Mutants and Masterminds 2E - I Have It

[WayneLigon]

Yay, my preorder 2E books for me and the players came in yesterday. It was late when I opened the box because I didn't look a the label and assumed it was the corrugated book mailers I'd ordered. Wow, was I surprised

Anyway, it's here and if anyone has questions, I'll try to answer them.

First glance, and that's all I've had time for so far:

Organization is much better. The strength charts are where attributes are, which also discusses size and movement speed in the same place.

Many areas have an 'Under the Hood' sidebar where they explain certain design decisions. Like for the new power Quickness, that does what that part of Superspeed used to: You can do things 10,000 times as quick as a normal person, so why can't you make 10,000 attacks? Answer: (1) It would be kinda slow and long to resolve 10k attacks and (2) it doesn't work that way in comics.

I personally liked most of the art. A good chunk remains from the previous edition and some from other books, but the new art is not bad at all.

There are some new powers, like Gravity Control. Some consolidated powers, like Friction Control.

You can still get Alternate Powers with Extra Effort, which is what I love to do. A lot.

 

[Michael Tree]

<seethes with envy>

Are any pictures using the 1e archetypes in the book, such as the atomic brain, or the picture of the mentalist telekinetically "arm wrestling" the powerhouse? How about the pic of Murder Man and Butcher Boy (the man in a suit with the psycho kid with meat cleavers)

I'm curious about the Under the Hood sidebars. Are there any that have interesting design rationales that haven't been discussed before in the previews?

 

[WayneLigon]

<seethes with envy>

Are any pictures using the 1e archetypes in the book, such as the atomic brain, or the picture of the mentalist telekinetically "arm wrestling" the powerhouse? How about the pic of Murder Man and Butcher Boy (the man in a suit with the psycho kid with meat cleavers)

I'm curious about the Under the Hood sidebars. Are there any that have interesting design rationales that haven't been discussed before in the previews?

The Murder Man and Butcher Boy pic is there, and I was kinda of surprised to see it. None of the 1E archtypes or old villains are in there; they were owned by the Meta-4 people, apparently. What you do have are far more full writeup villain archetypes like Puppeteer, Vampire Lord, and Brain in a Jar.

Re: Under the Hood. Some do; some discuss the design rationale, and 'what we were thinking here is <blah>'. Some are cautions or expantions on 'how to run this power'.

 

[Nebulous]

I own and enjoyed the 1e book. We started up a sort of X-Com ish super powered armor campaign that didn't last too long, but the rulebook was awesome. Is it the same length as the first? Could you point out what the single-biggest difference is or is mostly cosmetic tweaks? I might pick it up regardless to feed my urge to "buy cool looking game books i probably won't use but look good on my shelf in the closet."

 

[Michael Tree]

There's an extensive series of design diaries by Steve Kenson on the Mutants and Masterminds website. If you haven't already looked at them they're the best place to start, starting with "Ten ways to play M&M 2e today". The game mechanics in play are essentially the same, with some tweaks, but the rules for character creation and powers have some significant changes.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I reviewed it right here

 

[WayneLigon]

I own and enjoyed the 1e book. We started up a sort of X-Com ish super powered armor campaign that didn't last too long, but the rulebook was awesome. Is it the same length as the first? Could you point out what the single-biggest difference is or is mostly cosmetic tweaks? I might pick it up regardless to feed my urge to "buy cool looking game books i probably won't use but look good on my shelf in the closet."

Oh, hmm. Probably look at Teflon Billy's review. The book itself also mentions what's different from 1E in critical places, like 'Strength and Dex bonuses don't add to your To Hit, or Defence like they did before and here's why we did it that way' .

 

[Michael Tree]

Are there any new game mechanics, powers, or under the hood explanations that make you think, "hey, that's damn cool."

I've heard that there's a combat action called Blocking in it. How does that work?

 

[talwynor]

Still waiting....

Still waiting patiently for mine to come in

I'ts been awhile since I've played a supes game. I'm hoping to test a game online...seems like a great system for running pickup games since I've got a terrible history with ongoing campaigns of late (somebody's -usually mine - rl always gets in the way). It would seem a supes game would be ideal for new heros to drop in or out and still keep some sort of continuity.

Can't wait to try it out. If there's any interest, once I get my book, I'd like to try a short online game with Klooge to see how it works.

 

[Bront]

Where did you preorder it from?