What games, currently, have your interest?

[Blue]

What's that one like, anyway? I've looked at it a couple of times but never pulled the trigger, and I haven't seen a good review or actual play yet. One of relatively few supers games I haven't at least tried yet.

I haven't had a chance to play, either.

Here's a few snippets that made me want to try it:

"If you want to try superheroes in a PbtA game, I very highly recommend Worlds in Peril. It's specifically geared towards the Marvel/DC superhero style. Gives you bonds for the supporting cast, team and base stuff and great rules for creating a superhero. Nothing world specific, so feel free to tell whatever kind of superhero story you want with it. I've played and run in a few different games with it. Always a blast."

"Worlds in Peril is a more general superhero system - the powers are very freeform and you can push yourself during combat to discover new powers or new uses for your powers. Bonds (with characters, the city, or the police force) are a resource you can "burn" to boost a roll, though I haven't really looked into what that means.

[Description of Masks: A New Generation]

If you want to tell a story about young heroes figuring themselves out, like Teen Titans or Young Justice, definitely go for Masks, it is tuned for that specific genre in a way that makes it great. If you want another kind of superhero game, like one about new heroes in a world where the supernatural is unknown, or an older generation dealing with cosmic-level threats, go with Worlds in Peril, as it's more flexible."

and

"Worlds in Peril is all about heroes learning how far they can push their powers and the potential dangers of pushing yourself to stop the villain at all costs. The freeform powers are designed to make you think about how the hero would use the powers. This is a very heavily modified PbtA game. You don't choose premade playbooks like Dungeon World. You create your character from an origin story and motivation. You earn the ability to have moves beyond the basic moves and your power by engaging in the fiction in ways that fulfill requirement from your origin and motivation. The healing/bond restoration mechanic forces players to engage in non-action scenes with their specified NPCs, but has a basic move you do to resolve it and allow the player to narrate the resolution.

Play Worlds in Peril if you want to tell stories about heroes discovering what their powers are capable of doing and trying to balance their superhero life with their secret identity relationships."

 

[payn]

I haven't had a chance to play, either.

Here's a few snippets that made me want to try it:

"If you want to try superheroes in a PbtA game, I very highly recommend Worlds in Peril. It's specifically geared towards the Marvel/DC superhero style. Gives you bonds for the supporting cast, team and base stuff and great rules for creating a superhero. Nothing world specific, so feel free to tell whatever kind of superhero story you want with it. I've played and run in a few different games with it. Always a blast."

"Worlds in Peril is a more general superhero system - the powers are very freeform and you can push yourself during combat to discover new powers or new uses for your powers. Bonds (with characters, the city, or the police force) are a resource you can "burn" to boost a roll, though I haven't really looked into what that means.

[Description of Masks: A New Generation]

If you want to tell a story about young heroes figuring themselves out, like Teen Titans or Young Justice, definitely go for Masks, it is tuned for that specific genre in a way that makes it great. If you want another kind of superhero game, like one about new heroes in a world where the supernatural is unknown, or an older generation dealing with cosmic-level threats, go with Worlds in Peril, as it's more flexible."

and

"Worlds in Peril is all about heroes learning how far they can push their powers and the potential dangers of pushing yourself to stop the villain at all costs. The freeform powers are designed to make you think about how the hero would use the powers. This is a very heavily modified PbtA game. You don't choose premade playbooks like Dungeon World. You create your character from an origin story and motivation. You earn the ability to have moves beyond the basic moves and your power by engaging in the fiction in ways that fulfill requirement from your origin and motivation. The healing/bond restoration mechanic forces players to engage in non-action scenes with their specified NPCs, but has a basic move you do to resolve it and allow the player to narrate the resolution.

Play Worlds in Peril if you want to tell stories about heroes discovering what their powers are capable of doing and trying to balance their superhero life with their secret identity relationships."

As somebody who dislikes the supers genre, I have come around by playing PbtA versions. Having a more narrative focus naturally lends better to the genre, IMO. I would never play in anything like D&D, Savage Worlds, Hero, GURPs. style RPGs. YMMV.

 

[Autumnal]

Potential games I’m looking into:
Dark Heresy/ Imperium Maledictum version of Masks of Nyarlathotep.

This is intriguing! Could you say some more about it? Multiple worlds, or locations on a single planet?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I haven't had a chance to play, either.

Drat. Yeah, I'm a fan of Masks for what it's designed to do, but adult heroes are not what it does - hence the appeal of WiP, which seems to examine an aspect of the genre that doesn't get addressed much in other systems - maybe Aberrant a bit (where Taint is the big risk of pushing yourself) but the setting is so not-Four-Color I find it a bit off-putting, and Sentinel Comics also has quite a few "oops" moments thanks to their twist mechanics - which are as much a metacurrency cost for being extra-awesome as they are a price for pushing to success in an Overcome.

As somebody who dislikes the supers genre, I have come around by playing PbtA versions. Having a more narrative focus naturally lends better to the genre, IMO. I would never play in anything like D&D, Savage Worlds, Hero, GURPs. style RPGs. YMMV.

I enjoy the occasional higher-crunch supers RPG to this day, but my tastes have drifted toward lighter fare over the decades. I find Sentinels does a good job of feeling like it hits the genre tropes I'm looking for most of the time, and Masks is superlative for young-hero narrative play. Villains & Vigilantes is about as crunchy as I've gotten with supers since COVID, and even that was mostly nostalgia play with old friends.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Hmmm. Besides 13th Age (which I'm running right now), I'm tentatively interested in Vault (I want to read it in more detail before I'm sure about it, Fragged Empire 2e, Eclipse Phase 2e, and to a degree, Sabre Fantasy 3e and Fantasy Age 2e (I want to find out to what degree it addresses some of my issues with FA1e/DA). I'm in a weird place with superhero games right now because I'm not entirely happy with any of the ones that at all serve my needs.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Going a bit off topic here, but how does Lancer and Battletech compare?

Lancer's an odd duck. The mecha end of things is pretty crunchy and detailed. The out of mecha stuff is broad stroke and pretty narrative.

 

[thullgrim]

This is intriguing! Could you say some more about it? Multiple worlds, or locations on a single planet?

Of I had to be pinned down right now I’d say multiple worlds. I want warp travel in at least one chapter. Definitely multiple worlds in the same system.

In my head the Australia connections are being pursued by a rival Radical =I=, the London sections involve planetary nobility, the New York sections deal with down Hive scum and gangers.

Picking a chaos god to hang the whole thing on is the hard part. Tzeentch is the obvious choice but I’m leaning towards Slaanesh or Nurgle at this point.

 

[J.Quondam]

At this very moment:

• Barbarians of Lemuria
• Captain's Log Solo Star Trek rpg
• Ryuutama
• Gran Meccanismo

 

[TheHand]

• I have a 12+ year Planescape campaign currently running in 5e that’s my “forever DM” game.
• I’m also playing in another 5e game that’s adapted the Goodman Games take on Expedition to Barrier Peaks.
• in the pipe, I’m using a hacked and modded version of Sentinel Comics to run a future Godzilla one shot that should be good campy fun.
• I also like to return to the BattleTech universe, and I have an on again off again Mechwarrior Destiny game (I don’t have any live players for BattleTech currently, and I found MW: D is easier to run online)
• I may check out Star Trek Adventures 2nd ed. Played a couple one shots with the first that was fun

 

[hawkeyefan]

Is it an ongoing Mothership game, or is each one a one-shot? I just got the new boxed set as well and am looking forward to at least running a one-shot with it.

I ran Another Bug Hunt for a few sessions, but now that’s done, so I’m going to have them head to Prospero’s Dream from Pound of Flesh. I’ll intro that location and do a mix of that and home brew stuff. I try to keep it pretty episodic because it’s a back up game and it’s uncertain when we’ll play again.