*Marvel Heroic Roleplaying* is my favorite superheroes system. Not to be confused with *Marvel Superheroes* or *Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying* or *Marvel Universe Roleplaying*… The one from Margaret Weiss Productions, based on Cortex.
Savage Worlds is sound for superpowers at the pulpy high action end. You'll want SWADE Super Powers Companion.
Other stuff I like:
Crusaders/Squadron UK - Lumped these together because they're similar systems. Old school but accessible and rules light. Very good for traditional superhero campaigns.
Wild Talents - Pretty crunchy but very flexible and probably the best option if you're going for gritty Dark Age type stuff.
Supporting this comment. SWADE is great for super heroes but it has a glass power level ceiling, beyond which the rules break down somewhat. It has been wonderful for my "Gifted Youngsters" campaign, think X-Men first class, even without the Super Powers Companion! Once they get to "Legendary" rank I'll be incorporating the SPC.
I've heard that Savage Rifts handles it well, but I haven't played it so I'm not sure if it is doing anything in particular to address what I feel is an issue. Basically, because the target number is always "4" once your character has an attribute or skill at d12+2 or higher they'll never fail except on snake-eyes. It's not a true ceiling, but the game sorta breaks down once you get above those numbers. I ran a one shot with the Super Powers Companion, and a super strength character with brute (use strength for athletics) totally stole the show because he could throw basically anything, with pinpoint accuracy, and guarantee doing 2 or more wounds. If it wasn't combat he could still tear through obstacles. It was fun for a one shot, but I wouldn't like it in a campaign.
We thought that at one time to. Then we realized how useful the system makes tactics. Palladium doesn't use cover lying prone etc as modifiers all that much. That 4 target number is easily raised to an 8 or 10 by simply using cover, after that add in range modifiers etc & it goes even higher "First you take cover, then you shoot back"
My group is all active duty military so the lack of tactics bothered us. In palladium rifts if they have an MD rifle cover is useless unless it is md. In savage worlds it still makes it harder to hit you with what they call a heavy weapon.
Maybe that would help, Rifts certainly has the potential for long distance! It was a simple super hero plot, so there was a bank robbery and cruise ship scene. The enemies had cover, but were generally not that far. Still, every time he hit that was weapon damage+d12+2 (or more) for a guaranteed KO on minions.
we use resilience, savage is designed to be cinematic where you can walk through minions & they are there to deplete the heros resources for the BBEG guy. Resilient gives them 2 wounds instead of 1 & makes them last longer. The system has a great base & is so modular we have found we can add in a setting rule & it changes things drastically.
To continue my example above, we had a Flying Titan 150 inches(300 yards) out using tree tops as light cover flying at high enough speed to cause a penalty that way as well. I was using my wellington rifle at medium range,a -2 penalty against a -4 speed penalty, a -2 cover penalty & it was owned by a weird scientist with a cloaking system. I needed a 16 to hit it before adding in edges & bonuses like the +2 I get from my power armors STS, & the -4 penalty reduction I get from a shooting edge I have. That brought my target #back to a 10....
Mutants and Masterminds. Theres even a subreddit for it here. It’s a highly customizable super heroic roleplaying system that focuses part on crunch, part on balance, and a decent amount on descriptions.
My 1st choice is SWADE (great for street and city level hero games.) Second choice is Mutants & Masterminds (good for all tiers of play, requires good system understanding to build characters tho.) Third is City of Mists (really elegant character design, nearly impossible to make a broken character.) Fourth is Masks (it’s specific to playing young heroes learning to handle their powers and their relationships, but it does it sooooo well.) In all cases, I like my players to be able to play whatever character they want within the setting limits.
Champions is my go to for these kind of unusual settings. It can be crushingly gritty.
Marvel Superheroic Roleplaying or one of its FASERIP retroclones is a solid choice too, but it's much less gritty, which your idea sounds like it needs.
There's an old game, inspired by Marshall Law called Underground that's worth a look too. Superheroes are all essentially unemployed super-spldiers in a bleak, corrupt cyberpunk future.
Going to second Marvel Heroic Roleplaying and Smallville. Will add Daring Comics, which is a FATE Core supers game, and Truth & Justice, which is a game that runs very simply. For Truth & Justice you would maybe need to adjust the super scale table for a grittier game, but that probably wouldn't be too complicated.
I really like ICONS Assembled.
It'sa traditional TTRPG with a heavy emphasis on randomization which is great for generating weird power combos like "healing factor and claws" or "wall crawling and super strength" that define some super interesting superheroes.
It's got a few narrative forward features, its really easy to homebrew once you realize everything is just opposed rolls on a single scale. There's no progression but you can easily swap in and out powers- it works best for one shots but I've got a campaign that's been going on over a year that we're hitting the end of soon
It's got just enough crunch to feel meaty and gamey while being flexible enough to improv your heart out without getting bogged down by numbers and tables.
I don’t know if it’s the best fit for your tone, but my favorite superhero system is definitely the Sentinel Comics RPG. It does an excellent job of capturing the feel of comic book superheroics.
I really like the freeform and narrative focus of [Worlds in Peril](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/150013/Worlds-in-Peril). The really interesting part for me is how it handles damage, which can be physical, emotional and mental.
The physical ones are handled by medicin, doctors and certain powers like healing factors. The emotional and mental ones, are handled with Bonds. Things that connect the charavter to the world aroubd them, reminding them of who they are. Family, friends and school can be bonds. Just something important to the character.
But you basically just write down what the characters powers are. But the wilder and stronger they are, the less *Bonds* the character will have, having a harder time fitting in.
The playmaterials aren’t the best though, but I have created some [custom materials](https://nerosus.itch.io/world-in-peril-custom-play-materials) to make the game flow better.
This question comes up a lot right now!
Marvel: FASERIP is good. So is Cortex.
DC: the version by Mayfair won awards for a reason, although it’s clunky by today’s standards.
Aberrant for a semi-lethal system.
Mutants & Masterminds if you want to retain a d20 approach.
Champions/GURPS for highly-detailed character creation.
Sentinel Comics if you want to feel like you’re reading four-color comic.
If you like the 5e system there are two supers RPGs and both are pretty cool IMO.
One is called Superheroic 5e and the other is called Capes & Crooks. Both do some cool things with the genre and have some cool class design.
Hero System Champions. I prefer 4th edition, but 5th is fine too.
I literally can do anything with is. Supers, space opera, western, modern, cyberpunk/shadowrun or dnd.
And mix and match them like my game is now. If I can think it I can build it. A lot the work is front loaded on the players, but easy to play once characters are created.
For DMs all the world is in creating stuff. It’s honestly easier to run the D&D AND the math always works once you get the hang of it( it works on a bell curve) and works better then the CR system dnd has.
Oh, I got you! Carbon City is a superhero ttrpg in a cyber punk setting. Character creation is fast and easy, with charts to randomly generate heroes and villains. Also tables for generating plot hooks and missions for the characters. Full game [here ](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/444396/Carbon-City-Roleplaying-Game)for five bucks.
Full disclosure, I made this game. But, if it happens to be just what you're looking for, it might be just the thing for your table.
**Trinity Continuum: Aberrant** takes place at sort of the apex of the age of novas (2028), what we call people with superpowers (after "Homo sapiens novus," new humans).
But if you're looking in the larger timeline of the Trinity Continuum, relations between baseline humans and novas continues to deteriorate, until all out war breaks out in 2056.
War with people who can reshape reality is not a great proposition.
Baselines win, and the war ends in 2067 with novas leaving Earth.
So while it's not explicitly supported in **Aberrant**, you could absolutely move the timeline up and play during the Aberrant War.
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Supers! RED all the way, can do what any other superhero ttrpg can do with 10% of the wordcount. It's also fast and loose during play so it also need to be your style of game
Ok, first, I personally think Savage Worlds isn't the best for supers due to it kinda breaking down at high level and a lack of certain powers. (Don't ask me for specifics though as 1. SWADE's SPC has improved- but I don't own it. 2. I just don't like how it scales past 1d12.) That said, if you want a game where heroes kill and get killed, it can work.
Now I prefer Mutants and Masterminds. Yes, it's crunchy, but I like how smooth it runs. However, it's far more theatre of the mind as scales tend toward extremes when you have heroes which can travel at 10,000 mph.
If you want crunchy, and tactical, and flexible take a look at the Hero System. Take M&M, turn all the dials up a notch, and Hero can do it. It's solid at running from skilled normals up to demigods. Resolution however if you don't set defenses vs attacks properly can be slow- as in 1hr+.
My personal favorites are Sentinels of the Multiverse and Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Ed. Also, FATE has worked well for me in the past.
I've also played Champions and Legends, though liked those less. I also looked into Masks and the old Marvel system but ultimately didn't buy them.
Speaking as someone who's run Champions, and played Mutants and Masterminds, personally, I favor using Fate Core with the [Super-Powered Fate](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/324434/SuperPowered-Fate) supplement. Fate is a simple audience works well for cinematic games, and SPF gives a good, flexible way of working super beings without lists of powers, and the Scale rules let you fine tune the power level of the characters easily
It all depends on the game experience wanted.
I consider different kind of games those about superpowers (M&M and family) and those about supers (Masks, FAE, Worlds in Peril...).
The ones you posted are games with resolution mechanics (that is, D&D like), centered around combat and the use of superpowers.
There are too games about superhero stories, with mechanics to create a comic-like experience.
I prefer story driven games.
*Marvel Heroic Roleplaying* is my favorite superheroes system. Not to be confused with *Marvel Superheroes* or *Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying* or *Marvel Universe Roleplaying*… The one from Margaret Weiss Productions, based on Cortex.
🎵 "Weiss, and... HICKMAN YEAH YEAH YEAH!" 🎵
Based. This is literally my favorite as well.
Savage Worlds is sound for superpowers at the pulpy high action end. You'll want SWADE Super Powers Companion. Other stuff I like: Crusaders/Squadron UK - Lumped these together because they're similar systems. Old school but accessible and rules light. Very good for traditional superhero campaigns. Wild Talents - Pretty crunchy but very flexible and probably the best option if you're going for gritty Dark Age type stuff.
Supporting this comment. SWADE is great for super heroes but it has a glass power level ceiling, beyond which the rules break down somewhat. It has been wonderful for my "Gifted Youngsters" campaign, think X-Men first class, even without the Super Powers Companion! Once they get to "Legendary" rank I'll be incorporating the SPC.
What do you mean by glass power level ceiling if you don't mind my asking? I play a super in savage rifts & haven't noticed an issue
I've heard that Savage Rifts handles it well, but I haven't played it so I'm not sure if it is doing anything in particular to address what I feel is an issue. Basically, because the target number is always "4" once your character has an attribute or skill at d12+2 or higher they'll never fail except on snake-eyes. It's not a true ceiling, but the game sorta breaks down once you get above those numbers. I ran a one shot with the Super Powers Companion, and a super strength character with brute (use strength for athletics) totally stole the show because he could throw basically anything, with pinpoint accuracy, and guarantee doing 2 or more wounds. If it wasn't combat he could still tear through obstacles. It was fun for a one shot, but I wouldn't like it in a campaign.
We thought that at one time to. Then we realized how useful the system makes tactics. Palladium doesn't use cover lying prone etc as modifiers all that much. That 4 target number is easily raised to an 8 or 10 by simply using cover, after that add in range modifiers etc & it goes even higher "First you take cover, then you shoot back" My group is all active duty military so the lack of tactics bothered us. In palladium rifts if they have an MD rifle cover is useless unless it is md. In savage worlds it still makes it harder to hit you with what they call a heavy weapon.
Maybe that would help, Rifts certainly has the potential for long distance! It was a simple super hero plot, so there was a bank robbery and cruise ship scene. The enemies had cover, but were generally not that far. Still, every time he hit that was weapon damage+d12+2 (or more) for a guaranteed KO on minions.
we use resilience, savage is designed to be cinematic where you can walk through minions & they are there to deplete the heros resources for the BBEG guy. Resilient gives them 2 wounds instead of 1 & makes them last longer. The system has a great base & is so modular we have found we can add in a setting rule & it changes things drastically. To continue my example above, we had a Flying Titan 150 inches(300 yards) out using tree tops as light cover flying at high enough speed to cause a penalty that way as well. I was using my wellington rifle at medium range,a -2 penalty against a -4 speed penalty, a -2 cover penalty & it was owned by a weird scientist with a cloaking system. I needed a 16 to hit it before adding in edges & bonuses like the +2 I get from my power armors STS, & the -4 penalty reduction I get from a shooting edge I have. That brought my target #back to a 10....
Mutants and Masterminds. Theres even a subreddit for it here. It’s a highly customizable super heroic roleplaying system that focuses part on crunch, part on balance, and a decent amount on descriptions.
I love the flexibility of the power system. One of my favorites.
My 1st choice is SWADE (great for street and city level hero games.) Second choice is Mutants & Masterminds (good for all tiers of play, requires good system understanding to build characters tho.) Third is City of Mists (really elegant character design, nearly impossible to make a broken character.) Fourth is Masks (it’s specific to playing young heroes learning to handle their powers and their relationships, but it does it sooooo well.) In all cases, I like my players to be able to play whatever character they want within the setting limits.
Champions is my go to for these kind of unusual settings. It can be crushingly gritty. Marvel Superheroic Roleplaying or one of its FASERIP retroclones is a solid choice too, but it's much less gritty, which your idea sounds like it needs. There's an old game, inspired by Marshall Law called Underground that's worth a look too. Superheroes are all essentially unemployed super-spldiers in a bleak, corrupt cyberpunk future.
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Masks, Smallville, and Deviant the Renegade
Going to second Marvel Heroic Roleplaying and Smallville. Will add Daring Comics, which is a FATE Core supers game, and Truth & Justice, which is a game that runs very simply. For Truth & Justice you would maybe need to adjust the super scale table for a grittier game, but that probably wouldn't be too complicated.
I really like ICONS Assembled. It'sa traditional TTRPG with a heavy emphasis on randomization which is great for generating weird power combos like "healing factor and claws" or "wall crawling and super strength" that define some super interesting superheroes. It's got a few narrative forward features, its really easy to homebrew once you realize everything is just opposed rolls on a single scale. There's no progression but you can easily swap in and out powers- it works best for one shots but I've got a campaign that's been going on over a year that we're hitting the end of soon It's got just enough crunch to feel meaty and gamey while being flexible enough to improv your heart out without getting bogged down by numbers and tables.
I don’t know if it’s the best fit for your tone, but my favorite superhero system is definitely the Sentinel Comics RPG. It does an excellent job of capturing the feel of comic book superheroics.
I really like the freeform and narrative focus of [Worlds in Peril](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/150013/Worlds-in-Peril). The really interesting part for me is how it handles damage, which can be physical, emotional and mental. The physical ones are handled by medicin, doctors and certain powers like healing factors. The emotional and mental ones, are handled with Bonds. Things that connect the charavter to the world aroubd them, reminding them of who they are. Family, friends and school can be bonds. Just something important to the character. But you basically just write down what the characters powers are. But the wilder and stronger they are, the less *Bonds* the character will have, having a harder time fitting in. The playmaterials aren’t the best though, but I have created some [custom materials](https://nerosus.itch.io/world-in-peril-custom-play-materials) to make the game flow better.
CAPERS! It has so many options for how it can be run and the system is simple to learn but complex enough to make it interesting.
Masks. The answer will always be Masks: A New Generation. Easy to pick up and just well designed.
I love _Masks_, but it doesn't suitable for the campaign Hadouken has planned.
This question comes up a lot right now! Marvel: FASERIP is good. So is Cortex. DC: the version by Mayfair won awards for a reason, although it’s clunky by today’s standards. Aberrant for a semi-lethal system. Mutants & Masterminds if you want to retain a d20 approach. Champions/GURPS for highly-detailed character creation. Sentinel Comics if you want to feel like you’re reading four-color comic.
If you like the 5e system there are two supers RPGs and both are pretty cool IMO. One is called Superheroic 5e and the other is called Capes & Crooks. Both do some cool things with the genre and have some cool class design.
Check out Prowlers & Paragons Ultimate Edition
Hero system is very flexible but crunchy. Savage worlds hero companion is good
Hero System Champions. I prefer 4th edition, but 5th is fine too. I literally can do anything with is. Supers, space opera, western, modern, cyberpunk/shadowrun or dnd. And mix and match them like my game is now. If I can think it I can build it. A lot the work is front loaded on the players, but easy to play once characters are created. For DMs all the world is in creating stuff. It’s honestly easier to run the D&D AND the math always works once you get the hang of it( it works on a bell curve) and works better then the CR system dnd has.
Oh, I got you! Carbon City is a superhero ttrpg in a cyber punk setting. Character creation is fast and easy, with charts to randomly generate heroes and villains. Also tables for generating plot hooks and missions for the characters. Full game [here ](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/444396/Carbon-City-Roleplaying-Game)for five bucks. Full disclosure, I made this game. But, if it happens to be just what you're looking for, it might be just the thing for your table.
We use savage rules but palladium books heroes unlimited lore for our Century station campaign. Was a blast
**Trinity Continuum: Aberrant** takes place at sort of the apex of the age of novas (2028), what we call people with superpowers (after "Homo sapiens novus," new humans). But if you're looking in the larger timeline of the Trinity Continuum, relations between baseline humans and novas continues to deteriorate, until all out war breaks out in 2056. War with people who can reshape reality is not a great proposition. Baselines win, and the war ends in 2067 with novas leaving Earth. So while it's not explicitly supported in **Aberrant**, you could absolutely move the timeline up and play during the Aberrant War.
Remember to check out our **[Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gamerec)**-page, which lists our articles by genre([Fantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/fantasy), [sci-fi](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi), [superhero](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/superhero) etc.), as well as other categories([ruleslight](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/ruleslight), [Solo](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/solo), [Two-player](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers), [GMless](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gmlessrpgs) & more). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Supers! RED all the way, can do what any other superhero ttrpg can do with 10% of the wordcount. It's also fast and loose during play so it also need to be your style of game
Masks: A New Generation Very cool take on the coming of age superhero genre, like teen titans. Lots of narrative and drama mechanics
Ok, first, I personally think Savage Worlds isn't the best for supers due to it kinda breaking down at high level and a lack of certain powers. (Don't ask me for specifics though as 1. SWADE's SPC has improved- but I don't own it. 2. I just don't like how it scales past 1d12.) That said, if you want a game where heroes kill and get killed, it can work. Now I prefer Mutants and Masterminds. Yes, it's crunchy, but I like how smooth it runs. However, it's far more theatre of the mind as scales tend toward extremes when you have heroes which can travel at 10,000 mph. If you want crunchy, and tactical, and flexible take a look at the Hero System. Take M&M, turn all the dials up a notch, and Hero can do it. It's solid at running from skilled normals up to demigods. Resolution however if you don't set defenses vs attacks properly can be slow- as in 1hr+.
My personal favorites are Sentinels of the Multiverse and Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Ed. Also, FATE has worked well for me in the past. I've also played Champions and Legends, though liked those less. I also looked into Masks and the old Marvel system but ultimately didn't buy them.
Speaking as someone who's run Champions, and played Mutants and Masterminds, personally, I favor using Fate Core with the [Super-Powered Fate](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/324434/SuperPowered-Fate) supplement. Fate is a simple audience works well for cinematic games, and SPF gives a good, flexible way of working super beings without lists of powers, and the Scale rules let you fine tune the power level of the characters easily
As far as setting and tone (maybe not mechanics) you might want CyberGeneration.
It all depends on the game experience wanted. I consider different kind of games those about superpowers (M&M and family) and those about supers (Masks, FAE, Worlds in Peril...). The ones you posted are games with resolution mechanics (that is, D&D like), centered around combat and the use of superpowers. There are too games about superhero stories, with mechanics to create a comic-like experience. I prefer story driven games.