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2 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2010 - 5:52PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Sep 18, 2007
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Wow, I remember when playing superheroes was as easy as rolling a pair of d10's. We had random character creation, steamlined rules which didn't answer every question you might come up with, and a host problems with balance. Like characters you read about in comics who would go down in one panel to the right villian. ex/ what do you mean (fill in the blank) only has 36 health? Guess the days of TSR/Marvel designing games together have past.
I learned how to cube a number thanks to Villians and Vigilantes (your carrying capacity in that game determined basic HTH damage). I've done all of the point based games and even tried a few of the ones which have came out this decade. But we always return to D&D. It just is such a nice system. I have fallen in love with the 4e mechanics (and that is despite owning my first book in the 70's). It has an inherent beauty in the simplicity of it while maintaining the structure. Gamma World takes it a step further IMO.
But as I am looking over and over at these two bright shiny Gamma World boxes, all I want to do is convert it slightly into a superhero game. Change a little description here and there, build my Alpha mutation deck around whatever character I am imagining and head off to the modern city scape battling evil masterminds and super villians. It might require a little work, but it would be so worth it.
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2 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2010 - 7:26PM
#2
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I had the same thought, especially after my buddy made his character.
Using a heroscape figure, his character is a store dummy (built on a metal frame) in the shape of wolverine. It even has metal claws. It came to life over the course of ten years, slowly at first. In the first five years it read all of the posters on the walls which detailed a lot of wolverine's powers, origins, and attitude. So it is an animated dummy that thinks it is wolverine.
Silly at times, but pretty fun for us geeks.
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2 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2010 - 10:36PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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I had a similar idea to make a Futurama setting a thousand years in the future. I definite understand the superhero analogy for the new GW rules. It definitely helps to have a "Saturday morning cartoon" attitude toward logic with this game. You also need the confidence to just "make **** up". GW is a hit with our group. I just love it.
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2 years ago ::
Dec 26, 2010 - 11:22PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Apr 17, 2008
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Yeah, GW has the kernel for a pretty good superhero game.
And yes, thinking of it as very "Saturday Morning Cartoon" will help -- I recommend repeated viewings of Thundarr the Barbarian for inspiration!
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2 years ago ::
Dec 27, 2010 - 6:13AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Sep 18, 2007
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Those flying orb robots which shot lasers... "We ride!"
I think my life was influenced by a healthy dose of "Saturday Morning Cartoon". Still trying to figure out how Firestar made her way into a team with Peter Parker and Bobby Drake.
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2 years ago ::
Dec 27, 2010 - 7:57AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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Yeah, GW has the kernel for a pretty good superhero game.
And yes, thinking of it as very "Saturday Morning Cartoon" will help -- I recommend repeated viewings of Thundarr the Barbarian for inspiration!
Ookla! Ariel! We Ride!
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2 years ago ::
Dec 27, 2010 - 10:03AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 13, 2010
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LORDS OF LIGHT!
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2 years ago ::
Dec 28, 2010 - 12:20PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jan 25, 2010
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Lords of light! haha! I am running my gw game in the "Thundarr" universe pulling some game mechanics from the Dark Sun campaign book and monster book to make evil sorcerors and minions that rule the wastelands. I have all the episodes on my computer and edited key narrative video moments that begin and end each encounter and session. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundarr_the_Barba... has a great episode guide and some information on it. Someone did a hombrew rpg: www.rpglibrary.org/settings/thundarr/wor...Good stuff.
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2 years ago ::
Dec 28, 2010 - 8:19PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Sep 26, 2001
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4e mechanics lend themselves better to modern settings than prior incarnations of the game. You might want to tone down the lethality of GW to make it server for a supers game. Have only specific types of damage be lethal. Or you could just lean on the option of leaving enemies alive when you drop them. The rapid healing in GW (second wind minor and healing /completely/ with a short rest) could just be thought of as modeling the relative low-lethality of most superhero battles.
GW wouldn't be a great supers game, but it would be a fun, fairly easy one.
There are already very good supers games out there, of course. The 4th Ed of 'Champions!' for instance, is pretty hard to beat - as the 5th and 6th eds of that game could tell you...
Love 4e? Concerned about its future? Join the Old Guard of 4e"You want The Tooth? You can't handle The Tooth!" - Dahlver-Nar. "If magic is unrestrained in the campaign, D&D quickly degenerates into a weird wizard show where players get bored quickly" - E. Gary Gygax
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2 years ago ::
Dec 28, 2010 - 11:09PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Aug 22, 2007
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...
GW wouldn't be a great supers game, but it would be a fun, fairly easy one.
Yep. As is, GW is fun and easy. I think the one thing I would change is the omega tech concept of SuperScience from many dimensions littered about in a post apocolyptic world. I think the Alpha mutations always in flux do to alpha waves, makes a good backdrop for a world of super heroes and villians.
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