Mutants & Masterminds

Has anyone here played Mutants And Masterminds from Green Ronin? I am
looking for a cross-genre game system (SF, fantasy, superheroes, modern)
that is less tedious in play than Hero System, that doesn't require
software in order to create and maintain a character, and that I do not
have to write myself (who has the time?).

I have heard good things about Fudge, but for my tastes Fudge leaves
entirely too much work to the GM to define everything in the game, and
the superpower creation rules I have found for Fudge on the web aren't
any simpler than the power creation rules in Hero System.

I have heard good things about Big Eyes Small Mouth/Silver Age
Sentinels, but when I looked at the character creation rules, it looks
every bit as complicated as Hero System, so why switch?

Which brings me to Mutants And Masterminds. I have heard good things
about Mutants And Masterminds, but I have never seen it, and was
wondering if anyone here had ever played or GM'd it.

Here are some things I would consider improvements over Hero System:

Cut the number of Attributes by half (or even by two-thirds).

Make it feasible to create a character sheet in less than an hour,
without the use of a computer.

Reduce or even eliminate the special cases, like "this Advantage costs X
unless it is applied to Power Y, in which case it costs Z" and "this
Power has Effect Q unless the character also has Power R, in which case
it has Effect S". That sort of thing.

--
Brandon Blackmoor
bblackmoor.RemoveThis@blackgate.net
2006-06-12

Brandon Blackmoor wrote:

> Has anyone here played Mutants And Masterminds from Green Ronin? I am
> looking for a cross-genre game system (SF, fantasy, superheroes, modern)
> that is less tedious in play than Hero System, that doesn't require
> software in order to create and maintain a character, and that I do not
> have to write myself (who has the time?).

I have it but haven't played it.
Character construction is heavier than Fuzion and lighter than Hero.
About equal to Silver Age Sentinels.
Should handle cross genre fine, or at least as well as Hero for
most purposes, though the rules concentrated on superheroics currently.

> I have heard good things about Big Eyes Small Mouth/Silver Age
> Sentinels, but when I looked at the character creation rules, it looks
> every bit as complicated as Hero System, so why switch?

It is simpler than Hero, as is Mutants and Masterminds, but not by
a radical amount.

> Here are some things I would consider improvements over Hero System:
>
> Cut the number of Attributes by half (or even by two-thirds).

M&M uses the standard D20 six attributes.
SAS uses either D20's six or BESM's three depending on which version
you use.

> Make it feasible to create a character sheet in less than an hour,
> without the use of a computer.

M&M and SAS don't require the multiplication and division of Hero,
but they still include lots of addition and subtraction.
It may be best to do rough drafts on computer and adjust as needed,
but hey, I've resorted to that for D&D 3.x at this point...

> Reduce or even eliminate the special cases, like "this Advantage costs X
> unless it is applied to Power Y, in which case it costs Z" and "this
> Power has Effect Q unless the character also has Power R, in which case
> it has Effect S". That sort of thing.

Don't remember much of that in Hero, but what little there was I'd
say there is less in both M&M and SAS.

For what it's worth my players are asking me to run supers soon.
I told them I would under one of four systems:
Hero, M&M, Aberrant, or SAGA.

I rejected SAS as too quirky.
So far the players are leaning towards M&M because "Hero is
too complex", "Aberrant isn't like the comics", and "Using cards
is too weird".
(I hate that last one!)




--

Perhaps the greatest evil of the American people is apathy!
But who cares?