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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khur" data-source="post: 2011611" data-attributes="member: 5583">Initiative RoundMutants & Masterminds Annual #1 is a sourcebook of new material and ideas for the Mutants & Masterminds milieu. It’s a full-color, 128-page book with a soft cover—the page count including three title pages, two pages of contributor bios, and an ad for Crooks.  Current (as of April 2004) errata for Mutants & Masterminds takes four pages. The writers include M&M’s creator Steve Kenson and eight other notables, such as Eberron-creator Keith Baker. (More will be provided on the authors as their particular sections are delineated.) The book retails for $24.95.The sourcebook’s layout and art largely measures up to its predecessors in the Mutants & Masterminds link. Largely, because much of the art in Mutants & Masterminds Annual #1 is great, but some shows a lack of skill with heroic composition, while other pieces are downright bad. In one section of the book (“In Shining Armor Arrayed”), the poorly composed and badly rendered art shows off its colors as if the printing plates were misaligned, but a look at the text and page headers indicates this isn’t the case. The maps for the volume’s five adventures, on the other hand, are immaculately executed by the talented Christopher West.The first section of the book is on low-powered supers, and its inspiring words are dealt with in Critical Hit below.Less inspired is Rodney Thompson’s article, “Against the Gods”. Here we have mythic archetypes, centered solely on the Greek mythos. Mythological references have their place in superhero stories, sure, but a broader treatment surely could have been rendered here. Instead, the article presents Hercules, Ulysses, and Achilles as modern-age heroes, along with creatures from Greek myth as possible foes, and a brief touch on some themes that might be garnered from classical mythology. The biggest letdown, other than he’s the only true villain in the article, is the use of Hades as a baddie with little more purpose than stereotypical avarice. Freedom City’s use of Hades as in this manner doesn’t make the idea work any better here. This sort of thing shows how “Against the Gods” tends toward the shallow end of inspiration that myth can provide. The myths themselves have far more possibilities for conflict, with amorality enough to go around from the insatiably lustful Zeus to the murderous and sometimes cowardly Ares, god of war.War is the focus of Steven Schend’s article, although the work claims to be based on power legacies—the meaning of taking up the name, powers, and/or purposes of another (usually deceased) super-being. The strength of this piece is its ideas for generating character origins and giving meaning to a hero’s suite of abilities, heritage, or even name. To facilitate turning those mental gears, Schend provides us with a historic super team, a multinational group of supers who took it to the Reich in World War II: The Allies of Freedom. One might argue that Schend spends entirely too much time rendering the members of the Allies of Freedom, since all except one are now dead. It seems, though, that this rendering provides not only a basis for players to ground their legacy-bearing characters solidly in the past of the imaginary world in which Freedom City lies, but it also opens up the doorway to roleplaying WWII-era supers. This last possibility is hampered only by the fact that this supplement contains none of the bad guys mentioned in the article (and no reference to where they might appear if they’re in another sourcebook) nor does it contain any statistics for more mundane opponents.Similar discussions about utility might find their way into a debate on Steve Kenson’s article detailing the history Freedom League. While the notes on the League’s HQ are certainly valuable, there’s no map and no real detail. The characters of the article are all inactive or deceased members of the Freedom League. It is  useful to have these characters in relation to Schend’s earlier article on legacies, for roleplaying possibilities with inactive heroes, and a GM can always use statistics for a hero or villain with another name. Repeating one idea for the use of the League in relation to a homebrew campaign twice (branch League teams), the article reads more like notes that were cut from Freedom City than an individual piece.More solid is Kenson’s treatment of the Claremont Academy, even though the school is based in Freedom City as well. This private school doubles as an academy for the super powered, even supporting its own teen super group. (Yes, this is all very Professor Xavier and the New Mutants,, but the stereotypes and themes of comics are things that bring us to the gaming table to play Mutants & Masterminds.) The real winners in this presentation are the guidelines for teen-themed capers, campaigns, and “after-school” specials dealing with teen issues. Kenson provides the basics for players and GMs to consider for teen heroes, which can be very helpful to those of us who’ve not been teenagers for a while. The teen supers theme offers another opportunity for low-powered gaming, as well as providing some options for flashbacks (or age regression) for PL-10+ PCs. “Claremont Academy” suffers from a bit of unnecessary repetition and falters with its “see Freedom City” references, but it’s a strong idea with some excellent tools and options for creating “school daze” with mutants (or wizards, or exceptional humans, or …you get the picture).Chris McGlothlin takes alternate themes to the extreme in Freedom City 2525—an article on a wide-open future with galaxy-spanning options and even some uses for time travel from present-day Freedom city. McGlothlin’s writing entertains. Although the section, once again, relies on Freedom City, this time it’s as a basis for a universe opened by faster-than-light travel and a common cause. Earth is united and part of a planetary confederation united against the Grue threat. The Freedom League has all new power as the Freedom Legion, a group of heroes that defends and inspires the galaxy. Of the heroes, the most interesting is the enigmatic and perfectly named Clockwatcher. The villains, however, are a bit lackluster in their usualness, such as a would-be galactic conqueror (Vorgol), a cult of “unity” with a questionable purpose (The Unification Movement), and a machine who wants to rid the universe of biological life (Deus ex Machina). What’s most disappointing, however, is the complete lack of artwork for any of the villains.Perhaps it might have been better to put art into the “Freedom City 2525” section’s villains and leave the largely meaningless (but not bad) art out of “With Great Power” by Steve Kenson. This expansion on creating super powers in the Mutants & Masterminds game is great, adding depth and clarity to an already good system. In this section, there are more a clearer options for creating powers or modifying the ones in Mutants & Masterminds. One of the best, and most obviously needed, is an option that allows a power to be constructed with fractional power point cost, opening up the possibility of highly flawed super powers—great for a grittier game. More choices and flexibility. Yum!Jason Orman lends a similar level of flexibility to weaknesses, which were a particularly feeble part of the original Mutants & Masterminds, with his chapter of the Mutants & Masterminds Annual #1. The section takes the basic weaknesses found in M&M and expands upon them. Where possible, each weakness is given a level of severity and an associated power-point bonus (+2 for minor, +5 for moderate, and +10 for major)—the original portion of the rules that dealt with weaknesses gave a simple 10-point bonus for each one. Orman’s presentation isn’t a big leap, being more like how the weaknesses should have appeared in the game to begin with if they had been given due consideration. This perception is reinforced by the fact that this chapter only adds dimension to the weaknesses already listed in Mutants & Masterminds without adding any new ones to the list.“In Shining Armor Arrayed” does just the opposite, adding 27 specific new armor suits to the possible gear for heroes, villains, or their lackeys. That list of armor, which consists of three variations each on nine differing themes, isn’t the strong suit (pardon the pun) of author Shawn Carmen’s article (nor is it in any way a bad part). The section’s biggest boons are the ideas and guidelines given for conceptualizing and constructing a battlesuit super, escaping the formulaic flying armor with blasters and super-strength. New options round out this conceptual base. Instead of mimicking Cyclone or Marvel’s Iron Man, consider mystical armor or a symbiotic organism that forms a battlesuit-like shell over its host.Following the original ideas for protection comes some old and new ideas for handling super combat—Steve Kenson’s “Superhero Smackdown!” This section starts out by adding attacks of opportunity to the Mutants & Masterminds combat options. One could argue that anyone familiar with d20 doesn’t need these rules repeated here, but the fact that these rules aren’t in the Mutants & Masterminds rulebook (and the fact that M& M is OGL, not d20, compliant) makes them a viable option. The only strange thing about them is that Kenson suggests attacks of opportunity add “realism” to combat, whereas they really seem to be a further abstraction in an abstract system. That said, “Superhero Smackdown!” also adds more than a few optional variants to handling damage using the systems outlined in the Mutants & Masterminds rules. You want to make it harder to score kills or knockouts? Your rules are here. You want to make it easier? Got you covered. In fact, Kenson provides sliding scales and ideas for changing damage based on its importance in portions of a scenario. There’s probably an idea here that will suit anyone.A final section, also rich in ideas, is dealt with in Critical Hit, below.The rest of the book’s meat is taken up by five two-page adventures. All the capers are adequate treatments of one-shot conflicts with just enough detail to get the game rolling. Each includes a plot, notes on the location, a single (usually two-dimensional) villain with applicable minions, and a few paragraphs on further adventures. In most cases, the details are left up to the GM, such as the contents of some mystical tablets or the origin of a cryogenic, mind-control device. The maps are like the capers, serviceable but with no specific encounter areas and an incomplete view of possible terrain and areas of conflict. This flaw has nothing really to do with the cartographer. It has to do with the design and production of the book. Far from complete, as suggested by the back of the book, these adventures are sketches for a GM to fill in before play (hopefully making one or more of these villains more than an avaricious fool or a madman). This isn’t necessarily a huge flaw, since most GMs need to tinker a bit to get a published caper into their campaigns and ideas are often the hard part of GMing.Critical HitKeith Baker, showing his love of noir yet again, brings us the idea of power-level-5 (PL 5) heroes in a power-level-10 (PL 10) world. Freedom City has its seedier side and its downtrodden. Somebody’s got to watch the ’hood while the Freedom League is watching out for alien invasions, right? Keith’s take on life at PL 5 is gritty and flavorful, with colorful villains like the murderous Death and Taxes, vigilantes-for-God called the Meek, and The Monkey—once a lab animal, now a psychotic pharmacist and drug dealer. (Yes, he’s a real monkey—brilliant and evil, but still a monkey.) Keith’s ideas, for working-class supers and those who just don’t want to use their powers (but are sometimes forced to), spark a vital possibility with the Mutants & Masterminds rules. This stuff, though loosely woven with Freedom City references, can easily be used for entire campaigns where no PL-10 heroes exist, excepting those who clawed their way to the top of the heap. It calls to mind the gang kids building a new Bat Cave at the close of Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns.Kenson adds a new possibility to how heroes might acquire Hero Points in “The Quality of Heroes.” Instead of simply gaining hero points based on power level, a hero gains using this system gains points based on struggles and failures. The technique has interesting ramifications, not the least of which is to encourage players to take more risks with their characters— misfortune leads to more heroic determination to push forward or, in game terms, a Hero Point. A character might also gain Hero Points in place of power points when taking a weakness, for successfully roleplaying through a subplot central to the character’s background, or other in-game (but not necessarily immediately advantageous) actions. Also included is a very neat way that a hero might slip into villainy, working much like the dark side in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game .Critical FumblePrinted in China.Now that my misplaced personal politicking is out of the way, the real problem with Mutants & Masterminds Annual #1 is that it basically requires Green Ronin’s Freedom City supplement for full utility. Most of the articles mention this or that aspect of Freedom City, or place their action in Freedom City, or even alter Freedom City in some way. If you don’t own Freedom City, you’re out of luck. It’s unfortunate, too, because many of the articles that mention Freedom City didn’t have to do so or could have integrated the setting in a less intrusive way. At least the marketing information on the back of the book warns the potential buyer of the Freedom City bias, but the writers here missed some opportunities to take Mutants & Masterminds to a level the average player might not have already thought of. For example, Keith Baker’s “Street Justice” piece is great for its basic ideas but not its ties to Freedom City. Gritty heroics and noir bleakness lose their hard edge in a world where world-shaking superheroes live in a four-color world that’s ten minutes down the expressway. The only reason those heroes don’t intervene is that street-level crime is somehow beneath them—and if the going gets really rough in any meaningful way on the street, the Freedom League can’t be too long in coming to the rescue. To some, perhaps that makes street justice all the more dark and poignant. Others would say these facts simply render street justice insignificant or even depressingly meaningless.Coup de GraceMutants & Masterminds Annual #1 is a good effort and a nice-looking book, with very few technical errors. The game mechanics appear good, but this reviewer did not analyze every character for flaws. All of the mechanics and information relevant to expanding the Mutants & Masterminds game are open content, but not the phrases Hero Points, Villain Points, Power Points along with all specific character and place names. (So you can use Clockwatcher’s stats in your product, but not his impressive name.) A lot of this stuff has been seen before, if one has familiarity with the comics world. While that is a strength in some ways, familiarity breeding interest, it also dings the originality score. The book is both for players and GMs, but it leans heavily toward the latter camp and suffers from internal references to the Freedom City sourcebook. Mutants & Masterminds Annual #1 is reasonably priced for its production quality and content, but it’s more like getting a spare cape for your costume. It’s shiny and new, but it doesn’t really add anything essential to your abilities. If you like the things you see in the brief synopses above, however, this “128-page super-spectacular” is for you.Review originally appeared at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com" target="_blank">d20 Magazine Rack</a>.</blockquote>

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