New Year, New Me – Day 7

Superheroes are always in vogue, and the last decade of superhero films has done more to bring them to the mainstream than ever before. But I find a surprising lack of it in the “mainstream” of gaming – there are plenty of games, both licensed and otherwise that provide for any number of superhero gaming experiences, but they’re often overshadowed by games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. A small, very not exhaustive list of games that you can look into if you want to have this kind of experience at your table

• Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game – This is a new release from Greater Than Games. Set in the universe of the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game, the Kickstarter rewards just fulfilled within the last month, so you should be able to get the game soon. It plays like a combination of Cortex Prime and FATE (not surprising when you look at the writing team).
• Wild Talents – This game was my go-to for supers until Sentinels came out with their game. Greg Stolze hit a home run with the One Roll Engine and while it’s not the most intuitive to explain or read about, once you see it in action, it’s incredibly elegant.
• Godlike – Also by Greg Stolze, John Tynes, and Dennis Detwiller, it was the game that introduced the One Roll Engine that powers Wild Talents.
• Marvel Heroic – Sadly out of print, the short-lived Marvel Heroic from Margaret Weis Publishing saw Cam Banks and his team really figure out the Cortex Engine. If you can find a copy of this game for a reasonable price, it’s definitely worth picking up.

Myrmidon – Original idea was created for Wild Talents, but could work in any superhero game

Rand Oikos was by all accounts a normal child. He grew up in the suburbs to a third generation Greek American family. He didn’t cause many waves in his younger years, and while he was never picked last for kickball, neither was he team captain. That all changed when he was doing genealogical research for a school project. He traced his family line back to Greece. And then he kept digging. He found his way into some very esoteric records and found out that he was directly descended (albeit many generations removed) from Ares, the Greek God of War according to texts. When this information got out, he was sought out by a group called AEGIS Laboratories. They were looking for someone like him – someone who had the appropriate DNA for a test. If it were successful, they said his strength and speed would be greatly increased. Rand agreed.

The serum worked, interacting with his DNA in a way that it hadn’t with previous attempts, increasing his strength and his speed further than they thought possible. It also gave him confidence that he had always possessed, but never been able to apply. Through their testing of his abilities, they found that he was capable of more powerful feats of strength and endurance than they had initially thought. And so an idea came into being – they presented Rand with an armored suit and an artifact they had developed in tandem with the serum that allowed him to summon a small squad of soldiers from some sort of negative space. And Myrmidon was born. Over the months, his powers have continued to grow. He’s still young and relatively inexperienced as both a hero and a leader, but AEGIS Labs has put together a group of like minded heroes that they can use when the need arises.

Rand seems to be a no-nonsense buzzkill at first, but that’s because he’s actually quite scared of failing in the field and getting one of his team mates hurt or killed. All that aside, he’s a born leader and when he’s able to channel that fear into something productive, he’s a force to be reckoned with. When he’s not in costume he allows himself to relax a little bit more, joking with his team mates and friends, but he’s never more than a few seconds away from his persona as Myrmidon. He feels that the cost to let his guard completely down would be too great.