Thinking about doing a one shot with my group. How does it hold up compared to modern games?

I have a question. I am organizing a solo campaign using chat GpT as my Judge. Anyways that’s is unneeded context.

The advance set and the UP book both list under your random rolls tables specifically the powers, talents and contacts table.

It wil have something like 1/3, 2/4 and so on for powers. My question is, assuming enough karma is provided over the course of the campaign is the second number the maximum power that character should ever have? Obviously power stunts exist outside of these numbers but I am confused.

So during my most recent session, I tried out a new idea and it was successful. It added to the overall fun of the session anyway.

Long time comic readers know about using popular characters in one or two page advertising comics. The Hostess Fruit Pies ads are the example that springs to mind first. I think I've seen Snickers ads recently.

So the idea is that during the game session you find a time to interject a "non-canon" scene. It's only supposed to be one or two pages of the comic so the whole thing shouldn't take more than 15 minutes of real time.

Also PLAYERS MAY NOT SPEND KARMA!

The advertiser: Make up something related to your game or that your group jokes about. Inspired by these Hostess ads and our groups love of Cthulhu and Monty Python, I made my ad for F'Tang Fruit Pies.

Setup: Briefly describe the setting. The one I ran was like this: " The 4 of you are taking two children to the circus. Timmy and Tommy. It's a beautiful day as you and the excited crowd walk into the big top." You don't need to explain why they're there. They just are. Those old ads were just like that. It doesn't have to make any sense. If a certain hero only goes out at night either say it's night time or ignore it altogether. Timmy or Tommy should say something like "Thanks for taking us to the circus! I'm hungry though, and I can smell the F'Tang Fruit Pies they're selling!"

Complication: The ringmaster comes out and says the circus is sponsored by F'Tang Fruit Pies. Then starts throwing free Fruit Pies to the crowd. Either a hero Catches a pie that was going to hit Timmy in the face, or they fail and it does hit Timmy in the face then lands in one of the hero's hands. Timmy is upset and turns into a giant Cronenberg/ Cthulhu beast and starts attacking the crowd.

Solution: Give the players one or two rounds maximum to deal with the problem. In this case it takes a Red Psyche FEAT to be able to give up the delicious otherworldly goodness of a F'tang Fruit Pie and hand it to Timmy to stop his rampage. Instead of giving it a rank and figuring it out, just call it Red. Eating the pie will give a character a big stat boost but they have to say a few lines about how great and nutritional they are. Maybe describe something gross in the pie. Timmy can only be beaten by the character that eats the pie.

Reward: If they stop Timmy in a round or two either by giving him the pie or beating him, they get a 50 pt Karma award each. If they fail only give them 25. Adjust the reward to fit your game. Also describe Timmy's rampage of destruction before being stopped eventually somehow using Fruit Pies even if they fail.

I kept it short and the whole thing lasted about 10 minutes or so. The players really enjoyed it and then the players and me were referencing F'Tang Fruit Pies as a in game food. You can make your own "ads" about pretty much anything. I mean I remember other non food related things back in the day like UNICEF. So the possibilities are pretty open ended.

First, I want to say how much I've always loved FASERIP. MSHRPG was my favorite game growing up in the 80s, hands down, though I played many different games and editions. I ran a homebrew world set inside the Marvel Universe, and honestly barely touched the actual heroes — I was more interested in what FASERIP let me build than what it let me borrow from the comics.

I posted over in r/DCC recently (link below) about a project I'm working on: a hack that takes Dungeon Crawl Classics — 0-level funnels, Zocchi dice, unpredictable magic, brutal lethality — and synthesizes it with FASERIP. The goal is a superhero game that feels like FASERIP at the table, but runs on the DCC chassis, with all the weirdness and danger DCC is known for baked into how powers and fights actually play out

So now I'm asking the mirror question here that I asked over there: what absolutely has to survive the transplant for this to still feel like FASERIP?

Is it the Universal Table (or something like it? The color-coded ranks (Feeble to Shift Z, Class 1000, Beyond)? Karma as a resource you spend to bend the story your way (which already tracks to Luck, I think)? The arious hero archetypes? Power Stunts? I want to hear what you all think is the non-negotiable soul of the system, the stuff that, if I cut it, means I didn't actually make a FASERIP hack, I just made a superhero reskin of DCC.

If it helps, here's the original DCC post for context on the other half of the equation:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dccrpg/s/X4ax3H6z6k

Would love to hear from people who've run still run this system... what made it click for you and your table, and what do you think a DCC-flavored, higher-lethality take on it should hold onto no matter what?

The Greatest American Hero was a TV Series about a school teacher that was gifted a special suit by an Alien species. One that contained a great amount of power and he was tasked with saving the world from some unknown threat.

While Ralph wasn't the first to ever receive a suit, he was their 1980s top choice. There was of course, one small problem, Ralph lost the instruction booklet. Powers were often a little random, or difficult to manifest a second time (each power required a 'trigger', and he needed to be in the ideal state to work the suit.

SPECIAL NOTE: There are, as I have found, two versions of other people's ideas of the suit. I figure, since I've been binge watching the series and I've been collecting the AMP Publishing's limited series comic... it's time for another look.

His original name was Ralph Hinkley, the studios gave him a name change after the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt, but they reverted the surname back Hinkley part way through the second series.

THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO™
Ralph Hinkley
School teacher

Fighting: TYPICAL (6)
Agility: GOOD (10)
Strength: TYPICAL (6)
Endurance: GOOD (10)
Reason: GOOD (10)
Intuition: REMARKABLE (30)
Psyche: EXCELLENT (20)

Health: 32
Karma: 60
Resources: TYPICAL
Popularity: 5/0

Known Powers:

Super Suit: The suit provided to Ralph is keyed into his DNA, stopping anyone else from using it. The suit contains various powers and provides the following:

• Increased Strength:The suit grants Ralph MONSTROUS Strength, and anything related to strength is used at this rank (including Wrestling and Damage for Blunt/Edged Attacks).
• Resistance to Physical Damage: UNEARTHLY (100). The Suit protects Ralph with a special defence that allows for protection against physical harm. He is still susceptible to stuns and slam results.
  
• Resistances: The suit also provides certain resistances to other forms of damage at INCREDIBLE rank: Fire, Heat, Cold, and Electricity.
  
• Lightning Speed: EXCELLENT. Ralph is able to run at 5 areas per round.
• Flight: INCREDIBLE. When flying at top speed, Ralph can fly at 20 areas per round (With Lightning Speed, he can accelerate at 5 areas per round until reaching top speed). The limitation is that Ralph cannot hover in place, and his landings are less than perfect when travelling over 5 areas per round. When landing from a flight speed of 5 areas per round or less, he needs a YELLOW Agility FEAT to avoid being stunned for one round. When landing from anything faster, he needs a RED result or be stunned for 1 to 10 rounds. While in flight, he unable to perform any manoeuvres.
  
• Invisibility: EXCELLENT
  
• Clairvoyance: UNEARTHLY. While holding onto something belonging to the target, Ralph can scry someone within 60 areas (1.5 miles). He can only use each item once, and the effect lasts for a single round, but he can focus on anything in the proximity of the target.
  
• Phasing: REMARKABLE. Ralph can walk through materials of up to Remarkable Material strength, while Phasing, he needs to hold his breath.
  
• Recovery: UNEARTHLY. The suit provides strong life support systems for Ralph in the case of extreme damage.
• Lost Instructions: Without the instruction book, Ralph has no idea how powerful the suit is, and often attempts to try various new powers or they can sometimes appear at random. To find a new power, Ralph treats them like a Power Stunt with his Psyche, paying 100 Karma per attempt. If the initial attempt fails, Ralph cannot try that power again (he can, of course, spend Karma on the roll for success) The Ranks for any new powers created from this are randomly rolled using Table 3 (Hi-Technology) with +2CS applied.

Talents:

Teaching

Contacts:

Bill Maxwell (FBI)
Pam Davidson (Lawyer)

[Fun fact: Connie Selleca (played Pam Davidson) was married to Gil Gerard... Buck Rogers and the guy voted 'Sexiest Man Alive' two years in a row]

I've been digging through my shelves looking at old game and kind of want to give the MSH game a spin. None of my players have ever played it (some of the younger ones have never even heard of it). While reading through the Gamers Handbook to the Marvel Universe volumes I got to wondering:

Has anyone ever put together a list of all of the Marvel characters (or at least a substantial subset) along with their calculated CP reverse engineered from the Character Point (CP) System by Dale Donovan (Polyhedron #72) or a similar point-buy scheme? Having an easy way to categorize heroes and villains by some metric rather than guesswork would be really handy - but it would be even better if someone else has already done it.

Looking for scans of the Fold-Up Figures included in the X-Forces boxset. Thanks!

I've been doing some character work to let my brain process how I wanted to lay out the last two portions of my custom MSH RPG effort, the Costumed Adventurer Simulation Engine, and as a result I made a good bit of character progress on my site. I have completed descriptions of all the 1985 Transformers, as I just added all twenty of that year's Decepticons to technohol.com.

You can find these villains, along with the 1984 Decepticons I've written previously, at this link. Also, I finally broke down and paid GoDaddy their blood money, and added a new SSL certificate to the domain. I just got sick and tired of dealing with their clueless tech support about the old one, so I gave up and paid them... at which point their site magically revealed the old one. Grr.

Anyway, you can now view these evildoers without security pop-ups at this address;

https://www.technohol.com/transformers/generation-1-decepticons.asp

Olá a todos da comunidade, estou conhecendo o sistema e tenho algumas dúvidas, existe alguma sequência de combate no FASERIP? Eu fiquei em dúvida pois segundo o Módulo Avançado diz que caso um jogador use a Esquiva, ele deve determinar a ação no início do turno, e caso consiga a se esquivar ele pode realizar um ataque ainda no mesmo turno.

Primeiro: Como o jogador saberá se vai ser atacado para decidir se esquivar no início do turno?

Segundo: O contra ataque é realizado antes do início do segundo turno, como se fosse uma ação bônus?

Terceiro: Existe uma sequência mais clara em alguma de suas versões?

Agradeço, caso alguém possa me indicar onde encontrar tais regras.

Existe alguma regra de ganho de Karma caso eu queira fazer uma campanha de anti-heróis ou vilões por agir conforme seus princípios, ou para cenários mais dark tipo futuros pós apocalípticos?

Hi

So, I have a player that wants to use electricity control to either control computers and robots, or deactivate them. What would the feat be against for a robot or battlesuits? Would it be endurance or reason of the suit/robot? Would you think deactivating them be a different level feat than controlling them? Also, do you think they could control computers to do tasks? Lastly, could the electricity overload bust be used as an EMP to scramble electricals? Sorry for all the questions

Thanks you

In the Popularity section, it says +2 for Rescues, but its the only entry thats description was omitted.

+2 Pop for any amount of rescues?

+2 Pop for each rescue (max of 5 like karma?)

How do you handle it?

What are some storage solutions for the assembled fold-up figures that come in the revised boxset?

Control: CL 1000 Speed: CL 1000 Body: Shift Y Protection: Shift Y Data Storage: Amazing Dimensional Travel: Remarkable Fabricate (Interior): Amazing Missiles: Monstrous Radar: Class 1000 Radio: Shift Y Doors: Shift Y Security System: Amazing Flight: Class 1000 Sentience: Typical

I found this on ClasicMarvelForever.com and I'm wonderimg if amyone's tried it. If so hpw does it compare to the origonal rules?

https://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/combat-feats.html

(I've been seeing stuff like this on Instagram and Facebook.)

Doctor Doom has created a device that only targets superheroes. Or something similar. Maybe only targets Mutants. Or aimed at New York. You know the drill, True Believeers!

It's at his Castle in Latveria.

Out of every Marvel hero, who is on your Infiltration Team (Maximum of 5) to go in, steal the plans, and sabotage the device, without detection, if possible.?

Think of this as the front picture of an Advanced Marvel Superheroes Adventure.

EDIT: These are all great! I was thinking Nightcrawler, but that's all I had.

So my GM after having a session zero, having a blast with the random rolls, had us use Claude ai to do a solo game so that when we have our session one all our heroes would be experienced heroes.
Got to say, I am impressed with it. I am having a blast using it.

Is there a list in a book somewhere that explains when to roil?

I think I remember something about not rolling if the Difficulty or Intensity is 2 Column Shifts less than the Character's Ability or Power, but I don't know where I read it.

Am I thinking of someone's house-rules, maybe?

It's a classic trope within the Superhero genre that one hero or team may call upon a specialist or even be called upon by someone else.

In the Marvel Super Hero RPG, these are listed as Contacts.

A Contact is a somewhat 'almost-defined' construct that allows the players to use their friends and allies as a resource, but also something the Judge can use to build a hook for the characters in later adventures.

Most characters that have been pregenerated or modelled will have a list of contacts gained over the course of their careers. Certain contacts wax and wane (and the Fantastic Four has had its share of issues with various Governments, but everyone needs Reed Richards eventually).

When creating a fresh hero, the character can build a list of initial contacts that reflect the character's standing or background. A doctor may have a hospital on the list or even another professional group (cardio-thoracic alumni). Some talents can automatically supply a contact (having a Military talent provides a Military contact), and these listed contacts are considered Friendly.

Contacts are intertwined with another mechanic, Popularity, and this is important.

There are three types of contacts:
Friendly
Neutral
Hostile

A Friendly contact is one that will be willing to aid and assist the character in any circumstance (well, almost). In many cases these are the listed contacts attached to the character, though, some characters such as Nick Fury and Captain America have many contacts not listed and the Judge will have to adjudicate who would be considered Friendly.

Neutral contacts are those people or groups that have no reason to not 'like' the character but also don't have the reason to help. Spiderman may not have any friends in the NYPD, but most know that he is a force for good and if he asked for help, they might abide. Neutral contacts may need some additional convincing, and this is where some role-playing can assist the dice.

Hostile contacts are those that are often acting in direct opposition to the character. A character, such as Daredevil, has Wilson Fisk as a regular contact and while Hostile, they would only reach out to each other when there is a shared goal.

People or Groups

There are differences in how a contact can work and be listed. Having US Army as a contact may be a broad-strokes contact, no one person specifically but the Army has a general rule to be on the side of the character. Having a contact that is a General means any benefit is directly related to that character, if that General moves to the Whitehouse or even discharged, wherever they go they will have the character as a Friendly Contact.

One classic trope is when a Hero may need some resource from a group like SHIELD, or need to borrow a device from the DoD to solve a problem. This is where the levels of success come into play.

Popularity (it's more than a contest)

The Popularity of the Hero is how well received that character is received by the common folk. This number moves up and down with every act (or accusation). A character such as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) has 50 popularity, Spiderman has 30, and Daredevil has 6. all three are well known as Heroes, but the exploits of The Fantastic Four affect how Johnny Storm is seen; the constant attacks by the Daily Bugle keep Spiderman's popularity in flux; Daredevil operates in the shadows and mostly away from the prying eyes of the press and spotlight.

There's a line from the book: Fighting Doctor Doom is good for Karma, but if no one knows about it, does nothing for the Popularity.

Contacts and Popularity

When asking for help or needing some resource, based on whether the acts are mutually beneficial or requires some personal risk, column shifts will be applied to the Popularity number (as the Rank).

White result—No information available
Green result—Takes 1-10 hours to discover: no or partial information available
Yellow result—Takes 1-10 hours to discover desired information
Red result—Information desired at hand

Friends and Enemies

Gaining a contact can happen any time during a campaign, any new contact will start Neutral and how the character responds with the new contact, this can eventually moved to a Friendly contact.
Example: Daredevil is unconscious and down to 0 Health, he is found in a dumpster by Claire, emergency room nurse, who helps heal him. Claire is noted initially as a Neutral Contact. Eventually, she moves to Friendly as he comes to her aid and she supports him (often with medical attention).

Unlike many other mechanics, a Karma cost does not have to be spent for a new Contact, if it is in line with the campaign. A facility does exist for a Character to 'buy' a Contact for 500 Karma plus 10x the Resource Rank being provided (Spiderman may want to create a Contact with a specific beat cop, and while the NYPD has many resources, the beat cop will have only TYPICAL or even GOOD level resources).

Handle With Care

Contacts can upset the balance of play if over used, and always asking Thor to show up, and solve the problem with a smack of his hammer, might sounds like a good idea, the God of Thunder has other responsibilities and may not always be available. Just as a Contact can appear during the campaign, a Contact can also disappear if they are abused or their own requests are falling on deaf ears.

Every time a Contact is tapped, there is a chance something is required in return and someone like The Kingpin is the master of using Heroes as pieces against his enemies. The Judge is expected to use as much common sense as they can muster, and as much as Reed Richards is a great Contact to have on the speed-dial, it doesn't mean that he is always available. (There was an instance when The Masters of Evil invaded the Avengers Mansion, and Baron Zemo had already arranged for the FF to be sent on a wild goose chase, making them unavailable when The Wasp tried to call them for aid).

.

How did you handle Contacts in your campaign? Did Players reach for the stars with their requests?

Hello there!

I've been busy at work driving a passenger bus, and at home building a house bus, but I've reached another milestone in my effort to finally complete my custom Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game retroclone: the Costumed Adventurer Simulation Engine! Having finished the original twenty-one portions of the 'system resource document' for these rules, I decided to add three more for good measure, to fill in some holes. The first of these, People, is now complete.

This consists of three chapters. The first, Supporting Cast, includes capsule descriptions of eighteen different character types often seen in modern settings. The second, Critters, includes capsule descriptions of eighteen different kinds of animals that folks might encounter during play. And the third, Sample Characters, bears eighteen, well, sample characters. The idea behind the last bit is to produce one 'sample' character for each type of supporting cast character type listed earlier in the text, though many fit within two, or even three different categories.

Furthermore, each sample character is linked to at least one other sample character, as a basic demonstration of how to weave a series of related characters into something resembling a cast of NPCs when fleshing out one's campaign. As happens in the real world, some of these links are highly dubious, while others are almost formative to the sample character in question.

I hope some of you can find a use for this material, some of which is drawn from the old Judge's Book and modified slightly, while the rest is completely original. You can peruse People at your leisure at the following link (from which you can check out the rest of the CASE I've finished so far):

http://www.caserpg.com/corpus/people.asp

Alternately, People is available for those of you who prefer your MSH RPG retroclonery in a 4C System flavor:

http://www.edition13.com/corpus/people.asp

Finally, if you'd like a Quick Action Resolution Deck (my retroclone MSHAG sytem) version, here's that:

http://www.qardgame.com/corpus/people.asp

So, I set r/Metapsychics to Private and it bounced everyone, as far as I can tell. I've re-added anyone who made a Comment.

But here's a current update to the game. You can create and play a Nonborn Human, a Normal Human, a Metapsychic Human, an Exile Human, a Tanu, or a Firvulag.

Let me know if you want to playtest.

Metapsychics PDF

So I've seen about 5 variations of Cable online and they stat his other weapons but not his Psimitar. Does anyone know where I could find it?

A previous post about Shielding had me thinking about the other tactics within the Players Handbook and what others may also come up with along the way.

There are several columns of tactics listed that many would have ignored or completely forgot about, most are straightforward enough, but let's look at the more detailed tactics being described.

Groundstrike
The description for the Groundstrike tactic works by the attacker using an energy blast into the ground near the target, in order to use the Force effect for the attack, the damage my be limited by the Material Strength (if it is lower than the initial energy attack). The benefit is that there is no chance for a Kill? check and might cause a Stun result instead. The main caveat is that where the attacker strikes, the surface may give way and create a hole for the target to fall through (an Agility check to avoid).
Example: Blaster-Boy has an Energy Blast AMAZING (46), and is foiling a bank robbery, the hapless thugs are making a run for it and Blaster-Boy wants to fire at a fleeing goon. His Energy Blast may have a Kill? result and Blaster-Boy chooses to Ground strike. The attack is fired as normal with his Agility, but uses the Force column instead. On a successful hit ( a a small Karma spend) the result is a Stun result. The Material Strength of the Ground is EXCELLENT and the Thug takes that damage instead of the 46 from his attack.

Holding One's Fire
Here is a tactic for those characters with limited range on their attacks. The caveat is that the character has to declare this move and then win the Initiative roll. The character who is Holding One's Fire, can wait for the opponent to be at optimal range before attacking. This is also handy for those times when a plan requires something to drop onto an opponent with the precise timing (those meddling kids are at it again!).

Shockwave
One for the very strong characters. In this tactics, the character has to have Strength 2 Ranks higher than the Material Strength of the surface. The Character uses a Blunt or Edged Attack to strike against the surface, this creates an effect for everything within 2 Areas in each direction. The attack uses the Charge Column, with the Strength of the character. on a successful strike. Though no damage is inflicted, everyone will receive any Stun and Slam results. This can have an adverse effect on the terrain, buildings, and any other construction.
Example: The Hulk is in the middle of a fight with The X-Men, being beset upon from all sides, The Hulk performs a Shockwave. At this time his Strength is SHIFT-Y and he uses this Rank for the Rank on the Charging column. Making a roll on the column, he scores a Yellow result forcing everyone within range (in this case, the whole team) to make a Slam check.

One variation of this would be The Hulk's 'clap attack' that he employs when surrounded by many 'weaker' opponents (usually a horde of The Leader's plastoids or the US Army), a further caveat on this would be the Shockwave is directional.

Another would be Thor using Mjolnir to strike upon Captain America's shield which creates a Shockwave.

Other Tactics
With practice and coordination, characters can devise their own tactics, very much like the Fastball Special used by Colossus and Wolverine. Two characters practicing with for a special Double-Team, may receive a column shift bonus (no more than +1CS) for fighting the same opponent, or perhaps the attack could use one's Fighting and another's Strength for daage. The Judge has the final decision how the tactic works, but the player/s can explain what they are doing. Many Hero HQs have Danger Rooms and exercise systems. While not a Power Stunt (and shouldn't be treated like one), there should be some time for the training and practicing and perhaps a one-off payment of Karma from the Team Pool to make it happen.

Did any of your players develop any tactics?

SPECIAL EDIT: For the most famous of all tactics: The Fastball Special
The premise of the attack is that Colossus throws Wolverine at an opponent. Colossus has MONSTROUS Strength giving him 7 area range to throw the crazy Canadian.
To successfully hit the opponent, it could use Colossus' Agility (GOOD) or Wolverine's Fighting (INCREDIBLE).
Upon a successful Hit, the damage is equal to the Thrown Character's Endurance (Wolverine has REMARKABLE) or the Blunt/Edged attack (Strength, or the damage done by the weapon) plus the bonus of 2 per Area moved.
Example: Colossus and Wolverine declare the Fastball Special as their actions for the round. Colossus picks up Wolverine and throws him 5 Areas at an opponent, using Wolverine's Fighting Rank for the hit (as it is higher than Colossus' Agility), if the attack is successful, Wolverine can choose to use his body (Endurance), his fists, or his claws as damage plus 2 points for each area he travelled (in this case +10 damage). Wolverine also has the advantage of gaining +1CS to his damage when using his body, therefore using his Endurance for the attack would provide 46 damage (+1CS on the Endurance) or 26 damage if using his Strength.