Thinking of starting a superhero game set in a retro dieselpunk setting.  I own Mutants and Masterminds, but that's a bit overly technical for RPOL, I think.

I'm looking for a good Superhero System that is less crunchy than MnM, but more structured than purely cinematic systems like FATE, etc.

What's good these days?

Sentinel Comics. ICONS. Valiant Universe. Tiny Supers. Union City Heroes. Basic Action Super Heroes.

GURPS can be ridiculously streamlined and easy* if the GM wants to put in the pre-game work, but if you're not familiar with the system, you might want to avoid it for a Supers game.


* On the Players.  Even the GM to a degre, depending on how much pre-running the game work they'll willing to do.

The original Marvel Super Hero system (MSH) was always fun. Someone relaunched it as FASERIP, but I can't vouch for what/if anything changed in that version.

I like Champions but it can be a bit much.  I like Wild Talents which is a bit easier than Champions but you can still simulate any power you can imagine.  Godlike is it's Golden Age rules.

Mayfair's DC Heroes system was really elegant and simple if you can find a copy.  I believe it was reprinted under a different company as Blood of Heroes once Mayfair went under.

Blood of Heroes is the same system sans DC branding, setting and characters but still a great system that covers heroes from street level to cosmic entities easily.  I HIGHLY recommend it!

DC Heroes was the original Marvel Game until Marvel found out that Mayfair had the DC contract as well.  It makes very clean Marvel heroes.  Much better ( x1000) than MSH.

My first choice is MEGS (Mayfair Exponential Game System) aka DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes. My second choice is Mutants & Masterminds.

I like Hero System, aka Champions, myself. Second choice would be Mutants & Masterminds. As for the Marvel superhero games, I'm not familiar enough with them to have a solid opinion.

I've been a longtime fan of HERO games. I've also played both GURPS Supers and Mutants & Masterminds, and Villians & Vigilantes for that matter. I always come back to HERO. The math structure and simple scaling appeals to me.

My favorite super hero game is Masks.

Villains and Vigilantes is old school but easy to generate characters with and to play..

I like Fate Accelerated. There's also a FAE hack called Heroes Accelerated which is pretty cool.

https://docs.google.com/docume...kGrdNZrexY_KPiM/edit

One more vote for Hero System, but it is crunchy as heck (which why I love it), reflecting the time when it was made (when Avalon Hill games predominated). Today's players don't strike me as having the patience to sit down and learn a deep system.

So, I'll vote for Mutants & Masterminds as second choice.

Which version of HERO/Champions? I'm curious.

For play-by-post gaming, Marvel's FASERIP system is very simple and easy to scale.

I used to like the Hero System, up until about 3rd edition, maybe 4th. Then they became obsessed with trying to define everything in terms of as few powers as possible (including, IIRC, trying to define weapon reach as Stretching). I could go on a long rant about everything they managed to break or over-complicate when they tried to make things 'simpler', but I'm mostly just saddened at how a good simple system accumulated so much cruft. "Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler" indeed.

Mutants and Masterminds is closer to the early Hero System, at least in 2e, though it's showing signs of the same problem. Still, I prefer its 'Complications' mechanism to long lists of disadvantages, and it seems to fit the genre well: "What complicates the superhero's life?"

For low-powered but not too gritty games, I like FATE.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:41, Tue 29 June 2021.

I have played the original Fantasy Hero (Green Book), and played Champions from 4th Edition onward. I am now a proponent of the 6th Edition.

Yes, I agree that they are trying to fit things into the system. I suppose it is better than trying to make up new powers for small details for every niche development one might encounter.

And I do have to say that while Hero System is something I like, it is by no means perfect. There are gray/unknown areas in the reaches of the far ends of the curve the system addresses, where things do break down. But for what it is made to handle, it does so pretty well, in my opinion.

Besides, I just happen to like the energy economy, the comparative skill combat, and damage mitigation (armor) more than damage avoidance (D&D style).

But those are just my preferences.

Heck, I still love Star Fleet Battles. That should give you a general idea of where my preferences go. =)

The most flexible one is the HERO System.

At the same time it is the most complex to make characters. You will probably spend the first session or two at a table game just making characters in the HERO system. But given how you build characters and what you can do you can probably get what you want...you want a street level game it can do that, you want a cosmic level game it can do that...



If you want something simple where you make a few rolls and come up with a character then I might suggest the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG from TSR, known as FASERIP to some. You can end up with widely varying powerlevels of characters though (but you can do that in HERO System too if someone points say all their points in skills and none in powers).