Why Didn't I Think of That?

I've made it no secret that when it comes to supers rpg's, my heart is set on Marvel Super Heroes. I like just about everything about the system, except for the chart. I've never cared for the chart, but it's always been something that I just put up with and it never really got in the way of running a good game. ICONS makes an effort to simplify the process and at least on the surface feels very MSH-like. However, I'm not a fan of the FATE-based bits and breaking down the action into panels and pages, while thematically great, just doesn't do it for me.

Enter Mutants and Marvels.

Mutants and Marvels is a 45 page rpg that takes it's inspiration from MSH, but tweaks the system into the D20 system for the dice rolling only. It keeps the FASERIP stats. It keeps the rank names. It keeps the Popularity, Karma, and Resources. There's no more chart, there's only some simple addition and subtraction. On it's own, the book is far too light to make the robust heroes and villains that MSH players are used to, but applying the mechanics to the Ultimate Powers Book and the various Gamer's Handbooks to the Marvel Universe (not to mention the mountain of fan-created stats for just about every character in the Marvel Universe) and MSH becomes about as perfect of a supers game as I could want. There will be some tweaks that need to be applied here and there, especially for power specially written for certain characters, but most of those can easily be done on the fly.

This is one of those things that when I read it I thought "Huh. Now why didn't I think of that?" Seriously, I should have thought of that a long time ago. Thanks to Tom Doolan for doing it for me.