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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 2011514" data-attributes="member: 3400">The Mutants and Masterminds Annual (Listed as #1 on their website, in anticipation of futher publications I hope) is broken up into several varying chapters and so the whole product seems designed to capture the interest of a broad segment of MnM players and GMs. For the most part, these chapters are pretty high quality even if not really applicable for all campaigns. The first six chapters are campaign idea generators, focusing on different types of campaigns and with varying levels of detail.  Most of them focus on the general Freedom City campaign as the main backdrop and then tweak it for each chapter's specific focus.Street Justice by Keith Baker looks at hero campaigns down at the street level with generally lower-powered heroes. It includes a number of suggestions to help the GM set the tone of the campaign and provide ideas on how street-level heroes may interact with their surroundings. This chapter includes a significant Rogues Gallery with villians like The Monkey, Death and Taxes, The Meek, Esquire, and the Scarlet Lady. The villains in the gallery enhance the grittier feel of the street campaign pretty nicely.Against the Gods by Rodney Thompson is a bit of a more unusual campaign idea. This chapter is about incorporating gods and heroes, specifically Greek, into the campaign.  Freedom City already does this with Daedalus and Medea, and so the Greek gods are a pretty natural choice. There are sample characters detailing what Hercules and Achilles might be like as superheroes and a variety of mythic creatures detailed into stat blocks. And, of course, what would a discussion about Greek heroes be without a primary antagonist. There are plenty of good ones to choose from in pop culture, and this one went with Hades.Legacy Comics by Steven E. Schend is probably the most butt-kicking of these campaign chapters. It focuses on superhero legacies whether those legacies be by name, reputation, family, powers or anything else that might be handed down by some hero to a worthy (or unworthy) successor. While that's interesting in and of itself, what really makes this chapter stand out is the handling of the sample heroes that can be used for modern legacies: The Allies of Freedom. The characters, golden-age World War II fighters in the same mold as the Invaders from Marvel Comics, are very creatively written up with interesting backgrounds and hooks into their legacies in the modern age. This section is almost a good teaser for Foes of Freedom, coming out in the (hopefully) not too distant future with some of the villains mentioned in this chapter. There are write-ups on Human Tank and Gunner, Lady Celtic, Rogue Fox, Sarge Shrapnel, Spitfire Jones, White Rose, and White Thorn. These are all very interesting, but what really struck me was the density of interesting ideas in this chapter for my own MnM campaign. As I was reading the chapter, I kept coming up with more ideas with which to torment my players. It was a very thought provoking chapter.The Freedom League by Steven Kenson follows, fitting neatly into chronology with the Legacy chapter, and focuses on the Freedom League after the war and before the Terminus Invasion. We get write-ups on Arrow III, Black Avenger, Bowman III, Brainstorm, Halogen, Tectonic, Scarab, Lady Liberty II, Pseudo, Raven, Sea King, Star Knight, and the man himself, Superm... whoops, Centurion. Between these two chapters, you start to get the feel for the life of superheroing in and around Freedom City in the 20th century. I was, again, finding lots of interesting grist for my home campaign's mill. But then, I am running in Freedom City.The Claremont Academy by Steve Kenson takes a bit of a step back from specifically laying out hero stats and  instead focuses more on appropriate tone and story elements for a heroes-in-school type of campaign. As such, it's a bit more of a general ideas chapter and less strongly wedded to the Freedom City setting. A Bright and Shining Future - Freedom City 2525 by Christopher McGlothlin takes it's cue from the old Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes comics (one of my favorite titles from the 1980s). There are ideas on what FC of 2525 might be like as well as a bunch of heroes like Charger, Chiller, Clockwatcher, Colonel Colossus, Metalla, Professor Danger, Solarflare, and the new Star Knight. This chapter also includes a few future villians as well. The chapters that follow the campaign setting/style chapters cover more of the general running of the game with some clarifications and rule variants. With Great Power by Steve Kenson details power creation, the use of extras, the use of power stunts, and includes a few detailed examples of power construction. A useful chapter for those of us who are a little unclear on exactly how some power costs work out.Weaknesses (with a spash page called Bowman and Arrow) by Jason Orman covers varying levels of weaknesses ranging from 2, 5, and 10 point levels. This will come in handy for GMs looking for a bit more granularity in their weaknesses.In Shining Armor Arrayed by Shawn Carman includes a variety of pre-generated powered armor suits, for a variety of legal and illegal applications.Superhero Smackdown by Steve Kenson introduces the option rule of allowing Attacks of Opportunity into MnM. There are feats to make use of or avoid the penalties of AoO like in D&D. THere are also a variety of damage variants to tweak how GMs want superhero combat to play out. The ideas here can be used to alternatively speed up or slow down combat as well as make it a little less susceptible to initial poor dice rolls. The Quality of Heroes by Steve Kenson takes an alternative look at Hero Points. Rather than having PCs loaded up on them at the beginning of an adventure, this chapter provides ideas on how to start with 0 HPs and go up from there are heroes face adversity and build to a climactic battle with the supervillain. Capers is the final chapter and it includes 5 2-page adventure outlines by Jason Orman, Rodney Thompson, Warren Banks, Shawn Carman, and Toren Atkinson. These are, for the most part, quick and dirty encounters that any GM can pop into their campaign with a minimum of preparation. Most involve a single villain with several minions.Finally, at the very end after the other licensing information, is the current errata.Whew. There's a fair amount here. The setting chapters are, themselves, pretty short so they don't have a lot of time to spend on real breadth and details. Think of these as magazine articles and you'll have your expectations set right for content. What they do, really, is provide a little detail, a few examples, a little bit of tone, and then send you off and running to do the rest of the work for your own campaign as an exercise. Personally, as an experienced gamer and GM, I appreciate that. I like frameworks that I can fill in to fit my mood. As such, I could make use of any and all of these chapters.For those GMs who prefer a bit more detail, you'll probably find the Legacy and Freedom League chapters the most satisfying as they have some pretty meaty chunks of detail.  Gearheads who find their prep time running short will probably appreciate the chapter on armor. Combat tacticians will probably enjoy the bits on AoO and the additional complexity that brings. And rule tinkerers and story-tellers will probably find common ground in the chapter on hero points.Overall, I'd say the sourcebook is a darn fine addition to the collection of MnM books currently out there. If we had fractional ratings, I'd give it a 4.5. I think to have gotten a 5 rating from me, this book would have had to push the envelope a little bit more on some of the optional rules with a little more discussion about the implications of the changes and how a GM can use some of the options in combination to customize the campaign. I think I'd have also liked examples of whole character creation rather than just powers and handling of touchy spots in the rules like some of the more unusual powers and how to better cope with them.  But overall, I'm quite satisfied with my purchase. The book itself is lavishly illustrated by a number of artists and the cartography in the Capers is really sharp.  And I'll be plumbing the book for ideas for many adventures to come.</blockquote>

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