Mutants and Masterminds is a very good system. Power Creation can be daunting at first but once you get the hang of it the system really starts to shine. Game play has been as simple or as complicated as the players choose, but always quick, like a 6 round combat with 6 players and in less then 30 minutes quick.
The system also allows some flexibility for house rules or modding the system. I'm using a modified version to run my fantasy games, and its been a lot of fun, with fast paced combat that allows the players more time outside of combat or more combats per session then what we were getting out of 4E. It also doesn't have a lot of the book keeping problems that 3/3.5 has. NPC can be as simple or complicated as you want.
For instance I only stat out important NPC's or Monsters everything else is just a few notes scribbled down as the PC's explore and a really simple easy/medium/hard formula I use for the attack and defenses.
The combats have been quick, but still challenging and dynamic.
For a more gritty feel I have the cumulative -1 apply to all defenses and passive rolls and cap it at -10, anything greater dazes. I then added dying to the threshold chart, and a rule for determining when an attacker can decide to kill a target. What this leads to is, as the fight wears on wounded targets get easier and easier to hit and damage, and more likely to miss things (ie due to passive senses), instead of just easier to damage as per the RAW.
I really like the threshold system (every five points over the Target number is a new threshold) and quite a few of my house rules are tied to it.
The system really is worth checking out.
The system also allows some flexibility for house rules or modding the system. I'm using a modified version to run my fantasy games, and its been a lot of fun, with fast paced combat that allows the players more time outside of combat or more combats per session then what we were getting out of 4E. It also doesn't have a lot of the book keeping problems that 3/3.5 has. NPC can be as simple or complicated as you want.
For instance I only stat out important NPC's or Monsters everything else is just a few notes scribbled down as the PC's explore and a really simple easy/medium/hard formula I use for the attack and defenses.
The combats have been quick, but still challenging and dynamic.
For a more gritty feel I have the cumulative -1 apply to all defenses and passive rolls and cap it at -10, anything greater dazes. I then added dying to the threshold chart, and a rule for determining when an attacker can decide to kill a target. What this leads to is, as the fight wears on wounded targets get easier and easier to hit and damage, and more likely to miss things (ie due to passive senses), instead of just easier to damage as per the RAW.
I really like the threshold system (every five points over the Target number is a new threshold) and quite a few of my house rules are tied to it.
The system really is worth checking out.
