[MM2]: How on earth does a utility belt work?

[Hawk7915]

My group has recently picked up Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition. Our first two sessions have possibly been some of the most fun we've had with an RPG in months, but as DM I've run into a problem I can't find a suitable answer too. As always I beseech you, the playground, for help .

One of my players took the generic costumed adventurer from page 18 and after our first session wanted to add a "Confuse Ray" to his belt. I agreed but as we looked at the belt I realized I was somewhat clueless as to how to do it. Does he...

1: Spend 1 of his 4 PP he's picked up in our first two sessions for 5 equipment points, and spend 1 of those on having rank 6 confuse (since the "main power" of the generic array is Area Dazzle which costs 12)?

2: Spend 3 of his 4 PP he has on 15 equipment points and use those points to gain confuse 7?

3: Have me rewind time and tell him to just take "Device 1: Confuse Ray 2" as the power?

It seems really, really unfair to get to add 5 12 point powers to his belt for just 1 feat. Am I misinterpreting the Alternate Power rule? Am I misinterpreting the Utility Belt? Help!

[The Rose Dragon]

Well, basically, it works like the first one.

The downside to Alternate Powers is that you can only use one power in an Array at once. It's not that big a problem when all your APs are attack powers, but it also reflects the reality of comic books where alternate modes of attack are common.

Also, since the utility belt is one object rather than several, it is subject to being destroyed.

[Haven]

Well, basically, it works like the first one.

The downside to Alternate Powers is that you can only use one power in an Array at once. It's not that big a problem when all your APs are attack powers, but it also reflects the reality of comic books where alternate modes of attack are common.

Also, since the utility belt is one object rather than several, it is subject to being destroyed.

Yeah, that.

But equipment is generally fairly mundane stuff; there's no official restriction but if you think it's a problem, it's fair to say that something as spectacular as a Confuse Ray would need to be a device rather than equipment. That, and the fact that they're very fragile, is why equipment costs so much less than devices.

And yes, this is exactly how alternate powers work. They're not as broken as they seem, since you can't buy things that you'd rely on having on all the time like Protection, Regeneration, or Flight.

[Hawk7915]

Thanks guys! Some follow-up questions:

1. So let's say he decides to drop a smoke grenade. A few rounds later, it becomes more prudent to confuse the villain. Does the smoke just "disappear" once he activates another power on the belt, or do fairly continuous powers stay continuous? This goes for Cold Control freezing a few blocks, then using their alternate blast...what happens?

2. Is it possible/fair to let him upgrade his main power on the utility belt and have all items capable of scaling scale with it, then? I.E. can my adventurer player spend his remaining 15 equipment points (20 - 1 Confuse Ray 6 - 4 to have communicators for the whole team which I decided to allow him to do) to up his Flashbangs to 6 which would up confuse to 9, etc? Obviously items that have a set function (his boomerangs) don't scale, but do others?

Thanks again!

[Haven]

In the alternate power rules it says that you can't maintain a power when you switch to another AP. Which makes sense in the case of Cold Control--they're using their power to affect an area, then they focus it all into a blast so it's not affecting the area any more--but slightly less sense in the case of smoke bombs. However, by the rules, the duration of smoke bombs is dependent only on his being able to take a free action every round.

So I guess the way it works is, when he uses the smoke bomb option on his array, he's grabbing a bunch of smoke bombs from his belt, and each round he keeps up the effect he has to drop another one to maintain the cover; if he wants to switch to his Confuse Ray he has to put them away for a bit. This is probably what's intended.

As for your second one: yeah, when you improve the base power in an array, all the other powers in that array improve as well (since they're all based off the number of points in that power).

[Blue Warlock]

I have been looking into M&M recently and trying to start a campaign with it. As long as people are offering sage advice in this thread.... can someone tell me if the Sidekick feat is really as crazy powerful as it seems?
One of my players is picking it up, it should be fine because it looks like I can't round that many people up to play, or at least I don't think I can...
Maybe the issue is how I read the feat, where the sidekick just has to have fewer pp than the Hero? Or is it that sidekick is subject to a rank 10 maximum and any abilities are still subject to the campaign max?

[Gralamin]

I have been looking into M&M recently and trying to start a campaign with it. As long as people are offering sage advice in this thread.... can someone tell me if the Sidekick feat is really as crazy powerful as it seems?
One of my players is picking it up, it should be fine because it looks like I can't round that many people up to play, or at least I don't think I can...
Maybe the issue is how I read the feat, where the sidekick just has to have fewer pp than the Hero? Or is it that sidekick is subject to a rank 10 maximum and any abilities are still subject to the campaign max?

The Sidekick has Rank*5 pp, and is subject to your campaign limits and cannot exceed the heroes pp. So 5 pp gives a 25 pp sidekick. 10 pp gives a 50 pp sidekick. At max, a player may spend 29 pp to get a 145 pp side kick.

Given that, Sidekick is a powerful option, but to get a good amount of power from it requires a heavy investment.

[Blue Warlock]

The Sidekick has Rank*5 pp, and is subject to your campaign limits and cannot exceed the heroes pp. So 5 pp gives a 25 pp sidekick. 10 pp gives a 50 pp sidekick. At max, a player may spend 29 pp to get a 145 pp side kick.

Given that, Sidekick is a powerful option, but to get a good amount of power from it requires a heavy investment.

Ah, thats how I was ruling it, it just seems so crazy to put in 29pp and get out 145pp. For comparison, would it be on the same level of power as the leadership feat is in D&D 3.5?

[Haven]

Ah, thats how I was ruling it, it just seems so crazy to put in 29pp and get out 145pp. For comparison, would it be on the same level of power as the leadership feat is in D&D 3.5?

Well, the thing is that it's just supposed to be a compromise between building a sidekick using a 1:1 ratio and, well, D&D's Leadership feat where it's just a single feat expenditure for such a large number of followers.

A lot of the things in M&M are kind of like this: there's no hard and fast rules against, because the system's designed to be all about flexibility and building anything, but if the GM sees something broken they're allowed to veto it. The way caps works keeps things pretty balanced in general, so all you need to do is watch for things like a player making their blasts free actions or something.

In other words, if your player tries something like this you have the right to just go ahead and say no even if it's technically totally legal.

[Nightson]

I have been looking into M&M recently and trying to start a campaign with it. As long as people are offering sage advice in this thread.... can someone tell me if the Sidekick feat is really as crazy powerful as it seems?
One of my players is picking it up, it should be fine because it looks like I can't round that many people up to play, or at least I don't think I can...
Maybe the issue is how I read the feat, where the sidekick just has to have fewer pp than the Hero? Or is it that sidekick is subject to a rank 10 maximum and any abilities are still subject to the campaign max?

You won't find limits in the rulebooks, the limits come from the GM and from the character concept. So say a sidekick is meant to be a sidekick.

[Arakune]

I don't think you can have a sidekick with PL greater than the campaign, but you can have a 'sidekick' more powerful than you. But in this case, you say the 'sidekick' is the main character with the feat sidekick that just happen to listen to the orders of the official 'main character'.

[Blue Warlock]

Ah, thanks for that. The feat shouldn't be broken in the campaign that I am going to run because of the low number of players, but its something that I would try to keep an eye out for in the future, especially if people abuse it.

[awa]

you think sidekicks broken? take a look at summon hundreds or even thousands of side kick if i recall correctly.

[Arakune]

you think sidekicks broken? take a look at summon hundreds or even thousands of side kick if i recall correctly.

Summon minion. Altough lots of people freak out at that though, by the rules (and aparently the intent) it's supposed to be completly legal.

[GoatToucher]

MM is easily broken. The key to any game is a GM who will reign in players when he needs to. For some, that is a weakness in design. For others allowing players the flexibility to make the superhero they want is the defining strength of the game.