A great system for "Civil War"?

[RickAllison]

Hello, all.

I would like some input from the community on the best system for creating a "Civil War"-esque campaign. Essentially, the players will be empowered individuals dealing with government persecution and the pressure to enlist or be a felon. It would be a hybrid between the Marvel event and Company and the government's initiative in Volume Four of the Heroes TV show. Criteria and First Thoughts:

1) The PCs are special, but not the only ones. They will meet others like them on all sides, but the vast majority of the planet will be regular humans (though some will be cape-busters or military men and women, so there should be rules to handle that).

2) A variety of powers that the PCs can specialize in. The systems I am most familiar with (D&D and Star Wars: EotE) are class-based and so don't readily make this available.

3) Social rules. These don't need to be totally rigid, but I would like some guidance on appropriate DCs or the equivalent thereof for trying to solve a conflict through discourse.

4) Growth. I think most systems would provide this, but I would much prefer something like Heroes where the PCs are learning more about their powers and themselves as they go than Iron Man already being in his prime.

I might think of more, but those are the biggies for now. Thanks, everyone!

[The Glyphstone]

Mutants and Masterminds (2e or 3e) are pretty much the go-to for Superhero RPG systems. There are other alternatives like Champions or HERO, but if you are coming from D&D, the d20-based M&M is by far the easiest system to learn.

[Kaerou]

I second mutants and masterminds. Though I prefer 2e over 3e. Its all down to preference.

You could start the PC's at a lower powerlevel (I prefer starting games at pl8 since thats where they start being powerful to ordinary stuff but can still be challenged by a group of soldiers with standard guns) and you can control characters growth with power points (the systems xp, can be spent on skills / powers / feats) and power levels (how strong your characters can grow in all areas) separately.

You can award a lot of power points but dont need to award power levels, which are separate. You can award those at important milestones.

[KillingAScarab]

Hello, all.

I would like some input from the community on the best system for creating a "Civil War"-esque campaign. Essentially, the players will be empowered individuals dealing with government persecution and the pressure to enlist or be a felon. It would be a hybrid between the Marvel event and Company and the government's initiative in Volume Four of the Heroes TV show. Criteria and First Thoughts:

...

3) Social rules. These don't need to be totally rigid, but I would like some guidance on appropriate DCs or the equivalent thereof for trying to solve a conflict through discourse.

Something to keep in mind from Runaways volume 1 #12

Gertrude Yorkes: Hands off, Talkback. We don't need any more meaningless punching.
Chase Stein: Yeah, then what do you need?
Cloak: The only thing our kind dreads...
Dagger: Dialogue.

It isn't so much that talking is difficult, but super heroes have an aversion to it. The circumstances which lead to cliche super team fights are also manufactured in such a way to have disincentivized talking to each other until things are so terrible they can't get any worse by doing so. Example: the first X-Factor team.

[RickAllison]

For the M&M system, what books do you recommend? The Hero's Handbook seems rather mandatory, but what other books should I keep a lookout for?

[Kaerou]

Depends on the system you are gong for: you really only need the core rules book/pdf.

2e: http://greenroninstore.com/collectio...nd-edition-pdf

You can browse the books here:

http://greenroninstore.com/collectio...edition?page=1

I advise ultimate power if you want to go all in: http://greenroninstore.com/collectio...mate-power-pdf


3e: http://greenroninstore.com/collectio...heros-handbook

For 3, you would probably want power profiles.

http://greenroninstore.com/collectio...r-profiles-pdf

If you want to have a tinker with the systems in advance, you can download free trials on hero lab

http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=hero_lab

[The Glyphstone]

3e has the benefit of a free online SRD.

http://www.d20herosrd.com/

[Templarkommando]

The only system that I recall using for super heroes was one called Aberrant. I only ever played a one-shot with it though so I can't comment on whether or not it's a decent system.

[sktarq]

Mutants and Masterminds is good

Aberrant would also work as a backup (with some adaption of the setting) but I'd only recommend it if your players are familiar with d20 and preference to avoid new systems. I personally really like it. The biggest issue is that the setting takes a different (and I think one of the best) takes on the arrival of the superhumans than the Marvel world and would need work.

[Knaight]

Mutants and Masterminds has been covered, but if you're not particularly attached to the d20 System then I'd recommend looking into Godlike and Wild Talents as well. The ORE systems tend to be really solid mechanically, and there's much more of a focus on non combat interactions than there is in d20.