New Edition of Mutants & Masterminds Coming Soon, Playtest Launches at End of Month

Green Ronin Publishing is making a new edition of Mutants & Masterminds. Creator Steve Kenson announced the news over on BlueSky this evening, revealing that he's working on a fourth edition of the superhero-themed RPG. According to Kenson, an "Origin" playtest edition of the new edition will be releasing in PDF at the end of the month, with a limited print run coming to Gen Con.

Perhaps the most popular superhero RPG, Mutants & Masterminds is a D20-based game system meant to be used with any level of superhero story, ranging from street-level to cosmic powered heroes. The GM sets a power level at the outset of the campaign that dictates the overall power level of characters, but players can further customize their characters within that framework using power points. The game notably allows for a large variety of superhero skills and abilities, allowing players to build custom heroes with a large degree of variation.

In recent years, Marvel has gotten into the RPG business with their own Marvel Multiverse RPG that allows character creation and play as one of dozens of superheroes from the Marvel Universe. Greater Than Games published a Sentinel Comics RPG (based on Sentinels of the Multiverse) but that is on hiatus due to that company shuttering due to tariffs.

 

[Greg K]

If this is true and applies to Valiant Adventures as well, I am on the borderline of demanding a reimbursement of my kickstarter backing, The character samples they posted for the Valiant Adventures Kickstarter updates had both.

Edit: Someone replying on the discord has stated that VA will keep Fighting and Dex. So cool. I am not sure ditching Fighting and Dex for 4e is a good thing, but I will take a wait and see approach to see how they handle it in the playtest. Maybe, they are going back to purchasing both Attack Bonus and Defense as in 2e.

 

[overgeeked]

Someone's collating the available info over on RPG.net.

https://forum.rpg.net/threads/mutants-masterminds-4th-edition-announced-by-steve-kenson-on-july-14-2025.899389/page-14#post-25564094

To me the most interesting bit is at the end: "The city needs heroes. And in 2025, you'll have the tools to answer that call."

 

[Ulfgeir]

I have fond memories of 2e, even if it was in need of tightening up the writing. You hade stuff spread out all over the place that really could affect how certain things worked due to synergies. And yes, it was fiddly to make the perfect character, and we had some situations that were strange. Like the super-strength old Mesopotamian priest worshipping Marduk, and turning himself into a living bronze statue, and grappling people.

Didn't care for 3e. It was simplified too much imo.

 

[dbolack]

On the other hand, I don't like that Valiant Adventures character creation will use Archetypes and specific sets of choices to modify them rather than Power Points. I do not think this is carrying over to full 4e as the Line Developer (?) stated those with M&M can still use the M&M point system to build characters and Steve had been posting his work on revising Powers which have included

Let me verify i can answer that.

 

[Greg K]

I have fond memories of 2e, even if it was in need of tightening up the writing. You hade stuff spread out all over the place that really could affect how certain things worked due to synergies. And yes, it was fiddly to make the perfect character, and we had some situations that were strange. Like the super-strength old Mesopotamian priest worshipping Marduk, and turning himself into a living bronze statue, and grappling people.

Didn't care for 3e. It was simplified too much imo.

Off the top of my head, my main issues with 3e are
1. Combining of Computers, Craft (Electronics), Craft (Mechanic) and Disable Device into Technology*
2. Combining Driving and Piloting into Vehicles*
3. Dropping Obscure as a Power Effect (Thankfully returning with Valiant Adventures)

*A minor issues that can be house ruled for my homebrew setting, but annoying when looking at several official DC Adventures character write-ups.

 

[humble minion]

I’d argue that the removal (without replacement) of the Independent power modifier was a big deal, plus the really messy lack of clarity and guidelines around how to use Affliction, especially with Limited.

Also, Weakness should have its save dc separated from the levels of weakness it applies, so you can have a hard-to-resist minor-impact Weakness or vice versa.