They already have them out, they are called...
Palladium : Villans and Vigilanties
Palladium : Heros Unlimited
Marvel
Just to name a few that have finished the test of time. Heros Unlimited is probably the closest one to City of Heros in powers and archtypes. They could be the same game they are so close.
Heroes Unlimited? Hmm...I'll have to take a look at it then
Champions! I have played just about every super hero RPG out there over the last 22 years. I have never found one to rival the versatility of the Hero System that is used for Champions. You can do anything you can think of with that system. It is a point based system....much like COH was in the very very early days of development.
Champions is a great game system, just set aside a few hours for character creation and bring a graphic calculator...
Champions is cumbersome, but incredibly versatile. If you really want a quick, archetype based stripped down system, try Brave New World, which also has the best setting I've ever seen in a superhero game. Just run it in the City o' Heroes setting if you like.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade! Hmm..interesting, but what about a custom version? We could make a dice system for CoH here...
I stand corrected, I had forgotten about Champions.
/me hangs his head in shame...
I have to agree. After 20 years of tabletop roleplaying Champions is by far my favorite game for the genre.
Once you get used to character generation it really doesnt take THAT long....although admittedly at first it can take a while unti you are used to the system. I feel it is simply a matter of trading tedium for flexibility..you can overwhelmingly create ANY matter of hero within the framework of the game...and the combat system is great..
Doc Endeavor - (50) FF Defender
Gravewalker - (40) Emp Defender
Duty: The sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things, you can never do more-you should never wish to do less.
Of course, not everyone likes the Hero system. After playing a single game of it, my group of rather experienced gamers dropped it like a bad habit and used Fuzion instead. Once you play games with a single core resolution mechanic, games that use a different rule for every single thing and that only tangentially tie attributes to skills feel... a little broken. 
My group uses two systems for superpowered games. For superheroic games, we use Fuzion, as mentioned above -- though we might consider Exalted/Aeonverse or our card-based system (inspired by SAGA) called Wildcard. For games that are realistic but happen to have superpowers, where your superstrong punch is as likely to shatter someone's rib cage and kill them as it is to send them flying, we use a system we like to call System X that's designed for that sort of thing.
I don't particularly like the idea of a standard D20 System game for... well, for anything other than D&D. To get D20 to really work well and have the character customizability that I, at least, demand requires a lot of hacking up of the character creation and advancement systems. WEG D6 involves too many dice, WoD Storyteller is unrealistic in the extreme, Palladium is kludgy, and I won't get into other things like Amazing Engine or the like.
To sum up, my experience with the typical superhero games has been less than positive -- which is why my group created our own.
I'm all for Champions, as for character creation...there is a absolutely amazing PC program that lets you make chars/powers/pools...everything with astounding simplicity. I HATE math, and before that computer program I was lothe to play champions, but now you can make a char/npc in like 20 mins tops. With full stats and sets of powers, flaws ect ect.
I've played Fuzion, CHampions, Aeon, Exaulted, Marvel (new and the OLD TSR one..wich was far better then the new) DC, ect ect...and unless you can get the old TSR Marvel, Champs is still the best boat around for great Hero games.
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They already have them out, they are called...
Palladium : Villans and Vigilanties
Palladium : Heros Unlimited
Marvel
Just to name a few that have finished the test of time. Heros Unlimited is probably the closest one to City of Heros in powers and archtypes. They could be the same game they are so close.
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DC had one briefly also, although the name currently escapes me.
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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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.
If you want existing supers games, try GURPS Supers. Extremely customizable. Nearly as many options as the costume generator for CoH itself.
Character creation in the new Marvel game is pretty good, too.
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...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.
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Had to throw in my 2 cents worth, 
I've tried a little bit of everything, and Mutants & Masterminds was by far the quickest to pick up, incredibly fun, and flexibly enought to play almost any enviroment. We have played Marvel, DC, and Darkhorse universes with almost no customization needed. It was hilarous that it took more levels to accurately portray Batman, than Superman! 
(purely NPC of course and extremely rare occurring- not much of everyday a crossover comic)
The alternate rule systems allow you to mesh as much or as little as you want with normal D20 rules, but after playing for roughly a year, we've fallen back to the base rules since we feel they reflect much more accuratly "super fights" where rarely does superman hitting a villian, crush his skull, and leave him dead. Mostly comics deal with KOs, and since the PCs don't want to die when they find themselves outmatch by a new super villian, getting KO'd instead of crushed is much more dynamic to play. Death still happens, but is rare and has much more weight since you have to stand over an unconcious enemy and deal a lethal blow to their helpless body! 
I think COH would adapt beutifully into Mutants & Masterminds, becuase it's the same theme. Simple, effective, and incredible flexibility.
Champions is the system to use for superheroes and Pulp adventures of most other settings. The folks that put out 5th edition are producing very good quality settings, modules, etc. www.herogames.com - While initial character design can be intimidating, the combat can be scaled to the complexity that you want by either adding or ignoring optional rules. The character designer software is very very good at keeping you to the rules and being quick and easy to use. I've been playing some version of hero system off and on since 1984.
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If you want existing supers games, try GURPS Supers. Extremely customizable. Nearly as many options as the costume generator for CoH itself.
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I totally agree. GURPS Supers is awesome. I've played ALOT of it. The only bad thing with it is that you have to buy the Supers book AND the basic GURPS book.
I'm pretty sure I remember playing Heros about 6 yrs ago. I recall it being a bear to setup for both players and DM. Sort of a too much of a good thing syndrome. Once running I'm pretty sure we had fun, but opted away from it when introducing new players became too intimidating. Again I swing my vote for Mutants & Masterminds as you trade a little versatility, and a few more options for alot more simplicity and fluidity of immediate play.
IMHO
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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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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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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Well..I guess, but I just don't have the resources to get any of those systems through legal means, plus I felt a CoH specific dice system would be neat
D20 can be used freely under the Open Gaming License (OGL). System X is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
Of course, if you're homebrewing without a license for the CoH setting, system licensing doesn't matter, right? You still can't distribute the game as anything other than a free fan work on the good graces of Cryptic and NCSoft without crossing that major hurdle. So, you might as well pick the system you think works best. You've got a lot of suggestions here to choose from, based on how much system work you want to do and how you want your game to play.
Aberrant would prefectly copy over this game TO THE "T", check out www.white-wolf.com. it didnt go over very well when it came out, and it is D10, but it works for anykind of superhero game you want to run, good storyline too
lol, and by clicking muy own link to make sure it was working, and there about ot put out D20 aberrent :P
Ok, lets all be honest here, I'm sure there are already people making a tabletop version out there(some of you die hard fans of course) so lets get to making one here!
We already have the basic setting, but we should make the P&P version able to change settings, so if someone wanted to do it in NYC they could.
So lets get the main question down, D6, D10, D20..so many dice styles to choose from, so little time. We should probably all give in recommedations, and when we see what the big trend in D is, we'll start with that.