Second Best Game System ?

[Kap]

The system is Cortex or Cortex derived so reviews of the Leverage and Smallville rpgs might be helpful as far as the basic system.

Anyone have any experience with the Cortex system? The reviews I found didn't really give me game-mechanics details, they were like "so much fun!" or "lame!" Not very useful.

[Ozymandias]

Anyone have any experience with the Cortex system? The reviews I found didn't really give me game-mechanics details, they were like "so much fun!" or "lame!" Not very useful.

I don't know much about it. I've only looked through the book with a friend, and neither of us have played a game with it, but it basically works like this: Most actions are a skill roll versus some set number (or opposed checks). Skills are not paired up with Attributes, so the GM decides what is appropriate. Skills in general can only go up to d6s and Specialization in skills can go up past then, but only if the skill in question is at d6 already. Attacks are a skill roll, but defenses are just a flat 3 or an Agility Roll. Blocks and dodges can improve this, and I think they're a skill roll, but I think they cost an action. There are talents (both good and bad) which can add dice to rolls, or add dice to the difficulty. It's pretty simple, though I'm probably misremembering a lot of it.

[Ndreare]

sounds like a simplified version of Savage Worlds. Can you add skill or traits to combined dice?

[csyphrett]

Sounds like WEG Star wars and some White Wolf too.
CES

[phoenix240]

I don't know much about it. I've only looked through the book with a friend, and neither of us have played a game with it, but it basically works like this: Most actions are a skill roll versus some set number (or opposed checks). Skills are not paired up with Attributes, so the GM decides what is appropriate. Skills in general can only go up to d6s and Specialization in skills can go up past then, but only if the skill in question is at d6 already. Attacks are a skill roll, but defenses are just a flat 3 or an Agility Roll. Blocks and dodges can improve this, and I think they're a skill roll, but I think they cost an action. There are talents (both good and bad) which can add dice to rolls, or add dice to the difficulty. It's pretty simple, though I'm probably misremembering a lot of it.

Well, that doesn't sound so odd.

[RexMundi]

Cortex is real Clunky though..... I gave it a serious try and we hammered the crap out of it when it first showed up. It ends up playing like a Slow version of Storyteller.....

It's Not Horrible by any means. I could play it and not have the same gripes I have about a lot of other systems.......

~Rex....says it does improve drastically though, when you stretch out the Die types to incorporate the entire line of stuff from Game Science.

[JmOz]

Savage worlds with the superhero companion is a good game if you do not mind fudging things and don't have alot of time on your hands.

[Escafarc]

If it's worth doing, do it right. Make mine HERO

[RexMundi]

Aye, agreed..... BTW the Superbabes RPG was also a really good system

~Rex

[Perpetual GM]

Savage Worlds for me.

I'm running a Necessary Evil game right now. For those who don't know the setting, the premise is that the campaign world was attacked and conquered by aliens, who managed to wipe out most of the super-heroes, leaving the super-villains to fight against the alien oppressors. The tagline is "The fate of the world lies in the hands of the scum of the earth."

[Kap]

Aye, agreed..... BTW the Superbabes RPG was also a really good system

~Rex

What was the mechanic for "Superbabes" like?

[RexMundi]

Fast, well balanced, very faithful to it's source material (which btw are great fun comics to read, heh, and not just saying that because when I picked up my first copy of the game I had it signed by all hawking it, AND, the girl they had running around as Colt who looked, Just like Colt from the Femforce comics, heh) Reorganizing my game stuff at the moment when I find what box I moved it to I'll write something up on it. Feel like doing a Super Hero RPG thread anyway....

~Rex ....Also notes it was practically immune to power creep but you had to watch players when they were gonna burn Bimbo points.......

[MPT]

I am from the UK and my 2nd choice is Squadron UK (originally called Golden Heroes) which was developed in Britain and can be obtained from RPGNow.

The system is D20 with options to Dodge, Parry and Block attacks. PC powers are rolled randomly and are open in scope. Most damage is rolled on d6s e.g. a person with a standard energy attack has 15d6 which they can split over 5 rounds (when it recharges) and which can be split between (the system equivalent of) BODY and STUN damage.

It is quick and fun, with the only downside being the experience system (I wrote my own).

[pinecone]

What is the next best game system, after Champions, for superheroes ?

Sell me on it, don't just say "GURPS ROXX!" please.
Also the game should be in print, or not too far dead.

I lean towards M&M2e, personally. What say you?
There are a few out there

I gotta agree on M&M.....

[phoenix240]

Sample of play for the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game

Mostly by dice manipulation and effect generation.

Say I'm playing Black Panther. I'm trying to bring down Man Ape or something. I roll my solo plus my King of Wakanda distinction, my enhanced reflexes and my combat master, and the claws on my costume. Normally this might give me 2d10s, a d8 and a d6. But I've got an effect that let's me take two dice of the same rank and replace it with one die one rank higher. So I take my d10s and make it a d12. Then I spend a plot point to bring in an extra die...say Enhanced strength. Now I've got 2s8, a d6, and a d12. I roll and get a 3, 5, 7, and a 5 on the d12. So I decide to use the 5 and 7 from my pool for the total and my d12 as my effect. If I hit, Man Ape suffers d12 stress of my choosing. Say in this case I rake him with my claws and tell him he's an usurper and a brute. I define this as emotional stress and we move on.

Next action I attack again, this time using all the dice minus the special effect from before minus the plot point added one but I can now use his stress as well. I also take my distinction as a d4 and score a plot point. Giving me 1d12, a d6, d4, a d10 and a d8. I roll a 1 on the d4 but score a 8, 9, 5, and 4. I take a d10 (say the 4) as another effect but spend another point to keep and extra die...giving me 22. This is likely at least 5 over my opponent but let's say I'm lucky and it's 10 over. This steps the effect up twice to d12 and then to stressed out. I slash my foe behind his knee with an energy dagger (another weapon in my costume) and then spin and catch him with a knee to the head as he stumbles. I select physical stress and Man Ape drops to the ground, unconscious and sporting d6 physical trauma from the severe concussion I just gave him. Also, given he's a known threat to my people I collect XP for hitting my milestone relating to protecting Wakanda.

So there's T'Challa, standing over his foe. But see that 1 I rolled adds to the Doom Pool, which the Watcher uses to make things happens. Say its already at 2d8 or something, and that 1 adds a d6. So the Watcher spends a d8 (to match my Enhanced Senses) and declares I'm struck from behind by Klaw, who was watching the whole thing.

So Klaw attacks me with his Solo d8, Distinction of "treacherous" at d8, and his Sonic Mastery of d12. He also tacks on Combat Expert, here as a 2d6 (it can be that or a d8). He also rolls another d8 from the doom pool. So that's 3d8, 2d6, and a d12. He gets a 5, 4, 8, 7, 4, and a 9 on the d12. The Watcher takes the 8 and 9 as effects and spend another doom pool die to keep that 5 as well (he can't keep that 7 on the d8 because he only has a d6 to spend from the pool and he can't spend a die of lower rank to keep a higher one or he totally would). His effect die is one of the d8s. So now he's at 22 himself...

I defend with my Solo, Enhanced Sense (to see it coming at the last second), my enhanced durability on my costume, and master acrobat. I also select my peerless strategist distinction but since I'm out of plot points I take it as a d4. That's 2d10s, a d4, and 2d8. I get a 3, 5, 4, and 2. And a 2 on the d4. The best I can do is 9 without spending that plot point...and even then I can only hit 12. Ouch. I miss my target by over 10 but less than 15, meaning that Klaw's treacherous attack hits me for d8 stepped up twice. He blasts me with a sonic blast and I take d12 physical stress as the solid sonic blast slams me into a nearby wall. I could have done some neat stuff with absorbing it if I'd suceeded but...nope. Klaw laughs at me, telling me my father died much less easily.

And then we move on...

For me at least that mimics how comics go generally better than many systems working purely on rolls and effects or things like combat maneuvers. Those systems mimic comic fights very well, but this mimics actual comic progression of story better, IMO.

Sounds interesting but geez, they say Hero System is too complicated?

The original thread:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?...ic-Roleplaying