10 TTRPGs for a different kind of superhero story

The perspectives within a comic book world come in many, many forms, and there’s no reason your tabletop should be lacking in options to play with those forms. Whether you’re on the hunt for stories about marginalized mutants, sponsored supervillains, or being stuck in a school for the strange, this list of games is here to offer you some options.

10. Agents of BAMF (Fainting Goat Games)

“The capes can’t always be There. That’s why There’s BAMF,” so the game declares.
Not everyone in the world is a hero, but that doesn’t make them any less skilled. Agents of BAMF presents the side of comics inhabited by the likes of Phil Coulson or Hellboy. Here, players take on the role of super agents working for the kind of alphabet soup organization that you expect to see in comics (SHIELD, The BPRD, Checkmate, AEGIS). The game was forged out of OSR principals, meaning folks with any familiarity with D&D, Pathfinder, or Mörk Borg will quickly find themselves at home as they dispatch supervillains and strange monstrosities.

9. Masks of the Masks (Hazel Amber Goswick)

Imagine the clock ticking towards doomsday, stark in its monotone contrast against a colorful backdrop, yet still ticking, unendingly, towards the end, no matter how hard you try to study it. That is, in short, what you’ll find in Masks of the Masks. Inspired by, and emulating on every page, stories like Watchmen that deconstruct the superhero, this game drips in style and substance. Built on the back of the Powered by the Apocalypse system, this game sees you creating heroes who… aren’t necessarily alright… and find themselves solving a conspiracy that is likely to always end in calamity.

8. Neo Guanabara – Cyberpunk Tropicala (Ludus Hero)

Cyberpunk is not often a genre associated with superheroes. Still, Neo Guanabara follows in the footsteps of those brave few, like Batman Beyond, Spider-Man 2099, and, I guess, Loonatics Unleashed. Create your perfect hero with specially designed stats to represent their abilities and get ready to battle against criminal gangs, megacorporations, and oppressive governments. The game provides systems to keep the city fluid and makes sure that the impact your heroes leave on the city is felt. Neo Guanabara iterates on mechanics similar to the Cortex system, meaning anyone who got to play Marvel Heroic Roleplaying before it went out of print will be familiar with Neo.

7. Villainous Fucks (KeganEXE)

Why even bother being a hero? Why not give yourself to the other side? The League of Villainous Fucks is always looking for those who are determined to battle against those pesky protectors. The villain, after all, is just as important to the story as the hero. Villainous Fucks is Illuminated by Lumen, so it is designed for quick play and even quicker action. The rules-lite design means that it is made for quickly building a character, defining your villain’s powers, and then getting straight to the part where you cause mayhem and destroy anybody who thinks they should stop you. What’s not to love about your new gig?

6. Hit The Streets: Defend The Block (Rich Rogers)

The greatest joy of Marvel’s Defenders Netflix shows is the knowledge, for example, that Daredevil is putting himself through hell to protect a twelve-block area in the middle of Manhattan. No game truly captures that vibe like Hit The Streets does. At all times, you will feel like you’re giving it everything you have to defend, like a single apartment complex. Hit The Streets boils down your stats to the minutiae of each body part, despite its fast-paced d6-slinging system. It really makes you feel like you’re dragging every inch of yourself forward to protect what you’ve got.

5. Mutants in the Night (Orion D. Black)

We’ve all seen some variation on an X-Men story where we see that future, the one where the Sentinels win. Dystopic visions of mutant oppression and police state-induced societal decline are seen in Days of Future Past, Logan, and X-Men ’97. Mutants in the Night drops you directly into that future and then asks you to survive in it. You’ll get a variety of powers to customize your characters alongside all of the factions and troubles occupying the Mutant Safe Zone you’re all living in. Mutants in the Night uses Forged In The Dark to expertly thread the needle between narrative-driven and ruthless.

4. Single Unique Power (Possible World Games)

Maybe you’re after a game that’s a little more laid back for game night. Single Unique Power is a world-building game that asks you to invent a cast of super-powered people and their world. You are asked to simply create individuals that have powers found no where else, completely unique to them. The premise itself takes its cues from media like My Hero Academia, where no one on Earth has the same power as someone else. If you’re ever looking to put together a campaign with superpowers, here’s the best way to get your party emotionally invested in the NPCs beforehand.

3. Mutants in the Now/Mutants in the Next (J/K! Games/Julian Kay)

It is the nature of the human being to yearn to become a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Maybe you don’t want to specifically be a turtle, but you want to be an animal that fights ninjas and robots and aliens and whatever else you can imagine. Mutants in the Now is here to satisfy that yearning. This game asks you to become a mutated creature with almost limitless ways to battle the forces of evil. If there’s one thing I’d tell you about this game, it’s that it has options. Options for animals, options for powers, options for ways to fight. Its expansion, Mutants in the Next, doubles those options. If you can push through the choice paralysis, there are limitless ways to be radical ahead of you.

2. Molotov College (W.H. Arthur)

Molotov College is a game about questions as much as superheroics. Chief among those questions is how you’re expected to save the world when there’s so much wrong with it and with you. Built from the Belonging Outside Belonging system, the game isn’t just narrative-first; it’s basically narrative-only. Molotov College asks you to play a hero who is tremendously flawed and not on the best terms with your fellow heroes, then confront those flaws and those relationships, and avert disaster. The main inspirations it pulls from are The Umbrella Academy and Doom Patrol, meaning the special flavor of superheroics you’ll be doing is particularly off-the-wall and begging for answers.

1. Exceptionals (Bramble Wolf Games)

Previously, I talked about a game that depicts a dystopia for mutant kind. Now, to finish up, Exceptionals brings us the perfect way to play out the X-Men story of your dreams. The tag-based system for making characters lets you flesh out the ways your mutation helps and hinders you. It never loses track of what makes our favorite X-Mutants so beloved, that sense of building a community against the world that wants to put you down. Thriving in the face of adversity, carving out a place to call your own, and shooting stuff with your eye beams are all the reasons that X-Men keeps itself running, and Exceptionals never loses sight of that. Instead, it doubles down on all of that. Powers are detailed and unique; meanwhile, you’ll be filling out your bonds and fighting to make your little mutant community live on.