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[Game on] M&M, when? New date proposal.
elkatas
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Mutants & Masterminds: Timetable
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Hero Team
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Villain team
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Final battle
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Hero Team
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Villain team
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Final battle
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Hypnotically inclined.
elkatas on
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I think the game I am running might be coming towards an end, and if so would be able to play assuming i had access to a PHB for the game.
No, I can write short summary of the rules. Plus I can also send* some pages from rulebook if summary isn't enough.
* This is one of the rare cases where I have bought both hard- and PDF-copy of the rulebook.
Have you, or the OP, ever seen or used the Hero System, which is the system behind Champions? It's the original superhero rpg, and I think it's the best PnP system ever. I haven't taken a good look at Mutants and Masterminds yet, but I like Hero so much that I think it'd be hard pressed to oust it as the best.
Well... how I should say this.... Hero is indeed fine system and does pretty much same as M&M and even more. But the problem with system is that it is heavy. Really heavy even if compared to D20. It is not really that beginner friendly and it does take lots of time to memorize all important pieces. But if your whole group knows how to use the system, then it is actually pretty fast.
I did wrote rules summary. About 3 pages when converted to PDF.
Ehh ? Champions was pretty good. Though I haven't played it in almost 15 years, so no idea what the system is like today (assuming the system has continued to evolve in that time).
It too was a point based system. No levels at all. Players were governed by their starting points and whatever they could get from taking on disadvantages (and also whatever limits the GM set). You'd be hard pressed to find a superpower that Champions could not simulate. Combat was complex enough to be interesting, but simple enough not to bog everything else down and get new people into things quickly.
Champions was based on Hero System, and worked pretty well then and would work even these days. But yeah, Champions jumped in the shark when company decided to change basic system from Hero to Fuzion. Fuzion was/is quite interesting hybrid of R. Talsorians Interlock* system and Hero System. As a general rulessystem it was "better" than Hero, but it didn't work well with superheroes.
* Interlock was the system that powered Cyberpunk 2020.
When we had Paranioa going last time, I had some of my favorite games ever.
I dunno. It's not problem for me, because I'm already mentally prepared to play during middle of night (I live in GMT +2).
And yes, I've tried Hero 5th, it's a great system but too complex for my tastes. I remember needing a calculator to make up my Champions characters. M&M is a lot simpler, but still has the same level of detail.
Yeah, that's not problem, as I have already written rules summary and can even send whole rulebook in form of PDF. Be warned though, 2nd edition was major step forward from 1st edition and editions aren't compatible with each other.
www.geocities.com/elkatas/Rules.pdf
It has most common gameplay rules, but no character creation. I want to discuss about character creation and powers invidually with each player.
I tried to write a response to this the other day, but firefox wouldn't let me post. Anyway, I can pretty much agree with this. It's a very deep system, but is also very complex and hard for beginners to pick up.
Anyway, sorry to derail. M&M! I haven't played it yet, but I'll probably pick it up one of these days.
Regarding that:
Are there any powers that you're going to rule right out from the start?
Precognition, postcognition and time travel are on the ban list. They are powers that work well as plot devices, but not really suitable for normal PCs.
What are the types of characters that you can play?
As said before, almost anything goes as character creation system is quite flexible. Before doing character we must of course discuss about style of the game and what era we are going to use. I mean brooding guy like Spawn would feel out-of-place in golden age WWII campaign. Or Superman in grim street level campaign.
I also checked what hero templates can be found from my M&M books:
Agent, Amphibian, Deadeye, Android, Angel, Animal Power, Archer, Battlesuit, Bulk, Costumed Adventurer, Cyborg, Dark Avenger, Demon, Duplicator, Elastic Hero, Energy Controller, Fortunate Hero, Gadgeteer, Illusionist, Jungle Lord, Living Flame, Living Weapon, Martial Artist, Mimic, Mystic, Mystic Warrior, Paragon, Plant Power, Powerhouse, Psionic, Psychic, Revenant, Ring Bearer, Robot, Shapeshifter, Size Changer, Solid Hero, Speedster, Star Child, Super Soldier, Teleporter, Wealthy Thrillseeker, Weapon Master, Weather Controller
Most of these should be pretty self-explanatory.
Occult / magic stuff is okay?
Totaly O.K.
I suppose my tolerance for divine beings isnt so strict, so long as they arent re-occuring characters, but the end result of a villians machinations.
For instance, the Hellboy Movie as a plot line wouldnt have bothered me (campy, noir/pulp type occult stuff), but if one of the enemies were a demon it would have grated on me(yes, i know that Hellboy is a demon or devil or something or other not human, but i suppose the complete lack of acknowledgement of that fact until the end did the story better)
It is just something i have with having all my favorite comic story arcs ruined by crap like time travel, aliens, and demons/angels that totaly dont fit into the idea of the comic that has turned me off onto adding those concepts into games, i feel like it ruins the game in the same one upmanship "we couldnt think of a decent plot" that it does for me in comics.
Golden age WWII Campaign: Our heroes are fighting on Allies side against evil of Axis States. From beautiful fjords of Norway to the harsh deserts of Egypt, this campaign gives players chance to kick some nazi ass and take part in one of the most important events of recent history. Pros and cons of this campaign are quite obvious. You have setting that is familiar to everyone and is also quite epic. Sides are clearly defined (good vs. bad guys), and team has logical reason to work together. In the other hand, some of us are already pretty tired of yet another World War II campaign. Plus though genre conventions are main strength of this campaign, they are its main weaknesses, because they can easily turn to stupid cliches or jokes. Main influences for this campaign are war era superhero comics.
Silver / Bronze Age Teen Campaign: In this campaign, our heroes are young superheroes that have just started fighting against crime on their own. They can be sidekicks of other, more well-known superheroes or just new kids of on the block. In addition of having that happy teenage power, we also have little bit of teenage angst and problems of growing up. Main influence for this campaign is Teen Titans.
Silver / Bronze Age Street-level campaign: This campaign is set into urban setting, where characters are city's sole defenders of justice. Characters solve crimes and fight against city's organized crime. Main benefit in this kind of campaign is that setting can and will be well defined (global campaigns don't have this benefits). This style also naturally puts some limits on characters, because telepaths aren't really welcome to campaign where characters solve crimes by using their logical deduction. Main influences for this campaign are Batman and Daredevil.
Silver / Bronze Age Global campaign: In this campaign characters are members of established superhero group that works globally. Characters are powerful, but so are also threats that they face. This is probably most common style of superhero campaign and should be well known to everyone. Main influences for this campaign are JLA and Avengers.
X-Treme Iron Age Campaign: In this campaign characters are k3wl and grim heroes that are fighting against evil villains around the world. Everything is black & white and things swing from extreme to another. Each character is required to have at least one of the following; beard, big gun, big pectoral muscles, cybernetic implants, k3wl lazer eye, lots of attitude, ponytail, skimpy clothes, teeths that are glued together. Everything and everyone in this campaign is so goddamn serious, that it starts approach pure camp (and that's how we would play this). Main influence for this kind of campaign is crap that Image Comics and Marvel published monthly basis on middle 90's.
Modern Age Soap Opera: In this campaign, superheroes are modern era celebrities that spend more time caring about their public image than fighting against crime. Instead of having epic fights, we have parties in ritzy places where "heroes" are trying to look so good as possible under watching of eye of public and backstab each other for whatever reason. In this campaign adventure isn't adventure if it doesn't end with dramatic cliffhanger where it is revealed that person X is pregnant with characters son. Or something like that, you probably got the point. Main influences for this campaign are Noble Causes and some more soapy X-Men stories.
Modern Horror: Hmh, it is often said that horror and superheroes don't mix well. Well, that isn't really case, but it is true that doing successfull superhero hero horror campaign is hard. In this game characters would probably be some kind of occult investigators. Player character power levels would be lower than normally and magic / PSI would be main source for powers. Main influences for this campaign are Hellboy and (to some extent) Hellblazer.
Then X-treeme Camp, followed by Horror or WWII golden age.
So far:
One vote for Street Level
Also, what PL will this campaign be?
Well, it depends on genre. If we are going for global, probably 10, maybe even 12. If streetlevel, then 8 or 10. Horror could go so low as 6.
I could stand any of the listed types, actually. With the exception of the WWII one.
Edit: on second thought, regardless of how much I enjoy The Specials, I probably wouldn't get as much of a kick out of a Soap Opera game.
Nope, seems pretty clear.
Get high attack, get lots of toughness, do lots of damage = good.
Yup. By reading that PDF it can look that putting your points to high toughness is way to go, but then your character is probably pretty suspectible for more subtle powers that require other kinds of saving throws than toughness. Some examples: Mind Control, Mental Blast, Dazzle, Snare.
When we get fourth player and have determined style that suits everybody, we can start to look for character creation. Relatively simple character concepts are probably best for beginners.
Think I can take part?
Yeah, but now we have hit cap for amount of players. Six or more players would be too much pain in the ass to GM, especially on IRC. And here are the votes so far:
Goumindong: Street, can do Global
Powerslave: Modern & Teen, can do Global, won't do WWII
Al Baron: Global, can do street
Kayne Red Robe: Anything goes
Trenog: Hasn't said yet
By looking results so far, it looks that we are probably going for global with heavy influences from other styles.