I want to run a supers campaign. I was thinking about assembling a little questionnaire for my players to find out what sort of campaign they want to have before I start putting stuff together. What should I ask?
Also superhero RPGs general
I'm about to run a Champions game myself.
Ask about mood, theme, and setting. How silly or straight you want to play things, stuff like that. There's so much variance in the superhero genre and its good to go in knowing what to expect, especially when designing characters.
What system are you using?
>>46853717
Unsure. I like the balance and freedom of CHAMPIONS, but I'm worried it might be too much for my players, even if I do the character creation.
I saw a mention recently of a dice pool supers game which intrigued me. Anyone know what it was?
>>46853717
From what I understand, Champions is supposed to be pretty quick and easy once people kinda know what their doing - much like Rolemaster, I'd imagine. I intend to play it rules light and not worry about specific details outside of combat, so hopefully my players don't have too rough a time of it.
I've run Mutants and Masterminds before and it didn't go well - the way they've abstracted damage down to a series of penalties and the way that they've balanced the the defense and offense means that either you hit and deal practically no damage or you swing with a high-damage attack and miss. I get what they were going for in theory, but the practice of it bogged down combat and made the whole game kinda boring.
I'm hoping Champions will scratch my superhero itch while still providing exciting and interesting combat experiences. I also like how its a little more street - you can still build rediculous powers, but everything seems to be dialed back a notch in terms of What you spend : What you get, compared to M&M.
Besides what's been said already, here's some random thoughts for OP's questionnaire:
>Is there a particular "Age" of comic books (Golden, Silver, Bronze, Dark, Modern, other) that they enjoy?
>Who/What are some of their favorite heroes/villains/comics/shows?
>What power level and scope would they prefer? Non-powered vigilantes keeping a neighborhood safe? Superhumans protecting their country? Universe-shattering gods traveling the galaxy? Universe-shattering gods keeping their neighborhood safe? Non-powered vigilantes traveling the galaxy?
>How common are superpowers in the setting? Are they likely to run into many other superpowered characters, or only a handful of villains?
>Should the police/government feel positive, negative, neutral, or conflicted about heroes?
>Which of the following should or should not factor into the story: aliens, gods/demons, crazy scientific experiments, mutant genes?
>Can love bloom on the battlefield? (i.e.: should character relationships be something to focus on?)
>How easy/hard should it be for a character to die, and how easy/hard to bring them back? Perhaps separate sections for PCs, NPC supers, and innocent bystanders.
>>46853850
>I saw a mention recently of a dice pool supers game which intrigued me. Anyone know what it was?
Could have been Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. That's solely based on dice pools.
>>46854525
>Marvel
Alas.
Still, can you tell me more about how it plays?
>>46853658
Ah, Champions 2nd Edition. Home to some of the best side work of the day. While the rebalancing of 3e and 4e would help, the presentation of Justice, Inc. was inspiring in ways that Call of Cthulhu wasn't.
>>46857193
Go on...
>>46857289
CoC is less about exploration and discovery of the Pulp world, and more about keeping that world from eating your brain while you watch.
>>46857289
>>46857382
While Justice, Inc. is presented as the exuberant side of 20s Pulp. Two-fisted Adventure instead of "Never Summon Up That Which You Cannot Put Down".
It helps that even "normal" Hero characters are a bit harder to kill than a CoC character.
Get (by "means available") the supplement Lands of Mystery. It set a standard for Genre Bibles that went unmatched for years.
>>46857193
Note that the core system doesn't change from 1e to 5e. Points and powers change some, and things get better presented on average (3e's Robot Warriors has a few issues with typography and layout) as the editions progress from 1e to 4e, then take a gigantic step backwards over a cliff in 5e.
Speaking of genre bibles, 4e's Mystic Masters has a fascinating deconstruction of Hero's assumptions while also presenting the Doctor Strange sub-genre. Take the gigantic villain in the back with a ton of salt, though.
>>46853803
An important concept to remember with Hero, and particularly its powers, is that you are building the Effect, not the Cause. The speedster who is so fast that he won't be where you just punched, the guy who has already played out your fight a thousand times and knows what you will do, and the guy with spidey senses are all Danger Sense 14- and a high DCV.
