Mutants and Masterminds

Heya so i'm very new to this and i'm going to be playing for the first time next week. The character I made has the power to create "Super Balls" (The bouncing rubber balls) and use them for various situations.. mainly throwing. So on the sheet I see there's a section for offensive, not sure how to fill that out at all.. Any help would be appreciated.

Bump?

Unfortunatly this game is 't that common, so i can't help you
But i can give you a bump

Appreciate it man. My GM is new to this too, we are used to DnD so this is a bit hard for us. haha

Basically for a shorthand version of your attack powers for quick reference. As the full power will usually be in a larger list with non-combat powers.

For example, say your character has a laser gun device at PL 10.

Laser Gun: Ranged Damage 12, 24 (2pp/r)

He also has a skill: Ranged Combat[Guns] with a total of 8 (base attribute + ranks).

In the Offense section you'd put:
Laser Gun: +8 vs Dodge, Ranged Damage 12 vs Toughness

It's fairly similar for something like Damage, but for other Powers its hand. Namely Affliction where resistances can vary a lot, or even hit two.

So how did you determine the damage? Because we are rolling PL 1 characters and i'm having a hard time with that..

Because you don't do that. A PL1 is nothing. It's like a small child. Normal people are in the range of PL3 to PL5.

The PCs should probably be PL6 at the very very least and that would still be awkward. PL8 is generally the lowest you should go practically, and it'd be for a very very low power street level hero game.

PL10 is the standard starting PL.

The GM is putting us as 12-19 yr old people living in a boarding home, inspired by X-Men Evolution.

PL6 at the very least. That's enough PP for some meh tier stats and a gimmick power.

>PL 1
WHY WOULD YOU EVER DO THAT

The absolute minimum for a PC is about PL 6, PL 8 is the recommended minimum, and PL 10 is the average recommended starting PL.

You have a bad GM. I recommend waterboarding him until he understands his complete failure to read the ruleset he pretends to run. PL1 is like playing a group of D&D housecats.

Well god damn.. Like I said, we are all very new to this system and are trying to learn.

Yeah, it's not like D&D, where everybody says to start at level 3+, but level 1 is still playable. M&M just completely breaks down if they PCs are below PL6.

Ah okay, so it's really not meant for below.. Even if we are playing 14 yr olds.. I saw on one thread they said PL 5 was the sweet spot..

I'd agree with other anons and say that 6-8 is what you want for teenagers.

Also I would highly recommend the Hero High splat for your GM. As someone who's looking to start a superhero highschool game myself, it's been a fantastic help.

Hero High Splat?

You can probably find it in one of the sharethreads.

Oooo what sharethread?

Dude, my whole point is that you're trying to learn, and your GM's first step is to ignore what the rulebook recommends for new players learning the system.

>

Don't listen to the other anons. I finished a PL 10 campaign and things were pretty ridiculous. You aren't meant to go up in power level frequently like in DnD, instead you typically get given more Power Points.

The real reason to pick a particular PL is the Measurements Table. Think about your campaign and pick a power level that uses the measurements you are okay with. IE can your Beefy Strongman lift 500 pounds or 10000 pounds. Can your telekinetic lift a tanker's worth of water or 20 olympic swimming pools of water.

You will probably have more fun around level six with 20 extra points or so.

Neither of those things are limited by PL. I'm curious as to what was ridiculous about PL 10 though. It's the standard cause its right in the middle between street level PL8 and international superhero PL12. At 14 you're hitting cosmic level supers who protect their entire planet from space threats.

So... the original question still wasn't answered.. on how do I figure out damage and such? Like are there modifiers for damage like D&D?

read the fucking book.

Damage is determined by the rank of your power. Say you throw a rubber ball really hard in order to hurt somebody - that's a Ranged Damage at (power rank).

Any ability that affects another character has its DC based upon the number of ranks of the effect you buy.

MnM is not a system you want to just skim. You need to actually read each chapter.

...

Ah, okay. Thank you very much, yeah I need to re-read this..

PL is the max rank you can invest in a power, and the rank of powers like speed and area effect determine their measurements.

First if you're coming from D&D, I recommend M&M 2nd edition, it's closer to what you already know in terms of atributes, conditions and stuff.

Second talk with your DM, like others said you should use minimun PL6, probably 8. Check the gamemastering chapters, a PL 5 is a soldier with basic gear. PL 1 is a butler.

How attacks work: d20 + your Attack bonus, versus targets defense bonus +10. you don't roll damage, instead the target rolls d20 + their save (usually toughness, but can be any of the others too) versus 15 + your power rank (for Toughness) or 10 + power rank (for Ref, Will or Fort).
This is all for 2e, which is my forte, 3e is similar but the numbers may be different, I don't remember.

Hope you see this and good game.

Except that's wrong. PL only limits Toughness values, Skill Modifiers, and Attack + Effect. A non-combat power is not restricted by PL.

PL Limits:
1. Skill Mod: Total skill (ability + skills ranks) cannot exceed PL +10. (e.g. 20 at PL 10, 18 at PL 8)
2. Attack & Effect: The total of the attack bonus and the effect rank cannot exceed twice the PL. (e.g. At PL 10 you can have a +8 to hit Damage 12, +12 to hit Damage 8, +10 to hit Damage 10, or even a +5 to hit Damage 15)
3. The sum of Toughness and Dodge defenses cannot exceed twice PL. (e.g. 10 Dodge and 10 Toughness, or 8 Dodge and 12 Toughness)
4. The sum of Toughness and Parry cannot exceed twice PL.
5. The sum of Fortitude and Will cannot exceed twice PL.

Those are the only limits of power ranks. The only thing stopping you from buying Speed 25 on your PL8 hero is your how many PP you can spare.

At the core the mechanics are basically the same. 3e just cut the fat from 2e by slimming and combining down the power effects and some aspects of combat. It's overall an improvement.