Quote from: RPGPundit;343069I couldn't stand DC Heroes. Like most other supers RPG, it failed miserably on the ground of actual play at being able to really emulate the Supers genre, while still using the rules by-the-book. In fact, along with Champions it was the textbook example of that.

RPGPundit

So, what is required of a game that fits the bill?

I feel like comics run such a range when it comes to combat that if your game emulates one, it will neglect another.

Even within just one comic, like X-Men, it isn't consistent. One day, Gambit and Wolverine might fight to the death through a whole issue. Another day, the fight could be over in three frames. I'm not sure you can capture that kind of inconsistency with a rules set.

Quote from: Cranewings;361673Even within just one comic, like X-Men, it isn't consistent. One day, Gambit and Wolverine might fight to the death through a whole issue. Another day, the fight could be over in three frames. I'm not sure you can capture that kind of inconsistency with a rules set.

In HeroQuest, those would be an Extended Contest (the former) and a Simple Contest (the latter).  I'm a big fan of HQ for supers.

!i!

Superhero comics of the full on 4-color variety seem to be a very problematic genre for RPGs... I'm not sure they even work all that well for movies (maybe they do for animation).
Sure, you get moments of big colorful action going on in either of them... but it seems like the genre is so symbiotically connected to the medium of comics that any time you take them out of it there need to be LARGE compromises.
 
So the real issue isn't doing super-powered heroes in fancy costume... it's doing comics.
Similar to how 'RPGs are not movies' and 'RPGs are not books' they aren't comics either.
Comics have a completely different set of requirements for consistency and continuity than RPGs.
I think the path to satisfaction might be to boil the concept down to what elements you really enjoy about superheroes and make sure your game has those... but avoid comparing them to the comic version because that's a different medium altogether and not all the tropes translate.

That being said I enjoyed playing Superworld... but at the time I hadn't read many superhero comics, so I couldn't be all that disappointed about it.

Depends on the game and the comics- and what elements one most wants to explore.
Stuff in the style of most Kirby comics (especially Thor, Captain America and the FF) from the 1960's could easily be done with any number of games, same thing with books like Hellboy. These comics focus on exploration and discovery as much as on super heroics (not unlike D&D, really).

However, I'd find something like Spiderman (from any period) with its focus on soap opera and teen angst extremely difficult to emulate.

Returning to my first examples, though, it is the elements of exploration that, imo, make it especially important for the GM to use a world of his own creation. The Negative Zone, the Great Refuge, the Savage Land  can each only be discovered for the first time once, after all.  Reed Richards ruined it for us all.

Quote from: Aos;361694... it is the elements of exploration that, imo, make it especially important for the GM to use a world of his own creation.

I agree with that. Exploration/discovery is my favorite element of RPGs... using licensed/pre-known settings detracts from that IMO.

One of the reasons I went with the design of H&S1E was to create the flexibility to create dramatic play, without scripting ahead of time or railroading. H&S worked pretty well for my style of play.

I'm working on improving that of course to share with others.

Monologues and the nature of stress and stress events come pretty heavily from the dramatic elements in Spider-Man (and other comics of similar themes)

Sure, but that is not the type of stuff I am personally interested in emphasizing, really.

Quote from: Aos;361706Sure, but that is not the type of stuff I am personally interested in emphasizing, really.

Advantage of some systems is they don't force ONE particular focus (cough cough Indie games cough..) instead they develop a set of tools for a bunch of different game styles. I know I wouldn't want a game for only ONE type of use.

Well, in theory I'm cool with that- but the spider-man type thing (and truthfully even some of the more angsty FF stuff, or Jane era Thor) don't really interest me. I'm all about visiting alien worlds and punching out dinosaurs and Stalanists. I use BASH (the original version) these days because, for my needs its all killer and no filler. However, I freely admit, it might not be the game for someone interested in exploring the themes you mention.
Aunt May is dead, long live Aunt May.

Quote from: Aos;361708Well, in theory I'm cool with that- but the spider-man type thing (and truthfully even some of the more angsty FF stuff, or Jane era Thor) don't really interest me. I'm all about visiting alien worlds and punching out dinosaurs and Stalanists. I use BASH (the original version) these days because, for my needs its all killer and no filler. However, I freely admit, it might not be the game for someone interested in exploring the themes you mention.
Aunt May is dead, long live Aunt May.

Well to be fair, I don't mind "Find evil and punch it in the face" either, why H&S isn't more narrative/indie/weird. Because I like traditional games just fine thank you. I aimed to make play of H&S give many of the same elements that reading a comic would--excitement, tenseness, effort needed, etc.

Plus I love alien worlds. I did miss out on including those (from Agent 8's homeworld, to the Godbloom and so on. They've always existed in H&S just not brought to the front.)

 I mostly ran an alien hybrid centric game for years after H&S was released and covered more alien-ness there than the core book. I plan on changing that with 2E covering some concept I've developed for the Lightbringers, and the Star Kings and their Knights and so on.