I'm looking for a new Superhero game.  I'd like something that isn't too tough to make a character that doesn't require a calculator but has diversity and options.

I used to play Champions, it was a great Superhero game because it had so many options but at the same time, it was a beast to make a character due to the multiple choices and options.

I'm looking for something fun but easy to play.  I was thinking of eventually doing a table top game for friends running something low power but building up, something along the lines of Jessica Jones, Dare Devil, Punisher, Marvel Agents of Shield etc.
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 03:04, Fri 26 Aug 2016.

I used to play GURPS, but even then I didn't recommend it without some specific houserules. The Apocalypse World Engine has become my go to recommendation, but I sadly don't recall any specific Superhero hacks for it. Depends how much crunch you need though, because AWE is a bit of a fluff/fiction over function system.

The various flavors of Mutants and Masterminds has a lot of diversity and options, not as much as Champions, but still quite a lot so you can really get a lot of character diversity and power level arc.  It still has quite a bit of character creation crunch, especially if you're new to the system, but it's not nearly the spreadsheet fest Hero/Champions is.

Savage Worlds with the Super Powers Companion is also a nice choice for something a bit more plug and play with less overall crunch.  It is a bit more tame in terms of scale and scope, so it would work great for the street level Marvel influences you're thinking about using.

Thank you both for your thoughts.  :)

The only superhero game with which I have any significant experience is the old TSR Marvel Superheroes (FASERIP) system.  And while it's fun enough to play, if you have a character with good enough stats, it rapidly becomes extremely impractical to advance a character in any significant way.  I mean, yeah...going from abysmal to slightly below average is doable, but time-consuming.  Getting to average?  ('Human' average, not 'superhero' average) That can take months of regular playing with a generous GM.

But if you're above-average?  You can play for AGES, and unless you've got a GM who absolutely throws experience at you by the bucketload, you'll never even get close to advancing any ranks, especially if you use your karma in action.  It was fun to play if you had a character that was already pretty hefty (my introduction to the game was playing X-Men characters...Wolverine was awesome)...but if you had low-grade stats and wanted to become a front-line hero?  Never gonna happen.  Might be fun enough to play those characters, initially...but building them up?  FASERIP is a terrible system for advancement.

I've always enjoyed the Cartoon Action Hour RPG when it comes to superhero games. I've always thought it was pretty easy and fun to pick up and learn.

Icons is great for one-shots, meh for long games.

Mutants and Masterminds 3E doesn't really require "math" and the character's only as complicated as you want. Sure, I once made a character that required an 8-page spreadsheet, but that's an outlier. There's a whole (official) book of DC heroes and villains and they all take 1-1.5 pages. A relatively simple character concept is very easy to make. The problem is if one guy goes deep down the rabbit hole, he'll be able to do MUCH more than the characters who did their characters in half an hour.

After character creation the game runs pretty smoothly though. (Except for the poor GM who has to build your opponents.)

Lately I'm quite into Supers! RED (Revised EDition).  Easy d6 pool mechanics and the powers are flexible.  Adding or subtracting dice for Extras/Limits (Boost/Complications) couldn't be easier.  There's a lot of characters being offered up for sale, but not too many adventures (if that's a thing for you).
This message was last edited by the user at 13:09, Fri 26 Aug 2016.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, from the folks who brought you Firefly and Leverage, goes with a concept-based character creation and flexible rules that reward creativity. I just got into it and I really like the cinematic style (of course, I'm also a fan of the Firefly RPG, which uses the same ideas).

Let me throw my voice in for the proponents of M&M, especially 3rd Ed, which I think is a nice balance between crunchy character creation (with plenty of options) and familiar gameplay (d20). 1st & 2nd Ed M&M were simply 3.5 with a superhero overlay; in 3rd Ed., they really started to make the system their own...and with the added bonus of being able to step into the DCU (or, at least, borrow from it).

You would find M&M pretty easy to grasp - the way you build characters and powers is very similar to Champions in principle, but simpler.

My current jam is Supers! Easy to design characters for, and even more important easy, fun and flexible in play. You can apply your character's powers in any way that you can imagine, and the way you take damage gives players the opportunity to make losing or suffering setbacks a neat part of the story.

A suggestion.  What did 1st edition AD&D have in common with the Super Hero Games.

What 1st edition adition called the 0-lvl characters, why that.

   Because it was the original Hero game.

If you want to create a Hero/Superhero game make the normal people.. Normal.

You could turn any of the D&D games, superhero; by making it moderate level and giving no classes to anyone not a hero.

That's an interesting idea. The two points I think wouldn't quite work are that the supers genre rarely has a focus on levelling up or gaining power to that degree, and that while there are archetypes (the brick, the energy controller, the speedster, etc.) they are a lot fuzzier and less strict than classes would be.

Well, someone did take D&D and make superheroes with it.

It's called 1st edition Mutants and Masterminds.  It was pretty much straight D20 3.0 with a few extra crunchy bits tacked on.  It mostly worked, as long as you kept everything within the narrow band of mathematical similarity where things functioned.  Too far in either direction and the dice rolling ceased to matter.

I'm really digging Savage Worlds 2nd Edition Super Powers Companion nowadays.

Same core mechanics, more or less, but very much not like D&D in the ways I mentioned.

In reply to Dirigible (msg # 12):

True.. but as DnD evolved from War-games, ie "Chainmail" the Hero-Super Hero & Mage-Arch Mage paradigm.

  It was setup to evolve in the direction of novice hero to veteran hero.

Have you considered the Cypher system ? It's crunch-light, there is already a superhero mode and with a very few tweak, you can use gods of the fall to have over-the-top characters.

There are a number of very cool FATE based superhero games out there. Daring Comics is my favorite but Venture City is quite good as well. There is also the wonderful Four-Color FAE (http://station53.blogspot.com/...-four-color-fae.html).

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, bar none.

Spider-Man is my example of what makes MHR preferable over other systems.
One of Spidey's key traits is joking around and trash-talking opponents, getting them riled up and making them angry enough to start losing focus.
In other games, even the golden oldie of Marvel Super Heroes, this would require a special trait, power, or mechanic to accomplish. As an aside, there was a specific rule to execute a "fastball special".
In MHR, if you want to trashtalk an opponent, get them seeing red? You just DO it. They take emotional rather than physical damage or acquire a disadvantage as you see fit, and it becomes easier to deal with them. With narrative as the core "mechanic" of the game, supported by the rules instead of the other way around, you can even create a situation where an opponent like the Kingpin or Hobgoblin gets SO enraged that they drop what they were doing and instead focus their attention on getting back at Spidey. Mechanically, they've been "defeated" and have left combat, but the CONTEXT is COMPLETELY different.
It's really great, and I HIGHLY recommend it. ^_^

I've just looked at Masks (Apocalypse derivative) and it's also completely focused on the narrative. Rather light too.

Also to consider is the FASERIP system used in the old Marvel Super Hero's table top game. It's pretty flexible and can be used in a lot of different levels of play. Most of the books can still be found online to. PDF formats mostly, though you may find some for sale on Amazon or the like.

The cool things about MHR and MSR is that unlike most other superhero RPGs, you can play heroes at all levels at chargen, not just after extensive play and XP accumulation.
What I mean by that is, you can create a character that could hang with the Avengers, FF, or X-Men "out of the box" rather than after multiple campaigns. Granted, it takes some good rolls, but it can be done.
It matches the FEEL of comic book characters better; it's almost unheard of to see a character get measurably better over time in comics outside of skill development, and not often then either.
For example, Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, and Mister Fantastic are all pretty much as skilled in combat now as they were when they first started their careers. Out of all of them, only Thor is stronger than he used to be and THAT'S only because of outside factors rather than an improvement in power over time.

Another advantage is the lack of number-crunching and bookkeeping in character creation in gameplay. Both games are about a pick up-and-go as you can get.

In reply to Legate619 (msg # 22):

Actually in the MSH there is a system in place where you can improve powers, abilities and even get New powers or Skills. Whether you use it or not is up to the GM.

In reply to ShadoPrism (msg # 23):

Are you talking about using Karma/XP to improve, or during chargen?

Just to be sure it is said:

Have you used HERO Designer software for Champs?

I can design most any character using that in 20 minutes or so.

That said, yes, Champs can be a fiddly system regardless :D

I also recommend this. You will need savage worlds deluxe and the super hero companion. Then you can make almost any Supers style game. Or if you want a change of pace, play Necessary Evil where super villains are forced to save the world. It is Aanother Savage Worlds book.

While certainly not new, Marvel Superheroes RPG has the greatest chargen system I have ever seen. Namely, you can make a fully-fleshed superhero with just one- or two-dozen d%s.

Even better, the system is incredibly simple and players can be introduced to it with almost no explanation whatsoever.

But the real gravy of this delicious roast is the fact that everything you need can be found for free at classicmarvelforever.

I was going to suggest Savage Worlds 2nd Edition Super Powers Companion as well ...great set up lots of fun and very flexible super power system.

In reply to Soulforge (msg # 4):

Masks: A New Generation is ridiculously fun, very cinematic.

FASERIP works if you build a character with points instead of random dice rolls.

Yeah, when I run FASERIP is award karma and points. Makes advancement quite a lot more doable.

In reply to spectre (msg # 31):

You might look at Silver Age Sentinels - White Wolf picked it up when GoO folded (or shortly thereafter).  It has the virtue of being available in ebook format, and in two different format:  d10 Tri-Stat and d20.

There are character creation resources for it online, too.

In reply to Soulforge (msg # 1):

Going to have to side with MHRP (via Cortex Systems)...,

 - It has just enough flexibility to allow pretty much anything to occur with just enough rules regulations to help establish how it comes about. It's very narrative driven allowing both players and Watcher to contribute to the story instead of just one person setting the stage, anyone can contribute.

 - Say, for example, a group runs across an obstacle...one player may have their character try to go around it, another may wish to try and find a way through it, and both would have the means to try and circumvent the obstacle as long as such can be tied in a narrative sense...and both can occur simultaneously without disrupting game play as such is merely a posted action with a pending reaction to determine whether or not each action attempt is successful.

 - Through in-game economics, players can contribute to other character's posted narrative and both could benefit. For instance, a player could make narrative use of another player's distinction in order to help overcome an obstacle. (e.g. - a player could make use of another player's flight ability in order to get past a boulder blocking a mountain pass). If the action is successful, the contributing player could start off their narrative where the initial player left off past the obstacle.

 - Combat can be eloquent and flowery to downright swift and brutal because it all depends on how the player and the watcher collaborate to describes the narrative. The narrative method of play allows for significant diversity as each post is like seeing the world through their character's perspective. Conflict from a scientist's point of view can read quite differently from a hardened soldier's perspective.

 - Rare does a system allow for large scale problem resolution, but MHRP handles this relatively well without getting bogged down in details allowing everyone's favorite neighborhood creeper to sock a giant robot and have it actually affected by the ordeal. Character grouping is also fairly loose and flexible - street level characters can join up with galaxy spanning types and still be able to contribute to the story in some way.

 - Narrative play really works for super heroic games because of the inherent descriptive nature of the genre. Unlike rules specific systems where additional specifics bog down game play, the more complex and descriptive you can be...the more of a benefit it is to the narrative in general and to the action in specific, so creativity really counts. Hope this helped out some, finding a copy of the rules may be difficult but not impossible. Good luck. :)

Have you ever tried Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (MURPG)? It is a fun, diceless system. It's no longer in print, but the books are fairly easy to come by and it has a pretty dedicated fan base at Murpg.proboards.com with a good selection of house rules. There are some quirks to the system, but overall it is fun and easy to learn. Being diceless it lends itself well to PbP games.

In reply to Soulforge (msg # 1):

I am a fan of Prowlers adn Paragons when it comes to narrative based superhero games. It has easy to learn system, collaborative narativism and it can cover all the subgenres, from sillyness to grittiness.