I think we could adapt magic systems to create the effect!!!

con -  lrpers in spandex

i defer to judges

What I would be careful to do is to limit powers to the sort of thing that can phys repped easily without breaking immersion. The Supers genre is about powers really, isn't it? If I need to do something clearly out of character, or call a ref, every time I want to use my gimmick; creating a believable 'world' is going to be tricky. Cyclops is a difficult character to play - effectively he has to shout 'LIGHTNING BOLT' every few minutes - while Wolverine isn't. Just as well everyone always wants to be Wolverine, eh?

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Eos: Manius Shard. Upset.

FnH: Officious Guard no.1

Eos: Manius Shard. Upset.

FnH: Officious Guard no.1

The following powers (off the top of my head) are feasible in LRP:

 - Regeneration

 - invisibility

 - energy bolts

 - super strength

 - claws or other bioweapons (with prosthetics)

 - superspeed (ok, may require time freezes but you can write the rules to keep them short, You can also run it as 'free dodges' to represent ability to move quickly)

 - Mental powers - telepathy, mind control, clairvoyance, telekinesis etc

Flight is a big sticking point though I would also argue that in a typical LRP set up it is also less useful than in tabletop. You can use it to travel to places quickly, you can use it to leave an event IC area, recover something and come back quickly and so on but if no villans are flying then there is no need for you to fly in combat. In systems  I have played/run where flight is possible (Vampire - some of the Tremere paths allowed flight as did levels of Protean, albeit transformed into a bat as well as Treasure trap) the ability was rarely if ever used save in downtime. There was a set of hand signals in Trap to represent flight - one finger in the air plus one finger for every 10ft you were in the air. It was clumsy but it worked after a fashion. If you make flight walking/running speed only then it works even better - just lose the 'faster than the speed of sound elements'

Basically, if you think at the level of Batman rather than Superman then it is possible.

The comments about costume are not a problem as most modern superhero genre stuff does not consider spandex or lycra at all. I think costume designers realised it looks great in comics and in 2D but looks really bad in real life - hence the tendency for leather, PVC, latex and other designs in superhero costumes these days. There is even a reference to that in the first X men film ("What did you expect, yellow spandex?"). Of course, in terms of cost and availiablity, leather and latex is just as difficult to get hold of. A more achievable costume standard is that of Heroes where there are no special costumes though the rules of 'modern day LRP' costume should apply i.e. you should wear what your character wears not just what you happen to be wearing when you show up at the event. As an example of this, look at the Heroes Unmasked episodes (which are on after the episodes on BBC2 at the moment and will probably be on the DVD release) and compare the character of Nathan Petrelli with the actor who plays him and what they both seem to wear. One is all smart suits and tie and clean cut, the other is definitely dressed 'casual' (jeans, baseball jackets and t-shirts and stubbly).

One element of superhero comics that may be difficult to get into a LRP is the idea of secret identities. Using some of the concepts of Vampire in there may help, though (using influence over media, government, police etc to hide your identity) and you have to decide whether you as a player allow other players to know your secret ID.

Rules would need to have selections of powers and how they work. Some are easy, others are less easy. Concepts of metaphysics of the game world need to be considered - i.e. is flight possible or not? If so, how is it possible? To what limits? Lists of equipment and, especially, gadgets need to be in there as well. A player also needs to consider origin story and how it  fits with the metaphysics of the world - radiation leaks, genetic mutation cosmic rays, alien from another planet, use of drugs and so on.

A big problem may also be game set up and concept. Supers are usually lone workers, they are private and therefore do not tend to work together and when they do it is in small teams. You need a reason why 15 - 20 superheros happen to be together in the same place every time there is an event.

I am finding this an interesting mental challenge at the moment...

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The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God...

Ruins of Empire

1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester

While The Watchmen is superb, it`s more a step beyond the genre. The Watchmen have found their place in the mundane world - many of them becoming mundane themselves in the process. Mr. Manhattan and the Joker (or whatever his name was) have become government funded super-agents, with the Joker being the only remaining field agent, who is killed right at the start of the series, and Mr. Manhattan falling under some nuclear ('super') weapons restraining pact. Ozymandias ("Look at my works, ye mighty, and despair...") has become a millionaire again by using is superior intellect to play the stock market, and Mothman (sorry: Night-Owl ) is a writer of ornithological books with an expanding waistline. Rorsach is the sole vigilante, and if memory serves me right, he wasn`t all that active/visible until the Joker gets offed. (The obligatory girl - probably more a stab at the genre than a political statement - starts as one super`s wife and becomes ano