Discussion: Possible M&M

[Insight]

With the recent demise of the Mutants & Masterminds game I was playing in here, I thought it might be fun to start one. I'm very familiar with the system and have even made a few modifications that I think would make it easier to run in a PbP format.

Being that M&M is a "niche" game on these boards, the first thing I wanted to do was explore who might be interested in play. Second to that would be finding out what sort of M&M game people would be most interested in playing.

I'm pretty open to ideas right now. Post away.

 

[Shayuri]

Since I was in that game that died, I happen to have a slot in my schedule.

I enjoy games that incorporate an element of mystery and/or enigma in them, so perhaps something that's not based on existing works. In my usual idiom, let me shotgun a few ideas right off the top of my head.

1) Habitats & Hardsuits: Science fiction style M&M. Could be in-system near-future 'hard' sci fi with colonies on the moon and Mars, and plots revolving around terrestrial states and corporations and their squabbling...and the deadly results therof. Could be wilder and woolier soft sci fi space opera. Characters would be human or (in space opera) near-human alien, with powers generally provided by gear. Alternatively, this could be a more cyberpunky setting, with themes including the 'Technological Singularity,' and deal with such transhuman issues as man/machine boundaries, created life and its 'rights,' and the limits of the evolutionary imperative...

2) The Semi-Supers: Everyone pick a power. That's all you get. One. Spend some points on it, then round out, and you have the Semi-Supers. A fairly low-PL 'supers' game that owes conceptual ground to things like the first season of Heroes, the 400, and depending on the PC's and what direction they take, possibly to comics like The Runaways and so on. The idea is not to put a lot of emphasis on super slugfests (though there'll be some), but rather on the human issues that the characters encounter. Whether they go public, or try to stay secret, the decisions they make will lead to ever more complex quandries in the future.

3) Immortals: Supers setting in which there are a very limited pool of people on Earth with powers, among those powers being agelessness. But after centuries of rampaging and reckless use of their power, they discovered they too have limits and were forced into deathlike hibernation. Now they're awakening...weak after their long sleep, but still stronger than mortal men. In ages past they were our gods and demons. What will they decide to be now?

4) M&M Scion: Kind of like 3, only instead of superhumans that once pretended to be gods, we'd be playing the semi-mortal offspring of gods. Sure it seems fun to discover you're heir to the beauty of Venus, the wisdom of Thoth, or the wit of Coyote...untill you realize that your folks have chores for you to do! There's actually a White Wolf game called Scion that explores this, but I think it'd be a lot of fun under the M&M system too!

5) Magic Academy: Much like the Movie/Book Series That Must Not Be Named, the players play students in an enchanted school for blossoming young mages. Hijinks ensue! Alternative variations include Monster High, were we play supernatural critters learning the ropes.

 

[hafrogman]

Since the game I joined didn't even make it out of the inn, I'm still looking for something to play, if you'd be willing to have me.

I tend to favor the lower power end of the spectrum in M&M games. Of Shayuri's ideas, five and two interest me the most. Five, a school for young heroes/monsters/mages/mutants/whatevers. It provides for a nice shared background and a framework to build on. Or two, a game rooted in our real world that we then begin changing during the game.

Another idea that came to me while I was considering is what I'll call:

6) Persons in Chromatically Challenged Clothing: Policing alien activity on the Planet Earth similar to a certain movie series. The free-form creation leaves room for human agents and alien allies of all sorts and varieties. Probably a less serious game.

 

[Shayuri]

Hah! Not ten minutes after I posted and I slapped my forehead and thought, "Damn! Men in Black!"

Either the GURPSian version, which features Truly Badass agents fighting monsters in a shadow war under the nose of the unsuspecting public...or the movie/comic version which is theoretically similar, but much lighter in tone.

Great call, Hafrog!

 

[Relique du Madde]

There's a bunch of good ideas there. I also agree with having a shared background or framework that connects the characters from the begining.

I'll toss an idea into the ring:

7) Characters are members of a group/agency that deals with supernatural/paranormal situation.



Just my luck... Shayuri mentioned the same idea while I was in the the other room.

 

[jkason]

I'm a fan of both a common framework and a relatively limited power set, myself. I tend to prefer innate abilities of some kind to gadgets, though that's mostly because the container and device rules tend to confuse me

I like the academy idea best, I think, though they're all good. Another twist on the 'academy' idea, or possibly on the Men in Black idea, actually, would be young people who have been raised / trained in some kind of secret facility, having been granted their powers through some kind of government program (in the MiB case, the program would be applications of alien technology / DNA). But what does the government have in mind for them? The possibility for competing factions (in or outside the government) could make for some twisty fun, and having an experimental background allows for adding / streamlining powers as we go.

 

[Shayuri]

Hmm!

Seems like an idea is coming together...

What if this is an academy setting, with kids with strange powers...who are being trained to combat supernatural and/or alien threats?

The mystery comes in with the strange, shadowy owners and operators of the academy, and their agenda which may or may not be clear. Are we fighting to save humanity? Or to rid the world of competition?

And so on.

 

[hafrogman]

You also get the question of who the kids are, where their powers came from.

Are we humanity's natural evolution for it's own defense? Or are we some kind of experiment, lab rats for a 'super soldier syrum' of sorts? Or are we part of the problem, supernatural/alien threats subverted during our youths to serve the academy, or combined with human DNA, Species style?

Are we all the same? Perhaps the ultimate revelation that we're not all the same underneath will lead to new divisions. Is a shared history enough to overcome our differences?

 

[Insight]

Great ideas so far!

I think I can run with the academy idea.

This could be set in Freedom City (the default M&M setting), in which case this would be the Claremont Academy, or it could be set elsewhere. Freedom City is such a good setting, but I'm certainly open to using more of a real-world setting (one in which supers are less commonplace than is assumed in Freedom City).

Perhaps supers are a known commodity, in that people know they exist, but few know how many there are or how powerful they are. Perhaps the government (or some other concerned agency) knows the truth and set up the academy as a way to train their own supers, to defend against the rogue supers out there in the world, as well as those supers under another country's or organization's control.

Thoughts?

 

[Relique du Madde]

What kind of power levels are you looking at? And what books are available?