What system to use for superhero game?

[Sir_Chivalry]

What the title says. If I were running a superhero game what is the best system to use? In RL? In play-by-post? Are there varying degrees of what is useful (does one system work well for gritty street level games and one for Avengers/JLA style games?)

[Tengu_temp]

Mutants and Masterminds (2e or 3e) is a system that takes some time to learn due to the number of options available and requires player cooperation and DM supervision during character creation in order to make sure nobody is too powerful or too weak, but at the same time the gameplay is very fast and fun and the game lets you build almost everything. I recommend it a lot. Works great for PbP from my experience and for live action games too from what others told me.

[Archwizard]

I used to play Marvel Superheroes RPG, it was a d10 based system and pretty not bad. No idea if it's in print anymore though.

[SamBurke]

I saw a post exactly like this a month or two ago, but I don't have the link...

But yeah, MnM comes highly recommended.

[Low-Key]

RL "With Great Power"
It is set up to follow a comicbook story arc and is amazing. Free form leaning for character generation ensures everyone can be anything they want pretty much, and unusual mechanics prevent power discrepancies. Downsides : Weird mechanics some people may not be able to get into. It uses playing cards instead of dice. No mechanical advancement, characters develop and grow and powers can change, but you won't actually get mechanically stronger which is an important goal to some.

PBP "Mutants and Masterminds"
Only because I think "With Great Power" would be too much of a hassle to try and run online, but I would attempt to figure out a way to do so first and if I couldn't then settle for M&M. Good and bad because of what others have already said: Make anything, but careful during creation as it's easy to have wildly different power levels.

[TriForce]

i used to play abbarant, based on the whitewolf system. pretty fun, no dice rolling, but a bit complex for people not familiar with the whitewolf system.

[Ecalsneerg]

i used to play abbarant, based on the whitewolf system. pretty fun, no dice rolling, but a bit complex for people not familiar with the whitewolf system.

It's also better used for the system, not the fluff, as it's more a superhuman, not superhero game. For all its good points, it's another superhero work written by people who don't like superheroes.

[Xiander]

ICONS super powered roleplay.

Easy to learn, fun to play and covers almost every fathomable superpower.

[TheEmerged]

It's also better used for the system, not the fluff, as it's more a superhuman, not superhero game. For all its good points, it's another superhero work written by people who don't like superheroes.

That's actually a decent description of Aberrant.

I've the most experience with HERO, AKA "Champions". 20+ years experience, actually It's a good & incredibly flexible system that requires a lot of work from the person running it. The best thing about HERO is that you can build almost anything in it; the worst thing about HERO is that you HAVE to build almost everything from scratch.

Another system I'd recommend but is probably almost impossible to find these days is the old Marvel FASERIP system. Did it have flaws? Yes. Where the gaps in power sufficiently wide? No. Was it actually fun when playing it? Yes.

There are similarly charms with the 9-stat DC Heroes system too. Throw the equipment rules out the window though. Again, you have the problem where the gaps in power aren't sufficient to the way they're depicted in the comics. However, it again plays better than it looks on paper.

I tried out the Marvel SAGA system and... it just didn't work.

[Ecalsneerg]

Another system I'd recommend but is probably almost impossible to find these days is the old Marvel FASERIP system. Did it have flaws? Yes. Where the gaps in power sufficiently wide? No. Was it actually fun when playing it? Yes.

I think there's still a couple of online communities for it who host all the books and have a big archive of suggested house rules and NPCs.

Mind you, I can't remember the URL or actually find the site...

[Da Beast]

I'd also like to suggest Mutants and Masterminds. I haven't tried 3e yet but 2e is a great game.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I finally get to recommend Mutants & Masterminds (well, like, eighth Tengu's recommendation) for the genre it was actually intended for.

Seriously, though, it's fantastic. I need to get on experimenting with 3e.

[Vortling]

I recommend Truth and Justice. It's the other end of the crunch spectrum from MnM but still holds up well for playing in the superhero genre. Also the book has many excellent GMing advice for the superhero genre.

[Warlawk]

i used to play abbarant, based on the whitewolf system. pretty fun, no dice rolling, but a bit complex for people not familiar with the whitewolf system.

I have afair number of Aberrant books sitting on my shelf and I'm not entirely sure what you mean 'no dice rolling' because it has a plenty robust dice system in close keeping with the other white wolf games. The only thing I can think of would be that character creation is point based instead of rolling. That's kind of an important thing to clarify when you say 'no dice rolling' though. I actually really like the system, but I think I would go with the next suggestion even over Aberrant.

I'll toss my hat in the ring for M&M 3E. I've not looked at the earlier versions much but from what I did see poking around at 2E it has a lot of holdovers from it's D&D 3.5 roots that don't really make sense and are only there because that's the way it was always done. 3E takes a lot of that and junks it, making for a system better designed to work for its intended use of superhero gaming.

[GoatToucher]

Another vote for MnM. They key to that game is strong GMing, because there are several easy, uncomplicated ways to "break the game" (a misnomer, as the game is -supposed- to let some people be insanely powerful), so the limit has to be the GM's sensibilities.

If your players are going to whine because you won't let them create 100 heroic clones of himself in one round, even though the book says they can, this is not the system for you. That said, that type of player is not a good fit for a superhero game, where the character's idiom is king, not his numbers.

[Knaight]

Godlike is incredible, with an ORE base, the same thing that uses Nemesis.

[dsmiles]

Sweet, in before RISUS.

Not only is it awesome, it's FREE!

[Vknight]

M&M
It is awesome let me put it this way, want to be Luffy from One Piece you can. Want to be a Soul Reaper you can. Want to be a living blackhole you can.
Be a master of magnetism, yes that to. How about a cyber-lich or a soul that possess bodies or a guy that mind controls others