Superhero PNP RPG

[Akamaz]

howdy folks from the superhero pnp rpg thread in the asylum.

here's where i'm asking we put the game system up for a vote, that way we can decide what the majority wants as far as the system goes.

just vote what system you would like, and give us a post as to why, so we can reach somewhat of a consensus.

I voted for Champions New millenium, because it uses a very simple system, and is one of the most flexible game systems I've ever run across, all powers are essentially the same, but have different special effects. you choose advantages or disadvantages for each power, for instance, you want to make a wizard withthe fireball spell,

the power is ranged attack, the Special effect is Fire, with the advantage explosion, and the disadvantages of gestures and vocal componant (chanting)

that and it's one of the few systems i've seen where you're rewarded for making your powers fit together. (for instance, the wizard above could call himself a fire mage, have a "fireball" "fire bolt" and "fire sword" spell) Because they all have fire and attack powers in common, they cost less points than if someone bought all three powers seperately.

all in all it alows for a lot more in the way of customisation.

Those of you who are familiar withthe hero system, think of this as the hero systems less complicated cousin, who maintains all of the flexibility.

[Quakester]

Well I vote Marvel. I'm open to anything but I'm most familar with it and have many of the books.

[Masked Revenger]

I voted for M&M. I'm more familier with it than I am with Champions (which I do like, just been 1000 years since I've used it), and I never really enjoyed Marvel that much.

But, as I said before, I'm up for just about anything, as long as it's fun. :)

Chris

[Stan Walker]

would agree with Masked i would go with MM

[Amoeba Man]

I'm torn. I like the Hero system, but I'm concerned that the complexity and learning curve will put people off. I like old school Marvel, but the randomness of the character creation system (if it's used) puts me off. Also, there is question of compatibility between heroes made in that system. You can have a team with a normal guy and a god on it, with power levels vastly apart. Right now I'm leaning towards M&M because it's complex enough to allow for a wide spectrum of heroes within a point buy system and simple enough to learn quickly. I'll vote later today.

[Akamaz]

I'm torn. I like the Hero system, but I'm concerned that the complexity and learning curve will put people off.


if you're worried about the complexity of the HERO system but like the versatility, the Champions New Millenium fusion system might be worth looking into for you AM. after all, it's a simplified version of HERO (it's actually put out by the company that made HERO system and also cyberpunk. If you've played CP then you already know how to play champions all rolling for skills, attacks power activation is as follows d10+skill+stat. the GM determines the difficulty, and if you roll over that you made it. if you roll under it, you failed. (if you roll a 10(or a 0) you get to roll again and add the totals together, if you roll a 1 you roll again and subtract the second roll from your stat+skill)

Sorry if it seems like i'm pushing for my choice, but I LOVE CHAMPIONS!!!!!1!11!

(it was the first Superhero RPG I ever really played)

[Amoeba Man]

if you're worried about the complexity of the HERO system but like the versatility, the Champions New Millenium fusion system might be worth looking into for you AM. after all, it's a simplified version of HERO (it's actually put out by the company that made HERO system and also cyberpunk. If you've played CP then you already know how to play champions all rolling for skills, attacks power activation is as follows d10+skill+stat. the GM determines the difficulty, and if you roll over that you made it. if you roll under it, you failed. (if you roll a 10(or a 0) you get to roll again and add the totals together, if you roll a 1 you roll again and subtract the second roll from your stat+skill)

Sorry if it seems like i'm pushing for my choice, but I LOVE CHAMPIONS!!!!!1!11!

(it was the first Superhero RPG I ever really played)My concern is that others might be put off by it. I'm not too familiar with the version of Hero your talking about, as I have 5th edition. Do you have a link where I can check out some of the particulars?

[Blur]

I voted M&M, because I already have the rule book.

[Quakester]

I've been out of the RPG circle for a while so I'm not as covnersant with other systems as I should be. I haven't even seen a cyberpunk book in years. That being said, I still like Marvel. Yes you can have a normal guy and a god together but that does not necessarily mean power levels will be spread. Gods do have advatages, an automatic travel power and + 2cs to all primary abilites (and extra power I believe) but a normal human can have as many if not more powers, plus the system is flexible and everyone has a weakness. Also one of the less known rules, you could increase the effectiveness of a power if you took a limitation to it. The more sever the limitation, the greater the increase.

[Akamaz]

well, here's a link to the fuzion website, which includes free downloands of the core rules, and also the superpowers plugin for the system (free download in PDF format)

http://www.thefuze.com/

[Akamaz]

one more thing...

Who is looking to run this game? becasue a whole vote for what game system to use may be a moot point, if the person looking to run it doesn't know the system we decide on well enough, it could be a "BAD THINGTM" i've seen it all too often where a gm doesn't know a system very well, and ends up withthe more knowledgable players walking lal over them...


just a thought...

[Quakester]

Well let's see what system get's picked and who can run. Personally, I can run Marvel but that's about it.

[Akamaz]

champions myself, and I already have a campaign written for that.

[Amoeba Man]

I have the old Marvel system, the M&M core book, and Hero system 5th ed. with a few supplements. I end up GMing when ever I RP, but I admit I'm not all that good. Probably the reason we don't RP all that often. :(

[Akamaz]

I'm really up for anything, isn't the mutants and masterminds on the webs somewherea?

[Masked Revenger]

I was under the impression that Blur was going to run this.

I usually GM when I play too, but that's for two reasons.

1. I own the books, and
2. I enjoy it.

I'd be willing to GM a game, but the only one I have access to at the moment is M&M.

Chris

[Amoeba Man]

After a quick perusal of the Fusion rule book and the Heroic plug in I've noticed that they are quite differant then the standard Hero rules, at least as far as the characteristics are concerned. That being said I've decided to vote for Fusion. I mean, come on! How can I not vote for a system that has the Subsume power. That has Amoeba Man writen all over it. That and the powers system does look alot like the Hero games system. The rules being on-line and free to download also played a factor in my choosing this system. And lets not forget tha fact that Maz has said he has a campaign written for that. So, yeah, the Champions Fusion thing gets my vote.

[The Widowed]

*ahem*

MARVEL SUPERHEROES OR DIE!!!

:D

(Hey, it's the one I'm most familiar with....)

*thinks*

Oh, wait...are we talking about OLD Marvel Superheroes or NEW Marvel Superheroes here?

[Quakester]

*ahem*

MARVEL SUPERHEROES OR DIE!!!

:D

(Hey, it's the one I'm most familiar with....)

*thinks*

Oh, wait...are we talking about OLD Marvel Superheroes or NEW Marvel Superheroes here?

OLD! Speak not of that *other* thing

[Amoeba Man]

*shudder* I have the "other" system. *shudder*

On a lighter note, Maz mentioned on the other thread that we had 9 people and 3 or 4 maybes. I suggested on said thread that maybe we consider multiple games with different systems. 12 people in one group seems a lot to me for 1 GM. Maybe that's not an issue for whomever ends up GMing this group. That and people will at least have a choice between systems.

[Akamaz]

well, i'm up for running for a few folks the chamipions new millenium. i'd like to have 4-5 personally.

it's my take on the Champions Academy (teen heroes) just to let you know.

[Impact]

I've been thinking about giving this a shot....I've played a few superhero rpgs in the past and it's definately something I enjoy but I don't know any of these rules that've been tossed around (with the exception of Heroes) and I'm not exactly sure how things'd go/be played.....anybody care to give a mini-explanation or to just clear things up for me a bit?

[Akamaz]

well, Champions New Millenium uses the Fuzion game system by R. Talsorian Games. The most difficult thing about the game is character creation, but even that's a breeze. you have your stats, options, and powers, with points to allocate for each group, the amount of points depends on the power level of the game.


the power level I use for my superhero games is "heroic" which gives you 50 points to divide between 10 characteristics. once you get the 10 main statistics figured out, there are a few statistics that are derived from the origional 10.

you also get 45 option points to use to buy skills, perks, and advantages. buying these costs option points, and you may take disadvantages to get more points. (all disadvantages should be conversed about with the gm for approval)

finally the part everyone wants to know aobout right from the start.

how many points you get for powers.

well, I don't have my book with me at work, so I'll post the number of power points later.

Powers cost varying amounts depending on the power, and when you choose a power, you also chose the special FX that the power uses, for instance, a ranged attack power could have the SFX of fire, water, ice, lightening, energy, chipmunk, bullets, or anything like that. A 1d6 damage ranged attack costs one power point.

In this example, Bob the Theif buys a taser in case he gets caught. it's a 4d6 ranged attack, with a special FX of electricity. As it's a 4d6 ranged attack, it costs 4 power points.

These powers also can have advantages or disadvantages. Bob buys a power advantage for his taser of "reduced endurance cost" because it's a mechanical device that does the tazering. because he bought that advantage, the powers cost goes up to 8 total points.

Also because it's a device, he takes the power disadvantage "Focus" which means that the power is a device which can be taken away from him. As Bob has decided that his taser can be grabbed out of his hand, it counts as a grabbable focus, which reduced the power cost back down to 4 power points total.

so in short, Bob the theif has a tazer that does 4d6 damage. It costs Bob no endurance to use, but the power can be taken away from him.

you can see the full power list and advantages and disadvantages here (http://www.thefuze.com/download/heroic_abilities.pdf)


the way that you do a skill roll (crack a safe, or perform CPR) is you take the appropriate skill (security systems or First Aid) plus the appropriate Stat (tech or Intelligence) and add to that the roll of one 10 sided die. if your roll is above the number decided by the GM as the difficulty, you succeed, if it's below, you fail.

so for instance, bob the theif want's to crack a safe. As a theif he has a security systems skill of 4, and a tech stat of 3.

to crack the safe, bob takes his security systems skill of 4, and his tech stat of 3 and rolls a d10... and comes up with a 8.


skill 4 + stat 3 + die 8 =?

4+3+8=15.
since the GM has already chosen the difficulty before hand, he knows that bob didn't succeed, and lets him know that.

Bob can try again, but with a +1 added to the difficulty, due to the frustration of failing the first time

to speed things up sometimes, the gm may not require a roll, since someone with an int of 9 and first aid of 8 would most likely not need to roll his skill to put a bandaid on a hangnail.

that's the short and dirty of it, everything is either a stat plus 1d10 or stat+skill+1d10

all damage is based off of a d6 roll, with (normally) multiple dice being rolled.

again, the majority of the information on this is located in the core ruled for fusion, listed here (http://www.thefuze.com/download/fuzion.pdf)

hope this clears things up and explains the game system a bit

[Amoeba Man]

That's pretty dang close to everyone voting. Who hasn't voted yet and how long are we going to wait? Also, if the results stand do we have a run off between the top two or just run with the highest voted system. Doesn't really matter to me, just trying to think of the possibilities.

edit: Got off my lazy butt and looked. People that expressed interest in the previous thread that haven't voted are:

Bolero
Charon
Kurai Inago
Stan Walker

[Blur]

Looks like Marvel won out. Charon is supposed to make our forum today, and then all we have to do is create our characters and pick a dm.

[ChairLegOfTruth]

The problem is that unless the vast majority of the RPG system is available online for next-to-nothing then it isn't going to happen.

I've already given the links to GoldenHeroes and WildTalents.

Since we're heading that way here's Classic MSH (http://www.heroplay.com/features/rules/marvel.php), and an apparently generic varient (http://www.technohol.com/u-rules/index.asp) I just found.

Here's an incomplete list of free superhero systems (http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/bykeyword/superhero.html) available online.

[Quakester]

The problem is that unless the vast majority of the RPG system is available online for next-to-nothing then it isn't going to happen.

I've already given the links to GoldenHeroes and WildTalents.

Since we're heading that way here's Classic MSH (http://www.heroplay.com/features/rules/marvel.php), and an apparently generic varient (http://www.technohol.com/u-rules/index.asp) I just found.

Here's an incomplete list of free superhero systems (http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/bykeyword/superhero.html) available online.

WoohoO! Go Marvel! Back when it wasn't run by complete idiots!

[Amoeba Man]

The problem is that unless the vast majority of the RPG system is available online for next-to-nothing then it isn't going to happen.

I've already given the links to GoldenHeroes and WildTalents.

Since we're heading that way here's Classic MSH (http://www.heroplay.com/features/rules/marvel.php), and an apparently generic varient (http://www.technohol.com/u-rules/index.asp) I just found.

Here's an incomplete list of free superhero systems (http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/bykeyword/superhero.html) available online.I know there were some corrections to the Ultimate Powers book that saw print in Dragon Magazine. I'll try and locate those.

[Amoeba Man]

A complete list (http://www.marvelrpg.net/mp/index.html) of everything Marvel that's been in Dragon Magazine.

[Impact]

Wow Maz....that oddly sounds a LOT like the game we ran & played. I totally get that system...I must just have the name wrong or something. Also, I don't know if it'll help since it looks like we'll be using Marvel but I have the HERO system character creator/sheet program if anyone wants/needs it.

But yeah....my question wasn't really about the game itself (sorry hehe) I meant as far as how will it all be done over the forums or wherever we end up having it?

Also....what should I go skim/read so I can be at least close to up to speed once this gets started?

[Amoeba Man]

Yeah, Champions New Millenium seems a lot like Hero System. Given the choice of any system, I'd choose that. You can really make unique characters using the advantages and disadvantages, but I'm not complaining.

Edit:Also, everyone that voted is planning on playing right. Some pwoplw that voted didn't post showing interest in the other thread.

[Noble]

I voted, and I am interested.

[Gaia]

I put in a vote for other. You guys may want to take a look at Silver Age Sentinels. If you play any D20 games then Silver Age should be a snap for you to roll up characters. And it can be integrated with Mutants and Masterminds with a little tweeking. Just my two worthless cents.

Edit: Never mind looks like you guys decided. I would have been interested if it wasn't marvel. I'll shut up now.

[Quakester]

I put in a vote for other. You guys may want to take a look at Silver Age Sentinels. If you play any D20 games then Silver Age should be a snap for you to roll up characters. And it can be integrated with Mutants and Masterminds with a little tweeking. Just my two worthless cents.

Edit: Never mind looks like you guys decided. I would have been interested if it wasn't marvel. I'll shut up now.

Well it may not be. RL has taken a trun for the worse and I may not have time to devote to this.