I’m going to review some rules-lite superhero TTRPG games that I think are really good. The first one that I want to talk about is Superhero Fun by Jerry Joe Seltzer. I spoke about this game way back in 2013, but that review is gone – plus this game is worth another look.
Superhero Fun is a genuine hidden gem. You won’t find any other reviews for it out there, (at least I couldn’t) and that’s a real shame. The game uses a d6 dice pool system in the Westend Games model originally created by Greg Costikyan for Star Wars back in 1987, and everything fits on just six pages.
The six pages begins with a character sheet that includes rules for character creation. Characters are defined by four core attributes which the game calls the “Big 4 Stats”. These are: Brawn, Agility, Mind, and Charm. Players have 8 dice to assign to these with a maximum of 3 dice for any single attribute. The Big 4 Stats are fixed after character creation. Only a players “abilities” will improve during play.
Abilities are like skills. Each of the Big 4 Stats has six abilities listed beneath it except for Agility which has five. Players assign 12 dice between all of these Abilities, again with a maximum of 3 dice for any single Ability. All of this information is on the character sheet on page one.
The next two pages are super powers. Players can spend some of their creation dice to buy super powers. A super power costs 2 dice and changes the rules in some way. For example: “Bulky” adds 1 die to your Brawn stat and changes the max for that stat from 3 to 4. Following the super power list are some example limitations. Limiting a power changes the cost for buying the power from 2 dice to 1.
Pages four and five look more closely at the specific abilities and give examples of their use at differing difficulties to help the GM to set difficulty numbers based on what a player wants to do. Page six is an overview of the rules, all conveniently located on one page.
Every odd page has a copyright that reads: ©2010 jerry@seltzerpop.com - No rights reserved. Use however you want.
Jerry Joe Seltzer is an illustrator of children's books and author of D&D 5E supplements. Seltzerpop.com doesn’t exist anymore, and Superhero Fun is a game that you can only find if you really look for it. The PDF is housed on wikipedia commons. Jerry has a website if you want to take a look at other things that this incredible creator has produced for the TTRPG community.
Give Superhero Fun a quick look. It’s free. It’s only six pages. And I think It’s really awesome! What have you got to lose?
You actually found a superhero RPG...that I've never heard of before! It is so good to know that such a thing can still happen to me :) This one does sound like a fun "stop-gap" or "convention break" game, for sure, too. And the art is pretty fun :)
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