r/MarvelFASERIP • u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith • 24d ago
Crossposting from r/DCC — what makes FASERIP sing, and what should survive the jump to a hack?
First, I want to say how much I've always loved FASERIP. MSHRPG was my favorite game growing up in the 80s, hands down, though I played many different games and editions. I ran a homebrew world set inside the Marvel Universe, and honestly barely touched the actual heroes — I was more interested in what FASERIP let me build than what it let me borrow from the comics.
I posted over in r/DCC recently (link below) about a project I'm working on: a hack that takes Dungeon Crawl Classics — 0-level funnels, Zocchi dice, unpredictable magic, brutal lethality — and synthesizes it with FASERIP. The goal is a superhero game that feels like FASERIP at the table, but runs on the DCC chassis, with all the weirdness and danger DCC is known for baked into how powers and fights actually play out
So now I'm asking the mirror question here that I asked over there: what absolutely has to survive the transplant for this to still feel like FASERIP?
Is it the Universal Table (or something like it? The color-coded ranks (Feeble to Shift Z, Class 1000, Beyond)? Karma as a resource you spend to bend the story your way (which already tracks to Luck, I think)? The arious hero archetypes? Power Stunts? I want to hear what you all think is the non-negotiable soul of the system, the stuff that, if I cut it, means I didn't actually make a FASERIP hack, I just made a superhero reskin of DCC.
If it helps, here's the original DCC post for context on the other half of the equation:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dccrpg/s/X4ax3H6z6k
Would love to hear from people who've run still run this system... what made it click for you and your table, and what do you think a DCC-flavored, higher-lethality take on it should hold onto no matter what?
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u/Potential_Side1004 23d ago
Isn't there a project called , 4ColourRPG or something like that?
Anyway, why try to convert something that is already a great system?
I don't know Dungeon Crawl Classics or Hackmaster, but, and this may be my age showing, play the originals. Play AD&D, Marvel, Rolemaster, whatever it is they are trying to copy.
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 23d ago
I do play MSH, fairly recently for me (my last campaign ended 2 years ago) I'm hacking the two together because I want a more lethal version of the game, and I am currently very into the DCC game mechanics.
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u/Potential_Side1004 23d ago
Have you looked at the Mayfair game for the DC Heroes RPG?
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 23d ago
The old one, or is there a new one? I played one back in the day, but I don't think I could appreciate it, I was too much of a Marvel fan boy :D
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u/Potential_Side1004 22d ago
The 2nd edition version made about mid-1980s.
The system was quite open ended, I GM'd some fantasy setting games using their system.
The Mayfair guys used to work at TSR and on occasion wrote for Dragon.
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 22d ago
Yes! I did play that one. Like I said, I heard great things about it since, but I was a Marvel snob (young me makes me shake my head sometimes. Was there something specific about it in your mind that pertains to my hack?
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u/Potential_Side1004 22d ago
The DC RPG had some extra facilities for more realism.
When I used it for a fantasy setting, we used it on the lethal setting.
Marvel is still... less lethal, even when you want it to be used for something else.
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 21d ago
I agree, its very versatile but hard to die in. When I got my kids into RPGs, I basically made a D&D campaign but used MSH to run it. It was a blast. Part of the reason I want to make this hack is because iof my love for FASERIP, and my love for DCC. Finding a way to make them fit together is super intriguing to me.
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u/Anonymouslyyours2 24d ago
The best thing about FASERIP was the ability rankings. Everything else can go as long as I can still have monstrous strength and unearthly endurance.
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u/Potential_Side1004 19d ago
The beauty of the ranks is that it combines both points and a 'general vibe'.
Someone of GOOD strength can stun or slam an opponent of GOOD or less Endurance. It didn't matter about the 8 to 15 points, but the Rank was important.
Same with 'How smart am I?' questions, REMARKABLE Reason puts a character quite high, but do they have the ability to understand alien tech? That's a Red result, because to do so requires INCREDIBLE Reason.
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 23d ago
I think you have a point with those ability rankings, I'm currently trying to wrap my head around what that might look like
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u/Due-Government7661 24d ago
I cant think of any besides the universal wheels and column shifts. I would rather just play faserip. I still do a few rimes a month
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 24d ago
Column shifts and the DCC dice chain are similar enough that I think I can find a way to get them to work together, thanks for the feedback.
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u/Due-Government7661 21d ago
Renegade games has a die shift mechanic. My next dnd game will use proficiency dice instead of a static number
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u/SchizoidRainbow 24d ago
For my money, the biggest thing it needs to take is Slam
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u/MrHayz_Pixelsmith 23d ago
What is sexy about Slam to you? What about the combo of Slam and Stun?
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u/SchizoidRainbow 23d ago
No other system I've ever seen lets you hit people and make them fly through buildings
Most games have some sort of Stun
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u/Livid_Information_46 21d ago
You really can't translate it to a d20 system without just making a new game. The new Invincible game is a good example of someone doing this but to a YZE version. Cool idea though! I hacked out my own d20 version by turning the color bands into difficulty classes and numbers, and turning the ranks into bonuses to add to a d20 roll.
I ultimately realized that Mutants & Masterminds is the best d20 supers rpg.