Mighty Super Heroes Are Go!

Hey there,

So I am getting back on the horse. I want to take this moment to thank everyone once again for their kind support and their warm humanity with my recent batch of troubled times. It was very very appreciated.

Now as to what is this "Might Super Heroes" thing all about?

As you may notice to the right hand under the "What I am playing" section there is a mock-cover for the not really real Mighty Super Heroes RPG. What happend to BASH! UE? What's going on? Has the world gone crazy?

Well a note about BASH! UE. I still think it is a tremendous game and the first ever power builder I actually enjoyed. I will continue to move forward with my plans to publish roster books for it (and M&M and ICONS, but not HERO since they want a cut of sales for the privilege and the pie will already be super small after the online distributors take their slice) but I won't be running it at my table. Nothing against the game, I just can't fight my Marvel Super Heroes RPG roots. They go over 20 years deep and I just don't feel comfortable running my style of game in another system.

That said MSH (get it?) has a lot of problems, or old mentalities. So one of the things I am doing is updating the FASERIP engine to be more modern. This actually has a lot to do with other super hero games.

For example I am adding the "Callings" from the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game (SAGA), the "Mental Malfunction" of BASH!, the "Wound Track" from Mutants & Masterminds and other things, some even my ideas too!

Not sure if you guys want to see this here yourselves, but I may post about it and will certainly put up characters with the stats from it.

I will not publish it ever. I might make up a pdf of it but only as a free download and never for cash. Might Super Heroes isn't about that, it is merely about the game I have loved for 20+ years getting a bit of a pimping.

Face front true believers, this is gonna be fun!

*The art used for the cover was taken from the internet and is used without permission. No offense intended.

Mighty Super Heroes! or Excelsior! ?

This is the question.

I have promised to do a retro-clone this year of MSH Classic (FASERIP for those who remember) in response to my feelings on 4C. Yes I wasn't very impressed.

Now over on Grognardia there was some talk about MSH Classic today and I posted about this. Naturally I posted about my plan to do this and how I wanted to call it "Mighty Super Heroes!" Get it? M-S-H?

Anywho, an upright citizen named Delta reminded me and everyone that Marvel and DC hold the trademark on the term "super hero". Now while I don't fear that they would come after me for a "free" project, nonetheless anarchist (yes I see the delicious irony in that) suggested calling it "Excelsior!" instead. I like that too.

So what do you think folks? What are you thoughts on title?

Comment please :)

25th Anniversary!

So with 2010 right around the corner, I realized something. This is going to be my 25th anniversary of roleplaying! I started way back in 1985 as a freshmen in high school and never looked back int he quarter century since.

Wow.

Unlike most people I didn't start with D&D but actually with FASA's Star Trek game. I quickly moved on to Villains & Vigilantes and then dabbled a bit in D&D.

Fantasy rping always took a back seat to Star Trek or Superheroes, that's just the way it was up until 1989. Then I discovered a game that made all others moot for me, it came in a minimalist black box and cost my $18 at Captain Quebec (uFLGS) and it was called Cyberpunk.

I ran Cyberpunk for years (both 2013 and 2020) and was considered quite a lethal referee. I still am. I have always warned players that all other games I run for them to have fun and explore the world... Cyberpunk I run for me. And I like shootouts, double-crosses and non-stop action. All of these things lead to very high PC bodycounts in Cyberpunk and I am quite fine with that.

The other two themes I have ran to death are Superheroes and Star Trek.

I was the only person in my circle of gamers who held onto MSH Classic (FASERIP) after everyone else had moved on to Mutants & Masterminds. I just never got into all that book keeping. Wasn't for me. MSH was elegant, fast and I could eyeball a threat/power level in seconds. I didn't need to then perform a bunch of caculations based on that eyeballing, all I needed to do was add some ranks and Bob's your uncle.

I have run homegrown campaigns, Marvel Universe campaings, DC Universe campaigns and a weird folded Universe that lasted a bloody longtime as well.

Star Trek is another game I have ran in almost every incarnation, though not the one that came before FASA Trek. I have run Next Gen Campaigns, Movie Gen Campagins, Post-Gen Campaigns and even my own Ultimate Universe version of Star Trek. I have run Prime Directive using the original rules and D6. I know my Trek, but surprisingly only became a fan after I start RPGing it. That is why the FASA Universe will always be in step with how I see Star Trek and as such Movie Gen being Trek to me.

So with my 25th Anniversary of gaming looming I plan to spend 2010 revisiting these awesome genres (as well as continuing work on Final Age) and really have some old school fun with myself. The only difference is that I will use SAGA instead of FASERIP for my supers. I don't know what I will use for Trek and I will use my melange of 2013/2020 rules for Cyberpunk.

It's gonna be a good year for gaming!