We’re halfway through superhero week for 2012 and it’s about time we dug out the roleplaying games.
RPGs have given superhero genre plenty of attention over the years. We’ve had some fantastic games. Which is your all time favourite superhero RPG?
Check out the list below. Is your favourite game included? Leave a note in the comments below. While you’re at it – rate the games you’ve played and we’ll see how they stack up to the superheroic competition!
Heads up: License products – like the Marvel and DC RPGs aren’t included.
Aberrant by White Wolf
Published in 1999 (with a d20 edition in 2004), Aberannt is set in 2008 and 10 afters super powers started to appear. It’s the middle setting in the Trinity Universe timeline, between the pulp game Adventure! and before the psionics game Trinty/Aeon.
Brave New World by AEG
The game was first published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1999 and then picked up by AEG (Alderac Entertainment Group) a year later. Brave New World is set in an alternative America which has become a fascist state, stuck under martial law since the 60s. Brave New World draws on Kingdom Come and Batman for influence.
Capes by Muse of Fire Games
Capes in an indie RPG by Tony Lower-Basch. Players decide which character they want to play before each new scene and runs without a GM. Players take on the roles of villains as well as heroes and compete to tell stories, earning story tokens which can be used to influence the game.
Champions by Hero Games
The first edition of Champions came out in 1981 and was one of the first games that let players use a point-based system to build characters rather than dice rolls. The current edition of the game (6th ed, 2010) uses the Hero System and was written by Aaron Allston.
GURPS Supers by Steve Jackson Games
The current edition of GURPS Supers (4th) is written by William H. Stoddard with the longtime GURPS Line Editor Sean Punch with overview. As with all GURPS titles, GURPS Supers needs the main GURPS rulebook and then provides a layer for the superhero genre.
Hereos Unlimited by Palladium Books
Heroes Unlimited, now in its 2nd edition, is written and created by Kevin Siembieda. It allows players to create a wide range of superhero characters including those compatible with the space fantasy Rifts.
Mutants & Masterminds by Green Ronin
M&M is a multiple ENNie winning hero game that published first in 2002 and then again in 2005. The game was first published under the Open Game License – although it was originally designed to be a full d20 System game. Characters in Mutants and Masterminds don’t have a “character level” but have a “Power Level” instead.
Silver Age Sentinels by Guardians of Order
Inspired by the classic “four-colour” series from DC and Marvel, Silver Age Sentinels was published in 2002 as a Tri-Stat system and then, just two months later, as a d20 version. It was designed by Stephen Kenson, Mark C. MacKinnon, Jeff Mackintosh and Jesse Scoble.
Superworld by Chaosium
Created by Steve Perrin (Basic Role-Playing and RuneQuest) in 1983, Superworld uses the traditional Chaosium Basic Role-Playing with the addition of powers. Characters by generic effects, as they do in the Champions model, and then modify them through Advantages and Disadvantages.
Mutant City Blues by Pelgrane Press
Set in a world after the “Sudden Mutation Event” players take on roles as the elite “Heightened Crime Investigation Unit”. These are the detectives who must deal with crime in a world where 1% of the population has been given super powers. This means 1% of all criminals.











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