One Last Superworld Game, 40 Years Later

[dan2448]

I rediscovered my copy of the 40 year old Superworld boxed set in a closet yesterday, which spurred me to Google it. That's how I learned that Steve Perrin had passed away (and how I discovered these forums).

My copy of the Superworld boxed set also had three issues of Different Worlds magazine inside (one with a Superworld adventure by Steve Perrin, where heroes take on cultists and a Cthulhu Mythos-like Star Devourer at the Golden Gate Bridge). So next weekend (after Thanksgiving), despite not having looked at the Superworld rules for nearly four decades, I thought I'd try run through that adventure by myself for an hour or two, as a sort of coda to an era.

Any advice/suggestions/insights about that, especially anyone who might remember/be familiar with that mini-adventure from Different Worlds magazine?

As an aside, I am also wondering whether the chrome armored master villain on the cover of the Superworld boxed set was "Dr. Dread" from the introductory adventure?  That cover painting is why I bought the game originally as a high school kid. If those are his stats included with the game, I'd probably like to include him somehow in the adventure.

[g33k]

On 11/20/2022 at 5:38 PM, dan2448 said:

I rediscovered my copy of the 40 year old Superworld boxed set in a closet yesterday, which spurred me to Google it. That's how I learned that Steve Perrin had passed away (and how I discovered these forums).
...

Hello, and welcome to the forums!

Another trivium for your Superworld files:  GRRM -- he of GoT fame -- had a nigh-obsessive Superworld campaign which evolved into the "Wild Cards" shared-fiction setting.
https://www.wildcardsworld.com/the-first-wild-cards-day-or-the-game-that-ate-my-life/
https://www.wildcardsworld.com/from-game-to-book-or-the-birth-of-a-shared-world/

As you likely know, the core "Superworld" game-engine (BRP) is the same as powers Call of Cthulhu & Runequest... and soon the new Rivers of London RPG (based upon the Aaronovitch novels).

[dan2448]

Thank you for the reply!  

I was aware of the Wild Cards connection.  I bought the first several novels and, ultimately, the first comic book adaptation (by Marvel) mostly/only because of that background gaming link, which I thought was fantastic.  But the series (at least that small, early sample) didn't enthuse me personally as much as I'd hoped.

Back 35 years ago, Steve Perrin used to write a column about RPGs for a small print magazine called Comics Feature. In one column, he wrote about negotiating with George RR Martin to write a supplement for Superworld (presumably based on his campaign), but that there just wasn't any money in writing RPGs they way there was in writing fiction.

[Ian Absentia]

On 11/20/2022 at 5:38 PM, dan2448 said:

As an aside, I am also wondering whether the chrome armored master villain on the cover of the Superworld boxed set was "Dr. Dread" from the introductory adventure?

Yes!  Compare the cover painting with the assembly of villains depicted on p.30 of the Gamemasters Book.

Opening my boxed set after several decades, out spills reams of write-ups of pretty much every popular Marvel character c.1984-86.  There are a lot of disadvantages I wouldn't allow these days.

!i!

[dan2448]

On 11/23/2022 at 7:10 AM, Ian Absentia said:

Yes!  Compare the cover painting with the assembly of villains depicted on p.30 of the Gamemasters Book.

Opening my boxed set after several decades, out spills reams of write-ups of pretty much every popular Marvel character c.1984-86.  There are a lot of disadvantages I wouldn't allow these days.

!i!

Thank you for the reply! 

I have subsequently re-read the three rulebooks and definitely noticed that the statistics for Dr. Dread are in the 'Gamemasters Book,' and that he is the villain depicted on the cover of the boxed set.