I have been thinking a lot about superhero RPGs lately. Now, I’m no Steve Kenson or Rodney Thompson, but I have written for many of these games, GMd them, and played them over the years. So come with me and let’s talk about what the genre is missing... 1/13
Superhero RPGs consistently embrace comics as a reference point. Since MSH, at least, they’ve described character actions as panels, a round of play as a comic page, one session as an issue. Spectaculars is a straight up comic book simulation game, and not the first. 2/13
But comics are not how most Americans experience superheroes. Not today, and not for a long time. Cinema, the television miniseries, and animation are the entry points for most Americans. You may accept this as a given, but one example may suffice: 3/13
Amazing Spider-Man #25 sold about 115,000 copies in March 2017, which made it a tremendous seller. Still, only 1 in 3,000 Americans bought that comic. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Homecoming opened later that year in over 4,000 theaters and ran for 8 weeks. 4/13
Perhaps the next superhero rpg should leave the comic book simulator behind and instead simulate the superheroes 99% of Americans actually see. Some games have made gestures towards this: the art style for ICONS is clearly recognizable to all of us who grew up on cartoons. 5/13
What would such a game look like? What combat system can simulate Cap’s elevator scene? In a comic sim, you can make every punch a roll of the dice. There’s no way such a system works for this scene. 6/13
“Well, actually,” I hear you cry, “you can’t make a cinematic superhero sim until you decide which cinematic universe you’re simulating. They’re all different!” To which I say, “bullocks.” 7/13
This is more about form than content. There have been plenty of crappy comics. For every WATCHMEN, there’s a YOUNGBLOOD. DC comics in the Silver Age read differently than Marvel comics in the ‘90s. But they all have panels, pages, and issues and a comics sim can do them all. 8/13
Of course, a comprehensive comics sim—like Spectaculars—acknowledges these differences and builds them into the game experience, and we can do the same. But let’s look at cinematic/TV superheroes for distinguishing features. For example: 9/13
Cinematic superheroes are identified as much by the actor playing them as the role. Should you have to “cast” your character in a cinematic super sim? Are there plot twists like “your actor demands too much money and is recast” or “9 movie contract”? 10/13
How about music! Music is a huge deal in superhero movies. Perhaps every session you pick one piece of fight music for your hero, and when you play it, you get a buff. Or maybe another player picks the fight music they think best suits your hero, and surprises you with it 11/13
We can’t reasonably play through the events of an entire film in one session. Even episodes of tv are mini-movies these days. But the movie-length series, or the season-length series, become frameworks for your campaign, and the GM can take long prep time between each one. 12/13
This is just the beginning. I don’t claim to have the game figured out! But I‘d really like to see a superhero rpg that was forward-looking instead of nostalgic, that tries to capture an audience who has never read comics but loves superheroes. What should it look like? THE END?
Thank you so much to you lovely smart people who contributed! Because I’m still thinking about this, this is happening: 
