"Super Hero Rules?" Topic

Besides SuperSystem and Heroclix (both of which I have), are there any other sets of rules for Super Hero miniature games?

Mike

While not a system for miniatures specifically….

The HERO roleplaying system lends itself nicely to mini-scale gaming. Everything in the system is mapped to a one-inch hex scale.

There are ridiculously powerful abilities that can go off the proverbial table, but the gm of the game is well within his rights to disallow those abilities.

-Mike

Thanks for the info. I would prefer something that isn't GM dependent.

I've used Savage Worlds to pretty good effect. It feels a lot like Super System in some ways while making the henchmen and the like less abstract, which is a good thing to me.

The Necessary Hero book is a super hero RPG setting but you could get the Player's Book as a PDF for less than $5 USD online and use them as a basis of a more traditional miniatures game.

It is an RPG but it's more a system for doing RPG battles using figures and the like than a real RPG and it works great for skirmish level games if you don't mind putting in the time to tweek it to your needs.

Mutants and Masterminds.

charonproductions.com

I also check out Howard Whitehouse's Astounding Tales, which should work just fine for most not-over-the-top superheroes like Batman, Spiderman, Wolverine, et al.

What was the old Golden Heroes games system, sold at one time by GW. It was available free, now downloadable;

squadronuk.co.uk/first.html

See products section. I found this to be an excellent game and can recommend it. You can generate your characters randomly or by choice, and I think the system of 4 phases per turn gives a nice mechanism for differentiating between the heroes and NPCs.

Malc

Actually there is still a free basic version;

link

In the HERO System you build your character with points. You could use that system without a GM.

I love the HERO system. They character creation system is just superb.

Once you've looked at Hero, both M&M and Supersystem start to look derivative and limited…

Set some mutually agreed boundaries for power creation and Hero works fine without a ref. With flexibility comes abuseability, however, so accept that sometimes the fight is not going to go well.

In fact you can get Hero cheap. just get the "Sidekick" edition. You can also pick up the Combat Handbook that destills the most advanced combat ideas into one book. Those two books will run you:

Hero System Sidekick Revised: $14.00 USD
- OR -
As a PDF: $7.00 USD

Hero System Combat Handbook: $24.99 USD
- OR -
As a PDF: $16.99 USD

So, as PDFs you could get both for $23.99. Quite cheap.

I really like the SuperSystem rules because it's really easy to make adaptations to suit the needs of your particular game. I agree, though, with the common criticism about the rules for henchmen. It's a lot more fun to simply treat the henchmen as individual characters and allow them to act somewhat independently instead of as one big cluster. The weapons and vehicle stats for the Chain Reaction 2.0 rules can be worked very well into a SuperSystem game. (I've used the Chain Reaction WWII variant rules Nuts! for WWII weapons stats for my own Marvel Comics Invaders-themed games.)

Mulligan

Once you've looked at Hero, both M&M and Supersystem start to look derivative and limited…

I've played Hero on and off since it was 1st edition Champions. At this point I wouldn't use use it for RPG rules if you held a gun to my head, and it's a painfully slow and clunky engine for minis gaming to boot. Your mileage may vary, but I'll take M&M and SuperSystem (depending on which type of game I'm playing) any day of the week.

Aren't subjective statements fun? :)

Rich

"It's a lot more fun to simply treat the henchmen as individual characters and allow them to act somewhat independently instead of as one big cluster."

But doesn't that create an initiative nightmare, having to roll for each character and gobs of henchmen? I have SS 1.0. Has initiatve changed so much in 2.0 that it can handle something like this? Or do you guys have a house rule for activating henchmen?

I kinda torn. I like the mook hordes, but I also like individual characters.

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna give S2 another try, and if I find that it's still not my cup of tea, then I shall write my own rules.

The last SuperSystem game I ran was set up so the first couple of turns involved a fair amount of skulking as the good guys infiltrated into a small, nearly deserted town at night to try to find the bad guys and figure out what they were up to. For that, initiative was by draw of card for group or single figures acting alone: black for bad guys, red for good guys. I treated the henchmen like squads, giving the leader of each group slightly better stats. When doing something as a group, the henchmen moved according to the slowest member when the leader wasn't with them or average speed when the leader was attached. Once a unit or figure had discovered his opponent and become activated, then I went to the SuperSystem initiative system and checked initiative individually. I basically just wanted my henchmen (e.g., Murch Minions, She Wolves, or Banana Wars marines) to be able to have a little personality based on what they were armed with: i.e., what you see in the figure (Minion with knife, Minion with shotgun, Banana Wars Marine with Tommy Gun, She Wolf with submachine gun, etc.) is what you specifically get, as opposed the henchmen as a faceless mob sensibility of the actual SuperSystem rules. In practice things still played out fairly quickly.

Mulligan