The 12 Days of Rifts-mas: Day 3, Heros Unlimited

We played Marvel Superheroes and DC Heroes in the 1980s, but we had this game and played it alongside TNMT. While all the Marvel heroes with character stats kept us in that game, Heroes Unlimited was the better superhero RPG. The powers could do more than just generic attacks; the descriptions were far better, and the system had this grit and street-level feeling that hit the "superhero sweet spot" we loved.

The Palladium alignment system also makes this game soar. The comic-book codes of conduct and morality are definitely what is missing from many superhero role-playing games. The only difference between heroes and villains is alignment, and Palladium has the best alignment system in gaming, hands down.

Other superhero games? They are basically "murder hobos with superpowers." Sadly, with newer fantasy games removing alignment, there are no limits to how terrible characters can act, and murder-hobo-ing is now a feature. Monsters are now victims. Everything is misunderstood, and evil becomes good, and good becomes evil. Today's games avoid the idea of alignment, and we lose the core definition of heroism and sacrifice for the common good.

It is "everyone for themselves" these days, and we end up with a world no one wants to live in.

In Heroes Unlimited? You need to act like that four-color ideal on the newsprint, printed with halftone dots, but capturing our imaginations nonetheless. What made these heroes so great was their personal values and "alignment systems," and if you remove that, you gut the entire concept of the genre, lobotomize the hero, and it becomes bland "what's in it for me?" tripe-filled identity gaming.

Iron Man was who he was because of his struggles and desire to "make things right" and not because he was a "famous Hollywood actor" walking around and "getting what he deserves." Alignment matters, even in fantasy gaming, and games without it turn into morally relativistic and meaningless mush.

Evil alignments matter, too. Some villains are far less trustworthy than others, and this colors how you deal with them. Or, the game lets you play the villains, too, and you are free to be the bad guys and wreak havoc on the world.

Also, mutant animals from TNMT and After the Bomb are supported as character types who could have superpowers, so you could take your "mutant animal" gaming to the next level and give them all superpowers instead of ninja fighting styles. The mutant animals Marvel and DC used to have fell by the wayside for copyrighted characters, and these days, that part of comics has sadly faded away. Give me my hyper-intelligent gorillas back! Give me my animals given intelligence that escaped from the lab!

You mean I can have "Aardvaark Sam," who burrows into bank vaults, has a gang of thugs, and my heroes have to stop him? That is cool! I have not seen that before! Suddenly, I am living outside the world of corporate superhero IP, and things are fresh and new again!

You can play mutants, robots, animals, aliens, bionics, experiments, hardware experts, magic users, enchanted object wielders, wizards, physically trained masters, mega heroes, mystically trained fighters, and so much more. Marvel and DC have lost that sense of wonder where all these strange heroes gather together, different yet the same ideal, to be a force of good in the world. In the old days, the villains were wildly different and cool too, highlighting that power is both a responsibility and a curse, and should never be used for self-gain.

Modern superhero role-playing games? They are basically "play your favorite actor, the RPG," and not superhero games.

The comic art in this game is among the best of the 1980s gaming! I love the art in this game and its supplements. This is "superheroes without copyrighted characters," and it is glorious, spurring my imagination and making me dream of my own heroes, not ones that we already know. This is the best feature of Heroes Unlimited: it is focused on "your heroes," not "media conglomerate-owned IP" shoved in our faces.

Alien heroes are also strongly featured, and this game has one of the best "science fiction SDC" universes in all of Palladium. You could play a star-hopping campaign in this game, never touch superpowers, and have some entertaining science fiction stories without superheroes at all.

The game also has a complete superhero universe, with its own characters with full stats! So you have everything you need in the expansions, and you are not creating villains to get started.

And you can always reskin and modify the villains in this game, so you really have infinite foes once you tweak and adjust the foes to your heart's content. Not to mention, any monster from any other Palladium system can be used as-is. Nightbane? Palladium Fantasy? Dead Reign? Beyond the Supernatural? After the Bomb? Ninjas & Superspies?

Everything can be pulled in and used with zero conversion. Rifts Conversion Book One has the rules!

Rifts is the only exception, but if you say MDC = SDC, guess what? You can have everything in Rifts, too. It is easy. There is no problem with MDC if you don't want it in your game.

Repeat after me, there is no problem with MDC in Palladium if you choose not to use it. This is OFFICIAL and SUPPORTED in the rules! Check the following rule:

Rifts Conversion Book One, page 34

The only thing you need to watch out for is "modern weapons" that do 3d6 SDC or more damage, while the converted MDC laser pistols do 1d4 SDC. The solution is simple: make most "modern firearms" do 1d4 to 2d6 damage, just like the converted MDC weapons.

There are more conversion rules between MDC and SDC in the Dragons & Gods Palladium Fantasy book as well, so you should check that out. There are good notes here on adjusting the AR ratings for armor, since an SDC system requires the use of the AR value.

Heroes Unlimited stands up, even to this day, as the best superhero RPG outside of the Champions system. This is far more playable and easier to grasp, especially for D&D players who understand AC, hit points, 3d6 ability scores, and all the other very familiar parts that Palladium and D&D share. The skill system is the icing on the cake.

My heroes are always better than "owned heroes," and they can be something I create and tell the story of. First off, the heroes I can make can have a complete character arc, and can die and not come back if that is their ultimate fate. Corporate IP heroes are resurrected every 6 months through a retcon and a new issue, suffering "billion-dollar IP amnesia" and forced to live a hellish life of constantly retelling their origin story. This is not the life, story, and death of a hero. They can never have kids or grow old. The modern superhero is life on a plane of Hell.

I hate what modern superheroes have become. The only thing they are is an origin story, that is it. There is nothing past that life for them before they are rebooted, again, for the 50th time. I am sick of it already. Billion-dollar media empires are constantly feeding us the same old story, movie after movie, and expecting us to pretend this is somehow all "new again" when it isn't. Burn it all down.

Start new characters.

Make them your own.

Tell their story.

Run them through that arc once, and let the ending be final for them.

Retire them and have kids if they survive.

Honor them if they fall.

Let your heroes live a full life and pass it on to the next generation.

And stop living in the past, stuck on repeat.