Superhero genre TTRPGs

[Triumphant]

I'll play almost anything that isn't crunchy.  There's a lot of interesting rules-lite SH rpg's out there now.  I don't care about advancement in SH RPG's.  D&D style xp and level ups are anathema to the feel of the genre, from my perspective.

 

I don't have a lot of luck finding people interested in SH play or, really, any play other than fantasy settings.  This is a shame, IMO, because there or so many great games out there that aren't fantasy genre games.

[Omega Force]

It gives benchmarks for each level of every power, plus a dozen heroes to weigh a new character against.  If the player is familiar with existing Marvel characters, it should be easy to estimate where your new hero fits.  That's more player-friendly than systems with strict limits.  "I know you wanted to play a scrapper as nimble as Spider-Man, but you don't have enough points/didn't roll high enough, maybe one day you'll get there."  It would be swell if it included archetypes or classes or similar structure for players, like you find in GURPS Supers and M&M.  But it is entirely possible to generate a character with MHR rather than play an existing hero.

[Haijinx]

10 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

 

My favorite is Silver Age Sentinels. It uses a spin on the BESM system, which is fairly easy to learn and run or play, while still giving you some of the powers customization that made Champions so much fun from a character-building perspective. Also, the combats don't take twelve hours to resolve. 😅  

 

There's an acronym that needs to be carefully enunciated.

[Coyotedancer]

13 hours ago, Haijinx said:

 

There's an acronym that needs to be carefully enunciated.

 

BESM is Big Eyes, Small Mouth. The original anime-emulator game that used the system. It's an older, "mid-weight", semi-narrative thing.

 

I get what you're saying here, but... damn people. Can we maybe NOT read the entire whole world as a sex joke? (And keep in mind I'm saying this as someone who collects BJDs. You can probably imagine how many times I've had to eyeroll over people jumping straight to "OMGSEXDOLLS" with *that* acronym. People's minds going straight into the gutter has seriously jumped a whole lot'ta sharks. 😝)   

[DougGraves]

On 8/1/2021 at 2:56 PM, Triumphant said:

I don't have a lot of luck finding people interested in SH play or, really, any play other than fantasy settings.  This is a shame, IMO, because there or so many great games out there that aren't fantasy genre games.

 

It's funny how fantasy dominates rpgs and MMOs, but for tv and movies sci-fi does far better than fantasy.

[Argent Aegis]

1 hour ago, Krimson said:

Science Fiction Script writers have time to craft technobabble. Not so easy to do spontaneously. 

This is unfortunately true.

 

In regards to RPGs, fantasy games are a lot easier to fudge around by using *Magic*.  Sci Fi needs to have some basis in believable science so that it will not trip the "Nerd" science alerts.  I cannot tell you how many times I have tried playing a science fiction RPG (like Traveller) and had my extremely science minded friend argue about physics with the GM.  He is one of my best and long time friends, but suspension of disbelief is not his strong suit.  Then if the game goes the route of "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” then it starts losing some of the science fiction feeling and going more the "Star Wars" space opera route.   Same with the cyberpunk genre.  It has an even closer line to walk in regards to plausibility , but has the advantage of being more terrestrial.  I liked Shadowrun for this.  There was enough science to keep the tech minded happy but there was magic to fill in the cracks.  That is one of the draws of Superhero RPGs - anything is possible within it's scope.  The only limit is the confines of the Meta world (like Marvel and DC) or the desired "Super" level (X-Men vs. Dark Knight Batman).  Also Superheroes don't have the LOOT! goal as much as other games.  But that same scope is also what limits the Supers genre in MMORPGs  - how many times can you save the world or street sweep gangs? 

 

All that being said - I would love to see a true MMORPG or standalone video game for something like Shadowrun.  I know that there were a few games for Shadowrun, but from what I remember reading, it was more FPS/Tactical.  I'd like to see a Shadowrun game akin to Skyrim or ESO.

[Thrythlind]

I dearly want to play or run Sentinels Comics at some point. I have a supervillain group idea that includes a couple of bitter types that could reasonably become good and three absolute monsters two of whom are really good at manipulation. And I have lots of good character ideas.