What's your favorite style for supers role playing?

[nexus]

What age (if any) do you prefer your supers role playing games to emulate most closely? The category refer to the general metallic "ages" of comics. I realize they're somewhat vague and can mean different things to differnt people but I think they're general enough that we all understand basically what they mean.

[Vondy]

Define "Steel."

That's a new one on me.

[Edsel]

I was really into comics waaay back. I read the last couple of years of the silver age and the first few years of the bronze. I guess I am old school, I voted Silver.

[Enforcer84]

Chad Style.


I know Kung Pao.

[Lord Mhoram]

I went with Steel, assuming it means "tempered Iron" - the kind of stuff from Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek, Judd Winnick, ect.

Otherwise a bronzish feel.

[Bloodstone]

I tend to gravitate towards Bronze age games, probably because that's what I read the most as a kid.

[McCoy]

Silver to Bronze

[Lucius]

Uranium.

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary prefers silicon...

[Balabanto]

Oh, my god, how can you place Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek in the same class.

Kurt Busiek GETS it.

Winuck and Johns don't.

[Lord Mhoram]

Oh, my god, how can you place Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek in the same class.

Kurt Busiek GETS it.

Winuck and Johns don't.

Well my only exposure to Winnick was his run on Exiles and that was good, dunno about his other stuff.

As for Johns, his Titans, Green Lantern, and his JSA I would stack up against anything mainstream Busiek has done (Astro City is in a league of it's own and completely beyond anything else in quality). Johns has respect for continuity (in general) and writes decent stories about character that are true heroes.

[Metaphysician]

Except for everything he's written since Identity Crisis. And Teen Titans in general.

[Peregrine]

Nobody has done Teen Titans worth a damn (in any medium!) since Wolfman and Perez.

[ghost-angel]

Define "Steel."

That's a new one on me.

I'm sure someone who is actually into comics these days can give you a better definition...

Steel is basically what happens after everyone realized that Iron Age had evolved to "Everybody Dies" and was an exercise in body counts and toned it back a bit. Not everyone is broken in the head, not everyone is bloodthirsty and bodycounts aren't really all that cool anymore.

[JmOz]

Well my only exposure to Winnick was his run on Exiles and that was good, dunno about his other stuff.

As for Johns, his Titans, Green Lantern, and his JSA I would stack up against anything mainstream Busiek has done (Astro City is in a league of it's own and completely beyond anything else in quality). Johns has respect for continuity (in general) and writes decent stories about character that are true heroes.

Agreed, and even IC was not as bad as some people feel a need to say it is

[Lord Mhoram]

Agreed, and even IC was not as bad as some people feel a need to say it is

Yeah. And his Teen Titans is the best since the classic Wolfman/Perez, I would say as good.

[nexus]

Define "Steel."

That's a new one on me.

The "modern" age of comics, generally attempts to combine nostalgia for and recognition of the earlier ages with more modern sensibilities and asethetics. I've heard Astro City often described Steel Age also known as Diamond Age. Tempered Iron Age might be good way to describe it as well.

[TheRavenIs]

I went for Bronze, but mostly tarnished Silver is how I see it and play it.

Now I love silver age stuff and still play silver type C's.

I just like a Hero to be a Hero, not a villian that is called a Hero.

[OddHat]

My default campaign draws as much on novels and movies as on comic books, maybe more these days, and I don't consider it any particular age, I voted Steel, which comes closest. It's mostly a Superhero universe as seen through a Wold Newton lens, often tongue in cheek but stakes and consequences are serious and real.

[Lord Mhoram]

MY games - I try for a blend of Astro City, The Levitz Legion run, Morrison's JLA, and the Johns Teen Titans. Put it in a blender and away you go. :)

[Balabanto]

My game is what it is. I can't really describe an age for it at this point.

[Badger]

Silvery Bronze. Probably Bronze with a healthy dose of Silver in it.

[Spence]

Silver, definitely silver.

[pinecone]

I voted Bronze, I prefer Steel, but all my friends are wimps....

[Hermit]

Steel strikes me as Iron refined, old elements that were abandoned brought back to temper things and catch some of the old shine in a modern age. Iron rusts too easily. Still, I voted Bronze, part nostalgia, but also balanced elements. Sometimes I've refered to what I play as Tarnished Silver, but I've discovered I'm not the only one who uses the phrase ;)

I prefer my superheroes to be human, but heroic. They make mistakes, they have foibles, but in the end they do what's right. Others in the setting aren't always so noble, and thus the superheroes often come across like torches in a world that might otherwise be engulfed by shadows were the heroes not there to light the way by example.

Mmm, perhaps I prefer the Hyperbole age ;)

[TheQuestionMan]

I voted for Silver Age, but I believe that descriptions are needed for each. What I truely want to play in is a Classic Four Colour Champions Superhero Campaign.


I do not know if I will ever get the chance again though.


QM

[Vondy]

Thanks for the explanation of "steel" to all those who gave one.

It sort of fits my Freedom Patrol game, though I always defined it as a pulp noir conspiracy game with some atomic horror elements set in a 1950's. It had superhumans, who first began to emerge during the first world war, but it had lower overall power-levels and a lack of colorful costumes. It also focused on espionage and criminal investigations more.

I guess "steel" could work, but gritty pulp noir still hits the mark better.

Voted "steel."

[OddHat]

Worth noting that there's usually some argument over what constitutes each age of comics, with the participants usually spinning in favor of the style they favor.

[Plex]

I prefer the Bronze Age. It's the era where I read most of the comics and am most familiar with. This way, I can easily introduce some Silver Age stories and/or Iron Age stories and not have to worry that it will look out of place. ( I really don't care for the Iron Age, but that's a different thread.) I can get serious when I want and then silly if I so choose. Too much of either just gets way to over the top for me. Though I do want to introduce some Golden Age stuff, I just need to figure out how to do it. (Maybe something like the Justice League Animated Series did in Savage Time.) I

[Spidey88]

Silvery Bronze. Probably Bronze with a healthy dose of Silver in it.


Same horse yadda yadda...

[casualplayer]

I think chaining yourself to a style can chafe after awhile. Sometimes you just have to throw some Nazis at your players (Gold,) sometimes you have them face radioactive 5th dimensional robo-gorillas (Silver,) sometimes heroes have to hit rock bottom before they can appreciate how cool it is to fly (Bronze,) sometimes the bad guy has to die ugly for closure (Iron,) and sometimes the soldiers decide that war is only good for breaking things and killing people and they dedicate themselves to a better way (Steel.)

I tend to set "home" at the Bronze level with trips to far-off lands.

[CrosshairCollie]

I tend to hang out in the Silver-Bronze border zone, I think. I rarely have outright silly villains, though I have done some oddballs (a group called the Interrogatives, individual members Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How, and a villain who can animate pictures and uses TCG cards for ammunition). I tend to have negligible body counts, fairly grandiose schemes on the parts of the villains ...

[Spence]

I voted for Silver Age, but I believe that descriptions are needed for each. What I truely want to play in is a Classic Four Colour Champions Superhero Campaign.


I do not know if I will ever get the chance again though.


QM

That is the campaign I just started :D

1965ish so the background tech isn't that great and secret ID's have a chance.

[Lord Liaden]

I'd call my games Bronze with occasional shading toward Iron. I admire the "Steel Age" writers as defined here, but rarely employ the same referential self-awareness. My Bronze is pretty four-colored.

And like others here, my coming-of-age comics reading era was Bronze Age.

[GoldenAge]

There should be a caveat to this question: "How old are you?"

Though it's not a steadfast rule I'd imagine that most players gravitate to the style of comics upon which they were raised (as was mentioned by Bloodstone). :)

BTW: My campaigns tend to mix color a bit (Near Future Victorian) but rely on classic Silver Age ideals.

[Vondy]

I was mostly a bronze age reader, but quit reading during the early iron age. My games aren't bronze age in character. Their really hard-boiled pulp with noir powers. But then, maybe I'm an exception.

[Vorsch]

dont know.

which one is the movies?

ie heroes are heroes, flawed but not psychoes

[aylwin13]

Silvery Bronze. Probably Bronze with a healthy dose of Silver in it.
Exactly. Heroes are heroes, villains are villains, but things are not all black and white.

[Wanderer]

I voted Iron (but it could also have been Steel, b/c I'm always a bit uncertain where luminaries like Ultimate Universe, Supreme Power, and Stormwatch/Authority fit, age-wise) because I too wish my superhuman characters to be heroes... but ones that fulfill my own concept of heroism. I wish heroes that stand up to injustice and oppression, whatever facade of authority it may have, and do not fear to defy the corporate maggots that are poisoning the world and chaining mankind in consumerist slavery.

I do not mind moderate amounts of killing from main characters (b/c there some that deserve to die in the world, and heroes should not skirt to do from doing what's necessary), but excesses should be avoided, and heroes should be human, not fragging saints nor psychiatric basket cases, but "heroes" that are lapdogs to the Man and poster boys for conservative values are no heroes in my book, so fit me in either Iron or Steel, as you please, but I feel no nostalgy for Silver, I hated its enforcement of values I despise and its childish overtones, and I am glad that it's dead and buried. Hand me comics for rebellious adolescents and cynical adults, please.

[nexus]

dont know.

which one is the movies?

ie heroes are heroes, flawed but not psychoes

The current Marvel movies? I'd call them Bronze to light Iron... more Bronze though.

[Wanderer]

The current Marvel movies? I'd call them Bronze to light Iron... more Bronze though.

Hmm, I may agree for Spider-Man and FF, but even the X-men trilogy ?? I very much doubt it. They seem more Steel to light Iron to me. They do not have a '70s feel at all. The aestethic and sensibility feels too postmodern.

I would say:

FF: Silver/Bronze

Blade: Iron

Daredevil: Bronze/Steel

Elektra: Steel

Spiderman: Bronze/Steel

X-Men: Iron/Steel

Hulk: Iron

[moquif]

I tried to help coin the term "steel" was to be darker than "iron". I considered it to start with Identity Crisis and Civil War where the line between good and evil is obscured by "the bigger picture". The effects of all-to-human superheroes are brought into the picture. Then we have the question of authority, what gives the heroes the right to do what they do. Basically we see an increase in how complicated/realistic comics are.

Maybe I haven't been reading the right comics, but I didn't see the "everyone is screwed up" and "everyone dies" in Iron age. It would help if there were dates, events, and descriptions defining the particular ages.

[John T]

Mostly Bronze, some Silver and (less) Iron thrown in.

Having (like others on-thread) not heard the "Steel" reference before, is it similar, morality-wise, to Bronze?

And can I call it "Apologetic Iron"? :p

[Wanderer]

I've interpreted "Steel" as "toned-down" Iron. I thought it would be a label for the current age, where most of the Iron Age's sensibility is carried over, but its worst aestehetic excesses are toned down. I.e. Spawn is Iron, Ultimate Universe is Steel.

Anyway, I'm the first to recognize there's quite a lot of uncertainety in drawing the boundary between Iron and current age, sometimes. I reckon that happens b/c you can only properly define a comic age after it, and maybe the age post that, is over and also b/c the hallmark of the current, postmodern age is to recap a lot of the best parts of Iron, mix it with some of the best parts of silver, filter it with current sensibilities and aestethic (as opposed to '80s and '60s), and serve. Different comics may vary the mix.

E.g. distrust of authority and characters having complex morality are Iron elements that are very alive nowadys, so idealistic characters and sci-fi wonder from Silver, while cyber, outrageous amounts of guns, prudery, and childish campiness such as super-pets have fallen out of fashion.

[Silbeg]

My game has been referred to, as I recall, Bronze/Iron Age characters with Silver Age morality (or is that Silbeg Age?).

Of course, some of that is on how you define the ages... but I do like 4-color heroes... Reluctance to kill is standard, and many characters will take Code against Killing. Including the villains!

[Katherine]

I voted for Iron but that’s probably mostly exposure. My main group came to supers from WOD and Aberrant and those of use that read comics mostly read The Authority, Wildstorm and similar titles so we were in very Iron Age mind set. So our games tended to be darker, violent with sex violence and politics and yes, some very dark shades of gray. For example in one game we played the equivalent of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, violent pro mutant terrorists and more or less won, rendering baseline humanity more or less extinct. On the other hand, I'm playing with a different group and the game is much more four color Silver and light Bronze age and I find myself enjoying it a great deal. Its fun and relaxing in a way to ignore the so called heavy issues and fight the bad guys to defend Truth and Justice*


*with capital letters!

[Jared Rann]

I grew up with Bronze age comics, there were always the classics, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and the Avengers. Even into the iron age the were still going stong. The artwork is much better today, but there are so many splinters off of the old mainstays, that one could go broke trying to keep up all the issues. Variety is good, but I guess I'm just a bit old fashoined.

[Kenn]

I personally believe that trying to describe the intracacies of any particular era's comic books into a few short paragraphs is genuine folly.

The problem is, comics, like any medium, reflect their creators, and their time. The truth is, a lot of what are considered Silver Age comic books were being done by the same people who did many Golden Age comics: Julie Schwartz, Carmine Infantino, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Mike Sekowsky, Bob Kahniger, etc. They were just older, and had a better understanding of what sold, maybe.. Society changed. The great evil changed from Nazi-ism to Communism.

The so-called Bronze Age was really just when a bunch of young guys, people who'd actually grown up reading and enjoying comics got into the field. THAT's what's really responsible for the differences bewteen the silver and bronze ages. That and the culture they lived in.

That has gone on through today.

So each and everyone of us runs a 'whatever parts of whatever age we like' campaign.

[FenrisUlf]

I went with Steel, assuming it means "tempered Iron" - the kind of stuff from Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek, Judd Winnick, ect.

Otherwise a bronzish feel.

I picked "Steel" because I was thinking of those writers.

Else, I prefer a Bronze that allows for more hero-ing than angsting.