"[Goalsystem] Super Mission Force" Topic

Hey, folks! I am working on a new, rules-lighter supers skirmish game!

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Super Mission Force is the Goalsystem game of fast and fun superhero action! Featuring easy character creation, quick action, and our famous henchmen rules, Super Mission Force lets you play out superhero action using any miniatures from your collection. Written for 28mm figures, but easily scalable to 15mm action, the rules also offer a campaign system that captures comic book action and battles and allows players to tell great stories on the their tabletops. Gather some friends, a few figures, and a handful of dice! Super Mission Force action awaits!
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This game follows a lot of the design directions I took in Void Pirates, my recent sci-fi skirmish release. My main goals are 2 min. character creation and faster overall play.

This is not SuperSystem lite, but rather its own, standalone game.

Here's a link to the play-test doc:

link

And here's the cover:

[URL=http://s1168.photobucket.com/user/srpyle_1970/media/FourColor%20Supers_zpsi9bkeebs.jpg.html]

Let me know if you have any questions!

--Scott

I love and champion SS3, Scott…why would I want this?

And to be clear, I'm not trying to be snarky (andI apologize if that's how it's coming across)…I really want to know.

I guess what I'm asking is what does this system offer that SS3 players like myself would want? What does it do differently?

No snark felt on this end. It's a valid question, and one I will likely get often.

The game plays a lot faster than any version of SuperSystem, and there's no number crunching in the build system. None. Zero.

So it's a different sort of game. You'll use archetypes and menu selections to build characters, and once you know how powers work and what to expect, you'll be able to build a character in just a couple of minutes.

I've gotten faster play by folding attack/damage and defense/soak into one dice exchange.

All of this comes at the cost of some detail, and that's a tradeoff some long time SuperSystem fans might not like. All I can say is download the play-test doc and give it a look.

If anything, there's a few new scenarios and campaign wrinkles you could easily co-opt for your SS3 games.

Thanks!

--Scott

This could be right up my alley.

Ive been noodling out an idea to use Supersystem to fight some weird war two battles. I was thinking that SS3 might be too cumbersome for what I have in mind.

On the axis side there would be Vampires, Werewolves, walkers, and power armor.

On the allies side there would be various super heroes like Captain America, Sgt Rock, the Invaders and whatnot. There would also be a couple tank sized walkers and guys in power armor.

Both sides would have henchman groups of infantry to beat up on.

Thats all Ive got so far.

The rules should handle all of that pretty well. Let me know if you try them out. Vehicle rules are in an appendix in the back. Hope they work well for you!

Looking good! I like Super System (latest edition I have is 3rd), but this seems like it is easier for pick up games.

One minor layout critique; I'd put all of the major powers first, then the minor powers after. That seems like it would be more useful to me.

-Will

Yea, I think I can dig this. I present the Avengers:

Iron Man: Blaster, Power Blasts, Flight, Super-Strength
Captain America: Brawler, Scrapper, Iron Will, Shield
Thor: Brick, Super Strength, Leaping, Magic Hammer
Hulk: Brick, Super Strength, Growth, Rage
Hawkeye: Blaster, Archery, Fortune, Iron Will
Black Widow: Brawler, Scrapper, Melee Weapon, Super-Agility

Rolled up in 6 minutes. :)

-Will

wminising – Great example of the simplicity and brilliance of this set of rules. :)

SS is really crunchy and a great set, but might not be for someone wanting to dip their foot into supers gaming. SMF is great for getting folks interested and just wanting to play a game without all the chrome. Lots of character and just enough detail.

And while I am not a huge DC-fan, part of the Justice League:
Superman: Powerhouse (Brick+Blaster), Power Blasts, Super-Strength(major), Resistance, Flying, Leaping, Iron Will
Batman: Brawler, Scrapper, Super-Agility, Boost-Clever
Wonder Woman: Wildcard, Armor, Entangle, Super-Strength(minor), Super-Agility
Green Lantern: Blaster, Power Blasts, Flight, Force Field
The Flash: Speedster, Speed, Super-agility, Super-Strength(minor)
Aquaman: Wildcard, Amphibious, Enhanced Senses, Resistance, Super-Strength(minor)

This one took my 20 minutes, mostly since I realized I didn't really know Wonder Woman's powers! :)

This one I'm not so sure about; Wonder Woman could easily be a Powerhouse, but I couldn't find a combination that gave her armor and entangle that made sense. Aquaman is also sort of in the same boat; he clearly has to be amphibious!

-Will

Fixed with the stroke of several keys:

Amphibious (minor)
You're equally at home in water or on the land. Ignore the effects of Difficult terrain that is defined as deep water, including any damage that might normally apply to a model without this trait. Your denser musculature grants you +2 Body and +2" Move. You also gain +2D to melee attack and defense rolls against non-Amphibious foes when you're both in deep water. You can swap Amphibious into any archetype's minor power selection options.

And I love these write-ups, Will!

;-)

Thanks for the explanation, Scott. This may be just what I'm looking for to game the Secret Wars. Converting all those characters to SS3 was somewhat daunting.

A faster, simpler game might be perfect for big battles like that! I'll check it out and post a batrep (eventually)!

@CondoGamer15- my pleasure, I find the rules set very inspirational!

-Will

I find the rules set very inspirational!

Me too! I've been in a supers slump for a while and this has rekindled my flame. THANKS!

Thanks to you guys! The feedback, questions, and enthusiasm are really keeping me going and making this a better rule set.

Angry Piper, it would AWESOME if you played out some secret wars battles with these rules. What a test run that would give them!

When I think of it, the first seven issues of that maxi series are magic. Even with the sometimes shaky Mike Zeck art. But anyway, I digress.

You can boil a lot of those big melees into micro battles and fight them out pretty fast with SMF.

We had a game today with three heroes on one side, and two villains and a henchmen group on the other, and it took about 20 minutes. And that's with me flailing around looking stuff up on a digital reader.

Keep us posted!

Folks, I've made a lot of updates the last week or so.

Here's the link again:

link

Hi Scott.

I playtested your game over the weekend and I love it so much I'm officially switching from SS3. I did a review and some AARs over on my blog which you can see by accessing this link:

TMP link

Also, I have some clarifications/questions that I noticed when playing…sorry in advance if these have been addressed, but I downloaded the first version of the playtest doc before you made changes.

Any idea when the finished product will be ready?

Anyway, onto the questions:

If a speedster does a move-by attack on a group of henchmen, is he halted if he doesn't wipe out the group?

If a Henchmen group has resistance, does that mean it takes 2 damage to remove 1 model?

Clarification: does regeneration happen at the start of a GAME turn, or at the start of a model's individual activation?

Can you use Speed Burst to charge? ( I assume so, but check out AAR #2 for a funny situation involving Puck.)

Thanks! You can reach me at angrypiper at angrypiper dot com if it's more convenient.

>If a speedster does a move-by attack on a group of henchmen, >is he halted if he doesn't wipe out the group?

SO long as he takes at least one out, the attack succeeds and he can move on.

>Henchmen and resistance

They just gain the +1D to resist Body based attacks, so instead of a base 2D, they use 3D to resist. Makes them tougher. They don't get anything from the KO check bump as they're not characters.

>Regen timing

There's Rounds and there's Turns. A game round consists of a number of turns equal to the number of characters or henchme groups in the game. Everybody gets one. A character with Regen heals at the start of his turn. That occurs within the larger game construct, the round.

> Speed burst and charging?

Yes. Just add it to your Move, then add half again to determine final Move for that round. I'm upping the recharge value of this to 2+--it's a good ability and should only be accessible a few times per game.

And I am super stoked you like the rules! Playing games now will make them that much better! I really appreciate it!

Scott,

Thanks for the clarifications. I will check out your new edits!

Most of the buildings are cardstock (over foamboard), either from World Works Games or free from Tommy Gunn (modelpaperworld, which now sadly seems offline). I also use some plastic O scale railroad buildings (like the auto parts store). The shipping containers are from Laser Cut Card.

These rules look very similar in concept

link

The designer even notes he took ideas from Supersystem. Some good ideas in this that might be rolled back into Super Mission Force too.

I think you are on a good tract with this concept, but it still needs work.

Would like to see more arch-types. Also something between a normal arch-type and a powerhouse like Angry Pipers representation of Spider-Man. Some characters need more than the two minor power limit within their Arch-type.

Would also like some more options for henchmen. Not a fan of having to keep all henchmen operation as a single group, would like to be able to spread them out and be able to have henchmen fight opposing henchmen.

Also, need to have Non-Powered henchmen to represent low level thugs, cops, gangbangers, security guards, etc. Thugs armed with simple firearms (pistols), ballbats; Cops with shotguns, billyclubs.

Power blast is too generic as there is a multitude of ranged attacks that are needed from simple firearms of various magnitude (Punisher, Deadpool types), to attacks with secondary effects like flame (heat), freezing, acid, wind, etc.

Also need tricks, traps, gadgets, gas, smoke, getaway plans, etc. for "Batman type" villains. Even without powers these character types are deadly and tough to overcome.

I hope to be trying these out this weekend and I like the direction.

Thanks Scott.

Kim

Thanks, Kim! I purposely never looked at Cloberrin Time. I know it's cool, but I did not want it to color my own design choices.

This rule set is meant to be fast, fast, fast. Easy chargen and easy resolution.

A Power Blast can model any sort of ranged attack. Any of the powers can be easily reskinned for these sorts of tweaks.

Tricks, traps, and gadgets sound really cool, but distilling concepts like that into fast, fun rules is the trick.

I'll think on it and see.

Even lower-level henchmen could be a possibility. I could see a third archetype with no realy power options and either a very basic melee attack or a very basic ranged attack.

Thanks for the feedback!

And Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone reading this thread!

Also on the weaker ranged attacks for Henchmen, it's already baked in. They start with a base of 2D. Minor Power blasts gives them 3D. That's significantly weaker than the character version, which is 5D.

Just some more food for thought as we discuss this! I really do appreciate all of this feedback. The collective here and on LAF has made SMF a much tighter game.

Thanks!

Hey Scott, can you elaborate on the Sorcerer Archetype?

The latest now says pick any Major (other than Sorcerer) plus 4 minors. Are the minors in addition to the one minor listed in the Archetype? Any Majors? Somehow Scrapper and Speed don't seem to fit this Archetype.

I'm thinking of Dr. Strange, Dr. Fate, Felix Faust, Enchantress, etc.

Do we get Sorcerer (any major and 4 minors) plus one of the minors listed for a total of 5 minors?

The whole thing is confusing, and being able to get things like Scrapper or even Super strength is counter intuitive to what is a Sorcerer/ Magic user type from the comics. It's primarily Blasts and Force fields they employ, not physical combat.

I think there needs to be a re-assessment for this archetype and so much needed clarification as well as examples.

Thanks

Kim

On the Sorcerer:

-- Yes, the Sorcery major power defines a grmioire, or power pool, of stuff you can do at least once per game.

-- In addition to the Sorcery major power, you get to pick one minor power. That's something you can do each turn without fail. So it could be Doc Strange's flying cape, or Silver Surfer's power blasts or surf board

-- You can take Sorcerer very literally and only build stuff that you might consider "traditional" for sorcerers, or you can use it as a more generic power pool to model cosmic powers, or a suite of related powers. In these cases, it's thematic for Firelord or Silver Surfer to channel his cosmic energy into feets of strength

You can re-skin the powers in this game to fit whatever character you're playing.

We will include character examples of each archetype in the finished book. That's coming.

Thanks!

Scott,

In the latest revision for Stun, should it read Move/Special action or just Move? It does not match the example.

It currently says Move action OR Combat/Special Action but not special action and move like the example.

Thanks

Kim

Good catch! It' a a free action to try to sense someone. I will fix that in the example. Thanks!