Time to review another role playing game (RPG) derived from Dungeons & Dragons - Mutants and Masterminds (M&M)! M&M is a superhero RPG using a point buy mechanic to create characters. Doesn’t sound much like D&D? No, it doesn’t. The third edition has evolved a long way from its D&D roots, even more than the second edition. For example, the second edition character abilities were the same six as D&D. In the third edition, there are eight character abilities, some of which are similar to those in D&D. Usually in these reviews, I describe notable or interesting differences from D&D. In this case, I will call out the similarities before going on to describe the system as a whole.
Similarities with D&D:
Core mechanic: The basic method of doing something in both systems is to roll a d20, add or subtract modifiers, and compare the result against a difficulty class (DC). In M&M, how much a character succeeds or fails by matters. Just meeting the DC gives the character one success. Every 5 over the DC adds another success. Failing to meet the DC is one failure. Every 5 below the DC adds another failure. The number of successes and failures do not always matter, but they can determine extra effects.
Abilities: Characters have abilities. Strength is similar to D&D’s strength ability, except for melee attack modifiers. Stamina is roughly equivalent to D&D’s Constitution. Agility and dexterity combined are D&D’s dexterity. Agility represents physical coordination and suppleness. M&M’s dexterity represents eye-hand coordination. Fighting applies melee attack modifiers, rather than D&D’s strength. Intellect is similar to D&D’s intelligence. Awareness is similar to D&D’s wisdom. Presence is similar to D&D’s charisma.
Skills: Skills work pretty much the same, except when figuring out how well a character is trained in a skill. In D&D, a character can be untrained, proficient (adds modifier equal to proficiency bonus), or expert (adds modifier equal to twice proficiency bonus). In M&M, each skill has a rank. Each rank adds the same number as a modifier to the skill check. In both systems, the skill check includes the modifier for the ability associated with the skill. Most skills have the same name and effect as their D&D equivalent. The exceptions are Close Combat (adds modifier when using a specific weapon type for a melee attack or for unarmed combat), Expertise (adds modifier when character uses their knowledge of a subject outside of combat), Ranged Combat (adds modifier when using a specific weapon type for a ranged attack), Technology (adds modifier when trying to do something tricky with a bit of electronics), and Vehicles (adds modifier when trying to do something tricky with a car, boat, spaceship, etc.)
Initiative: Rolling initiative for combat works the same as in D&D. Except there are ways for characters to buy modifiers for initiative. I played a character in a brief M&M session that had a +93 to initiative. That character would almost always go first. Of course, there is a way for a character to get the ability to go first, no matter what anyone else rolls for initiative.
Actions: In an M&M combat round, a character can take a standard action, a move action, and any number of free actions. M&M does not have any bonus or minor actions. Movement is, by default, performed either before or after the standard action. Since it is M&M, there are ways for characters to gain the ability to move both before and after the standard action.
The above list leaves a lot of M&M mechanisms which do not have D&D equivalents. In particular, character creation is vastly different from D&D. The combat mechanisms are somewhat different, although combat does feel a lot like that in its ancestor system. M&M focuses on combat much more than on the exploration or social pillars. Not that it ignores these pillars. It just provides few mechanisms to support them. Non-combat scenes, if they exist in a particular game, would rely heavily on roll play.
Everything about character creation, except flavor, is based around a point buy mechanic. The basic conceit of M&M is that a player comes up with a character concept and then figures out how to represent that concept with a combination of abilities, skills, powers, and advantages. All of these cost points. The number of points available is determined by the power level set by the game master.
Ability scores range from -5 to 20. Zero represents the human average. Seven represents human peak achievement. Attack and defense scores, as well as skill check bonuses are affected by ability scores. Generally, ability scores are the least complicated and least interesting aspect of character creation.
A player can buy their character ranks in any or all skills. Check modifiers from skills can be pretty high, compared to modifiers from ability scores, since buying ranks in skills is pretty cheap. Of course, modifiers from abilities apply to several different skills. Skill effects also have quite a bit less impact on combat than powers.
Advantages were called feats in previous versions of M&M. They fit in roughly the same gameplay space as D&D feats. I did not include them in my list of similarities with D&D, because advantages are often either provide more narrow benefits than feats (example - Prone Fighting removes any penalties for fighting while prone) or are inherent to the character, rather than learned (example - Attractive provides bonuses to deception and persuasion checks). In the world of M&M, advantages seem to provide moderate bonuses that are used to round out character concepts.
M&M is a superhero game. Of course the most important part of character creation are the powers. (Equipment based characters, such as Nocturnal Flying Rodent Man or Steel Suit Man, are an exception. They would focus on advantages, abilities, and skills.)
A power has a base effect. A player can then add enhancements (for extra cost), drawbacks (for reduced cost), and flavor (usually for no cost). For example, Damage is the basic combat power. It can be augmented by making it ranged or giving it increased accuracy. The power can have a drawback, such as requiring so much concentration to use it that the character becomes vulnerable to attacks that turn. For flavor, the attack can be a mental blast, a bolt of light, or a jet of flame. All do the same damage, so there is no change in the cost of the power.
The problem with powers is their potential complexity. Some powers, such as mind control, are included explicitly. But M&M wants to provide a way to create any character a player can imagine. So there are general purpose powers like Damage, Affliction (which imposes a condition on another character), and Feature (which provides an occasionally useful, game affecting ability). Fundamentally, if a player wants their character to have a direct attack, they work with the Damage power. If a player wants to afflict some sort of bane on another character, they use Affliction. If a player wants to buff their character in some way not provided by explicit advantages or powers, they use Feature.
This flexibility can make building a power very complicated. Let’s try to build a power a character can use to possess another character. (I’m not an expert on this, so this might not be the easiest way!)
First, take the Affliction power. The goal is to control the other character. The target must fail a will saving throw by at least 10 (three failures) in order to be controlled. The save DC is 10 + the Affliction rank. Since any character that is not a minion will probably have a 5 or more will modifier, the player will have to spend a bunch of points to get a high enough rank to have a decent chance of success. (15 points to have about a 50% chance of success (DC 25))
Let’s make it a little easier to get those three failures. The Cumulative extra adds failures from each successive attempt to control the character, rather than resetting after each attempt. Three failures can be achieved with two control attempts, one with one failure and one with two failures. (15 points)
The player then needs to add the Concentration extra. Once the character has achieved the possession, they can maintain it by spending their standard action each turn, until the target makes their will save. (15 points)
The character needs to be able to communicate with the target mentally, rather than verbally. That requires a rank or two in the Communication (Mental) power. (4 points for a range of 100 feet.)
Finally, the character needs to perceive whatever their target would perceive. That requires 5 ranks in the Remote Sensing power. If the player wants their character to be able to use their own senses at the same time, they could add the Simultaneous benefit. Adding the flaw that the power is Limited to the character being mind control reduces the cost a little. (5 points for a range of 60 feet.)
That is a total of 54 points, more than a third of those available in a standard game (150 points). And the character needs to stay within 60 feet of their target. To enable the character to sit back and send their target anywhere in the city would more than double that cost. A very powerful ability, but the character would not be able to do much else.
I wanted to see how long it would take for a neophyte to create a character from scratch. I spent about an hour creating a ghost wolf. My wolf was smart and agile, with high Intellect and Agility abilities. I also gave it a high Presence stat to bolster my desire to make it very intimidating. I sunk some points into the Intimidation skill, too. I made it very stealthy - ghosts do not make any noise or have any scent.
For powers, I gave it an innate,permanent Insubstantial power. Damage with an extra to make it affect corporeal beings to give it a ghostly bite (plus points in the Close Combat skill to make it easy to land the attack). Add some low-light, tracking, and acute olfactory senses to make it more wolfy. An animal empathy advantage to help it communicate with animals. Telepathy to allow it to communicate with sentients. That all got me to the wolf I had envisioned.
I had some points left, so I gave it a super-canine speed, added an advantage that allows it to use its Intimidation to make a feint, allowed it to chain attacks against minions, made it lucky to add some rerolls, and a few other things to make it a little more effective in combat. It might not be great against a boss, but it should be pretty good against minions and mid-level baddies. It would also make really interesting rollplaying.
That leaves combat. Like D&D, M&M has turn-based combat with turn order determined by initiative rolls. Unlike D&D, M&M does not use armor class for defense. Instead, the attack roll target is determined by the defender’s defense class. The defense class is 10 + Parry (Fighting ability) for melee combat, 10 + Dodge (Agility ability) for ranged attacks, or 10 + Will (Awareness ability) for mental attacks. If an attack hits, it does not do damage unless it overcomes the defender’s damage resistance. The defender makes a toughness check with a DC of the damage + 15. Success means no damage. One failure means that the target has a cumulative -1 against further toughness checks against damage. Two failures means that the target is also dazed. Another failure staggers the defender. Another failure, or three or more failures on a subsequent attack, the defender is incapacitated. Effectively, the defender it taken out of the combat. In M&M, death is rare and only occurs in particular circumstances, such as suffocation.
As I alluded to above, I have played a little bit of M&M, one combat scene, using a pregenerated character. The combat was fun. It did feel like it was from a comic book. Mechanically, I would say the complexity is on par with D&D 5E.
The area of concern is character creation. M&M tries to balance accommodating player imagination with keeping the rulebooks to a reasonable length. This means that long lists of powers and abilities are greatly shortened by providing options that can be manipulated into implementing the player’s ideas. However, that flexibility results in considerable ambiguity in some of these options.
M&M does provide several recipes which can be used as-is or to help the player understand the system. For example, a player might think that a speedster only needs the Speed power. The recipe provided includes Enhanced Initiative (addition modifier to initiative rolls) and Quickness (the ability to perform tasks faster than normal). The Speed power only affects movement speed. I find that this building block approach would make it easy to leave out some desired capability that the player either did not identify as a separate capability in the character concept or thought was included in an option already chosen. Without the recipe, I would not have thought to include Quickness, for example.
I have criticized other RPGs, such as Pathfinder for the complexity for their many option, analysis paralysis inducing character creation process. GURPS, which uses a point buy system not unlike M&M, does have the really long list of options that M&M avoids. For both Pathfinder and GURPS, it might take a while to identify the options that fit the player’s vision. Once identified, however, the player can be pretty sure that they know what the character is capable of. Those two systems are much less ambiguous than M&M.
That ambiguity is the only major problem I have found with M&M. It is not a problem with the system. It is a problem with the writing. It feels like the books were written by experts in the system (of course). But the writers did not understand that what seems perfectly clear to someone with years of M&M experience can be totally obtuse for new players.
Overall, I would be quite happy to play a full session of M&M.
Den of the Red Wolf 