"Mutants & Masterminds, or M&M for short, is an adventure roleplaying game in which you, the players, take on the roles of fictional superheroes having thrilling adventures in an imaginary world. One player, the Gamemaster, takes on the job of creating that world and the stories for the other players to take part in. Together, you create your own tales of heroic action and adventure, like your favorite superhero comic books, television shows, or movies. You don’t need any expensive computers or video game systems to take part though. You just need a book, some friends, and plenty of imagination."
Never played it, but I've been wanting to dip my toes in.
What are the big differences between the editions? I understand from what I've heard on Veeky Forums that MnM 3e seems to be the way to go, but I'm not sure why that is.
Jaxson Cooper
A team of misfit villians turned anitheroes is best. Our slogan "We do good things for bad reasons."
My group has been running exclusively DC Adventures since it came out, i miss the more unique feel of the regular Mutants and Masterminds universe. Something nice about a hero or villain showing up and having no idea what to expect.
Parker Bennett
Balance mostly, dex was absurdly overpowered in 1e and the defense mechanic in 2e was weird. Things have gotten simpler over the years. Rather than having a ton of powers that did basically the same thing, Hellfire Control, Electrical Control, Vibration Control, Kinetic Control, all of which baseline do the same thing, in 3e, you just have a damage power and you add on the descriptors and extras you want to turn it in to whatever. Once you are used to it, its a lot more intuitive and simple, that said, I would suggest at least looking through the powers in 2e to get an idea what of what kind of powers you can build. Or at least look through some of the compendiums boks to see how these very basic powers and features are combined in interesting ways. Also, what materials are available. 3e has tons of licensed DC content, 2e has some Wild Cards stuff if you've read the books before or are wanting to get in on the ground floor before the series starts.
Hunter Hughes
I'm a huge fan of individual heroes working together.
Once I played a reformed villain inspired by Skaven. He became reformed when he learned that a Punisher-esque hero was blowing into town.
Goes by the name Nice-Nice Friendthing
Hudson Ramirez
So this isn't going to make a lot of sense to you yet, but here is an example of how I took very basic things and created an absolutely absurd power. So in the old school Marvel tabletop RPG, you could be a magician, a la Doctor Strange, one of the magic powers you could get, that I abused extensively was Conjure. What it does, you summon an object or being from anywhere to you, and if it is damaged, you repair it as well. Depending on whether the target was resisting or if you weren't familiar with the object would change how difficult it was.
So what I did to create this power, first you start with teleport, then you take the extra Attack, meaning that rather than using it on myself, I can use it on another. I then increase the range from touch all the way up to perception range meaning as long as I can perceive my target, I can use the attack on them. I then took the precise, subtle, and insidious extras, meaning I could use it on the ping of a grenade, the target wouldn't realize I had done anything, and they wouldn't realize the ping was missing ut of the grenade until it was too late without a successful perception check. I bought ranks of Increased Mass, increasing the amount of mass I can affect, at this point I'm looking at a crazy amount of points spent per rank, so I add the limit drawback that the target can only be teleported to my location. I then linked it with a heal power, meaning I can use both powers at once, with the trade off that I HAVE to use both powers at once. I increase the range up to Perception as well because I have to because that is how linking works, and I take the Affects Objects extra because I can heal both. I can't teleport myself, so I take the drawback Others Only, so I can't heal myself either. [1/2]
Joseph Watson
Even with the drawbacks it's a ton of points, so to make it a bit more like the Marvel Tabletop version, I add on 6 ranks of Check Required to both, I have to make an expertise: Voodoo check, and for every number above 15 is what rank I can use the power at that turn, up to my max rank of course. Now it could be prety easy to imagine how I could use this to conjure peoples innards, but there is not a real way to do that with how the power is currently set, so I spend a single power point onf Alternate Effect, and I can use a different power so long as its rank and power point expenditure is less than the base power. thanks to the link and tons of extras, I've got a lot of points to work with. This time It's a damage effect, again at perception rank. Since no amount of armor or force fielding is going to help prevent your insides become outsides, I take the Alternate resistance extra and make the attack against Fortitude instead of Toughness. I throw on the Secondary effect so that next turn he has to make the save again even if I attack someone else or domething something else entirely. I take Affects Objects so that I can tear down walls with it, as well as increasing the mass limit again, and once again I take the subtle, precise, and insidious, and again I throw on the Check Required drawback to keep its point total under the main powers point total. [2/2]
Kayden Cox
Picked up the core book and a few others for M&M 3e yesterday.
Someone at the FLGS dumped them into my bag and said I could have them.
Is it any good? Should I play?
Gabriel King
Mainly 3e streamlined upon 2e and culled the leftover D&D dross.
Biggest change is presentation of powers - 2e put out packets of complete powers while 3e focused on giving you the base lego blocks for them and you built them yourself, which is how most practised players of 2e were doing things anyway. And 3e still has an assload of sample characters and whole two books of sample powers for you crib notes from.
Going back to 2e from 3e isn't going to be really hard if you find a game for it that you want into, so just go with 3 for starters.
Wyatt Davis
M&M is one of the flagship superhero games out there, and it's one of the only good d20 games out there, 3e in particular.
Liam Murphy
Very wonky to use the first couple times through.
Definitely gets better as people become more familiar with it and have extremely strong character concepts.
Asher Russell
Its good.
Do you like superheroes and can find a game? Then play.
Ayden Flores
If you have any experience playing D&D, then you're already halfway home with playing M&M.
Justin Cox
How is the dc adventures m&m stuff?
Adrian Adams
>then you're already halfway home with playing M&M
Unless they changed something in recent editions then not at all. The insane scale you can get stuff to boggles the mind alone.
Jayden Richardson
It's just M&M 3e with officially statted DC heroes/villains.
Liam Thomas
So I'm possibly running a DC Titans game soon. I was thinking of using/hacking Marvel Heroic for it, then I ran across DC Adventures.
Can some one give me the Pro's / Con's of DCA/M&M?
Thomas Butler
I thought I should mention the group is somewhat versed in D20 already from playing 5e and some have played 3.5/Pathfinder.
Xavier Hill
Then it'll be much easier to introduce them to M&M. This was the case with my group: since we all had played D&D a bunch already, we took to M&M very easily. Once we got past chargen (which is always the hardest past of M&M), it was smooth sailing.
Jose Barnes
>Individuals working together, as long as they're not coddled together in the same manner as "You meet in a tavern." >Depends on the game, though you can't go wrong with noblebright. >PL 5 is best.
Said in another thread, I'm starting a 1940s superhero game in New York. I've got sort of the rough plot idea down, but I need some NPCs to fill out the city, both good and bad.
Thomas Russell
Mobsters Newpaper reporters Bar owners Butcher shop owner Private detectives Cops Dock workers Landlords Loan sharks Card sharks Musicians
Christian Gomez
PL 5 is almost below street tier. You're not supers so much as you are exceptional humans. There's a reason PL10 is the default.
Henry Carter
Well that's a good start.
PL 5 in my experience has been Pulp-era appropriate.
>exceptional humans
Perfect. Every M&M game I've played, the lower the power the better. It encourages better team play and more creativity.
Liam Smith
Chargen should be pretty easy then since at least at first it should be characters who are already made in the DC adventures stuff with some tweaks.
Other than reading the core book (Which I aim to do) Do you have any advice for DM's? Or any "Require Reading" to learn the game better to make things smoother in play?
Jace Perez
Read the fucking book.
Shit can get really really crazy.
Also make sure to know the party. You gotta be prepared for the crazy shit their characters can pull.
Liam Anderson
>Or any "Require Reading" to learn the game better to make things smoother in play?
Nah, most of the other books are stuff like premade villains and setting stuff, not necessary for playing the game. I would say communication, both between GM and players, is important to making the game work well I suppose.
Sebastian Taylor
Communication and trust are key. M&M is one of those games where it's paramount to learn when to say "no." The game is notoriously easy to break, even by accident, so if a party member is running a busted power, ask them to change it. DO NOT engage in an arms race with the players in M&M; it ends miserably for everyone.
Henry Lewis
How well does it work for mixed power level teams like the Justice League or Young Justice.
I'd love to have people like Nightwing, Super Boy, and Wally Flash fight side by side.
Xavier Fisher
Power levels are a strict measure of power, since it reflects what powers and resources are available to the characer. You have to be careful with a mixed PL team, since you'll regularly be dealing with people punching outside their weight class. Make sure everyone has something meaningful to do.
Logan Brown
Just so you know, no sane GM would ever let do this.
M&M Is very heavily reliant on GM and player vetoing powers, because otherwise it becomes immensely easy to break the game.
Ian Gonzalez
It looks like most of the premade DCA heroes I want to use are between PL10-12 is that a huge difference?
I'll just have to be careful and pay attention to how the fights flow I suppose and give alternate goals along side just beating down the villain.
Sebastian Rivera
As said, it can get ridiculous.
GM and players have to work with each other very well to make characters that aren't completely broken and that are fun to play: if you find a good GM for M&M, hold on to him very tightly.
Christopher Scott
>Nightwing, Super Boy, Wally Flash As far as the game term "Power Level" goes, they could all be on the same one well enough--in Mutants and Masterminds "Power Level" is more a measure of how many points they're built out of, and obviously they'd all have quite different investments in different areas.
A good example is the pre-built character archetypes in the core book. They're all PL 10, and include Totally-Not-Dr.-Strange, Bootleg Beast Boy, and a fairly blatant Ryu from Street Fighter. If you were just talking conversationally about their power levels you might not place them all the same, but they can definitely each be valid and coexist on the same level in MnM in the same way they might in a comic or cartoon series, and for the same reasons.
Evan Myers
I love M&M. It's my current generic cinematic game - crunchy enough to feel like there's danger involved, but flexible enough that you can do basically whatever.
To wit, my current campaign isn't even vaguely related to superheroes. It's about a squad of XCOM-style dudes in power armor fighting the return of inhuman faeries to the modern world. And it works like a charm.
Kayden Lee
>GM and players have to work with each other very well to make characters that aren't completely broken and that are fun to play: if you find a good GM for M&M, hold on to him very tightly. Gee, when people say this about a certain other game, all they get is hate. But it's okay here since this isn't that game, right?
Caleb Green
Rad, I'll have to use the premades as a base line idea for them then.
Whats a good PL for world wide heroes that occasionally step into Cosmic level? I answered my own question reading the book. Between 12 and 14 it seems. I guess I'll just have to make a character or two at PL 12 and see how satisfied I am.
Logan Reed
I'm fairly sure people are complaining about trap options there bud
Jose Torres
So we are running a low powered game, we rolled our power(s) on a random system and then translated it to MnM.
I have super hearing, my code name is Superhear-o, do you think my group is going to lynch me?
Christopher Brooks
Rolled 14 (1d20)
>groaning and puking in the distance
Naw man, you're going to be fine >roll for deception
Jordan Stewart
I like the joke, but it'd get a bit tired after a session or two. I'd have a backup 'real' name for after the joke lands. Or, build on it. Maybe he wants to be called Superhear-o but was dubbed something else and *that* became the iconic name, or something like that.
Elijah Long
Use GM Kit's quickstart chargen to throw some curveball OCs on the party.
Elijah Long
>How well does it work for mixed power level teams like the Justice League or Young Justice. "players know it's mixed PL and accept the consequences"
Although IIRC all the minor teams are pretty balanced PL-wise in the DCA books, it's only the big League that swings apart.
Alexander Morales
>It looks like most of the premade DCA heroes I want to use are between PL10-12 is that a huge difference? Not very much. mikelaff.podbean.com these guys have done some example plays with DCA (although due to atrocious lack of search function you'll need to dig them yourself. start at the bottom i.e. the oldest) and the differences didn't affect much.
However it'd help if your lower-pl guys have different niches. Let your highest guy be the beatstick superman; techguy and wizard may settle at lower PL which means they'll be less handy in a fight but it won't impede them doing techy and magic stuff.
Jack Gonzalez
Bundle of Holding has two M&M 3e bundles available right now.
Landon Diaz
bump
Eli Gutierrez
Jokes only get tired if you wear them out.
The name is perfect.
Christopher Bennett
The flexibility of the system is really amazing.
Right now my group is looking at it to run Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Asher Perry
I'm always remembering the story of the group that converted their high-level D&D campaign into M&M. It was much more elegantly handled, and the fighter actually felt like a god of war for once.
Kevin Phillips
Very reliant. It's important to note there's actually no Rule Zero in this game.
It's explicitly written into the book as Rule 1. The book notes, several times? You can break the game. That's not hard, at all. It gives you ALL the possible tools to play a superhero, from Ambush Bug, to Batman, to Superman, to Iron Man, to full on anime stuff. I made a pretty decent lower PL Accelerator, for example.
But. But, but but. Because it IS so easy to break the game? It's really no fun to do so. It's a game, and this shit's meant to be fun. So, built to a theme. Just because you can do something in a build doesn't mean you should, if it's out of theme or flavor.
Plus the DM's explictly allowed to slap your shit down if you're making shit unfun for people anyway.
But a great benchmark? Ask yourself this question: Is this character one I'd enjoy reading a comicbook/watching a satmorn cartoon/movie about? If not, you dun fucked up.
I've found this helpful for such things. It gives some good ideas and all, plus it's not hard to fill in the gaps yourself.
While the system isn't perfect for everything, it's good for a LOT of things. If you got a dedicated system for something, use it, but M&M 3e is my go to for most ideas.
This. The game is easily broken, and the game itself knows it, so it appeals to your narrative side to keep things fair and in-character. M&M's definition of "system mastery" is not creating a character than can "win the game," but rather, being able to create the most comprehensive and faithful image of your character as possible. The game trusts you to play fair. It wants you to make the character you want to play, not the character you need to play.
Also, that question prompt at the bottom is so crucial. It goes a long way towards making a convincing character. Sheriff Stardust, intergalactic lawwoman with her custom multipurpose six-shooters, is much more memorable than God Man.
Noah Stewart
A good rule of thumb is to read the skill section for the benchmarks, and look at the quick-stats for civilians and soldiers to get a good idea of just how strong a thing is.
Unlike D&D, a +5 in a skill, for example? Very respectable. Just because the system uses a d20 means you might have some preconceived notions you need to shake yourself free from. A +10 is world class, and I tend to put a +15 as IN A CAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS level. Get a feel for things.
Also, don't forget: Shit's effect based. Just because it uses the 'power' system to make a thing? Doesn't mean its anything but you being Just That Good, if that's the descriptor you want it to be.
A Damage effect can be anything from lighting fist, to just punchgood, to an ultimate technique passed down the Armstrong family line for generations.
Also look at the stats the book puts on other things. A D3 effect is a light pistol. D5 multi? That's assault rifle grade. Use those to help calibrate the damage of stuff you want.
Jacob Peterson
I'm looking into Mutants and Masterminds but holy crap, the chargen looks complex. I just want to play an energy controller. How good is the basic template?
What would you add or drop?
Joseph Roberts
Basic template isn't too bad.
And CG is pure pointbuy. If you want more options, use this. It's got all the quickgens, but with expanded options, all calculated out so you can plug and play as you want.
Kevin James
One thing I don't like about MnM is the Piercing extra. It just doesn't to work good to me.
As a reminder, the effect is that if Impervious Toughness would negate your whole damage, it makes them still roll against how much Piercing you have.
Impervious Toughness thematically representing being just that extremely tough, Piercing should represent the opposite aaand it doesn't.
The basic place it appears on is a basic knife. That means that if you stab Superman with a knife, he'd still need to roll. He's guaranteed to pass, it means he /notices/ a banal knife stab. That feels wrong.
Another place it likes to appear (in archetypes) is the high-damage attacks. And it's just a waste of points. You have your Big-ass Sword of at least 10 damage, you probably have Power Attack so you can push it higher. If something is calling Impervious on 10 damage, it means it either can't dodge for shit (so you can Power Attack) or you're trying to fight Darkseid while underleveled, and hey power attack still may put a scratch on the bastard with a lucky roll (if it's something that will Imprevious off your power attack, then it's something that can /tank Darkseid/ and you're fucked).
Ok rant over.
The archetypes are ok. Although that one's a bit too basic, gimme a minute to cap the controller from deluxe handbook, it has more options (such as for the nebulous Alternate Effects mentioned there)
It may or may not be different from the one in the GM Kit there
Michael Perez
And the archetype
Nicholas Martin
...and actually comparing it with the GM Kit, no it hasn't been updated and instead it has fucked up layouting around the AE selection section. NVM then.
Benjamin Jackson
Use the demo version of Herolab to make characters in Mutants and Masterminds.
Trust me, it will make you the whole thing a Lot easier.
Ethan Robinson
I don't agree with that, as a first timer setting up power arrays and extras in it was a pain in the ass.
Zachary Perry
This. Hero Lab is a godsend for M&M 3e, since it does all the math for you. You can't save builds, but you can transcribe them to character sheets and move them later.
It's worth doing thing manually at least once.
Nicholas Bailey
>power arrays You use more than one? Why?
You're also the first one I've heard complain about it. All my other sources recommend it highly when planning characters for M&M.
Robert Davis
Actually, on that. Anyone got a download for a non-demo Herolab? Someone's gotta have cracked that shit at some point.
James Hall
>You use more than one? Why? Well for example quickstart mage has more than one array on him.
But I meant arrays in general, on several characters.
Jayden Evans
I'm preparing a M&M game for some friends and wanted some opinions and idea for some interesting villains. Here are some of the ones I've already made:
>General Steele Leader of a terrorist group focused on destroying anything alien by any means necessary. Wears a prototype military battle-suit he stole. >Colonel Trench Daughter of Steele, a mutant with earth control abilities, fanatically loyal to her father and has a violent streak. >Taylor Wright (alias) A advanced human from another dimension, has incredible toughness and longevity. Also is basically Lex Luthor. >Suten-hem-ka A 13 foot tall ancient mummy, seeking objects of power from his time, so he can gain ultimate power and get revenge on the descendants of those who killed and cursed him. >Primus Nara The only surviving officer of an invading alien force from 20 years ago. A large lizard-like creature, with a incredibly strategic mind, almost at precognition levels. >The Artificer A person with the ability to grant objects magical powers based on their history, obsessed with collecting unique stuff just to lord it over everyone else.
Also, I need to create a specific villain for one of my players that chose the enemy complication., and who's pretty much just playing a female Green Arrow.
Near the start of the campaign I'm going to have a strange event take place at the maximum security prison that holds all the captured super bad guys, that will set them free into the world, so I can give a good reason the NPC heroes to not help the player heroes, because they're busy cleaning up this mess.
Easton Hughes
All quite nice, I like it.
As for the enemy complication, you could maybe do a direct rivalry, so if she's an arrow person then he's a guns or throwing weapons person, or you could maybe do a direct counter to her abilities (as I tend to feel a rival NPC should be) and make it someone who can either stop her arrows (super reflexes, can catch them out of the air) or send them back (some sort of reflection power), or perhaps most annoying forces her to always miss (supernatural luck so that her arrows veer off before they hit, or things happen to get in the way).
As for the event to get the characters going, also very nice. Better than just forcing them to meet in a super league or making them start as a team or something.
