Quote from: TristramEvans;488651The Golden Age was pretty gritty and violent. This is the time when Batman carried a gun, and shooting bad guys in the head was common practice for "superheroes".

I have no problems with the heroes offing criminals. My issue is that they shouldn't have to worry about getting killed by your average mugger, which could easily happen in Wild Talents/Godlike.

Quote from: TristramEvans;488651The Golden Age was pretty gritty and violent. This is the time when Batman carried a gun, and shooting bad guys in the head was common practice for "superheroes".

The thing is, There's really two "Golden Ages"...the actual one, which was excessively violent and dark, and the idealized version that's been put forth in comics themselves since the 80s, supported mainly by writers like Waid and Robinson. This version is bright, four-coloured, and extremely moral and goofy.

The latter is pretty much a perfect description of the Silver Age.

Oh, and on topic: ICONS.

Quote from: Aos;488716The latter is pretty much a perfect description of the Silver Age.

The Silver Age is characterized, especially with the advent of Marvel, by the deconstruction of a lot of Golden Age tropes: teenagers were allowed to be superheroes themselves instead of just sidekicks, superhero teammates with divisive personality clashes, personal drama involving stuff besides two women fighting over Superman, etc. The Silver Age also introduced several concepts that are nowadays mistakenly associated with the Golden Age, such as the "superheroes don't kill" meme (which was most likely originally a conceit to appease the Comics Code Authority).

Quote from: TristramEvans;488843The Silver Age is characterized, especially with the advent of Marvel, by the deconstruction of a lot of Golden Age tropes: teenagers were allowed to be superheroes themselves instead of just sidekicks, superhero teammates with divisive personality clashes, personal drama involving stuff besides two women fighting over Superman, etc. The Silver Age also introduced several concepts that are nowadays mistakenly associated with the Golden Age, such as the "superheroes don't kill" meme (which was most likely originally a conceit to appease the Comics Code Authority).

I was thinking more of DC* silver age than Marvel (I prefer the latter, myself.


*with shit like super pets or superman waking up one morning with rings like saturn around his waist or (pre Kirby) Jimmy Olson's monthly transformations/weirdo temporary super powers.

Quote from: The_Shadow;488537Yeah, but will Bob be happy with the GM telling him he's getting 50 points while Bill is getting 120? With random generation, on the other hand, both players get to roll the dice to see if they get lucky.

I suppose I should have explained what "AP" is - It's a cap on how powerful your powers can get, individually. (In Hero, gadgets are just powers defined as gadgets. It works rather well).

The basic idea, though, is Batman gets a lot of not-so-powerful stuff and Superman gets a few very powerful stuff. Should work for any kind of point-buy superhero game.

Quote from: Narf the Mouse;488868I suppose I should have explained what "AP" is - It's a cap on how powerful your powers can get, individually. (In Hero, gadgets are just powers defined as gadgets. It works rather well).

Minor non-OP-relevant question. Do the rules make any provision for made-up-on-the-spot gadgets? The old Mayfair DC Heroes RPG had Omni-Gadgets. Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion has the Invention power. Simon Washbourne's Supers! (my current go-to supers RPG, and not a bad choice for Golden Age gaming, BTW) has the Super-Science power.

This might seem a tad silly, but it's a great asset to emulate crazy prepared gadget-using heroes and villains like Batman and Lex Luthor.

Quote from: The Butcher;488874Minor non-OP-relevant question. Do the rules make any provision for made-up-on-the-spot gadgets? The old Mayfair DC Heroes RPG had Omni-Gadgets. Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion has the Invention power. Simon Washbourne's Supers! (my current go-to supers RPG, and not a bad choice for Golden Age gaming, BTW) has the Super-Science power.

This might seem a tad silly, but it's a great asset to emulate crazy prepared gadget-using heroes and villains like Batman and Lex Luthor.

Not only does Hero support that, it, like usual, has more than one way to do that.

First is a Variable Power Pool, which allows you to create X points worth of powers of no more than Y AP. Provided a little time, you can create any power which fits the concept of the VPP - Gadgets, Magic, Psionics, Necromancy, Mad Science, etc.. With one Advantage (a type of power modifiers), you can have your "power creation" take no time and require no skill roll for rushing.

Second is as a "special effect", or "what it looks like 'on TV'" of a Skill. If Batman has Lockpicking, he can simply be assumed to have lockpicks. If he has Disguise, he can be assumed to have a disguise kit.

Second and a half, if you have a skill roll of 18- (Roll-under on 3d6), your skill can now do things that would normally require a power; more exceptional things for every +10 to the roll-under. So Batman's cape could be a SFX (special effect) of a Breakfall roll of 28-.

Second and three-quarters, a Skill VPP, while requiring GM's permission, is certainly possible.

Third, the Hero System Advanced Player's Guide II introduces the Object Creation power, which is essentially "Prestidigitation meets Conjure Object", only without the implied SFX.

Fourth, if all else fails, use the Transform power, which can be found in the core 6e1: Character Creation rulebook. Transform (Severe, Anything to Gadget) would be one way to simulate Batman's gadgetry. A Severe Transform can easily add and alter powers.

And there may be more.

Oh yeah - Extra-Dimensional Movement with a SFX of "The character 'travels' to the 'dimension' where they 'possess' the desired object." It's a variation on the default way of doing "Wish" in Hero System.

Wow,this is so cool,which systems should i use for golden age supers?,just asking.

Quote from: Ratguy on August 09, 2023, 03:46:54 PM
Wow,this is so cool,which systems should i use for golden age supers?,just asking.

B/X Gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book.  It is random generation so you can't vector your hero, or min/mad with point buy.

My favorite superhero game was Villains and avigilantes.  That was set in the "current era" which was the 1980's.  It also had random power generation, as well as weaknesses that were built into the system.  Character generation was math-heavy and it was really hard to die. 

Prowlers and Paragons.

My goto is always MSH (Advanced). But for Golden Age I'd seriously consider Savage Worlds Supers Companion.

It can handle the street-level all the way to godlike level that is representative of Golden Age era, without having to haul in all the godlike assumptions of a setting that would make it *not* appropriate for the era. (But you could if you wanted.)

The abstraction between the power-level assumptions of the Golden Era is far less noticeable than in say, MSH. You can have your Sandman running around with Superman, just fine in Savage Worlds with little problem.

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on August 10, 2023, 01:17:13 PM

Quote from: Ratguy on August 09, 2023, 03:46:54 PM
Wow,this is so cool,which systems should i use for golden age supers?,just asking.

B/X Gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book.  It is random generation so you can't vector your hero, or min/mad with point buy.

My favorite superhero game was Villains and avigilantes.  That was set in the "current era" which was the 1980's.  It also had random power generation, as well as weaknesses that were built into the system.  Character generation was math-heavy and it was really hard to die.

Cool,man,which edition of gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book?

Quote from: Ratguy on August 10, 2023, 03:50:17 PM

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on August 10, 2023, 01:17:13 PM

Quote from: Ratguy on August 09, 2023, 03:46:54 PM
Wow,this is so cool,which systems should i use for golden age supers?,just asking.

B/X Gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book.  It is random generation so you can't vector your hero, or min/mad with point buy.

My favorite superhero game was Villains and avigilantes.  That was set in the "current era" which was the 1980's.  It also had random power generation, as well as weaknesses that were built into the system.  Character generation was math-heavy and it was really hard to die.

Cool,man,which edition of gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book?

B/X Gangbusters

Now, we need to talk about forum ettiquette: You now have people answering you in 3 threads, two you resurrected and one you created new. All with the same theme, questions.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 10, 2023, 04:00:49 PM

Quote from: Ratguy on August 10, 2023, 03:50:17 PM

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on August 10, 2023, 01:17:13 PM

Quote from: Ratguy on August 09, 2023, 03:46:54 PM
Wow,this is so cool,which systems should i use for golden age supers?,just asking.

B/X Gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book.  It is random generation so you can't vector your hero, or min/mad with point buy.

My favorite superhero game was Villains and avigilantes.  That was set in the "current era" which was the 1980's.  It also had random power generation, as well as weaknesses that were built into the system.  Character generation was math-heavy and it was really hard to die.

Cool,man,which edition of gangbusters has rules for super powered characters in the back of the book?

B/X Gangbusters

Now, we need to talk about forum ettiquette: You now have people answering you in 3 threads, two you resurrected and one you created new. All with the same theme, questions.

i am very sorry about that!,it wont happen again.

If I was to run superheroes right now, it would be Tiny-D6 Supers, with the Fallen Justice expansion book. 

It's easy, while allowing you to create pretty much any hero you can think of.  Fallen Justice is more about street vigilantes, almost to the point that fall Fallen Justice is the Batman expansion.  Fists and attitude, with gadget belts and tricked out vehicles.

The downside is the vague nature of the game.  People who like crunch and rules for everything should go elsewhere.  After all there are only three dice rolls.  1D6, 2D6, or 3D6, and you win if you get a 5 or 6 to show up.  That's 33.3%, 56%, or 70%.   

I like rules lite stuff, so it's for me.