Avengers April

Top 5 personal favorite comic book heroes.

1: Kitty Pride

2: Shazam /Captain Marvel

3: The New Mrs Marvel/Khamal Khan

4: Batman

5:Lockjaw

Top 5 Super hero RPG's

1: Villains and Vigilantes

2: Marvel SHRPG (Yeah Feeble powers)

3: Heroes Unlimited

4: Code Name Spandex

5: God Like

Top 5 Super Hero Teams

1: The Fantastic Four

2: The Justice Society of America

3: The Justice League

4: The Avengers

5: Pantheon

I have been playing RPG for as long as they have been around, I can still remember creating my very first D&D character out of the 3 original books. While I was able to play a few games of OG D&D in my youth it was not till I discovered Villains and Vigilantes and began a weekly campaign that last long into the 80's and not only became my favorite RPG but it was my gate way into super hero role playing games. At one time I owned a copy of almost every Super hero RPG her was.

While I still love and play D&D, SHRPG are still my favorite genera to play.

April is dedicated to the world of Super Heroes, fitting as this summer will bring us several Super Hero films and both DC and Marvel are beginning there latest round of changing there world to bring it up to speed with the culture of 2015 (there words not mine).

Supers are the new zombies, they are showing up in every aspect of the media and it's about time!

Comics are the blood stream of the American mythology, no other genera is as prevalent and as important to our collective social zeitgeist (ooo big words)

So lets start with Villains and Vigilantes, one of the first SHRPG systems and one of the best. Somehow this 35 page game works. Despite the random power table (random powers are always awesome) and the fact that your first character is supposed to be you-with powers? Which I never liked because at the time I was like 9 and really me with powers at 9?

Yet despite that V&V creates a system that lets you play the Justice League and create scenarios where both Bat Man and Superman can shine, few other systems work that well with out modifications.

I’ve played almost every SHRPG and V&V is just a great Little game that works as well in 2015 as it did way back in 1975.

Now about the Marvel Super Hero system. Let's see there have been about 8 RPG systems with the marvel name, mostly from TSR/Wizards of the Coast but a few others managed to jump on that license when TSR became WOTC, but lets face it . The original Marvel Super hero role playing game from TSR is still the best.

It had an amazing collection of random powers and was one of the first systems to include the weird stuff like Anatomical Separation, but that’s not why original marvel rocks.

No, Marvel rocks because instead of numbers for their stats you had words. You did not have a strength of 35 , no you had a AMAZING strength or you had EXTRAORDINARY laser blast or if you had a bad die roll, you could end up with feeble powers. Yes I have Ice powers at feeble, I cant stop a bank robbery but I can make sure all the victims have an nice cold glass of water!

One of my all time favorite moments in my long career of role playing was playing my robot with feeble Psyche and Amazing Chameleon blending. He just stood in the corner blending in to the wall till someone told him what to do.

“Ok guys we go to the bank and we get the robot to...where is the robot? Dang it we left him at the base again.”

Now lets move on to the last member of the top three Heroes Unlimited. You have got to hand it to palladium, they have consistently been advertising product on almost a monthly basis for almost 20 years. I remember Mechnoid Invasion and early TNMT games from them way back when the number on the calender did not have a 20 in front of it so, yeah long time. Heroes Unlimited has some amazing stuff, mainly in the step by step descriptions and amount of detail they put into each part of there game. Want to know everything you can do with your flame powers, then HU is the game for you. It took an hour of modding and stuff but I was able to build almost every idea I had for a character in HU. The problem was no one actually played any palladium games,because no one understood the rules. I have played a lot of HU and we just made the rules up when we had to because we did not understand the system.

Had they just edited HU a little better and had a more liner combat system I think it and most of there non RIFTS product would have done much better, still you have to hand it to Palladium for remaining an active and consistent presence in the RPG world. And they did create RIFTS which is a glorious Juggernaut of a mess -Yay Mechanoids.

The list could go on, but those are my top three. So why comics, why super heroes? Because Comics are the only genera where you can tell every story you can think of and it all works. Fantastic Knights fighting horrendous monsters, how about Iron Man facing off against the Mandarin?

Dark gritty noir detective investigating a kidnapping? How about the Batman ?

You want to talk pathos and teenage angst. Spider Man?

And who does not want to have Lockjaw as a dog?

Comic books are the mythology of America, they are our stories. We laugh with them, cry with them and cheer them. They help us through the dark times and the bright.

Super Heroes are not amazing because of their powers, they are amazing because they are the best of us. Superman, Captain America, Batman, Spider man even Archie they are the people we wish we could be, because they are the best-and worst of us.

Super Heroes and Comic Books are the mythological legacy we leave behind us. I love Comics and the SHRPG genera because of the adventures I can have as a Super. No other game lets me save the world and still worry about my homework

Over the next month I will be running a Marvel Super Hero's campaign to celebrate Avengers April and the new SECERT WARS/Convergence story lines coming out from marvel and DC this summer starting tomorrow

So tune in true believer as the mighty Heroes of Fresno, Nebraska do battle with the evil forces of the Crime Circus, the time travailing thief Nick 'O Time, the mysterious Lot 27 and the other villains who seek to make a name for them selves.

I will post all the Wham , Bang, Smash excitement and the information on the bad guys as it happens true believer

So, till next time.

Go out and make your own mythology

 Be excellent