[RPG]: Superworld, reviewed by swinebread (3/3)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12029.phtml

Swinebread's Summary:

<i>Superworld</I> has solid game mechanics and might be worth your time if you are a Chaosium fan or nostalgic for the 1980s, but for most superhero gamers it is too generic.


Go to the full review for more information.

[Dan Davenport]

Another great review, SB!

Do attributes have any more influence over skills than they do in the game's incarnation in <b>Worlds of Wonder</b> (which is to say, not much at all, a la <b>CoC</b>)?

That's interesting about the connection to <b>Wild Cards</b>. Granted, I haven't seen the <b>Superworld</b>-only version of the game, but I imagine that campaign must have taken quite a bit of homebrewing. There are some awfully strange powers and liabilities in that setting.

[Strange Visitor]

Most skills are _based_ on an attribute, but aren't heavily influenced by it, if that makes any sense.

Superworld's biggest problem, really, is that it shows its age in some areas; the Superworld Companion helped some of these problem areas, but its even harder to find that the main rules.

[Dan Davenport]

Originally Posted by Strange Visitor

Most skills are _based_ on an attribute, but aren't heavily influenced by it, if that makes any sense.

Really? Does it use the old <b>RuneQuest</b> method?

[Nihtgenga]

Originally Posted by Dan Davenport

Really? Does it use the old <b>RuneQuest</b> method?

G'day.

What I think he is refering to is that the cost of many powers is based on the stats. Thus a level of a power might cost a number of Hero points equal to your Con say. Flight was 1/2 your Size to purchase from memory. It was a rather neat solution to having lower stats means lower cost to get powers, so there is a degree of scaling involved.

Skills on the other hand were usually purchased out right at 5% per point. Of course, the higher your stats were, the higher your Hero point total, so you would have more to spend on skills.

With the wild card connection, the books came out of Martin's desire to make something out of all the time they were spending on gaming. The actual books had very little to do with the original characters although the disadvantage system resulted in the attitude of 'If you see a strapping hansom hero, laugh. But if you see a crippled wheelchair bound villain, then run for your life!"

You might recognise the Astronomer from that description.

Cheers

[swinebread]

Originally Posted by Nihtgenga

What I think he is refering to is that the cost of many powers is based on the stats. Thus a level of a power might cost a number of Hero points equal to your Con say. Flight was 1/2 your Size to purchase from memory. It was a rather neat solution to having lower stats means lower cost to get powers, so there is a degree of scaling involved.

Skills on the other hand were usually purchased out right at 5% per point. Of course, the higher your stats were, the higher your Hero point total, so you would have more to spend on skills.

I was trying to find a nice, concise way of responding to the skills question by Dan, but Nihtgenga said it better than I could.

[Strange Visitor]

No, I was refering to skills, but the same principal applies. A lot of skills are purchased in a fashion where one skill or power point gives you Attribute x1 or x1/2 or some such. Not all are (attack is bought in straight 5% increments) but a lot are based on Int or Dex one way or another.

The reason I don't consider it ongoing significant is most advancement in skills by most characters is, IME, done the standard BRP way, by rolled advancement, and the base has no impact on that.