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R.L. Dane

🍵

Jan 14

@dmoonfire @sotolf @amin

For me it was the classic 80s Marvel Superheroes RPG #MSHRPG. A pretty straight-forward 2d10 system that was extremely enjoyable.

Played it nearly every Saturday from '95 to '98, and only a handful of times since then. One of our key players lost interest in '98, and I moved at the end of '99.

Never could find a gaming group since then, and gaming over Zoom does not interest me.

Awakening very old memories of someone in my RPG group in the late 90s bringing the Darkstalkers into the game.

The funny thing is that the game was the classic 80s #MSHRPG: Marvel Superheroes RPG (tabletop, of course!)

He really got tons of mileage out of that game, implementing his own improved damage system and bringing in all kinds of amazing characters from other universes, including, somehow, Ranma?!? (Actually, that was someone else's character, but he, the GM, allowed it!)

The Marvel Superheros RPG I used to love playing in the 1990s used a Karma system. It was the 1980s "MSHRPG" made by TSR. Very complex and quite good system, honestly, although I'm not a gaming expert by any means: neither video, nor board games, nor #ttrpgs.

If you were a good guy, doing good things would increase your karma. Doing bad things would decrease or even wipe out your karma.

If you were a bad guy, doing bad things would increase your karma.

There were many times that the heroes would attempt to neutralize a foe but go just a little too far, leading to the villain dying. That would zero out the hero's karma, a phenomenon we liked to call the "Karma Toilet." IIRC, one of us would actually play a .wav file of a toilet flushing when it happened, or walk to the nearest bathroom and flush a toilet, or something.

Man, the 90s were fun. I really miss constructive boredom and community.

#MSHRPG #Marvel #TTRPG #MarvelSuperHeroesRPG #RPG

R.L. Dane

🍵

Jan 14, 2025

Back in my halcyon #TTRPG-playing days in the 90s (It was #MSHRPG, if anyone's curious), I had some characters with... very interesting backstories and/or weaknesses.

One of my favorites was a brawler-type character simply called "Rock" (named more after Sylvester Stallone's character, as Dwayne Johnson was not yet a household name, and I hadn't heard of him yet). He wasn't stupid per se, but definitely not a Reed Richards-type. His assets were his looks and his muscle. He was a heroic type, and could both take and dish out a LOT of damage. No powers, no super smarts, no skills other than basic martial arts, and no tech other than what the superhero group kitted him out with (basic stuff: armor, thermal goggles, comm, gas mask, stuff like that). He was straight-up a fighter. He was useless in the air, in space, or in telepathic battles, but boy could he fight hand-to-hand. Not a Hulk, but pretty close to Spidey in terms of strength and fighting (Spidey's a lot stronger than people realize).

He had, however, a rather comical weakness: he had a limited number of hits he could take (at any damage level) before he would become incapacitated for a period of time. He was a very tough character, but five hits (all it had to do was get through the armor, it didn't even have to necessarily HURT), he'd be out cold.

The joke was that after his fourth hit (because he was definitely smart enough to count them), he'd report to the hero base's infirmary and beg one of the nurses to hit him. After finally winning over the nurse's protestation (and after referring to his chart), the people at the infirmary would be treated to the incredible sight of seeing a little 90-lbs nurse knocking this mountain of muscle out cold with one little punch.

I think #MentalHealth can be like that. I think a lot of people tough it out through a lot of battles without anyone else being aware of it. There are times when I feel like going up to a friend and saying, "Could you please slap me so I can go cry for a while? I've taken some hits, but I'm not up to my threshold yet, and I just feel like crap."