Posts tagged m&mweek
Mutants and Masterminds Day 7: And finally
Mar 8th
Mutants & Masterminds is anything but vanilla. It’s a rules system that is pure unashamed superhero goodness from cover to cover. If he’s wearing a cape, spandex and got his underpants on the outside you can make him using this book. Heck, if he’s wearing a black t-shirt and carrying a bigass gun, you can make him using this the book too. Or anything in between. Or anything at all, for that matter. Mutants & Masterminds isn’t vanilla, but it is. It’s a cunning generic system masquerading as a superhero game. Don’t be fooled!
Case in point. I’m shortly going to be playing in an online fantasy game that’s very, very low-powered. In 4e D&D terms, the starting point is roughly level -3. For 3e D&D, that’s level -1, or level 0 for Classic D&D. This isn’t even “leaving the farm to find your fortune” – it’s before we’ve even left the farm and finished our chores. And we’re going to be playing it using Mutants & Masterminds, straight from the single rulebook.
Here’s my character. Meet Rory.
Rory, PL2, 30pp
Str 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 11
Tough +0/+1 (Leather jerkin), Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +3
Attack +2, Defense +2, Init +2Bluff +4, Notice +4, Search +3, Stealth +6, Survival +4
Beginner’s Luck, Sneak Attack 1, Equipment 1Long Knife +2 (DC 16)
Now, there’s nothing in there that’ll phase your average D&D gamer regardless of playstyle. He’s a stringy, likeable kid in a grotty leather shirt with his mom’s best kitchen knife. As the son of one of the hunters in the village he’s been taught the value of being quiet and knows that the first hit is the most important one so you’ve got to make it count. Beyond that, he’s an open book.
It’s still Mutants & Masterminds. There’s no House Rules, no changes to the game at all but we’re firmly into D&D territory and it works, beautifully.
Back to the multiverse campaign setting, and our hero group has a name. They’re the Forgotten Heroes, champions who exist outside the multiverse protecting it from those who (knowingly or unknowingly) aim to do it harm.
Let’s leave Mutants & Masterminds week with a grab bag of plot hooks and scenario ideas to show how this will all fit together.
Tooniversal Soldier
The Dog Soldiers of Earth-17 are invading the multiverse! Can the heroes stop them, and what is the involvement of the ‘Borgs of Universe-812?
Virusworld
A mutagenic virus on Buoshane-212 has gained trans-dimensional capabilities after it absorbed the life essence of Warpsmith, a resident superhero. Can the heroes halt the spread of the mutagen through the multiverse before it takes over all life, everywhere?!
Unmurder
Whilst on vacation, one of the heroes is fatally shot – then returns back to life as if nothing happened! Can the team solve a murder that didn’t happen? Stay tuned to find out!
Don’t Stop the Clock
In 1963, arch-villain Doctor Clock of Earth-685 successfully halted time in his multiverse for an entire year. Can the heroes convince him to wind it back before the whole Weave unravels? Only time (ha ha ha) will tell!
Keystone gone
Universe-516, Keystone to an entire sector of the multiverse, has vanished. Where has it gone to, and (more importantly) how to we bring it back?
Adolf and me
April 1945, and our heroes must stop a superhero from Earth-76 before he saves Hitler from certain death – or do they? Do they do the Right Thing and save a life, or do they step in a save a world? Only you can decide!
Mona Lisa Cubed
Someone is stealing all of the copies of The Mona Lisa in the multiverse! How? And, as perplexingly, why? Guest starring The Infinite Man.
We who are not alone, are not alone
In which the heroes discover there’s not just one Multiverse, there’s a multitude of them! Expect a battle royale as Citadel wars against anti-Citadel in a war across the dimensions!
This is the last post for Mutants & Masterminds Week, but far from the last thing I’ll be writing about the system. It’s as near-as-damnit the closest I’ve come to a perfect role-playing engine. It rewards role-playing rather than killing things, encourages playing to the genre tropes and motivations of the characters through the Hero Point system and provides everything you need to play in just one book. The writers shows a deep love and knowledge of the superhero genre without being condescending or comical, yet the rules are solid, flexible and easy enough to understand to use for anything at all.
The perfect game? I think so.
Mutants and Masterminds Day 6: When
Mar 7th
Let’s talk Time Travel. The Mutants & Masterminds Core Rules strongly recommend that it’s primarily used as a plot-device rather than something that the players have control over. I’m going with that line of thought for our multiverse campaign.
There are two Powers directly related to time manipulation – Time Control and Super-Movement. The first is basically a variant of Super-Speed which lets you go into Bullet Time; the world slows down and you, conversely, speed up. Grab a couple of Alternate Powers such as Paralyze (“freezing” someone in time) and Precog/Postcognition (being able to see events from the past or future) and you’ve got a rather nice time-based hero or villain without all that tricky time travel stuff.
Super-Movement offers Temporal Movement as an option. This is the ability to directly travel from one time to another. For just a single rank (2 points) your hero can travel between now and just one point in the past or future. The point is fixed relative to now, so you could time-travel exactly 50 years into the past, 1,000 years into the future, for example. This is great if you want a hero who can travel between, say, 15th Century France and the modern day, or play Johnny Stars, Dream Hero of the Future who battles Martians in the 43rd Century while he sleeps. 2 ranks (4 points) gets you the ability to travel in the past or future, whereas 3 ranks (6 points) gives you the ability to travel to any point in time. Nice.
Temporal Movement is one of those powers that’s best suited to being in some kind of device, be it a Time Bracelet or a certain blue police box. I can’t think of many heroes or villains with innate time-travelling abilities – can you? Beyond Superman’s overused “turning back time by flying really fast round the world” trick (which he hasn’t actually used that often but let’s face it, once was too often. Awesome use of the Hero Point though) you’re probably looking at the magical heroes such as Zatanna and Dr Strange.
In the campaign, our heroes can travel through multiversal time using the teleport room in the Singular Citadel. This transports up to 5 heroes to anywhere, any dimension and anywhen as required. The time travel element isn’t under the players’ control (yet – Captain Triumph is working on it), but merely a plot device to get the characters where the action is (so costs no points). It’s not entirely…. uhhhh…. reliable, either. Don’t you just love giving players kewl toys that don’t quite work right? I do!
Next time: a grab bag of scenarios and plot hooks!
Characters du Jour: Captain Triumph
Mar 7th
“Captain Triumph of Earth-15, I’d like you to meet Captain Triumph of Earth-74. I’m sure you two will get along just fine.”
“You’re…… a dinosaur.”
“So are you. Well, you’re old. Older than me.”
“Got that right. Want a beer?”
Earth-15, 11th April 1961 and Captain Ulysses Triumph is lauded around the world as the first man in space. Due to inadequate shielding though he returns to Earth a changed man. Far stronger and smarter than before, Captain Triumph is hailed as a national superhero. Armed only with a blaster pistol, his survival knives and Bessie (his much loved through unreliable spaceship), he battles evil Titanians on Pluto’s moon, combats Russian Mekbots in Cuba and more, all in the name of truth, justice and the American way of life.
There’s only one enemy he couldn’t beat: old age. 50 years on and Captain Triumph is every bit as strong and smart, but he’s seen good friends die and learned many cynical lessons along the way. He spends his time chugging beer and remembering simpler times. When he was invited to join the Forgotten Heroes on the Singular Citadel, he accepted simply because he had no place else to go. He loves tinkering with the machinery in the space station, though still can’t get his darned blasters on Bessie to work reliably. Well into his 80s, Captain Triumph is the old man who brings a lifetime of experience to the team but who knows that each battle might well be his last.
Earth-74, a realm where the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs missed, and Saurians evolved as the dominant race on the planet. Despite this, history proceeded much in line with our own – 2,000 years ago a dinosaur was nailed to a tree for suggesting we all be nice to each other, slavery of Red Saurians was abolished and in 2009 the United Saurian States saw it’s first Red Saurian President. One of his early acts was to re-instate the manned space program to Mars, and Captain Ulysses Triumph was selected to head the mission. Perhaps it was sabotage or faulty shielding, but the crew barely made it back alive, and Captain Triumph was a changed man. Far stronger and smarter than before, Captain Triumph is hailed as a national superhero. Armed only with a blaster pistol, his survival knives and Bessie (his much loved through unreliable spaceship), he battles evil Titanians on Pluto’s moon, combats Russian Mekbots in Cuba and more, all in the name of truth, justice and the American way of life.
Still a young Saurian, Captain Triumph has been invited to the Singular Citadel to meet his counterpart from Earth-15, and perhaps join the team. It’s expected they’ll get along pretty well.
Notes: “Captain Triumph SAVES THE UNIVERSE!” So says the announcer at the beginning of the Saturday Morning Cartoon Show on Earth-15 (broadcast live from Tooniverse-17, dontchya know). Captain Triumph is my tribute to them all; he’s 2 parts Flash Gordon, 1 part Reed Richards and 1 part Buzz Lightyear. Earth-15′s variant is closer in attitude to Brit (one of my all-time favourite heroes). Imagine if Flash Gordon was 80 and had a hard life, and you’re there. Meantime, the Saurian Captain Triumph of Earth-74 is still young, naive and likeable. Unlike the old man, he’s a vegetarian non-drinker.
Dirty little secret: The mission to Mars on Earth-74 was sabotaged – by Captain Triumph of Earth-99!
Captain Ulysses Triumph, PL 10, 160pp
Str 26, Dex 16, Con 26, Int 26, Wis 14, Cha 16
Tough +8/+10, Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +9
Attack +8, Defense +8, Init +3
Computers +9, Craft:Electronic +9, Craft:Mechanical +9, Disable Device +9, Drive +5, Investigate +9, KS:Life Sciences +9, KS:Physical Sciences +9, KS:Technology +9, Medicine +6, Pilot +9, Stealth +7, Survival +6
All-out Attack, Ambidexterity, Attack Specialization 1 (Knife), Benefit 1 (Military Rank), Defensive Roll 2, Endurance 1, Fearless, Improved Critical 1 (Blaster Pistol), Improved Grapple, Improved Pin, Improvised Tools, Inspire 1, Inventor, Leadership, Master Plan, Power Attack, Seize Initiative, Skill Mastery (Craft), Teamwork 1, Equipment 11 + 10 points base contribution and sundry equipment (commlink, flash contacts, etc)
Blaster Pistol, +8 DC 20, Crit 19-20, Range 50′
Knives, +10 DC 24, Range 10′
“Bessie”: Space Fighter, STR 50, Tough +11, Defense -4, Size:Gargantuan, Flight 12 (50000mph), Blast 10 (+8 DC 25, Flaw:Unreliable, Improved Range 500′ inc.)
Mutants and Masterminds Day 5: Why
Mar 5th
“Why?” Just three letters, yet it’s the most difficult question in the world to answer. Why do the heroes and villains do what they do? What motivates them? Answering these questions sets the tone of the campaign, and that’s what we’re going to look at in today’s contribution to Mutants & Masterminds Week.
The history of Superhero comics is generally divided into five ages (or four, or six, depending on who’s counting): The Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze, Dark and Modern. There’s considerable overlap between all the different eras (to the point where it’s difficult to define them at all), but they serve a convenient shorthand when it comes to talking about a characters’ motivations, style and backstory. Just look at Golden Age Batman, for example.
Dude, Batman is smiling. He’s a happy, optimistic guy who appears in adverts for Hostess Twinkies. This is a Batman who’s….. nice! Compare and contrast:
Not smiling.
What motivated the Golden Age Batman (or Superman, or Aquaman, or….) was a strong sense of justice, fairness, truth and decency. The Modern Day Batman is just plain driven – to the point of serious psychosis, not to mention death. Or not, depending on which Batman comics you read. Sheesh. Of course, I’m generalising (talking about comicbook ages does that to a person), but when we’re building a Multiverse-level campaign it’s worth thinking about the general tone and style of play – and then being willing to break it. To keep things familiar I’m aiming for a Modern Age style, but throw in a few characters and settings from earlier eras to re-enforce the multiversal variety. This is a setting where Captain Canine of Tooniverse-17 can rub shoulders with the Revenger, dark anti-hero of Earth-512, all wrapped up in the shades-of-grey moral tone of the Modern Age where there are consequences for your actions. Nice.
Mutants & Masterminds has a mechanism whereby the GM can reward players for great role-playing, acts of heroism, living up to the genre and acting in accordance with their motivations. If you’re running a gun-toting Dark Age anti-hero and the GM gives you a kill shot and you take it (whatever the consequences), your character gains a Hero Point for working in line with his motivations. Captain Canine of Tooniverse-17 might gain a Hero Point when his Complication of Must Chase Cats comes into play. Similarly, if a Golden Age-style hero has to choose between saving a kindly old lady from a runaway truck or catching the bad guy….. you get the idea.
These Hero Points can be spent in-game to perform suitably Heroic Deeds. They’re like 4e D&D’s Action Points, only more flexible and useful. For example, a Hero Point can be used to gain a temporary Feat or Alternate Power to help save the day, improve a roll, overcome fatigue or even escape death!
But what of the villains?
Their motivations are as varied and complex as the villains themselves. In this campaign setting we’re going to dealing with villains who (intentionally or unwittingly) breach the multiverseal barriers in some way. This could be as simple as a hostage situation which endangers an innocent destined for multiversal greatness (the John Connor Syndrome), or a multiverse-spanning villain on a grand scale. Villains don’t get Hero Points to help them win – but they do have the GM on their side, and he can use GM Fiat to give the villains an edge. This might mean they pull off a dramatic escape, somehow capture our heroes or otherwise further the story by winning the battle – only to be defeated in the final climactic scene. Yes folks, Mutants & Masterminds is a game where it’s cool for the Heroes to lose! If the GM uses with awesome GM Fiat-wielding powers, the heroes get a Hero Point in return. See how it all hangs together?
Next time, we’re going to look at how Mutants & Masterminds handles breaking the greatest barrier of all – time travel.
Mutants and Masterminds Day 4: Where
Mar 4th
The multiverse is a big place, and I’m going to tell you all about it. Also, our heroes need somewhere to call their home. Welcome to the Singular Citadel.
Aaaaaaahhhhh! So that’s what it is!
For each point in space and time there are infinite variations where the timeline diverges slightly, the paths of causality turning left instead of right. In some dimensions the Roman Empire survived to the present day. In other realms insects became the dominant species on the planet. In one, Will Smith is President of the Earth, and on another the Martians invaded the Earth at the end of World War II. We see vague glimspes of these other worlds in our dreams and dismiss them as nothing more than errant brainwaves.
Each alternate universe is given a number. As there’s an infinite number of them the numbers run to a mindboggling number of decimal places (51149.72839483443…..), so they’re usually rounded the nearest whole (Universe-51149), and each planet in the universe is usually referred to by it’s name and universe number. For example, Mars-212 is the planet Mars from universe 212 (home to green xenophobic four-armed Martians), while Earth-616 is home to the Marvel superheroes. Being a guardian of the multiverse is a daunting task, but thankfully the vast majority of them deviate from normality in some very insignificant way (such as Clarissa Green of 43 Basingstoke Road stirring her tea clockwise rather than anti-clockwise on 13th March 1997). The heroes need not concern themselves with these.
Some alternate universes are known at Keystones. Events which occur in those can have ripple effects throughout neighbouring multiverses. Sometimes, the ripples spread further causing a chain reaction which can be felt through all of reality. Thankfully, these events are rare. Many alternate universes, all interlinked like a Weave of reality and causality.
Yet there are rare pocket dimensions that only exist once in the entire multiverse and the rules of causality do not apply. These realms are known as Singularities, and in one such dimension is the home base of our heroes. The Singular Citadel.
The vast space station floating in the void acts as living quarters, monitoring station and command centre. It houses the technology which teleports the heroes to specific points in dimensional reality to tackle threats to the multiverse, and bring ‘em back home again.
Building a base is easy in Mutants & Masterminds. For each point that a character puts into the pot, you’ve got 5 to use building it. They’re spent giving it features, facilities or even superpowers of it’s own (want an Intangible Flying Base? You pay for it, you got it!). For example, if 5 heroes each put a point into their base, that’s 25 equipment points to spend putting it together. That’s the reason why I bumped up the starting points for the heroes from 150 to 160 – I want them to pay for the base and standard issue equipment, but not feel like they’re losing out because of it. Also, the more characters they generate, they less they each need to pay into the pot, so the more character points they get to spend on their abilities. Alternately, the more points they get to improve the base. Clever, eh?
I’ve intentionally left the base lacking a few items. It could do with a few personnel beyond the heroes themselves (cook, caretaker, mechanic, etc), and there’s no vehicles in the hangar. The heroes are free to expand and enhance the Citadel as they see fit, either adding more equipment points to it during character creation or during the game.
Singular Citadel, 25ep
Size: Colossal, Toughness +20
Concealed 2, Isolated
Combat Simulator, Communications, Computer, Defense System, Fire Prevention System, Gym, Hangar, Holding Cells, Infirmary, Laboratory, Living Space, Power System, Security System 1Multiversal Teleporter: Device 5 (Teleport 20, Anywhere in the universe, Dimensional 3, Affects others only, Progression 2 (up to 5 individuals), Flaw:Long Range)
Till next time!
Mutants and Masterminds Day 3: What
Mar 3rd
“What kind of heroes?” and “What makes them a team?”. These are questions we’re going to look at today in Day 3 of Mutants & Masterminds week!
Our multiversal superheroes come from all walks of life, and in some cases we’re using the word “life” pretty loosely. Perhaps the dominant lifeform in Universe-15003 is intelligent pools of acid, or your hero is a borg-like entity from Jupiter-812. One of the joys of having a multiverse to work with is that the players can run different versions of the same character through the campaign if they want, replacing the millionaire playboy hero Ironclad or Earth-517 with the millionaire canine Ironclaw of Earth-7125 or the United Soviet States’ Ironlady of Earth-981. One hero, many possibilities.
All of this choice can seem pretty daunting, so we’re going to provide two things to help make the players’ life a little easier: archetypes, and standard equipment.
Archetypes are the closest that Mutants & Masterminds comes to providing character classes. These are pre-designed boilerplate characters that the player can use as-is, adapt or simply use as inspiration. They are entirely optional, and there’s nothing mechanically different between a character created using an archetype and one that’s created from scratch. For example, if a player wants to play a Batman-style hero he’s free to choose (and adapt) the Costumed Adventurer archetype from the M&M Core Rules, or create their own.
They also provide another service: archetypes help to re-enforce the genre. For example, if I was running a horror-themed game I’d offer archetypes such as Vampire Slayer, Reformed Werewolf, Zealous Priest and the like. This sends a message to the players that these are the style of characters I expect them to create, even if they don’t use the archetypes themselves.
As we’re intentionally keeping the options wide open for this campaign, all of the Archetypes from the M&M Core Rules, Instant Superheroes or any other supplement are free to use. A few of the archetypes could be used to represent specific organizations and groups within the multiverse, of which the heroes can be ex-members. For example, from Instant Superheroes:
Ring Bearer: The Guardians of Light are a misguided group of arrogant do-gooders who “police” a number of universes across the multiverse. While there’s a few good cops, most of them think they’re above everyone else, and our heroes all too frequently clash with them when their paths cross.
Demons: Universe-666. ‘Nuff said.
Cyborg: Universe-812 has been quarantined due to a serious Borg infestation. Occasionally, isolated members manage to break free of their conditioning and somehow find a way into the wider multiverse. Some become heroes, but all too often…..
Jungle Lord: Earth-744 is a lush planet coated entirely in plantlife. It’s history has followed that of our own Earth pretty closely with the two World Wars fought between elephant-riding warriors on a massive scale. Heroes from this realm are entirely unsuited to high-technology life, but that doesn’t stop them from being great fun to play!
Of course, these examples aren’t the only cases of these archetypes across the multiverse – cyborgs and demons can originate anywhere – they’re just here to kickstart the players’ imaginations.
It’s important that the team has a sense of identity. I’ve intentionally not given the group a name. I’ll leave that to the players; it’s their group, after all. Each character has access to certain items of equipment: an in-ear commlink, anti-flash contact lenses, a standard-issue jumpsuit (provides a +3 Toughness bonus and they’re free to pick the design and colours themselves) and an Insignia which gives them Flight 2 (up to 250mph). The Insingia can be adapted to be worn as a belt buckle, bracelet, brooch, etc as desired, and it’s only usable by registered members of the team. It is their badge of office and (to those who recognise such things) identifies them as members of the team. Altogether this little lot costs just 10 character points. Bargain! Not every hero will require all of the items (a hero composed of solid Rock will have little use for a jumpsuit), so the items will be replaced with other pieces of equipment of equal value.
Next time we’re going to take a closer look at the multiverse, and introduce the heroes’ Base of Operations: The Singular Citadel!
Meantime, here’s a sample hero and member of the team. Meet Skylark, AKA Muro Voigt.
Skylark was a dancer from the 51st century on Zao-9532, a realm where a perfect genetically enhanced utopia hid an undercurrent of depravity and corruption on an epic scale. She was inadvertently caught in a cross-fire between two crimelords, one of whom was meant to die that day. She was rescued, then assisted the team sent in to ensure events proceeded as expected, and accepted their offer to join them at the end of the mission.
Skylark is a superb acrobat and can create psionic baton-like Eskrima sticks at will which she uses to deadly effect in combat. She wears a yellow-and-black standard issue jumpsuit with her Insignia on her left breast.
Skylark AKA Muro Voigt, PL10, 160pp
Str 16, Dex 34, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 22
Tough +4/+7, Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +8
Attack +8, Defense +11, Init +12
Psi-Eskrima Sticks: Strike 7 (+10 DC 25, Mighty, Thrown 1 50′, Accurate 1, Dimensional 2 (Tangent Dimensions), Affects Insubstantial 1, Ricochet 1, Split Attack 1)
Insignia: Device 2 (Flight 5, 250mph)
Commlink, Flash contacts, Standard-issue suit (Toughness +3), 5ep Base contribution
Acrobatics +16, Climb +8, Gather Information +12, Investigate +8, Stealth +12
Acrobatic Bluff, Ambidexterity, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Improved Defense 2, Improved Disarm 2, Precise Shot 2, Quick Draw 1, Redirect, Set Up, Throwing Mastery 2, Ultimate Effort 1 (Acrobatics), Uncanny Dodge 2 (Visual), Equipment 2
Till next time!
Mutants and Masterminds Day 2: Who
Mar 2nd
This week we’re building a campaign setting for Mutants & Masterminds, showcasing the rules along the way. Yesterday I gave a whistle-stop overview of the game; today we’re going to get our hands dirty by answering a few questions.
“Who are the heroes?” and “Who are the villains?”. If you can answer those two questions, everything else is just eye candy. The entire campaign (regardless of setting, genre or system) should revolve around our heroes; they’re the lead roles in the imaginary movie you’re making. Just as (unless you’re Woody Allen) you wouldn’t pick a location first then just drop actors like an afterthought into the scenes, our heroes are the centre of the story. Who your heroes are sets the tone, style and pace of the game. They’re the ones our imaginary camera is focused on most of the time, after all. We’re not looking at fully stated characters at this stage – these are broad sweeps of a brush. “The heroes are soldiers in war-torn Paris”, “The heroes are refugees from the planet Ba’arth” and “The heroes are wanderers through time trying to find a way home.” are all great answers to this question.
The villain’s role is to try to steal the limelight; they’re the ones who’s main purpose in life is to take the attention away from the heroes and get hurt as a result. Metaphorically, the heroes are the egg and villains are the sperm. Ok, bad comparison. Moving on.
I’ve been reading and growing to love the Exiles and New Exiles comics, so I’m going to shamelessly draw inspiration from there to create our setting, adding in a dash of Booster Gold and Legion of Superheroes to the mix.
The heroes are superpowered individuals drawn from all across the multiverse dedicated to preventing threats that could destabilize the delicate balance of the Weave. They battle against a wide range of foes and act to stop events before they reach a cosmic scale. The heroes hearken from a range of races and alternate dimensions and bring their own unique outlook to the team. Membership is flexible and the players are encouraged to create and play new team members as they wish.
There is no central or defined campaign-spanning villain (yet!). The heroes confront isolated incidents that threaten to spill out of control if not kept in check. These may range in scale from preventing (or solving) a crime that could have multiversal implications to taking sides in a galaxy-spanning war that is risking the safety of neighbouring alternate universes. The battles are local in scale, though potentially dimension-spanning in effect.
This is going to be a carte blanche sandbox game where the players have free reign to create pretty much anything they can imagine. If they want to play a cat-headed Power Girl (and who doesn’t?) or a lump of morphic protoplasm that’s cool by me. The multiverse is a big place and I’m happy for the players to create a new alternate universe as origin for their hero, or use an existing one of mine (or another player’s) devising. I’m also encouraging the players to generate multiple characters so that the hero team is larger than the number of players. This gives them freedom to choose who they want to play each session and means it’s ok if they can’t make the game; the unused heroes are busy saving other multiverses, on monitor duty, on vacation or whatever. There’s also a mechanical incentive for the players to generate multiple characters, but I’ll save that until Day 4 when we build the heroes a Base of Operations.
In Mutants & Masterminds, the single most important rules decision the GM has to make is setting the Power Level. This is a number that represents how powerful the heroes are in comparison to the human “norm”. Most ordinary joes are PL 0 or 1, cops are PL 3 and soldiers around PL 5. “Average” superheroes (a contradiction, surely) are Power Level 10. This approximates the power level of the X-Men, Fantastic Four and the like. More street-level heroes hover between PL 6 and PL 8, and the Justice League around PL 12 and PL 14.
I’m going to set this one at PL 10 with an aim to get them to PL 12 as soon as possible. I want the players to feel out of their depth at the start and need each other to handle the challenges they face, but as they come to understand each other and operate as a team they’ll find inner reserves that make them up to the task. Ideally, we’re looking at increasing the Powel Level by one every 5 sessions to get it to 12, then levelling off at increasing it by 1 every 10 sessions or so.
The Power Level sets the limits for things like Attack Bonus, Damage, Saves and Skill Ranks. It’s designed so that, for example, a PL 3 crook’s best attack and defense would be a kevlar vest and a shotgun whereas your PL 10 hero’s blast can cut through a tank’s armour with a single blast. Power level also sets the default starting Power Points for the characters though the GM is free to set them differently if he wants. At PL 10, the heroes will usually have 150pp to spend. I’m going to increase that a touch to 160pp for reasons that will become clear another time.
Power Level and the number of Power Points have much more important impact than first appears. At the lowest levels, the majority of a character’s points are likely to be spent on abilities and skills making it a grittier, more hardcore game. As the Power Level rises the players are more likely to be spending most of their points in Superpowers and the game shifts in tone. At the very highest level the players are truly cosmic in ability. This is a wide generalization, of course – it’s possible (fun, in fact) to create a Superpowered PL 3 or a highly-skilled PL 16 but these are the exception rather than the norm.
Tomorrow, it’s the turn of WHAT.
Till next time!
Mutants and Masterminds Day 1.5: Origin
Mar 1st
I’ve set this post as Day 1.5 because I meant to make yesterday Day Zero and begin proper with this post as Day One. Hence the little numerical tweak to correct. Now, on with the show.
Ah, Mutants & Masterminds, how I love thee. Shall I compare thee to a (Scott) Summers day? Weighing in at 256 pages, M&M is to my mind the single greatest superhero RPG ever made, and one of the best generic systems too. It’s a single-book system where all that’s needed to play the game is contained in just one tome meaning it’s a third the price of Certain Other Games (mentioning no names), yet offers an infinite range of play styles and possibilities. It’s an evolution of the d20/OGL system we know and love from Third Edition D&D and manages to tread a fine line between feeling familiar and excitingly different at the same time. M&M keeps the d20 resolution mechanic (roll d20, add modifiers and reach or exceed a target number) but introduces many new elements to the game. From points-based classless character generation to fast and furious combat without hit points, M&M takes the core D&D concepts, examines them and replaces them with something that works better. It’s d20 as you know it, evolved.
While Mutants & Masterminds is unashamedly a superhero RPG it’s flexible enough to handle pretty much any genre, setting or play style without needed any additional supplements, house rules or ephemera. After all, “superhero” is a notoriously broad church covering everything from the savage tales of Ka-Zar to the Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century and beyond. This is a system designed to handle heroes (and villains) of all styles, from mystical to cosmic, from gun toting ex-marines to playboys in battlesuits, from mutant to magical. The Superhero genre is generic, by definition.
That said, M&M also has supplements by the bucketload. While none of them are essential whatever your style of gaming, they’re also darned useful. Freedom City provides a complete base of operations for your heroes, and Instant Superheroes offers many more archetypes (more on those another time) for your heroes and villains. Of all the M&M supplements, these are the two I’d place on the “most useful” pile. My copy of Instant Superheroes is certainly the most well-thumbed by my players! Other supplements provide a closer examination of certain sub-genres (Golden Age, Iron Age, Hero High, Paragons), or more pre-built villains and archetypes for your game. The Mastermind’s Manual is M&M’s version of Unearthed Arcana offering a whole raft of optional tweaks and rules options, and Ultimate Power provides an in-depth and thorough look at how Powers are constructed. Neither supplements are for casual M&M gamers, but provide an excellent insight into how the game is put together.
But enough of that. This week we’re going to look at Mutants & Masterminds from the ground up. We’re building a complete campaign setting complete with a handful of archetypes, villains, a Base of Operations and some Kewl Tech thrown in for good measure. Can we create a world in just seven days?
No. We’re going to create a multiverse in seven days!
To do that, we’re going to answer the classic five questions: “Who?”, “What?”, “Where?”, “Why?” and “When?”. Pay attention class. The order is important.
All to often, new campaigns begin with a place. It might be a large-scale overview of the campaign setting such as a hand-drawn fantasy map of a continent, or as small-scale as a dungeon layout or notes about a town that’s going to be the adventurer’s home at the start of their career. This puts the emphasis on the WHERE.
That’s (pardon my forthrightness) the wrong way to do it.
The single most important question to ask when creating any campaign is WHO. And that, dear reader, is what we’ll cover tomorrow.
Mutants and Masterminds Week Day 1: Backstory
Feb 28th
We’ve had RPG Weeks for Dragon Warriors, the Marvel RPG and the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, but not one for my most loved system of them all – Green Ronin’s Mutants & Masterminds. This week we’re going to correct that oversight with 7 whole days of pure 100% superheroey goodness. Hold on tight!
What we’re going to do is build a complete superhero campaign setting from start to finish in just seven days. I’m going to show you how the Mutants & Masterminds rules fit in to create a solid gaming platform that’s under complete GM control every step of the way. And it’s going to be big: we’re going to be using the entire multiverse!
I’ve covered a whole ton of ground about Mutants & Masterminds already, so rather than repeat myself here’s a handy-dandy list of previous M&M blogposts to get you started.
Tutorial
Opinion
- Death and Superheroes
- For every hero, a villain
- Heroes
- One Line Hero
- Random Campaign Generator
- Sean asked the questions, I answer
- Teambuilding Metalworks
- Vive la Difference
D&D Conversion
- Why convert?
- Ten reasons why
- Mutants and Racial Templates
- Mutants and Dragons
- Converting Monsters
- Power Word:Superhero
Fantasy Archetypes
Heroes
- Agent Gold
- Angelus
- Attan
- Black Friday
- Black Knight and White Knight
- Blaine
- Bolt
- c’t
- The Gargoyle
- Green Guardian
- Jonah Uglee
- Mercury
- Metal Bear
- Michael Day
- Paragirl One
- Professor Tellerman (bottom of post)
- Redhawk
- Sher kaa bachcha
- Sky
- Sunspot
- Throwback
- The Wastelander
- Whips and Chains
- Upgrade
Villains
Till next time!











