Untitled Mutants and Masterminds Project

[Peypeypeypey]

Howdy everyone,

I'm looking into running a Mutants and Masterminds-based RP here, and I'm making this as a pre-planning thread to gauge interest, power-level, and what not. Something to make clear about Mutants and Masterminds right out the gate is that it's very much a cinematic game, rather than a light strategic combat simulator like D&D. Success and failure for all things is based on degrees of failure, and there is no hp. There are just various status effects and stages of health, judged first by the enemies attack against your passive resistances, and then you're resistance against said attack, if it succeeds. This might sound complicated, but it's honestly pretty simple once you get into it. The point I want to drive home is: this will not be a D&D style adventure. Being a murder hobo will not work in this setting, and while you could min-max a build that's utterly impossible to hurt, that's not really in the spirit of the game. Even moreso than D&D, this is a collaborative story game. 

Another important aspect of the game is the power level of the characters. Rather than linearly leveling and getting exponentially more powerful like in D&D, the character's power level is adjustable at the beginning depending on what level of power the players and GM want to play at and build stories around. For instance, at power level 5, the heroes are street-level fighters. People like the Netflix Marvel crowd, for instance. At level 15, we're hitting the tier of the heavyweights of the Justice League. Bear in mind, just because someone is a certain level doesn't mean that you can't roleplay a certain archetype. Batman is a great example of someone who uses gadgets, tools, and resources to punch with people way above his "power level," and this means that a "street level" character is always somewhat viable. The Handbook has very robust rules for making heroes stronger beyond just letting them hit harder, and one of the examples of that is by giving them stuff like high-level political or financial connections. Likewise, if others decide they want a lower-level street tier campaign, it's still possible to make a character that fits the archetype you want, even if they may need to be nerfed to fir the campaign. 

This campaign will be pretty involved, and because of the way the system works, everything from character creation and backstory development to in-game decisions is going to be a collaborative effort. I don't say this to scare you off; I'm very much interested in playing a more complex game and focusing on the collaboration and the storytelling. If you've seen Critical Role, I very much want to shoot for the level of depth and character backstory that they're at in this campaign, although I know we probably won't get there right off the bat on the first campaign. I just think it's important for people to know the kind of game that I'm thinking of running, so that they know what to expect and if it's for them. If this doesn't sound interesting to you, just let me know and that's perfectly fine. If people aren't interested, we can just shoot for a more conventional battle sim campaign. 

So what do y'all think? Is there any interest in this project? If so, what level of power have you always wanted to be? I don't want to go all the way to the level of Cosmic beings just yet, but if everyone wants to do that I wouldn't be opposed. Do you want to be powerhouses, saving cities and worlds in the wake of your clashes, or street-level fighters, with a higher emphasis on political intrigue, smaller-scale crime bosses, and keeping your city safe instead of the entire world?

[OMFG]

Me me me

The levels depend on you Pey, if we're street level we'll probably have to stay within a certain story setting, compared to like Superman level where we might travel across planets or something?

[Peypeypeypey]

3 minutes ago, OMFG said:

Me me me

The levels depend on you Pey, if we're street level we'll probably have to stay within a certain story setting, compared to like Superman level where we might travel across planets or something?

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't have a preference. We could do street, planetary, cosmic, whatever you guys want. I just want y'all to know that your choices will be limited depending on the power level. If it makes no difference to you, then I'll probably go for like level 8-10. True street-tier characters will have a lot of utility, but will still be able to fight and make a difference in combat, whereas powerhouses will have a lot of powers and opportunities to shine that way. But again, this is a collaborative decision. If everyone has a specific kind of hero they want to be I want to cater to that

[Hugo Fowl]

I'd be down to join and generate more interest. I'd personally prefer a city over galaxy hopping myself, though mostly because my preference are for those kinds of stories.

[OMFG]

Level 10 meaning guys like Punisher, and Bucky Barnes?

Or is level 10 more like Spiderman and Ironfist?

[Peypeypeypey]

1 minute ago, OMFG said:

Level 10 meaning guys like Punisher, and Bucky Barnes?

Or is level 10 more like Spiderman and Ironfist?

Closer to, and maybe slightly above, Spiderman. Maximum lifting strength would be around 100-250 tons if someone was making the rest of the character viable, but getting to that level of strength would require a serious trade-off in another stat, so they would be the muscle of the group. Again though, what's cool about this system is you can scale just about any character to just about any level. Even if you want a Punisher-style character and the campaign is for Power Level 15 guys, you can slap him with a ton of connections, gadgets, skills, and abilities other than powers to make him a great hero even if he can't throw a building

[OMFG]

Oh cool, so like an FPL RP but with actual rules I can understand!

[SSJRuss]

I'm here for this. I'm all for character-based storytelling in a RP. It's how I do my own.

In terms of what level we should be, It really comes down to what character I want to be. I've made so many superhero characters in my life but the first one that comes to my mind is this guy who was kind of tough and he was psychically linked to a big ass Mech. Where do big ass mechs fit into this level?

[Peypeypeypey]

 

1 minute ago, SSJRuss said:

I'm here for this. I'm all for character-based storytelling in a RP. It's how I do my own.

In terms of what level we should be, It really comes down to what character I want to be. I've made so many superhero characters in my life but the first one that comes to my mind is this guy who was kind of tough and he was psychically linked to a big ass Mech. Where do big ass mechs fit into this level?

How big and how powerful? Like I was telling OMFG, the system is robust enough that you can basically make any power you want as long as I can understand how it mechanically functions in the game

[Peypeypeypey]

4 minutes ago, OMFG said:

Oh cool, so like an FPL RP but with actual rules I can understand!

Exactly. If you're interested, the Subreddit's FAQ really helped me understand all the nitty gritty parts of the game. It can be found here. If you don't want to read all that though, no worries. I'm going to simplify some of it anyway, and we'll be working very closely, especially early on 

[SSJRuss]

1 minute ago, Peypeypeypey said:

 

How big and how powerful? Like I was telling OMFG, the system is robust enough that you can basically make any power you want as long as I can understand how it mechanically functions in the game

Iron-Giant? Gundam? That feels about right in size.

To be fair the character never got a fully fleshed out and I didn't get to use him long. But basically he was like this space hero that that could do a bunch of stuff with a gun but he also could call on his mech. I guess like a Power ranger but not as corny.

[Peypeypeypey]

5 minutes ago, SSJRuss said:

Iron-Giant? Gundam? That feels about right in size.

To be fair the character never got a fully fleshed out and I didn't get to use him long. But basically he was like this space hero that that could do a bunch of stuff with a gun but he also could call on his mech. I guess like a Power ranger but not as corny.

The gun would probably be a Blaster Rifle/Pistol, with added accessories and/or abilities depending on what exactly it did. The mech would likely mechanically fall under the "Summon" power, and would have to be really high rank to be as big and as strong as a Gundam. If it's a Rank 15 campaign, you could maybe swing this, although it might be better to just make it a battle suit instead and buy a much less expensive power such as "Teleport" to be able to travel to it at will so that you don't have to constantly be in it. It would also have to be smaller in that scenario

[OMFG]

I'm going to be - The Iron Pickle. Once a normal pickle, his life changed forever after falling into a vat of nuclear nanobots. He is now 50% pickle, 50% iron.

[Peypeypeypey]

1 minute ago, OMFG said:

I'm going to be - The Iron Pickle. Once a normal pickle, his life changed forever after falling into a vat of nuclear nanobots. He is now 50% pickle, 50% iron.

I turned myself into an iron pickle, Morty! I'm Iron Pickle Rick!

[OMFG]

Just now, Peypeypeypey said:

I turned myself into an iron pickle, Morty! I'm Iron Pickle Rick!

Funniest shit I've ever seen!

[SSJRuss]

19 minutes ago, Peypeypeypey said:

The gun would probably be a Blaster Rifle/Pistol, with added accessories and/or abilities depending on what exactly it did. The mech would likely mechanically fall under the "Summon" power, and would have to be really high rank to be as big and as strong as a Gundam. If it's a Rank 15 campaign, you could maybe swing this, although it might be better to just make it a battle suit instead and buy a much less expensive power such as "Teleport" to be able to travel to it at will so that you don't have to constantly be in it. It would also have to be smaller in that scenario

I'll keep this in mind and brainstorm a character. Don't know if I'll go this route or not.

[michalecs]

I'd like to join this, and see if I can't make this girl...
Voyd, from The Incredibles 2
 

[Bergy_Berg]

Sounds cool. I'm more down for a street level to Spiderman level game, but if others want to be blowing up planets that could work. And I'll do my best with the in-depth RP.

[Peypeypeypey]

39 minutes ago, michalecs said:

I'd like to join this, and see if I can't make this girl...
Voyd, from The Incredibles 2

That's a relatively simple thing to make. I would say the power "Teleport," with the "Portal" add on. Those portals are like 5 foot things to travel through, so to get the smaller, quicker portals she can do, like when she juggles that cup, I'm sure we could work something out. Either have it be largely for flavor, or if you intend to use it mechanically, I can just give it an additional point or two cost.

However, I would prefer that your character is an original creation of yours. I have no problem whatsoever with you using her as a base for your character, but as I mentioned earlier, I intend to really delve into the backstories of the characters to influence future events. I intend to work closely with each of you on your character creation, both mechanically and their backstories. I want this city to feel real and alive, and the characters to feel like real people in the city. I feel like making the character your own would really help with all that. Again, I have no problem with you using the character design and base power set.

43 minutes ago, Bergy_Berg said:

Sounds cool. I'm more down for a street level to Spiderman level game, but if others want to be blowing up planets that could work. And I'll do my best with the in-depth RP.

It looks like the consensus is that a slightly-above street level game is what we're looking at, which is fine by me. I'll update tomorrow with more info, but for now, everyone would just think of what kind of character they want to play. What powers, what backstory, what potential nemesis or foil, what their ambitions and character flaws are, etc.

[michalecs]

20 hours ago, Peypeypeypey said:

However, I would prefer that your character is an original creation of yours. I have no problem whatsoever with you using her as a base for your character, but as I mentioned earlier, I intend to really delve into the backstories of the characters to influence future events. I intend to work closely with each of you on your character creation, both mechanically and their backstories. I want this city to feel real and alive, and the characters to feel like real people in the city. I feel like making the character your own would really help with all that. Again, I have no problem with you using the character design and base power set.

There's not much delved into in the movie, so all I have is her first name, Karen, to go on - so don't worry, she'll be an original character because there'll be a LOT more to it than is mentioned in the movie. I like the powers and the personality, (and yeah the costume) but the rest can be tailored to fit your world easily.

I've been RPing online since there was an online to RP in, and on paper since 1977 so... yeah,  I'm pretty confident that I can make a suitable backstory once I see what the tableau is like.

[Peypeypeypey]

4 hours ago, michalecs said:

There's not much delved into in the movie, so all I have is her first name, Karen, to go on - so don't worry, she'll be an original character because there'll be a LOT more to it than is mentioned in the movie. I like the powers and the personality, (and yeah the costume) but the rest can be tailored to fit your world easily.

I've been RPing online since there was an online to RP in, and on paper since 1977 so... yeah,  I'm pretty confident that I can make a suitable backstory once I see what the tableau is like.

Wonderful! I'm glad to hear it. I honestly haven't been DMing for a long time, and this is my first PBP campaign, so please bear with me as I work through the early stages of this.

On another note, I created a rough story for the world setting, and an "official" thread for the campaign, both of which can be found here: