Art by Michal Dutkiewicz who i worked for since 80s
Ive been playing super hero rpgs since 1983
Prompted by a flood of AI superhero games whos creators seem to be unaware of genre history. This was a FB post on a group flooded with new ai hero game slop.
One campaign lasted 20 years - started as Champions and Superworld then mostly TSR marvel (non-Marvel universe) some of my players ive had since 91. One of them is running the descendant of that campaign now.
Im finding many creators are unaware of the history of this genre. Id say the most successful ones had professional art and design. Its a genre based on art. Your art sets the tone. If it is not like comic realism and you use cute or humorous art its a risk of not having tone for many styles of games. If you dream of writing a comic its cheaper to make an RPG, possibly. The flood of new supe games since AI is amazing and verges on slop. You are limiting yourself from comic cons and the indy game world if you go the AI path and risk art fans hating you. Some games lasted decades, maybe consider what they did right and wrong. Put your artist credits up front.
a brief list of some of the games ive seen/played/owned/admired
I can't even remember all the games I've played in this genre.
Problems in games
-power balance, my street level guy seems pissweek vs the battlesuit guy shooting energy bolts
-point games often mean I can't take a villain's gadget or adopt a sidekick or base found in game without paying. Some games let you owe ponts but its pretty unrealistic to say no
-tone of your setting should be upfront. If you dont want killer heroes, you need to put it up front. One game had all kinds of questions for a campaign about the legality of powers and social attitude to supes then broke when half party wanted to act like Punisher, and others wanted to be benevolent. Gold silver iron age of comics can be a tone guide but the modern era explores the whole history of the genre and plays with it. Some systems penalise killers. Is your game comic code approved or a more nasty weird adult line like Invisibles
-money can break some systems. Money can be a power. Angel in defenders was the weakest in comic but he owned the base and a jet. Does money break your point system? If i can fill a van with fertiliser and throw hand grenades or use legal weapons, it can break some games. Powers need to be better than weapons and conventional tech or account for it. Money breaks quite a few games. If I cant keep stuff I find or in USA just buy a machinegun or rotary cannon on a jeep why not? Prefer games where superman and batman can work together.
-some games at least, are trying innovative mechanics to roleplay or session zero creates the setting with player input
Some of the games I remember:
Villains and vigilantes - writer/artist Jeff is a leading anti ai advocate in game scene. Great villain sourcebooks and adventures with tokens.
Champions - i got for 5 bux first ed and was the most popular super hero game a few years in my clubs - great campagn sources and villains and adventures. Random heroes. point based and some nice art. Pulp version too. Did a car wars crossover also.
Super Squadron - an Australian V&V clone, people played a bit. Random heroes
Superworld - BRP chaosium game mixing BRP and points - you can use cthulhu content easily and point system was jacked into Stormbringer demons (i cant think of a less "chaos" approach to demon making). Was part of the Worlds of Wonder RPG earlier. George R Martin played this then did Wildcards series. Good for Zenith
Superhero 2044 - sf heros, pretty basic
GURPS - has lots of superhero books and you can use other gurps content - Point based and a bit like Champions. Had a wildcards book and green ronin later did a full wildcards game (was a hollywood development. I liked first 4 wildcards books but as usual martin goes into rape and depravity for increasingly no point
TSR Marvel Superheroes - basic and advanced versions. Very successful and its death seems like bad management - Still my fave system. PPl claimed had no character gen but even basic version had multiple systems to generate characters and I make new ones every campagn. One table and people get system in minutes and very dynamic. They tried table aproach on other games. You could make a colour based table for BRP really. Hulk and daredevil could be on same team fine.
Heroes Unlimited - Palladium system so you can use any paladium stuff. I loved the cover by Steranko. Intro adventure pretty dark. Also they did ninja turtles rpg that was huge
TSR Top Secret/SI Freelancers a proto cyberpunk gritty super agents setting with two books with lots of great ideas by Jeff Grubb who did Marvel. Also Agent13 sourcebook for pulp heroes that is amazing
DC heroes - had an interesting system to handle power ranges of that universe and lots of sourcebooks. I think was retooled as a batman rpg later?
Aberrant - white wolf, gritty setting but i dont vibe with white wolf stuff but lots of sourcebooks and ideas
Mutants & Masterminds - d20 based with a great setting fusing marvel and dc. lots of great sub genre books like teen heroes, super agents and more
Silver Age Sentinels - a good campagn and interesting characters to steal
ICONS - i dont see why TSR Marvel the simplest game so far on list needed simplification. One other clone boasted it didnt use the universal table which was the whole point of the game.
Masks - powered by the apocalypse which I dont really dig
Golden Heroes - GW game has had a revision since. Origional had profesional art
Into the 90s more super games appeared and now rare and forgotten. Quite a few forgotten anime hero games too. I liked Sailor Moon game
Underground - was probably a mix genre game but a bit like Martial Law and a gritty setting
Godlike - WW2 and interesting universe, not a 4 colur style game and gritty
The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game - had some interesting ideas but I found a bit flawed - only a few supplements. Diceless and pointbuy
Algernon Files - was a M&M based then own system. Has lots of interesting characters to steal
Neccecary Evil - heroes all killed and villains unite to fight aliens - great setting but i find savage worlds had good ideas and a system i never felt had risk or consequence
Capes A GM-less system
Adventures into Darkness - takes public domain heroes and adds to the cthulhu mythos - lots of fun ideas
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying - died due to license costs and why im suspicious of all licensed IP games - ive seen to many die not from fan interest but legal costs
also see ageofravensgames blog history of superhero games 15 part exploration
also rpgpub bigass-list-of-superhero-rpgs
have a look on drivethrough too
Cthulhu RPGs have a similar problem too - three KS recently. A game from a few years ago boasted they were only non racist HPL derived game, now dead, despite denouncing the writer's racism as a core sales point. Not wrong to claim HPL a broke powerless loser was racist but they flooded game media with PR based on this and milked the predictable outrage. Actually, I think many HPL fans are far worse than him.
Ive been playing super hero rpgs since 1983
Prompted by a flood of AI superhero games whos creators seem to be unaware of genre history. This was a FB post on a group flooded with new ai hero game slop.
One campaign lasted 20 years - started as Champions and Superworld then mostly TSR marvel (non-Marvel universe) some of my players ive had since 91. One of them is running the descendant of that campaign now.
Im finding many creators are unaware of the history of this genre. Id say the most successful ones had professional art and design. Its a genre based on art. Your art sets the tone. If it is not like comic realism and you use cute or humorous art its a risk of not having tone for many styles of games. If you dream of writing a comic its cheaper to make an RPG, possibly. The flood of new supe games since AI is amazing and verges on slop. You are limiting yourself from comic cons and the indy game world if you go the AI path and risk art fans hating you. Some games lasted decades, maybe consider what they did right and wrong. Put your artist credits up front.
a brief list of some of the games ive seen/played/owned/admired
I can't even remember all the games I've played in this genre.
Problems in games
-power balance, my street level guy seems pissweek vs the battlesuit guy shooting energy bolts
-point games often mean I can't take a villain's gadget or adopt a sidekick or base found in game without paying. Some games let you owe ponts but its pretty unrealistic to say no
-tone of your setting should be upfront. If you dont want killer heroes, you need to put it up front. One game had all kinds of questions for a campaign about the legality of powers and social attitude to supes then broke when half party wanted to act like Punisher, and others wanted to be benevolent. Gold silver iron age of comics can be a tone guide but the modern era explores the whole history of the genre and plays with it. Some systems penalise killers. Is your game comic code approved or a more nasty weird adult line like Invisibles
-money can break some systems. Money can be a power. Angel in defenders was the weakest in comic but he owned the base and a jet. Does money break your point system? If i can fill a van with fertiliser and throw hand grenades or use legal weapons, it can break some games. Powers need to be better than weapons and conventional tech or account for it. Money breaks quite a few games. If I cant keep stuff I find or in USA just buy a machinegun or rotary cannon on a jeep why not? Prefer games where superman and batman can work together.
-some games at least, are trying innovative mechanics to roleplay or session zero creates the setting with player input
Some of the games I remember:
Villains and vigilantes - writer/artist Jeff is a leading anti ai advocate in game scene. Great villain sourcebooks and adventures with tokens.
Champions - i got for 5 bux first ed and was the most popular super hero game a few years in my clubs - great campagn sources and villains and adventures. Random heroes. point based and some nice art. Pulp version too. Did a car wars crossover also.
Super Squadron - an Australian V&V clone, people played a bit. Random heroes
Superworld - BRP chaosium game mixing BRP and points - you can use cthulhu content easily and point system was jacked into Stormbringer demons (i cant think of a less "chaos" approach to demon making). Was part of the Worlds of Wonder RPG earlier. George R Martin played this then did Wildcards series. Good for Zenith
Superhero 2044 - sf heros, pretty basic
GURPS - has lots of superhero books and you can use other gurps content - Point based and a bit like Champions. Had a wildcards book and green ronin later did a full wildcards game (was a hollywood development. I liked first 4 wildcards books but as usual martin goes into rape and depravity for increasingly no point
TSR Marvel Superheroes - basic and advanced versions. Very successful and its death seems like bad management - Still my fave system. PPl claimed had no character gen but even basic version had multiple systems to generate characters and I make new ones every campagn. One table and people get system in minutes and very dynamic. They tried table aproach on other games. You could make a colour based table for BRP really. Hulk and daredevil could be on same team fine.
Heroes Unlimited - Palladium system so you can use any paladium stuff. I loved the cover by Steranko. Intro adventure pretty dark. Also they did ninja turtles rpg that was huge
TSR Top Secret/SI Freelancers a proto cyberpunk gritty super agents setting with two books with lots of great ideas by Jeff Grubb who did Marvel. Also Agent13 sourcebook for pulp heroes that is amazing
DC heroes - had an interesting system to handle power ranges of that universe and lots of sourcebooks. I think was retooled as a batman rpg later?
Aberrant - white wolf, gritty setting but i dont vibe with white wolf stuff but lots of sourcebooks and ideas
Mutants & Masterminds - d20 based with a great setting fusing marvel and dc. lots of great sub genre books like teen heroes, super agents and more
Silver Age Sentinels - a good campagn and interesting characters to steal
ICONS - i dont see why TSR Marvel the simplest game so far on list needed simplification. One other clone boasted it didnt use the universal table which was the whole point of the game.
Masks - powered by the apocalypse which I dont really dig
Golden Heroes - GW game has had a revision since. Origional had profesional art
Into the 90s more super games appeared and now rare and forgotten. Quite a few forgotten anime hero games too. I liked Sailor Moon game
Underground - was probably a mix genre game but a bit like Martial Law and a gritty setting
Godlike - WW2 and interesting universe, not a 4 colur style game and gritty
The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game - had some interesting ideas but I found a bit flawed - only a few supplements. Diceless and pointbuy
Algernon Files - was a M&M based then own system. Has lots of interesting characters to steal
Neccecary Evil - heroes all killed and villains unite to fight aliens - great setting but i find savage worlds had good ideas and a system i never felt had risk or consequence
Capes A GM-less system
Adventures into Darkness - takes public domain heroes and adds to the cthulhu mythos - lots of fun ideas
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying - died due to license costs and why im suspicious of all licensed IP games - ive seen to many die not from fan interest but legal costs
also see ageofravensgames blog history of superhero games 15 part exploration
also rpgpub bigass-list-of-superhero-rpgs
have a look on drivethrough too
Cthulhu RPGs have a similar problem too - three KS recently. A game from a few years ago boasted they were only non racist HPL derived game, now dead, despite denouncing the writer's racism as a core sales point. Not wrong to claim HPL a broke powerless loser was racist but they flooded game media with PR based on this and milked the predictable outrage. Actually, I think many HPL fans are far worse than him.
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