ChaosCowboy, how willing are you to take a system that you like as a foundation or that could serve your purposes and tweak it so that it matches your vision of what you want in a supers RPG?
You mentioned that you enjoyed Genesys, but it doesn't have its own supers supplement. Are you knowledgeable enough with the system so that you can take another system's super supplement, like the Superpowered Companion for Savage Worlds, and implement its contents in a way that fits Genesys?
With M&M3e being too D&D-like, are you referring to its combat system, the character traits that it shares with D&D, or something else entirely?
With Savage Worlds, there are optional rules out there that replace combat maps with more abstract zones, so it doesn't take that much work to tweak that stuff.
Last but not least, Supers! is a viable alternative that you've mentioned. The concept of competence dice being somewhat of an equalizer when it comes to Justice League or Avengers-type teams is pretty neat.
Just keep in mind the following:
- Superpowers are either exaggerated capabilities of what human beings can already do (being a matter of scale) or are simply various types of miracles (which widen what characters can do within the narrative).
- Character balance is largely bullshit and a time-sink, especially if you're running something solely for your own group. This is just from personal experience of running Mutants & Masterminds for many years.
I am not wholly convinced Genesys is ideal for superhero play, at least not anything Justice League level. It can do street level quite wonderfully, and I have purchased a Genesys Forge supplement but I'm not sure about how well it would work.
Savage Worlds is a system I've been meaning to learn but when I boot up the foundry system and see all the complicated macros and options present in just a roll I wonder how complicated the system is to actually run.
MM3 is too dnd like at first glance as it was built off the d20 srd engine, was it not? I don't know but I kind of want to get away from that blighted die. Not an intellectual reason, more an emotional one. Sick and tired of dnd and its trappings.
Trying to figure out what people consider light or medium crunch rules is always a crap shoot.
This is a tough one. I own a few, but either they’re complex like Palladium Heroes Unlimited, or too simple like Tiny D6 Supers.
Savage Worlds is not a game I want to play, but not for it being battle map dependent. I think it would be fine without a map. I don’t like it because I don’t like the attribute/ability system.
Right now I would play Tiny D6 Supers, but I actually like rules lite RPGs for their ease of play and how fast I can teach my mostly non-gamer players (wife and son) how to play.
Well Heavy crunch would be something like Pathfinder 1st Edition. Light crunch would be all those powered by the apocalypse gnaff, and generally the rpgs made by and for drama art students. REALLY heavy crunch would be something like Gurps. Mid crunch for me is a game that does have an element of system mastery, where one's options in character creation and in a scene have mechanical weight to them and there is ideally some 'fun' construction in character creation but not where one is looking up fifteen different rules every round, spending 2 hours making an introduction character, or with fifteen different mechanics all with their own subsystems. Genesys is a good mid-tier crunch for me. Savage Worlds looks like mid-tier crunch at first glance but there seems a lot of fiddly subsystems I'm iffy about.
Definitely running games for people who know rpgs and like rpgs but not looking for the typical rpgsite grognards nor the pretentious arthouse sjws who play the tabletop rpg equivalent to the walking sim.
One oddball that doesn’t get mentioned a lot is a variant of the old West End Games D6 set of rules called Mythic D6.
It’s a super hero game, despite the name that implies mysticism, or the stated goal as a generic set of rules for any setting. Even the artwork reinforces the super hero concept with lots of people in colorful suits with masks jumping off rooftops.
It was also an attempt to simplify the dice rolling of D6 games by counting successes instead of adding up a bucket of dice you just rolled. All dice rolling a 1-3 are removed/not counted. All dice rolled as 4-6 are counted. So 5D6 rolled with a result of 1, 2, 1, 4, & 3 is one success from that 4.
However, the rest of the game gets more complexity than other games in the D6 family.
Overall I think it could work well.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/243769
Unfortunately, it’s not free like other D6 games. But, there is a QuickStart set of free rules on the company’s download page. It mainly teaches dice mechanics and a solo adventure to run.
https://kheperapublishing.com/2018/07/02/mythic-d6-downloads/amp/
I wasn't impressed with West End Games' Starwars, but then it might be a generational thing. I grew up in the era of d20 and know I don't want to go back there. I haven't been impressed with any old-school rpg system I've ever looked into. Outdated oldschool game design and it shows. Just my humble opinion.
Guess I'm just wondering if there's a midcrunch superhero system with semi decent support that is lurking out there somewhere.
Also Mythic d6's Art and settings seem to have an aversion to white people and a predilection to social justice.