I've been thinking about starting a superhero game, but can't decide upon the system. The setting will be that the group is a newly recruited hero team that is being sponsored by the government in order to train them to use their powers and abilities.

I want something relatively light and easy to play. I am thinking about either SUPERS! RED or Icons. Which would be better for an online game and why?

I recommend ICONS. There's a wealth of material for it, which makes your job easier, and it's both quick and light in play. It's not as rules-heavy as Venture City while retaining much of what makes FATE so wonderful for online gaming.

Either would be great but icons is my fav as I love the randomness of the characters and not knowing what you'll get at the end but it always leads to great and imaginative roleplaying

I've played a superhero in Savage Worlds, and that was a lot of fun.  Also I've run superheroes in the Cypher System, which has straightforward rules with lots of latitude for role-play.

No opinions on the systems mentioned so far: I haven't played any of them.

For rpol, I might argue that your setup/story/pacing are more important than ruleset.  Player dropout is rampant and keeping players engaged is key. Certain rules make it harder (palladium, villains & vigilantes) but that's because their pacing RAW is so impossible in pbp format.

Related to that, I'd also say the GM's system mastery is pretty important too. Random internet people are likely to push the boundaries more than your face to face friends. Also, your own workload/burnout prepping things matters for keeping a game going.

Personally, I'm a fan of random chargen, but I've had a hard time recruiting for such games here on rpol.
This message was last edited by the user at 13:41, Sun 08 Sept 2019.

Both Icons and Supers RED have their merits.  But, you can make Icons a player-facing game only, which speeds up play because you (as the GM) don't have to roll in opposition.  Supers requires every roll to be opposed and this means waiting for the player/GM to get online and post.

In Icons you roll rank+D6 vs rank+D6.  So if you just provide one side's rank as the difficulty, the other side can roll (D6-D6)+rank and immediately see whether they're successful or not.  No waiting and you can narrate your turn and get on with it.

Plus, Icons has its basics available through OGL, which Supers! RED does not.

Aaaand, I've run Icons enough times that I've typed up the Icons universal table in RPOL table format, so if anyone wants them rMail me.

Starting the game here...

link to another game