Mutants & Masterminds

[Threedub]

- GM Presence: M&M is a very breakable game if the players want to abuse things and the GM isn't strong enough to say, "Sorry, not in this game." While few GMs would admit to being pushovers, it's something that they may have to stay on top of. I don't know how much D&D you play, but assume that M&M, right out of the Core Book, has the potential breakability of D&D with four splatbooks and two additional third-party books full of feats and prestige classes. (Note: This doesn't mean that it's a bad system. It's an awesome system. Its configurability is one of the things that makes it awesome, and it can also lead players to do things that ruin the game.)

This is the biggest "flaw" of the game. And I say "flaw" because it really isn't, you just need to play with RP mature people (and you can be RP mature at 13). If the characters are really unbalanced with regard to one another it can be very hard to present them with challenges that everyone can get in on, without making it feel contrived after a while.

 

[Ben Robbins]

- GM Presence: M&M is a very breakable game if the players want to abuse things and the GM isn't strong enough to say, "Sorry, not in this game." While few GMs would admit to being pushovers, it's something that they may have to stay on top of.

I assume you mean during character creation. It's a common problem with point-buy systems, moreso in the superhero genre since the genre itself allows almost any concept.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I've played using the 1st and 2nd Edition MnM rules. I find the system to be quite liberating and have even used it once to create an NPC for my hombrew DnD game. The rules are easy to understand, due to the fact that it stems from the OGL/D20 base.

 

[takyris]

I assume you mean during character creation. It's a common problem with point-buy systems, moreso in the superhero genre since the genre itself allows almost any concept.

Definitely during character creation (if you're starting a campaign, the first session should be "getting characters sussed out", and that's assuming that you did some homework with each player before the session, too, to get a groundwork), but also during play. Things like Hero Point expenditures or allocation of power points for Variable powers can be very creative and wonderful in the right hands and very game-breaking and fun-stealing in the wrong hands.

As Threedub said, though, it's not so much a flaw as a requirement -- point buy systems always have this level of customizability (and thus breakability), and it's always a matter of having a GM who can say, "Wow, Incorporeality except to Silver, and Immunity:Silver Weapons? You know, I'm thinking 'no'."

But yeah, as you say, while in D&D, somebody's half-dragon splatbook-race mystic theurge is easy to nip in the bud by saying, "Core races and classes only." In Mutants & Masterminds, a huge ancient red dragon with incorporeality, shapeshifting, and mind-reading powers is a perfectly viable character concept, but if the other hero is a dude whose power is the ability to pull friendly animals out of his magic trenchcoat, the game might be a bit unbalanced.

 

[EditorBFG]

If learning new rules is a huge pain for your group, you may be better off with a hit-point-based system (Blood & Vigilance, Four Color to Fantasy, etc), which is more clearly tied to d20 Modern and D&D.

Just wanted to mention, the Mastermind's Manual has rules for converting M&M to hit points, which can be helpful.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Bit late to the party...

Mutants and Masterminds (particularly 2nd edition) is one of the best supers RPGs in print today. And this is coming from a guy that for years touted Champions/HERO as the best supers RPG.

M&M has all the flexibility of HERO system without excessive number-crunching, and the combat system feels like you're reading a comic book fight; it's fast paced, doesn't drag out (unless the GM wants it to via GM fiat, and even then the good guys get a perk for when the GM "bends" the rules in favor of the bad guys).

I play in a Justice League themed game, with a roster of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Flash (Wally West), and Hawkgirl (DC animated version). And M&M handles each of them perfectly.

 

[chobin foot]

As said by others... it's amazing. As someone who got really turned off by 3.5 and D20, I was stunned. Absolutely stunned. Maybe this would not be true for all M&M fans, but I was floored because I was completely prepared not to like M&M at all.

I could not believe that anyone could make a Superhero game out of D20 based on the 5' moves and the tedium of 3.5 combat... so I didn't want anything to do with M&M. I could not have been more wrong. That kind of toil & tedium from D&D got lifted out from what Kenson & company at Green Ronin put in to M&M.

Exalted was one of those games you look at as another way to approach the topic of Fantasy. M&M, True20... these things made me remember how good it is to roll a 20-sided die. Now I'm wondering why it took so long for me to discover Green Ronin's stuff. It completely opened my eyes to non-Wizards products for D20/OGL... I feel silly for supporting WotC for so long.

 

[The_Universe]

I'll chime in. Not only is Mutants and Masterminds my favorite Superhero system, EVER, it's also (currently) my favorite RPG system, EVER. With just a bit of GM dilligence, it can model ANY genre...which is really quite apropriate for a comic-book-based RPG. I love it...and if I had to pick only one system to run, forever, it would be this one.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Add another voice to the chorus praising M&M. It rocks. It displaced Champions as my favorite superhero system.

 

[Krolik]

I'd only add to make sure you purchase 2e and not 1e. M&M 2e is a much better game, IMO.