13 Things about Superhero gaming

[phoenix240]

Interesting blog article from a long time Supers gm. His system of choice is Mutants and Mastermind but the observations and advice are applicable across the genre.

 

http://www.petermball.com/13-things-learned-about-superhero-games-after-running-30-sessions-of-mutants-and-masterminds/

[RDU Neil]

Interesting... some I very  much agree with, others not so much...

 

While #13 is very true... #12 and #11 are the complete opposite for me. The fights can take a while, but done right are incredibly cinematic and dramatic. Maybe it is the system (M&M) but I've heard the same complaints from Hero games. I think it is an issue of focusing too much on the mechanics and not enough on what is happening in the fight. If your players are "rolling to hit" and not "I leap at Dr. Zort and come blazing out of the sky with an overhead hammer fist!" you are doing it wrong. Players and the GM should be responding to the imaginative description of the fight, not the application of game mechanics. No system is interesting if that is the case.

 

My biggest issue is with #7 - Denial. I think the worst thing a GM can do is deny the players from getting the kind of scene/interaction/challenge that they want. Complications are great, but obstacles are not. Give 'em what they want, just throw a dramatic twist in there and make them feel that the scene/interaction/challenge they wanted was actually important in moving the game forward.

 

I think the biggest thing missing from this list, especially for supers, is "Let them be SUPER!" The players have highly competent, very powerful characters... and that should show. Give them fights that are dramatic but let them shine and stand out. Before you give them the villains that are hard to beat, give them the gang brawl or bar fight or fire rescue or low level  villain that lets them show what badasses they can be. The biggest problems with almost every RPG scenario is often to provide failure after failure with the expectation that the players will just keep grinding until they "level up" enough to beat the baddy. There is like the sadistic tendency that good GMing is about making the players miserable to teach them some kind of lesson or something. I find players get way more invested in the world, NPCs, plot and events if they know they have the chance to be competent and cool as often as they will have to bear down and suck up a tough fight.