• Looking for blogs or info about superhero games

    From Arnaud Gomes@21:1/5 to All on Tue Aug 2 23:30:28 2022
    Hi,

    I am planning to run a superhero campaign soon-ish, probably using Icons assembled edition. I don't know much about superhero RPGs, only having
    GMed one Savage Worlds game.

    I'm looking for blogs or other info sources about superhero games in
    general, not necessarily Icons. I'm aware of John McMullen's Iconic
    Energy (https://jhmcmullen.blogspot.com/); do you have anything else to recommend?

    --
    Arnaud
    https://the-dm.oook.fr/

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  • From Justisaur@21:1/5 to Arnaud Gomes on Fri Aug 19 07:46:39 2022
    On Tuesday, August 2, 2022 at 2:45:06 PM UTC-7, Arnaud Gomes wrote:
    Hi,

    I am planning to run a superhero campaign soon-ish, probably using Icons assembled edition. I don't know much about superhero RPGs, only having
    GMed one Savage Worlds game.

    I'm looking for blogs or other info sources about superhero games in
    general, not necessarily Icons. I'm aware of John McMullen's Iconic
    Energy (https://jhmcmullen.blogspot.com/); do you have anything else to recommend?


    I don't have one to recommend, but I did run a PbP FASERIP (marvel clone)
    game that was fun until I couldn't come up with anything to do. I don't
    seem to do well with that format. Also the players were playing their
    own characters rather than the existing marvel ones, which the adventures
    all seem to expect to to play specific marvel characters, which I don't
    like.

    I used to play a lot of Champions, but the number crunching required and terribly unbalanced results based on who was best at it turned me off eventually (or maybe it was the GM.) I still think the early published adventures were some of the best.

    I'd be happy to give it a go again with a simpler system like marvel, only where there are enough published modules to get through a decent
    amount of play.

    - Justisaur

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  • From Arnaud Gomes@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Sat Aug 20 13:18:10 2022
    Hi,

    Thanks for your answer.

    Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com> writes:

    I don't have one to recommend, but I did run a PbP FASERIP (marvel clone)
    .../...
    I used to play a lot of Champions, but the number crunching required and

    I do own both games, the FASERIP PDF and the Champions Complete
    rulebook.

    Champions does indeed seem too crunchy for what I intend to do (think
    episodic campaign, once or twice a month, in a club so maybe with
    different players each time).

    I considered FASERIP, but chose Icons mostly due to personal preference;
    it has something akin to the aspects system from FATE, which I think is
    a very good fit for comic book action.

    I'd be happy to give it a go again with a simpler system like marvel, only where there are enough published modules to get through a decent
    amount of play.

    I intend to run mostly homebrewed adventures so I don't expect the lack
    of published modules to be an issue. I may run a few published
    adventures, but if this is the case I will probably borrow from generic
    games like Champions; as you say, the few Marvel Super Heroes adventures
    I have looked at seem designed to be run with the official characters.

    Back in the 90s there was a DC Heroes game that I was told was quite
    good (probably 3rd edition by Mayfair Games), but I don't know if the adventures suffer of the same design bias as the ones for Marvel.

    --
    Arnaud
    https://the-dm.oook.fr/

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  • From Justisaur@21:1/5 to Arnaud Gomes on Mon Aug 22 14:51:07 2022
    On Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 4:20:06 AM UTC-7, Arnaud Gomes wrote:
    Hi,

    Thanks for your answer.
    Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> writes:

    I don't have one to recommend, but I did run a PbP FASERIP (marvel clone)
    .../...
    I used to play a lot of Champions, but the number crunching required and
    I do own both games, the FASERIP PDF and the Champions Complete
    rulebook.

    Champions does indeed seem too crunchy for what I intend to do (think episodic campaign, once or twice a month, in a club so maybe with
    different players each time).

    I considered FASERIP, but chose Icons mostly due to personal preference;
    it has something akin to the aspects system from FATE, which I think is
    a very good fit for comic book action.
    I'd be happy to give it a go again with a simpler system like marvel, only where there are enough published modules to get through a decent
    amount of play.
    I intend to run mostly homebrewed adventures so I don't expect the lack
    of published modules to be an issue. I may run a few published
    adventures, but if this is the case I will probably borrow from generic
    games like Champions; as you say, the few Marvel Super Heroes adventures
    I have looked at seem designed to be run with the official characters.

    Back in the 90s there was a DC Heroes game that I was told was quite
    good (probably 3rd edition by Mayfair Games), but I don't know if the adventures suffer of the same design bias as the ones for Marvel.

    I've heard the same on DC Heroes. Wiki only lists a handful of adventures,
    a brief look at info on them varies, the third one is 1-on-1 where you play
    a specific character, the first one either or of playing established or your own (how well that works with your own would require more investigation)
    and the 2nd is for your own heroes.

    What little I can see of mechanics turns me off, in that it says powers and skills are rolled against somehow on 2d10, and doubles rerolled (why? and
    I hate rerolls in table top games.)

    It says DC heroes got reworked without the DC connection into 'Blood of
    Heroes' which was bought up and left for naught. I hadn't even heard of
    that one.

    Marvel has a ton of adventures apparently free at least if you want to play
    the marvel heroes, I'm sure a lot of people I've played D&D with would love that, but I find the lack of creativity puts me off. The system plays pretty well though. I probably should've just taken some champions modules
    and modified them, or seen how much trouble it would be to modify
    the Marvel ones. I just wasn't very confident with the system.

    I remember listening to a podcast review of the unfortunately named
    SuperBabes Femforce RPG that actually sounded really good. I'd be
    tempted to try that sometime if I could actually get players. The
    podcast info is here

    https://saveforhalf.com/2017/12/

    I don't know much about Icons, but I remember that was one of the
    more well reviewed systems when I was looking last time. Good luck with
    that, let me know how it goes!

    - Justisaur

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  • From Laurens Kils-Huetten@21:1/5 to Arnaud Gomes on Mon Sep 5 19:08:03 2022
    Arnaud Gomes <nono-posting-on-usenet+rgfm@oook.fr> wrote:
    I'm looking for blogs or other info sources about superhero games in
    general, not necessarily Icons. I'm aware of John McMullen's Iconic
    Energy (https://jhmcmullen.blogspot.com/); do you have anything else to recommend?

    Maybe this current Bundle of Holding would be worth a look?

    https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Heroes2022

    --
    lkh

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  • From Arnaud Gomes@21:1/5 to Laurens Kils-Huetten on Fri Sep 9 18:59:03 2022
    Laurens Kils-Huetten <lkh@sdf-eu.org> writes:

    Maybe this current Bundle of Holding would be worth a look?

    https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Heroes2022

    Thanks, I have downloaded the files, not had time to look at them yet.

    --
    Arnaud
    https://the-dm.oook.fr/

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  • From kyonshi@21:1/5 to Arnaud Gomes on Tue Nov 29 13:40:25 2022
    On 02/08/2022 23:30, Arnaud Gomes wrote:
    Hi,

    I am planning to run a superhero campaign soon-ish, probably using Icons assembled edition. I don't know much about superhero RPGs, only having
    GMed one Savage Worlds game.

    I'm looking for blogs or other info sources about superhero games in
    general, not necessarily Icons. I'm aware of John McMullen's Iconic
    Energy (https://jhmcmullen.blogspot.com/); do you have anything else to recommend?


    there are a lot of fans of the old TSR FASERIP system out there (Marvel Super-Heroes Roleplaying Game, but there are a few retroclones of it
    around like FASERIP or 4 Colors)

    https://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/ is a good source in that regard,
    with links to a lot of other pages.

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