If you’re wanting to play characters with depth, the kind of characters Marvel Comics made in the early 70s with real life problems, you’d better look elsewhere. I think I stole this line, but StuperPowers Deluxe is not your father’s super hero RPG.
Take The Tick, Mad Magazine and just a smidgen of South Park and mix them together in a 55 gallon drum using dynamite. It’s a beer and pretzels supes-game that’s not for the timid or for rules lawyers. The book is funny enough reading on its own whether you ever play it or not--though I can’t imagine anyone not at least ’curious’ enough to try it at least once.
Nothing is taken seriously in this game and that’s just the way it’s meant to be. Players roll on random tables to come up with hilarious origins and Superpowers (I’ll explain a little more later). Players also have turn-ons (benefits such as super genius friend) and turn-offs (lawsuit magnet was one of my favorites).
Stuper powers are incredibly silly powers that range from the weak (super smile, price-scan anything) to the bizarre (turn things plaid) to the just plain crude (vacuum butt). Some of these are really inappropriate for younger kids or for the easily offended, so don’t take the game to Sunday school and expect to be a rousing success. As you can see from just these few samples--yes, their descriptions pretty much sum up what the powers do--the point of StuperPowers is to act silly.
The Gamemaster is termed the BMD (Big Mac Daddy) and he/she is the person responsible for keeping the game moving and to rule just how much damage someone’s sonic belch did to the bad guys. Game resolution is pretty much a moot point, but for those who just gotta know if they somehow manage to one up the villains, a detailed description of paper, scissors, rock is provided, along with illustrations in case you’re from another dimension.
Did I say Villains? Using even more random tables, you can come up with the likes of Commodore Kill Cakes with powers like belly bottom beams who plans to auction your Aunt Suzie on e-bay from his super secret lunar base. There’s even a Mad-Libs-esque sheet in the back of the book for setting up last minute adventures--you mean people actually plan these things? Big Mac Daddy’s job is definitely made easier with all the gag stuff you can throw at folks in these pages.
Within the confines (or lack thereof) of these silly, fun-loving concepts, BMDs and Players are free to act as stupid as they want playing superheroes and villains bent on saving/destroying the earth. While the rules are certainly easy enough to use to play a standard paper RPG, I think my personal favorite part of the book is StuperPowers Deluxe Live Action Role Playing (LARPing to you veteran gamers). The authors compare one of these sessions to a Murder Mystery Party games available at “snooty novelty stores”.
The BMD hosts a game session, setting up a place where players can be introduced to a person or object that will later (unknown to them) be heisted. Players arrive as themselves (their secret identities) and dash into action as Dr. Underwear or whoever they’ve decided to become. Players then play a few fast moving rounds of everything from paper, scissors, rock/combat theatre to Twister as they attempt to recover the heisted object, defeat the badguy and gain the most points (awarded by the BMD, of course) to become the winnah!
Guess I'd better mention the book's art. Like I said, with nasal snot rockets and bagels of death as options, expect a lot of crude sight gags. Each StuperPower has a pictorial example of what it looks like in use. Most of these are funny and quite a few are Mad Magazine level gross. I think my favorite is just inside the cover, our hero clearly outnumbered by surrounding baddies has just wet himself.
Go to www.stuperpowers.com if you'd like to learn more about the game or if you want to add any powers you've decided. I think Little Debbie snack cakes o' power will be right on target. Have fun!
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