Mutants and Masterminds RPG
Steve Kenson
Steve Kenson had an idea about a superhero setting for a roleplaying game but couldn't sell it. The market for superhero roleplaying games in the 1990's just wasn't good, and none of the existing games wanted to publish his setting.
Green Ronin
But when he talked to Chris Pramas at Green Ronin publishing, he got a different response.
Pramas told Kenson that he'd publish his setting if he would develop a new superhero roleplaying game based on the d20 system. Thus was born Mutants and Masterminds.
Freedom City
Green Ronin published Mutants and Masterminds in 2002, and
they published Steve Kenson's superhero setting in 2003: Freedom City.
Since then, Mutants and Masterminds has arguably become the most
successful superhero rpg in existence.
Steve Kenson is an excellent writer. His rules in Mutants and Masterminds are easy to follow and understand, and his setting material in Freedom City are creative and engaging. And Green Ronin does an excellent job as a publisher. Not only is the level of graphics design on their books better than any other superhero roleplaying game's, but even their website designs are well put together.
How to Play Mutants and Masterminds
Buy the Mutants and Masterminds rulebook. We'll cover the basics of the game mechanics here, but we can't include enough information here for you to be able to play the game without the rules.
The game system for Mutants and Masterminds will be familiar to anyone who is familiar with Dungeons and Dragons or any other d20 based roleplaying game. Task resolution is completed by rolling a single 20 sided die, adding any appropriate modifiers, then comparing the result to a target number to determine success.
Classes and Levels
Almost all d20 based games have character classes, which are categories that the characters fall into. (In Dungeons and Dragons, famous character classes include the "Fighter" and the "Magic-user", for example.) These games also feature levels, which determine how powerful and experienced the characters are. A 2nd level Fighter is better than a 1st level Fighter, and so on. Mutants and Masterminds does not use traditional classes or levels.
Power Level and Power Points
Mutants and Masterminds characters do have a "Power Level", or "PL". Most traditional superhero campaigns start with characters at a PL of 10. The maximum rank a character can have for her abilities is determined by her Power Level. This Power Level also determines the number of power points a character has to buy powers, abilities, feats, skills, etc.
As characters gain experience, the gamemaster awards the characters with "Power Points", which can be used to purchase additional abilities, powers, skills, feats, etc. It's suggested that after a character receives 15 power points that her Power Level be increased by one, although the 2nd edition Mutants and Masterminds rules make the two number independent of each other.
Mutants and Masterminds' debt to the character creation and advancement system used in Champions is clear, as Champions used a similar point buy system for creating characters.
Hit Points
Combat is an almost universal activity in any roleplaying game, and "hit points" is a typical measure of how much damage a character can take before being knocked unconscious or killed. d20 characters generally increase how many hit points they have as they gain levels of experience. Mutants and Masterminds doesn't use hit points. (Although they do have optional rules for hit points if someone insists on using the game mechanic.)
Damage Saves and/or Toughness Saves
Instead of using hit points to determine when a character is knocked unconscious or killed, Mutants and Masterminds uses a system which emulates the ability of comic book superheroes to just shrug off most damage from attacks. This saving throw system also emulates the possibility of a lucky punch knocking someone out. Each character has a Damage Save or Toughness Save bonus which she adds to her d20 roll when checking for her saving throw. The target number is 15 plus the attacker's rank in their attack. If a character misses her saving throw, the effect is taken care of in terms of wounds. The number of wounds a character has received subtracts from future damage saving throws.
The Atomic Think Tank
The Atomic Think Tank is the official message board or forum for Mutants and Masterminds players and gamemasters. The forums include sections for rules questions, settings, Superlink, fan resources, GM advice, artwork, and player journals.
Mutants and Masterminds Settings and Supplements
Mutants and Masterminds doesn't have a default setting, but two important settings are available for the game: Freedom City and META-4.
Freedom City
Freedom City is the most supported Mutants and Masterminds setting, with a sourcebook of its own and other sourcebooks like Golden Age which are also set in Freedom City. The setting is a traditional superhero setting reminiscent of both Marvel and DC comic books.
Other sourcebooks set in the Freedom City setting include:
- Agents of Freedom
- Time of Vengeance
- Hero High
- Iron Age
META-4
Meta-4 is the setting that was referred to in the first adversary sourcebook published for Mutants and Masterminds, Crooks! According to the creators of this setting (Erik Mona, Kyle Hunter, and Sean Glenn), META-4 is more of a Planetary/Authority type universe, with a bit of Silver Age Marvel thrown in. The setting is darker and more political than the Freedom City setting. E-Core Central has some great articles about the META-4 setting for Mutants and Masterminds here.
Paragons
Paragons is a superhero setting that's NOT set in the four color world of traditional comic books. Instead, it's a world much more like our "real world", only with the awakening of various paranormal people. The setting is similar to the television show Heroes, and also takes inspiration from recent comic book movies from Marvel comics as well as the Ultimate Marvel universe. Steve Kenson is the creator of this setting, and he's written an adventure for the Paragons setting which is called A More Perfect Union.
Noir
The Noir setting for Mutants and Masterminds is a dark, low-power setting of flawed heroes. The sourcebook was obviously inspired by film noir. Christopher McGlothlin wrote this supplement.
Wild Cards
At the time of this writing, the Wild Cards supplements for Mutants and Masterminds still haven't been released, but a lot is known about the setting already. Wild Cards was originally a Superworld campaign run by sci-fi author George R.R. Martin, but eventually became a shared-world series of books written by multiple notable science fiction and fantasy authors. Wild Cards saw coverage in roleplaying games before when supplements for GURPS Supers were printed.
Nocturnals
Nocturnals is another licensed setting for Mutants and Masterminds. The setting is based on Dan Bereton's comic book series of the same name, and the supplement includes Doc Horror and the other Nocturnals characters described in Mutants and Masterminds game terms. The full name of this supplement is Nocturnals - A Midnight Companions.
Other Settings
Other companies have also created Mutants and Masterminds settings through the free license of M&M Superlink. Some of these settings include The Algernon Files, Bedlam, and San Angelo.
Mutants and Masterminds Superlink
Mutants and Masterminds Superlink is a free license to display a logo which indicated compatibility with the Mutants and Masterminds rules. This free license gives pretty much anyone who wants to the right to develop new settings and adventures for Mutants and Masterminds. Publishing supplemental material for Mutants and Masterminds using this license does require approval from Green Ronin, but it's easily obtained.
Some of the companies publishing Superlink material include:
- Adamant Entertainment
- Amazing Labs
- Arbor Productions
- Bailey Records
- Big Finger Games
- BlackWyrm Games
- Blue Devil Games
- Clockwork Goldem Workshop
- Cracked Mirror Publishing
- Gold Rush Games
- Inspired Device
- Khepera Publishing
- Lame Mage Productions
- The Le Games
- Lunar Dreams Design
- Misfit Studios
- Plain Brown Wrapper Games
- Protocol Zero Productions
- Reality Blurs
- Ronin Arts
- Sisyphus Books
- Tomorrow Publishing
- TPK Productions
- Xion Studios
- Z-Man Games
- Zombie Nirvana Games