Mutants and Masterminds essentials?

[Avatar_V]

Thanks for all the input, everyone; very helpful!

And, I'll definitely check out this pdf.

check out Dr Null: Battle on the Bay Bridge

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

M&M is, currently, my favorite system. I freaking love playing it.

If you've got the cash, I'd recommend the core book, Ultimate Power, and Instant Superheroes just to give you a wide base of inspiration to either pull character from or to use as inspiration for the characters you create.

I'd also recommend heading over to The Atomic Think Tank (http://www.atomicthinktank.com/) to browse the threads there. They're good people.

Dr Null: Battle on the Bay Bridge is an EXCELLENT adventure. I played it at an NC Gameday and had a blast. It's a great adventure to help you understand the ins and outs of M&M combat because, well, that's pretty much all the adventure is! SO fun!

Lastly, I'd recommend spending a weekend watching every comic book movie you can get your hands on to get yourself good and ready for the superfantastic action that is M&M.

 

[Qualidar]

I love this game. I can stat up the villains in like 20 minutes, often doing most of that from memory.

I'd say you need the Core Book, and I'd really recommend Instant Super Heros as a good guide on how to put concepts together. I own Ultimate Powers, but I haven't read it yet, so I can't chime in there.

Let me triple underline Queen D's suggestion to visit the Atomic Think Tank Forums. Great help if you have questions, and be sure to read MDSnowman's character conversion thread. He gives a bunch of combat examples that really helped me get my head around the way to flow the combat and award Hero Points (eventually - I was confused at first: keep reading!)

And finally, I love the Lame Mage adventures. I just ran Battle on the Bay Bridge 2 weeks ago. I bought the rest of them, too, and they're great fun (and very GM oriented: lots of stuff to aid in descriptions, adventure flow, etc.). Other than that, the old V&V adventures are really cool.

Good luck!

 

[D.Shaffer]

All you really need is the core rulebook. If you can only get one more book past that, get Ultimate Power. It should you all the 'core' abilities that you use to build powers and will help you to make characters closer to what you want. It also helps clarify how alt. powers work which is something that confuses a lot of people.

If you can get one more past that, get Instant Superheroes. It's filled with character templates which make a great learning tool, as well as a handy generator for NPCs.

Beyond that, I'd recommend the various genre books depending on your tastes.

 

[Mallus]

Another vote for "all you need is core".

That's all I needed to create Joseirus, the Egyptian God of Mexican Wrestling. 'Nuff said.

 

[Edheldur]

Add another vote to the "only need the core book" camp. However, Ultimate Power presents powers in a different way and -at least, in my case- helped me greatly to understand how to build powers for characters/NPCs.

 

[MulhorandSage]

I'd recommend M&M 2nd edition, then Freedom City, then Instant Superheroes, then Ultimate Power, unless you're doing something that's wildly the opposite of four-color.

 

[bolen]

I'd vote for the main rulebook and instant superheroes. I just got unlimited power as a gift and I have to say it seems a bit overwelming to someone who has not played alot

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd recommend M&M 2nd edition, then Freedom City, then Instant Superheroes, then Ultimate Power, unless you're doing something that's wildly the opposite of four-color.

For a Paragons campaign, would you say everything but FC, or would you suggest something else in addition to the above list?

 

[MulhorandSage]

For a Paragons campaign, would you say everything but FC, or would you suggest something else in addition to the above list?

I'd suggest replacing it with Paragons, but I haven't seen it yet, so I can't really make a recommendation in full confidence. I expect Paragons to be very good, given the talent involved. However I'd still recommend FC to all but the most four-color phobic of comic fans.

For "gritty street level", I'd replace FC with Hero's excellent Hudson City and suggest replacing the characters with appropriate M&M archetypes, or wait for Iron Age; for high-powered superhumans with Nietzschean morals (such as the Authority), I'd wait for Iron Age.