Starting a new M&M campaign...

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've had a bit of tunnel vision, partially brought on by the fun everyone's having with Dr. Zeus and all the other great ideas floating around here, so I apologize for not responding to this post earlier...

I wanted to try my hand at a real challenge, and then decided that I should leave the fun to you. So I'll just throw out some ideas on the fiddlier bits.

Don't let me stop your fun! My goal is to run the best campaign I can- you can BELIEVE that I poached ideas from the players in the original campaign...while it was in progress!

It was one of the things that made the thing so much fun. Whenever someone had an idea that showed up in game, they felt 1) more connected to the gameworld, and 2) like they were operating on the same wavelength I was. They thought they were reading my mind; I was just ripping them off!

His equipment should be, almost exclusively, Equipment obtained via the Equipment feat.

Yep.

The standard M&M flaws don't work very well when using very irregular progressions. At that point, creative application of flaws, designing new flaws, or use of drawbacks is the way to go; whichever is best depends upon what effects you're going after.

In this case, you want something sort of like the Fades flaw.

Yes!

Given how you want it to work, it really feels more like a Drawback (Common, Moderate) than like an actual flaw; largely due to how the Leaping power multiplies existing jumping ability rather than assigning abstract jumping ability.
So, enough Leaping to get the 600 ft jump distance you want (Leaping 5, for a Strength 14 guy) and a limiter on what he can do with one "charge" (Drawback - limited to 600 total feat before recharging pneumatics [-3]).

This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about with "subtlety" before. I know how to do that in HERO (with "Charges"), and knew there was a way to do in in M&M...I just wasn't sure exactly how.

The "Kick" would be a mighty strike alternate power, with an assigned drain value. Probably Strike 4 (Mighty), and each kick would use up 20 feet (or whatever, this part is sort of arbitrary) of leaping distance.

Thanks!

For some reason, I see a demonic Rocketeer when I put those visuals together. :shrug:

Well, Commando Cody was one of the serialize forefathers of the Rocketeer, so we're still talking the same language.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Tangential question: the little "pocket sized" version of the rulebook from 2006 is for 2Ed, isn't it?

(I'd hate to think I'm getting up to speed on the wrong edition of the game...)

 

[drothgery]

Tangential question: the little "pocket sized" version of the rulebook from 2006 is for 2Ed, isn't it?

Since my copy of the full-sized M&M2e book is copyright 2005, I'm thinking yes.

 

[The_Warlock]

Great post that really got me thinking.

Glad to be of assistance during the brainstorming phase...

I don't know if you're aware of it, but your suggestions of mind control and deevolution were used by Grodd and Mojojojo, so they're VERY appropriate.

To be honest, no, not specifically. But from my vague childhood memories of comics and cartoons, they seem the appropriate "simian revenge" schemes. It always has to do with proving the superiority of the supervillain's species/mental capabilities when it's man vs. ape-mutant. At least that's my recollection.

In addition, I can see his continued mastery of superscience extending his lifespan, micro-sizing his equipment, and maybe, just maybe, designing a cavorite battlesuit (more appropriate for 3rd iteration of the campaign, perhaps, set in the pre- through post-WW2 eras). Still using Tesla weapons, of course.

Taking a bit of a tack from Atomic Robo:

First, he was an ape with a giant brain in a jar; then he was an ape with a giant brain in a jar in a steam and electric battle mech; then he was the head of his original ape with a brain in a jar grafted onto the body of a new "superior ape" clone body; then he was a brain in a jar on a fully mechanical ape body (we still don't know why he didn't make a less conspicuous body that time); then he was a brain in a jar in a Dalek body with an army of mentally enhanced chimpanzees; ...

You see where I'm going, eh? There has got to be a villain special perk "Didn't we KILL him? TWICE!?!"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And in 300 years, his brain will be housed in a giant, ape-shaped mecha that launches swarms of flying monkey cyborgs...

I just got word from my group that, due to scheduling issues- as well as the need to pass the M&M books around- we'll be playing poker tomorrow night.

But they're expecting to do a bit of playing when next we convene...in 2 weeks!

I'd better get my booty in gear and track down the rest of my M&M books...and start writing!

 

[ValhallaGH]

Tangential question: the little "pocket sized" version of the rulebook from 2006 is for 2Ed, isn't it?

(I'd hate to think I'm getting up to speed on the wrong edition of the game...)

It is, fear not.

If that's your only version, I'd strongly encourage you to pick up the hardback (or at least the .pdf) as it has a lot of pre-generated archetypes (villain and bystander) in it. These have been invaluable time savers for me, as well as helping me figure out just how amazingly good most super-people are at anything they can do, by providing baselines I am familiar with for comparison.

I'll give Jack some thought, but steampunk never grabbed my imagination the way apes with lightning guns did.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If that's your only version, I'd strongly encourage you to pick up the hardback (or at least the .pdf) as it has a lot of pre-generated archetypes (villain and bystander) in it. These have been invaluable time savers for me, as well as helping me figure out just how amazingly good most super-people are at anything they can do, by providing baselines I am familiar with for comparison.

Have no fear- I have 2 copies of the 2Ed hardcover currently making the rounds of my players.

I finally set it in stone- the campaign will be set in 1912. The deciding factor? The sinking of the Titanic.

My Atlanteans- or Lemurians or other aquatic nation- now have mobile surface cruisers disguised as icebergs...

 

[Mark1733]

The key to all this is to drop cameos of famous characters of the time, real or fictional. I think the exposition is what will make it fun. Don't come out with the explicit cameo. Instead, give obscure clues that open up later. See if they pick up on who it could be. For example, "You overhear the courier tell the large-nosed squinty-eyed fellow in the corner, 'This package is for a Mr. W.C.' The fat man replies, 'Ahhh, Yes. That would be me.' " Depending on the story, that NPC can develop into Winston Churchill or W.C.Fields. Maybe W.C.Fields was a counterspy with Mae West! (West...as in Western Hemisphere or "the West"). Maybe Winston Churchill, as Minister of Munitions and Secretary of State for War started something like the British 1930s version of "Sector 7" from the Transformers movie! OMG! I knew it! It's all a lie! <Obistahr sobs in disgust of histories incredible conspiracies>

 

[Mark1733]

Have no fear- I have 2 copies of the 2Ed hardcover currently making the rounds of my players.

I finally set it in stone- the campaign will be set in 1912. The deciding factor? The sinking of the Titanic.

My Atlanteans- or Lemurians or other aquatic nation- now have mobile surface cruisers disguised as icebergs...

I like that iceberg idea...after all, they did know that the Titanic was being used to smuggle the largest load of Cavorite ever! However, H.G.Wells HAS perfected the Time Machine (it is being transported on the Titanic), and can send the party back in time to stop the iceberg incident!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The key to all this is to drop cameos of famous characters of the time, real or fictional. I think the exposition is what will make it fun. Don't come out with the explicit cameo. Instead, give obscure clues that open up later. See if they pick up on who it could be.

Now that's something I hadn't thought of!

When I ran the first incarnation of this campaign, I did a PageMaker handout that was the G.A.I.A. internal newsletter that I posted after every campaign arc ended. In it, players got to see news of the world (a.k.a. rumors & plot hooks) a recap of the action and some of the repercussions of what they did or did not do- all from a "reporter's" point of view.

While I can do much the same for Cavorite Academy- "Notes from the Headmaster," perhaps- I can see the merit of having cameos to help keep the campaign's energy high.