Gaming in the Third World

I’m fiddling around with Mutants and Masterminds at the moment, and I’ve been trying to come up with a sample build to get used to the trickier aspects of the game.  This post is going to get a little bit more mechanical than usual, so please bear with me.

It’s also an open call to those who are used to the M&M system.  I’m a HERO guy at heart, so any help will be great.

Okay… for our sample character, let’s work with Megavolt, a PL 6 gadgeteer with the following gadgets:

• A Jetpack
• Energy Gauntlets that can fire electromagnetic beams, or compress electromagnetic energy into a sword-like hand to hand weapon

Seems simple enough.  So, let’s get to work:

The Jetpack seems pretty straightforward.  M&M has a Power called Device used to simulate magic items or high-tech gizmos that grant powers to the user.  1 rank of Device grants 5 Power Points worth of effect, neatly bundled up in some special effect object.  Since a Jetpack isn’t something I want to be easily taken off, I’ll buy it at the 4 point per rank price.

So:
4 Power Points = 1 rank of Device containing 5 PP of powers.

A Jetpack is obviously for flying, so let’s grab the Flight Power which costs 2 points per rank.  2 Ranks of Flight allows the character to go 25 mph, a decent speed in combat, and for a total cost of 4 PP.  Did I really save any points for buying a device?  Not really.

So let’s see what happens if we try to slap on a second power in the same device and see if we can get more mileage out of it since that’s 1 wasted point from the 1 rank of Device.

So let’s slap on an extra rank of Device:

8 Power Points = 2 ranks of Device containing 10 PP of powers, 4 of which is dedicated to Flight.

Given that we now have 6 PP leftover, and that Force Field is 1PP per rank, let’s max it out.

Furthermore, I’m interested in the Restricted Feat, that basically means that nobody else can use this device but the character who bought it.

so, the final build looks like:

10 PP Electromagnetic Propulsion Jetpack: Device 2 (difficult to take away, feat: Restricted, self-only) Powers: (Flight 2, Force Field 6)

—-

The next item on the agenda would be the gauntlets.  From the way it looks, it’s yet another Device, also difficult to take away since it can’t be disarmed.   Primary power for the Gauntlets would be a Strike Power, at 2 PP per rank, and a secondary power using the Alternate Power feat, would be a Blast, at 1 PP per rank, with the Accurate and Autofire feats on them.

so here we go with 3 ranks of Device:

14 PP Electromagnetic Gauntlets: Device 3 (difficult to lose, feat: Restricted, self-only) Powers: (Strike 6 [Feat: Alternate Power], Blast 6 [Accurate, Autofire] )

—

So, for 24 PP we’ve got a guy who can fly, has some measure of defense, and a ranged and close combat attack.  Overall not too shabby for a PL 6 game with a budget of 90 PP for everything.

Of course, I’m not entirely certain of my understanding of the system just yet, so that’s where you come in.  If you’re a veteran of M&M, comment and tell me where I went wrong or how to make it better.

Normally the concern with a Supers Campaign is coming up with enough villains.  I have a strange habit of actually cooking up individual rogues galleries for each of my players.  I find that doing this is actually more beneficial since the Players feel that the spotlight is on them by virtue of having a Nemesis in play.

While starting with a nemesis off the bat is probably not a good idea, I like introducing a few of them early on even in news reports or even rumors and information taken from mooks that the heros get to slap around a bit.

There’s a slight shift in the formula for the Mutants & Masterminds campaign in the sense that I’m actually planning to run it at a street-level setting.  That means that there’s less of the grandstanding villains, and more of the crime families and career villains.  Assassins, Thieves, and old fashioned thugs compose most of them, while I reduce the ratio of more exotic villains… specifically those like Mind Control, Elemental Control and most Alien or Supernatural villains.

I’m still waiting for some of my players to finalize their character concepts, but I’m already beginning to work on possible threats and allies for their squad.  Here’s hoping that I pull this off right.

I’ll be perfectly honest… I’ve only run a single supers campaign before, but I think that still qualifies me to write about my experiences with it.

Personally, I find the super-hero genre more relaxing than most of my usual campaigns for the following reasons:

• Melodrama is expected – Or even required.  More ruthless players will ease off in a supers campaign, knowing the tropes of the medium usually helps people focus less on being a badass, and a little more on thrilling heroics.  Furthermore, people are willing to accept setbacks and complications to a given situation.
• There’s always the hard questions - Supers is most memorable when you ask the hard questions.  Save your girlfriend, or a busload of innocents?  Which matters more?  What if you’re a paragon of justice and hounded by the media?  Will that affect your decision?  There is drama in conflict that doesn’t involve beating people senseless all the time.
• It can run the range of emotions – Supers can be comedic then suddenly serious without breaking the overall tone.  Likewise tragedy has it’s place in any supers game even without it having to be spelled out.
• Teamwork – I love teamwork.  I like it even more when people are actually teaming up to achieve a goal.  I’ve seen a lot of this in my previous game, and I’m expecting more of it in this one.

Tomorrow is character creation / character conceptualization day, so I’m hoping that we can get a better picture of the characters as well as their background and capabilities so I can start planning in earnest