B.A.S.H.: Basic Action Super Hero

Noticed there wasn't a thread for this, been using this system for Discord.

A few topics I wanted to discuss: A) Hey, you ever heard of this systme? Used it? How does it stack up against other superhero RPGs? B) Homebrew! I'm trying to homebrew lethality rules for that grittier Iron Age feel. Any thoughts on that?

Yes I know the system, I've played it several times over the years and have even had some material published for it.

As for how it stacks against other games, depends on what you want from a game. Superhero games have existed since the 80s but they either used random character creation or point-buy that involved a LOT of details. BASH is a reaction to that: you use point buy but the options are simpler to understand. It's one of my all-time favorite games.

As for a lethality system... I don't favor that, at least not in a superhero game [I do in Fantasy but that's a different morality setting, plus it's possible to bring the dead back to life in Fantasy.]

As a general review:

The pros are pretty good. It's rules-lite, quick to learn, easy to use, very modular. It only really works well for superhero games but, well, it is in the name. It has a large amount of customization and while it lacks in-depth mechanical crunch and isn't as deep as, say, Mutants and Masterminds, it can still be used to make interesting characters and combine powers. I have a lot of experience with it and I can say it's one of my favorite superhero systems, and something I still regularly make characters for (even though I know I probably won't be able to use them). I prefer it to M&M because it just takes less time to make characters for, honestly.

For a long term game, I can't necessarily call it better than M&M for the average person. For a DM that wants to custom make everything and focuses more on roleplay and fluff, it's probably better. For somebody like me who constantly makes characters every five minutes, it's certainly easier to handle.

The cons are pretty, well, con. Conny? There are definitely cons. The lack of rules hits hard for anyone particularly interested in crunch (it does speed up the game but there are powers not there you could've had in M&M and less detailed choices in return for more creative freedom in the box you're given), and there are several questionable design choices. In general a ton of important information (like how certain powers are intended to work) are locked behind splatbook purchases, and the rulebook and splats outright contradicting each other is sadly not uncommon.

Certain powers and abilities are also on a completely different level than others, to a noticeable extent- abilities like range mean almost nothing when everyone and their mother has super speed or teleportation. It's also incredibly flimsy on balance. Even moreso than M&M, which was "please don't try to break the game and the DM can handle it if you do-" BASH laughs at balance and the only thing keeping it from spiraling into physical gods destroying everything in their path with ease consist of the DM and the players agreeing to keep power levels at a reasonable, well, level, the DM's skill at making powerful villains, and how much the players want to be powerful.

For lethality- Realistically, it's probably best to not have a direct system for P Cs dying, if only because it is really, really difficult to kill a PC in BASH unless they actually knock themselves out on purpose or your villains are very, very powerful indeed, to the level most people won't fight often. My suggestion is honestly to wing it- NP Cs dying don't need rulesets and P Cs don't drop enough for a ruleset to be needed.