Portal:Marvel Super Heroes

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Marvel Super Heroes

TSR's Marvel Super Heroes RPG was the second RPG I'd really spent time playing, as both a player and GM. (Star Frontiers was the first, but those character sheets are long gone.) I'd picked it up when it was first released, and eventually got hold of most of the materials released for it, up to the Doctor Doom boxed set and all the Marvel Universe Handbooks. I'd made a bunch of characters on the hero and the villain side of the fence, and it represented my earliest attempts at writing (none of which was on a computer-they weren't everywhere back then). Accordingly, some of the details are iffy.

Of note is the fact that that I recently revisited the characters and created a Mutants and Masterminds RPG version of the characters; the stats don't map perfectly, but they preserve the spirit of the characters.


Force Supreme

This was the first team of super heroes made for the setting, and was envisioned as the "generic super hero group". Eventually, it settled into a group specializing in recovering alien technology-but they were involved in everything from outer space to other dimensions. In some ways, they were the "Fantastic Four" of these teams.


Fate Incorporated

Fate Incorporated was the team I eventually broke my writing chops on. Envisioned originally as a large-scale "heroes for hire", at a corporate level rather than at the small scale, this team was the "alpha division". Eventually, the team mutated into a Federal Marshal role with a side goal of replacing Project Pegasus as the superhuman database of record.


The Hunters

The Hunters followed parallel tracks in some ways. The original Hunters were recruited by an alien to locate the future ruler of his race, while preventing another faction of his species from killing that ruler. One of the groups recruited by that faction was the Troop of Evil, which eventually came into conflict with the Hunters. Later, it came out that the Troop had been brainwashed into serving that faction, and they surrendered themselves to the now-restored alien ruler. This eventually led to the merging of the Troop with the Hunters, as a team serving as an elite force for the alien federation.


The Champions

Like the Hunters, this group went through some mutations. Originally harboring that alien ruler mentioned above, the team operated as the Defenders. The team underwent upheavals and some of them banded together again to serve in an Avengers Experimental Franchise. When the main team disbanded the West Coast Avengers, they disbanded the AEF as well-but unwilling to simply fade away, chose to begin once again as the Champions (using a name abandoned by the old Champions of Los Angeles).


Lone Wolves

Not all heroes were a part of a team. Some heroes operated on their own, either due to inclination or power.

Force X

Originally a nemesis for a hero group in Canada, this team of villains (originally led by an alien) wound up being "journeyman villains", working for anyone if the price was right.


Group Mind

The arch-enemies of Force Supreme, this team specialized in psychic powers. These villains eventually would abandon the obvious world-domination or revenge schemes, as it tended to leave them beaten and jailed most of the time. Instead, they chose to try to stay off of superheroic radar, with some measure of success.


Nemesis

Fate Incorporated dealt with a number of threats, but only one organized enough to be a team of super-villains, led by a robot with startling ties to Fate's heroes! No pages meet these criteria.


Omega Force

Omega Force had crossed swords with a number of heroes in our campaigns. First they showed up to fight a Canadian superteam by kidnapping a relative of their leader (that team's stats are long gone from history, sadly), then fought the Hunters, then fell apart and reformed under a new leader to fight the AEF. For the most part, they were considered by their leaders to be disposable super-mooks who just wouldn't give up.


Solo Acts

Not all villains were a part of a team. Some villains were either powerful enough to take on entire teams of heroes, or simply preferred to work alone without the drama that came with villain teams.