What do you not like about M&M?

[DungeonmasterCal]

What do I not like about M&M? The fact I've never had a chance to play it and no one in my group wants to run or really play it.

 

[Ranger REG]

It IS fast. Our usual game day will be 6-7 hours long to run a short scenario or part of a larger one (in most d20 games).

ALL of my Teen Titans M&M games ended within 4 hours. I had one scenario that wrapped up in TWO hours. We didn't feel like it went too fast, but we had alot of day left.

So, what did you do to pace the game more slowly?

 

[teitan]

A few suggestions I would make is more sub plots and interaction with NPCs etc. This requires the players provide some extensive backgrounds for their PCs at first in order to start right off that way but it is about the only thing I could think of without every adventure being Crisis or Infinity Gauntlet level of threat.

Jason

 

[Razz0putin]

My problem with the MnM system is all of the players who want to turn it into D&D (by adding hit points) or champions (by adding variable power pools which were horribly done rules to begin with and represent silly characters like the Silver Surfer- I've got the power cosmic, So what you're saying is you didn't bother to make up a concept, there I've said it characters are defined by their limitations Silver Surfer doesn't have any therefore not a character). They can if they want but they need to understand that they just don't understand what is already there. Hit points are a resource, hero points are a resource, just a different way to do things.

Now seriously I think a few powers are front loaded ala Incorpreal and Invisibility

 

[C. Baize]

I hate that on a hot day.... M&Ms actually DO melt in your hand.

 

[whydirt]

So, what did you do to pace the game more slowly?

If I'm understanding him correctly, he didn't do anything to slow it down. I think a faster pace can work well, if everyone's aware of it ahead of time.

 

[Michael Tree]

I don't like that all feats cost two points regardless of their utility.

+3 to a skill? 2 Pts.

A sidekick, under your control, with superpowers of his own? 2 pts.

Power Attack (allowing you to exceed the PL limit of damage) 2 pts.

This, IMO, is related to the problem of front-loaded powers like Invisibility and Incorporeal. Those powers essentially operate like super feats, but if they were feats they would be far too inexpensive, so they're powers.

If super feats had a variable cost, then front-loaded powers like Invisibility could be fixed. The only tricky part would be deciding how much to discount a high cost super feat that's an extra/stunt on a power.

 

[Ranger REG]

This, IMO, is related to the problem of front-loaded powers like Invisibility and Incorporeal. Those powers essentially operate like super feats, but if they were feats they would be far too inexpensive, so they're powers.

If super feats had a variable cost, then front-loaded powers like Invisibility could be fixed. The only tricky part would be deciding how much to discount a high cost super feat that's an extra/stunt on a power.

So you want to increase the cost per power rank for these two super-powers? How much? 3 per rank? 4 per rank?

 

[takyris]

I'd rather see them turned into powers that actually get better with more ranks -- although that's already the case with the errata'd Incorporeality. When you're incorporeal, none of your world-affecting powers work unless you have Ghost Touch on EACH of them -- and even with Ghost Touch, you only get up to the level of the power, or your Incorporeality rank, whichever is lower. It's already a bit harder to munchkinize an Incorporeal character -- although by no means impossible.

With Invisibility, I'd rather see it provide a bonus to Hide checks, allow hiding without the benefit of cover, and/or provide 10% concealment per rank in Invisibility -- so 10 ranks gets you actual invisibility, while 5 ranks just makes you "The Blurry Guy" or "The Difficult to Notice" guy.

I'd aim for the latter, rather than the former, because you can pump up "Super-Skill:Hiding" or just do Super-Dex and have a really great hiding person. I think that I'd probably go with something that got rid of the Hide check entirely, now that I think about it, and go with "You cannot be seen except by a Spot check of 15+Ranks In Invisibility -- and that's for taking normal actions each round. If you only do a half action, it's 20+ranks. If you only take mental actions or other non-movement actions, it's 25+ranks, and if you take no actions whatsoever, it's 30+ranks. If you are pulling levers or doing obvious stuff, the Spot DC is 10+ranks, and if you are actively attacking someone, the DC is 5+ranks. Success on the Spot check by 20 or more means they've pinpointed your location, while Success by less than 20 means that they have a general area (20' radius or square adjacent to an area in which something obvious is happening) but cannot pinpoint a square.

This makes things a bit more complicated, but if I had an invisible character, I'd just jot down:

Mistwalker's Invisibility, 10 ranks: 15(attack), 20(obvious), 25(normal), 30(half), 35(mental), 40(hold still)

That way, you've got a reason to put more ranks into it, and it differentiates a bit between the guy who becomes visible if you toss flour on him and somebody whose invisibility is a core character concept that shouldn't be taken away any more often than Spiderman's wall-clinging.

 

[Michael Tree]

So you want to increase the cost per power rank for these two super-powers? How much? 3 per rank? 4 per rank?

No, I want to turn them into super feats, since that's essentially how they work - either you have them or you don't. But have them cost more than 2 points.

Another alternative would be to make the extra ranks do something significant, but that would be difficult to do without shoehorning into something inappropriate to the way those powers work in the comics.