Mutants and Masterminds...

[kkortekaas]

Greetings all,
I'm considering purchasing the core rulebook as well as a couple additional source bokos with the credit I'll be receiving from Paizo in September.

Can anyone provide insight into the M&M system?
Recomended source books?
Suggest things I should stay away from?
Positive / Negative experiences with the system?

Thanks for your feedback.
Kkortekaas

[TroyXavier]

I've enjoyed the system for quite a while. Besides the core book...Freedom City is a great setting book. Beginner's Guide can be very useful. Ultimate Power is also very good.

[Runeclaw]

Are you looking at 1st Ed or 2nd Ed? I've played a lot of 1st Ed, have only recently begun playing 2nd Ed.

It's very similar to standard D20 rules, with a couple of big exceptions. No Hit Points - instead you mage a damage (or toughness) save vs. the amt of damage you took to determine the effect. And no Attacks of Oppourtunity (although 2nd ed allows them as an option) (and there are options for Hit Points as well).

You have to have a good group of players and a vigilant GM, I think, because its possible to build characters at the same theoretical Power Level that are vastly different in actual power. There are a lot of 'save or suck' powers that are easily availble that can be abusive if not used sparingly.

It is very flexible, and nearly any concept from any genre can be created with a bit of work (its designed for superheroes, obviously, but that's a very wide-open genre which included everything from typical fantasty wizards and warriors, to robots, to super-soliders, to marital-artists, to classic 'superheroes' like Superman, to really whatever).

If you're playing 1st Ed, I reccomend making things like Super Abilities and Amazing Saves availble to pretty much anyone who wants them, as without them you will very quickly have 0 chance to save against anything.

In first ed, Super Dexterity is probably overpowered, as are the 'Combat Mastery' powers from Gimmick's Guide. But, then, overpowered compared to what, you might ask, since other powers give the 'save or suck' options. Its hard to figure out how to balance combat power (attack bonus and damage) vs. 'save or suck', but that's probably true of any d20 system.

Its been a good system for us all in all, we've had a game running weekly for two years - just about to have our "Issue #100".

[Diggorian]

Classless D20 that's virtually level-less. I've played four Superhero campaigns using it, two in the new 2nd Ed., and even ran a short modern game with it. Definately worth the money.

[PnP Fan]

Core MnM v 2.0 is fantastic. The best Superhero game I've ever played. If you want to give your game some specific flavor, or pick up some meta-thinking the Mastermind's Manual is a must. Otherwise most of their splatbooks are about one genre of supers or another, and they're all written well.

[Khantalas]

Why, it's the World's Greatest Superhero RPG! It even says so right on the cover!

[Beleriphon]

Greetings all,
I'm considering purchasing the core rulebook as well as a couple additional source bokos with the credit I'll be receiving from Paizo in September.

Can anyone provide insight into the M&M system?
Recomended source books?
Suggest things I should stay away from?
Positive / Negative experiences with the system?

Thanks for your feedback.
Kkortekaas

I will respond!

Core Rules, Ultimate Power, and Freedom City. These three form the holy trinity of Mutants and Masterminds players. The core rules are obvious. Ultimate Power expands on super powers dramatically and breaks down everything into easy to use effects. Freedom City is one of the best setting books I've ever had the pleasure to read.

Anything else for second edition is based entirely on your preference of comic book style mayhem. Iron Age is coming out, Golden Age is out, Hero High (teen supers) is coming out as well and there are tons of other supplements. Agents of Freedom is a superspy/SHIELD style book about running a game with the players as the local SHIELDesque agency.

Issue in the rules. Some powers are broken, really broken. But they are specifically called out as broken and have suggestions about how to make them playable within the rules. The reason they are included is for completeness and genre conventions.

The system as a whole is very easy to use, and anybody that makes any effort to make a reasonably effective character that is good at something you will have fun. The default setting (Freedom City) is sort of a modern age comic book setting. It tends towards a sort of X-Men style team game as a whole so that is something to keep in mind if you plan on GMing.

I have yet to see any real negative criticism of the system, or experiences. I've found that its generally easy enough to run, and as an effects based system, you can run any type of game you want. I've created stats for Luke Skywalker and he can fairly defeat most superheroes or vice versa.

[sun_tzu]

I've been running a campaign on this board through play-by-post for nearly a year, and it has gone extremely well (admittedly, that was in part due to my lucking out and getting excellent players).

[Rob Knotts]

I'd recommend starting out with the core book and Freedom City. FC isn't to everyone's taste, but it does give a lot of good examples of what to put into a setting. It also does a good job of looking a lot like DC but working in almost as much stuff from Marvel, overall a lot of good examples on how to rework familiar characters and stories so they don't just look like cut/paste jobs.