Gentleman John looks at ... Superhero RPGs

[seneschal]

Hmmm, some I have on my hard drive but not in a physical copy (and have never played):

Four Colors -- not 4C, the FASERIP clone, but a different system intended to emulate Golden Age '40s heroes
Heroic Visions -- I initially thought it was a d20 variant, but it may be its own thing, but very much a class-and-level game
Tokyo Heroes -- emulates Japanese-inspired sentai hero teams (e.g. Gatchaman, Power Rangers). It inspired me to attempt a sentai write-up for BRP (below)

Have physical copy, haven't yet played:

Basic Roleplaying (the Big Gold Book) -- Superworld is currently available only as a PDF (and I've got the Worlds of Wonder version as a download), but I've written up some heroes and super-powered critters using the latest incarnation of Chaosium's venerable system. To an old Champions fanatic (me) it feels a bit limited and clunky, but Basic Roleplaying fans tells me it works OK for low- and medium-powered heroes. No stun damage mechanic; if you get hit, you're hurting or dead

Games I have played:

Mini Six -- intended to be generic, has a limited selection of pre-created powers (you can sort of roll your own), but I did run a couple good street-level hero sessions with it. A greatly condensed version of WEG's old D6 System. If BRP is gritty and bloody, even at superhero levels, Mini Six is cinematic. Even starting one-trick-pony characters can wipe the floor with villainous thugs (which is as it should be).

Just some thoughts.

[gentleman john]

And so my reviews move form one set of shelves to another. Sometimes I think I have too many games. But, as Hunter S Thompson almost said "The temptation with a good games collection is to push it too far."

Silver Age Sentinels

Guardians of Order were the producers of Big Eyes Small Mouth, an anime-inspired RPG. As part of the 2nd edition expansion of their property, they created a generic game system called Tri-Stat dX, which they users as the core of a number of genre games. The first of these games was a superhero game called "Silver Age Sentinels".

The System

Tri-Stat was a simple, points-based system. The game used only three statistics: Body, Mind and Soul to describe a character. While these were not very granular and each stat covered a variety of abilities - for example, Body covered strength, health, dexterity and speed - but characters could buy disadvantages to reduce their abilities. Indeed, Tri-Stat being a points-based system had a number of advantages and disadvantages that could be bought. However, unlike Hero or GURPS, the return for disadvantages was not that good. As a result, players were not encouraged to create crippled characters. It just wasn't worth it.

Powers were bought from a menu of available abilities. The list of powers was fairly comprehensive, with characters able to customise them in terms of range, effect and duration. Again, there was not much granularity in the customisation system, but it performed perfectly well for role-players who wanted to create superheroes. Indeed, the attitude of the background material encouraged this. Characters were not meant to be gun-wielding vigilantes or angst-ridden ubermensch. Instead, they were meant to be superheroes who were willing to stand up for what was right and be willing to change the world.

So, what about the dX bit of the system? Well, the Tri-Stat system used a simple resolution mechanic: roll 2 dice, apply modifiers and roll less than your skill or ability score. Hang on - 2 dice? Which 2 dice? That depended on the game that was being played. In default Tri-Stat, the dice were d6. In Deus Ex Machina (their cyberpunk game) you used 2d8. Big Eyes Small Mouse (their "woodland furry" game) you used 2d4. Silver Age Sentinels went all the way up to 2d10, but still used the same skill and ability levels as Tri-Stat. This raised the obvious question: surely it was harder to do things in Silver Age Sentinels than in Big Eyes Small Mouth? The designer's answer was simple: Easy in Silver Age Sentinels was Hard in other Tri-Stat games. As a hero, landing a plane in a thunderstorm should be something they do every day. Landing a city-sized spacecraft in an ion storm should be a spectacular event. You're playing in the big leagues, now.

Alas, that was the problem with the system. You had to shift your expectations as to what is easy and what is hard, which is something that can be hard for a gamer to do when used to one version of a system. This, combined with my gaming group's aversion to Silver Age superheroics led to the game only ever coming out once. A pity, but there you go.

The Games

The Tri-Stat dX system had a number of games that used the same system. Big Eyes Small Mouth was the default system, with a number of supplements to support different anime series and genres. There were also the genre games: Deus Ex Machina (a cyberpunk toolbox game) and Dreaming Cities (an urban fantasy toolbox game). Guardians of Order also used the system for their version of Tekumel. Unfortunately, just before producing 3e Big Eyes Small Mouth, they went bankrupt.

On the Shelf

Not in current use, but sometimes dusted off and read.

[gentleman john]

Tokyo Heroes -- emulates Japanese-inspired sentai hero teams (e.g. Gatchaman, Power Rangers). It inspired me to attempt a sentai write-up for BRP (below)

Now that sounds like a game you should review. I've always wanted to do a serious sentai game (Power Rangers meets Cthulhu has always being threatened) and would like to hear more about Tokyo Heroes.

[gentleman john]

It's Sunday morning and I'm at my parents-in-law's. Time for another review.

Mutants and Masterminds

The d20 OGL spawned a lot of games based on the same core mechanics, including a number of superhero RPGs. However, only one of those made any real impact on my gaming collection, and that was Mutants and Masterminds. With a name like that, how couldn't you love this game?

The System

Mutants and Masterminds was one of those games that seemed to gather momentum as it went along. As a child of the d20 OGL, it was one of a thousand flowers that bloomed on the shelves of my FLGS, all of them vying for a place in the sun. Now, whether the OGL was a good idea or not is a matter that is still debated by the jury, but Mutants and Masterminds has definitely found a place in a lot of bookshelves.

The game was based on a variant of the d20 system developed by Green Ronin. The system was known as the True20 system and, unlike the d20 system, used only a d20. Indeed, for Mutants and Masterminds, the system was stripped down to the bare bones. There were no classes, no hit points and no levels. Instead, there were powers. Character generation was done on a points-buy system, with the points allowed depending on the power level you wanted to play at. There were still the 6 characteristics of d20, feats and skills. There was also powers.

As I've commented in my Icons review, Steve Kenson was obviously a fan of Marvel Superheroes, and this showed in Mutants and Masterminds. The powers listed corresponded to the TSR Marvel game. Now, I'm not sure if the MSH game was a major influence on the DNA of superhero rpgs, or whether it is just that the powers listed in MSH are just that well chosen, but its influence was obvious. Indeed, looking at the M&M 2e Ultimate Powers book, this was a direct shout-out to the MSH Ultimate Powers book. After all, how many superhero gamers would consider Prehensile Hair as a power? Anyone want to place a bet? However, Mr Kenson had obviously taken one lesson from MSH: power stunts.

The lists of powers in M&M were generic, but each power included a list of power stunts applicable to power. These could be "bought in" during character creation and allowed for characters to be better customised. They also provided interesting springboards for further work on characters.

This leads on to another aspect of M&M that was interesting. Most superhero RPGs rely on a basic list of powers with described effects. Some superhero rpgs allow customisation of these powers by modifiers. A few superhero rpgs allow the creation of new powers. M&M was part of this last group, and actually gave advice on creating new powers beyond the standard "wing it" found in other rpgs - very important for a points-based system! As a result, M&M combined a familiar system with a toolbox mentality.

Of course, M&M was followed by a number of supplements covering different aspects of the superhero genre, including the compulsory "Golden Age" sourcebook. It also made an attempt to branch out into other genres with its "Mecha and Manga" and "Warriors and Warlocks" supplements.

Given that Mutants and Masterminds is now in its 3rd edition, and has captured the DC comics licence, it looks like this game will be around for a bit longer.

Other Games

Other games were produced using the True20 rules set. However, Mutants and Masterminds was the only superhero game to do so.

On The Shelf

First and second edition. Maybe third edition will join it, if I feel rich enough!

[seneschal]

My son bought me a copy of Mutants and Masterminds, 1st edition, at Goodwill. Since I never played any iteration of D&D, the system threw me a bit, and I had trouble figuring out how to create a hero. Of course, everyone else had already moved on to 2nd edition by that time, which is a different ball of wax. It's my understanding that 1st edition is more D&D-ish while 2nd and 3rd editions have evolved to become more like Hero System and GURPS.

I'll give Tokyo Heroes a more thorough study and post a review. I downloaded it for free. The author has received some commentary on the play test version but hasn't yet revised the rules, according to his blog site.

http://dsg.neko-machi.com/tokyoheroes/tokyo_heroes.pdf

[gentleman john]

In my opinion the first edition of M&M is the more complete edition. The second edition covers more ground, but it misses a bit in the core rulebook. If you want to get the same functionality out of 2e you really need the Mastermind's Handbook as well. The second edition also misses the bizarre index entries of the first edition, where you can try and guess who the characters in the illustrations are. I can't comment on differences in play as I ignore a lot of the rules!

Thanks for the link to the sentai game.

[Simon W]

I always preferred 1st Ed M&M. It seems less cumbersomes. I got rid of my copy of the 2nd Ed, as if I ever played it, I'd play 1st Ed.

[seneschal]

It would be fun (but also some work) if you could illustrate your evaluations by doing a write-up of the same character for each system examined so far. That way, your readers could compare how each game handles similar concepts.

[gentleman john]

Now if only you'd said that back at the start ...

Any thoughts, given the fact that some systems just don't cope as well as others with some concepts?

[gentleman john]

I always preferred 1st Ed M&M. It seems less cumbersomes. I got rid of my copy of the 2nd Ed, as if I ever played it, I'd play 1st Ed.

1st ed with 2nd ed supplements is probably a good way to go.