Mutants & Masterminds Jedi Game

[direcow]

I was thinking of running a Star Wars game set in the Knights of the Old Republic time period where all the players will be Jedi. I have the d20 Star Wars rules, but find them to be a bit too deadly for the style of game I want to run. I'm looking for something a little more cinematic, but with easy mechanics (everyone in my group is familiar with basic d20 rules). I was thinking of using Mutants & Masterminds as the rule set. Maybe let each player create their Jedi using the power system. I can definitely see how a lot of Jedi abilities would translate into the powers and feats in the M&M material. I would probably want some sort of darkside/lightside mechanic. Maybe limit certain powers to the darkside or the lightside. Has anyone ever used M&M for a Star Wars Jedi type game? Does anyone have any advice or comments on my idea? Thanks.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I see no real reason you can't run a Jedi game in M&M. HERO would be more flexible, but since M&M would be much more familiar to your group, its a no-brainer. I would spend a little time making sure you're up to speed on M&M's unique tweeks to the D20 system...especially how you'd handle the various Jedi Powers. Also make sure you design a few generic foes and equipment, like stormtroopers & their blasters and standardize a couple of the major races.

(In other words, I'd keep a copy of Star Wars D20 on hand!)

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'm not familiar with Mutants and Masterminds... so can't really comment on that.


I do agree with you about Star Wars being rather too lethal for my tastes!

Love the system other than that... IMO, you can 'fix it' with one or two very simple house rules:

1a) You can buy a critical hit down to a normal hit with a Force Point. Same goes for major NPCs. Realise this may have funny interaction with fully Dark Side jedi villans... however - I'd view that as DM territory.

1b) As above, but a 'bought off' critical does 2 X VP damage.

2) Mooks cannot critical. Critical hits can only be inflicted by named villans.

3) Remove criticals from the game.


3 is too extreme for my tastes. 1b + 2 together works for me, find it makes for a very cinematic game.

Edit: I'd also add another grade of villan between mook and major NPC. Some kind of henchman - has VP, can crit, but can't use force points.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you play a lot of D20 and you like to play genres other than straight-up fantasy, you owe it to yourself to check out Mutants & Masterminds. Its as flexible as any of the generic game systems (HERO, GURPS) while retaining most of the D20 structure in its mechanics- essentiallly, its pretty damn good for modeling nearly any kind of genre within a D20 style...so cross-genre gaming is EASY.

And no, I'm not affiliated with that game company (or any other)- I'm just impressed!

 

[Insight]

I have run Star Wars using M&M, and I can tell you right now, M&M captures the feel of Star Wars a lot better than D20. It's a heckuva lot more cinematic, and it's far easier to mow down mooks in M&M than D20. Even the damage system is more in line with a cinematic type game.

Now, I ran my game in the Rebellion era, and we didn't have any Jedi in the group, so I can't speak from experience as to how you might handle Jedi in M&M, but the powers system is right there, and it's incredibly flexible. It's also very easy to make alternate races - just create a template and assign it a point value.

You could import the Force feats from SWD20 as use them with some modification in the M&M version. Using Force powers in M&M would be significantly different than in D20 due to the lack of hit points/vitality in M&M. You could either ignore vitality costs, come up with an alternate system, or assign vitality based on Power Level, Con, etc.

 

[carpedavid]

You may also want to check out the Blue Rose rules by Green Ronin (which is basically the M&M mechanics applied to a fantasy setting). It ties a light side/dark side type mechanic into its magic/alignment/hero point systems. At the very least, it might assist you in adapting something similar to M&M.

 

[Ranger REG]

I was thinking of running a Star Wars game set in the Knights of the Old Republic time period where all the players will be Jedi. I have the d20 Star Wars rules, but find them to be a bit too deadly for the style of game I want to run. I'm looking for something a little more cinematic, but with easy mechanics (everyone in my group is familiar with basic d20 rules). I was thinking of using Mutants & Masterminds as the rule set. Maybe let each player create their Jedi using the power system. I can definitely see how a lot of Jedi abilities would translate into the powers and feats in the M&M material. I would probably want some sort of darkside/lightside mechanic. Maybe limit certain powers to the darkside or the lightside. Has anyone ever used M&M for a Star Wars Jedi type game? Does anyone have any advice or comments on my idea? Thanks.

After playing MnM in its original format, I can tell you right now it's deadlier than VP/WP System, especially when you can get knocked out or killed pretty fast on a bad roll. Give all PCs an equivalent of Hero Points so they can spend to avoid getting killed or incapacitated.

 

[direcow]

After playing MnM in its original format, I can tell you right now it's deadlier than VP/WP System, especially when you can get knocked out or killed pretty fast on a bad roll. Give all PCs an equivalent of Hero Points so they can spend to avoid getting killed or incapacitated.

Actually, I've found M&M to not be that deadly. I like the hitpointless system. In the M&M games I've run I found that when a player failed significantly on a damage save and went uncouncious or was disabled, I was able as a GM to have my bad guys attack another character. Usually the disabled player would flee and either use hero points or powers to recuperate, while the others tangled with the bad guy. I've used the vitality point system from Star Wars in some DnD games and found that that also helps prevent unexpected casualties, but I still think the M&M system is a little bit better as there have been a few instances in games using the VP/WP system where a bad guy gets a few good rolls and a low level character unexpetedly dies. For my Jedi game, I want to limit character death and focus more on roleplay and story.

 

[direcow]

I have run Star Wars using M&M, and I can tell you right now, M&M captures the feel of Star Wars a lot better than D20. It's a heckuva lot more cinematic, and it's far easier to mow down mooks in M&M than D20. Even the damage system is more in line with a cinematic type game.

Now, I ran my game in the Rebellion era, and we didn't have any Jedi in the group, so I can't speak from experience as to how you might handle Jedi in M&M, but the powers system is right there, and it's incredibly flexible. It's also very easy to make alternate races - just create a template and assign it a point value.

Insight, I'm curious how you managed your Rebellion era game. I'm also just about to run a Star Wars Rebelion era game that takes place right after the Hoth evacuation. I was going to use the standard Star Wars d20 rules (no jedi classes alowed though). However, I would much rather use the M&M rules. How did your players create characters? Did they just use powers as devices and weapons (i.e. a blaster rifle would just be the engery blast power with the device limitation). Did you treat the classes in the d20 book as templates and allow characters to choose one as a sort of archetype. Just curious.

 

[Macbeth]

Ya know, I had never been all that interested in a Star Wars game, but then with the hype for the movie I began thinking about it, and now with the idea of M&M for the ruleset, I think I may just do it. Nice idea.

I too think that the damage saves are a great idea. I'm actually considering porting a similar system into my Paranoia XP game, since I don't like the damage rules as they stand. Yes, Friend Computer has his reasons for using a damage system so different from other (non fun) RPGs, but I feel like the M&M system would be easy to slip in, and wouldn't disturb the system too horribly.