Superhero RPGs?

[Tyger]

Any good suggestions for a great superhero RPG? My experience thus far is limited to playing Heroes Unlimited by GURPS, way back in the early - mid 90s. Yeah, I am old.

But lately my fascination with supers has been rekindled with the MMORPG City of Heroes, Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey's new podcast books The Secret World Chronicle, and by an old favorite of mine that I came accross in a used books store the other day, George R. Martin's (ed) series, Wild Cards.

After a rather disastrous end to one of my groups D&D games (mine unfortunately) I am looking for something else to run. I was thinking of Shadowrun, another staple fun game of mine, but something about spandex, capes, and the self-righteous cries of superpowered beings with the law on their side is calling to me. Now to find a system that lets me do that.

So, any suggestions are appreciated. And if you could include why you like the system as well, that would be great!

[Collin152]

I am obligated to mention the Classic Marvel Rolplaying System.

[Bag_of_Holding]

There's always Mutants and Masterminds, too.

[StickMan]

There's always Mutants and Masterminds, too.

I second this as well. Awhile back there was a poll of top RPG by ICv2 that placed Mutants and Masterminds as the second best RPG behind DnD. Not really sure how much ICv2 matters but still I would put it there as well.

Its easy to use understand and perfect for the setting.

[Grug]

Is there an SRD around? I'm also itching to get my super on

[Gaiwecoor]

There's always Mutants and Masterminds, too.

Thirded. Awesome, slick system. The only thing you'll need to play is a single d20.

Is there an SRD around? I'm also itching to get my super on

It heavily uses the d20 system, so you'll be used to most of it. Unfortunately, some of the basic mechanics are labeled as "Product Identity," so I don't think you can get the core rules as OGC.

[BardicDuelist]

M&M is good.

I prefer GURPS for anything that's not D&D, superoheros included, for the simple reason of it meaning that my players and I need to know only two systems.

[Cainen]

M&M is one of the best uses of the d20 system I've seen.

GURPS Supers will work if you're not going to whine about the mechanics being more thorough, and Godlike is good simply because of an interesting dice mechanic. There are a lot of superhero RPGs, and I'm not even close to having seen(or played) all of them.

[blennus]

Ever heard of Phoenix?

Currently in two games using that system on these forums.

[Collin152]

Thirded. Awesome, slick system. The only thing you'll need to play is a single d20.



It heavily uses the d20 system, so you'll be used to most of it. Unfortunately, some of the basic mechanics are labeled as "Product Identity," so I don't think you can get the core rules as OGC.

Marvel RPG is a unique d100 system. it's all you ever roll. Well, maybe theres a six sided roll hiding somewhere, but it's nearly all percentile.

[clericwithnogod]

Champions fourth edition. Nothing beats the Big Blue Book.

[Occasional Sage]

If you're wanting spandex and boldly declaimed speeches about nobility, I think they (waves hand upward) have you covered.

If you want a different twist on superheroes, I suggest having a look at Godlike. It's very, very different than any other superhero game I've seen.

[Thinker]

Mutants and Masterminds is amazing. Very streamlined and fun to play.

[Jerthanis]

I hate to jump on the bandwagon here, but Mutants and Masterminds is amazingly solid. Not only is it the most streamlined, yet robust Superhero RPGs I've seen, it's also probably the most well balanced point based character creation system I've ever seen, while still allowing for amazing variety in the final mechanics of your character.

Visit your FLGS and page through it a bit and see if you like it.

A bit of unsolicited advice on running a superhero game: If your group is larger than two players, have the characters all know each other and be friends/family before the game starts. (good) Superhero stories are for the most part about the split in a person's life between their everyday activities and their superpowered life, and the tension between the two worlds. If the characters didn't share their personal lives with each other BEFORE superpowers, they won't necessarily share them AFTER. I found this out the hard way when I had to plan four different "Home life" events for four players, and had to run them each in order while everyone else waited. It didn't make for a good game session and afterwards I felt the need to sideline personal lives to make the focus about the group.

Besides, if they know one another it's easier to come up with reasons for them all to go on that rocket/to that science exhibit/to the radioactive pits/attend the rock concert that gives them all their powers.

[horseboy]

Marvel RPG is a unique d100 system. it's all you ever roll. Well, maybe theres a six sided roll hiding somewhere, but it's nearly all percentile.

Even better, it's free. Can't argue with free.

[Collin152]

Even better, it's free. Can't argue with free.

Always forget to mention that part.
Yes, Classic Marvel is simple, easy, fun, and absolutely one hundred and sixty eight percent free.

[Corsec1337]

I wanted to double check before I commented. There was a City of Heroes RPG being made but it looks as if it was discontinued before it was finalized. Just thought you'd be interested to know that.

[Ascension]

attend the rock concert that gives them all their powers.

Okay, that's it, I need to play a superhero game now just so I can openly brag at every possible opportunity, "I have the power of ROCK!!!"

Oh yes, there will be headbanging.

EDIT: I just read over the classic Marvel rules, and while it's not as customizable as a point-based system and is bound to lead to "Balance, what balance?" issues, I must say I like how you can literally generate everything about your character randomly if you so desire. It doesn't work all that well conceptually for high-tech or robot characters, but for your average mutated or accident-spawned superhero, random rolls actually make a whole lot of sense.

...and I also love how they openly call water-breathing a "wimp power" in the appendix.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition is the greatest thing ever to come out of the d20 license. Simplicity itself - one d20 for everyone, and a single system for modeling everything from vehicles to guns to magic to superpowers to natural abilities. It's wonderfully balanced, too.

[Bag_of_Holding]

Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition is the greatest thing ever to come out of the d20 license. Simplicity itself - one d20 for everyone, and a single system for modeling everything from vehicles to guns to magic to superpowers to natural abilities. It's wonderfully balanced, too.

Oh, wonderfully balanced indeed; quite beginner-friendly too, IMO.

[Jerthanis]

Okay, that's it, I need to play a superhero game now just so I can openly brag at every possible opportunity, "I have the power of ROCK!!!"

Oh yes, there will be headbanging.

I kid you not, in the M&M game I ran, the original concept was that the characters would get their powers while attending a Rock Concert. I decided to change this at the last minute as I thought it was too silly a place, and the quaintness of the location would crowd out the powers and situation itself. (For the record it was an "accidental" chemical spill at the site that would trigger latent mutation abilities, not the rock music itself), also, some of the characters weren't really the "Rock and Roll" type.

[Bag_of_Holding]

Okay, that's it, I need to play a superhero game now just so I can openly brag at every possible opportunity, "I have the power of ROCK!!!"

Only to be defeated by a guy who got his power from a papercut, eh?

[Sebastian]

EDIT: I just read over the classic Marvel rules, and while it's not as customizable as a point-based system and is bound to lead to "Balance, what balance?" issues, I must say I like how you can literally generate everything about your character randomly if you so desire. It doesn't work all that well conceptually for high-tech or robot characters, but for your average mutated or accident-spawned superhero, random rolls actually make a whole lot of sense.

Agreed, half of the fun in marvel rpg is try to come up with a explanation for the weird random powers you usually come up with. No matter what other says, IMHO a rpg system is not complete without a good casual creation system for PCs. :)

aside from that, I agree with people that suggested M&M, it is a really good, solid, simple system that can be easily adapted to things other from superheroic(even if it still works better for greater-than-life scenarios.

If you are not afraid on math Hero is anothe good choice.

GURPS, I don't know, I like the system, but I've heard it broke down at the superheroic power level, even if maybe they fixed it with 4th edition.

[Sebastian]

And of course there is a number of more standard D20 based super rpgs (deeds, not words, blood and vigilance, four color to fantasy, etc, but, and this is just IMHO, Classes/levels based games and superheroes don't mix well.

[GammaPaladin]

Nothing has ever done superhero RPG better than Champions did.

Also, someone made a game called Godlike? Dammit, that's what I was going to call mine if I ever felt like trying to get it published.

[Tsotha-lanti]

GURPS just seems too cumbersome. If the actual rules didn't take so many hundreds of pages, it'd be my system of choice for Cyberpunk and Sci-Fi, but that's about it.

Champions / HERO may not be a complicated system, but I couldn't get any impression of the rules by skimming the book, unlike with M&M, where the actual rules are expressed very concisely. (Aberrant was way worse. Dozens and dozens of pages of in-world in-character stuff. The superhero genre isn't exactly distant or obscure - where is the game?)

[Tyger]

Thanks for the suggestions all. I think I'll give Mutants & Masterminds a quick look, and maybe Marvel too. Free is nice after all!

REally appreciate the suggestions. Here's hoping I can talk my guys into it.

[Charity]

Guess I'm the only one with love for Golden Heros, that was a great lil system, care needed to be taken to produce a balanced party, but I loved the fact the combat rounds were in frames, and it was dead easy to use.

[StickMan]

Yea for mutants and masterminds fans. I should say that Mutants and Masterminds is extremely balanced but does have some exlplotable features. Such as being able to duplicating yourself a thousand times and using all of those duplicates to blast an enemy. But if your players have any restraint then you should be fine. Plus DM slapping is always fun.

To anyone who is looking for a M&M game I'm starting a play by post over in finding players. Its more of a Hellboy style game than a classic super game but sounds like a few people here are itching and I'm more than willing to take first timers.

Mutants, Masterminds, and Magic.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Yea for mutants and masterminds fans. I should say that Mutants and Masterminds is extremely balanced but does have some exlplotable features. Such as being able to duplicating yourself a thousand times and using all of those duplicates to blast an enemy. But if your players have any restraint then you should be fine. Plus DM slapping is always fun.

Luckily, the books pretty much identify all abusable abilities (with sidebars discussing stuff like Duplicate), and often warns about allowing them for PCs, especially at certain levels or with certain feats or extras. It's all about GM control on what's allowed.