Superhero RPGs

Homebrew takes work. Why build a system from scratch when there's probably already a system that works for what you had in mind?

He's actually a wolf, specifically Fenrir, and yes, he is intelligent. One of his powers is that he can shapeshift into the people he eats.

Don't worry, my 1st supers campaign was just as bad.

>Tried running a high-powered supers game with GURPS. Using all the books at once.
You poor soul.

Hero System seems to be very divisive. Either people hate it or they love it.

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i love that story

LOL those guys. I wonder what their names are
>flying chair guy
>minigun cyborg
>dragon woman
>token huge black guy
>soldier of our lord Jesus Chris

Using MM, but a lot of it is homebrewed/roleplayed

The setting is my own, which was inspired by worm. Xmen powerlevel - of the three PCs, one has the power to create portals 6 inches across, and one end of the gateway must be within arms reach, one creates floating energy balls that he can detonate and one has the power to influence other people's powers.

The game is going really well, so far, although we're struggling to find time to play. The heroes have defeated a gang called the Happy Animal Friends twice and put them away, been appointed New Jersey's official hero team, gone on a training exercise with a member of the federal hero team and won a fight with their first major villain team, the Blitzers. They also managed to capture a team of villain heisters with no bloodshed, although the teleport guy had to sit that one out because he lost an arm to the Blitzers.

>flying chair guy
Daedalus. Think Metron/Xavier .

>minigun cyborg
Fortress America. He's War Machine but huge.

>dragon woman
Dynasty. She's the Superman analogue.

>token huge black guy
He's actually not huge, that perspective. Name escapes me but he's the Namor/Aquaman of the team.

>soldier of our lord Jesus Christ
Captain Cross. Stand-in for Captain America.

Give Pantheon a read, it's pretty good.

I really want to run a game akin to Static Shock, with a stronger focus on social interactions than righteous face punching.

Anyone want to help me make NPC villians/heroes/vigilantes for a not Miami?

>The Pusher
The Pusher's skin is a rainbow of colors but his facial features suggest he's mulatto. His sweat is a mild hallucinogen but if he consumes any number of drugs (to which he has immunity), he can produce even more addictive and potent sweat. The Pusher is a one-man drug factory looking to expand his business.

>he lost an arm to the Blitzers.
Brutal.

Yeah, it was nasty. The guy he lost it too wass a villain named Mish-Mash. He was a regenerator with a twist - before he could regenerate he had to touch someone and "harvest" their flesh. He touched Hole Punch fucked up and ran into combat with him, Mish Mash touched him on the arm, there was a wet "SHHRRRIIPPPP" noise, and his arm was gone. Roll to avoid going into shock.

Shit sorry that was terrible

>Hole Punch rushed into combat with MM without realising who he was/because he DIDN'T FUCKING LISTEN TO THE GM
>MishMash "harvested" his arm
>Holepunch missing an arm,Mish'Mash's arm changes to the same skin colour and shape as Holepunch's used to be.

just started GMing a game using Masks: A New Generation, which was perfect for the exact kind of game i wanted to play- a rules-light teen superhero team game where the drama is as important as the fighting. i'm getting more of a feel for my players' relationships and characters, which is exciting, because i'm also getting ideas for which kinds of villains well get absolutely under their skin

I finished up Necessary Evil (the old hardcover black book) a few weeks ago. One player took minion and restributed the skill points to make some broken shit with a d12 fighting, not the first time that this has happened. Also was insubstantial with telekinesis and didn't have any immunities except to magic which never ended up showing up in any appreciable quantity because the characters focus-fired anything with magic into oblivion. Which was a good strategy, but by session 4 I had pretty much given up on actually challenging them. Plus the rule-of-cool bullshit got out of control, and you can't really say no to it when it's high-flyin' comic book superhero shit. In all, I liked necessary evil but I think I'd rather run it with another group. At least they made good villains, but they like to make CN/NE edgelord characters anyway for the most part.

So how did they deal with the BS power eraser gun the aliens get?

Focus-fired the fuckers to death. I didn't want to give them as standard issue to the soldiers because that seemed like BS.

They raped tanks without trying because this guy would phase through and murder the crew. Somehow I always lost the fucking draw too, or missed, so even the one time I hit with the negater gun it didn't matter because the character just hid and the rest of the party BTFO'd them.

Shoulda made them go up against an anti-party of supers with tons of nullifier guns and magic powers, but I was too busy during that time to make much OC.

I flip flop between Wild Talents, Marvel Superheroes RPG, and DC Adventures M&M
still haven't run any of them though

Because you can't find players or because players are to lazy to learn rules?

neophytes satisfied with D&D and one wants to try his hand at DMing

Don't worry, user: everyone's first campaign is a little rough. Take what you learned from your experience and apply it to the next one. My first experience running the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG had a player of mine make a bowling ball gun and argue that it couldn't possibly be fatal because it technically dealt blunt damage.

It's going pretty good. We're using MnM 3e for it and our setting is in the My Hero Academia universe. We're currently students at a hero school in the United States.
My character's superpower is that he can push and pull objects towards himself. Just got done with a sports festival that villains infiltrated. After the run-in with the sports festival villains, my character thought up his hero name of "Pitcher." He's going to be a baseball themed hero.

M&M 3e

Setting is basically a world recovering from an attack by that multiverses Darkseid/thanos/bigbigbad's Son.

It was so bad half the population of the planet was eradicated, large portions of the earth unliveable, structural apocalypse and all heroes and villains dead.

Only one hero survived and killed the villain and the fleet. Basically superboy. 20 Years later, while that worlds female lex luthor super genius has pretty much taken over the world politically and financially and made the earth livable and saved civilization, no one has dared become a hero again out of fear that they will be called up to die if ever that alien's daddy retaliates and sends another invasion force. Most people with powers becoming villains because of the general fear and hopelessness of earth and the lack of heroes.

All save for the PCs, the first superhero team in existence in 20 years, being mentored by some retired heroes and what rag tag volunteers can do to help them. And of course, the big good.

They strive to make an example in a world too dependent on the only other hero and too scared and hopeless to really believe they can survive another apocalypse.

Currently running Mutants and Masterminds in the Wildcards universe, and it's going well.

M&M is a system that makes completely different power sets work well alongside each other. Plus the damage system makes it so that even the most invulnerable enemies can be taken down through creativity.

It reminds me of Justice League Unlimited, how Superman and Martian Manhunter were just so much better than the rest of the team, but they were also the first to get punched a mile away or get trapped under rubble when a villain needed to be taken seriously.

>push and pull objects towards himself

that power is so incredibly vague that it's practically a jojo stand

You should get a sidekick named Catcher.

>that art
was this an indy company job or was this just another victim of 90s comic illustrations?

It baffles me how often a comic can be completely ruined by shit art

Currently playing what is effectively a superhero soap opera involving high school aged heroes still developing their powers. Sure, we still beat up evil villains and rescue homeless veterans, but to really emphasise just how 'soap opera' it can get, the current subplot involves my character's ex-girlfriend coming to 'start her life with him' just after he started a new relationship. I strongly suspect there to be some kind of hostage situation brewing that I'm effectively powerless to stop.

I fucking love it, it's a fantastic campaign.

Mutants and Masterminds campaign I'm running right now is pretty good. the party lineup right now is varied enough that it makes planning encounters a challenge though.

>one manipulates wind
>one is a Telekinetic
>one can teleport and shoot guns
>one can read and control minds + fly
>one is just a gross spider person
>one can control friction through bodily secretions
>one can grow clones of himself by removing his body parts

It basically is. I use it for stupid things though.
Goddamn, that is a good idea.

just trying to think of the stupid shit that you could use it for.

>make the terrain foggy by pulling a cloud towards you

>cheat at spin the bottle by gently pulling the bottleneck

>cause the end of the world by pulling sun closer to earth

Here's what I've done so far.
>Pocket sanding someone
>Getting a ring out on someone in a fight by pushing the stadium out from under them
>Cheating in a baseball game so I could always catch the ball by pulling it back to me
>Whipping baseball bats to the back of people's heads
>Bludgeoning someone with bouncy balls

Holy shit dude.

i like that setting a lot

Indy.

Does anyone have a working link to the MHR What If Hulk and Thor pdfs?

Sounds like what nu52 Earth-2 was supposed to be before editorial bullied Robinson.

To be more specific, It's a 13 issue series by Lone Star Press that took 6 years to finish. The interior art () is better than the covers.

MUSCLE WIZARD
He has a variant of telekinesis where he can only displace the force exerted by (and on) his hands rather than create force from nothing.
This means he can't exert more force than his body is capable of, and sometimes he'll need to brace against an immobile object to avoid pushing himself back.
He has used this power to punch bullets out of the air, because it's not the force of the bullet that kills, it's focusing that force to a point.

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Man, I'm kinda sad I missed this thread yesterday. That's an epic story.

What kind of art do you use for your superhero campaigns? just vanilla dc/marvel ?

My friends want me to run DC Adventures but I'm not that familiar with the DC Universe outside of the 90's animated shows like Batman and Justice League. Is that enough of a knowledge base to satisfy a bunch of nerds?

Back in the M&M 2e days I used Microheroes. I remember most people used Heromaker (?) if they made OCs.

As long as your upfront and tell them "this isn't any canon DC world, this my version." The core book has all the A-listers you need and there are some free M&M 3e profiles (same system, different brand) that can be used as local NPCs. For everything else you can either consult DCA vol 2-4 or just look at the wiki.

I'm less concerned about issues with continuity or canon 'cuz I already know that's fucked, I'm more concerned about getting the 'feel' of a DC story right since I know it's different from Marvel. Should I be concerned or will the 90's shows be good enough?

MM3, but several of us are old Champions players (by far the best, but works best with top tier players). Part of the group came out of a Marvel game but most of the rest are MM2.

>'feel' of a DC story
Generally speaking:
>civilians are appreciative of heroes
>the main government is neutral/allied to heroes
>black ops projects (Cadmus, etc) are hostile/neutral to heroes
>legacies and lineages for both heroes (Flash Family) and villains
I'd say DC also allows a little more wiggle room in terms of the hero/villain designation. Black Adam is a notable case, solely devoted to his country he's been a hero, anti-hero, and villain at different times.

There will be people saying this story never happened. I don't care whether it did or not, that was a GREAT fucking story. Godspeed to those brave souls.

Going quite well actually.

My group has been playing monthly sessions of a DC Heroes 3rd ed game for more than three years, and are still going strong. Combat takes a long time in the system, but it's pretty well balanced in most things once you can wrap your head around the math. (Find the character generator program somewhere online, it's nearly impossible otherwise.)

I did have to retire a character because speedsters are bullshit (pic related), and it was causing our enemies to be far too scary. Switched out for a budget ninja (seriously, cheapest crap gear ever. Throwing stars made from pop cans...) and a surfer dude with ice powers, that I alternate between. Lots of fun. Our GM probably knows more about the DC universe than the current crop of DC writers, and puts a hell of a lot of work into prep.

If you've got a good GM, the system doesn't really matter, it will be good.

When that guy wasn't that guy

>how's your capeshit game going
Pretty awesome, just a few sessions in.
>What system are you using?
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.
>What setting?
An alternate timeline around the Civil War Initiative era, with most of the stupid sucked out probably.

The characters are:
>Sir Lance
An advanced cape-killer robot that got an error and uploaded the entire wiki page of a fantasy videogame hero as a history and backstory, possibly due to hackers. Rarely stops talking, and has hit on almost every woman encountered, including Arachne. Has a big sword and a big shield, and could arm-wrestle the Thing and not lose.

>Jaguar X
A Roxxon-made Wolverine.2, actually in the initiative because the alternative is jailtime. Quiet, and has a habit of using his brain computer to make calls. Probably the most actively dangerous person due to radioactive claws and Wolverine's healing factor, on top of a bunch of other upgrades. He could 1v1 Wolverine and come out just fine.

>Malady
An otherwise normal girl with a really bad disease, had a symbiote shoved inside them by a weird medical corporation to see whether it would work as life support. Tries to be cheerful, is incredibly out of their depth, and is still figuring out their powers despite the symbiote being suspiciously quiet. They could probably keep up with Spider-Man for a team-up issue.

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Feels like the end of the line for this thread.

BS

If you homebrew, just base it on a mechanic you are used to (like d20) or make a 1-2 page, simple system. Focus on creating the setting, no the mechanics.

I've been gathering some power ideas for a game I may or may not run. I'm open to comments if someone wants to give them a read. The names are placeholders.

Recall - Teleports objects in line of sight to himself
Graffiti - Recolors surfaces and sources of light that he can see
Steve - Breaks, carries, crafts and builds as if reality was Minecraft
Division - Capable of cloning himself and shapeshifting but needs available biomass
Breathtaker - Senses and controls gases within a moderate area
Nemesis - Powers adjust themselves to be optimal against a given target
Unstoppable - Body can exert force without experiencing counterforce
Death Curse - Takes over the body and powers of the person causally closest to killing him, retains powers of previous victims
Vengeance - Can manifest spirit forms of all dead victims of a target to attack that target
Stitch - Healer. Able to undo his own healing at will
Abyss - Aware of every way he's being perceived at any given time
Kaleidoscope - Overloads every sense that observes him. Doubly effective against super or extra senses
Karma - Whatever is done, given or inflicted to him, good or bad, will come threefold to the person who caused it in the near future
Dogma - Unable to utter falsehoods, regardless of whether he knows what he's saying to be false or not
Bob - Can hear and in minor ways affect narration
Role Model - Ability to temporarily raise others' capabilities to a level equal to his own
Fiat - Capable of making currency appear or disappear anywhere, can sense worth and holdings
Exorcist - Can disable ongoing supernatural effects. Can suppress, at least partially, powers of a single close by individual but it takes concentration
Puppy Stare - When asking nicely, people are compelled to comply. The idea that she has any special power is repressed whenever anyone thinks it, including herself.