Post your best superhero system, Veeky Forums

Post your best superhero system, Veeky Forums

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mediafire.com/folder/026war1l4oo42/Mutants_and_Masterminds#026war1l4oo42
mediafire.com/file/wldilr11ta58m85/Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game.pdf
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GURPS

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GURPS is okay for supers, HERO is better.

I know you were trying to troll, but maybe next thread?

Masks is pretty cool

Aberrant. There's no reason to play in any other setting because we have the best one.

>Aberrant
Never heard of it.

Tell me about it.

OId grim 'n gritty game using a variant of the White Wolf system. The basic premise is that supers suddenly start appearing out of nowhere and basically become terrifying reality tv stars if they're not co-opted by one government or another. Great world, mediocre and easily unbalanced ruleset.

Pace.

This. GURPS literally is built on HERO systems back.

I will say though. I love heroes unlimited. I have a very competent GM who has solid reigns on the system.

Hard to go wrong with Mutants & Masterminds.

I second this.
M&M is a great system for lots of genres.
2nd Ed is, imo, the best and smoothest d20 game ruleset. The DM needs to be involved in character building, because there are rules that don't fit all campaigns. It is an elegant point buy system.
Herolab has a character builder for 2nd and 3rd Ed, the demo is free.
3rd ed seems awesome, but I don't use it.

3rd edition is much cleaner and more streamlined than 2e. It doesn't feel like a hacked d20 system and is more of its own game.

That was my impression. I find 2nd ed very easy for D&D players to get comfortable with.
I also like the gun combat in 2nd ed, and I'm fussy about gun rules. Is gun combat very different in 3rd Ed?

Worlds in Peril is a more generic PbtA superhero game, in case you want a less "focused on teen identity crisis" drama than Masks.

Mutants and Masterminds 3e is the best system ever made, and not just for superhero games either.

One of my fondest campaigns I've ever played in was M&M in a fantasy where the PCs were spirits/wraiths/demons embodying certain concept like revenge, the battlefield, hope or mercy.

M&M can be adopted as a generalist system, and it does its job fairly well. The story I remember is how a party converted their high-level D&D campaign into M&M: every character was reasonably balanced and capable, and the fighter actually felt like a god of war for once.

M&M Fantasy is some of the best I've ever played
Used the 2e Warriors&Warlocks rules and played in an Eberron-esque setting

M&M 3e for crunchier games, MHRP for more comic booky games.

I prefer Marvel Heroic personally.

HEROES UNLIMITED

PROVE ME WRONG (YOU CAN'T)

Let's say I want to run a superhero game where one player wants to make Angel Summoner and another wants to make BMX Bandit. What system would allow both players to make the characters they want and be able to contribute equally without requiring me to do any extra work beyond what the game already expects to accommodate two radically different characters or expect me to simply veto one of the character ideas.

...But that misses the joke of the entire skit.

I really don't think there is a system that can do what you want.
You can't expect a mundane character to compete with a superhuman without a lot of GM fiat.
It's like batman on the justice league it only really works because the writers bend over backwards to make it work.

desu any

mutants and masterminds, hero, marvel etc

In Mutants & Masterminds, all characters are built using the same number of build points (assuming they're the same power level), so on paper, they would be balanced. However, M&M puts narrative above raw balance, so there may be instances where one character clearly outclasses another in a particular respect.

You're wrong.

Boom, done.

Savage worlds supers companion 2nd Edition, game is light on the rules and focusses on fast paced cinematic Action you would see in a Superhero Blockbuster. The powers are pretty cool and it is possible to create all your Basic and advanced supers tropes without any trouble. Also the rules are really simple so it is easy to adjust on the fly or homebrew.

Prowlers and Paragons is pretty cool if you ignore its dumb rules for fate points. VERY rules-light if that's your bag.

Why bend over backwards? Give them different things to do in the campaign.

Hawkeye should not be the same as Thor. Wildcat can't take Superman. But they can still be on the same team.

Since this seems like a place for it, anyone know where a nigga can find some Mutants and Masterminds PDFs?

mediafire.com/folder/026war1l4oo42/Mutants_and_Masterminds#026war1l4oo42

Marvel Universe has been good to my group recently. I mean it does need a bit of house ruling to stop busted powers (Hex-Spheres, looking at you) and to keep fluff in line with mechanics but it's otherwise great.

Anyone got some Marvel Heroes pdfs?

Many thanks!

Valor.
Look in the PDF Share thread for a look.

Hopefully abberent 2e.

There's a 2e in the works?
Hopefully they cut down on the overpowered Godlike NPCs and Meta-Plot

They've had a good run of doing that with all their new lines. Vampire doesn't have plot device power antiduleuvians running around, exalted doesn't have fucking two pages of charms exalts around. They posted bits and pieces of what they have so far, and if scion is anything to go by it should be good

This is OP, I have to thank all of you guys. I'm gonna be GMing a Supers game for my group, and I thought the only real option I had was Mutants and Masterminds. Now I clearly see that's not the case. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying sounds really interesting, to be honest. Can I get a pdf for that?

mediafire.com/file/wldilr11ta58m85/Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game.pdf

ICONS is fun - also the fastest superhero system, bar none. Sit down to punching first bad guy time is like 15 minutes. Like old FASERIP with a bit of FATE.

Marvel Heroic is good, but only if all your players know how comic book stories work, since that's what the game emulates (rather than trying to simulate actual combat). Really good at handling the Angel/BMX problem. Bad if you have uncreative players.

Wild Talents: Best setting (Aberrant is shit). Superheroes show up in WWII (the opening of the Nazi Olympics is a fantastic scene), but the War keeps chewing them up. Very well written. A great and really versatile system, too, albeit pretty lethal (by design).

Mutants and Masterminds SECOND edition is the best superhero system, hands down. It's also the best anime and fantasy system with the appropriate splatbooks.

Oh, and I always found M&M to involve too much setup/teaching time for new players. So if that applies here, keep that in mind.

FASERIP

I just hope Teragen is less gay.

Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game

any houserules for movement?

Wild Talents/ICONS sounds cool, does anyone have the pdfs?

FASERIP or ICONS, depending on taste

MHRPG

I mean, assuming super hero male power fantasy fulfillment is your goal.

FATE or HERO or any other game where fluff is separated from crunch so you can hit people just as hard whether you're using a bazooka or a karate chop.

Games that care more about drama than 'realism' are what you need.

Imagine if BMX bandit was able to effortlessly dodge bullets, take out thugs, and jump across the building. That's him with the same amount of character points/refresh/etc as Angel Summoner, just spent on BMXing instead of Angel Summoning.

Wanna come play in my game?

I don't care about the stupid gay love triangle that was Terrigen's leadership all I care about is Divis Mal not being the Aberrant equivalent to "Rocks Fall Everybody Dies"
He literally is stated to have multiple reality warping Level 6 Powers including some that aren't even in the book

I like the idea that he functions like Magneto, trying to tell the world that Novas are inherently different and superior to Baselines part of the reason I loved being in Terrigen focused games and is considered one of the most powerful Novas in the world, but you have to let the players be able to reach that level too, especially when you allow the players the options provided in the Aberrant Players Guide, you don't let them be the JLA/Authority examples the book provides for 75-100+ point characters and then say "No my super special OC blow yours out of the water with a flick of his wrist while making out with his boyfriend"

>Invited to a parody superhero game like Boku No Hero Academia or OPM, M&M game
>Make mentally handicapped catfolk with sand controlling powers
>Code name: Silly Cat
>GM kicks me out
Why?

I had a loose pick up and play styled capegame idea that I scrapped because I could not think up enough heroes and villains npcs for it. Tell me should I try again or keep it in the trash.

>Basic idea is that a city's go to superhero team is missing and the rest of the world is off fighting other threats to go take care of it
>Players would belong to one of two factions, sponsored heroes (kind of a Justice League Unlimited type deal) and vigilantes
>Long term goal is to take the city back block by block while fighting off villains and their gangs

Are the vigilantes illegal or basically independent heroes?

independent, most npcs might treat them like they are illegal and they would be lacking on resources

>mentally handicapped catfolk
This, probably

Okay, that's good.

You should try again if you really want to. Don't worry too much about coming up with NPCs. It's hard to be original since practically everything has been done in that field, and you could probably get away with shamelessly cribbing from other pieces of fiction while giving them a few changes. Trying too hard to be original usually results in shit characters anyway. One of my superhero character ideas for example, is an absolutely obvious amalgalm of bug type heroes based primarily on Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle and Spider-Man.

Sounds pretty great, I've had a similar idea about mapping out an entire city and assigning gang territory and the players are a new up and coming gang that wants to take over.

If you can't think out enough NPCs just remember that they don't all have to actually be deep and intersting characters.
A few villains can be the big fish with lots of territory, those are the ones that get proper backstories and personalities, but most of them can just be small groups of thugs that only have one single block under their control and have leaders with ridiculous powers you can come up with by saying the first thing that comes to your mind like "the young girl with the incredible power of making anything that is an equilateral triangle float" or just straight up using random online power generators.
It's entirely believable that minor gang leaders are ridiculous people with ridiculous powers that make it hard for you to take them serious, those people only even have that little bit of territory because they were at the right place at the right time when the power vacuum emerged from the lack of heroes being around.

>I could not think up enough heroes and villains npcs for it
You can use one of my villain gang ideas if you want.

They're basically a criminal biker gang, the majority of which are normies with a smattering of low-powered goons and some high-powered leadership.

They're fire themed, and the normies use a lot of molotov cocktails and incendiary rounds.

The powered members are:

>Burnout
Gang leader. Powerful pyrokinetic who can infuse and enhance things with fire (usually her bike) as well as straight up create and control it. She looks like an athlete who got hooked on drugs, because that's exactly what she is. She has big plans for the city and is looking to expand. She's ambitious, cold, and calculating. Bad temper though.

>Slag
Burnout's younger brother and go-to muscle. Imagine a Colossus with an immunity to heat and covered with molten metal (that he can shape at will) with a bad attitude, a drinking problem, and a sadistic streak and you've got a good picture.

>Speed
Not a speedster, but an inventor-type who specializes in creating fast, enhanced vehicles. He provides the gang with their souped-up super bikes. These are what make the gang a real danger, since they are VERY fast and have powerful weapons and defenses built in. I'm talking force-fields, lasers, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, you name it. The downside is the bikes are pretty fragile mechanically and he is constantly swamped with maintenance work. Burnout "recruited" him with some shameless bullying and getting him hooked on (you guessed it) speed. He's actually pivotal in taking the gang down, since he's essentially a prisoner. He wants to kick his addiction and turn himself in, but Burnout has a solid psychological grip on him so he'll need some convincing.

Or kidnapping. Either way the gang's equipment will start to suffer and break down once he's out of the picture, making them way easier to take down.

>those people only even have that little bit of territory because they were at the right place at the right time when the power vacuum emerged from the lack of heroes being around.
Like the Merchants in Worm?

Whichever let's me play as one of the Boys.

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Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is FANTASTIC, easily the best system, but it is unfortunately unfinished, and the makers lost the liscence before they finished, meaning it will be FOREVER unfinished.

I also have had great success with pdf-related

Would a villain who's a living skeleton pass in a superhero setting? I really don't want him to just be a guy in a skeleton costume if I don't have to.

Almost anything passes in a superhero setting

>who is mister bones

Mister Bones is technically just a fully human man with an invisible body save for the bones.

Yeah, fair point, I've just had an old GM think it was a little too fantastical. I would say a walking skeleton is more "out there" than a zombie.

I was going to have his condition be a form of immortality attained magically, through a long hidden treasure or something like that.

Your GM needs to read some comic books then. Shit can get fucking weird.

The most infamous villain in the Nickelodeon superhero cartoon El Tigre was a skeleton woman.

>Mister Bones is technically just a fully human man with an invisible body save for the bones.
He's still, for all intents and purposes, a skeleton man. Just explained differently.

Have them read Doom Patrol.

>I was going to have his condition be a form of immortality attained magically, through a long hidden treasure or something like that.
It sounds more like a wish you would get from a monkey's paw.

>I wish that I was free of the ravages and weaknesses of the flesh! Allow me to live forever!
>lol ok

HERO

It's the white wolf supers system.

It's okay, I guess. No rules for designing powers though, it's more "grab stuff from a list".

M&M has satisfying character creation, but it's gameplay it's the most mechanically bland and boring of any game I've ever played.

Determined I was unwilling to play it ever again and have my book away on the condition that the player never ask to play it with our group, going forward.

>too fantastical
>Cape comics

>I've just had an old GM think it was a little too fantastical
>too fantastical
That nigga shouldn't be running a Supers game

Damn and I thought the planet one was cool.

I've been looking at M&M a bit, and it looks pretty interesting to me. Is it really not fun to play?

I found the combat very tedious, and characters looked different but played basically the same. Couple different attacks at different amounts of accuracy and damage, choosing the one most appropriate to whomever you were fighting, seemed to be 90% of turns, and combat would often just drag on back and forth forever.

I was not a fan. I know some other people who enjoy it though.

M&M's mechanics don't tie back into the fiction of your powers very well. If disassociated mechanics bother you, it'll bother you pretty much the whole time your playing.

>Superheroes show up in WWII (the opening of the Nazi Olympics is a fantastic scene), but the War keeps chewing them up.
>Wild Talents
That's Godlike, sir.

Okay, thanks.

It doesn't sound like it would bother me too much. I'm used to dressing up mechanics. The dragging combat sounds like a problem though.

Does anyone know of WeaverDice improved any?

Going the d20 route was a mistake, I agree. The way M&M relies on the 1/20 probability just doesn't mesh well with certain concepts, like powers that should conceivably always work but miss due to wonky wiffs.

That and the fact that, RAW, you only have to be half as strong as Superman to actually injure him. There were some silly design decisions along the way, that much is obvious.

But most of the issues people have with M&M can be solved by fudging and fiat, and the core book recommends this anyway. What that says about the game itself, hey, I've already made my opinions clear. It's still a fun game to run, and easy to use in any conceivable setting.

It's playable, still unfinished but not a hot mess.
People on the IRC seem to be using it just fine so I guess it's worth to give another chance.

But just in case you really can't stand it in the current form, I remember from the Weaver Dice General a long time ago that people recommended only using the character creation part (handing out triggers, brainstorming the powers, rolling for advantages/disadvantages etc.) but using another system to play.
If you are autistic enough for it I'd say GURPS could be a nice fit for that, it's similar in grit and lethality. More fitting for the setting than something like Mutants&Masterminds.

He was fighting a sentient Anthrax Virus that belongs to the Sinestro Corps as well.

Who also brought in a sentient Warworld thing to fight Mogo, a thing that was actually a shout out to a prophecy from the 80's.

could y'all see a skeleton man or a super intelligent smallpox virus being in Worm, though? sometimes there is a bar

Worm is a pile of shit though so that's a pretty low bar

Yes there's a bar, good thing though that bar can be moved wherever the hell the GM wants it to be.

Sure if he wants to make the game something grounded the player should probably make a fittingly down to earth character but the original user never specified where their GM set the bar and a skeleton man would absolutely fit into the average superhero game.

meant for obviously

...

I like Worm but that is in no way bait, it really isn't all that liked on Veeky Forums (barring the rare positive Worm thread every once in a blue moon).

I can't imagine why, unless people here just really aren't into how dark it is.

It has plenty of problems as a story, weird pacing issues, the high school stuff at the very beginning which probably turned a lot of people off, an unlikeable main character (which I don't agree with at all but it's a common enough complaint that it's still worth mentioning), the way the quality of the story slowly becomes inconsistent after it leaves the consistently great street level parts behind.

I still love it, not even saying this lightly, for all the things it does right like the god tier worldbuilding or the sheer volume of interesting characters and powers (among other things) but I acknowledge that it has flaws that could definitely make someone else hate it.

Worm is great, but even though it's one of my favorite settings I have problems with the story. It really started going downhill once Wildbow started upping the scale. Character actions and motivations didn't make sense to me, I didn't like how the focus moved away from character driven conflicts and problems, and I started to not like Taylor as a protagonist or the Undersiders as a supporting cast. More interludes with more characters would have helped with that. I also didn't like the non-stop action and shitshows that took up the whole middle chunk of the story.

It's still good, but hardly flawless. It's also not a very good superhero or villain story.

>weird pacing issues
Granted.
>the high school stuff at the very beginning
The first chapter or two made me drop it like a hot potato the first time I tried to read it, true.
>an unlikeable main character
I don't really like her either, but mostly because of all the "muh" in her motivation ("muh Dinah" and "muh territory") and how obnoxious that got. Didn't generally mind her as a POV character, though, as much as I couldn't really tell you anything that I liked about her as a character outside of her clever thinking and resourcefulness. She's a bit dry.
>the way the quality of the story slowly becomes inconsistent after it leaves the consistently great street level parts behind
I can get behind this, but the sheer scope of the story just becomes impressive after a while. Definitely not at all a fan of the Slaughterhouse 9000, as much as the stakes were raised at that point. Cheapened much of what happened earlier.

It's still my favorite serious superhero story of all time.

Yeah, the action scenes in Worm can get really exhausting to slog through, especially without a sufficient breather.

This is something that I think that the beginning of the story did really well. Taylor had downtime between her cape exploits, and she had problems to deal with in that time that were purely civilian but still tied to her cape life.

If the story had opened with the Lung fight instead of Taylor's personal bully drama I think a lot more people would have been hooked.

Getting to the Lung fight is what sold me on it.

When people read Worm they often make the mistake of thinking wb is a misanthrope and he really isn't. He just sees the world as being really tough and full of decent people with genuine problems that they can't deal with, and who have to make shitty choices.
This also extends to the government in Worm, all the shady shit, the corruption and the outright criminality of law enforcement is not part of an anti government message but is actually part of a message that people will do what they feel is necessary in extreme circumstances with results that while imperfect are still better than the consequences of not trying..

Also, Worm is not a deconstruction. It's just a guy writing a superhero setting full of the stuff he finds fun, and he just happens to be Wildbow, who is a bit of weirdo.