Mutants & Masterminds 3.2 [playtest]

[SwordCoastTaxi]

Hi! I'm looking to run a quick 1-shot to test out the new M&M rules included in the free Valiant Adventures Quickstart rules. Some of the changes are the addition of "Advantage & Disadvantage" and a deadlier Damage system. Looks like the majority of changes to advantages and effects will be released later this year. But having the Quickstart rules along with the free core rules is enough for this project.

Before I bother with a 16 is anyone tentatively interested?

Spoiler: 16 FAQ

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1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)?
Mutants & Masterminds 3e with "3.2" rules changes.

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (eg. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)?
Supers in an alternate Marvel Earth set in Summer 2024. The usual supers like Spider-Man, the Avengers, and the X-men exist along with the usual villains.This is not the MCU.

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many?
Four or five players with alternates.

4. What's the gaming medium (OOTS, chat, e-mail etc.)?
OOTS.

5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)?
Power Level 8, 150 Power Points (PL8 is the new suggested benchmarks for starting supers, replacing PL10).

6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with?
Players decide for their individual characters.

7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes?
Supers can be comical like Deadpool or serious like Watchmen or traditional like Superman.

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species?
Supers can be human, mutant, mutate, cyborg, extraterrestrial, or extradimensional.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points?
The usual point-buy.

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so?
No homicidal maniacs (Joker, Thanos). Heavy-handed supers like Deadpool and the Punisher are anti-heroes which is ok.

11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it?
Not applicable for M&M.

12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them?
I'll create a link so players can roll for their characters on the site forum.

13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules.
All variant rules we're using will be in the Valiant Adventurers quickstart set. Players can download the quickstart for free.

14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)?
Background stories can be as short or long as a player wants. The supers can be from anywhere but the 1-shot begins in an alternate modern Marvel New York City during the summer of 2024.

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, role-playing, or a combination of the above?
Expect a combination to test the new rules.

16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters?
The core M&M 3e rules
The Valiant Adventures Quickstart
Power Profiles

17. How long will recruitment last?
Until noon on 2/10/24.

18. Any banned powers?
Time Travel is out. Precognition is ok but limited to no more than 1 minute into the future. Some of the powers in Power Profiles like Teleport (reaction) and Immunity to Ranged Attacks are banned.

Spoiler: Setting

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Setting: Earth-2024:

• Millions of years ago an enigmatic race of giant 'super-aliens' named the Celestials
  arrived on Earth. They experimented with the early humans which led to humanity
  developing a gene that could produce superhuman abilities. This led directly to the
  appearance of mutants (those who developed superhuman abilities usually during
  puberty) and mutates (those who developed superhuman abilities due to some external
  stimuli).
• Thousands of years ago superhumans began emerging with greater frequency and their
  actions led to the ancient stories of "mythological entities and monsters". Many of
  these ancient supers were even worshipped as "gods" and magicians and their battles
  against each other often caused the fall of entire civilizations. While many of
  these supers traveled the world or established themselves as "God-Kings" there were
  groups of them that were able to cross over into other dimensions they would claim as
  their new home.
• WW1 marked the first appearance of costumed "superheroes" in the form Freedom's Five,
  a team of international supers united against the German government.
• WW2 included the appearance of a new team of "Ally"-based supers named the Invaders
  who fought against the forces of the Axis.
• The 1960's was a hallmark era as many new superhero teams emerged to challenge the
  rise of "supercriminals" and the threat they posed to the world. Among them were the
  Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-men. These and many more superheroes answered the call
  of heroism for many decades leading up to today.

Player	Character	Type	Status	Party role
Benoojian	Bioshock	Biokinetic	Complete	Healing, surveillance, ranged combat
Rook.Gamer	Quarry	Powerhouse	Complete	Meta-stopping power, heavy lifting, ballistic defense
JeminiZero	Magic Girl Jenova	Mage	Complete	Meta-utility, transport
RossN	Mistral	Speedster	Complete	Offense, ground control, diversion

[Phobia]

Yes very interested

[Rook.Gamer]

Absolutely interested!!!

[Rokku]

Absolutely.

[RocknRollFTW]

Always down for M&M 3E.

[Cerespirin]

I'd love the opportunity to play MnM, given that I fell in love with the system some five years ago now and still haven't had any good opportunities to actually play it. I can't say I'm crazy about some new playtest, though.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

I posted a FAQ sheet on the OP for players looking to jump in on this. I forgot to mention character sheets: please use the Myth-Weaver M&M 3e sheet because it's very easy for me to read. Any questions, just ask.

[Batcathat]

Potentially interested. I do love M&M and it's been a weirdly long time since I used it to actually play a "standard" superhero game.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

This is definitely a "standard supers" 1-shot with the well-known Marvel superheroes staying out of the players' way. Players can pitch ideas and begin creating your supers now.

Some of the changes:

• Advantage/Disadvantage from D&D 5e has arrived full circle in the form of Bonus (Advantage)/Penalty (Disadvantage) Dice. This already existed in M&M 3rd in the form of the 'Second Chance' advantage, but this rules update makes the feature more broad. Looks like a plus to me.
• The Technology skill has been broken into three separate skills: Computers, Mechanics and Electronics.
• The Vehicles skill is replaced with 'Driving' which limits the type of vehicle known to ground-based vehicles. That's kind of weird especially since I don't see a 'Pilot' skill.
• A new skill 'Thievery' is added which seems to be a hybrid of Technology: Security + Sleight of Hand. But, Sleight of Hand also remains an available skill so another shrug there.
• Athletics: Leaping looks broken in a bad way: leaping distance in meters x6 = check DC ??????
• Intimidation and Persuasion have been buffed to operate almost like soft-form Mind Control when combined with the new Overwhelm action, which can be used on groups of Minion-level characters. Looks like Green Ronin decided to finally give Presence some value (Overwhelm seems to be a new advantage, I think but these supers won't need it to use the action)
• Damage resistance checks have been nerfed to DC10 + effect rank. I would have preferred the non-Damage DC being raised to 15. Automatically this looks like combat will take even longer to resolve (unless the GM hand-waves a conclusion)
• The Concentrate action has returned from 2nd edition (sorta) and should immediately impact mental powers: the majority of 2nd edition mental powers (Telepathy, ESP, Mind Control and others) had a duration of Concentration
• Damage got nastier: succeeding on a Toughness check still brings a -1 penalty (Bruised or Injured depending on normal or lethal damage) to further Toughness checks and recovery time from certain conditions increased. That makes Impervious Toughness far more valuable especially with new Lethal damage rules that can bring a deadly Iron-Age grittiness to how combat works.

[Darkstorm]

Most of those seem like good changes, although some things like skill/powers unbalance seems to keep existing.

But overall seems like a good set of rules to try.

[Benoojian]

My immediate reaction to this was "ooh I want to create an electricity hero but specifically bioelectricity so I can use it to heal a bit as well as harming enemies and messing with their nervous systems" Cue to opening the Quickstart PDF and seeing Panacea.

[RocknRollFTW]

My immediate reaction to this was "ooh I want to create an electricity hero but specifically bioelectricity so I can use it to heal a bit as well as harming enemies and messing with their nervous systems" Cue to opening the Quickstart PDF and seeing Panacea.

Great minds think alike I guess. XD

[ProgressPaladin]

I maggot want to play, but will be my first time using the system. Would that be ok?

[SwordCoastTaxi]

I maggot want to play, but will be my first time using the system. Would that be ok?

Sure. What kind of super do you want to play?

[ProgressPaladin]

Well, we are using premade characters right? And isn’t ace tailored for beginners?

[Rook.Gamer]

I am currently working on making a my character. His name is Quarry, he’s a massive stone giant and the alternate form of teenager Elliot Bourne. Just trying to get the last of the mechanics ironed out and entered onto the Myth Weavers sheet.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

Well, we are using premade characters right? And isn’t ace tailored for beginners?

You can use premade supers or make an original one. The VAQ characters are beginners if they're PL8.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

I am currently working on making a my character. His name is Quarry, he’s a massive stone giant and the alternate form of teenager Elliot Bourne. Just trying to get the last of the mechanics ironed out and entered onto the Myth Weavers sheet.

Awesome! If you need help let me know.

[Rook.Gamer]

Absolutely! Will do and thank you for the offer.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

Some basic setting info was added on the OP but it's open enough for players to insert their own ideas.

[JeminiZero]

I have an extra dimensional mage built under the 3.0 system, that *shouldn't* need too much revising for 3.2.

Edit: Spoke too soon. Regeneration has been changed back to 2E, with different conditions taking different amounts of time.

Advantage/Disadvantage from D&D 5e has arrived full circle in the form of Bonus (Advantage)/Penalty (Disadvantage) Dice. This already existed in M&M 3rd in the form of the 'Second Chance' advantage, but this rules update makes the feature more broad. Looks like a plus to me.

This apparently affects area attacks. Succeeding the initial Dodge save grants a bonus die.

A new skill 'Thievery' is added which seems to be a hybrid of Technology: Security + Sleight of Hand. But, Sleight of Hand also remains an available skill so another shrug there.

From the free PDF at least, 'Thievery' only covers Security/Disable Device.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

I have an extra dimensional mage built under the 3.0 system, that *shouldn't* need too much revising for 3.2.

Edit: Spoke too soon. Regeneration has been changed back to 2E, with different conditions taking different amounts of time.


This apparently affects area attacks. Succeeding the initial Dodge save grants a bonus die.


From the free PDF at least, 'Thievery' only covers Security/Disable Device.

Agreed on all your points. You got me excited with an 'extradimensional mage' though. Still going with them?

[Batcathat]

I'm also leaning towards reusing a slightly altered previous character that I'm quite fond of but never got to play for very long. I haven't finished moving him over to Mythweavers yet (or decided on exactly what I have to/want to change), but here's an image to give you a rough idea of what he's about.

Spoiler: Spoilered since it's slightly big

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[SwordCoastTaxi]

I'm also leaning towards reusing a slightly altered previous character that I'm quite fond of but never got to play for very long. I haven't finished moving him over to Mythweavers yet (or decided on exactly what I have to/want to change), but here's an image to give you a rough idea of what he's about.

Spoiler: Spoilered since it's slightly big

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He looks horrific? Spooky supers like Ghost-Rider or Hellboy are always fun in my opinion.

[Batcathat]

He looks horrific? Spooky supers like Ghost-Rider or Hellboy are always fun in my opinion.

Yeah, he's basically one part Lovecraftian abomination, one part grimdark 90s superhero, one part cheesy Silver Age superhero (okay, so that's mostly in his name) and two parts grumpy teenager.

[JeminiZero]

Well, now I feel thoroughly unoriginal for posting this:

Edit: Magic Girl Jenova moved to here.

[Batcathat]

Well, now I feel thoroughly unoriginal for posting this:

Nice, our group can be the X-Men of people powered by horrifying abominations from outside reality.

More seriously, while Cthul-Lad and Jenova kind of come from a similar place (funnily enough, Cthul-Lad is also the result of a ritual gone horribly wrong, though it was entirely his own fault), the results are very different (both of them are strong and immortal, but that's about it).

[SwordCoastTaxi]

JeminiZero dropped a sheet but that's it. Anyone still interested in this? If using Mythweaver is a problem then you can use your own format.

[Batcathat]

JeminiZero dropped a sheet but that's it. Anyone still interested in this? If using Mythweaver is a problem then you can use your own format.

I'm still interested (and really hoping to actually get to play Cthul-Lad for once ). The sheet isn't entirely finished (especially the fluffy parts, the history isn't up to the present and the personality is just copied from Complications) but most of it's there.

[Lord of Gifts]

I’m interested, although I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get an application finished by the 10th.