Superhero RPG

[SilvaShado]

Steve's post about his Superhero character intrigued me and I was wondering if anyone can tell me about playing a Superhero RPG system.

Will likes superheroes a lot more than I do, but I wouldn't be adverse to trying it out. (Though I'd probably create a fantasy-type superhero.)

So what systems are out there? Which one do you like the most and why? How many powers do you get? What's a typical group experience?

All of my experience is playing fantasy systems, so I'm curious as to how much difference there is.

Thanks for any responses!

[Gray Lensman]

Most of my superhero RPG experiences have been based in the old TSR Marvel system. Basically, you had 7 main stats on a scale that stretched from Feeble (weak human stats) to Beyond (for cosmic characters). Everything was rolled on percentile dice on a table that was printed on the back of the main books. There were varying stats depending on the kind of character you wanted: mutant, altered human (such as Spider-Man), robot, alien, or whatever. You'd roll the number of powers you have and the strength of your powers, along with stats like that.

It's not a bad system. I generally liked it because it was reasonably simple to play. I think their Karma/Reputation system was a bit flawed, and didn't encourage players to play as villains or "gray" characters. But otherwise, I remember it being fun to work with.

There's a new Marvel system out, but I don't know how good it is, not having played it.

Blitz came out of Sentinels, the old web RPG that we started at HR. Pretty much, that game was as I described in the other thread. In that game, the GM would allow characters within a certain power level, and the player would make characters to fit that. Then the story would bring the group together, the characters might interact, and the plot would build to a natural pace.

Most of the fun of Sentinels came out of the character interaction. We had some great characters, and several unique character dynamics in that game. If you read my Blitz stories, you'll get an idea of some of the things we did. Not all, since Blitz is missing a number of Sentinels characters and the whole dynamic feel of having a group of players.

We had a lot of fun with Sentinels. There were many truly great characters that came out of that game. I came out of it loving my characters so much that I wrote stories out of them long after the game ended. Blitz especially is probably my greatest creation. But in all honesty, I think that's probably the best cast I've ever developed.

I would be good with doing another superhero RPG if anyone wanted to start one. I think that's where my strength is, really.

[Max]

I'd definitly be interested in playing a Sentinels style superhero RPG.

[sps1000]

I would be interested in running another sentinels style RPG, except this time I would actually complete the story. I've got the time and with no video games to distract me and mid-winter break coming up in a week I'd have the time.

All of a sudden an interesting idea popped into my head...

[SilvaShado]

Sounds interesting. We'd be game if something gets started.

[Buffy]

hehe... those were some days...