Looking for Super System

[Anderlith]

So I was wanting to run a superhero game, but I need a system, I want a llt of versitility but not a lot of crunch. I can't seem to wrap my head around building powers in M&M, which I find frustrating because I have no problem doing so with other complex games. Also Im not a fan of all the point values you have to juggle when designing/modifying villians.

Is there any other Superhero RPGs (not GURPS) out here worth a darn?

[Koo Rehtorb]

Masks: A New Generation

[Anderlith]

Masks: A New Generation

What's it got?

[Koo Rehtorb]

What's it got?

It's a game about young superheroes growing into their powers. Full of teenage angst.

The "classes" are here. http://www.magpiegames.com/wp-conten...-Playbooks.pdf

[Anderlith]

It's a game about young superheroes growing into their powers. Full of teenage angst.

The "classes" are here. http://www.magpiegames.com/wp-conten...-Playbooks.pdf

Mechanics? What do you roll, how do you build a pc etc?

[Knaight]

Icons, Godlike, Wild Talents, and Capes are the four that come to mind fastest. I'm not hugely familiar with any of them, and would only classify Icons and Capes as rules light, though the other two are significantly less crunchy than M&M.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Mechanics? What do you roll, how do you build a pc etc?

There are five stats.

Danger - To Directly Engage a Threat
Freak - To Unleash Your Powers
Savior - To Defend Someone or Something
Superior - To Assess a Situation and To Provoke Someone
Mundane - To Comfort and Support Someone, and To Pierce the Mask

Each stat will range between -2 and +3. You roll 2d6 + the stat. on a 6- you fail, on a 7-9 you get a partial success, on a 10+ you get a full success. Each class has a starting stat array. Stats will shift up and down during play so you can end up with any combination of them.

Classes get various moves they unlock as they level up which change the basic rules above and give you new options.

[Anderlith]

There are five stats.

Danger - To Directly Engage a Threat
Freak - To Unleash Your Powers
Savior - To Defend Someone or Something
Superior - To Assess a Situation and To Provoke Someone
Mundane - To Comfort and Support Someone, and To Pierce the Mask

Each stat will range between -2 and +3. You roll 2d6 + the stat. on a 6- you fail, on a 7-9 you get a partial success, on a 10+ you get a full success. Each class has a starting stat array. Stats will shift up and down during play so you can end up with any combination of them.

Classes get various moves they unlock as they level up which change the basic rules above and give you new options.

So kind of like Traveller?
Are the superpowers expansive?

[Grod_The_Giant]

So I was wanting to run a superhero game, but I need a system, I want a llt of versitility but not a lot of crunch. I can't seem to wrap my head around building powers in M&M, which I find frustrating because I have no problem doing so with other complex games. Also Im not a fan of all the point values you have to juggle when designing/modifying villians.

To be fair, the book tells you not to pay attention to the points when designing NPCs. But yeah, it does take some time to wrap your head around the system. Uhhh... Savage Worlds has some rules for superpowers, though I dunno how well they work. Scion 2nd edition is coming out soon?

[Cluedrew]

roll 2d6 + the stat. on a 6- you fail, on a 7-9 you get a partial success, on a 10+ you get a full success. Each class has a starting stat array.

Apocalypse World Hack/Powered by the Apocalypse?

[Anonymouswizard]

Wearing the Cape should be out fairly soon, the kickstarter just finished (still waiting on the survey so I can get my PDF copy), but it is based on Fate so it might not be your cup of tea.

Also in Fate there's Venture City, which is 'super punk', essentially a cyberpunk seeing with supers and a superpower system, and all the rules are available for free as an SRD.

[Thinker]

Apocalypse World Hack/Powered by the Apocalypse?

Appears that way. Big list of hacks:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...P5s/edit#gid=0

Looking at the list, there's a few others that don't necessarily involve teenage angst if that's not your cup of tea.

[gbg42]

Apocalypse World Hack/Powered by the Apocalypse?

Yeah, Mask is the Apocalypse World superhero game. In terms of stat structure, its also based of off Monster Hearts, which is where it gets a bunch of the teen emotion stuff.

Going to OP, I happen to really like Fate. You may look at Spirit of The Century or Atomic Robo for inspiration, depending on what kind of superhero game you want to run.

[SimonMoon6]

My favorite game system is:

Mayfair's DC Heroes RPG (2nd/3rd edition) which is long out of print. It was remade (without DC stuff) as Blood of Heroes, but if you find it, make sure to get Blood of Heroes: The Special Edition (adds errata plus more stuff).

Advantages: One of the most simple systems for making characters. Can you describe the character? You've just made the character. But it's also complex enough to handle all the details of what a character can and can not do. It also can easily handle the most powerful superheroes and entities without any more number-crunching than for an ordinary person.

Drawbacks: Character creation needs to be carefully watched over as it's easy to make a character that's too powerful. It doesn't always handle low-powered characters with a lot of detail (but who cares about non-powered nobodies when you're playing a superhero?). And one obvious House Rule is necessary regarding hitting with attacks involving powers. But it's obvious so I won't mention it.

Stats:

Three physical stats: Dex/Strength/Body
Three mental stats: Int/Will/Mind
Three mystical (charisma) stats: Influence/Aura/Spirit

The three trios of stats work similarly (dodge mental attack with INT, dodge mystical attacks with Influence, etc).

You roll 2d10. If doubles, roll again and add to previous roll, keep going forever. Except double 1's which are auto fail. Compare the roll to a chart to see if you hit and how much damage you did. Skill rolls work exactly the same.

[VincentTakeda]

Palladium's Heroes Unlimited. Opposed d20 combat, percentile skills. Non customizable powers. No MDC debacle.

[Anderlith]

Masks looks interesting, though not exactly looking towards playing as Young Justice/Young Avengers/etc. Ill be looking up the others as well.

[ngilop]

is has a horrible reputation on these forums for being 'too math' ( which I have never ever understood) but the Heroes system is, in my opinion, the best superhero system out there.

its up to 6th edition now and I have no looked at it since 4th.

[Anderlith]

is has a horrible reputation on these forums for being 'too math' ( which I have never ever understood) but the Heroes system is, in my opinion, the best superhero system out there.

its up to 6th edition now and I have no looked at it since 4th.

Is it like M&M? Because its not exactly math, its the wording/keywords they use for all kinds of different things that make everything a headache

[Telok]

Is it like M&M? Because its not exactly math, its the wording/keywords they use for all kinds of different things that make everything a headache

Nah, there's at least three ways to build anything and you have to do basic multiplication and division of a middle school lever, or use a chart. The hardest thing after that is occasionally dropping 30d6 on someone, totalling it for stun damage and counting ones and sixes for body damage.

Edit: and you can find the free basic play book as a pdf. About 80 pages or so.

[ngilop]

Nah, there's at least three ways to build anything and you have to do basic multiplication and division of a middle school lever, or use a chart. The hardest thing after that is occasionally dropping 30d6 on someone, totalling it for stun damage and counting ones and sixes for body damage.

Edit: and you can find the free basic play book as a pdf. About 80 pages or so.

I have to disagree with this. I started Champions (the precursor for the heroes system) when I was 6, so needing middle school levels of math is way off.

[Anderlith]

I have to disagree with this. I started Champions (the precursor for the heroes system) when I was 6, so needing middle school levels of math is way off.

Like i said, its not math, its making things like, a Blast Effect that maybe has somekind of power drain along wih damage, that makes me flip to five different parts of the book, with no clear answers & each new power has a different point cap & other fiddly bits like having it only work or certain keywords or only while the sun is up etc. That gives me a headache. I can math with the best of them, but I hate having to try to stat a should be easy enough power only to have a vaguely outlined list of rider abilities all with fiddly bits attached.

[Telok]

I have to disagree with this. I started Champions (the precursor for the heroes system) when I was 6, so needing middle school levels of math is way off.

With all the whinging over the "heavy math" of Champions I've sort of stopped assuming that people actually get taught math at all before middle school.

[Knaight]

With all the whinging over the "heavy math" of Champions I've sort of stopped assuming that people actually get taught math at all before middle school.

As has been repeatedly clarified, the people criticizing Champions are doing so because of the quantity of math, and not the difficulty of the individual calculations. Now, acknowleding that does require that one give up their sense of superiority over a bunch of people based on their nonexistent innumeracy, but it's also the position with factual basis.

[Telok]

As has been repeatedly clarified, the people criticizing Champions are doing so because of the quantity of math

That's news to me. I still don't see how it's any more than the 3rd, 4th, or Pathfinder editions of D&D, or Shadowrun, or a couple other systems I've played. 30 dice is 30 dice.

[Koo Rehtorb]

That's news to me. I still don't see how it's any more than the 3rd, 4th, or Pathfinder editions of D&D, or Shadowrun, or a couple other systems I've played. 30 dice is 30 dice.

All of those games are also unpleasantly mathy.

[Pauly]

I played in a campaign using SJG's Strange Synergy which was a lot of fun. Strange synergy is really a combat board game, and we had an experienced DM who handled the roleplay side of things.
We'd declare we were using a skill and he'd make a Judgement call on how much the skill helped or hindered the role play action.

The combat system envourages a very cinematic game play so we had a lot of fun,
For me I like free flowing combat and not sweating the small details. But if you want a heavier system with more complex rules for roleplay interaction then it won't be the path for you

[Knaight]

That's news to me. I still don't see how it's any more than the 3rd, 4th, or Pathfinder editions of D&D, or Shadowrun, or a couple other systems I've played. 30 dice is 30 dice.

Putting aside how those games also get criticized, the complexity of said games have literally nothing to do with what criticisms have been levied against HERO specifically and the accuracy of conflating "doesn't want to do lots of tedious calculations" with "doesn't have a strong enough mathematical background to handle basic arithmetic". They aren't the same thing, and speaking as a frequent critic of HERO, our patience for having the criticisms waved away on the basis of us being unable to do basic math has worn thin.

[weckar]

I always liked Silver Age Sentinels. it's quick, easy, streamlined and can facilitate practically any type of character. One 'drawback' is that it is 100% gridless and mapless, so theatre of the mind all the way on this one. It's based on the good old Tri-Stat system which is by now freely and legally available.

[VincentTakeda]

Another reason I recommend palladium's heroes unlimited. No grid, no mat. Powers don't have to be 'built'. Classes are easily recognizable 'comic book archetypes'... Aliens, Experiments, Cyborgs, Robots, Psychics, Mutants, Gadget guys, Special training. Throw in Ninjas and Superspies and you've got your kung fu fighters. Powers 2 expansion opens up some other less common archetypes like immortals, gestalts, eugenics, demigods/godlings. Characters can be really powerful right out of the gate, as some powers scale with level while some powers are simply more narrative in nature.

[Anderlith]

How do i get the beta test rules for Masks? I signed up for the newsletter, put cant find them