I've played lots of Superhero RPGs, but none stand out for me as a "must-replay" game.

Any one stand out for you? If so, what makes that game rock at the table?

For me its palladium's heroes unlimited. I've been tweaking it just to my tastes since 2006. More than anything its actually my game of choice for what it lacks more than what it is.  There are so many traits of other supers games that I have no taste for, this simply has the least number of things I have to fix.  It is easy to homebrew and yet at the same time requires so little of it.

Mutants & Masterminds 3e for me.

I used to be a 2e purist, but slightly more streamlined mechanics of 3e grew on me.

That said, THIS guide is a godsend because there are a few oddities with things particularly a couple of the attributes that might not be immediately apparent.

Also, because our group generally likes Hit Points to the way health works in game we use the following house rule;

- Characters get Power Level (PL)x3 Bruised and PLx2 Staggered Hit Points (total of 50 at PL 10). Minions get PLx1 Bruised Hit Points.
- For damage the attacker rolls 1d20+effect rank. The target subtracts their Toughness score (not a check, just the modifier) from this and takes the rest as damage (first to bruised, then to staggered).
- Characters are staggered when they're out of Bruised Hit Points and Incapacitated when they're out of Staggered Hit Points.
- Health is regained at 1 hp/round of rest normally (min. 1 minute if incapacitated) or 1 hp/round per rank of Regeneration (i.e. 10hp/round with Regeneration 10).
- The Healing power restores Check Result -10 hp per use.

I've enjoyed it A LOT more than any of the other superhero system's I've tried... and at this point I've tried all of them at least once.

My second choice would be Heroes Unlimited for its straight forward mechanics, but its a distant second because you can't really pull off certain concepts; particularly more modern ones like nanotech or robots with actual super abilities... 2nd Edition also has the perennial Palladium 2nd Editions' problem of being too devoted to compatibility with Rifts (one of the reasons, I suspect, for the limitations on robotics/nanotech) instead of actually doing its best to emulate the superhero genre itself.

Champions/Hero Because it's effect based, so you can do anything. For instance Flight can be because magic, powered armor, jetpack, etc.

A power like destroying/creating stuff can be equally magic, nanotech, etc.

after that in a second place M&M, then DC Superheroes and Marvel/FASA.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1101653Champions/Hero Because it's effect based, so you can do anything. For instance Flight can be because magic, powered armor, jetpack, etc.

A power like destroying/creating stuff can be equally magic, nanotech, etc.

after that in a second place M&M, then DC Superheroes and Marvel/FASA.

To be fair, Mutants & Masterminds is also 100% Effect based with the player choosing descriptors for their powers (powers like Affliction which covers everything from snares to mind control, Damage, Create, Flight, etc.) along with Extras and Flaws (basically HERO's Advantages and Limitations in that they effect cost per rank of effect).

The main difference is I've found the math a lot easier than HERO and they replaced giving built points for non-mechanical disadvantages (ex. dependent NPCs) with complications.

I liked Heroes Unlimited, likes Champions less, but have the fondest memories of the Marvel Super Heroes game. I liked the green/yellow/red feat mechanic, overall simplicity, and the oddball characters people would come up with.

Necessary Evil: Escape from New York is on the short list for our next game. I'm hoping to try that out.

The old Villains & Vigilantes, I lost interest in playing Supers after that. The thing that I loved the most was the unique way they calculated hit points, which has been the only way that hit points in a level based game system make sense to me.

Quote from: jeff37923;1101668The old Villains & Vigilantes, I lost interest in playing Supers after that. The thing that I loved the most was the unique way they calculated hit points, which has been the only way that hit points in a level based game system make sense to me.

How did it work?

Marvel Super Heroes (Advanced rules). The rules are dated and presented in a mess but it tickles my simulationist senses the most.

Quote from: Aglondir;1101674How did it work?

You had a base hit point score that was then modified by multipliers from all of your four stats. so you could have 4 as a base (created by dividing your character's weight by 50 lbs.) then you could have a 1.6 for a Strength of 20 multiplied by a 1 for an Endurance of 10 multiplied by a 1.2 for an Intelligence of 14 and a 1.6 for an Agility of 15, so 4x1.6x1x1.2x1.6 = 11.52 rounded up to 12. That may not seem like much, but an average ability score is 9-11 (based off of 3d6 roll or guesswork by playing yourself) and go higher than 90+ (because supers).

I used to play Marvel Super-Heroes Advanced from when it was new well into the Nineties ... but these days I prefer the basic set. As stated above, the rules aren't presented in as slick a format as modern games, but as an old comic book fan, I don't mind this so much. It's certainly better organized than any Palladium game.

The rules work well once you catch on to the chart system and it's associated benchmarks and is certainly simpler to run than the DC rpg. For anyone willing to give it a spin, look around HERE.

I've had a ton of fun with MSH and honestly, I look forward to GMing and/or playing the game in the near future with my son.

Masks: a New Generation for me. Because it makes play about characters personal dramas, which is the best part of supers stories for me (those endless fights bore me to death).

Marvel Superheroes was fun back in the day, but Champions is the pinnacle of Supers possibilities and crunchiness. Haven't played it in many years though.

The thing about Supers games is you really need a GM who understands the genre.

TSR's Marvel Superheroes. ***start rant*** God I am so sick of people calling it "FASERIP"... That is NOT the games name or even its initialism, and was initially used by non-fans of the game as a derogatory term, you morons! ***end rant***

It is pretty much a "do anything" RPG and can cover everything from street level adventures up to cosmic beings. It can also handle space opera, westerns, detectives, crime drama, pulp heroes, anime, mecha, fantasy, and the list goes on.

MSH is also a fairly easy system using percentile dice and once past chargen it plays very smoothly.

Second favourite is Villains & Vigilanties and Heroes Unlimited and/or Scraypers.

My favourite Supers game isn't a Supers game.

HeroQuest works really well with Supers and gets around a lot of mechanical issues.

Super Powers as Keywords with applicable Breakouts works really well. Narrative Keywords are also good, so you just describe what powers you have and that's about it. It is very scalable and solves the problem of how to resist Mental Man's Mental Blast if you don't have mental powers yourself, you just choose a relevant ability and narrate how you resist, with a penalty according to how relevant it is.