[Mystery Men] Has anyone seen this?

The Butcher · October 16, 2011, 10:24:21 PM

It's like Swords & Wizardry and Mutants & Masterminds had a baby. And then Gardner F. Fox raised it.

Free PDF download here.

Looks suprisingly good. Clear layout, good (if sparse) original art. Apparently most characters are public domain honest-to-God Golden Age creations.

I'll try and give it a better read tomorrow, if I find the time.

danbuter · October 16, 2011, 11:34:11 PM

I have a copy. It's not a bad game. It is very definitely aimed at low level supers. Stuff like the Phantom or the Rocketeer are doable, Superman or Green Lantern are not.

Silverlion · October 17, 2011, 06:00:00 AM

Yeah, I believe so. I wasn't impressed if its the one I'm thinking of--using D&D spells for powers is incredibly poorly thought out.

Ladybird · October 17, 2011, 08:42:11 AM

Quote from: Silverlion;485425Yeah, I believe so. I wasn't impressed if its the one I'm thinking of--using D&D spells for powers is incredibly poorly thought out.

I know the one you're thinking of, and no, this isn't it.

Looks good, from a brief skim through the first half of it, and nice artwork too.

Silverlion · October 17, 2011, 03:50:06 PM

Quote from: Ladybird;485432I know the one you're thinking of, and no, this isn't it.

Looks good, from a brief skim through the first half of it, and nice artwork too.

Edit: Never mind. It is exactly the one I'm thinking of "Color Spray" "Eyebite?" among others are all drawn from D&D spells.

Sorry that is it, and no, I'm not impressed. It is very nice and solid looking up until the powers--and then it falls down completely.

Ladybird · October 17, 2011, 05:02:19 PM

Quote from: Silverlion;485458Edit: Never mind. It is exactly the one I'm thinking of "Color Spray" "Eyebite?" among others are all drawn from D&D spells.

Sorry that is it, and no, I'm not impressed. It is very nice and solid looking up until the powers--and then it falls down completely.

Okay, my mistake - I'm thinking of a different one that was floating about two years ago, which I think was based off S&W, but predictably I can't find it now.

The Butcher · October 17, 2011, 05:11:14 PM

Quote from: Silverlion;485458Edit: Never mind. It is exactly the one I'm thinking of "Color Spray" "Eyebite?" among others are all drawn from D&D spells.

Sorry that is it, and no, I'm not impressed. It is very nice and solid looking up until the powers--and then it falls down completely.

Maybe Hideouts & Hoodlums set the bar very, very low, but I kind of liked the system in Mystery Men. But then I'm a fan of Heroes Unlimited, so WTF do I know.

Ladybird · October 17, 2011, 05:14:58 PM

Quote from: The Butcher;485472Maybe Hideouts & Hoodlums set the bar very, very low, but I kind of liked the system in Mystery Men. But then I'm a fan of Heroes Unlimited, so WTF do I know.

H&H might be the game I'm thinking of, but it was May 2009 that I was reading whatever it was - a H&H beta, maybe.

danbuter · October 17, 2011, 05:23:41 PM

Mystery Men very definitely just converts spells into powers. And the download is in the OP, so taking a minute to check would have confirmed it for you.

Simlasa · October 17, 2011, 06:22:48 PM

I'm curious why it's such a bad thing to use D&D spells as the basis for superpowers? From what recall they felt a lot more like comic book powers than mystical/arcane whatnots anyway.

ICFTI · October 17, 2011, 10:21:28 PM

Quote from: danbuter;485380I have a copy. It's not a bad game. It is very definitely aimed at low level supers. Stuff like the Phantom or the Rocketeer are doable, Superman or Green Lantern are not.

you could do superman using mystery men fairly easily. green lantern would be more difficult, if not impossible.

RPGPundit · October 18, 2011, 03:42:13 PM

This seems pretty pointless, and lazy. But hey, I guess its free, so whatever.

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DeadUematsu · October 20, 2011, 02:31:25 AM

It's easy to come up with your own mechanics for OD&D superheroics that I can't see why anyone would bother with Mystery Men. That and D&D spells as superpowers is pretty stupid.

Soylent Green · October 20, 2011, 03:18:31 AM

As far a D20 based super games go, I'm sure it's a step up from "The Foundation".

Of course, everything is a step up from The Foundation.

RPGPundit · October 21, 2011, 12:09:07 PM

Quote from: Soylent Green;485761As far a D20 based super games go, I'm sure it's a step up from "The Foundation".

Of course, everything is a step up from The Foundation.

Is it? Wasn't the Foundation the game that did the exact same thing? Basically just took the D&D 3.0 character classes and tried to repackage them as supers archetypes with almost no change?

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