I personally, find it a bit fiddly although if I can master it, it is also the same system for Scion (a bit like American Gods by Neil Gaiman), which I also like. The system however, which is derived from the old d10 dice pool Storyteller system has a bit of meta currency elements in it. Now, I’m only pitching this because I like the setting which has a rich vein of satire running through it - in a manner similar to an Alan Moore novel. This has it’s own system, while the setting was originally developed in the late 90s. Yet another Kenson developed game setting that is upcoming, is Aberrant for the Trinity Continuum series of games. Some people love it, but I actually found the random character generation not quite generating inspiring enough characters that I wanted to play, when I tried it out. I never liked the ’Saturday Morning Cartoon Hour’ art in the book, but the system is certainly simpler than other options. Icons was also written by the same designer (Steve Kenson) as M&M and Silver Age Sentinels, but it takes its cues from Fate and also the more randomized approach found in earlier supers games. There is still possibly some DC Adventures books around as an alternative, but these are technically out of print. It just takes away the fun of rolling your own damage, while giving another job to the GM.Īpparently, the M&M default setting, Freedom City, was originally pitched to Guardians of Order for the Silver Age Sentinels game, but it was turned down then picked up by Green Ronin - which is how M&M was born. What I don’t like about M&M, as a system, is that the GM has to roll saving throws for NPCs rather than the players rolling damage. It has the disadvantage of fiddlyness (as you mentioned), but the M&M Basic Hero's Handbook is a much stripped down version of the rules (especially character generation which uses customizable archetypes, rather than point build). It is also a much clearer laid out system than Champions, but is customizable in the ways it builds powers still - so the appeal is similar. M&M has a pretty big fanbase and lots of support, I think. I kinda think of M&M as Randy Norton was to the WWF in the early 2000s - the 'Legend Killer’ that enjoyed deposing Hall of Fame competitors, like Champions (and SAS). Returning back to specialist supers games, the 'market leader’ as you’ve mentioned is Mutants & Masterminds, which serves on one level as the D20 system meets Champions. I am possibly thinking it could work for me, but this is a speculation currently. There is however, due to be another edition of this coming - this time called Absolute Power. This actually got the balance right for me, at the time, but it collapsed amid all of the financial problems the publisher, Guardians of Order, had in the early 2000s. There used to be a follow on supers game called Silver Age Sentinels, based on the same Tri-Stat engine as BESM (but using 2D10 instead). Basic Role-Playing may end up with some options in the coming year or so, possibly as there has been some talk of a Mythras-based supers game, or that Chaosium may re-release or make a new edition of Super World, or even develop a supers option for Pulp Cthulhu (CoC).Īnother generic game that might work is BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth) which is technically based on Japanese Anime, but can scale to supers level easily enough. There are a bunch of generic systems - GURPS, Savage Worlds, Fate - that also have supers options in them at least, so if any are to your taste they could work. It doesn’t use any meta-currencies either. Nevertheless, it remains in print (as Champions Complete or the rereleased Champions 4th Edition), and it is well supported. Had somebody come along and made a more approachable version of the game, in the same way that Mongoose did with Traveller as an example, I think I would have been more of a fan. Contrary to the way it is talked up at times, the system is not perfect. However, I feel that the game’s development has been stymied over the years by choosing to develop the game as a generic system in the same manner as GURPS rather than specializing, and also failing to iron out some of the mathematical chores and questionable logic in the way the system operates at times. The traditional market leader for the super genre was Champions - especially during its heyday of the 1980s. There are lots of supers games out there, but I’ve struggled to find any I like that much for a variety of reasons.
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