Preparing to start a M&M campaign...

[Pseudonym]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the Variable Powers (Shapeshift, Mimic, etc) that let you grab just about any power. They're balanced fine, they just slow the game down.

I play a character in a Golden Age game who's only power is Gadgets. Pre-planning helps a lot to keep the flow going. If you do go that route it is best to keep a few on tap.

Ditto what has been said about Action Points. As a player I tend to max out Luck whenever possible. As a DM, don't be afraid to let APs function as a "cool idea" point even if the rules don't necessarily allow for it. Spend a point, pick a DC and let things flow. Don't forget complications and their associated role-playing as a source for Action Points as well.

As Storminator said, make sure the players are all on the same page with the DM as regards the genre, and toss them out freely for keeping in genre as much as in character. That makes the game, and I'll agree that our Golden Age games is by far the best campaign I've ever played in.

 

[Piratecat]

Storminator is my GM (and an awesome one!) in a Golden Age game, and Wizardru mentioned my own GMing style (thanks, Dru!) when it comes to MnM. My advice? Embrace comic book tropes. Feature super-intelligent apes in power suits. Put sidekicks in death traps. Always think of powers not in terms of balance, but as "what would look cool on a comic book page?" And never stop the game for more than a few seconds to look up rules; make a call, toss a hero point if the player thinks your decision was wrong, and keep the game moving.

I freakin' love MnM. I hope you do, too.

 

[Storminator]

Storminator is my GM (and an awesome one!) in a Golden Age game...

I'm probably only 10% of the awesomeness of that game. My players are totally carrying me. I just have to come up with good villain monologues and let fly. I can't wait until next issue, where Tokyo Rose means my monologue force PCs to make Will saves!

PS

 

[Elric]

Ditto what has been said about Action Points. As a player I tend to max out Luck whenever possible. As a DM, don't be afraid to let APs function as a "cool idea" point even if the rules don't necessarily allow for it. Spend a point, pick a DC and let things flow. Don't forget complications and their associated role-playing as a source for Action Points as well.

Nitpick: it's hero points, not action points. "AP" is the abbreviation typically used for Alternate Powers, which you get from the Alternate Power power feat. Don't want anyone new to the game to get confused

 

[Herobizkit]

If the Game Master can, at any point, force a hero to fail and protect his villiain and compensate the hero with a Hero Point... and the Hero then uses said Hero Point to augment himself to defeat the villain... why wouldn't the GM just allow the Hero to have his good luck and defeat the villain?

I mean, if the GM can ALWAYS Fiat, the heroes might as well wait for the GM to decide when it's a "good time" for the villain to lose and then make the Extra Effort or what have you... am I missing something?

 

[Piratecat]

If the Game Master can, at any point, force a hero to fail and protect his villiain and compensate the hero with a Hero Point... and the Hero then uses said Hero Point to augment himself to defeat the villain... why wouldn't the GM just allow the Hero to have his good luck and defeat the villain?

Dramatic appropriateness.. which usually means "what would be the most fun for the game and the players?" I've seen Storminator keep a villain going who would otherwise have been taken down by the third guy in the first round. He (correctly) decided that it was more fun if everyone at least got a swing at the guy.

 

[Elric]

If the Game Master can, at any point, force a hero to fail and protect his villiain and compensate the hero with a Hero Point... and the Hero then uses said Hero Point to augment himself to defeat the villain... why wouldn't the GM just allow the Hero to have his good luck and defeat the villain?

I mean, if the GM can ALWAYS Fiat, the heroes might as well wait for the GM to decide when it's a "good time" for the villain to lose and then make the Extra Effort or what have you... am I missing something?

A few things:
Note: GM fiat can be used to give the villain the benefit of spending a hero point, which is how it's typically used in combat

1) Hero points tend to be stronger when used on defense than offense. Using a hero point for Improved Roll to reroll a failed save is the classic example. This helps keep combat from ending too quickly due to bad rolls.

2) You can only spend a hero point on each function (like a reroll) once a round.

Also, GM Fiat is a great rule. I don't have to build villain with insane defenses, because I know I can grant them a save whenever I want. My villains never go down on the first punch.

The "whenever I want" part isn't quite correct, since GM Fiat to reroll is duplicating the Improved Roll function of a hero point, which can only be used once a round (and presumably the same limitation should apply to villains). In the Avengers vs. Overshadow fight on my roll call thread, this proves to be Overshadow's undoing.

3) That the GM isn't limited in the number of times he can use GM Fiat in a session can lead to a "has he let us win yet?" feeling. If that's the case, one easy solution is:

Give yourself a set number of uses of GM Fiat for the session. The easy way to track this is to have a bunch of chips for hero points that you give out using GM Fiat (you can have a separate pool for hero points you give out at the start of the game, for Complications, and for general HP rewards). Each time you use GM Fiat, you lose one chip from this "GM fiat chip pool" (and you never add more to the pool during the session). When you run out of chips to give out from this pool, you can't use GM Fiat for the rest of the session.

There's an excellent thread by Paragon on The Atomic Think Tank discussing this and other issues with the HP system if you're interested.

 

[Herobizkit]

Give yourself a set number of uses of GM Fiat for the session. The easy way to track this is to have a bunch of chips for hero points that you give out using GM Fiat (you can have a separate pool for hero points you give out at the start of the game, for Complications, and for general HP rewards). Each time you use GM Fiat, you lose one chip from this "GM fiat chip pool" (and you never add more to the pool during the session). When you run out of chips to give out from this pool, you can't use GM Fiat for the rest of the session.

Yes, this is what I was getting at.

What would be interesting is a SHARED pool of Hero/Villain points. Each time the Heroes spend a Hero point, the GM gets one to use for his Villains, and vice versa. This way, the GM is encouraged to give out loads of bennies - and once the Heroes choose to use them, they give the Villains an edge!

 

[ValhallaGH]

What would be interesting is a SHARED pool of Hero/Villain points. Each time the Heroes spend a Hero point, the GM gets one to use for his Villains, and vice versa. This way, the GM is encouraged to give out loads of bennies - and once the Heroes choose to use them, they give the Villains an edge!

That's a really good way to kill all your player characters.

Essentially, this would give the villains their greatest edge when the heroes are at their dramatic weakest. Especially if the GM is rolling well (and I've seen characters on a -4 toughness save survive +12 damage for a couple of rounds without fiat), the PCs are at a gargantuan disadvantage under such a pool system. Their only hopes, in such circumstances, are to be mechanically superior to their foes (in which case they should have won already) or to run away and hope the GMs luck changes. Neither of which is particularly satisfying or fun, as a player or as storytellers.

 

[coyote6]

I think one of the ideas of the HP system is to mimic the flow of action of your typical comic book story. PCs start out with one HP (barring Luck), then gain them as they encounter setbacks & complications. A common scheme for a supers adventure -- especially for group adventures -- is that the heroes encounter the villains, fail to beat them (the villains escape with the MacGuffin, KO the heroes & escape, etc.), investigate, and so forth, before the final climactic showdown, where the heroes manage to pull out a victory despite desperate odds.

So, in M&M, they start out low in HP, the GM uses fiat to make sure the villains don't drop on a fluke hit in the first fight & escape, the heroes roleplay to gain some more HP, and in the final fight, they have a nice pile o' points to blow on rerolls, power stunts, extra effort & the like.

Of course, things can be more complicated than that, but that's a pretty simple & not uncommon outline. For example, I recently reread Secret Invasion: some of the good guys get whupped up on in Times Square, while most of the Avengers are off getting beat up in the Savage Land. But they eventually come together for the giant slugfest in Central Park, where victory is achieved.

(It's just a bit unusual in that Osborn's apparently a PC now. )