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Superworld


Matt

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Does anyone have any suggestions for how one would make a super hero who is slippery, hard to get a hold of much in thr fashion of, say, a greased pig? I was looking at the Defense power but as written it would only apply to the difficulty of being hit--do you think there is an advantage that should be added to simulate the difficulty of being held as well, plus a disadvantage as it would only apply to hand-to-hand situations? Or do you think there's some better way to modify Insubstantiality for this purpose?

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Does anyone have any suggestions for how one would make a super hero who is slippery, hard to get a hold of much in thr fashion of, say, a greased pig? I was looking at the Defense power but as written it would only apply to the difficulty of being hit--do you think there is an advantage that should be added to simulate the difficulty of being held as well, plus a disadvantage as it would only apply to hand-to-hand situations? Or do you think there's some better way to modify Insubstantiality for this purpose?

I would use defensive power but say it can only be used when someone is grappling that character. You could give other situational mods as nessasary.

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  • 2 months later...

Is anyone interested in recaps of a Superworld campaign? And would this even be an appropriate place to post them?

Superworld appears be dreadfully unpopular on this site, at least compared with various fantasy-type elves 'n' hobbits games. Am I really as odd-man-out as it seems? I confess I have very little interest in magical-type settings, though Pendragon and Call of Cthulhu are fantastic games I would play in a heartbeat could I but find a group willing to attempt those milieus.

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I, too, like supers although the BRP veterans on the site insist that the system is a bit clunky for the genre. The powers suite in the Big Gold Book is limited compared to other supers games I've played but is workable. One of our co-posters here got several relatives into role-playing by running a BRP supers campaign, although he later switched it to another game system. Still, we've got a number of super hero write-ups posted in the general forums done by me and others.

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The powers list in the big BRP book is by no means complete, but (1) it isn't trying to be and says as much, (2) one can extrapolate and add if one desires, (3) no super hero game has ever managed to be "complete," not even the Ultimate Powers Book for TSR's MSH, but mostly it's no problem since (4) I actually use Superworld and Superworld Companion and not the BRP book except for extras as needed. I find Superworld suits the level of power I'm interested in. I suppose power-mongers may dislike the relative weakness of a PC in Superworld as compared to Champions or Mutants and Masterminds, but I've tried both and they seem to be more about character building tricks than anything else. At least based on what I endured. I like Superworld and wish there were more of it.

Claims of clunkiness seem to reflect the desire for a higher power level than the game seems to have been meant for, as I don't find it any clunkier than Call of Cthulhu (for instance).

Edited by Matt
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Is anyone interested in recaps of a Superworld campaign? And would this even be an appropriate place to post them?

I've found things tend to get buried in the Extended Family part of this forum. I tend to check the main page, then maybe some of the others if time is not a concern. That said, I'd love to see recaps of a Superworld campaign.

Superworld appears be dreadfully unpopular on this site, at least compared with various fantasy-type elves 'n' hobbits games. Am I really as odd-man-out as it seems? I confess I have very little interest in magical-type settings, though Pendragon and Call of Cthulhu are fantastic games I would play in a heartbeat could I but find a group willing to attempt those milieus.

Yes, super hero RPG games have always been relatively niche compared to all the fantasy-based RPGs/campaigns out there. Even worse, Superworld seldom gets a mention when people are compiling a list of "good" super hero RPGs. Too bad, Superworld is limited as far as the higher power levels, but works very well for the more gritty stuff. It seems even BRP fans have little interest in playing Superworld, so why would other gamers bother to track down a 30 yr old game with no active support? I wanted to do a super hero scenario for the last BRP Adventure contest, but unless it had a LOT of sci-fi elements, Dusty was not too interested. I can't blame him of course, why not try and support the genres that do get played more often? I have purchased a lot of adventure material for other games (Mutants & Masterminds, Icons, BASH, etc.) and converted it for use with Superworld, but many would not feel like taking the time to do that.

As seneschal mentioned, I have moved the super hero gaming for our group over to Supers!, though that is still in a bit of a "trial" stage. While the flexibility of BRP is amazing, a game devoted to just super hero gaming (even at higher levels) has appeal to us. For almost anything else I would want to run, I want to use BRP. After a couple more gaming sessions with Supers! I will be tempted to write about what works well for each game system, and what is lacking.

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I've found things tend to get buried in the Extended Family part of this forum. I tend to check the main page, then maybe some of the others if time is not a concern. That said, I'd love to see recaps of a Superworld campaign.

Yes, super hero RPG games have always been relatively niche compared to all the fantasy-based RPGs/campaigns out there. Even worse, Superworld seldom gets a mention when people are compiling a list of "good" super hero RPGs. Too bad, Superworld is limited as far as the higher power levels, but works very well for the more gritty stuff. It seems even BRP fans have little interest in playing Superworld, so why would other gamers bother to track down a 30 yr old game with no active support? I wanted to do a super hero scenario for the last BRP Adventure contest, but unless it had a LOT of sci-fi elements, Dusty was not too interested. I can't blame him of course, why not try and support the genres that do get played more often? I have purchased a lot of adventure material for other games (Mutants & Masterminds, Icons, BASH, etc.) and converted it for use with Superworld, but many would not feel like taking the time to do that.

As seneschal mentioned, I have moved the super hero gaming for our group over to Supers!, though that is still in a bit of a "trial" stage. While the flexibility of BRP is amazing, a game devoted to just super hero gaming (even at higher levels) has appeal to us. For almost anything else I would want to run, I want to use BRP. After a couple more gaming sessions with Supers! I will be tempted to write about what works well for each game system, and what is lacking.

The level of power supported by Superworld is just the right fit for me, as I tend towards the less powerful heroes like TV Spider-Man, Batman, Green Hornet, TV Wonder Woman, and such.

I have BASH but it didn't impress me. I have M&M 1st and 2nd editions...I want to like them more than I do. The feats bug me for some reason...some of them feel like subsitutions for roleplaying.

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I like the heroes at least having to respect that well trained normal humans could damage them. The Superworld campaigns I have run featured fairly low level heroes, at least at first. The longest campaign saw the characters get tough enough to ignore most standard firearms, etc.

I also like the power levels at Captain American, Daredevil, Batman, up to Spider-Man levels. Supers! scales differently, so it usually takes a number of normals to hurt or annoy a super. Of course I have tweaked the basic rules, giving a normal human a 1D6 level attack, and a highly trained one a 2D6 attack. In theory, the maximum human limit is 3D6 (though you can roll more dice and take the "best three") but I reserve that for actually heroes/villains.

At the very basic level, Supers! is about rolling a number of dice (say, a 4D6 energy blast) and comparing that total to whatever the defender rolls with their defensive option (say, Acrobatics at 3D6). The difference between the totals tells you how much damage you do, if any. So, no seperate armor to absorb damage, no damage roll to make. Rolling high is rewarded with more damage, rolling close on defense can keep the damage low.

We use the "wild die" option, a seperate color D6 (all D6 for this game btw) that is rolled again when you get a "six" on it and adds to the total. You keep rolling that wild die as long as it comes up "six". This is the Supers! game system equivalent of a Critical Hit in Superworld.

The most interesting part of the system to me is the "verbal element" to combat. Explain how your "Wall Crawling" power is being used to avoid that car tossed at you by Demolition Woman and roll your dice. She is using her Super Strength 5D6, versus your Wall Crawling at 3D6? Hmm, maybe I better use my Armor at 4D6 instead? Or my Reaction stat at 4D6 to dodge? If my hero had Mental Blast 5D6, I might try to stun her momentarily (doing no actual damage since it is a defensive roll) but making her drop the car instead of throwing it at me. In the end, it comes down to total versus total and the GM deciding how it plays out based on those dice rolls. I should add that you can only use each Power ONCE per round, so you can't just use your best attack again and again and ignore the other Powers/Skills you have. This is in contrast to Superworld where the characters roll their best attack percentage skill and seldom have a reason NOT to use it again and again. If you are creative you can use a Power on offense or defense. Maybe my character has Super Strength and throws his own car at the one thrown at me by Demolition Woman? Or maybe I want to use that Super Strength to catch the car she threw? Options and more options, just be creative in your description of your actions to the GM/group.

I also need to mention I made a big change in the Supers! game by having characters be able to attack more than once per round. They roll Reaction dice and go from highest to lowest, and then again at half that number. I made this change since I love the multiple actions of Superworld per combat round.

A mild downside to Supers! to me so far has been that when you have a fairly even battle in dice levels, it becomes a slow combat of attrition (characters lose Resistances levels until one hits zero and they are out). Superworld battles can end very quickly with a Critical Hit or two. The wild die helps, as you can get much higher damage levels.

Here is a link to the free PDF trial version of Supers!:

SUPERS! Quick Start - HAZARD Studio | DriveThruRPG.com

You can get the full game on PDF for only $5. They are working on a revised edition, maybe out this year. Like you, I have BASH, M&M, but no other super hero RPG has appealed to me outside of Supers! and Superworld.

Edited by ORtrail
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  • 3 weeks later...

More childhood memories:

Not as polished as Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, Terrytoons' The Mighty Heroes (1966) still delivered superhero fun with a team of dedicated, if not always competent, crime fighters: Strong Man, auto mechanic; Tornado Man, meteorologist; Rope Man, U.S. Navy sailor; Cuckoo Man, pet shop owner; and Diaper Man, underage but definitely not a sidekick.

Their powers were straightforward and easy to model in BRP. All could fly. Indeed, Cuckoo Man could do little else. Strong Man was the team powerhouse, but tiny Diaper Man was nearly as strong and his baby bottle (with its elastic nipple) doubled as a ranged weapon. Tornado Man was naturally the master of powerful winds. Rope Man could snare and entangle villains at a distance with his extremely long and flexible body. Together they protected the city of Goodhaven from a colorful assortment of malefactors.

Edited by seneschal
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I've always liked Superworld and wished I could play more of it.

Like Matt says, it sits right at the power level of supers I'd want to play. Pulp heroes like The Shadow and The Avenger, guys like The Phantom and Batman.

I was a big fan of the City of Heroes MMO and it feels like that also sits within Superworld's spectrum of powers (COH always seemed quite pulp to me).

I like some elements of the 'cosmic' hero stuff (the science fantasy flavor and weird aliens) but not so much the uber-uber-uber-powerful guys like Superman and Green Lantern, where even the comic writers seem to strain at the bonds of credulity when writing (and I'm not sure any RPG pulls them off to everyone's satisfaction anyway).

Is there such a thing as a low-powered cosmic superhero? Where do the Guardians of the Galaxy sit nowadays? (their old incarnation seemed pretty doable... but with time everything seems to get BIGGER).

Lately my bug for running a superhero-ish game is along the lines adding superhero-ish elements to my existing homebrew settings... either Herculese/Gilgamesh demi-gods in a fantasy setting (The Dread Empire of the Tsan Chan monograph has a nasty mythos take on those) or some sort of metahuman agents of a guardian AI for my scifi homebrew.

Nobody is throwing planetoids or leaping hundreds of miles... just having some mild form of travel power and a heightened resistance to physical damage would be more than enough to be 'godlike' in most settings I'd want to play.

I think it would also work nicely for running Herculoids... not that anyone I play with even knows who they are.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I ran a superhero BRP game for 2 or 3 years and after words i'd type up a brief description of what went down as if it were an issue. It was cool, now I can look back and recap our adventures from issue #1 to #50. we also had spin-off titles. It was also good way to quickly recap (previously in...). But we ended up with so many teams and individuals that I also had to make an encyclopedia for stuff like so-and-so's first appearance and such. Fun stuff. If i could draw i would have had a real comic.

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The powers list in the big BRP book is by no means complete, but (1) it isn't trying to be and says as much, (2) one can extrapolate and add if one desires, (3) no super hero game has ever managed to be "complete," not even the Ultimate Powers Book for TSR's MSH, but mostly it's no problem since (4) I actually use Superworld and Superworld Companion and not the BRP book except for extras as needed. I find Superworld suits the level of power I'm interested in. I suppose power-mongers may dislike the relative weakness of a PC in Superworld as compared to Champions or Mutants and Masterminds, but I've tried both and they seem to be more about character building tricks than anything else. At least based on what I endured. I like Superworld and wish there were more of it.

Claims of clunkiness seem to reflect the desire for a higher power level than the game seems to have been meant for, as I don't find it any clunkier than Call of Cthulhu (for instance).

I used BGB with superworld for the extras, I never had a problem with the powers. We had street-level to cosmic level side by side, I also used all the power types from BGB. If we needed something we didn't have we'd make it up, but therein lies the beauty of BRP.

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I ran a superhero BRP game for 2 or 3 years and after words i'd type up a brief description of what went down as if it were an issue. It was cool, now I can look back and recap our adventures from issue #1 to #50. we also had spin-off titles. It was also good way to quickly recap (previously in...). But we ended up with so many teams and individuals that I also had to make an encyclopedia for stuff like so-and-so's first appearance and such. Fun stuff. If i could draw i would have had a real comic.

Well, I can draw something halfway decent but seldom have the time...it took me a few weeks just to draw an 8-page story, and that was before I had kids. Even 1-page Hostess Fruit Pie-sized stories feel like a lot of work these days. I'd love to convert a Superworld RPG session into a comic if I only had the time.

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I used BGB with superworld for the extras, I never had a problem with the powers. We had street-level to cosmic level side by side, I also used all the power types from BGB. If we needed something we didn't have we'd make it up, but therein lies the beauty of BRP.

Most of the criticism I have heard about super heroes using BRP/Superworld make me seriously wonder whether the critic ever actually played the game or if he just eyeballed it and made a judgment. Hard to say. I don't find it any harder than other super hero games. I like the flavor and feel more than many other games.

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I just love the BRP system, I know it well, my players know it well, it's an endless toolbox. Just tweak, rename, create powers as needed. We had characters who were traveling to parellell worlds and time traveling, for something like that i never fleshed it out. It was more story and plot devise. And I just can't bring myself to bother with learning another system, time is short as it is, as Matt pointed out.

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  • 1 month later...

When it first came out, I played a -ton- of Superworld. Made dozens of characters, ran it a bunch, and played in a few campaigns.

My experience taught me that the game works best for street-level and a bit higher supers. It's a great system when characters have a very tight theme, and only a few powers apt hat reflect that. It can do higher-powered supers as well, but we found that the tougher the PCs were, the harder it was to manage a lot of them.

Essentially, it cod handle Superman in his own comic, but it was a pain in the ass to do the whole JLA.

I'd love to play it again someday, knowing now what I didn't know then. Looking forward to seeing an update to it someday.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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Also, for those who don't know, all the demon powers in 4th edition Stormbringer were done by creating packages of Superworld powers

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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