Wildcard
member, 1030 posts
Thu 17 Feb 2022
at 15:53 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?In my time as a roleplayer I've mostly been a freeform player. Though I've liked the mechanics and the certainty of dice rolls I've struggled with math a lot in roleplaying as well as real life. I've recently found the Basic Roleplaying System though, and have taken a liking to it from reading the Quickstart book. But I haven't played yet. My favorite genre to Roleplay is Superhero and I'm wondering if anyone has tried this system with Superhero games, and if yes, did it go well?
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tmagann
member, 762 posts
Thu 17 Feb 2022
at 15:59 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?In reply to Wildcard (msg # 1):
Well, the use the old Superworld Rules for the supers version of BRP (mostly, at least), and I used to play that a fair bit back in the 80s. We liked it.
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Jeffrywith1e
member, 56 posts
Geek dad
Mon 7 Mar 2022
at 23:13 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?In reply to Wildcard (msg # 1):
There was this short adventure published for Mythras which is a BRP d100 cousin.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/p...DM124-Agony--Ecstasy
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liblarva
member, 741 posts
Mon 7 Mar 2022
at 23:21 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?Interesting screen name considering the question and its answer...
Chaosium, makers of Basic Roleplaying, put out a game called Superworld back in 1983. It was so good and so engaging that a bunch of writers became obsessed with it, to the point where some of them nearly lost their writing careers. They collectively created a series of shared-world anthologies, short stories, and novels set in their version of the game. These are collectively known as the Wild Cards World. Two of the authors you might recognize are Melinda Snodgrass and George RR Martin.
So yeah, I'd say it works well enough.
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forkedspoon
member, 1 post
Wed 27 Apr 2022
at 17:04 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?
This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was against the ToU, at 18:01, Wed 27 Apr 2022.
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Z-master
member, 3 posts
Mon 19 Dec 2022
at 04:19 | Re: Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?| Wildcard: | | But I haven't played yet. My favorite genre to Roleplay is Superhero and I'm wondering if anyone has tried this system with Superhero games, and if yes, did it go well? |
I gamemastered Superworld for years and it worked extremely well, till I wrecked my game by converting it to Hero system and then to other systems when that proved too crunchy for my players and myself.
Superworld is lean, fast, and easy to learn, gamemaster, and play. You will probably like it, your players will probably learn it easily and like it, and it does a great job of giving you the kind of super action that happens in the Wild Cards books. The Superworld books are all cheap at DriveThruRPG. So far, so good.
The down side is that Superworld is severely limited. For example, there are no vehicle rules. You can have helicopter piloting skill, but in game mechanic terms there is nothing to pilot. The villain jumps into his getaway vehicle, and the gamemaster just has to say that he gets away or that he doesn't. It's the same with laboratories. You can have percentage skill rolls in sciences, but the laboratory you are using is pure gamemaster imagination. And so on.
My advice is to think seriously about the limits of the game before you begin, and either accept them once and for all or go with a system that covers what you need. I would never try to change systems in mid-campaign again.
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Alyse
member, 806 posts
Pretty, witty, and gay
[married since 2011!]
Mon 19 Dec 2022
at 12:12 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?| Z-master: | | The down side is that Superworld is severely limited. For example, there are no vehicle rules. It's the same with laboratories. You can have percentage skill rolls in sciences, but the laboratory you are using is pure gamemaster imagination. And so on. |
Easy enough to port rules from other BRP or BRP-derived builds like Call Of Cthulhu, Mythras, OpenQuest, etc.. Revolution D100 has some lovely invention rules, for example, albeit geared more toward a steampunk aesthetic than modern superheroes. That's one of BRP's strengths, you have all sorts of material to pull ideas and mechanics from.
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tmagann
member, 824 posts
Mon 19 Dec 2022
at 17:29 | Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?When Superworld first came out it was one third of Worlds of Wonder. The tech there was all in Future World, and all three books were meant to be used together.
I don't remember how much tech made it into Superworld as a stand alone product, as it's been a few decades.
But we are talking about BRB Superworld. Helicopters are on page 271 (in with the Vehicle rules). Lots of weapons and ammo, up to artillery. Historic, Modern, and Futuristic (which is good for Super Inventors) PLUS rules for making "Equipment with Superpowers" on page 246. That allows you to build pretty much anything you want, although there is a fair bit I didn't cover.
I'm not seeing the lack of tech, and specifically Vehicle Rules, claimed. Quite the opposite, I found it very easily.
Superworld works well, and if you don't like that system for Psionics or Magic. BRB has other options. Plenty of tech, including robot and mecha rules, variations on empowering NPCs to keep the PCs guessing, poisons...about all I didn't find was diseases, but I wasn't looking.
As I recall, the only drawback is that your powers grow slowly, as you earn basic stats the hard way: training is limited and experience gains are rare, so your powers will tend to be fixed in level. Not necessarily a big issue, but different from other game systems.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:30, Mon 19 Dec 2022.
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Z-master
member, 5 posts
Mon 19 Dec 2022
at 22:40 | Re: Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?I should not have replied without first getting old Superworld, which I myself said was cheap at DriveThruRPG, and reading it again. Man did that bring back the nostalgia!
I never saw Worlds of Wonder, so you have the advantage over me there.
| tmagann: | But we are talking about BRB Superworld. Helicopters are on page 271 (in with the Vehicle rules). Lots of weapons and ammo, up to artillery. Historic, Modern, and Futuristic (which is good for Super Inventors) PLUS rules for making "Equipment with Superpowers" on page 246. That allows you to build pretty much anything you want, although there is a fair bit I didn't cover.
I'm not seeing the lack of tech, and specifically Vehicle Rules, claimed. Quite the opposite, I found it very easily. |
Old Superworld ran to 134 pages for the boxed set, so this is a great improvement.
I did not experience the experience rules as a negative, nor did my players. As you said, it's not worse, just different.
My praise stands. This is a game that's easy to understand and quick to learn to gamemaster (even if you are young and impatient), easy to teach to your players, fun to play, and true to some types of superhero action.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:42, Mon 19 Dec 2022.
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pdboddy
supporter, 771 posts
EST/EDT [GMT-5/GMT-4]
Thu 22 Dec 2022
at 17:05 | Re: Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?Superworld did alright as a supers game, and it's a BRP game. Superworld was written by Steven Perrin, who wrote the original version of BRP. A campaign of Superworld gave rise to Wild Cards.
So your username checks out. Are you messing with us? :P
You might also find the Champions RPG of interest, Superworld is kind of a loveletter to Champions.
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Z-master
member, 10 posts
Sat 24 Dec 2022
at 20:12 | Re: Basic Roleplaying System: Good for Superheroes?| pdboddy: | | Superworld did alright as a supers game, and it's a BRP game. Superworld was written by Steven Perrin, who wrote the original version of BRP. A campaign of Superworld gave rise to Wild Cards. [...] Superworld is kind of a loveletter to Champions. |
All true.
Merry Christmas!
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