Phantom_Gunner

When an editor sets submission guidelines, it's best to follow them if you want your work to get a fair shake. (Writer's commandment #2: thou shalt not piss The Editor off. Unless your name happens to be Stephen King, you dance to the editor's tune, not vice versa). Serialised submissions are a pretty transparent attempt to get around the word limit. Unless you're specifically asked to make them, I really recommend you don't.

Some stories can be told in under 1000 words, some take longer. If the guidelines say under 1000, then pick an idea that fits and write that.

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And if all else fails, I'd vote GURPS. Just do yourself a favor and stay away from d20 stuff like Mutants and Masterminds. You don't want to play a level-based system do you?

Oh wait...Security Levels...nevermind.

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Well, Mutants and Masterminds is a points-based system making a token attempt to pretend to be level-based (and I won't get into the pros and cons of level-based sytems here...) My regular PnP group got burned out on their old (DC Heroes) campaign a few years back, but if I get the urge to run some superheroics again then Mutants and Masterminds is what I'd go for. For the original poster's requirements, I'd throw my vote in on the White Wolf Adventure! rules (based solely on what I've heard, not seen a copy yet).

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Ya know I hate to sound mean but we've rather strayed from the topic. I was hoping we could create our very OWN dice system for CoH, not use a pre-existing one...

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Not really. People are discussing the four-colour superhero RPGs that are already out there. If one of those is good enough, it makes more sense to use that and then look at writing up City of Heroes as a sourcebook in that system. Creating a brand new rules-system is a lot of work, and these days it's usually a case of reinventing the wheel as there are loads of workable sets of game mechanics out there. Using one of those frees you from the engineering side of game design (producing workable, balanced game mechanics) and lets you concentrate on the creative side (setting, story, NPCs).

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The DC RPG by Mayfair was simply DC Heroes after they lost the license though they republished the system as something else I want to say it was like Blood and Gold but as I know that was a Ann Rice novel I could be wrong on the republished title.

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DC Heroes was licensed by another outfit - I think Pulsar Games - and relabelled as 'Blood of Heroes' IIRC. There's a copy somewhere around my place, but it'd take me ages to find it. I never really liked it as a game system, but arguably the best two campaigns I played/Gmed were in that system.

Golden Heroes was a late 80's superhero RPG published in the UK by Games Workshop (before they dropped every product line that wasn't Warhammer). Bit of a mess design wise, but it got the four-colour feel of CoH better than any other paper RPG I can think of.

Finally, there's a couple of D20 superhero systems out there. Mutants and Masterminds is sitting on my bookshelf right now. It's only nominally a 'D20 system' game, they've seriously toyed with the mechanics and it uses a points-based design system a la Champions or DC Heroes. Looks good on paper, not sure if my weekly gaming group will ever fit it into our schedule though.

"Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner" by the late, great Warren Zevon was the inspiration for the Phantom Gunner (Roland was already taken as a name, alas)

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The 1000 word limit for stories is pretty firm, however we will consider longer pieces for exceptional work.

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Hmmm, just submitted a piece which came out at 1034 words on my first draft. I then spent half an hour hunting down about 40 words I could bear to trim

Oh well, if Gilgamesh likes the piece and inspiration strikes me again, maybe I'll be a little more relaxed about the word count on the next one.