Well, I picked up my copy of Mutants & Masterminds (Green Ronin) today and I'm pleased to announce that it's lived up to most all my expectations.
It's a full-color, 192-page hardcover. It's kinda pricey at $32.95, but it's a solid book with the same feel as Freeport: City of Adventure (my copy has held together great), only all color. The art is very nice, manga/comic style, which is perfect for the book.
This is mainly a system book. It's published under the OGL, but NOT the d20 logo. Don't go thinking you can pick and choose stuff for yor d20 games. It probably won't work.
The game makes some fundamental changes. First of all, there are no classes. Second of all, "levels" are practically meaningless. They exist as a character creation guide mostly, to tell you how many points you start with and what your max bonuses and skill ranks are.
Characters gain levels as they get more points, but unlike d20, they can spend them immediately instead of waiting.
The combat system is neat. Attacks have a damage rating, which sets the DC for a damage save. If you make the save, you're fine. If you fail, you take a hit, which reduces your damage save and can do other things. If you really botch it, you can be instantly disabled or have other bad things happen. I like the damage save mechanic, although a bad roll can spell instant disaster. One option a friend of mine suggested was that failed damage saves merely result in additional hits and incapacity happens when the damage save reaches +0.
The game seems to be really flexible. So far, I've been able to pull off most all the superheroes I've tried - Superman, Batman, Spider Man, Iron Man, Green Lantern, and Doctor Strange. It works better, IMO, if you toss the caps on skill ranks and stuff associated with level and just track points. Incidentally, the book takes this into account and has a method for calculating level based on your total point value.
The only real problem I had with the game is the lack of a money system. It has a Wealth option, but there is no example of how much things cost. Everything is built with points. For example, if I have an energy attack, it costs points. If I pick up a sword, that costs points, too. I would like to see a method for figuring out how much an item costs. That would be very handy in a low-powered game where characters rely in their wits and gear rather than funky powers, and would mnake the system more portable to other genres.
So other than that, Mutants & Masterminds is well worth the money!
It's a full-color, 192-page hardcover. It's kinda pricey at $32.95, but it's a solid book with the same feel as Freeport: City of Adventure (my copy has held together great), only all color. The art is very nice, manga/comic style, which is perfect for the book.
This is mainly a system book. It's published under the OGL, but NOT the d20 logo. Don't go thinking you can pick and choose stuff for yor d20 games. It probably won't work.
The game makes some fundamental changes. First of all, there are no classes. Second of all, "levels" are practically meaningless. They exist as a character creation guide mostly, to tell you how many points you start with and what your max bonuses and skill ranks are.
Characters gain levels as they get more points, but unlike d20, they can spend them immediately instead of waiting.
The combat system is neat. Attacks have a damage rating, which sets the DC for a damage save. If you make the save, you're fine. If you fail, you take a hit, which reduces your damage save and can do other things. If you really botch it, you can be instantly disabled or have other bad things happen. I like the damage save mechanic, although a bad roll can spell instant disaster. One option a friend of mine suggested was that failed damage saves merely result in additional hits and incapacity happens when the damage save reaches +0.
The game seems to be really flexible. So far, I've been able to pull off most all the superheroes I've tried - Superman, Batman, Spider Man, Iron Man, Green Lantern, and Doctor Strange. It works better, IMO, if you toss the caps on skill ranks and stuff associated with level and just track points. Incidentally, the book takes this into account and has a method for calculating level based on your total point value.
The only real problem I had with the game is the lack of a money system. It has a Wealth option, but there is no example of how much things cost. Everything is built with points. For example, if I have an energy attack, it costs points. If I pick up a sword, that costs points, too. I would like to see a method for figuring out how much an item costs. That would be very handy in a low-powered game where characters rely in their wits and gear rather than funky powers, and would mnake the system more portable to other genres.
So other than that, Mutants & Masterminds is well worth the money!
