OK recently I've started playing in a Palladium Hero's game. Playing the game is fun, but the system irks me. Almost everything seems kind of arbitrary. The designers don't seem to worry about balance very much. Other things just seem complicated for complications sake. (I'm not into mental masturbation.)
So remember playing TSR's Marvel Superheroes and it was fun. So I go through the trouble of acquiring that dinosaur. Low and behold character creation, design, and advancement all green lights. Then I get into running the game and combat (groan). The combat system is overly simplistic to the point of being bad. Now I'm considering tweaking the combat system and moving forward with it.
But first I'd thought I shop around the community a bit for Ideas. Please throw me some input on what you think a good superhero game is. Or if you have any Ideas to improve on what's out there. I'm afraid wocts has ruined me with all that good and balanced design junk, DAMN THEM.
I haven't played it but my friend heartily reccomends Mutants & Masterminds, and from what I've read it looks pretty awesome.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Universe_Ro...
There's even a fan-made Spiderman PDF out there which is a lot of fun.
Marvel Universe gets my vote. It's diceless and super-easy to make/level characters. Just don't try to play a magic user by the rules - the only examples you have to go by are Dr Strange and The Enchantress, so there's no "low-level" example from which to work. I just found it better to use the other powers and flavor them with magic.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Universe_Ro...
There's even a fan-made Spiderman PDF out there which is a lot of fun.
Actually the version I'm looking at uses d10's. Came out in the 80's I believe. I don't know any thing about the dice less edition I'll check it out.
Thanks
There is no such thing as "a superhero concept that you cannot realise in M&M", but it's still really easy to pick up on and loads of fun.
You'll only need a single d20 and a single book to run it, too. I'd really advise you to at least check it out
Second Edition Mutants & Masterminds all the way.
There is no such thing as "a superhero concept that you cannot realise in M&M", but it's still really easy to pick up on and loads of fun.
You'll only need a single d20 and a single book to run it, too. I'd really advise you to at least check it out
Thanks.
I'll have to check it out.
Fourthing M&M.
-1 on Marvel Universe unless your group doesn't mind ridiculous munchkining, then it's +1. I've played it a few times, and encounters are pretty much "yes" or "no." No real "will we make it?" factor. My sword wielding hell-clone sword-fought Inigo Montoya and was losing, but changed the encounter to "yes" by chucking fireballs and casting illusion spells all over the place because Inigo Montoya had absolutely nothing to stop magic. Another time, a buddy and I reverse engineered the point cost for power cosmic (1 rank in power cosmic is basically 1 rank in whatever you want). I then took a bunch of disadvantages that I could work around thanks to all the crap we've got from the power cosmic. The character was basically God from Southpark (imagine a cat with a hippo mouth and feet and a lizard tail and paws). The back half of my character sheet was limitations and how to work around them. For example, despite his appearance, he could look like a normal person if he wanted to. He couldn't drive a car, but he could sit on top of the car, become invisible and incorporeal, create a solid illusion of him sitting in the car and telekinetically manipulate the steering wheel and pedals; if he didn't just teleport wherever he wanted. And if someone pointed out he was a mutant all while this was going on, he'd still have enough points to say "these are the droids you're looking for" and that guy would be convinced he was a stormtrooper for the next 20 minutes. And if that didn't work, he would kung fu the guy like Bruce Lee.
Fourthing M&M.
-1 on Marvel Universe unless your group doesn't mind ridiculous munchkining, then it's +1. I've played it a few times, and encounters are pretty much "yes" or "no." No real "will we make it?" factor. My sword wielding hell-clone sword-fought Inigo Montoya and was losing, but changed the encounter to "yes" by chucking fireballs and casting illusion spells all over the place because Inigo Montoya had absolutely nothing to stop magic. Another time, a buddy and I reverse engineered the point cost for power cosmic (1 rank in power cosmic is basically 1 rank in whatever you want). I then took a bunch of disadvantages that I could work around thanks to all the crap we've got from the power cosmic. The character was basically God from Southpark (imagine a cat with a hippo mouth and feet and a lizard tail and paws). The back half of my character sheet was limitations and how to work around them. For example, despite his appearance, he could look like a normal person if he wanted to. He couldn't drive a car, but he could sit on top of the car, become invisible and incorporeal, create a solid illusion of him sitting in the car and telekinetically manipulate the steering wheel and pedals; if he didn't just teleport wherever he wanted. And if someone pointed out he was a mutant all while this was going on, he'd still have enough points to say "these are the droids you're looking for" and that guy would be convinced he was a stormtrooper for the next 20 minutes. And if that didn't work, he would kung fu the guy like Bruce Lee.
I was telling a friend about what I dug up on the latest Marvel rpg. We decided there would be way to many bad stones jokes to even consider that system. My expeirnence with Marvel was the 1st game put out by TSR a million years ago. The character creation and development was good stuff. The combat system leaves something to be desired though.
How's the M&M run? I only have Marvel and Palladium Hero to compare with. If someone could do a comparison for that would be great.
It's true20 based, so it approaches the flexibility of GURPS but retains the ease of d20. And it's done by a company that I've found does a good job (I won't go any farther because I don't want to advertise). I fourthed it for those reasons, not because I played that specifically (sorry!).