I have always been a Marvel fangirl, even before the MCU. And in regards of roleplaying I really liked what Margaret Weis Productions did with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system (which is basically the Heroic version of Cortex Plus). It is also a dice pool system in which characters do not really get stronger but change, it handles initiative also similar as something that gets passed along instead of being rolled for. But I find the system quite easy and liked that it basically allows players to play even the famous characters instead of having those only as NPCs. Sadly it is out of print now.
That game's a clear inspiration for a lot of the mechanics of SCRPG - which is a Good Thing in my book. I'm not a huge fan of playing in established franchises like Marvel but it was a very solid game, and it's very unfortunate the license got pulled out from under them.
I like how the "Philosphy of..." system fuses the story building and action. Makes for face paced adventures. Marvel Heroic is still my favorite system, but Sentinel is a close second. Something about the feel of Larger than Life characters, the Panel action, and the classic Good Guys/Bad Guys feel is very appealing to me. Sentinel has ne of the most fun character creation rules system.
Thank you for a well thought review and overview. It sounds a bit too crunchy for me, but likely has a niche for itself out there. I appreciate the work you are putting into your videos,.
FWIW, I'd rate this as one of the less crunchy systems out there - far less so than (say) M&M or Hero/Champions, and even less than Masks. Bit more so than Tiny d6 Supers, but only a little bit and that's all in the character gen. If you were put of by all the charts, don't be. They're only used in character generation and you will never refer to any of them during play. Everything you need will be on your character sheet, and most sessions I've run I haven't even needed to open the rulebook, just look at my own notes and NPC sheets. The system's that intuitive and easy to pick up with just a session or two.
@@StarrysLostandFound Hope you like it. The core engine really is a breeze to use compared to just about anything else on the market, although the level of freedom all the abstraction gives you works best with a fairly creative table where everyone's good with improvising twist effects and using risky actions to produce exciting power stunts.
I'm with you - I like supers gaming, but I intensely dislike using Marvel or DC or really any published comic's setting or characters. Even with SCRPG I'm not running in their universe or with their heroes and villains.
3:50 Small but important point - when you're taking your turn in around, you can choose to hand the next turn to anyone, including GM NPCs or their scene tracker (which also triggers the environment if one is active). The GM can just have all his NPCs go one after another (just like PCs can all go back to back if they want) but the scene is usually more interesting if both sides pass control back and forth a bit. Whoever goes last in one round dictates who goes first in the next, which can be really important since it can set one side up for a long run of early turns that really thins out or hinders the opposition. There are even a few abilities that manipulate turn order, including a really neat one where you attack a target, then if you tell that target to go next you control who goes after them instead of the GM. Another trick lets you boost a fellow hero, and if they've already taken their turn that round the boost is better, they take some minor damage, and then they get to take another turn - which is potentially amazing if they're the one PC who's most likely to accomplish a key overcome or drop a huge hit on an enemy or something. 4:15 Twists not only provide great storytelling potential for everyone at the table, they also serve as de facto currency to pay for taking a risky basic action with augmented effects, using an ability "early" (eg a Red ability while still in the Yellow), or succeeding at an overcome when you would have failed. Players and GMs alike should be encouraging their use rather than treating them as a punishment, they really spice up the game a lot. And if your characters have a collection or two available they can be spent to avoid a twist if need be - but that may be the lamest use for one. 5:15 Collections *are* the game's level up mechanic. The menu of things you can spend them on in a session is very impactful, and even one makes a PC much stronger than someone with none to call on. There's even an arguably broken ability that lets you refresh a used collection as a reaction, which probably needs toning down since the only thing that makes collections reasonable is how few uses you get per session. Hero points are also a less permanent power-up, where you essentially get a reward based on how well the group did the session before, both in overcomes using principles and for good social scenes between characters (which also earn HP). Strongly recommend using the "alternate rewards" options on page 248-249 for more things you can spend them on, and I'd even consider removing the "5 per session" cap or perhaps letting you bank some rather than spending them all at the end of each session if you wanted.
@@TheGamingTable NP. I'm obvious a fan of the game and like to emphasize the stronger points of it when I get a chance - some of them are kind of counter-intuitive (like twists being cool currency rather than something to avoid) until you've played a lot.
@@richmcgee434 in my format I do think some of the more mechanically interesting games get the short end of the stick. It's hard to economically summarise everything. I'm glad this game has fans. It's well deserved
@@TheGamingTable Sure, you can't cover everything in a review vid, even with a relatively streamlined system like SCRPG. Have to cover the highlights. Could be worse, trying to go into any kind of detail on Champions or Mutants & Masterminds in a reasonable time frame is nigh-impossible.
@@richmcgee434 I've considered reviewing both and I've decided maybe another time. When I'm a bit more skilled at this maybe... Generally I try cover rough what kind of system a game uses and a mechanic that stands out to me. This game had a lot I wanted to talk about but cut for time. It's a great system and vibe. I really love the scene tracker. I kinda want it in more "action" games.
It's a bit more involved than that - the character (PC or NPC) can give their next turn to anyone in the scene, including the scene tracker itself (which activates the environment if any, may change the GYRO zone, trips challenge timers, etc.). If it's an NPC or scene tracker that's going, the GM decides who goes next - they can pass control back to a PC, or go with another NPC. It's tempting to have all the characters on one side go in sequence and then let the other side's survivors go, but A) that's kind of dull and B) whoever goes last in a round has control of who goes first in the next one, which can set the opposition up for a beating since their defensive reactions won't have refreshed. There are also a few abilities that let you mess with the turn order, including a Red zone trick that lets you boost a player who's already taken their turn and then lets them go again right after you - which is situationally amazing. It's really a clever system, and could be adapted for other games easily - perhaps adding some kind of "currency" (maybe based on leadership or tactical skill?) for taking manipulating the available choices a bit for added depth.
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I have always been a Marvel fangirl, even before the MCU. And in regards of roleplaying I really liked what Margaret Weis Productions did with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system (which is basically the Heroic version of Cortex Plus). It is also a dice pool system in which characters do not really get stronger but change, it handles initiative also similar as something that gets passed along instead of being rolled for. But I find the system quite easy and liked that it basically allows players to play even the famous characters instead of having those only as NPCs. Sadly it is out of print now.
That game's a clear inspiration for a lot of the mechanics of SCRPG - which is a Good Thing in my book. I'm not a huge fan of playing in established franchises like Marvel but it was a very solid game, and it's very unfortunate the license got pulled out from under them.
I like how the "Philosphy of..." system fuses the story building and action. Makes for face paced adventures. Marvel Heroic is still my favorite system, but Sentinel is a close second. Something about the feel of Larger than Life characters, the Panel action, and the classic Good Guys/Bad Guys feel is very appealing to me. Sentinel has ne of the most fun character creation rules system.
I picked this up a few weeks ago, it's by far my favorite supers system. It really captures what a comic book story FEELS like.
Thank you for a well thought review and overview. It sounds a bit too crunchy for me, but likely has a niche for itself out there. I appreciate the work you are putting into your videos,.
Thank you. There's a lot of variety out there for superhero ttrpgs alone!
@@TheGamingTable That’s for certain.
FWIW, I'd rate this as one of the less crunchy systems out there - far less so than (say) M&M or Hero/Champions, and even less than Masks. Bit more so than Tiny d6 Supers, but only a little bit and that's all in the character gen.
If you were put of by all the charts, don't be. They're only used in character generation and you will never refer to any of them during play. Everything you need will be on your character sheet, and most sessions I've run I haven't even needed to open the rulebook, just look at my own notes and NPC sheets. The system's that intuitive and easy to pick up with just a session or two.
@@richmcgee434 Thanks for the follow up on my comment. I’ll look into it.
@@StarrysLostandFound Hope you like it. The core engine really is a breeze to use compared to just about anything else on the market, although the level of freedom all the abstraction gives you works best with a fairly creative table where everyone's good with improvising twist effects and using risky actions to produce exciting power stunts.
I'm with you - I like supers gaming, but I intensely dislike using Marvel or DC or really any published comic's setting or characters. Even with SCRPG I'm not running in their universe or with their heroes and villains.
3:50 Small but important point - when you're taking your turn in around, you can choose to hand the next turn to anyone, including GM NPCs or their scene tracker (which also triggers the environment if one is active). The GM can just have all his NPCs go one after another (just like PCs can all go back to back if they want) but the scene is usually more interesting if both sides pass control back and forth a bit. Whoever goes last in one round dictates who goes first in the next, which can be really important since it can set one side up for a long run of early turns that really thins out or hinders the opposition.
There are even a few abilities that manipulate turn order, including a really neat one where you attack a target, then if you tell that target to go next you control who goes after them instead of the GM. Another trick lets you boost a fellow hero, and if they've already taken their turn that round the boost is better, they take some minor damage, and then they get to take another turn - which is potentially amazing if they're the one PC who's most likely to accomplish a key overcome or drop a huge hit on an enemy or something.
4:15 Twists not only provide great storytelling potential for everyone at the table, they also serve as de facto currency to pay for taking a risky basic action with augmented effects, using an ability "early" (eg a Red ability while still in the Yellow), or succeeding at an overcome when you would have failed. Players and GMs alike should be encouraging their use rather than treating them as a punishment, they really spice up the game a lot. And if your characters have a collection or two available they can be spent to avoid a twist if need be - but that may be the lamest use for one.
5:15 Collections *are* the game's level up mechanic. The menu of things you can spend them on in a session is very impactful, and even one makes a PC much stronger than someone with none to call on. There's even an arguably broken ability that lets you refresh a used collection as a reaction, which probably needs toning down since the only thing that makes collections reasonable is how few uses you get per session.
Hero points are also a less permanent power-up, where you essentially get a reward based on how well the group did the session before, both in overcomes using principles and for good social scenes between characters (which also earn HP). Strongly recommend using the "alternate rewards" options on page 248-249 for more things you can spend them on, and I'd even consider removing the "5 per session" cap or perhaps letting you bank some rather than spending them all at the end of each session if you wanted.
Thank you so much for this. Super thorough
@@TheGamingTable NP. I'm obvious a fan of the game and like to emphasize the stronger points of it when I get a chance - some of them are kind of counter-intuitive (like twists being cool currency rather than something to avoid) until you've played a lot.
@@richmcgee434 in my format I do think some of the more mechanically interesting games get the short end of the stick. It's hard to economically summarise everything. I'm glad this game has fans. It's well deserved
@@TheGamingTable Sure, you can't cover everything in a review vid, even with a relatively streamlined system like SCRPG. Have to cover the highlights. Could be worse, trying to go into any kind of detail on Champions or Mutants & Masterminds in a reasonable time frame is nigh-impossible.
@@richmcgee434 I've considered reviewing both and I've decided maybe another time. When I'm a bit more skilled at this maybe... Generally I try cover rough what kind of system a game uses and a mechanic that stands out to me. This game had a lot I wanted to talk about but cut for time.
It's a great system and vibe. I really love the scene tracker. I kinda want it in more "action" games.
I am intrigued about players handling the “initiative” to another player-I might try that in my game, which has no initiative system.
It's a bit more involved than that - the character (PC or NPC) can give their next turn to anyone in the scene, including the scene tracker itself (which activates the environment if any, may change the GYRO zone, trips challenge timers, etc.). If it's an NPC or scene tracker that's going, the GM decides who goes next - they can pass control back to a PC, or go with another NPC. It's tempting to have all the characters on one side go in sequence and then let the other side's survivors go, but A) that's kind of dull and B) whoever goes last in a round has control of who goes first in the next one, which can set the opposition up for a beating since their defensive reactions won't have refreshed. There are also a few abilities that let you mess with the turn order, including a Red zone trick that lets you boost a player who's already taken their turn and then lets them go again right after you - which is situationally amazing.
It's really a clever system, and could be adapted for other games easily - perhaps adding some kind of "currency" (maybe based on leadership or tactical skill?) for taking manipulating the available choices a bit for added depth.
Cropping out the 2 seconds between each sentence makes this painful to listen to. It’s like if a computer generated voice was speaking.
Having the stilted "Green. Yellow. Red. Out." Made me double check to see if my player was skipping.