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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011690" data-attributes="member: 1129">One of the most popular types of books for publishers to make is a monster book. In a super hero campaign, that is replaced by an Enemies book. Enemy books started with Hero Games a long time ago to add new foes for your heroes to face. In that vein, here comes Foes of Freedom, a Freedom City sourcebook whose main focus is on adding new opposition to the heroes of that setting.This soft cover book runs for a low $23.95 at 96 full color pages. Interior covers are not used and some of the space decisions are made for a design point, but seem to use up a lot of paper. For example, the first page, a sign warning you of the dangers of Blackstone Special Federal Penitentiary, while the next two are credits and copyright information, then introduction and table of contents. The chapters are separated by full-page breaks that introduce the concept of the chapter (team villains, solo villains, Blackstone Prison). The back ends with a credits and OGL license.The cover is handled by Ramon Perez, who also contributes to the inside, along with Hero fan favorite Storn Cook, and others like Jonathan Kirtz, Kevin Stokes, and James Ryman. They do a good job overall, but Crooks strikes me a little better. I suspect it’s because most of the illustrations in Crooks are larger and give you more of a feel for the characters. In this book, with several of the teams, we have a team illustration, and then for the individual characters, a head shot, taken from the team illustration. Internal maps are presented for several locals and are all in full color.In terms of utility, using this in Freedom City is easier than Crooks, which was designed for and created, the Meta-4 campaign setting. Here, we have some old favorites who’ve been mentioned before like the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, along with servants of those introduced like the Curator, a machine man following the orders of the Preservers. Villains are detailed starting with their history, information on actually using them, tactics, game stats, associates (for example, Cerberus for Hades), Villain Profile (vital statistics like height, weight, etc…), and Capers, quick adventure seeds that allow you to use them quickly.In terms of power level, we have a good mix. For example, Larceny, Inc is a small group consisting of Get-Away, Smash, Grab and Trap Door, who are perfect for a starting group as most of them are PL 10, with their leader being a PL 11. ON the other hand, for those who’ve gone the distance and find themselves yawning when the Atomic Brain gets old hat, we’ve got Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, who clocks in at a massive PL 28. Perfect for a god no? In many ways, he’s like Loki. Due to his interference, the heroes that would make up Freedom League gathered to fight off his minions. Under his direction, mortals seek to gather power. Under his guidance, the entity known as Jack-A-Knives inflicts pain and suffering on the world.One of the more interesting Villains is X-Isle. This is an island that arose from one of the Terminus invasions and it seeks inhabitants. It lies not in our own world and in some ways, is like Ego the Living Planet in that it can create ‘anti-bodies’ to handle those who seek to prevent it from accomplishing its goals.Information on Blackstone prison is useful, but not completely detailed. More along the lines of “Here’s a prison, some overview maps, and a few caretakers for your own use. This includes a template for the guards, details on Warden Joshua Drummer and Dr. Abby.An appendix provides us with some new rules and sidebars on the various PL of the villains. Unfortunately, there are no page references so you’ll still have to flip through the book, and since the book is organized by team, then by solo villain instead of straight alphabetical order, it’s not as easy as it should be. Some of these new feats are of obvious villain base like Fall Guy, where you spend a Villain Point and have a minion take the hit you were going to take while others are of potential use to anyone like the super feat Immortal Experience where you can use any skills untrained and spend a Hero (or Villain) point and get an automatic 20 result for any Int- or Wis-based skills (except for Computers and new Science Skills). It’s an interesting idea and can be of prime benefit to those individuals who’ve been around foe thousands of years without having to spend hundreds of points on knowledge skills. Even better is that an Editor’s Note provides a list of Freedom City characters that should have this feat.In a direct comparission between Foes of Freedom and Crooks, I think Crooks has several advantages. The first of which, is that it’s the first book for the series. The second, the art is larger and more pleasing to the eye. The third is the format. I almost always prefer hardcover to soft cover. On the other hand, Crooks also dealt with Meta-4 as a different campaign setting than Freedom City and is more expensive. Foes of Freedom is another strong entry in the Mutants & Masterminds series and those GMs using Freedom City will enjoy the ease of integration.</blockquote>

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