (with a possible exception for Peter)). Big splashy four-color supers, on the other hand....

M&M does it best, I think, but the system went from something simple and clean to almost Champions-level complexity and self-reference. I'd like something more like 1e (and let me tell you, a complete core rule book at under 200 pages is a huge plus for me) where they used the later idea of the Fighting stat to break apart Str/Dex from fighting ability. But I never could quite shake the idea that there was some undefined core concept I simply did not 'get'.
[snip]
Marvel FASERIP holds a special place in my heart. Other than M&M, I don't think any other game system handles the 'Hulk and Hawkeye are on the same team' disparity quite as well (by not handling it, actually).

M&M's fight stat is probably inspired by FASERIP and GW's RPGs (Judge Dredd, WFRP), where it's also a separate stat.

And, much as I love it, FASERIP leaves hawkeye unable to hurt a number of villains he's hurt in the comics, because armor is SO effective (100% of rating) and damage is 0/100%/200%/Special, with special being 200% and if any gets through massive side effect. Low end supers often do very little when someone else has a big attack, and the target is able to stand up to the brick.

 

[Thomas Shey]

M&M's fight stat is probably inspired by FASERIP and GW's RPGs (Judge Dredd, WFRP), where it's also a separate stat.

And, much as I love it, FASERIP leaves hawkeye unable to hurt a number of villains he's hurt in the comics, because armor is SO effective (100% of rating) and damage is 0/100%/200%/Special, with special being 200% and if any gets through massive side effect. Low end supers often do very little when someone else has a big attack, and the target is able to stand up to the brick.

Its an intrinsic problem with having fixed values at both the damage and protection end.

 

[Staffan]

Eh, it was actually kind of terrible. Two X-Men duking it out for leadership of the team? It wasn’t exactly the X-Men at their best as far as writing went. The issues of the later 1980s were a HUGE let down compared to how the X-Men entered the decade.

As I remember it, it was pretty good. It's clear that this is not Cyclops at the top of his game. He is beset by doubts and by divided loyalties – one one hand he has his wife and child to think about, and on the other he feels that he should be the one who leads the team, particularly since Xavier is gone. But his heart isn't into it, and that (combined with a Danger Room scenario designed to play to Storm's strengths, as compensation for her lack of powers) is why Storm can defeat him. Also, said defeat doesn't really involve punching, but her using stealth to be able to put Cyclops in an unwinnable position at which point he surrenders.