Mutants and Masterminds General Thread. (1970's edition)
>What is Mutants and Masterminds?
"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."
>Atomic Think Tank archive (Created when Atomic Think Tank merged with he official forums. Has a lot of community made content including builds of DC and marvel characters that better approximate the abilities of the official facsimiles.) atomicthinktank.com/viewforum.php?f=23&sid=c2d27a35f0971d109aa12e5b2ae8bdb7
The 3e core book recommends the GM make secret rolls where appropriate to determine what the PCs do and don't pick up on.
I've never done secret rolls against character stats before, only to determine background events that may or may not end up effecting the party. With these sorts of rolls it was relatively easy to disguise what I was doing because the timing of the rolls gave few to no clues to the players what I was doing secret rolls for.
But when you are rolling against PC stats as they enter or move though an area, time becomes a context clue.
what I'm asking:
-Do you think secret perception rolls are a good idea when GMing?
-How do you make it harder for your players to guess what you are doing secret rolls for?
This game is being played with an online group but advice for when GMing IRL groups would be appreciated too.
I am considering using a phone app to roll secret dice so that way I don't accidentally post secret rolls in the chat, and I don't have s separate tab or window competing for real-estate on my monitor when I already have so many documents and notes open in addition to the chat window.
Hudson Carter
About to run my first M&M game with very poor understanding of the rules and general IQ.
Any tips?
Mason Russell
Has anyone here experimented with drug based superpowers with withdrawal side effects? I'm thinking about making a detective character who grows a plant that when taken enhances perception and reflexes and can grant the user minor bullet time, but when they are not on it is interferes with their focus and causes minor but persistent audio hallucinations resulting in a base penalty to perception and a variable penalty to audio perception.
most of the time he's off of it (because he doesn't have the know how or means to grow enough to keep a constant supply plus he's trying to keep it a secret.)
Before I went further I thought I'd ask for advice and insight from anyone here who may have dabbled in drug fueled superpowers before.
Samuel Baker
>1970's edition
Brody Martin
Just roll dice all the time as a nervous habit, and no one will ever be able to tell. Alternatively just use a player's routine check value instead of rolling their perception for things they're not looking for.
The example in the core book sounds like the player knows the check is happening, but shouldn't be able to distinguish between a failed roll and a successful roll when there's nothing to see. Like choosing to peer into darkness, for example.
For perception checks against things the players aren't actively looking for, just use the routine check bit on the same page.
Jonathan Peterson
Shouldn't that be /mnm/ ?
Joshua Hill
>Just roll dice all the time as a nervous habit
That could be useful in an IRL game. Thank you. Do you have any suggestions for an online game? (rolling out of habit would clog the chat with roll results spit out by the dicebot so that would not work.)
Andrew Adams
I believe there is the Roll20 /gmroll input you can use. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW you are rolling the d20.
Eli Rogers
oh that brings up an important question!
Does playing without a map work in this game or do things tend to fall apart if you play without a map?
I've never run a game with a maps and tokens (only descriptions),
I've played a 4 brief games where a map was used (2 games of 5e, one of Labyrinth Lord, and one of GURPS) all the other games I've been a player in were done with no tokens and most of the time no maps, just with descriptions and mental mapping.
Caleb Turner
I GMed a couple prologue sessions before the main game. Worked just fine without a map because I just described what was going on when I needed to, and said yes or no whenever the players were uncertain about something in the environment.
It's really a matter of roleplaying right.
Also, don't even fucking try creating a map when just 3 ranks in flight or speed will make it useless. I honestly don't miss maps though, especially when my 5e DnD GM would have us slowly crawl across so many tiles rather than just describe thing to us.
Lucas Young
Going to be running my first official session of this system today (I hope). Anything I should keep in mind?
Parker Howard
remember to take notes on what happened in universe after the session is over and talk to the plays about what they thought.
Good luck.
Luke Rogers
thank you for providing your thoughts and qualifying it with past experience and potential bias.
Ethan Reed
In this game about superheroes do you still find players making murder hobos?
Mason Harris
Even outside my experience, I've heard that doing maps for MnM really does not work, and it doesn't have to. That isn't to say you can't have a picture and some doodling to give players an idea, but going into overtly specific detail will give you a headache.
Adam Jackson
thanks.
Camden Hall
How would you all go about making a character that functions like Blue Beetle?
Benjamin Cooper
Which one? They're all different. The first and second really aren't far off from the classic "Costumed Adventurer" schtick, but Jaime wears an alien battlesuit with its own AI.
Asher Kelly
Sorry for not being more specific. And I was thinking more along the lines of the Jaime version.
Zachary Hernandez
Honestly, other than the AI, he's a pretty classic Battlesuit archetype with only some minor differences.
You've got Protection for the armor. Some sort of weapons array covering his main cannons and blades.
You've got the enhanced physical stats that the scarab provides.
Don't forget life support, flight, and super senses.
But, FYI, if you can track down a copy of it, he's statted out (maybe not perfectly, but definitely workable) in M&M 3e's DC Adventures: Heroes and Villains Volume 1.
Henry Butler
I want to run an M&M game set in the 30's/40's, during the Golden Age. More "Lobster Johnson" or early "Batman" than "Green Lantern" or "Superman".
What do I need?
Brody Parker
Just the core book for whichever edition you want, and maybe 2e's Golden Age splat for more ideas.
Ideally, a background in the comics of the era would help.
Leo Murphy
Where do I start? Or rather, anyone here wanna give me a hard and fast thematic summary? I feel like the Golden Age was a "take no shit" sort of time period, where heroes could (and sometimes should) kill, and the supernatural was a lot more prevalent than later eras where tech-heroes seemed to rule (like Iron Man). More Noir, as it were.
David Jenkins
Not M&M but still can apply to most systems.
How do you run powers that increase in power over the campaign without it being DBZ bullshit or "I'm suddenly stronger because I put points into it with 0 training IC"? Specifically looking for how to go about it with density increase.
Eli Collins
The core book(s) give a quick summary of each era, and 2e had all the era-specific splats that went into much more detail.
Mostly - power level was a bit lower, and while there was a fair amount of outlandish stuff with aliens and mystics, many heroes mostly took on war criminals and corrupt businessmen and mad scientists.
Hudson Fisher
Maybe have the matter trickle in from an extra dimensional source? Have them absorb rocks and trash in their downtime? Maybe its an exponential power that gets better the more you use it? The biggest boon for a density increase character is the ability to ride an elevator while at full power. Maybe flight with the disadvantage (only while in contact with surface) would work?
Evan Jenkins
O hey, it's the MNM thread again. Haveabump.
Cooper Smith
Third edition GM guide has a golden age section. Also maybe search the atomic think tank (links to archived and current one in the OP pic) for some build ideas
William Foster
When I played, our GM didn't use a map. Worked perfectly well for us... though it might not work as well for you, unfortunately.
Chase Roberts
>Has anyone here experimented with drug based superpowers with withdrawal side effects?
I've never come across this in any game except as a throw away side plot of tracking down and pinching a villain for peddling super drugs with horrible side effects as an affectionate poke at old "don't do drugs kids" episodes of shows.
Ethan Sanders
Well, the session went okay, nothing too interesting happened but the stage is set for shit to go down. They registered for a form of currency known as a Totem of Worth that essentially tracks their kills and adds to their bank account accordingly. Several of the characters are trying to get used to such an advanced city despite the archaic namesake of their payment.
Also one of my players decided to ditch mid session. He said he had to "clean" but not even 15 minutes beforehand he was playing FF15's japanese demo, but that's a story for another topic.
Asher Diaz
Bias or not, there is still objective fact that this game has easily accessible powers that allow players to easily jump out of your charted territory at any moment, leave terrain detail meaningless and introduce third dimension to the whole thing.
Jacob Turner
glad to hear things went mostly good.
Do you have any replacement players lined up for Mr.FinalFantasy?
Carter Wright
Also: heroes were a lot more "gimmick-y". Rather than having epic backstory or deep motivations, they tended to be "ordinary guy who got his hands on a gas gun/hour-long magic drugs/a magic ring/a bow and arrow". Think "Batman with a different schtick", really.
