Recommended MnM house rules/errata?

[Piratecat]

I'll probably be running a Mutants and Masterminds game during a three month "half my players are new parents" sabbatical from our D&D campaign. Can people please let me know what I should look out for, add, and change? Any tips for running a good superhero game?

Thank you!

 

[GlassJaw]

There are a lot of downloads on the www.mutantsandmasterminds.com website. There are also a lot of downloads (including a FAQ, errata, revised hero and villain templates, and free adventures) and the message boards are very good as well.

 

[PJ-Mason]

A lot of people have had a problem where skills end up being too expensive. So much so that Steve Kenson himself suggested using a 2 for 1 skill point cost (2 ranks per power point).

Also, as with all point-based games, be prepared for at least one player to want to pick up a villain's weapon or power armor or whatever...and want to use it. The rules say you have to use power points to use it, but some players can't wrap their noggins around that rule. They want to just keep what they take. Not a problem specific to M&M, just a problem with all point based games (like Hero).

Be careful in general with what optional rule you decide to use from the book, as they can really affect your games.

 

[Piratecat]

Cool. Any recommendations for optional rules to use (if any)?

Also, where can I get a good Excel character generator, or a spreadsheet to help me build characters? If you know of a good one, I'd love to hear about it.

 

[Synchronicity]

A guy named Simpson made a nice Excel character builder for M&M. You can find the latest version at the following address:

http://www.elyzium.net/mnm/

Also, you might want to check out the forums at www.mutantsandmasterminds.com - the people there are very friendly and helpful.

Finally, talking of possible problems, there are a few powers you might want to watch out for. Incorporeality for one can become problematic with it's 'only one type of attack can injure me'. Sorcery and especially Cosmic Power, while valid and expensive powers, can make a character the Swiss Army Knife of superheroics - able to do practically everything that the rest of the group can do and somewhat overshadowing the proceedings.

Using the 2:1 skill rule is a good idea too. Oh, and just to mention a slight rules alteration from D&D and the like which you may or may not be aware of, in M&M Power Attack can be used with ranged attacks.

You may want to consider using an optional rule regarding Super-Speed and Super-Dexterity.

1) SS and SD both provide a bonus to your Defense equal to their power rank.
2) When two people who both possess SS/SD fight, subtract their Power Rank in SS/SD from the Defense bonus their opponent gains from SS/SD or, if their rank in SS or SD is higher that that of their opponent, cancel it altogether. This only applies for attacks the two people with SS/SD make against each other.

This lets super-fast and agile people fight each other on a more even footing, rather than having the vaguely ludicrous spectacle of two super-speedsters/uber-ninjas constantly failing to hit one another due to their high Defense values, despite their speeds/reaction times being comparable and hence not really capable of providing them with any advantage against the other.

Hope that's useful!
Synch.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Finally, talking of possible problems, there are a few powers you might want to watch out for. Incorporeality for one can become problematic with it's 'only one type of attack can injure me'.

Not quite true, and attack power with the ghost touch extra will damage then also... but PC you do want to look at the errata on that power. Its been mightily changed and is quite expensive now. (The big thing about incorepreal is to not allow a mentist who's also incorepreal.)

Sorcery and especially Cosmic Power, while valid and expensive powers, can make a character the Swiss Army Knife of superheroics - able to do practically everything that the rest of the group can do and somewhat overshadowing the proceedings.

Totally agree.

I also think that skills being a 2:1 is a good idea, I've not seen it used a number of times but consider the alternate ways to getting around 1:1 skills that don't really make that much sense to me I'm all about seeing it used. (Remember if you use a premade character from M&M that you'll need to reduce their skills because of the adjust skill point cost.)

The Freedom City campaign setting is one of the nicest and most thought out CS ever made.

PL and power is relative... You really need to tailor your game to your players. What one character will shred through a group of 5 equal leveled will get beat down from.

Try not to remove the cap on powers via PL. (it’s a fowl tasting can of worms.)

I imagine you have a good set of gamers and don’t really need to watch out for power gamers but power gammed character can really ruin it for all.

If your not sure about a character don’t be afraid to email/pm me about it. I’ve played a lot of M&M and I’ve looked at hundreds of character to boot.

 

[2WS-Steve]

I was thinking of a variation on the Power Level cap where characters could possess more ranks than their cap allows but all ranks above the cap are halved, rounding down. I figured that might allow a little more variation in characters.

Also, even at 2 for 1 skills felt a bit expensive compared to powers. I was thinking of just giving characters 2 to 4 free skill points per power level.

I haven't had the chance to playtest either of these, though.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Hey, Piratecat, if you let me know your e-mail address, I'll send you free copies of 1st Appearance: TOMCATS and 1st Appearance: Luminous. The former's got rules for cybernetics and the latter's got a bunch of stuff on hero origins. You can post it or e-mail me at justin[at]bluedevilgames[dot]com. Always willing to help out the EN World brass.

 

[teitan]

A lot of people have had a problem where skills end up being too expensive. So much so that Steve Kenson himself suggested using a 2 for 1 skill point cost (2 ranks per power point).

Also, as with all point-based games, be prepared for at least one player to want to pick up a villain's weapon or power armor or whatever...and want to use it. The rules say you have to use power points to use it, but some players can't wrap their noggins around that rule. They want to just keep what they take. Not a problem specific to M&M, just a problem with all point based games (like Hero).

Be careful in general with what optional rule you decide to use from the book, as they can really affect your games.

I actually created a feat for this scenario.

Trophy Room Requirements: Headquarters feat. By using a hero point once per adventure a player may use something out of his trophy room.

If you want optional rules for your game go with the Mutants & Masterminds Annual No. 1. It had expanded weakness rules and an excellent Hero POints optional rule system. It expands on armoured heros and include more on Freedom City, the greatest superhero setting ever devised.

Jason

Jason

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Some tips we've found:

Powerhouses really are. A guy with max ranks in Amazing Save: Damage and Super STR pretty much rules combats he can get into. Because regular Str stacks with Super-Str stacks wih Power Attack they can get some truly redunkulous DCs built up in short order, stuff that would level even themselves in one pop.

Don't use the pre-genned characters from the book. Their power level varies widely while their PL stays the same. In particular, the bruiser Minotaur, could probably crush the rest of them together without breaking a sweat. That's sort of what soured my first game, as the PCs kept getting beat down and burning through HPs while Minotaur laughed off all comers and twisted them into pretzles.

In my later games it's been an unofficial gentleman's agreement that none of the PCs will have maxed out damage saves or maxed out strength without a very good reason and a really obvious achille's heel so the other PCs can have some fun putting whoop down.

Everybody usually will HAVE a weak point, even the bruiser. Most bruisers have low Will saves, so you can get them with Mentalists or even mooks with Psychic Blasto Rays. Speedsters have low true Damage saves, so Area effects ruin them utterly. Characters with good Will and Damage saves often have neglected their Fort save and "status effects" often work well against them. The most fun is playing off each character's strengths and weaknesses. But bruisers are still a problem: (I was playing a Teen Titans game where the player with Starfire or Raven would pick up Cyborg and toss him at the enemy ... very much in the vein of the cartoon, and great fun, but be ready for the PCs to do something like this to get their combat demon up there with the flying mentalist. After all, that huge damage save means even if they miss and he plumets to earth, he'll be fine.)

--fje