A friend of mine is looking for a relatively rules light game that works for a super heroes game. Basically he wants to run a super hero game with relatively little prep time, and I was thinking to look for something that was lighter on the rules side then say mutants and masterminds to help bring down the prep required. Anyone have any ideas?
A friend of mine is looking for a relatively rules light game that works for a super heroes game. Basically he wants to run a super hero game with relatively little prep time, and I was thinking to look for something that was lighter on the rules side then say mutants and masterminds to help bring down the prep required. Anyone have any ideas?
Here is the link to a game I wrote last year. It's something I came up with in my free time and my players really seemed to have a hoot playing it.
If you end up using it just let me know how everything turned out.
I've not actually played it but Mutant City Blues is based on GUMSHOE, which seems fairly rules light.
There's also G-Core (based on MSH, but not quite) and BASH Ultimate.
Not Mutants and Masterminds. Though I do enjoy that game.
ICONs or BASH are very rules lite. The old Marvel Super Heroes game would also work well.
Villains & Vigilantes for life!!
One of my all-time favorite RPGs is Mayfair's old DC Heroes RPG (later repackaged as Blood of Heroes, by a company called Pulsar Games.) I loved the game for its simplicity. Well, I also loved its versatility, and its mathematical elegance. Its one-roll mechanic allows a greater success to have a greater result. And when it comes to creating characters, it's the most fun RPG I've ever played, whether those characters are completely original, or based on existing comic book / movie / TV / novel heroes.
Although it's not currently in print, you can get a new copy of the last edition of Blood of Heroes from amazon.com for $19.99 here, or used for $16.36 here.
As for the original DC Heroes RPG, you can get the 1st edition for $16.50 here, or the 2nd edition for $39.94 here.
(The 3rd Edition of DC Heroes is very rare and expensive. I myself have only the 1st edition of DC Heroes, and the 1st edition of Blood of Heroes, so I can only vouch for those two editions.)
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A friend of mine is looking for a relatively rules light game that works for a super heroes game. Basically he wants to run a super hero game with relatively little prep time, and I was thinking to look for something that was lighter on the rules side then say mutants and masterminds to help bring down the prep required. Anyone have any ideas?
I would encourage you to look at the three mentioned in this thread: BASH Ultimte, Icons, or Savage Worlds. Mutants & Masterminds is a good supers system too, but you said you're looking foe something rules light.
-Skeld
If you can find it - Golden Heroes is a very streamlined supers game. Mechanics are based on "frames" [comic book panels] and character generation is quick and easy to run.
Attacks do HTC [Hits to Coma] & HTK [Hits to Kill] damage
Abilities are Ego/Strength/Dexterity/Vigour [Smarts/Wisdom is more of a roleplay decision]
Fun game - well underrated... just might be difficult to track down.
The easiest I have ever done was a version of AmberDiceless I did for my players...but I don't reccomend it.
ICONS is probably the best choice for rules light, system ease of use, and quick start up time. It is a very intuitively easy system.
Mutants and Masterminds/Villains and Vigilantes/HeroesUnlimited all are easy to learn games, BUT are not "rules light" And character creation can become an all nighter in some of these.
Marvel Superheroes is a simple game and I would put it just behind ICONS. Mostly because of its source book complexities and ya got a cute chart to use. Character creation is also slower than ICONS.
DC Heroes. Not a fan. Charts and math. And the exponential stat blocks are a pain for lower powered games. Str two is average person..but strength three is twice as strong as him???!?! If I gotta do math, I go for...
Hero System all encompassing supers game. Make or Do any concept. NOT RULES LIGHT and NOT EASY TO USE and CHARACTER CREATION NIGHTMARE if you do not have experienced players. ( it's why I have a book of 100 premade 250pt buy characters)
Anyway, long way to go for ...
ICONS is the way to go. Easy to learn, easy to teach, easy to play and loads of fun.
Greg
TOON!
Also, A very rules light system, and I could see an easily made hero game with it. But the fifty/fifty thing just lends itself more to humor than to heroism. But a SuperLoonyHero game...well, it is the PERFECT fit.
Greg
Mutants and Masterminds/Villains and Vigilantes/HeroesUnlimited all are easy to learn games, BUT are not "rules light" And character creation can become an all nighter in some of these.
There's some (one-time) math involved with character creation in V&V, but other than that, there's nothing to it. Roll up some powers, calculate some secondary stats and you're good to go. Combat is just matching your attack with your enemy's defense on a table and rolling against that number. What's complicated about that?
Mutants and Masterminds/Villains and Vigilantes/HeroesUnlimited all are easy to learn games, BUT are not "rules light" And character creation can become an all nighter in some of these.There's some (one-time) math involved with character creation in V&V, but other than that, there's nothing to it. Roll up some powers, calculate some secondary stats and you're good to go. Combat is just matching your attack with your enemy's defense on a table and rolling against that number. What's complicated about that?
Perhaps it is my memory playing tricks. It has been about thirty years since I played V&V. But I seem to remember lots of different dice, truely outlandish posibilities for characters, and grid charts for determining hitting ( the older I have gotten, the less I like charts :P ) It was my first superhero game, and I have very fond memories of it. I still remember the villain Maxwell Toth, AKA Mammoth. And the Jeff Dee artwork. And the playtest group names that inspired me so much, names like AeroCobra. And the comic, that had the mental illusion character from Purdue University, DreamWeaver ( I am a Hoosier) So lots of great memories, but also remember it being cumbersome and having to flip through the book alot for power descriptions, damage amounts, effects and such. I am certain if I played it again, I would enjoy it. But I still think ICONS is about as easy as one can get.
But I very well could be wrong, I think I got it in the summer of '82 and played it until discovered Champions. (so about two years I would think) And then it went the way of TopSecret. Strangely, many years later Comico's Elementals would become one of my favorite comics and learned much later the team and villains were based upon a Module for V&V.
Greg
Perhaps it is my memory playing tricks. It has been about thirty years since I played V&V. But I seem to remember lots of different dice, truely outlandish posibilities for characters, and grid charts for determining hitting ( the older I have gotten, the less I like charts :P )
Well, all of those comments are probably accurate. :-)
But personally, I think:
- having powers that do 2d8 or 1d12 damage isn't particularly complicated
- the grid was kind of an neat way of summarizing a lot of information (e.g. a magnetic shield is good protection against electrical powers but not so good protection against fire)
- if a superhero game doesn't allow you to make truly outlandish characters, it isn't much of a superhero game!
But I very well could be wrong, I think I got it in the summer of '82 and played it until discovered Champions. (so about two years I would think) And then it went the way of TopSecret.
Eventually I gave up V&V for Champions as well, but it certainly wasn't because Champions was more "rules light"! Aside from the dumb calculations for hit points and carrying capacity, V&V character creation was a snap; it was always good for a "beer and pretzels" game session, IMO.
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A friend of mine is looking for a relatively rules light game that works for a super heroes game. Basically he wants to run a super hero game with relatively little prep time, and I was thinking to look for something that was lighter on the rules side then say mutants and masterminds to help bring down the prep required. Anyone have any ideas?
You mentioned Mutants and Masterminds, and I think it's a good choice for 1 reason, and that it's d20 based. If you guys are very comfortable with d20, it's really easy to get into.
The most difficult part of M&M and most superhero games is trying to keep perspective. Level 20 characters in D&D are very powerful, but most of them will get obliterated by powerful superheroes (Superman, Flash, GL, those types).
M&M does have a huge min/max part of the game. So ultimately, it might not work out as it kind of turns into GM vs. players. I don't mind that because there's just not a reason for me to optimize as much due to lack of death (unless your game is very grim) and lack of mechanical rewards (key to the city pales in comparison to a +5 weapon. Most rewards are RP, not mechanical). It's not nearly as much as trying to survive, getting power, and finding cool items and instead doing cool things, playing heroes, trying to balance superheroring and mundane life.
A friend of mine is looking for a relatively rules light game that works for a super heroes game. Basically he wants to run a super hero game with relatively little prep time, and I was thinking to look for something that was lighter on the rules side then say mutants and masterminds to help bring down the prep required. Anyone have any ideas?
The lightest Super rules I have played is Savage World and the Super Powers Companion.
The Super Powers Companion has over 100 villains pre-generated to help with the prep time.
It is also low cost to buy the books. The base rules is $10. It is call Savage World: Explorer's Edition. The Super Powers Companion is $20.
There is also an pre-generated campaign were the player play villains. Ido not know about this product.
It is called Necessary Evil.
It is called Necessary Evil.
+1 - It's basically Savage Worlds adapted to supers. That or Savage World + the Super power companion.
Icons is pretty good too.
Or if you could get your hands on Marvel superheroes Adventure Game (Saga Edition)... that game was really good. Still on Amazon for 60$. Fast action using cards instead of dices. Fun fun fun!
Champions.
O.o
um, TriOmegaZero, what would you call a rules intensive supers game?
Greg
:P
Savage Worlds also has hero base world called Dawn of Legends.
um, TriOmegaZero, what would you call a rules intensive supers game?
Successful Troll would like to thank Greg for playing. Consolation t-shirt is available at the door. :)
um, TriOmegaZero, what would you call a rules intensive supers game?Successful Troll would like to thank Greg for playing. Consolation t-shirt is available at the door. :)
Cool Beans! Does it come in QuadX?
And, on topic, I would avoid a supers game called "Enforcers" that claims to be a simple quick system. Any system that requires stats taken out past 4 decimal places...well, that ain't no simpley system in my book.
Came with its own Lotus format though. I guess to make the simple even more simplified.
Greg
PS... just cuz it keeps the troll fed. Where is the door?
Icons isnt to bad