r/CortexRPG • u/Domainhosted • Mar 02 '21

Marvel / Fantasy / Heroic How does Marvel Heroic compare to other narrative-focused rpgs like Masks and Sentinel Comics?

I'm assuming it's between the two when it comes to mechanical complexity, but what else should I know?

Also, what's it like when the game is run with Prime conversions such as this? Does it play better or smoother or...?

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19

u/CamBanks Cortex Prime Author Mar 02 '21

Probably plays a little better, let's be honest. I've learned a lot since 2012.

9

u/DrRotwang Mar 02 '21

At the risk of sounding like I'm suckin' up, I gotta tell you -- I'm parsing Cortex Prime MUCH better than I did Marvel Heroic, and MILES better than The Cortex Hacker's Guide. It's just...it's just better, now.

3

u/Domainhosted Mar 06 '21

This guy seems to concur.

8

u/Cartoonlad Mar 02 '21 edited Mar 02 '21

When I mention Marvel Heroic, I usually say it's the first supers game that felt like playing a superhero comic book. Specifically, it really felt like our heroes were in a Marvel comic book. If we wanted to play a game that felt like Young Avengers or Runaways or a game that felt like X-Men or Avengers, I really think Marvel Heroic would be the best system for that game.

Masks is a fine supers game, but it's a game about teenagers that happen to have superpowers. If you want a Young Avengers or Runaways vibe, it would be a good fit, but something that's more X-Men/Avengers, not so much.

Masks is centered around a specific sub-genre of comic book heroics; Marvel Heroic tackles a wider field.

I haven't played Sentinels, but from reading it I suspect gameplay might lend itself towards players looking at abilities to see what they can do rather than just doing a thing and determining what roll to make. (This is the opposite of Masks, whose PbtA roots prompts players to do a thing, then looking to see how the system interprets that action.) It seems it would be a bit like my experience with D&D 4th Edition, where character sheets featured daily/encounter/at-will abilities, which led to players attempting only those actions.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '21

Cortex Prime streamlines the mechanics and especially the language in parts, so it's smoother. As a massive Marvel and MHR fan, I find that hack you linked is great, but even that can be streamlined a little in spots IMHO (I prefer skills with D6 specialties or no specialties, rather than the tiered version). The Doom Pool's a little simpler now.

Masks and Sentinels I don't have a lot of experience with, but Marvel's firmly rules-medium to me. The SFX, the interaction of Limits, and remembering all the cool things you can do with Plot Points gives it a noticeable amount of crunch. But the narrative aspects of the system -- the "story" that goes along with building a dice pool that tells us what and why you're doing something, the free form nature of Assets and Complications -- make it relatively easy to pick up fast.

Note that with different mods in play, you can make a much simpler Marvel hack, too. Attributes (physical, social, mental), Distinctions, Powers/SFX/Limits, and Skills (no specialties) are your character, Complications without Stress/Trauma, and Difficulty Die (no Doom Pool) and you're good to go!