Teflon Billy
Explorer
Devil’s Workshop was (I think) the first company to take a serious stab at using Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds Superlink (Akin to Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License for D&D) to produce supplementary material for M&M.
I received Devil’s Workshop’s Power Corrupts supplement and pretty much immediately dove into it.
When I heard about their first Power Corrupts product, I was intrigued. A list of new powers was, frankly, just what my particular doctor ordered. Unlike most of the people on the net with whom I was corresponding, I alone seemed to not find M&M’s power creation rules to be “Childishly Simple”. I thought a passel of new examples of power creation would help me to wrap my head around the actual mechanics of it.
And Power Corrupts was nice for that. It had a large and interesting variety of powers…some that seemed like fresh applications of the M&M power creation system (Electromagnetic Pulse comes to mind), some that were inexplicably missing from the M&M core rules (Summon being the prime example here) some that I had tried to whip up myself to much lesser effect (Super Science. God they did a good job on Super Science), and some that were just a straight-up improvements on powers already in the book (Swarm is an immense improvement over Alternate Form: Semisolid, using the Extras and Power Stunts system to give much more of a “feel” for the power than the core rules).
The layout is a strong point in Power Corrupts favor, as it is very readable in it’s printed form. It doesn’t take advantage of the .PDF format as much as it could, but I get the feeling it was intended that the purchaser print out and bind the supplement. That’s what I did, and it looks (and reads) very well.
Now the bad. I’m no great fan of Tony Perna’s art. It may well be due to the fact that the art in the M&M Core materials is so damn impressive that the bar is set very, very high, or it may be that Perna’s art reminds me of the “Cut and Paste Faces” artwork in the FUZION version of the Champions RPG, but whatever the reason, the art seems, at best, functional. This is, however, a matter of taste, not objective truth, so gentle reader, feel free to disregard it should our tastes differ.
Also, the rules include powers I simply would not let into my game under any circumstances. Foremost among these is the “do anything” power Reality Manipulation, but close on its heels is the Atomic Control power.
Reality Manipulation has “Variable Effect” without a Hero Point cost to use it (which seems a bit of a munchkin build to allow the player to have any power in the book at his RM Rank pretty much at will. If a PC showed up at my table with this power build they would be greeted with an emphatic “no Goddam way”
Atomic Control, is not as egregious as Reality Manipulation in it’s rule breakings, though the “Flaw” Radiation leak is nothing of the sort. It’s the power Energy Field, with the Area and Triggered extras.
I have no idea what to make of Confession Burn, as it doesn’t seem to have it’s damage based on the ranks in the power. It may be the single worst example of a front-loaded power I’ve yet seen (and standard M&M itself has no shortage of these), allowing the possessor to do incredible damage to “evil” people whether at Rank 1 or Rank 20.
And finally, unless I miss my guess, Determine Destiny seems to allow the player to kill people at will with no save (with the expenditure of a hero point). Uhh...No.
There is a lot of stuff here that is of great use (and that I use in my weekly game), Nano-Machines, (modified) Super Science etc… but when the train leaves the tracks is really leaves the tracks!
Instant Death, Do Anything, All-the-Powers-in-the Book, No-Defense-for-Target powers are not good for anyone’s game that I have ever met; but stay away from them and this is a nice first attempt at an M&M Supplement.
…And in the final analysis, Power Corrupts is what it claims to be; more powers for M&M.
I received Devil’s Workshop’s Power Corrupts supplement and pretty much immediately dove into it.
When I heard about their first Power Corrupts product, I was intrigued. A list of new powers was, frankly, just what my particular doctor ordered. Unlike most of the people on the net with whom I was corresponding, I alone seemed to not find M&M’s power creation rules to be “Childishly Simple”. I thought a passel of new examples of power creation would help me to wrap my head around the actual mechanics of it.
And Power Corrupts was nice for that. It had a large and interesting variety of powers…some that seemed like fresh applications of the M&M power creation system (Electromagnetic Pulse comes to mind), some that were inexplicably missing from the M&M core rules (Summon being the prime example here) some that I had tried to whip up myself to much lesser effect (Super Science. God they did a good job on Super Science), and some that were just a straight-up improvements on powers already in the book (Swarm is an immense improvement over Alternate Form: Semisolid, using the Extras and Power Stunts system to give much more of a “feel” for the power than the core rules).
The layout is a strong point in Power Corrupts favor, as it is very readable in it’s printed form. It doesn’t take advantage of the .PDF format as much as it could, but I get the feeling it was intended that the purchaser print out and bind the supplement. That’s what I did, and it looks (and reads) very well.
Now the bad. I’m no great fan of Tony Perna’s art. It may well be due to the fact that the art in the M&M Core materials is so damn impressive that the bar is set very, very high, or it may be that Perna’s art reminds me of the “Cut and Paste Faces” artwork in the FUZION version of the Champions RPG, but whatever the reason, the art seems, at best, functional. This is, however, a matter of taste, not objective truth, so gentle reader, feel free to disregard it should our tastes differ.
Also, the rules include powers I simply would not let into my game under any circumstances. Foremost among these is the “do anything” power Reality Manipulation, but close on its heels is the Atomic Control power.
Reality Manipulation has “Variable Effect” without a Hero Point cost to use it (which seems a bit of a munchkin build to allow the player to have any power in the book at his RM Rank pretty much at will. If a PC showed up at my table with this power build they would be greeted with an emphatic “no Goddam way”
Atomic Control, is not as egregious as Reality Manipulation in it’s rule breakings, though the “Flaw” Radiation leak is nothing of the sort. It’s the power Energy Field, with the Area and Triggered extras.
I have no idea what to make of Confession Burn, as it doesn’t seem to have it’s damage based on the ranks in the power. It may be the single worst example of a front-loaded power I’ve yet seen (and standard M&M itself has no shortage of these), allowing the possessor to do incredible damage to “evil” people whether at Rank 1 or Rank 20.
And finally, unless I miss my guess, Determine Destiny seems to allow the player to kill people at will with no save (with the expenditure of a hero point). Uhh...No.
There is a lot of stuff here that is of great use (and that I use in my weekly game), Nano-Machines, (modified) Super Science etc… but when the train leaves the tracks is really leaves the tracks!
Instant Death, Do Anything, All-the-Powers-in-the Book, No-Defense-for-Target powers are not good for anyone’s game that I have ever met; but stay away from them and this is a nice first attempt at an M&M Supplement.
…And in the final analysis, Power Corrupts is what it claims to be; more powers for M&M.
