GURPS Sky High

[pyratejohn]

Ok, so I watched Sky High with the family last night and everyone loved it. My wife went so far as to comment how much fun that would be as an rpg. I, of course, agreed.

If you were going to do GURPS Sky High, which books would you use? I've never used GURPS for supers (in fact, I haven't played superheroes since Superhero 2044), so I'm not too familiar with what has been published for the genre.

[David Johnston2]

Powers and Supers would give you everything you need.

[jspade]

I'd skip Supers. The 3e GURPS IOU however has been a bible through a few school-based games.

[PK]

Originally Posted by jspade

I'd skip Supers.

I must strongly disagree with this statement. Supers has an impressive amount of wordcount devoted to genre treatment (including several "genre assumptions -> rules" transmutations that drastically affect how "super-y" a campaign feels). I think a Sky High game would suffer without it.

The 3e GURPS IOU however has been a bible through a few school-based games.

And strong agreement here. IOU will give you a great grasp on "silly school" settings in general, and presents one which can be used pretty much as-is for supers. In fact, someone did a great Pyramid article on just that subject; if I weren't so lazy, I'd find it and link to it.

[pyratejohn]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

I must strongly disagree with this statement. Supers has an impressive amount of wordcount devoted to genre treatment (including several "genre assumptions -> rules" transmutations that drastically affect how "super-y" a campaign feels). I think a Sky High game would suffer without it.


And strong agreement here. IOU will give you a great grasp on "silly school" settings in general, and presents one which can be used pretty much as-is for supers. In fact, someone did a great Pyramid article on just that subject; if I weren't so lazy, I'd find it and link to it.

Would you recommend Supers over Powers, if one had to choose one or the other?

And how about School of Hard Knocks? Versus IOU?

And thanks everyone for the input! You guys rock!

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by pyratejohn

Would you recommend Supers over Powers, if one had to choose one or the other?

And how about School of Hard Knocks? Versus IOU?

And thanks everyone for the input! You guys rock!

You kind of need Powers to get full value out of Supers (there are plenty of templates that depend on stuff introduced in Powers, for one), so if it *has* to be one or the other, I guess get Powers first.

School of Hard Knocks was mainly just a combat/hostage scenario, as I recall, while IOU has lots more good campaign advice on running games in a school setting, so I'd go for IOU instead unless you mainly want a map of a high school....

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by pyratejohn

Would you recommend Supers over Powers, if one had to choose one or the other?

And how about School of Hard Knocks? Versus IOU?

And thanks everyone for the input! You guys rock!

Powers first. A fair amount of the game mechanical part of Supers depends on Powers. What Supers does that Powers does not is explore the Supers setting in far greater detail.

[PK]

Originally Posted by pyratejohn

Would you recommend Supers over Powers, if one had to choose one or the other?

I wouldn't. They're both really necessary, IMO. Supers will have the info that you really need and can use, but if you haven't read Powers, about 25% of it will make absolutely no sense and another 10-15% will be confusing.

And how about School of Hard Knocks? Versus IOU?

Get Supers and Powers before either. Then pick up IOU. Skip SOHK completely -- it, like most 3e supers stuff, is mediocre quality at best.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by pyratejohn

If you were going to do GURPS Sky High, which books would you use? I've never used GURPS for supers (in fact, I haven't played superheroes since Superhero 2044), so I'm not too familiar with what has been published for the genre.

Gurps Supers + Powers is actually viable for thsi instance. Many of the Sky High kids didn't have any viable powers and few had a good combination of offense, defense and movement. No battlesuiters either which helps.

Posting on this board means it's probably your favorite system too.

Despite what other people might say do get Supers as well as Powers. Even if Powers had all the raw game mechanics (which it doesn't quite) Supers has much good advce on how to handle 4-color things in Gurps mechanics.

Champions/Hero system is always a good choice. It's perfect for knocking people out without killing them as a core strength.

Mutants & Masterminds is also quite viable (and D20 based so there's some bonus of familiarity there). 1st ed is also appealingly simple.

I think that's most of what's actually in current release.If you got to older games there's a lot of stuff, much of it dubious.

[Rocket Man]

For a Sky High game using GURPS, I'd recommend the following:

GURPS Powers, for obvious reasons

GURPS Supers, ditto

GURPS IOU (3E) As someone said above, even though it's university-based, it's a great example for both school gaming and comedy gaming.

Teen Hero -- Release for the Hero System that focuses specifically on teenage supers and their world and issues. Invaluable.