Pulsar, the Perfect Super Hero Roleplaying Game is in Production

 I'm chewing through the powers right now, I think I'm in the "M"s. Pulsar is my attempt to create a legal retro-clone of DC Heroes 3e. 

Besides used copies for this out-of-print game and its first retro-clone, The Blood of Heroes, there is no legal way to get this great superhero system in print. What I am after is MEGS, Mayfair's Exponential Game System. The engine and internal logic which drives the game. Stripping out all intellectual property is not much of a chore. In fact, I have the rules, combat and gadgets complete. Middle of the Powers right now like I said (limitations, bonuses, etc. completed) so the next big chapter to write is Mysticism. Don't need to include any setting material, this is just a rulebook. There still are DC Heroes adventures you can find in the usual places, but you should pass on those. From my experience, super hero modules are fairly derivative an rarely stray far into the realm of unique or original. Game Masters are best creating their own stuff. Poach villains from anywhere. MEGS is simple enough to do conversions. I've wrote up one for Icons myself and posted it on the blog. 

The art is not going to cost me anything either. I'm adding in my drawings from the actual MEGS campaign I've been running for over a year. When I mull over the previous session I like to capture a scene that sums up the action and doodle away while I daydream. So yeah, we got art! 

Layout, the original rule books were built inefficiently. I believe this is due to all the optional rules available to add to the base rules. And these are littered throughout the book. Fortunately I am not taken with much, if any, optional rules the game has so that is the first clutter to go. The only other real change I am doing in layout is putting character creation after "The 8 Ideas". the rules, and combat. This is so the GM can go to the front of the book and be confident of finding the rule they are looking for, not go to several places piecing the answer together. I will do something simple, like run a black header all the way to the edge of the page, in the Powers section of Character Creation chapter. This gives you a black "section" you can see looking at the edge of the book.  When making a character you are going to go to this section many times, this should speed up getting there. The way BoH is arranged I would end up in the combat chapter when I'm looking for player information and always ending up in the Powers section looking for Knockout, or Falling rules. So rules first, then character creation. 

I'm wishy-washy on the Gamemaster section of the book. I write genre-centric rule books for my games and I write for people who know what they want and the campaign they want to run. Pulsar, the Perfect Super Hero RPG will be built the same way. I'm going to toss that section, except for Standard Awards. How to gain additional Power Points will need to be known so PCs can be, well, heroic.

I'll finish the book with a substantial appendix containing all the charts found in the game. Being able to scan Power Point Benchmarks and choose combat modifiers with this information side by side helps me during a fast and furious punch-up. 

This will be interesting, seeing how it is received and all. It is a dusty old system, but it kicks all sorts of supers ass. We will see, we will see.