High Level Games
High Level Games
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Store
    • Storytellers Vault Products
    • Fantasy One-Page Adventures
    • DMs Guild Products
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Trusted Resources
  • Join The Team
  • About
  • Contact
    • Star Trek Adventures

Welcome to the High Level Games Blog, News, and other stuff to take your games to the next level!

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

4 Styles Of Play For Super-Hero Tabletop RPGs

4/7/2016

4 Comments

 
Picture
                I have always been a big comic book geek. When I was a kid, my godfather would take me to the store to buy comics. I initially bought them for the obvious story reasons, but I eventually became highly invested in the idea of comics as collectibles. I’d read the comic once, and then I’d store it away with the hope that I would eventually have a complete story arc or comic series that I could someday sell to a rabid collector. That being said, I didn’t have the opportunity to play a superhero role-playing game until a small convention in Plymouth, NH at Plymouth State University now called Game-on-Icon. The game was Aberrant, and as it was a one-shot game we were encouraged to make outrageously powerful and odd Novas. My character was from the “Luckiest Town in the Mid-West.” Two people had won the lottery in town, business was booming in an economically depressed region, and the town was renowned for great things happening to it. All of this was due to my character, who didn’t realize he was super powered. He had the ability to impart luck (both good and bad) upon those around him. He was traveling in New York and saw a group of Novas fighting one another. Not really understanding who was who, he went back and forth imparting luck upon one side or the other. I loved the character and the short game was incredibly fun. That was a strange way to play a Super-Hero game, but what follows are a few other great ways to play Supers’ games in a lot of awesome and various systems.
​
First though, I want to give a shout-out to games in this genre that I recommend checking out. First is Aberrant: this game is a part of the Trinity Continuum and was originally published by White Wolf games and uses a variation of their rules’ system. Aberrant is a customizable super-hero game that features Novas (basically mutants) and allows for a lot of variation and story-centered gaming. Trinity is a group of three games, future sci-fi horror (Trinity Aeon), gritty realistic modern Super-Hero (Aberrant), and pulp action turn of the 20th century (Adventure). Onyx Path Publishing is currently in the process of reviving this wonderful universe and I really recommend checking out the original version of the game which is available on Drive Thru RPG. Also, keep an eye on the new edition that is being developed. I’m super* excited for this to be coming out in the somewhat near future.

Mutants and Masterminds: this game was created and developed by Steve Kenson. Kenson had previously worked on Aberrant and you can see some of the influence of that game on M&M. M&M is a D-20 based game but allows for a seriously awesome amount of customization. The world created to support M&M is amazing and if you are looking for a game that is pretty quick to jump into, Mutants and Masterminds is a pretty great option.

These are the two games in the genre I’ve played the most, but there are some classics and new options out there as well that I’m going to list for people that are interested to check out. Marvel Super-Heroes was published by TSR in the 80’s; newer versions of FASERIP are still being published and if you are interested in that system I suggest doing a quick Google search. Savage Worlds has a Supers’ setting and there is a lot of support for this gaming system at the moment. Monte Cook recently published the Cypher system which is a customizable setting that includes Super-Hero options. There is also Godlike, Scion, DC Heroes, DC Adventures, and many more that I don’t have time or the memory to list. If you like Super-Heroes, there are seriously a ton of options.

Now, onto the list of style options:

1) FOUR-COLOR
The four-color term comes from the older style of coloring that comics had during the Golden Age of comics. This term derives from a form of coloring the page using four color dots. When talking about genre, four-color refers to the over-the-top style of some early comics. These sorts of games might include scenes where a hero turns back time by spinning the Earth backward or where a character hurls an island at another character with no consequences from such a world splitting action. Four-color games can be a lot of fun and they often resemble the discussions people have about which superhero can beat up another. I’ve played a few games that were pretty close to four-color, one thing I’ve noticed is that the technical aspects of the role-playing system tend to come up a lot more frequently, so running a game like this might work best with Mutants and Masterminds or one of the other more mechanically focused systems I mentioned above.

2) GRITTY, DARK, SUPER - MEETS THE WORST OF HUMANITY
Imagine Watchmen or Preacher, or any of the other comics produced by Vertigo over the years. These are the type of games I’m thinking of here. These are games that examine the intersection of super-power and the darkness inherent in humanity. There are cross-overs between concepts like the World of Darkness, but instead of being monsters the characters are usually humans with slightly extra-human abilities. These games are often the polar opposite of the Four-Color campaign and though rules and mechanics are important to any good game, they sometimes take a back-stage to the personal investigation into the psyche of the characters. Aberrant is a great world for these games in some ways, but Mutants and Masterminds and even DC adventures can be used if you really want to use those rule systems.

3) THE LOW POWERED BUMBLING HERO LEAGUE
The 1999 movie Mystery Men is a great example of this type of game. The players make characters that are very low powered ‘super-heroes’. These types of games are much more focused around the idea that humanity can make changes in the world, even if they are not incredibly powerful.    I’ve found the times I’ve played this style of game that it is great to juxtapose the player characters with a more powerful group of more traditional heroes. The players might feel inadequate but this is a good opportunity for them to realize that they might be better people, or more capable of doing and going places the more well-known supers are unable to venture. I’ve yet to see a system that this type of game can’t work well with.

4) HUMANITY IS FLAWED, BUT THERE IS HOPE
This type of game is somewhere in between all of the other styles presented above. Imagine Spider-Man, or most of the modern Marvel movies. The world has dark influences and powers that work against humanities best interests. At the same time, there are heroes that are truly trying to do their best to not only save people, but also make the world a better place for everyone. Players are often mid-strength supers, but you can play anywhere from mildly powerful to Hulk level in these games and give your players a lot to work with. You can mix and match some world smashing action with more gritty and real stories at the same time. This is usually where I like to play and when the new Aberrant rules come out I’ll be looking to get a crew together to play once more. Heck… I might not wait that long, the game still holds-up with its 90’s era rules pretty well to this day.
 
I sometimes get the sense that people don’t see Super-Hero RPGs as great options for role-playing, but I honestly have loved them. Like comics, they can have as much or as little depth as the writers (players) want them to have. Check out the game lines I suggested above, with the popularity of the Marvel movies right now… I’m kind of surprised that RPG companies aren’t jumping on the marketing bandwagon a bit more for their games.

With 17 years of playing rpgs, Josh started with Mind's Eye Theater LARPs and loves the World of Darkness. Josh is the administrator of the Inclusive Gaming Network on Facebook. He’s a player in Underground Theatre’s and One World By Nights Vampire LARPs and is running both a Mage game and a Dark Ages: Vampire game at the moment. He’s a serious advocate for inclusive gaming spaces, a father, and a recent graduate from the International Peace and Conflict Resolution graduate program at American University in Washington, D.C.

(*I see what you did there. – VP Quinn)

Savage Worlds: Fast, Furious, and Fun! - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
4 Comments
Joshua Heath link
4/7/2016 11:57:25 am

I got a great list of other Supers game options that I wanted to share.

Cold Steel Wardens: Roleplaying in the Iron Age of Comics
Hideouts & Hoodlums
Supers! Red
Hero System - Champions
Icons
Prowlers & Paragons
Truth & Justice
Capes (heavy storytelling)
Mutant City Blues (police procedural with powers)
Rotted Capes (zombie supers)
Venture City (superpunk using Fate)
Villains & Vigilantes
Superworld
Superhero 2044

This isn't even cutting through the surface. There are a lot of good games in this genre.

Reply
Todd link
5/7/2016 10:14:37 am

Another great system is BASH!, a rules-light game with great customization that can cover a variety of superhero genres.

Reply
angel phinizee
22/2/2018 05:41:52 pm

Also, Marvel SAGA and Marvel Heroic are solid systems as well.
The Storytelling system was ok, but too light for a resource based game.

Reply
David Benevides
17/4/2018 02:03:41 pm

G-CORE from Dilly Green Bean Games is a great successor to FASERIP!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    All blog materials created and developed by the staff here at High Level Games 

    ​

    Picture
    Click here to support our community for as a little as $1.00 for exclusive content, free downloadable stuff, and even discounts on role-playing game items.

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    13th Age
    2d20
    2nd Edition
    3.5 Edition
    3Deep
    4th Edition
    5th Edition
    7th Sea
    Acquisitions Inc
    Actual Play
    AD&D
    AdventureLookUp.com
    Adventurers!
    Aether Sea
    A+ Fantasy
    After Collapse
    Alignment
    Amazing Tales
    Amazon
    Anima: Beyond Fantasy
    Anime
    Apocalypse World
    Atomic Robo
    Australian
    Award Winning
    Basic Fantasy
    Belly Of The Beast
    Big Eyes Small Mouth
    Black Lives Matter
    Black Void
    Blades In The Dark
    Blood Pangea
    Board Games
    Book Of Exalted Darkness
    BrigadeCon
    Burning Wheel RPG
    Call Of Cthulhu
    Capers RPG
    Casual Roleplaying
    Changeling: The Dreaming
    Chaosium
    Character Arcs
    Character Creation
    Chris Spivey
    Cinematic RP
    Classics
    Comic-books
    Conventions
    Corvus Belli: Infinity
    Crawl
    Creators
    Critical Role
    Cthulhutech
    D100 Dungeon
    D20
    D&D
    D&D Beyond
    Deadlands
    Defenders Of Tokyo
    Degenesis
    Detako Saga
    Discord
    DMsGuild.com
    Dnd
    Dndbeyond
    Doctor-who
    Double-cross
    Dread
    Dresden-files
    DriveThruRPG.com
    Dr. Who
    Dungeon Crawl Classics
    Dungeons
    Dungeons And Dragons
    Dungeon Slayers
    Dungeon World
    Dystopia Rising
    Encounters
    Era: The Consortium
    Era: The Empowered
    Esper Genesis
    Evil Hat
    Exalted
    Faith RPG
    Fandom
    Fantasy-age
    Fantasy-flight
    Fantasy Grounds
    FATE
    Fate Accelerated Edition
    Fate Core
    Fate Rpg
    Fate-rpg
    Final Fantasy
    Forgotten Realms
    Fragged Empire
    Free League Publishing
    Furries
    Game Design
    Game Lore
    Gencon
    Ghosts Of NPCs Past
    GMTips
    Golden-sky-stories
    GoodmanGames.com
    Grognards
    GUMSHOE
    GURPS
    GURPS Lite
    Halloween
    Harlem Unbound
    Harry-potter
    Hero Builder
    Heroes Against Darkness
    Heroes-unlimited
    HERO System
    High Level Games
    Historical Fantasy
    HLG Con 2018
    HLG Reviews
    Homebrew
    Humble Bundle
    Indie
    Interface Zero 2.0
    Interview
    Invisible Suns
    Japanese RPGs
    JRR Tolkien
    Kickstarter
    KoboldPress.com
    KULT
    L5R
    Lankhmar
    LARP
    Lasers And Feelings
    Legendlore
    Legend Of The Five Rings
    LexOccultum
    LOTR
    Low Magic
    Mage
    Mage: The Awakening
    Magic And Steel
    MAID
    Mayhem
    Mazes And Minotaurs
    Meikyuu Kingdom
    Mekton Zero
    Mental Health
    Middle Earth
    Mighty Narwhal
    Mini Six
    Modern Adventures RPG
    Modiphius
    Monarchies Of Mau
    Monsterhearts
    Monte Cook Games
    Morra
    Mummy: The Curse
    Mutants And Masterminds
    Mythender
    Narrative Games
    Nechronica
    Night's Black Agents
    Novel
    NPC
    Numenara
    Odyssey Of The Dragonlords
    One Shot
    Online Gaming
    Orun
    OSCRIC
    Osr
    OVA
    Palladium
    Pathfinder
    Pathfinder 2.0
    PbtA
    PDQ
    Pire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
    Play By Post
    Player Tips
    Podcast
    Powered By Apocalypse
    Power Outage RPG
    Preview
    Promethean: The Created
    Pugmire
    Pulp
    Puzzles
    Questlings
    Ravenloft
    Ravnica
    Red Markets: A Game Of Economic Horror
    Research
    Review
    Review Article
    Rifts
    Risus
    Role Play
    Roll20
    Romance Of The Perilous Land
    Ryuutama
    Satanic Panic
    Savage Rifts
    Savage Tokusatsu
    Savage Worlds
    Seeds Of Wars
    Setting
    Settings
    Settlement Building
    Shadowrun
    SIGMATA
    Snowhaven
    Social Combat
    Social Systems
    Solo Play
    Standard Roleplay System
    Star Trek Adventures
    Star Wars
    Storytellers Vault
    Suited RPG
    Summerland
    Supplements
    System Design
    Table Top
    Tabletop Simulator
    Tales From The Loop
    Tales Of Equestria
    Talislanta
    Tariffs
    Teenagers From Outerspace
    Ten Candles
    Tenra Bansho Zero
    The Dark Eye
    The End Of The World RPG
    The Great Long Dark
    The One Ring
    The Very Important Task
    Titan Effect
    To The Temple Of Doom
    Trial Of Cthulhu
    Trinity Continuum
    TSR Marvel Super Heroes
    Ttrpg
    Twitch
    USTR
    Va
    Valiant Rpg
    Vampire: The Masquerade
    Video Games
    Villian
    Volo
    Vs Ghosts
    Warhammer
    Warhammer 40K
    Werewolf: The Apocalypse
    Westbound RPG
    Wild West
    World Building
    World Of Darkness
    Writing Tips
    Year Zero
    Zweihander

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly