Author Topic: [Mutants & Masterminds]Anyone up for a reality-hopping game? (Read 8805 times)

UsagiTaicho · « **on:** September 25, 2014, 05:01:55 PM »

So I'm going to be running a Mutants and Masterminds 2e game. The premise is simple. You are whatever character you want to be, from Marvel, DC, Image, Heroes or Transformers. The catch is you have to change them in some way, really make them your own. Make your Batman a black guy, your Spawn a woman, your Optimus made out of adamantium, your Sylar wear spandex, and your Spider-Man a mutant. Feel free to mix and match your universes as well. I see no reason why there can't be a world where Marc Spector and Bruce Wayne were in the army together, or a world where Venom possessed Superman. Maybe they were even in the same world! Maybe you want your Superman to have tactile telekinesis instead of flight, then you can do that. Just use the rules in the books to swap out whatever powers you want. One more thing though. I only want one version of a character. That means that if two people want to play Deadpool, then whoever posted first gets priority and the other person will have to find someone else. One more thing though, about Deadpool and other fourth wall breakers like him. No breaking the fourth wall! They are not allowed to know that they are fictional characters in a game. However, you can still rant about comic books, and not getting good rolls and such, but you'll just be crazy.

You can get your characters from here:
http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=25576
Just scroll down until you find the character you want to use. And if you can't find them, tell me, and I'll probably approve your character. I do allow GIJoe characters and crossovers, there just aren't any on that I have found, so you'll have to make your own.

Now back to the premise. You and your fellow players have been snatched from time and space, to join a team that is tasked with saving reality itself. Someone, or something, has started several realities on the collision course with collapsing, and it is up to your team to save them. Think Exiles, but expanded to all superhero realms. As the game progresses, the parallel realities you visit will be mostly a dungeon-crawl style, but with heavy role play. Those points of the game will be for character development and interaction. Between the realities there will be story advancement. It'll generally be brief, the Timebroker doesn't allow much r&r between saving reality.

Questions, comments, or concerns? Please post your character below (just copy/paste the original post on the Atomic Think Tank).

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #1 on:** September 28, 2014, 10:54:02 PM »

I'm interested but I like to design and run my own character rather than researching sixty years of past history or doing my own 52 reboot that does no one any justice. I however would feel overwhelmed and utterly worthless if I chose a PL8 guy and the next player after me choose someone from your list at PL15 simply because he can murder everything I'd find a difficult challenge in one hit and anything designed as "easy" for him could use my character as a back scratchier.

I also cannot pick a character. Like there are 7 versions of Spiderman and I like some of one and some of another but there is no happy middle ground. Plus due to things being a dungeon crawl there is no room to swing about or even fight like spidey does. I mean, not that I'm actually considering being Spiderman, but Optimius inside the Tomb of Horrors isn't going to get to drive around if you know what I mean.

UsagiTaicho · « **Reply #2 on:** October 01, 2014, 08:32:10 PM »

When I said dungeon crawl, I meant that the various realities will be very mission-focused with little deviation. And often those "dungeons" will be New York City or something similar, not a cave or castle. Although Doom's castle is a possibility.

And I believe that every character, regardless of what PL or abilities they possess, would be useful in my game. I don't want to restrict to a certain PL because I don't want to restrict player choices any further than they already are. When I ran this in the past, we barely rolled the dice as it is. Of course, that was an in person game, so it was much easier to roleplay than rollplay. And if you see multiple versions of a character you might want to play, just pick one at random. It makes very little difference to me who's Spider-Man you use.

As for the research, trust me, you don't have to do it. In the past I have had players that have come in with no knowledge except what they have seen in the movies, and they still had fun.

brujon · « **Reply #3 on:** October 01, 2014, 09:33:37 PM »

i've never played mutants and masterminds.

how hard would it be to play a slutty extremely beautiful female version of Deadpool?

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #4 on:** October 01, 2014, 10:01:06 PM »

Well then, how about D'Spayre with the twist of trying to turn good. He still feeds of fear & despair but his drug D-Lite can induce euphoria for a few hours but comes at the heavy cost of a period of pain, exhaustion and depression afterwards (not sure how to stat it, just flavor).

Stat block wise, it's not on the website nor are any of the Fear Lord Demons. But he has the stereotypical above-human levels plus flight, insubstantial, teleportation, mind reading, emotion control, illusions, and blast. Thinking movement-related in a single dynamic array which will limit flying through buildings a city away to avoid attacks and wouldn't take too much for me to write up.

For power, well I never read the comic. He took on three heroes so that's something. Dr Strange, 1 (14), 2 (14), 3 (X, as in infinite points), 4 (15) is 14+, most of the Spider-Mans I think trend towards PL11 and Daredevil is mostly PL10. So, shooting for the biggest number first, PL14 for a Fear Lord Demon fine?

(click to show/hide)

Quote from: brujon on October 01, 2014, 09:33:37 PM

how hard would it be to play a slutty extremely beautiful female version of Deadpool?

Super easy. You also know the d20 system and the DM is avoiding die rolls so you're set.

(click to show/hide)

D&D to M&M 2nd is easier to understand than M&M 3rd so your fortunate there.

You can pick which ever Deadpool you like per DM, I'm just using one and random.

Quote

Deadpool

Power Level: 11 (200pp)
In M&M you buy abilities using points, the number of powers and your hard caps are based on your PL. PL11 means most caps are +11 and a few are 16 (effectively pl+5) and you should have 165 points to spend. err, the guy thinks 200. w/e.

Abilities: STR: 26 (+8), DEX: 18 (+4), CON: 26 (+8), INT: 12 (+1), WIS: 14 (+2), CHA: 12 (+1)
Literately per D&D in this area. 10 is a normal human.

Skills: Acrobatics 12 (+16), Bluff 8 (+9), Climb 4 (+12), Disable Device 8 (+9), Intimidate 8 (+9), Gather Information 4 (+5), Knowledge [Tactics] 8 (+9), Languages 4 (German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish; base: English), Notice 8 (+10), Stealth 12 (+16), Survival 8 (+10)
The Skill System is like D&D 4th meets Modern. Acrobatics is Balance/Jump/Tumble, Stealth is Hide/Move_Silently, Notice is Spot/Listen, and so on. I mentioned Modern because some new Skills show up like Drive & Pilot for the addition of cars & planes.

Feats: Ambidexterity, Equipment 4, Improved Aim, Improved Initiative, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Taunt
Almost like D&D. Atypical they stack so you can take Improved Initiative several times, up to PL cap, if you wanted. Equipment deserves a special note, instead of Wealth By Level you buy stuff using points. More on that in a sec.

Powers:
Device 4 [Image Inducer and Mini-Teleporter] (Hard to Lose; 16pp)
Features 1 (Breaking the Fourth Wall; 1pp)
Immunity 22 (Disease, Mental effects, Poison; 22pp)
Regeneration 19 (Recovery Rate 19 [Bruised 3, Injured 6, Disabled 6, Staggered 4]; Power Feats: Diehard, Regrowth; Extra: Duration [Sustained; +0]; 21pp)
Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: ~1.7 tons; 4pp)
Ok so you pretty much has this massive chapter that let's you go nuts. Device lets you in turn choose any other power and play it as a piece of tech, like Ironman's Armor or Thor's Hammer. In this case, the Teleport power is linked through Device. Hard to Lose is a special Power Feat that helps keep people form stealing it. Kind of like Die-Hard (same as D&D's version) is part of Regeneration. Most of the stuff gives you a pretty good idea on things except Regen which uses M&M's HP system (see combat). Find a Deadpool you think you like and I'll further explain the exact mechanics to the listed powers.

Devices:
Image Inducer (8pp total)
Morph 4 (any humanoid; 8pp)
Mini-Teleporter (12pp total)
Teleport 8 (2,000 miles; Flaw: Unreliable [-1]; Power Feats: Easy, Progression 3 [mass; 1,000 lbs.]; 12pp)
This is just details on the devices, author's style of posting more than anything.

Equipment: Costume (Protection 2; 2ep)
Arsenal (18ep array)
Assault rifle (16ep)
Fragmentation grenades (1ep)
Swords (1ep): as Sword plus Split Attack
From the Feats section I mentioned Equipment, there is where it's spent at. Equipment values are worth 1/5th of a normal creation point. So in other words Equipment 4 (four feats) is 4 points out of your creation pool and it gives you 20 points to buy items. Obviously the guy spent 38 equipment points (8 points from pl) and is pretty bad at math (or cheating).

Saves: Toughness +10, Fortitude +11, Reflex +8, Will +5
Just per D&D except Toughness is new and used for your HP, see combat just below this.

Combat: Attack +11; Damage +5 (Assault Rifle, Autofire) / +8 (Unarmed) / +11 (Sword, Split Attack, 19-20 Crit); Defense +12 (+6 flat-footed); Initiative +8
Like D&D it's 1d20+Attack vs AC 10+Defense, due to PL Caps your base bonus cannot exceed 11 in either which makes things 50/50. On a successful attack you take X damage, in the case of the rifle it's 5 damage.

Instead of HP you have a 4th and new Save called Toughness. The DCs for it are 15+Damage, so the rifle makes you roll 1d20+toughness vs DC 20 (15+5). Success means you took no damage for w/e reason. Failure by less than 5 means you get an injured (lethal) or brusied (nonlethal) mark which imposes a stacking -1 to Toughness Saves. Failing by more than that is a bad idea.
Fail: Injury/Bruised = -1 stacking to Toughness Saves.
>5: Stunned = Like D&D, no Dex-like bonuses to AC, further -2 to Defense & cannot take actions for 1 round.
>10: Staggered & Disabled: Like D&D's 0HP & stable negatives, Staggered limits to one Standard or Move Action per Round. Disabled means if you take a strenuous action you lose "HP" and are Unconscious (but not dying).
>15: Unconscious & Dying: DC 10 Constitution Check per hour to wake up, if you happen to be dying well then failure kills you. Nonlethal damage does not produce the Dying effect.
So you can kind of see how the HP system works. Damage imposes penalties for a greater chance of a greater failure.

Abilities 48 + Skills 21 (84 ranks) + Feats 10 + Powers 64 + Combat 46 + Saves 11 – Drawbacks 0 = Total 200
Just a notation showing how points are spent and added up for quick validation. Except we know he messed up his equipment (and powers I think) like a noob.

Edit - There, got a character up for approval. It also lists a tone of Skills/Feats which conveniently helps you out Brujon

UsagiTaicho · « **Reply #5 on:** October 03, 2014, 12:37:55 PM »

Soro, your D'Spayre looks good to me. Welcome to the #^(&@) Up Avengers! I'm sure you'll fit right in. I'll get around to creating the IC thread once we have at least two more players. I like my teams of four, but I'm willing to have more. Just easier on the murdering.

Did I say murdering? How silly, heroes never die. Well just in case, you might want to have some other character ideas in your back pocket.

Brujon, a slutty Lady Deadpool shouldn't be too hard. She has the same basic stats as Deadpool I believe, being an alternate version of him. Any of the Deadpools are fine. I advise against the PL4 one though. Not sure why that was even made. Hilarity?

brujon · « **Reply #6 on:** October 03, 2014, 06:44:46 PM »

Since my choosing would effectively be at random anyway, i think i'm going to go with the deadpool SorO posted. I trust i can count on everyone to explain things to me as they go.

Slutty Lady Deadpool, go! Wish i knew how to draw...

Though, i believe it won't be very difficult to find a female version of deadpool.

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #7 on:** October 03, 2014, 07:40:12 PM »

Quote from: brujon on October 03, 2014, 06:44:46 PM

Though, i believe it won't be very difficult to find a female version of deadpool.

You're right, it isn't. There are some nice cosplay ones too.

UsagiTaicho · « **Reply #8 on:** October 03, 2014, 11:15:35 PM »

Jessica Nigri did a Lady Deadpool, minus the mask. By the way, Lady Deadpool is an actual character in Marvel Comics, she is a genderswap alternate reality version of Deadpool that he teams up with sometimes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Lady+Deadpool&newwindow=1&safe=off&biw=1280&bih=709&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=YmUvVOmpAZCeyASw8YGQCA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ

Observe. Not sure why she never got her own build, perhaps she debuted after those lovely folks moved on to other games. I'm not entirely sure.

Anyway Brujon, I welcome your Slutty Ladypool to the #^(&3) Up Avengers!

I'm excited for this game. I've been itching to run this again for a while.

UsagiTaicho · « **Reply #9 on:** October 13, 2014, 12:20:41 PM »

I feel like I should bump this, because I still want at least two more players. Anyone? Anyone!?!

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #10 on:** October 13, 2014, 05:34:28 PM »

I'd be sad if you did, no one else is running M&M.

UsagiTaicho · « **Reply #11 on:** October 15, 2014, 04:19:47 PM »

Well then we need to find some more players! Tell your friends! Make them play!

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #12 on:** October 15, 2014, 04:57:26 PM »

I have spoken to my friends about gaming before, but I'd have to drive 20mins for each game because I live away from them all like the wise man on a mountain should be.

VennDygrem · « **Reply #13 on:** October 15, 2014, 07:39:16 PM »

I was tentatively interested but wanted to give others a chance since I had other time constraints. If you need more players, I was thinking possibly of playing a version of Doctor Strange, filtered through a lens of anime series; as such, this would be a teeneger who is brilliant but not as experienced, and relies on the Eye Of Agamotto, which can speak to him to provide sage advice and/or chastise him for being too impetuous, playing the role of the stern mentor to him. Basically, Doctor Strange if he had been a Doogie Howser type child medical prodigy before being forced out of medicine and into magic. Thoughts?

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #14 on:** October 15, 2014, 07:50:13 PM »

Sounds awesome to me.

Will the Eye of Agamotto act like House?

(click to show/hide)

VennDygrem · « **Reply #15 on:** October 17, 2014, 04:14:44 PM »

"So, Strange, if it is neither a disease of the body nor an affliction of the mind, what, then, might it be?"

"Perhaps it's the dreaded curse of Looh-Päas!"

"It's not Looh-Päas!"

I was concerned that there mught be too much overlap between Doctor Strange and D'Spayre, given that they both make use of magic, but they're very different in their usage and D'Spayre has several other abilities that are entirely unique.

What would you say actually changed D'Spayre toward trying to redeem himself?

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #16 on:** October 17, 2014, 05:10:47 PM »

Quote from: VennDygrem on October 17, 2014, 04:14:44 PM

What would you say actually changed D'Spayre toward trying to redeem himself?

His quest for power.
Having allies you can trust, and have no interest in a throne of their own, help you beat up your peers is the most reliable means of promotion.

D'Spayre also strikes me as a psychic vampire rather than a spellcaster. He has a very limited range of power but Strange is capable of virtually anything. Atrial projection, spells of shielding, counter-spelling, force fields, transmutation, scrying, etc. Strange also knows martial arts because dipping monk after obtaining Epic Spellcasting is a perfectly valid build choice.

VennDygrem · « **Reply #17 on:** October 17, 2014, 05:47:56 PM »

Once you have Epic Spellcasting, no one will fuck with you for dipping into sub-optimal classes anyway, eh?

So if D'Spayre is really just trying to build trust in a group of allies, is he actually trying to reform or is he just manipulating people into thinking he's trying to reform? I feel like Doc would be able to see through that sort of charade, especially since the Eye of Agamotto can essentially see through all lies.

SorO_Lost · « **Reply #18 on:** October 17, 2014, 08:08:03 PM »

I think the duality will make things interesting.

And I've looked at all the posted Dr Stranger submissions. The best the eye has to offer is Super-Senses(true sight) which doesn't negate Bluff Checks anyway

VennDygrem · « **Reply #19 on:** October 18, 2014, 06:39:41 PM »

Hmm, I like a lot of things in a few of the builds, but none of them seem perfect. Is it ok if I customize a build? I know the GM said PL shouldn't matter, but is there a range I should shoot for? It seems like SorO is built for PL 14, based off the other Doctor Strange builds (and ignoring the PL X build).

--edit--
Ok, I am learning that PL and number of power points do not necessarily correlate. >_>

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Author Topic: [Mutants & Masterminds]Anyone up for a reality-hopping game? (Read 8805 times)