Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Backers Assemble!



The SuperSystem 4th Edition Kickstarter Campaign is Live!

We've got great news super friends! The SuperSystem 4th Edition campaign is live on Kickstarter. Joining our team of heroes will help ensure that this is the most super edition of SuperSystem ever. Become a part of making the most versatile superhero miniature game in the world. Click the link below, and thank you for your support!

SuperSystem 4th Edition Kickstarter Page

In at sidekick , $25.00 for dice just doesn't do it for me, especially when I can use regular D6s. Also signed up for the newsletter earlier, hopefully my kids and I will have some fun around Christmas.

Good luck!

Updated--all Info will be aggregated into this thread

Thank you!

I want you guys to sell me on this.

I've heard the name before, but what's it got that games like Heroclix don't?

How quick is it to play? How rule heavy is it?

Backed it at the retail level.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
I want you guys to sell me on this.

I've heard the name before, but what's it got that games like Heroclix don't?

How quick is it to play? How rule heavy is it?

HeroClix is an abstract strategy game with hero figures. This is more of a true miniatures game. Build your super team any way you want, then duke it out on the table top.

Take a look at the rules yourself - https://app.box.com/s/ei1dz124szjqsmaqc38l

highlord tamburlaine wrote:I want you guys to sell me on this.

I've heard the name before, but what's it got that games like Heroclix don't?

How quick is it to play? How rule heavy is it?

Here's what 3rd edition had that Heroclix doesn't: Custom hero design. Linked campaign play. Traditional dice + stats rules rather than clix mechanics. Skills to meld the game into a quasi-RPG experience. EDIT: All this is in the 4th edition layout document. The RPG appendix also has non-combat rules for powers. Appendix III appears to be solo play rules as well.

Last time I took someone through a learning game we played less than an hour. Adding more minions and heroes will make things take longer as you have more models to move and resolve.

I'd say it's medium rules heavy. There's a core mechanic that doesn't change, but which stats and powers you use and how they interact gives variety.

I primarily use it for sci-fi skirmish gaming rather than super heroes, so that should give you an idea of how flexible the hero design system is.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
$6 for the PDF. That's impressively low.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just noticed the update. A 200+ page simple text PDF of the game.


.

The PDF is nicely low priced. I'll probably go that route.

Where's the option for just a book? If I buy the book, I don't want the PDF, and the "We're offing a $40 book for $30" line isn't exactly a deal if there isn't an option to buy just the book.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
I want you guys to sell me on this.

I've heard the name before, but what's it got that games like Heroclix don't?

How quick is it to play? How rule heavy is it?

Nothing at all like Heroclix. It's an actual wargame. It uses the "Goalsystem" rules engine in nearly all instances requires a player to roll a pool of dice and achieve a certain number of "goals" ( rolls of 4 or better). It's a nice system and is used in other "Goalsystem" games like Blasters and Bulkheads, Chaos in Carpathia, and most recently "Goalsystem Delves". Most Goalsystem games also divide units between individual heroes with various special abilities and good survivability and squads of "mooks" or "henchmen" who come in groups but act as a single unit attacker, albeit with degrading abilities as members are killed off. It's a bit different from the individual and squad mechanics of games like 40k, but it works well.

The only Goalsystem game I've actually played (read quite a few) is Blasters and Bulkheads, a Star-warsey sci-fi pulp game. but I liked it enough to sign on for the Goalsystem based "Ghosts of Heife" KS.
I found previous versions of Supersystem to be among the more rules heavy of the Goalsystem games, but nothing as rules heavy as 40k and less complicated than most games.

highlord tamburlaine - Frozenwastes and Dullspork have done an excellent job articulating many of the differences, and I'd much rather let customers sell the game to you. That being the case, I will simply confirm what they have already said and add that versatility is the greatest strength of SuperSystem. You really can make any kind of hero (or villain) you want, from street level to galactic, and you get to make them your way.

Eilif - I want to address your concerns about the pricing. We've folded the cost of USA shipping into the pledge levels, and international backers add the extra fees listed. So the book is $30, +$10 to ship via USPS First Class or Priority mail. You're getting a 25% discount off of the MSRP of $39.95. We learned a lot from our Goalsystem Delves KS, and the hard lessons of shipping and its many hidden costs remain fresh in our minds.

I hope that helps explain the backer levels better, and we thank you for your support!

I backed for the book+PDF. I backed Delves for the PDF, but I really do prefer a hardcopy for gaming rules.

 eengaming wrote:
highlord tamburlaine - Frozenwastes and Dullspork have done an excellent job articulating many of the differences, and I'd much rather let customers sell the game to you.

If you've got some terrain and some painted figures and a decent camera, a simple 4 minute play video might be worth considering.

Eilif - I want to address your concerns about the pricing. We've folded the cost of USA shipping into the pledge levels, and international backers add the extra fees listed. So the book is $30, +$10 to ship via USPS First Class or Priority mail. You're getting a 25% discount off of the MSRP of $39.95. We learned a lot from our Goalsystem Delves KS, and the hard lessons of shipping and its many hidden costs remain fresh in our minds.

You should probably make this clear in the text somewhere. Like changing the words "for $30" to "with free shipping within USA" and mention the free PDF

"It will retail for $39.95 USD, but we're offering it here to you, bundled with the PDF version of the rules and with free shipping to anywhere in the USA, as a thank you for your pivotal role in completing this project. The PDF version will retail for $11.95, but we're offering it for $6 to backers because we respect the movement of some gamers to e-content, and we want those folks on board for this new edition."

No more confusion?

How does one get the figure after you've pledged?

I'm in for this game, have had nothing but good things from it since 2d edition.

Be real cool to see those Pulp City figs fight a few of those Alien Hosts.....

And The Four Color Crew has a good team that will finish a quality product on time, in spite of the sharks with frikken lasers, alien invasions, and super intelligent apes.

Backers,

Thank you all again! We're more than a 1/3 of the way there already!

Grot 6 - It's easy. Maintain a backer level at Protector or higher. Our mailing list records the date joined, so if you meet both criteria, the figure is included when you receive your rewards. There will probably be a box to check, come backer survey time, but that's it.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Frozenwastes - Hmmm Was that from a previous to launch iteration of the KS page? Here's the text regarding this:

"This 256 page hardcover book will feature gorgeous color covers and a sharp black & white interior. It will retail for $39.95 USD, but we're offering it here to you for $30 (plus shipping & handling) as a thank you for your pivotal role in completing this project. The PDF version will retail for $11.95, but we're offering it for $6 to backers because we respect the movement of some gamers to e-content, and we want those folks on board for this new edition. "



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Does that help?

No, that text was my suggestion that makes it clear that there actually is not a $30 option. For pledging $40, you get the hardcover at MSRP, but a free PDF and free shipping. Shipping hardcovers isn't cheap, so it's actually a really good pledge level even though the text makes it sound like there's some $30 pledge level when there's not. Some people have mentioned this $30 thing and you had to explain that it's actually the $40 pledge, so I just gave a replacement paragraph that cuts out the confusion.

I tossed the text only PDF onto my eReader and will be digesting it later tonight and hopefully getting a game in tomorrow. I'll post thoughts then.

Is this the final cover art?

Cyborg apes are great and all, but the previous edition of Pulp City had a cyborg apre on the cover and similar palette for the cover art. in a niche of a niche market you may want to set yourself apart a little more.

As promised, I backed the moment I saw this thread. I cannot WAIT to receive the book, and I hope people will throw support behind this. The $23,000 stretch-goal would be terrific, and frankly, from the demo game I had using the free beta-rules release, the system deserves to earn way more than even that number.

For those not into super heroes but who have wandered into this thread anyway:

I originally heard of SuperSystem in an Inquisimunda thread about rules to use for 40k type skirmish games. I got it, tried it out and it worked.

I've used it for fantasy, used it for sci-fi and used it for mish-mash science fantasy and post apocalyptic stuff (both gritty and whimsical). I have never played a single game using it for comic book super heroes.

I haven't delved into this edition yet, but in 3rd, the points system wasn't linear. You ended up with a super hero of 60 points being twice the strength of one that's 45 and around four times as powerful as one that's 30 points. So what I ended up doing was defining a baseline of normal human hero and working off that in a more linear fashion.

In 3rd edition there was also conditions you could place on powers, so when I wanted to make an Eldar heavy weapons platform I gave it's ranged powers a condition that it could only fire when a guardian crew was nearby and then statted up the guardian squad separately.

If you want a skirmish game of characters fighting characters, you won't need to figure out things like that, but I was surprised how well the game could completely replace 40k and represent everything I needed in terms of vehicles, units of grunts, weapon platforms, daemons, etc.,.

Incidentally, a lot of Kickstarter users will happily sit through an hour long video if it is really telling/informative about a product. As a few others have said, I would really suggest the team put up an hour long "game" and really show off just how wonderful this system is.

Greetings Super Friends!

We do have a series Let's Play videos focused on the mechanics of SuperSystem in the works, and I am releasing the first one today! They are not full hour-long play videos, but instead are directed towards specific options and abilities. I hope you enjoy it.

This first one focuses on two melee attacks: Charge and Haymaker




Thanks for watching, and you can support us on Kickstarter by following the link below!

SuperSystem 4th Edition on Kickstarter

For anyone thinking about knock back in a sci-fi application, the high dice being rolled flinging someone off a building would be the type of thing that happens when hit by a sufficiently strong attacker. Normal dudes are going to be rolling a few dice each and maybe knocking each other back and inch or two maybe.

I've read battle reports of ork warboss smashing a space marine captain 6" away into a pile of rubble, so it does happen.

I personally love the knock back mechanics as it creates a huge difference from the typical "locked in combat" approach.

Greetings Super Friends,

Backers clamoring for more superhero miniature goodness have been a common theme in our comment section. Fear not; your voices have been heard!

Old Glory, producer of the SuperFigs line of 28mm superhero miniatures is partnering with Four-Color Studios to offer the following amazing deal to our SuperSystem 4th Edition backers:

Backers who maintain a pledge at Sidekick level or more to the SuperSystem 4th Edition Kickstarter, will receive a staggering 50% off their next order of SuperFigs from Old Glory Miniatures.

This offer is valid on one order.
This offer can not be combined with any other Old Glory discounts.
This offer can only be used on the SuperFigs range of figures.

Ditch that secret identity! Grab your cape, mask, and utility belt, and join the SuperSystem 4th Edition Team of Backers today!

-Four-Color Studios

 Mecha_buddha wrote:
Is this the final cover art?

Cyborg apes are great and all, but the previous edition of Pulp City had a cyborg apre on the cover and similar palette for the cover art. in a niche of a niche market you may want to set yourself apart a little more.

Dunno when Pulp City's stuff came out but this is the 4th Edition of Super System and previous editions have featured monkeys/apes on the covers quite prominently.

And that particular cybernetic ape has been in the art and I believe also mentioned in examples of play for quite some time.

I so hope this achieves its funding. I'll probably kick in another $20-30 by campaign end to help increase those odds in some small way, but I would feel a lot better if those numbers would climb a bit. ;-)

Come on folks... do we really spend this much time posting here, just to ignore something really good to do with all our minis, now that we've got them? :-p

There are different funding period profiles based on different factors. Some get most of their funding in the first day or two while others get most of their funding in the last day or two. I think this KS will get there. I just wish there was something between the PDF and the hardcover shipped to Canada. As it's a $6 to $55 jump after I add in shipping.

My instinct would be to leverage existing PDFs and add other goal system titles in PDF at $6-$10 a pop. I have them all already though, but other people might want the opportunity to get Blasters & Bulk Heads, Goalsystem Delves or some of the Chaos titles bundled in with their SuperSystem 4 PDF.

A PDF with Dice option, perhaps?

 eengaming wrote:

Eilif - I want to address your concerns about the pricing. We've folded the cost of USA shipping into the pledge levels, and international backers add the extra fees listed. So the book is $30, +$10 to ship via USPS First Class or Priority mail. You're getting a 25% discount off of the MSRP of $39.95. We learned a lot from our Goalsystem Delves KS, and the hard lessons of shipping and its many hidden costs remain fresh in our minds.

I hope that helps explain the backer levels better, and we thank you for your support!

Meh, I guess I see the logic in that. The PDF is essentially a freebie.

Still, not much of a deal for folks who don't want/need the PDF who are basically full paying retail for the ability to get it a bit early and via mail rather than via your FLGS or online discounter (where shipping will probably cancel out the discount). That said, getting it first is nice, as is seeing it actually get produced, so it's sort of a wash.

I pledged for the PDF.

Eilif - Thank you for your pledge! I'm very glad you brought this up; it is important that I disabuse folks of the notion that they will be able to get a printed SuperSystem 4th Edition book at their FLGS or through an online discounter. I think our attempt to present as professional a product as possible has given folks a false impression of our size and reach.

I'm adding the following text to better explain our small company. This isn't directed at you specifically, but to better inform those with similar concerns:

Four-Color Studios is a team consisting of three people: myself (Enrico Nardini), Scott Pyle, and Joseph Dragovich. As you are probably already aware, most games purchased at independent retailers move through a distribution model, from maker - to distributor - to retailer - to you. Manufacturing and packaging often fit in there somewhere as well. We do not currently have deals to distribute our games through this distribution chain (companies like ACD, Alliance, Warpath, etc.), though we do aspire, and may at some point achieve this. Right now, most of our sales are either PDF format (direct, or through websites like Wargames Downloads) or (in the case of print media) directly through my online store or print on demand.

There are a small number of local (Pittsburgh) retailers who do carry our product, and we hope to grow that with this Kickstarter and beyond, but the idea that these books will be flooding your local retailer is just not true.

Believe me, no one wants to see these books in retail outlets more than us, but we are also realistic with our fans and customers. We work hard to deliver quality products, and I am glad this has given some people the impetus to back our product. If it succeeds, we will continue to work hard and make sure it lives up to your expectations.

Thank you again for your support!

So I noticed another design blog entry:

http://www.playunplugged.com/2014/04/designers-log-5-archetypes/

It looks like the game will have partially built archetypes where you just take them and finish spending some points to produce a hero. This is a good option alongside a custom build from scratch.

It also looks like the extra points can be spent on some pre-assembled packages if you really want to save time.

I'm also going to use these as a basis for designing my more street-level sci-fi stuff. Though they'll be using the 3 (and one at 4) stat limits for normal humans.

Here are two great updates!

SuperSystem 4th Edition author Scott Pyle, discusses the use of archetypes in superhero gaming and how they apply to the newest edition of SuperSystem.

Designer's Log 5 on Play Unplugged

Four-Color Studio's Enrico Nardini and Scott Pyle present the second of a series of Let's Play videos featuring the new SuperSystem 4th Edition. In this video they resolve a Ranged Attack and Super Leap.