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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keeper of Secrets" data-source="post: 2011657" data-attributes="member: 13836">Foes of Freedom is the latest offering from Green Ronin Publishing, the creator of Mutants & Masterminds.  Written by Steve Kenson and Steven E. Schend, Foes of Freedom is a compilation of criminals for use in a Mutants & Masterminds campaign.  Like all Mutants & Masterminds products, the illustrations are wonderful, specifically the ones by comics illustrator, Ramon Perez.  Unlike many of the other Mutants & Masterminds products, this is a soft cover book, which is a nice departure from the hardbound books that Green Ronin has out.  This is hardly a knock against the hardback covers but anything to reduce some costs is always appreciated.      The basic structure of the book is simple:  team villains, solo villains, details of Blackstone Prison where the criminals are incarcerated when they are caught, and finally a few new rules in the back of the book.  Most everything is put forth in fabulous detail and it is apparent that great care went into it.  As with everything else in the Mutants & Masterminds line, it is apparent that the writers love comic books and the work put into Foes of Freedom demonstrates this.I’ll start by pointing out some of my own biases so you can judge some of my comments for yourself.  First, I tend to prefer villains that I call ‘Cult of Personality’ villains.  What I mean by this is the kind of villain that is based around a theme or an obsession or where the personality drives the villain, making them center stage.  This is the kind of villain that the PCs can really get to know, banter with, and predict future behavior.  That said, I tend to dislike an abundance of aliens, strange races and similar villains for the simple fact that aliens and unusual races can bring in deep complications for a GM who has a specific pre-made world.  Of course, like I said, that is my own bias and it is perfectly legitimate to use these types of villains in most campaigns and GM personal preference will always win out.One of the high points of Foes of Freedom is the intricate set of team villains the writers introduce.  As previously mentioned, I tend to like solo villains as those villains tend to get individual attention, so my praise of the team villains is a real positive factor.  For instance, two of the more interesting groups, The Foundry and The Labyrinth are especially great additions.  In fact, they are more than just criminal groups but are actively elaborate plot devices.The Foundry is basically a collection of robots, computers and machines that has designs for world domination using their contacts in defense contracting, big business and the criminal underworld to achieve their goals.  It is apparent that great care was taken by the authors to explain how The Foundry is set up, basically informing the GM how to best run the ‘personalities’ to really give the cold and calculating feel of a criminal network operated by robots and machines.Much like criminal organizations in the comics, The Foundry has a hierarchical structure; Talos (the mastermind at the top who pulls the strings), Keres (Talos’ second-in-command and chief enforcer), SCYLLA (the quasi-sentient computer that takes care of the day-to-day operations), and a variety of stylistic drones and robots that can serve as guardians and combatants against the player characters.At its root The Foundry is out for money and power, and as a result can provide months of excitement for a campaign.  The GM who uses The Foundry has numerous plotlines available and an endless array of robotic warriors to use against the PCs.  More importantly, GMs interested in solid storylines do not need to rely on suspension of disbelief needed when discussing where The Foundry manages to get their resources and underlings.  These automations are simply created in the vast factories and warehouses at The Foundry’s disposal.  Whereas The Foundry is an excellent tool to use by the GM, one of the other groups in the book is absolutely outstanding.  The Labyrinth is an organization that could be the focal point for its own campaign due to the deep clandestine mysteries the organization can provide.  It is a shadowy conspiracy that could be behind any number of grandiose and elaborate schemes.Whereas The Foundry would be hard to defeat due to the sheer numbers of automations than can continue to appear, The Labyrinth is something entirely different.  Led by Taurus, the Minotaur from Greek mythology, it is a centuries old conspiracy that is led by this mastermind.  Taurus has accumulated wealth, power, contacts and underlings over the years and the explanation for how he did it is not only brilliant but also beautiful in its execution.The explanation for the organization is that Taurus is at the top of an Illuminati style pyramid, controlling banks, corporations, crime networks, and just about anything else, considering his background and ability to have manipulated events in his favor over the past 3000 years.  He has access to billions and billions of dollars, endless henchmen and has a mysterious reputation built around him like Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects.  Of course, the fact that The Labyrinth has so much mystery attached allows for the beautiful metaphor of a maze keeping the PCs guessing for numerous adventures.  Criminal organizations that have numerous cat’s paws and figures who never really know who is pulling the strings allows for endless intrigue and excitement that the entire campaign could be dedicated to dealing with The Labyrinth, first by dealing with the lower levels, then finding that there is a higher network in place pulling the strings and finally being astounded as to the enormity of the organization.Obviously, some GMs may be turned off by the idea of an organization so large and vast that it may seem an unreasonable task to undertake to even go up against it.  However, the background for The Labyrinth and Taurus allow for the characters to become involved at some of the schemes directed at the lower levels, only to find out that the secrecy of the organization continuously has more masters above it.  The complexity of the entire network would be more than memorable for players and GMs.  It allows for just about any kind of crime or criminals to be tied to The Labyrinth, whether the criminals are aware of it or not.  For some GMs this could be the perfect tool to add some life, mystery and intrigue to a campaign and really keep the players guessing.The sections with the solo villains offer a wide variety of criminals.  There are a few theme villains such as Conundrum and Fear-Master that appear to be great interpretations of Batman’s Riddler and Scarecrow, respectively.  In addition, there is Jack-A-Knives which is more of a serial killer/ghost that can possess people and have them enact his murderous crimes, reminding me a great deal of the film, Fallen.  Captain Kraken is an alien that looks like a Dungeons & Dragons mind flayer in a swashbuckler’s attire coming off as light-hearted by comparison to some of the others.  Crimson Katana is a woman who is a reluctant criminal, possessed by her evil grandfather who was essentially a ninja assassin.  Die Nacht-Krieger is a throwback to the Nazi regime, who was a successful experiment in the Third Reich’s Ubermenschen Project, utilizing control over shadows.  One of my personal favorites is Dr. Simian, an intelligent ape who feels that humanity is vastly inferior and needs to be punished for crimes against primates, reminding me a great deal of Gorilla Grodd from DC comics (though likely more memorable from The Super Friends).  A couple of the other criminals can certainly be used for a night of entertainment, such as Megaladon, a giant half man/half shark as well as The Collective, an entire sentient colony of roaches.  Unfortunately some of the villains in the solo section are not nearly as exciting or memorable.  Blackstar, The Curator and Downtime seem to fall a little short of expectations, especially after the great characters that were introduced in Freedom City (which has some of the best criminals and bad guys Mutants & Masterminds has produced, to date).  It is not that these above mentioned criminals are ‘broken’ or unbalanced but they just seem somewhat bland when compared to the creativity of the others.  At the same time, I suspect there is someone out there who will look at Foes of Freedom and think that one of the above three is their favorite of the book.  Shouts of ‘what does he know’ will erupt from every gaming table in America.   The section on Blackstone Prison is certainly interesting.  It is a prison intended to house individuals with superhuman powers.  The description of the prison is simple enough and whereas it comes with a map, it seems small to actually get any serious use out of it.  I looked at it and decided that it would probably not be big enough to use in an adventure where the characters get stuck inside or have to deal with some prison break attempts.  I think that the writers could have done a better job had they created a mental institution with the same look and feel of Arkham Asylum, giving it a rich and eerie history. On the plus side, however, the prison gives us statistics for guards, a description of the warden and some other tidbits.Finally, the last section of the book deals with some new rules, including new feats, new super feats a new power and some templates for some of the material listed in prior sections of the book.  The new feats are very solid and do not fall into the trap so many writers fall into where they design feats that seem so specific that they are all but useless for everything but a narrow situation that characters rarely, if ever, find themselves in.Overall, whereas Foes of Freedom was good, it did not meet the great expectations that were set for it (and all other Mutants & Masterminds products) after the release of Freedom City.  I know it is hardly fair to compare products to their predecessors and the product should be judged on its own merit, but Green Ronin has set the bar awfully high with great products.  Foes of Freedom is certainly worth the price and whereas I highly recommend it, I guess I was hoping for just a little bit more.  Overall, I give the book a 3 out of 5.</blockquote>

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