SUPERGLOG, or Of Mutants and Magic

 DESIGN NOTES:

• I was thinking about what made superhero stories so compelling, and I found that what was interesting was not the intense battles and superpowers, but how relationships and humanity flourish around those set pieces, and the moral battles that occur. In character creation, I wanted to put in the seeds for ideologies and relationships that can be explored through play.

• GLoG and cosmic-power superheroes don’t mix well. I want to implicitly reign in the power level so that the heroes are always assumed to be in well over their heads- sort of OSR superherodom in a way, insomuch as the heroes win is not by punching things hard, but with their wits and the tools at their disposal

• One of the things about superhero dramas that are so compelling is the moment of fortune reversal, that crux instant where the hero suddenly finds a pool of strength or remembers some bit of preparation that suddenly turns the tide in their favor. I wanted to represent the hero’s abilities to find fortune’s favor. The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game contains the Story Points mechanic, which almost exactly describes what I want, so I’ll be stealing it virtually wholesale.

• I’m gonna make as much as possible modular, so that the players and DM can customize what they want for their visions of these larger than life characters.

• And, of course, I want to restructure and rename stats and such to instill that superhero flavor into the mechanics.

Without further ado…

OF MUTANTS AND MAGIC: A superpowered GLoGhack

STATS

Roll 3d6 down the line, then switch two of your choice. A 10 is a standard average, and a 14 is peak human ability, so a 15 or above is particularly remarkable or superheroic. Roll equal to your stat or under to succeed, perhaps with advantage, disadvantage or a penalty or bonus (applied to the stat, never the die roll).

STA: Stamina. What you can endure.

POW: Power. How much force you can exert.

AGL: Agility. How quickly you can act.

SUP: Supernatural. Your control over your Powers.

INT: Intellect. How keenly your mind works.

PER: Personality. How charismatic you are.

POWERS

Choose three discrete Powers, or three ways to use one Power. Talk to your DM about anything remarkable, but the ability to create gadgets, shapeshifting, flight, super speed, laser vision, and any number of others would all be applicable Powers.

CORE

Your Core is a sentence that describes the heart of your superheroic personality. What defines your identity? It could be “pacifistic vigilante who fights crime as revenge for their dead parents”, “sheltered billionaire disillusioned by terrorist kidnapping”, “innocent kid thrust into responsibility after a freak accident”, or whatever might be appropriate.

Whenever your Core would hinder your course of action or suggests you make an inefficient choice, you gain a Hero Point. Whenever you act counter to your Core, you lose a Hero Point.

RELATIONSHIPS

Choose three living people who are significant to you. One must be particularly significant to your superheroic identity, and another must be significant to your mundane identity. A max of one might be another PC.

You gain a Hero Point every time you save one of these people from danger or assist them in a long-term, meaningful way. You lose a Hero Point every time they are hurt because of your actions (or lack thereof), or if a mundane relationship finds out about your secret identity. If one ever permanently dies, you lose all the Hero Points you have.

EQUIPMENT

You have whatever’s reasonable. Spend a Hero Point to have something that’s unreasonable.

HERO POINTS

• You start with Hero Points equal to your SUP.

• Spend a Hero Point to roll again with advantage.

• Spend a Hero Point to get a valuable clue or insight.

• Spend a Hero Point to use a Power in a strenuous or unusual way.

• Spend a Hero Point to happen to have some advantage.

• Spend a Hero Point to stave off death for a scene.

• Spend 2 Hero Points to return from the brink of death when you so please.

• Gain a Hero Point to voluntarily accept a complication.

• Gain a Hero Point when you hinder yourself in accordance with your Core.

• Gain a Hero Point when you save or assist one of your relationships.

• Lose a Hero Point when you act in opposition to your Core.

• Lose a Hero Point when one of your relationships is put in danger because of you.

• Lose a Hero Point if your secret identity is uncovered.

• Lose all your Hero Points when a relationship dies.

• Refresh your Hero Points between storylines.

FIGHTS

You have Health equal to your STA. Take away HEALTH when you suffer from attacks- roll POW to hit (perhaps AGL or SUP if appropriate), STA to resist. Most attacks with fists do d2, with mundane weapons do a d4, with firearms do a d6, and with magical/supernatural weapons do a d8.

When your Health reaches 0, you die unless you spend a Hero Point to keep yourself alive for a scene. If your body is not recovered by the end of it, you die, unless you spend a Hero Point to stay alive, and another Hero Point to pop back alive or reappear in the story in a moment of your choosing.

You go back to full Health in between storylines. You heal d6 Health every time you get quick medical assistance or a break to rest, or d12 if you get professional medical help or multiple days of rest.

DM NOTES

All the rolls can be player-facing, so you don’t need to prep monsters or mechanics past maybe a few notes on penalties or advantage/disadvantage. Keep your prep centered on the cinematics- what larger-than-life villain has cooked up a crackpot scheme? What strange new environment will the heroes have to fight their way through? How do the hero’s relationships tangle into the plots and threaten to tear their lives apart?

The core of the game is the exchange of Hero Points. Generally speaking, be harsh about draining their points early in the adventure so the final fights are climactic and motivated by the hero’s Cores. It’s that dynamic interplay there of communal story-building spurred on by the heroes and not the DM’s prep that really makes a game into a superhero story. That, and spandex.

If you have a DM screen, put the Hero Point list on it. That’s really all you need.

SAMPLE HEROES:

Brian Waid//Mothman

STA: 13

POW: 12

AGL: 11

SUP: 6

INT: 14

PER: 13

POWERS: Bazillionare, Utility Belt, Stealth

RELATIONSHIPS: Alf, the clueless butler

Lightie, the plucky sidekick

Sandra, the nosy reporter crush

HEALTH: 13/13

HERO POINTS: 6

Walter Weird//Professor Weird

STA: 9

POW: 8

AGL: 12

SUP: 17

INT: 15

PER: 10

POWERS: Sorcery (Teleportation, Energy Whip, Foresight)

RELATIONSHIPS: Anne, the mentoring dean

Grandmaster, the arcane pedagogue

Tan, the playful rival

HEALTH: 9/9

HERO POINTS: 17

There’s a lot of room to expand and refine, but I want to see what people think about this core, because I’m relatively uninitiated in the superhero canon. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! Thanks, and happy gaming.