In October 2024 I ran “Supervember” on my channel. I reviewed four super hero RPG products—Cypher System’s Claim the Sky, SWADE’s Super Powers Companion, Sentinel Comics RPG, and Marvel Multiverse RPG.
It was an amazing month, but something struck me as I pondered two of the products—they felt too constrained. Comic book action is huge. Buildings get smashed, on-lookers need to be rescued, telephone poles get swung like baseball bats, manhole covers go flying, and Kirby dots are everywhere. The more tactical games, which counted squares and had formulas for how many walls through which a hero gets punched, didn’t feel like they gave enough space for the game to get as gonzo as a comic book does. It doesn’t mean they’re bad products, just that they felt a tad “off” for the genre. The other two products, on the other hand, felt like they could be wielded well to create a comic book feel.
I have now been able to run the two games for which I felt the most affinity, Cypher System for Super Heroes and Sentinel Comics RPG. I like them both, but which one captures that comic book feel a bit better?
Powers
In Sentinel Comics RPG powers are abstracted. Each is described with a few lines of text, but there’s no mechanical write up for what that power does in game. When a character is using a “Basic Action” they chose a power, an aspect (a learned skill or inclination), and their current status. The dice assigned to each are rolled and the results are interpreted. How that power functions when it’s activated is up to the player and the GM working together to create the fiction.
Cypher System leans a bit more on to the mechanical aspects of abilities, which emerge from a hero’s type and focus. Many of these abilities have a point cost to activate, making them a limited resource which are locked to specific values on the sheet.
On the other hand, when the super hero genre is being used Cypher System also introduces power shifts. These are automatic modifiers which are applied to specific tasks or enable certain abilities A power shift in flight gives a character that ability, for example, while strength can help with lifting heavy objects or inflicting a heavy blow. These power shifts are what make heroes “super,” as they cause a dramatic reduction in a task’s target number. At the same time, what these shifts look like is up to a player’s narration.
As a GM, I appreciate the way these games do their best to offer both freeform expression and mechanical guidance for a character’s super powers. I think I’d give the edge to Sentinel Comics RPG at the moment, because the way Cypher System links activating abilities to a mechanical cost makes them feel a tad more limited, but it’s close.
Obstacles
Sentinel Comics RPG abstracts the obstacles heroes will encounter through the “overcome” action. Anything that prevents a hero from accomplishing their goal requires an overcome action. Powering down a forcefield requires an overcome action. Breaking down a titanium-reinforced door requires an overcome action. Non-combatants caught in hazardous situation require an over come action to rescue. Dancing through the fire trap without getting singed requires an overcome action. If a task is difficult, it may take several overcome actions to get through an obstacle. I am in love with the overcome mechanic because it frees a GM to toss just about any obstacle in the hero’s way without needing to worry about balancing things out. I can describe a roadblock as anything I want, and I don’t have to care about setting up a way to defeat it. I can just rely on the players to come up with a solution and, when they do I can say, “OK, that’s an overcome action, let’s see what happens.” It is fantastic.
Cypher System, on the other hand, ties obstacles to its unified mechanic. Everything in the game, including objects, is ranked level 0-10. To get the target number a GM takes the level and multiplies by three. An obstacle’s level, however, can be modified. A player can assist someone trying to deal with a barrier and lower the level by one. A character can be trained in a relevant skill, which reduces the level by one or two. A character can be constrained, which raises the level. Or a character’s power shifts can come into play, lowering the target by one for each relevant shift. After all modifications are taken into account the final number is multiplied by three, yielding the target number. In Cypher System objects have a “damage track,” instead of health. This four step track describes the weakening status of an object before it breaks.
I’ve heard folks remark that Cypher’s level system sounds like a chore, but I’ve found it to be both fast and fun at the table. On the other hand, transforming obstacles into complete abstractions which are resolved with single mechanic is faster yet. As with powers, picking between these games is difficult, but I have to give a slight Edge to Sentinel Comics RPG. Were this a sprint, the difference would have been maybe a hundredth of a second.
Chaos
Comic book battles are chaotic. As the Kirby dots fly complications arise and situations go sideways fast. To get the comic book feel right a super hero RPG needs to have a way to bring this chaos into a scene. This is a where both Sentinel Comics RPG and Cypher System excel.
SCRPG uses the Overcome action to inject comic book chaos into a scene. When a hero attempts to deal with an obstacle using an that action the results die is compared to a table. Anything above an 8 succeeds (and anything above a 12 is an awesome success), but a result between 1 and 7 is a failure unless the player accepts a major (1-3) or minor (4-7) twist.
Major twists will put the hero at a significant disadvantage—blocking a power for the scene, doing significant damage to the hero, giving a player a persistent hindrance to a roll, or injecting weighty adversary into a scene. Minor twists are setbacks—blocking a power for a turn or two, adding some more minions to the fight, doing a small bit of damage, or hindering the player’s next roll. Twists can also advance SCRPG’s scene tracker, escalating the stakes because every conflict scene is on a timer.
In SCRPG the environment may also have twists set up for it. If a player rolls low on an overcome action where the environment is a factor twists can be triggered which affect every participant. This makes the situation feel more desperate, such as the building catching fire or a bridge beginning to collapse.
Twists from overcome actions are cool, easy to adjudicate, and the player and GM work together to make them fit the story. Twist also never negate a success, so players still feel like their characters are moving forward. It’s well done.
Cypher System uses intrusions for similar ends. They can inflict damage, put a character at a disadvantage, or add in new elements which alter the very nature of the scene.
Intrusions are triggered whenever a player rolls a natural 1. When this happens, whatever the character was attempting to do fails and something extra is imposed on them. If they were trying to avoid damage the character may have dodged into the blow, instead. If they were attacking a weapon might break. If they were trying to bluff their way into party perhaps the bouncers become hostile. When the chaos gets unleashed, the characters need to deal with the new obstacles.
Intrusions may also be triggered by a GM who wants to mix things up a bit. If a battle goes too fast, a new adversary needs to appear, or the players aren’t paying attention to the environment a GM can trigger an intrusion which makes a situation more complex. When they do so the GM awards an experience point to the player who is being affected by the intrusion, and gives a second experience point for that player to gift to someone else at the table. Even more wild, if a player doesn’t feel they want to deal with the chaos the GM is adding to the scene they can refuse the intrusion by spending an experience point.
Even more fun, players can spend their experience points to trigger their own intrusions. In this way, and with the GM’s agreement, a player can add an element which grants them an advantage—maybe they remember a weakness in the lock they’re trying to bypass, a car’s leaking oil makes some adversaries slip on the ground, or an open window pops into existence which grants the characters access somewhere without triggering a dust-up. Intrusions are a lot of fun for the table, and their chaotic nature is perfect for a comic-book style experience.
I love both these mechanics, and they are a perfect fit for the genre. I give a slight edge to Cypher System, however, because the combination of both narrative and mechanical triggers is a winner for me. But, as with the previous sections in this post, the edge is slight.
Adversaries
In Cypher System, at least rules as written, adversaries have a health stat and attacks do a static amount of damage. Because of this putting adversaries out of the fight means overwhelming them with enough hits to knock them out. Cypher System also allows adversaries to be grouped together with three or four of the same type which gives them a higher level. These buffed adversaries have more health, are harder to affect, and do more damage. The game’s ability to group adversaries into single entities helps make confrontations feel massive while keeping mechanics simple and fast. I love it.
On the other hand, the way adversaries are designed can make them feel like they’re sticking around too long while their health gets whittled away. Sometimes a few bad rolls can make combat feel longer than it should be. Also, if a GM is adding low-level minions to weaken the heroes it can be disappointing to watch the players dodge attack after attack after attack with easy rolls (in Cypher System the GM doesn’t roll dice). It doesn’t always happen, and if players are spending their attribute points to assist their attack and defense rolls minions still have a weakening effect, but it’s nice to hit every now and again.
In Sentinel Comics RPG, on the other hand, most of the adversaries heroes will face are represented by a single die type—which is what those NPCs roll for every check. Also, in SCRPG, attacks always hit. When a block of minions is given initiative they can make life very difficult for the heroes and that makes them feel potent!
Single die adversaries are categorized as either minions or lieutenants, and their survival mechanic works well. Whenever one of these adversaries is targeted with an attack they make a damage save and have to meet or beat the number which the players rolled against them.
If a minion fails this roll they are out and are removed from the scene. If a minion succeeds in their roll their die-type is reduced by one and continues in the fight. SCRPG Minions are perfect glass cannons, they pack a serious punch but can be knocked out of a fight fast. Lieutenants are a bit different because their die-type is reduced only on a failed damage save. This tends to keep them in a fight longer, making the heroes’ lives miserable as they dish out punishment or continue with their tasks. A lieutenant’s durability makes them perfect stand ins for minor villains.
Full-fledged SCRPG villains, on the other hand, use a dice-pool mechanic which is similar to the player characters. They also have distinct abilities, like the PCs, which pack a serious punch. This shift from the single-die mechanic makes villains feel both distinct and dangerous.
This may be the only area where I feel one game outshines the other. The combination of SCRPG’s glass cannon minions who have a chance to stick around, beefy minor villains who can deal out significant punishment, and dangerous villains who are terrors to face is what I look for in a game. I love Cypher System conflicts, but the distinctiveness SCRPG gives to the different types of adversaries gives that system the edge. I love the way it’s designed.
Conclusion
I don’t enjoy pitting one system against another to have “winner.” Instead, I enjoy comparing systems so I can grow in my appreciation for what each brings to the table. In some respects this particular comparison isn’t fair. Cypher System is, after all, a “generic” system which is designed to be used for any genre while Sentinel Comics RPG is designed from the ground up for comic book play. On the other hand, three of the four sections in this comparison were toss-ups—and Cypher System even game out on top in one section, which is impressive. I hope I was able to spotlight what each of these systems does well, and explain how each is capable of creating a comic book feel for a game. While Sentinel Comics RPG gets the edge for me, you can’t go wrong with either if you want to run some super heroes at the table.
