WizarDru
Adventurer
I'd just like to thank you folks for all your advice after my recent thread asking for recommendations for a d20 supers game. After listening to your advice, I ordered Mutants and Masterminds, and it arrived yesterday evening.
My review (sent to my gaming group) is shown below for those who are interested.
----------------------------------------
Wow.
(ahem).
A little more detail is probably in order. If this sort of thing bores you, just close the message...I'm going to drone on for a while, here.
1. Presentation: The graphic presentation is lovely. Nice and consistent art, lots of color, clean text, very readable layout and good, quality paper. Easily on a mark with anything WotC has released. One of my favorite aspects of the old Villians and Vigilantes rulebook was the interspersing of snippets from a non-existent comic throughout...M&M uses this to excellent effect throughout the book, using their iconic characters. I haven't loved a book layout quite this much since Castle Falkenstein's first edition. It's just fun to read, darn it.
2. Mechanics: M&M passes what I call the 'World's Finest' test. Specifically, the system needs to be able to reasonably reproduce Batman AND Superman in a balanced game context. It succeeds, although with Batman, you have lots more options on how to do it (based on your interpetation of Bats more than anything). I'll go into more detail on the actual rules in a moment.
3. Design: The game goes to great lengths to discuss balance, how to address it and considerations that drove it. The book specifically highlights design changes that were made to the d20 system to accomadate play-style differences, and what the designer's intent was for such changes. In general, the goal was speedy play and fun, as opposed to overly complicated rules or specificity. The book goes on to discuss how certain rules just wouldn't fit the genre or would be impractical and wasteful to spell out, and it knows when it's best to just leave things to GM fiat.
4. Size: At first I was a bit put-off by the size of the book. It clocks in at a mere 192 pages, give or take, and that includes full-page illustrations for chapter headers. But after going through the book, I rather like it. It's not a 320 page juggernaut that it overloaded. It has exactly what you need, and a little bit more. It's suprisingly brief, really. And when you consider that it's all color and nice quality paper stock, the price tag of $32 or so doesn't seem outlandish...especially compared against the Arms and Equipment Guide.
Now, as you might expect, the bulk of the book is given over to two subjects, the only two that really matter in a superhero game: character creation and combat. M&M is a classless d20 game. There are levels, but no classes. There are ARCHETYPES, but these are just prebuilt packages for someone who doesn't want to bother creating a full character. They are actually pretty clever, in that you're given 10 of them (martial artists, elementalist, psioncist, metamorph, battlesuit, etc.) as a sample character, and within the stat-block are instructions on how to customize them very quickly. You could literally get a newbie to make a character in about five minutes. Designing the costume and name might take longer. Of amusement to me: Superman is considered an archetype (here called the Original), and represented by their Supes' character, Protonik.
For those who want to make a character, not just grab-and-go (namely us), the system is consistent and, IMHO, elegant. Each level gives you Power Points, and these are what you spend to gain Feats, Skills, Powers and Stunts. Your attack/defense, ability increases, hero points and other numbers are all tied to this, known as your power level, or PL. The game lists a table for PL 5-15, recommending a typical power level of 10 for the average game. PL1 is a normal human, PL5 is probably someone from Wildcards, and PL20 is probably reaching The Authority or most poweful members of the JLA.
The astute reader might have noticed I mentioned that skills are purchased with power points, not skill points. A higher INT does not give bonus skill points, so you can have very smart characters without millions of skill ranks. Super Strength, as you might expect, is a subject that I paid close attention to. The implementation is as a power, which will take some explaining, so I'll come back to it. Ability scores cap at 20, usually, and few PL10 characters have stats that high. Unlike D&D, the scale is fairly fixed...you buy powers for superhuman abilities, be it super-intelligence, super-charisma or super-strength.
Skills are pretty much what you'd expect. There are no cross-class skills, but ranks are still limited as per D&D (i.e. level+3). Feats come in two varieties, standard and super. Despite what you might think, the super variety have no additional requirements or increased cost...the qualifier appears to be there mostly to differentiate them for NPCs, I think. (although some super Feats obviously are an extension of a feat chain that starts in standard). Feats cost 2 power points, and there is no limit on how many you can get. If you want a character with no powers, only super feats, you can do that. Now, you may be wondering what the difference between feats and powers are, then. So was I. Put simply, Feats are usually minor enhancements, taken one at a time, with a single (usually continous) effect, while powers are layered and progressively increased abilities.
To wit: Immunity is a super feat. Choose it, and select a sub-type, such as Immunity:Critical Hits or Immunity:Aging or Immunity: Fire. Bought it? Got it. Super Strength is a power. Purchase a Level in it for 4 power points, and you may now add your ranks of Super-strength to your physical attacks, and your carrying capacity doubles. Buy another level (for an additional 4 power points), and double it, again. Note that the damage bonus increases arithematically while the lifting capacity is geometric. Sample character Minotaur, has a STR 20 with 10 levels of SS, giving him a lifting capacity of roughly 200 tons. On top of this, powers may be given 'extras' to modify powers and disadvantages (such as being from an item, etc.), both of which modify it's cost. Beyond that, you may get 'power stunts', which are basically super power specialities. An example: for super strength, you can get 'Lethal Damage', where your attack does lethal instead of stunning damage (duh). Someone with Alternate Form could get a stunt like 'additional form' or 'continous'. Continuous, of course, would be an enhancement over Colossus, the Hulk and the Human Torch, where your form stays active when you go unconscious.
You can purchase a single disadvantage, I believe, and they clearly want to avoid the 'loophole man' syndrome. A lot of the books language goes to great lengths to point out that the DM can nix anything he feels is abusive and detrimental to the game. Which I used to think was self-evident, until I started following ENWorld discussions.
M&M removes the following things from d20: No Classes. No Alignment. No Attacks of Opportunity. No Hit points. No fooling.
Combat involves attacks versus defense scores, and succesfful hits invoke damage saves. Essentially, if you hit, then the person gets a damage save (based on a bunch of modifiers, natch). A successful save means he avoids damage. A failure moves him down a grade on the chart, depending on stun or lethal damage, and a bigger failure means you may move further down much faster. Those who have Unearthed Arcana can see the basic OGL version of it (somewhat scaled down) in the alternate damage section. Short answer: there will be no accidental GURPS Supers killings here. Damage, therefore, becomes an inconvienece, not a game stopper. Like the comics. .(duh.)
Combat options, which I haven't reviewed as closely, are familiar friends you'll be well acquainted with, from what I can tell. Actions are simplified and somewhat broadened, and there are routines for special situations, not the least of which is a provision for mental combat (think Professor X versus Farouk, here). You'll see familiar friends like cover and concealment, full attacks and aid to assist, and all the classics.
It's clear that they've learned from other games mistakes, and streamlined quite a bit. M&M feels like d20 pared down, mixed with Hero, acid-washed and then distilled down for speed. It addresses my major problem with Hero, namely number-crunching, but retains the wonderful customization possibilities that Hero provides, for the most part. I'll let you know if I find any further interesting tidbits.
My review (sent to my gaming group) is shown below for those who are interested.
----------------------------------------
Wow.
(ahem).
A little more detail is probably in order. If this sort of thing bores you, just close the message...I'm going to drone on for a while, here.
1. Presentation: The graphic presentation is lovely. Nice and consistent art, lots of color, clean text, very readable layout and good, quality paper. Easily on a mark with anything WotC has released. One of my favorite aspects of the old Villians and Vigilantes rulebook was the interspersing of snippets from a non-existent comic throughout...M&M uses this to excellent effect throughout the book, using their iconic characters. I haven't loved a book layout quite this much since Castle Falkenstein's first edition. It's just fun to read, darn it.
2. Mechanics: M&M passes what I call the 'World's Finest' test. Specifically, the system needs to be able to reasonably reproduce Batman AND Superman in a balanced game context. It succeeds, although with Batman, you have lots more options on how to do it (based on your interpetation of Bats more than anything). I'll go into more detail on the actual rules in a moment.
3. Design: The game goes to great lengths to discuss balance, how to address it and considerations that drove it. The book specifically highlights design changes that were made to the d20 system to accomadate play-style differences, and what the designer's intent was for such changes. In general, the goal was speedy play and fun, as opposed to overly complicated rules or specificity. The book goes on to discuss how certain rules just wouldn't fit the genre or would be impractical and wasteful to spell out, and it knows when it's best to just leave things to GM fiat.
4. Size: At first I was a bit put-off by the size of the book. It clocks in at a mere 192 pages, give or take, and that includes full-page illustrations for chapter headers. But after going through the book, I rather like it. It's not a 320 page juggernaut that it overloaded. It has exactly what you need, and a little bit more. It's suprisingly brief, really. And when you consider that it's all color and nice quality paper stock, the price tag of $32 or so doesn't seem outlandish...especially compared against the Arms and Equipment Guide.
Now, as you might expect, the bulk of the book is given over to two subjects, the only two that really matter in a superhero game: character creation and combat. M&M is a classless d20 game. There are levels, but no classes. There are ARCHETYPES, but these are just prebuilt packages for someone who doesn't want to bother creating a full character. They are actually pretty clever, in that you're given 10 of them (martial artists, elementalist, psioncist, metamorph, battlesuit, etc.) as a sample character, and within the stat-block are instructions on how to customize them very quickly. You could literally get a newbie to make a character in about five minutes. Designing the costume and name might take longer. Of amusement to me: Superman is considered an archetype (here called the Original), and represented by their Supes' character, Protonik.
For those who want to make a character, not just grab-and-go (namely us), the system is consistent and, IMHO, elegant. Each level gives you Power Points, and these are what you spend to gain Feats, Skills, Powers and Stunts. Your attack/defense, ability increases, hero points and other numbers are all tied to this, known as your power level, or PL. The game lists a table for PL 5-15, recommending a typical power level of 10 for the average game. PL1 is a normal human, PL5 is probably someone from Wildcards, and PL20 is probably reaching The Authority or most poweful members of the JLA.
The astute reader might have noticed I mentioned that skills are purchased with power points, not skill points. A higher INT does not give bonus skill points, so you can have very smart characters without millions of skill ranks. Super Strength, as you might expect, is a subject that I paid close attention to. The implementation is as a power, which will take some explaining, so I'll come back to it. Ability scores cap at 20, usually, and few PL10 characters have stats that high. Unlike D&D, the scale is fairly fixed...you buy powers for superhuman abilities, be it super-intelligence, super-charisma or super-strength.
Skills are pretty much what you'd expect. There are no cross-class skills, but ranks are still limited as per D&D (i.e. level+3). Feats come in two varieties, standard and super. Despite what you might think, the super variety have no additional requirements or increased cost...the qualifier appears to be there mostly to differentiate them for NPCs, I think. (although some super Feats obviously are an extension of a feat chain that starts in standard). Feats cost 2 power points, and there is no limit on how many you can get. If you want a character with no powers, only super feats, you can do that. Now, you may be wondering what the difference between feats and powers are, then. So was I. Put simply, Feats are usually minor enhancements, taken one at a time, with a single (usually continous) effect, while powers are layered and progressively increased abilities.
To wit: Immunity is a super feat. Choose it, and select a sub-type, such as Immunity:Critical Hits or Immunity:Aging or Immunity: Fire. Bought it? Got it. Super Strength is a power. Purchase a Level in it for 4 power points, and you may now add your ranks of Super-strength to your physical attacks, and your carrying capacity doubles. Buy another level (for an additional 4 power points), and double it, again. Note that the damage bonus increases arithematically while the lifting capacity is geometric. Sample character Minotaur, has a STR 20 with 10 levels of SS, giving him a lifting capacity of roughly 200 tons. On top of this, powers may be given 'extras' to modify powers and disadvantages (such as being from an item, etc.), both of which modify it's cost. Beyond that, you may get 'power stunts', which are basically super power specialities. An example: for super strength, you can get 'Lethal Damage', where your attack does lethal instead of stunning damage (duh). Someone with Alternate Form could get a stunt like 'additional form' or 'continous'. Continuous, of course, would be an enhancement over Colossus, the Hulk and the Human Torch, where your form stays active when you go unconscious.
You can purchase a single disadvantage, I believe, and they clearly want to avoid the 'loophole man' syndrome. A lot of the books language goes to great lengths to point out that the DM can nix anything he feels is abusive and detrimental to the game. Which I used to think was self-evident, until I started following ENWorld discussions.
M&M removes the following things from d20: No Classes. No Alignment. No Attacks of Opportunity. No Hit points. No fooling.
Combat involves attacks versus defense scores, and succesfful hits invoke damage saves. Essentially, if you hit, then the person gets a damage save (based on a bunch of modifiers, natch). A successful save means he avoids damage. A failure moves him down a grade on the chart, depending on stun or lethal damage, and a bigger failure means you may move further down much faster. Those who have Unearthed Arcana can see the basic OGL version of it (somewhat scaled down) in the alternate damage section. Short answer: there will be no accidental GURPS Supers killings here. Damage, therefore, becomes an inconvienece, not a game stopper. Like the comics. .(duh.)Combat options, which I haven't reviewed as closely, are familiar friends you'll be well acquainted with, from what I can tell. Actions are simplified and somewhat broadened, and there are routines for special situations, not the least of which is a provision for mental combat (think Professor X versus Farouk, here). You'll see familiar friends like cover and concealment, full attacks and aid to assist, and all the classics.
It's clear that they've learned from other games mistakes, and streamlined quite a bit. M&M feels like d20 pared down, mixed with Hero, acid-washed and then distilled down for speed. It addresses my major problem with Hero, namely number-crunching, but retains the wonderful customization possibilities that Hero provides, for the most part. I'll let you know if I find any further interesting tidbits.
