Looking for good RPG recommendations for Superhero and Urban Fantasy games.

[Ignisiel]

Hey all. I'm looking to work on starting a new campaign for my group. I have three separate campaign ideas for my group to decide on, but may run a couple of oneshots to see what they enjoy most. The ideas are:

An Urban Fantasy setting set after the Break. An event that occurred a few decades ago which resulted in magic being exposed to the world. Now it's modern society, but dwarves, elves, ogres, and dragons are apparent to humans, and magic is just as common as cars.

An Urban Fantasy setting where magic is still hidden. They work as either a government agency or part of a secret organization that keeps all this stuff hidden and handles it without the public ever even aware of the problem existing. (Think Hellboy movies here.)

A Superhero world with the group working similar to the Avengers or Justice League. Along with their own characters, they would each also have an arch-nemesis who all come together to form their own Legion of Doom.

So those are the basic idea outlines. For games, my group and I have used D&D 5e for over a year now, and are starting a Deadlands Classic campaign. I also have personal experience with the following systems:

Palladium (Rifts mainly)
All editions of D&D (4th being my favorite and not a big fan of 3.5)
Call of Cthulu
World of Darkness
Exalted
Battlestations
Dresden Files RPG

Those are what I've played to various degrees. I don't know which system would be best for the games. I'm thinking either a modern magic conversion of 5e or the Dresden Files RPG for the Urban Fantasy, but not sure about how to do the Super Hero one. I've had Mutants and Masterminds and Champions recommended to me. I'm not sure how I feel about M&M, since it's apparently similar to 3.5. I've also seen Savage Worlds Superpower Companion recommended a lot, and it's pretty similar to Deadlands. My group loves a good mix of combat and roleplaying, and a game able to handle both serious and silly moments at any point. Not counting me, the Urban Fantasy game would have 6 players, and the Superhero one would have 7. I'm happy to answer any questions that might help with finding a good system to use. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Remedy]

Mutants & Masterminds has extremely little in common with 3.5 that it doesn't also have in common with the majority of RPGs. The strongest connection M&M has to D&D is using a d20, and that's just a probability distribution.

And it works fantastically with all three of the settings you've described, not just the superhero one. It's a point-build system rather than a class-based system, it's extremely robust and diverse through its Power system, and it has a lot of really cool narrative mechanics that prevent the gameplay itself from getting repetitive. The only potential issue is that the game system primarily supports (though by no means mandates) session structures that match comic book convention, due to the Hero Points mechanics giving the players rewards for suffering setbacks on the way towards the climax of a session (and which don't carry over, encouraging players to go all-in at said climax).

[Grod_The_Giant]

Mutants & Masterminds has extremely little in common with 3.5 that it doesn't also have in common with the majority of RPGs. The strongest connection M&M has to D&D is using a d20, and that's just a probability distribution.

And it works fantastically with all three of the settings you've described, not just the superhero one. It's a point-build system rather than a class-based system, it's extremely robust and diverse through its Power system, and it has a lot of really cool narrative mechanics that prevent the gameplay itself from getting repetitive. The only potential issue is that the game system primarily supports (though by no means mandates) session structures that match comic book convention, due to the Hero Points mechanics giving the players rewards for suffering setbacks on the way towards the climax of a session (and which don't carry over, encouraging players to go all-in at said climax).
M&M also has a tendency to reward clever use of power stunting, but you're not going to find anything better for a game that operates by comic book/superhero cartoon physics.

The Dresden Files RPG is also pretty good and should work for either of the first two. I'll also note that the first is basically the exact same setting as Shadowrun, for whatever that's worth.

[Arbane]

FATE would work of any of these, if you're good with a rules-light game that mostly runs on story rather than physics.

Prowlers & Paragons is a fairly recent superhero RPG, significantly lighter than M&M. (Which will be an issue with 6-7 players.)
Truth & Justice is an older superhero RPG, fairly light compared to M&M.

(I've played and enjoyed HERO System, but I can't in good conscience recommend it for this - it's rather slow and bean-counting by modern standards.)

[Ignisiel]

Mutants & Masterminds has extremely little in common with 3.5 that it doesn't also have in common with the majority of RPGs. The strongest connection M&M has to D&D is using a d20, and that's just a probability distribution.

And it works fantastically with all three of the settings you've described, not just the superhero one. It's a point-build system rather than a class-based system, it's extremely robust and diverse through its Power system, and it has a lot of really cool narrative mechanics that prevent the gameplay itself from getting repetitive. The only potential issue is that the game system primarily supports (though by no means mandates) session structures that match comic book convention, due to the Hero Points mechanics giving the players rewards for suffering setbacks on the way towards the climax of a session (and which don't carry over, encouraging players to go all-in at said climax).

Hmm, that's good to know about it. As for the Hero Points mechanics, I would probably run the games as "episodes" or "story arcs" in that case, and have the end point/climax happen when it does, even if that means it lasts a couple of sessions. I guess we could consider those the occasional two parters or story arcs in super hero shows. How does it compare to Savage Worlds with the Superhero Companion?


M&M also has a tendency to reward clever use of power stunting, but you're not going to find anything better for a game that operates by comic book/superhero cartoon physics.

The Dresden Files RPG is also pretty good and should work for either of the first two. I'll also note that the first is basically the exact same setting as Shadowrun, for whatever that's worth.

If I go the Urban Fantasy route, then I'll most likely use the DF RPG, though my party has now voted 4 to 3 in favor of the Superhero game. The other players have said they'd be totally fine with the Superhero one as well, especially since they can still play magical characters. Also, Shadowrun is a system I've used in the past, and the mechanics might have worked nicely, but the tech is a bit further along than I'd want for the setting. It would work well for supers, funny enough.


FATE would work of any of these, if you're good with a rules-light game that mostly runs on story rather than physics.

Prowlers & Paragons is a fairly recent superhero RPG, significantly lighter than M&M. (Which will be an issue with 6-7 players.)
Truth & Justice is an older superhero RPG, fairly light compared to M&M.

(I've played and enjoyed HERO System, but I can't in good conscience recommend it for this - it's rather slow and bean-counting by modern standards.).

Yeah, avoiding too much crunch would be ideal. Dresden Files uses the FATE system, though I'm not sure how well it would work for Supers. How versatile is Prowlers and Paragons? Does it allow for many different types of heroes? Can one person be Batman, another be Zatanna, and Superman there as well? (With the exception that they'd all have their power balanced with each other.)

[Doorhandle]

Yeah, avoiding too much crunch would be ideal. Dresden Files uses the FATE system, though I'm not sure how well it would work for Supers. How versatile is Prowlers and Paragons? Does it allow for many different types of heroes? Can one person be Batman, another be Zatanna, and Superman there as well? (With the exception that they'd all have their power balanced with each other.)

For Prowlers and paragons I can say yes. One thing I will note is that it handles alternate powers a bit worse than M&M: It gets expensive to have too many alternate power, and ommipower requires resolve(hero-point equivalent) for every use, not to mention a large cost in build-dice.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Prowlers & Paragons is a fairly recent superhero RPG, significantly lighter than M&M. (Which will be an issue with 6-7 players.)
Truth & Justice is an older superhero RPG, fairly light compared to M&M.
M&M actually occupies a fairly interesting space crunch-wise, I think. Character creation is fairly crunchy, though it becomes really quick and fun once you get the hang of it. Gameplay, though, is quite straightforward. Finished powers are simple and rely on the same set of base effects, meaning there's very little need to stop and look things up, and the game runs on a nicely streamlined d20 engine, meaning turns resolve pretty quickly. I've run six-person M&M groups with no real trouble.

[ngilop]

I'm surprised nobody mentiond it yet, but Shadowrun is literally the same exact thing you are asking for in your first game idea.
An Urban Fantasy setting set after the Break. An event that occurred a few decades ago which resulted in magic being exposed to the world. Now it's modern society, but dwarves, elves, ogres, and dragons are apparent to humans, and magic is just as common as cars.


The mayan long count happens December 2012 is like whats up MAGIC! peeps become elves and orcs and such and magic is all like WHAT IT DO?

[DeathToGazeebos]

Gurps would do it with ease while allowing you too maintaining good combat to roleplay ratio thanks to its extensive genera spanning skill list. Would seamlessly allow your modern day dwarves to have a fighter jet pilot skill as well as blacksmith (or armoury). Everything is well balanced for character creation as well so handling things like magic system in a gun fight is also what the system was meant to do and does well IMHO. Also has a framework to allow you build super powers to your liking if you need something less "magic spell" feeling.
Next best thing I'd say is Shadowrun.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Masks: A New Generation is an excellent superhero game. It's basically about a group of teenage superheroes coming into their powers.

[SirBellias]

I'd go Monster of the Week for the first or second one, because it's awesome and I have it readily available, But I do understand that some people aren't me.

The first one describes Shadowrun perfectly, though I still haven't actually found out how to play that even after reading the rule book all the way through.

[Mr Beer]

Gurps would do it with ease while allowing you too maintaining good combat to roleplay ratio thanks to its extensive genera spanning skill list. Would seamlessly allow your modern day dwarves to have a fighter jet pilot skill as well as blacksmith (or armoury). Everything is well balanced for character creation as well so handling things like magic system in a gun fight is also what the system was meant to do and does well IMHO. Also has a framework to allow you build super powers to your liking if you need something less "magic spell" feeling.
Next best thing I'd say is Shadowrun.

*I* would use GURPS. I wouldn't highly recommend someone who hasn't used GURPS before to use GURPS for this because the learning curve is pretty steep. As they say 'it's a toolkit not a system' and you need to read and apply several books to mesh together a coherent Shadowrun type setting plus do some work yourself on the races plus maybe choose a magic system.

I think it would work really well and its something I want to do myself at some point but as your first GURPS project, not so much.

[arclance]

The Marvel Superheros Roleplaying Game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Super_Heroes_%28role-playing_game%29) from TSR is good for superhero games.
It is very out of print but you can find the rules on the internet easily.
I currently play in a X-Men based game using that system and like it a lot.

[Blue Duke]

If you use shadowrun you can probably easily strip the setting and go with your own and just use the rules (also known as 'SO MANY D6'S!')

[Stealth Marmot]

An Urban Fantasy setting set after the Break.

An Urban Fantasy setting where magic is still hidden.

A Superhero world with the group working similar to the Avengers or Justice League.


The first two are described in the d20 modern manual pretty well. World of Darkness works well for those, as well. You could also look into Mage but I have no experience with that.

The third one, I suggest potentially Aberrant. I played a couple sessions of that and it is a superhero game that fits with your idea.

[kyoryu]

Fate is a good choice (including DFRPG). I haven't used it for Supers, because, well, I don't play Supers much.

Going with GURPS/Champions (and I combine the two here) is also viable. I'd probably prefer Champions for Supers and GURPS for the other stuff, based on my experience.

But those are two fairly opposite systems. So, apart from the genre you're playing in, a good question is *what kind of game* do you want? Like, what does a typical session look like? What do players do, and not do?

[Stealth Marmot]

But those are two fairly opposite systems. So, apart from the genre you're playing in, a good question is *what kind of game* do you want? Like, what does a typical session look like? What do players do, and not do?

Good question. You can adapt any system to your ideas technically, but different systems emphasize different things. What do the players like to do? What do the players WANT to do?

Actually, have you ASKED your players what sort of game they want to play yet?

[Ignisiel]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Earlier, my group had voted 4 to 3 in favor of the Superhero setting, so we're going with that. They also seem more interested in Mutants and Masterminds (the long time needed to create characters seems to have almost been a selling point for some of them) primarly for the versatility it provides. On that note, I'm curious what the differences are between 2nd and 3rd edition and which is considered better to use.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Earlier, my group had voted 4 to 3 in favor of the Superhero setting, so we're going with that. They also seem more interested in Mutants and Masterminds (the long time needed to create characters seems to have almost been a selling point for some of them) primarly for the versatility it provides. On that note, I'm curious what the differences are between 2nd and 3rd edition and which is considered better to use.
3e moves farther away from its D&D, OGL roots. It also goes a lot farther towards the sort of "lego set" power creation, where you combined Effects and Modifiers to create a custom power. There's an SRD (http://www.d20herosrd.com/), too!

[Ignisiel]

3e moves farther away from its D&D, OGL roots. It also goes a lot farther towards the sort of "lego set" power creation, where you combined Effects and Modifiers to create a custom power. There's an SRD, too!

Thanks! That's very helpful. Is this all I need, or would the book still be required? Also, are there other supplements that would be helpful?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Thanks! That's very helpful. Is this all I need, or would the book still be required? Also, are there other supplements that would be helpful?
I *think* you can get away with just the SRD and these encounter tables (http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24919&p=604377#p604377), but the book doesn't hurt. There aren't really splatbooks in the same sense that, say, D&D has them, but I liked the Power Profiles (http://greenroninstore.com/products/power-profiles) (there are individual pdfs and a collection)-- each one is a couple pages of musing on a specific power type, with some discussion of the fluff and relevant mechanics and a bunch of example powers all worked out. There are also a pair of Monster Manual type books with a crapton of DC Comics characters statted out, if you'd find that sort of thing useful.