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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Macbeth" data-source="post: 2011533" data-attributes="member: 11259">Mutants and Masterminds Annual #1 is a full color supplement for the Mutants and Masterminds game by Green Ronin. It retails for approximately $25.First off, let me point out that a good amount of the material in this book has to do with the Freedom City setting produced by Green Ronin. It is not, in my opinion, made clear enough that some of the material refferences Freedom City. Luckily, the material is still easilly understood, with the references to Freedom City coming with enough context that I feel the book can definately be used without the setting. I have not read Freedom City, but I still found the book extremely usefull.Mutants and Masterminds Annual is more of  book then I expected. This is not some little magazine, it is a series of articles that can really add to your game. Highlights include an article on low-powered, Mystery Men-style game with PL 5 heros by Keith Baker, who created the Ebberon setting for Wizards of the Coast. As has come to be standard for Mutants and Masterminds material (and Green Ronin in general) the art is a perfect fit for the subject. I felt some of the art didn't hold up to the high standard set by Mutants and Masterminds and Crooks!, but all of the art stays very true to comic standards, and provides a great feel for the book. Each article has it's own artist, so each article has art that well matches the subject matter of that article.Instead of picking apart each and every artcile, I'll instead give notes on articles that particularly stood out to me, for whatever reason. A slight complaint is that not all of the artcile names are easy to find, since each article starts with a full page piece art. I'll reference articles primarily by theme, not name, since without prominant titles, the subject is the easiest thing to identfity the artciles by.Street Level Heros: Keith Baker is proving himself to be a quite capable writer. This article takes a look at low-power heros, people who still fear an average gun. I found it to be well written, insightfull, and usefull. It does reference characters and locations in Freedom City, but it is easy enough to extrapolate the important information on the setting from the article.  In addition to discussion of how to run a street level campaign (PL 5), the artcile provides several low level threats, most of them involving some kid of moral dillema for the players. The article focuses on a slightly darker tone then the average Mutants and Masterminds campaign, presenting moral dillemas a-plenty. Legacies: This article looks into how a hero lives on even after death or retirement. The disscusion of legacies in general seems a bit to obvious, but the examples that follow are excellent. The second part of the artcile detail WWII era heros The Allies of Freedom. Here the article really shines, describing an interesting group of heros, complete with stats, and how their legacy lives on. While the disscusion of legacies was decent, the characters here are truly interesting. The article makes a few references to Freedom City, but it is easilly used without it.Freedom League: Here we take a look at past members of the Freedom League, a JLA-style group of heros in Freedom City. Each past member is stated out and described. Overall, this section is filled with good ideas, but unless you actually use the Freedom League, it looses some of it's value. The art that opens this section deserves special mention for being a take-off on the Super Friends TV show.Mechanics: THere are a number of articles on purely mechanical issues, such as hero points and power design. These rules are obvioulsy useable by anybody, with or without Freedom City. I found the expanded power creation rules to be particularly interesting. The writers do a good job of making the articles readable and usefull.Power Suits: THis section describes a number of powered armor suits in the style of Iron Man and other armored heros. The artcile itself is good, but the art is a little too loose for my tastes.Plots: The last section of the book is a number of plots nominaly set in Freedom City, but easly used elsewhere. Most of the plots are fairly straight forward, but they are interesting and useable. Each plot comes with a stated villian and all the nessecary maps. I could see these easily being used as introductory adventures or short one night adventures.The above artciles are the ones that most stood out to me, but other topics include running a Super Hero school campiagn and Mythical heros. Overall the book is incredibly usefull. The presentation is top notch.My only complaints about the book are fairly mild. First, a little too much material is Freedom City specific, but this is easily overlooked. Some of the art falls short, but for the most part the art is top notch. Probably my biggest complaint is the price, but given the high production values, a high price is understandable. I would have liked to see more depth in some of the articles, but with the book already having a high price more depth (and therefore more pages) would make one problem beter while making another worse.My Score: 4 Stars (Good). This book has only a few very minor flaws, and would make a valuable addition to any Mutants and Masterminds player's collection.</blockquote>

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