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 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?545469-Mutants-and-Masterminds-3e-Character-Guide) 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. (http://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/)
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.
TSR Marvel Superheroes even if the Karma system is a tad to restrictive.
Champions the first supers rpg I played the longest though my tastes have shifted more to rules light.
Mutants and Masterminds 3E My go to system for supers even if I find how the system handles damage to deadly.
Very distant fourth Heroes Unlimited a fun rpg though no longer my choice as PB fans mechanis leave lot to be desired.
"Supers!” And Triumphant. Both are Simon Washbourne games. Rules light. Fast. Flexible.
ICONS, far and away, is my current favorite superhero game.
I have dealt with most of the superhero RPGs out there. And I have nudged my way toward systems at the light end of the scale.
Villains and Vigilantes second edition- first off, multiplication scales well and superhero games need to scale well. Second, the random powers are almost as gonzo as the comics genre the game represents. Third actual rules for trials and sentences which is all too often neglected. Fourth lots of cool adventures and characters. Fifth, Jeff Dee artwork. Sixth, the rulebook is short and tight. Yeah there's some mechanical weirdness at times but it's a superhero game and emulating the genre demands some weirdness.
I've only played Icons and Superworld.
We had fun with Icons but that, as always, was primarily because of the people who were playing. I'm not sure I really understood/liked the system.
Superworld is good for me because I 'grok' BRP in general and I think it favors the sort of supers I prefer... which are less aimed at the tropes of mainstream comics from my childhood and more about gruesome old crime-fighters like The Spider and The Shadow... or something like Penny Dreadful, where the characters have 'powers' but there's a grittier, more dire, tone to it all.
Underground is one I read and liked but never actually ran, just stole ideas from, but IIRC it's based on DC Heroes... so maybe I'd like that too.
DC Heroes, specifically The Batman RPG. The 2nd edition is close enough, I suppose. When I want four-color heroes, this is the game I play.
I also like Marvel Super Heroes, Champions, Villains and Vigilantes, and Silver Age Sentinels for various reasons. They all do something better than any other game.
DC Adventures is an alright game, but I'm not a huge fan of Mutants and Masterminds so I've only played it a couple times. I've always wanted to play Aberrant...I bought Underground a while back and have yet to play it, but it could be fun. Definitely has a Cold War feel to it from browsing the books.
Marvel Super Heroes, the yellow basic set was one of my first RPGs and I was (still am) a huge fan of that era of Marvel.
I really like Mutants & Masterminds 2e and played it for a good while. I bought 3e and, while I think I would like it too, I don't currently have a group that wants to do supers.
I have recently discovered ICONS Extreme Earth and i like it. I grok using tests versus other players and enemies but not regular tests. Does the GM assign a random test gauge based on their fiat? Hmm. If ya can set me straight on this, thx guis and gals.
Quote from: soltakss;1101702HeroQuest 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.
Yeah, HQ 2e is great for the supers genre. Probably the only system I feel can emulate them properly with the range of power levels required, plus while it's a highly narrative game it doesn't have a lot of metacurrency type shit or other things that bug me about most of those types of games.
Though, if I want to do more of a Wild Cards/X-men/street-level game that feels gritty and grounded I tend to just use GURPS as it produces the effects I like and I'm familiar with it.
DC Heroes because of the exponential Action Point tables. How can you not love a game system that tells you not only how much Superman can lift, but how long it takes Batman (or the Joker) to read War and Peace.
I enjoyed Masks.
Please don't ban me.
Quote from: Snark Knight;1102096I enjoyed Masks.
Please don't ban me.
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I like ICONS because it is lightweight. And that it is easy enough to play on a huge variety of online platforms. With very little effort to do so.
ICONS is used in Second Life as a foundation of superhero RP there because of this. It's sleek, friendly, and generally gets the job done.
Can't ask for better than that.
Second Life has a huge pen & paper-based RPG community. Everything from D&D to ICONS, to Vampire: The Masquerade. To completely original game systems created by the communities there.
Our hobby isn't dying. It's just growing in new venues and directions. And the hunger is very much still there for it.
Enjoying running new characters my kids rolled up for TSR's Marvel Superheroes.
FASERIP foreva!
c'mon guy...
Over the last 2 years I've become a DC Heroes guy. You know, the Mayfair 2d10 one. By default I play 3rd Edition, but 2nd/3rd/Blood of Heroes SE are all basically the same thing (BoH art aside...). What works for me is that I really like how pushing your abilities with Hero Points works, and healing. To an extent it makes a fight about "How much do you really want this?" On the other hand, dumping a big chunk of Hero Points can still go south (what with bad rolling, or an opponent scoring an "exploding" roll, etc), so it gives the game some of that high stakes gambling tension at times. A fair amount of the time different characters can also feel like the have their own kind of way to kick ass that is different from others, or you have to get creative to find your way around where your opponent's strongest defenses are. I also like its social rules, and how they fit with the general unified mechanic of the whole game. Magic and Gadgets are a bit fiddlier than I normally want to mess around with, but the core of the game is easy and fun to deal with.
Well, let's see, I've played:
- Champions
- Marvel SH (FASERIP)
- Superworld
- Villains & Vigilantes
- Mutants & Masterminds
Out of those, my favorite is a bit surprising, because it's probably one of the least "sophisticated" and flexible of them: Villains & Vigilantes. The reason I list it as my favorite is because it was the most fun to play. I don't know if that is down to the system, or if it was down to the group and the GM, or what. But I know I had a blast playing it.
Superhero games aren't really my thing, though, so I've never run or played in a long-running supers campaign.
I used to like Champions, but they kept shooting themselves and customers in the foot.
Then I liked D20, but nothing was good enough there.
Until Mutants and Masterminds 3e
that is the best game, IMHO. the building style of Herosystem, and the ease of D20.
Plus they removed hit points: So either you're okay or getting beat up, instead of like 67% dead.
so M&M3E!
Champions is awesome because it is the cockroach of RPGs, and let you build whatever you wanted as a character WAY before anyone else thought of doing it.
Wild Talents has a nifty dice system, as well as a cool power build system.
Necessary Evil pisses me off because the setting is one of those things that seems like an obvious idea but I'd never seen it before. (aliens attack, all the heroes are killed and the super villains have to save the earth)
Better Angels looks like it would be a lot of fun to play. (PCs are possessed by a demon, and have to commit acts of villainy to keep the demon entertained so it doesn't take over, but at the same time not hurt anyone so you remain human.)
Mutants and Masterminds is d20, so I have the easiest time convincing people in my area to play that one. (way too many people see anything new and different as 'bad')
And one totally forgot as its in storage now.
But my real second favorite supers RPG is Aberrant from White Wolf. Interesting setting and a pretty solid system too. X-Men supers meets X-Files conspiracy.
Another vote for DC Heroes, but it's heavily houseruled. I didn't like the way characters with mountains of HP could win every fight by outspending their foe, so I changed things. For anyone who knows the system...
AV + 2D10 vs OV + 2D10
If AV result is equal or higher, task has chance of success.
Check on homebrew Effect table (one I cooked up to almost replicate the Result table). Find modifier to Effect Value.
Effect Value - Resistance Value=RAPs. This way you MUST overcome the RV to get a positive result.
No column shifts, other tables, hero point bidding... You can buy extra D10s to roll with a 'roll and keep' (roll the original 2D10, make sure they don't fail with double 1s, roll extra D10s, keep the results you want and discard the other dice) with Hero Points and Skills work that way now. So Martial Artist will give one or more extra D10s on Acting Value.
Speeded things up no end (as I play by post these days) and combats didn't take weeks to resolve with bank and forth posting. Plus that niggling mountain o' HP vs pauper auto win thing was removed. The dice play a much bigger part and for me that replicates the comics more. Wasp blasts Hulk in the eye. He can shrug off Battleship guns but she hurts him with a little blast? Sure, if Wasp rolls high for AV, Hulk rolls low for OV. Comics are 'swingy' like that (Aunt May knocking Spiderman out with a frying pan, Spiderman getting one shotted by a bullet that skims his head and causes him to get amnesia etc. We've pretty much seen it all with WTF moments in comics, and I wanted that with the game).
Works for me anyway.
Golden Heroes is also a game that got a lot of play. the combat works superb in play by post, but the swingy character creation can result in Justice League level in the same game as Mystery men, depending on how well/crap you roll. Fantastic game for old school street level supers though watch out for the movement rates (seriously, you're better off catching the bus or a cab than having low grade super speed or flight).
Quote from: APN;1103248...watch out for the movement rates (seriously, you're better off catching the bus or a cab than having low grade super speed or flight).
That would explain how on Teen Titans Robin riding on his motorcycle can keep up with Star flying. :D
Stuper Heroes it has built in LARP Rules, you can use a credit card or social security number to make a character. It has stupid simple mechanics and is an absolute piss take on serious role playing. Its good stupid fun. I also thoroughly enjoy Heroes Unlimited I think its biggest issue is that the game is close to 20 years old and does not get alot love. So some of the technology based power groups are abit dated (it is all terriblely dated) and the game throws balance out the window.
I think the key thing with a successful Super Heroe RPG is the players also getting behind thr tropes. When they dont it becomes a terrible terrible experience.
Hero all the way, versatility and affordability.
Alright, I'll just say it. Savage Worlds.
Do I think it is the best superhero system? No. It's my personal favorite because I like the system it builds off of and the powers are very flexible.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1104393Alright, I'll just say it. Savage Worlds.
Do I think it is the best superhero system? No. It's my personal favorite because I like the system it builds off of and the powers are very flexible.
Oh if only I could talk my players down from FASERIP to even try... and they are big SW fans.
Quote from: tenbones;1104478Oh if only I could talk my players down from FASERIP to even try... and they are big SW fans.
Try again when the companion gets updated to SWADE. PEGs been doing open playtest now (since it's gotten popular enough). With some feedback SW may end up honestly being a better supers game for it's crunch level than others.
Most Supers games are kind of clusterfuck IMO.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1104393Alright, I'll just say it. Savage Worlds.
Do I think it is the best superhero system? No. It's my personal favorite because I like the system it builds off of and the powers are very flexible.
I'm curious as I've read Savage Worlds core but not supers (1e; never got around to playing it), how is the powers system constructed?
Edit: Oh and does it scale well?
Triumphant! because I wrote it and because its the only Supers rpg my group has played for the last 6+ years. Before that it was Supers! and before that it was V&V.
Quote from: Antiquation!;1104516I'm curious as I've read Savage Worlds core but not supers (1e; never got around to playing it), how is the powers system constructed?
Edit: Oh and does it scale well?
So supers is just an arcane background, but the power points are used to buy powers rather than spent to use powers. That's the basic idea but a bunch of static and active powers are buy-able like more armor or the ability to create storms. Smaller point buys run faster, but it does scale pretty high, we played a game with 70 power points just fine.
I don't often play supers, but when I do it's Truth & Justice all the way. I could also see Heroquest 2e working quite well, but it's been ages since I've used that game for anything at all.
Quote from: Simon W;1104521Triumphant! because I wrote it and because its the only Supers rpg my group has played for the last 6+ years. Before that it was Supers! and before that it was V&V.
I've run both Triumphant and Supers! Good games, both.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1104513Try again when the companion gets updated to SWADE. PEGs been doing open playtest now (since it's gotten popular enough). With some feedback SW may end up honestly being a better supers game for it's crunch level than others.
Most Supers games are kind of clusterfuck IMO.
I'm all in on SWADE and everything they produce for it. So it's going to be on the shelf no matter what. Getting my players to convert to it specifically for SUPERS? That's another issue entirely...
BUT! I have a dirty stinking plan!!!!!
I have *yet* to run Savage Rifts for them. I already purchased all the SWADE Rifts stuff... my dirty plan is to convert their FASERIP characters to Savage Rifts stats when the SWADE Hero book drops, then pull them into Rifts... and force them to play their characters using SWADE while in the Rifts setting.
Just as an episodic arc in their ongoing campaign (which we do one big story arc, then set it down and play something else, then go to the next "issue" /rinse repeat).
I'll knock out three birds with one toss.
Quote from: Antiquation!;1104516I'm curious as I've read Savage Worlds core but not supers (1e; never got around to playing it), how is the powers system constructed?
Edit: Oh and does it scale well?
Yep it scales. Savage Rifts for instance is unquestioningly "Hero scale" - you're fighting stuff in there the Justice League would be taking on.
I've never actually RUN Savage Worlds at that scale. I know it can do it. I don't know how it *feels*. I've run tons of Savage Worlds and I've run it doing things well into the "spiderman-power-level" range in various genres without expressly playing Heroes.
On paper - it should work fine. But you know... my players ****REALLY**** like FASERIP. I've tempted them with M&M3e... they want *none* of it (though they love the setting). Savage Worlds should do the job. But I can't endorse it until I *do* it.
The Catch-22 for me is pulling the epic bait-and-switch of a lifetime and getting them to drink the water. Goddamn stubborn horses.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1104513Try again when the companion gets updated to SWADE. PEGs been doing open playtest now (since it's gotten popular enough). With some feedback SW may end up honestly being a better supers game for it's crunch level than others.
Most Supers games are kind of clusterfuck IMO.
Quote from: tenbones;1104650Yep it scales. Savage Rifts for instance is unquestioningly "Hero scale" - you're fighting stuff in there the Justice League would be taking on.
I've never actually RUN Savage Worlds at that scale. I know it can do it. I don't know how it *feels*. I've run tons of Savage Worlds and I've run it doing things well into the "spiderman-power-level" range in various genres without expressly playing Heroes.
On paper - it should work fine. But you know... my players ****REALLY**** like FASERIP. I've tempted them with M&M3e... they want *none* of it (though they love the setting). Savage Worlds should do the job. But I can't endorse it until I *do* it.
The Catch-22 for me is pulling the epic bait-and-switch of a lifetime and getting them to drink the water. Goddamn stubborn horses.
Interesting, thanks for the rundown! Maybe I will take a look when the new edition's companion books come out.
Cut my teeth on V&V, and it will always be my first super-love. But one that I really enjoy running (and one I haven't seen mentioned) is John Stater's Mystery Men (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/179884/Mystery-Men-Second-Edition). Runs on the OGL system, which really shouldn't work, but it does. Also, the mythos is based in the golden age of supers, so it has a retro appeal that I like.
Quote from: tenbones;1104649I'm all in on SWADE and everything they produce for it. So it's going to be on the shelf no matter what. Getting my players to convert to it specifically for SUPERS? That's another issue entirely...
BUT! I have a dirty stinking plan!!!!!
I have *yet* to run Savage Rifts for them. I already purchased all the SWADE Rifts stuff... my dirty plan is to convert their FASERIP characters to Savage Rifts stats when the SWADE Hero book drops, then pull them into Rifts... and force them to play their characters using SWADE while in the Rifts setting.
Just as an episodic arc in their ongoing campaign (which we do one big story arc, then set it down and play something else, then go to the next "issue" /rinse repeat).
I'll knock out three birds with one toss.
I would pitch it as a way to introduce the Rifts setting and let them play regular novice Rifts characters if they want too after the "introduction". You could set it up like the other campaign didn't end and this is just a way to introduce Rifts.
That way if it blows up you can fallback, but if they do not riot, then you got them hooked and can just keep running the Rifts game.
Quote from: Rhedyn;1104783I would pitch it as a way to introduce the Rifts setting and let them play regular novice Rifts characters if they want too after the "introduction". You could set it up like the other campaign didn't end and this is just a way to introduce Rifts.
That way if it blows up you can fallback, but if they do not riot, then you got them hooked and can just keep running the Rifts game.
Well the double-whammy is that they *love* their Supers characters. Rifts is a hard sell for half the group because of their pre-conceived notions about the setting, largely from watching those old Flame Wars from the Palladium threads and everyone's non-contextual horror stories.
Anyone that's played Rifts natively for any amount of time knows differently. I think some of them are skeptical of the sheer Gonzo nature of Rifts. Which is weird given the Gonzo nature of Supers in general. So my plan is to CROSS THE STREAMS!
Quote from: tenbones;1104849Well the double-whammy is that they *love* their Supers characters. Rifts is a hard sell for half the group because of their pre-conceived notions about the setting, largely from watching those old Flame Wars from the Palladium threads and everyone's non-contextual horror stories.
Anyone that's played Rifts natively for any amount of time knows differently. I think some of them are skeptical of the sheer Gonzo nature of Rifts. Which is weird given the Gonzo nature of Supers in general. So my plan is to CROSS THE STREAMS!
All those horror stories seem to be made up out of whole cloth, and anything over at RPG.net that involves Palladium seems to devolve into some beatdown about how bad the system is, all while pretending to ignore it's really just house-ruled D&D. I think the true nature of Rifts for me is that even though there is so much evil, horrible shit going on with demon lords and vampires and alien intelligences in a completely devastated post-apocalyptic hell hole, most people haven't given up hope. It's by far the least nihilistic approach to the genre, and as you correctly point out, matches with superhero stories very well.
RE: superheros, when the Conversion Book came out, being a bunch of teenage boys everyone wanted powers of course, so we all created alts for our campaign. I ended up with a vagabond who had invulnerability and a strong distaste for the Coalition. That character was nothing more than the most obnoxious jackass ever, constantly getting the characters into trouble, never fully understanding that lasers and bullets and missile and whatever else HURT everyone else.
Quote from: Brad;1104864All those horror stories seem to be made up out of whole cloth, and anything over at RPG.net that involves Palladium seems to devolve into some beatdown about how bad the system is, all while pretending to ignore it's really just house-ruled D&D. I think the true nature of Rifts for me is that even though there is so much evil, horrible shit going on with demon lords and vampires and alien intelligences in a completely devastated post-apocalyptic hell hole, most people haven't given up hope. It's by far the least nihilistic approach to the genre, and as you correctly point out, matches with superhero stories very well.
RE: superheros, when the Conversion Book came out, being a bunch of teenage boys everyone wanted powers of course, so we all created alts for our campaign. I ended up with a vagabond who had invulnerability and a strong distaste for the Coalition. That character was nothing more than the most obnoxious jackass ever, constantly getting the characters into trouble, never fully understanding that lasers and bullets and missile and whatever else HURT everyone else.
It's TOTALLY true! I've never found Rifts to be troublesome. You just pick and choose which elements you want to dial-up or tone-down to whatever tastes make sense for gameplay. It is precisely as you put it - House Ruled D&D.
I had the same experience with the Conversion. My character was radically powerful. Body Alteration - Steel, insane strength and hypersonic flight (could have been a lot worse)... but I held my own in Rifts. To my surprise, I should reverse that statement - RIFTS more than held it's own to ME. I really thought I was like Superman unleashed in Greyhawk - what could stop me? Yeah there's no end to what Rifts can throw against you should you prove to be such a threat. Sure I was more powerful than most things you'd find... but I certainly wasn't more powerful or scarier than a LOT of shit in the world.
I think it is a great place for a post-apocalyptic alternate dimension Super-Hero game.
Rifts gets a much undeserved bad rap. It's a pretty awesome setting. If Siembieda ever got it together to do a new edition outside of Savage Worlds... he'd probably have my money, and a lot of other people's too.
Quote from: tenbones;1104880Rifts gets a much undeserved bad rap. It's a pretty awesome setting. If Siembieda ever got it together to do a new edition outside of Savage Worlds... he'd probably have my money, and a lot of other people's too.
He seems to have trouble actually making RPGs now-a-days.
PEGs done a lot of license work and Rifts is a great project for them to work on before writing the companions of this edition, since rifts touches on everything and all of it works together.
Quote from: Simon W;1104521Triumphant! because I wrote it and because its the only Supers rpg my group has played for the last 6+ years. Before that it was Supers! and before that it was V&V.
Out of curiosity, what led you to create Triumphant after Supers!?
Quote from: Sunsword;1107343Out of curiosity, what led you to create Triumphant after Supers!?
I guess I wasn't quite as done with the superheroes genre as I thought I was after I sold Supers! to Hazard Studios.
Mutants and Masterminds 1e was the first supers game that didn't fizzle after 2 sessions for my group. I ran a 3 year long campaign that started at street level and ended up just shy of cosmic by the end. We've revisited the setting we built a couple times, although we've moved over to M&M 3e, and plan to do another campaign at some point.
Both Aberrant and Necessary Evil I love for the settings alone.
Recently we've gotten into Tiny Supers for quick one-offs where we want to have a night of super hero fun without any commitment to anything. Usually happens when one or more people can't make it for the regular game.
Quote from: Omega;1101696TSR'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.
I was going to say FASERIP was my runner-up after Champions, but i wouldn't want to trigger anyone...:D
Quote from: Simon W;1107364I guess I wasn't quite as done with the superheroes genre as I thought I was after I sold Supers! to Hazard Studios.
Excellent response. I'm glad you continued too. I like Supers! but I enjoy Triumphant even more.
Quote from: Sunsword;1107399Excellent response. I'm glad you continued too. I like Supers! but I enjoy Triumphant even more.
Nice to hear. I'm in that boat too.
I really like the HERO SYSTEM but I stop at the Big Blue Book. I have ripped off a few things from 5th (CHANGE ENVIROMENT & Megascale) but that is it. Think Steve Long kinda fucked it up IMHO.
Quote from: LouGoncey;1108886I really like the HERO SYSTEM but I stop at the Big Blue Book. I have ripped off a few things from 5th (CHANGE ENVIROMENT & Megascale) but that is it. Think Steve Long kinda fucked it up IMHO.
Did you check out the last Hero System thread? It's a doozy.