Would there be interest in an updated Superworld?

[Simlasa]

14 hours ago, seneschal said:

Anyway, I want a Superworld reboot to succeed even if the end product may not be to my personal taste.  Not everyone can appreciate Adam West and the Tick vs. the Legion of Doom.  And I think our consensus so far is that the next iteration must have a unique bankable setting rather than being just another generic supers run.  I already have Champions for that.

My hope is that, like the BGB of BRP, there are options to tune it as you like.
I might want grim/gritty... or something based on other sources besides just supers comic books (which were inspired by classic legends IIRC). Something that would let me play The Shadow, Godlike, Adam West Batman, AND wild Wuxia-type heros would be nice.

[seneschal]

An Iron Monkey/The Shadow team-up!  I love it! When do we play?

[rsanford]

I would be interested as I am in The Design Mechanism's product as well. But does it make sense to tie Superworld to a bronze or iron age comic setting rather than aiming it at all superhero genres equally? I ask because iron and bronze age tends to be more gritty and less cosmic (or so I have been led to believe).

[seneschal]

I guess that's a decision both game developers will have to make.

[Travern]

17 hours ago, rsanford said:

But does it make sense to tie Superworld to a bronze or iron age comic setting rather than aiming it at all superhero genres equally? I ask because iron and bronze age tends to be more gritty and less cosmic (or so I have been led to believe).

From a game design standpoint, the Silver Age requires a different approach from Bronze and Iron Age superhero comics (which generally have more in common with Golden Age when it comes to powers).  The cosmic-scale powers, with the weird anything-goes variants, separates the Silver Age from the other subgenres, except maybe “widescreen” comics.  The classic Marvel Superheroes Heroes RPG (FASERIP) probably had the best approach to this (FATE could work with some effort, I suppose).  In any case, that’s decidedly not in BRP’s wheelhouse.

[rsanford]

4 hours ago, Travern said:

From a game design standpoint, the Silver Age requires a different approach from Bronze and Iron Age superhero comics (which generally have more in common with Golden Age when it comes to powers).  The cosmic-scale powers, with the weird anything-goes variants, separates the Silver Age from the other subgenres, except maybe “widescreen” comics.  The classic Marvel Superheroes Heroes RPG (FASERIP) probably had the best approach to this (FATE could work with some effort, I suppose).  In any case, that’s decidedly not in BRP’s wheelhouse.

Yeah, I probably didn't communicate that correctly but if you want Superworld to be more sucessful then one way to do that is to limit its marketing to iron and bronze age comics. That way customers know what they are getting... A gritty superhero game...  One approach might be to do something like they did for Extreme Earth (iron age comics). Perhaps that is too limited but it would certainly allow people to play super power shows of late. See -> https://rpggeek.com/rpgsetting/28550/extreme-earth-dystopian-superhero-setting

 

[Simlasa]

I think you could certainly do 'cosmic' heroes... I'd just try to reason them out according to BRPs mindset... grittier cosmic heroes who can't really punch planets out of orbit or such nonsense. Like what does it take to be a cosmic hero? A way to get to other worlds and a way to survive the trip.
Mythras manages to do Luther Arkwright just fine, and, IMO, he's operating on a 'cosmic' level.
I'm quite fond of Alan Moore's Warpsmiths and Qys... who have BIG powers but are not otherwise immortal or prone to punching gods (AFAIK).

Edited November 15, 2019 by Simlasa

[seneschal]

The original version of Star Lord was much more of a Space Ghost type character than the thieving rogue we met in Marvel's recent Guardians of the Galaxy movies.  But yeah, Space Ghost is a manageable "cosmic" hero, as is Adam Strange (basically, John Carter with more clothes).  When we get to guys like Adam Warlock or Marvel's original Captain Marvel , or any former herald of Galactus, things get dicier.  However, doing Lensmen (Green Lantern Corps before there was a Green Lantern) is certainly reasonable.

[Atgxtg]

They are all more manageable with Superworld boxed set over BRP too, as the Superworld rules handle four color comics better. For instance damage tends to be less lethal. One rule I would suggest for any super hero campaign is that character get free armor equal to the highest value of any armor they have (heat, kinetic, sonic, etc.) so that they can't be sucker punched by some vulnerability.

Otherwise what tends to happen in that any villain who shows up using some attack that the a hero does have armor against (and there are several types so it is hard to protect against everything) is insanely vulnerable and either leads to a PK being taken out way to easily, or the GM not using some powers because he can take out one or more heroes, potentially even even a TPK, if the attack is something that nobody can defend against. 

[Ian Absentia]

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Otherwise what tends to happen in that any villain who shows up using some attack that the a hero does have armor against (and there are several types so it is hard to protect against everything) is insanely vulnerable and either leads to a PK being taken out way to easily, or the GM not using some powers because he can take out one or more heroes, potentially even even a TPK, if the attack is something that nobody can defend against. 

But -- and I'm not trying to be a dick about this -- isn't that exactly what happens in the comics every few issues?  Generally minus the lethality, of course; the GM has to fire a warning shot across the bow to be fair.

"What?!  His thorium-coated fist punched straight through my invulnerable force field!  How can this be?!"

Cue several pages of nine-panel drama to either overcome the atomic fist, or to figure out how to eliminate the vulnerability.

My addition to any super hero campaign would be to allow augments (and maybe Passions), including augments to assist other heroes.  That's the stuff of super teams.  Also, augments as rabbit-out-of-a-hat, one-off solutions to unexpected vulnerabilities.

!i!

Edited November 18, 2019 by Ian Absentia

[ORtrail]

I've ran a couple Superworld campaigns over the decades, and even though I've moved onto a different game system (Supers! Revised) for my super hero gaming, I'm fairly certain I'm mentally incapable of resisting the purchase of a new Superworld RPG. 

I'd prefer to see a fairly generic setting, as there are PLENTY of super hero settings that one could choose to set a campaign in either from setting supplements or other super hero RPGs.  For example, if you remember Enforcers A Super-Powered  Science Fiction Role-Playing Game from the late 80's, was set in the year 2046.  Why?  To my mind it added more work for the GM to figure out what had changed from the present day of 1987.  Or you could run with Godsend Agenda, where there are several powerful factions of mostly aliens who posed as gods back in the old days.  Or maybe you want to try the Rotted Capes setting, where a zombie apocalypse and super zombies make life tough for the remaining heroes. 

In other words, just give people a set of rules and let them worry about the setting details.  Optional rules for specific settings would be fine too.

Edited November 18, 2019 by ORtrail

[Nikoli]

I’d definitely be interested. 

I recently purchased HeroQuest 2, to play a Superhero game, though I find the lack of scaling difficult to grasp. I want a little more bite from the world itself. A little more simulation. It seems too vague for now.

But considering the mechanic, of 1 to 20 repeating, it seems that BRP and HeroQuest could be combined. The BRP could be used for the ordinary daily identity (photography; journalism; law; etc.) whereas the HeroQuest mechanic could be used for extraordinary powers. So some skills would be percentile, and if a power (like super speed 15) was relevant to an ordinary skill, by multiplying the number times 5 we could get a percentile augment. Then use the Magic World success, special, critical outcome with skills over 100%. In essence, being 1 to 20 suggests an easy addition to percentiles (when relevant) while allowing powers to oppose powers with a D20 just as is normal in HeroQuest. Super Tough 7W1 could add 27 to HPs, too, and maybe 2points of armour per mastery. 
 

Extraordinary powers could also add, when relevant, directly to stats, so 20 super strength would add to 15 STR, making it 35, if some test was needed for lifting etc., or to add to the damage bonus. This would mean that a 10W4 in Str (someone suggested this for the Hulk) would equate to a basic STR of 100 plus (if Banner had 10 or more in his human form). The 100 is a useful number because it fits a lot of CoC baddies. Nyarlathotep has 100 POW, so similarly a cosmic superhero with great magic would approach that. (The weight for 100 Siz likely won’t work for how much the Hulk can truly lift, but the narrative elements of HeroQuest seem useful here too. The system could be scaled so that 100 or more is the effective maximum, so a huge monster is, no matter how big for cinematic reasons, effectively 100 if Superman or someone was to try and lift it. Credibility tests would apply here, as 5 Strength 20 heroes would not be able to budge it. The order of magnitude is not merely additive, but depends on the amount of super strength.)

It would need tweaking, but I don’t see why both methods couldn’t be combined. One for a simulationist daily persona, the other for narrative powers that, when relevant, can also add to the simulationist skills due to a simple x5 mechanic and allowance for skills over 100%. 
 

In any case, I’d love to see a new Superworld whatever the system. 🙂

[Four Color]

I would love to see a new version of Superworld, especially if its world was indirectly, elegantly linked to the CoC universe. 

[Atgxtg]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:12 PM, Four Color said:

I would love to see a new version of Superworld, especially if its world was indirectly, elegantly linked to the CoC universe. 

Well olf Superwolrd was generic, or setting neutral. I don't thing CoC would be that great of a fit for a typical superhero campaign, but it could certainly be an optimal setting. It wouldn't be hard to adapt it to a CoC setting, as both game systems were BRP based. Adapting to CoC7 rules would be a bit trickier, but not impossible. 

Liewise if someone wanted to use the MArvel/DC approach and just port over some Mythos stuff to a regular campaign the existing starts are about 90% compatible already. So assuming a new Superworld is still BRP based, crossing over stuff would be easy.

[benwaggoner]

Wow. Me and my crew were avid superhero RPG players in high school. And we played them all: Champions, Marvel Super Heroes, Advanced Marvel Super Heroes, Villians and Vigilanties, GURPS Supers, and maybe others. So thinking back 30-35 years, I recall SuperWorld being a little over-specific. Like a fire blast was just a fire blast. The Hero system with Champions gave you an Energy Blast power and then lots of modifiers to make it fire or ice, a beam or a cone, etcetera. That made it much easier to create all sorts of heroes not tied to a particular game world. Really, almost any Marvel or DC character could be done in Hero (although not at standard starting character points, often)

Pure points-based character creation with extra points for taking disadvantages was also great. Rolling dice just seemed weird for superheroes (and could yield some astronomical power differentials in V&V for an extreme example).

I also remember that BRP style 3d6 stats didn't seem to scale sensibly.

A new SuperWorld based on BRP mechanics probably needs to be tied to a specific setting that has some sensible restrictions on what's possible. Skills tend to be specific, and cosmic level powers like Superman or Dr. Manhattan should be off the table as playble. Superman in Superworld should be like the Crimson Bat in RuneQuest; the numbers are just nothing that can be grappled with as numbers.

Doc Savage, John Carter, The Boys, maybe 60's Marvel power levels, sure. A Rune Lord is pretty superheroic.

 

So, reviving 30-35 year old memories.

[GAZZA]

Eh, why not. I can always buy any good modules and convert them to Champions.

[seneschal]

Any word on how the revamp project is going?

[TRose]

Im interested