I watch a few YouTube gaming podcasts each week by various people.  One of them is "Bear the Forever GM", or his other channel, The Society of Role-Playing Gamers.

Bear just launched his own RPG on Backerkit for his passion, super heroes.  It is called Heroic RPG.  FYI he is using that site as it works better for Canadians like himself, somehow. 

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/zeg-media/heroic-the-role-playing-game?ref=bk-discover-search

It is based on FASERIP system from Marvel RPG, but with some changes (house rules really) that he has used and play tested for over 15 years. 

Things like comparing skill levels of two combatants and that having an effect when making a skill check.  In original FASERIP Aunt May had just as much chance to shoot Spider-man as she did Larry Lumpkin (Bear's quote, not mine).  This time, not so much.

It is also set in his own comic book setting of 198X, the "bronze age" of comics when they got serious, but still had older tropes like fancy costumes with secret identities.  You also get the first two comic book PDF's for free.

His crowdfunding is trying to get to $15,000, and after just two days they're already at $10,000.  It's likely to be funded either way. 

I backed it.  It looks like a decent game, and I don't have a FASERIP game in dead tree format, so why not this version?   

Or do we not need another version?

Here is the episode of "TableBreakers" podcast that Bear was on and talked about Super Hero games as a whole.  The term used was, "A masterclass in superhero gaming".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avmBdVQKr88

THIS is one of the reasons I am here hyping it up that we should support this guy.  He knows Super Hero games, and has run them for decades. It is his genre.

He also comes across as really smart and clever.  I think we can trust him to know what he is doing.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on March 03, 2024, 07:02:49 AM
He also comes across as really smart and clever.  I think we can trust him to know what he is doing.

This kind of statement makes me cringe knowing how often it all goes bad soon after...

I'll check this out. But if I was looking for a decent FASERIP clone without having to go hunting for old Marvel sourcebooks, what would be the best recommendation for currently released games?

Update for March 4th.  Funding is only about $1500 away from the needed $15,000 asked for. 

It looks like this one is happening. 

I'm happy for Bear. I've seen him talk about Super Hero RPGs quite a lot.  He says Marvel FASERIP system is one of his two favorite systems, along with West End Games D6. 

Quote from: King Tyranno on March 03, 2024, 01:12:40 PM
I'll check this out. But if I was looking for a decent FASERIP clone without having to go hunting for old Marvel sourcebooks, what would be the best recommendation for currently released games?

Clone?  How about this one literally called FASERIP.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/177913/Faserip

It's also free. 

Bear's game isn't free, as he is paying for art.  He is also making a few changes as I mentioned.  For example, his will technically be FASERIPD as he is adding another stat called Dynamics.   It's Charm by another name to keep the acronyms working.  Or the change I mentioned above where a skill check is modified by the enemy skill level

Quote from: King Tyranno on March 03, 2024, 01:12:40 PM
I'll check this out. But if I was looking for a decent FASERIP clone without having to go hunting for old Marvel sourcebooks, what would be the best recommendation for currently released games?

Here's every book in one place:

https://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/downloads.html

As someone that is about as deep as one can get into MSH... I'm always eyeballing retroclones. The problem is I have my own set of houserules that does what I need the system to do (and do it magnificently). The core MSH system has what I think is a big flaw "The Aunt May Issue" which I've fixed, but none of the retroclones have.

Some might not think it's an issue at all.

Effectively the issue is that RAW, Aunt May could clock Captain America upside his head if she rolls 66 or higher, no matter what kind of defensive maneuver Cap uses (outside of Evade). It has *nothing* to do with Cap's actual fighting skill, or stats. It's just due to the fact that combat has no relative value. Cap or Spiderman could get a Red Dodge, and Aunt May could still hit them.

My comicbook logic screams bullshit to this (and I always have).

That said - I'll still look at this, because the core rules are still some of the best design ever. I'll still wait until I can see what it gives me that I don't already have...


Edit: Oo pre-beta. Checking it out now.

So I read the entire PDF.

• 85% of my personal house-rules are baked into this system. I'm very impressed.
• The "Aunt May Issue" - fully addressed. I'll even go so far to say his solution is an improvement on mine. THIS one is a *major* win.
• Fully developed character generation systemS. Yes plural. You can do your random gen, negotiated generation, or point-buy. All are well conceived and executed.
• Deeper integration of mechanics. The core Talent, Contacts, and Resource mechanics are fluffed up and much more integrated. The new Quirks rules are excellent. The gear and repair/creation rules are concise and have mechanical consistency. All the added crunch is minimal - but the integration of them makes an already strong system *much* stronger
• Powers/Stunts/Enhancements - almost exactly how I do them. He codified everything nearly perfectly. Yes, he could do with more robust descriptions of certain powers, but he's clearly shown he's given more than enough thought and how they can be expressed mechanically to give any GM enough to make their own shit up with confidence.
• CLEAN decoupling of Karma from Advancement rules. Another major win.

Let me say this very clearly. It's an *Unearthly* FEAT check to impress me with Supers mechanics. Which is why most Supers systems fail for me: I have my modified MSH rules and they will stand and bang against any other game or system out there, regardless of genre. I've been running MSH since its inception, and I've never stopped running it. I know it inside and out. Showing me a modified MSH ruleset is a Class 1000 FEAT to impress me. I've seen many of them come and go. Actual published rules, home-brews galore. etc. VERY few have ever been "complete", most are just the MSH rules with misconceived understanding of the mechanics, or slight tweaks in places that do not address any real problems.

Reading just this "beta" has deeply impressed me. This is a Red Result on the Class 1000 column.

His specific solution to the Aunt May issue is *exactly* like mine, but better because he put it into a FUCKING GLORIOUS chart for easy reference.



Nevermind he added new Power Ranks, never mind he added new Degrees of success, nevermind all that stuff...

Okay, for those of you that don't play MSH and oddly are reading my post, if there is *ONE* thing you can take away from my rant, AND you fashion yourself a game designer, let it be this one single thing: DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A WELL DESIGNED CHART OR GRAPHIC. Especially if it can explain your core rules and task resolution.

The BIG change he (and I) made was to make melee and ranged combat RELATIVE to the combatants. In this manner, it was nearly impossible for Aunt May to ever hit Spiderman or Captain America in hand-to-hand or ranged combat. Since I'm so familiar with MSH, I simply pegged everything to the Typical Column and shifted everyone up/down based on their stat-differences. It's easy for my brain to figure it out. My players? eh.

But this chart does it *all* right there in front of you. There is no functional difference between his rule and mine, but his is 1000% better because of this glorious chart. Everything else is *moot*.

I went over everything else, there's a few minor quibbles, but this is the modern MSH system we should all be playing. MOTHERFUCKING EXCELCIOR!

Consider this BACKED. Take my fucking money.

Update:  the project hit its primary funding goal of $15,000 Canadian just a few minutes ago as I post this. 

From now on all additional money is for stretch goals.

Here is a link to a live stream Bear did when the Backerkit passed the funded limit at about 15 minutes into his stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHKuZ2wm4co

Quote from: tenbones on March 04, 2024, 02:15:31 PM
So I read the entire PDF.

• 85% of my personal house-rules are baked into this system. I'm very impressed.

<snip>
[/list]
Consider this BACKED. Take my fucking money.

Well, here I thought I was excited to see this game.   Hats off to you, Tenbones.  I'm also happy you posted your opinion as I don't have any experience with FASERIP.  An expert giving this praise counts for a lot.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/379178/Astonishing-Super-Heroes-Book-1-Basic-Rulebook

I see it has 86 days left on Backerkit.  That is a looooooong wait.

Quote from: Batjon on March 04, 2024, 07:35:31 PM
I see it has 86 days left on Backerkit.  That is a looooooong wait.

During the Live Stream on YouTube Bear gets an email from BackerKit asking if he wants to shorten his fundraising to 60 days or such.  FYI, Bear actually made an mistake and was only going to put up the pledge time as 60 days originally, but somehow ended up with 90 days.  I haven't watched the entire 2-hour long live stream recording to see if Bear makes the change or not.  He left it as, "I'll have to think about that."

I do think it is kind of interesting that BackerKit gives the option to shorten the pledge time if your initial goal is met so early into your time allotted.

He also expects the finished products to be done around Christmas time of this year, so don't be expecting the finished game next week either way.

So, I have no experience with FASERIP, or Bear's modified version of it.

I believe I understand it to work this way.

If I have a skill for playing music, and so does my arch nemesis, and we get into a Battle-of-the-Bands at the club one night it would work like this.

If our skill for playing music are the same, I would roll 1D100 on the "Shift-0" line right in the middle of the Universal table.  Note: The white "failure" state is not on the chart.  01 (blue) is a fumble, 02 to 49 is a white/normal failure (again, not depicted on the Universal Chart), 50 to 74 is a green/normal success, 75 to 97 is a gold Success with additional bonus result, and 98 to 100 is a red critical success with lots of extras for winning.

It would not matter if we were both feeble musicians, typical, amazing, or cosmic level musicians.  If we're the same skill level, it is a 50/50 toss up who is going to win the music battle.

However, If I were Amazing, and my nemesis was only Typical skill level, I am rolling on the chart with a +5 column shift (aka the +5CS line).  Then I have a 1D100 roll with 01 as a blue critical fail, 2-24 as a white normal fail (not depicted on the chart), 25 to 49 as a green success, 50 to 74 as a gold success with bonus, and 75 to 100 as a red critical success.

That sound about right?