Looking for blogs or info about superhero games

[Arnaud Gomes]

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/

[Justisaur]

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

[Arnaud Gomes]

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.

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

[Justisaur]

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

[Laurens Kils-Huetten]

Arnaud Gomes <nono-posting-...@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

[Arnaud Gomes]

Laurens Kils-Huetten <l...@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/

[kyonshi]

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.