Gamemastering
o
ne player takes responsibility for running a Mutants & Masterminds
game. The Gamemaster creates the adventure, runs the players
through it, takes on the roles of the various other characters the
players encounter, and handles any questions about the rules as
they arise. While Gamemastering is a big responsibility, it’s not as hard as
it might seem, and providing a fun and entertaining game for your friends
can be quite rewarding.
This chapter looks at the three main responsibilities of the Gamemaster:
running the game, creating adventures, and portraying the world where
the adventures take place.
Running the game
While the players are responsible for keeping track of their characters and
deciding on their actions, the Gamemaster is responsible for everything
else that happens in the game. A good GM tries to make sure the game
runs as smoothly as possible and is enjoyable for all of the players. Many
components go into creating a good Mutants & Masterminds series. The
following sections give you the basics, but experience is the best tool to
help you become a better Gamemaster.
the essentials of
mutants & masteRminDs
The essence of the Mutants & Masterminds game system is actually quite
simple. The vast majority of the rules in this book expand upon the core
mechanics of the system, providing special-case rules or situational modifiers.
So
long
as
you
understand
the
essentials
of
the
game,
you
can
handle
just
about any
situation
that
comes up.
Those interested in playing in a loose and casual style should focus on
these fundamentals of the game and not worry about the special-case
rules or more detailed guidelines. If you come up with an unexpected
situation, just choose an appropriate type of check, a Difficulty Class, and
make a roll to see if the character succeeds or not! It’s that simple.
moDifieRs
Every trait in Mutants & Masterminds—ability scores, skills, powers, and
so forth—has an associated modifier, a value telling you how strong (or
weak) that trait is. Modifiers tend to run from –5 (very weak) all the way
up to +30 (incredibly strong) or more. You can rate virtually any trait by its
associated modifier.
Difficulty classes
Every task—from making an attack to avoiding harm to figuring out a gadget—has
a
Difficulty
Class
or
DC,
a
value
that
tells
you
how
difficult
that
task is to perform. DCs range from 0 (automatic , so easy it’s not worth
rolling) to 40 (nearly impossible).
checks
Actions in Mutants & Masterminds are resolved through checks, a roll of
a 20-sided die, plus a modifier. If the total of the check equals or exceeds
the Difficulty Class, the action is a success. If it doesn’t, then it’s a failure.
Beneficial conditions apply a +2 bonus on the check, adverse conditions
impose a –2 penalty. This is true whether you’re trying to use a skill, make
an attack, avoid harm (with a saving throw), or use a power.
saving thRoWs
Avoiding an effect is a saving throw, with a Difficulty Class of 10 + the
effect’s modifier or rank. A successful save means you avoid the effect, a
failed save means you suffer some (or all) of the effect.
that’s it!
That’s the core of Mutants & Masterminds: roll d20 + modifiers vs. the
Difficulty Class. If you understand that, you can do pretty much anything
in the game. The rest is just detail. When in doubt, or whenever you want
to speed the game along, just have a player make an appropriate check
against a DC based on how difficult the task is and you can’t really go
wrong.
moDifying the Roll oR the Difficulty
There are two ways of making a task easier or harder: modify the character’s
die roll or modify the task’s DC. Generally speaking, circumstances
that positively or negatively affect a character’s performance, like having
just the right tools for the job or being forced to improvise, apply a modifier
to the die roll. Circumstances that make the task easier or harder to
accomplish—like a favorable or unfavorable environment, or a particularly
demanding task—modify the Difficulty Class. If a condition applies to the
character, like knowledge, health, equipment, preparedness, etc . it’s usually
a dice modifier. If a condition applies to the environment or to the
task itself, it’s usually a DC modifier. It doesn’t have to be too fine a line,
since modifying the die roll or the DC amounts to the same thing in the
end—the task is easier or harder to accomplish.
In either case (modifying the die roll or the DC), you don’t need to
inform the player. In fact, most of the time you shouldn’t inform the player,
since it keeps the character’s chances of success a secret and makes the
task that much more dramatic and interesting. If the player asks you may
offer a general idea of how difficult the task is, based on what the character
would
know.
Usually
an
answer
like
“it’s
fairly
easy
for
you”
or
“you
think
it will be quite
difficult”
is sufficient.
ciRcumstance moDifieRs
A good rule of thumb is favorable circumstances grant a +2 bonus on
a check (or a –2 modifier to the DC), while unfavorable circumstances
impose a –2 penalty on the check (or a +2 modifier to the DC). This
allows you to quickly assess the conditions in the adventure and assign
an appropriate modifier a check without having to consult a lot of charts
and tables.
taking 10 anD 20
Keep in mind opportunities for characters to take 10 and take 20 on their
checks (see Checks Without Rolls, page 10). Characters can take 10 on
a roll any time they’re not rushed, threatened, or distracted. Characters
can take 20 under the same circumstances so long as there’s no penalty
for failing the roll. This means you can dispense with rolls for most routine tasks the characters encounter. If a character wants to disable a device,
for example, and his Disable Device bonus plus 10 is equal to or greater
than the DC, don’t bother having the player roll. The character just succeeds,
so long as there’s no great urgency. If the device in question is a
nuclear bomb and it’s counting down to detonation, however, the associated
stress
and risk means the character
can’t take
10.
When coming up with Difficulty Classes for actions, keep the take 10
and take 20 rules in mind. If the DC is low enough that anyone can take
10 and succeed, then it may be too low, or the action may be too trivial to
worry about, unless the situation is tense and dramatic.
the 50/50 Rule
Another good guideline to keep in mind is the chance of an average character
(with a modifier of +0) succeeding at an average task (DC 10) is
50%. So any time you have to have an average character do something,
or want to set a difficulty you feel is average for a particular character,
aim for about a 50% chance of success. If you want to know what bonus
is required to have a 50% chance of succeeding at a particular task, just
subtract 10 from the DC. So a DC 25 action (a formidable task) requires a
bonus of +15 in order to have a 50% chance of success.
Keep in mind that a 50/50 chance on a task allows a character to take
10 and automatically succeed at that task under routine conditions. This
Difficulty class examples
Di f f i c u l t y Dc Ex a m p l E
Very easy 0 Notice something large in
plain sight
mOD i f i E r nE E D E D f O r
50/50
Easy 5 Climb a knotted rope –5 (Str 1)
Average 10 Hear a group walking 30 feet
None (automatic)
away
+0 (Wis 10)
Tough 15 Disarm an explosive +5 (Disable Device)
Challenging 20 Walk a tightrope +10 (Acrobatics)
Formidable 25 Break into a secure computer
system
Heroic 30 Overcome a sophisticated
security system
Super-Heroic 35 Bluff your way past very wary
guards
Nearly
Impossible
40 Open an impossibly complex
lock in 1 round
+15 (Computers)
+20 (Disable Device)
+25 (Bluff)
+30 (Disable Device)
is intentional; the average character only really fails at an average task
when hurried or under stress, unable to take 10 in order to succeed. A
50/50 chance also allows a player to spend a hero point to automatically
succeed, since a hero point adds +10 to the die roll.
secRet checks
Sometimes it’s a good idea to make checks secretly, so the players don’t
necessarily know the result. This is usually the case for any sort of check
where the characters don’t immediately know whether they’ve succeeded
or failed. For example, Notice checks usually should be made secretly. If the
check succeeds, the character notices something. If it fails, then the player
doesn’t know whether it’s because the character failed to notice something
or
there
wasn’t
anything
there
to
notice
in
the
first
place.
The
same
is
true
for
checks
involving
powers
like
Mind
Reading
or
Precognition,
and
certain
interaction checks, since the player doesn’t necessarily know the
target’s initial attitude or exactly how much it has improved.
One easy way of making secret checks is to make a list of random d20
rolls in advance. When there’s a need for a secret check during the game,
mark off one of the rolls from your list and use that for the check result.
alteRing the outcome of Die Rolls
On occasion the outcome of a particular die roll may seriously impact the
game. For example, the heroes are walking into a trap and none of them
make the necessary check to notice the danger in time. Or a hero gets in a
lucky shot and the villain rolls a 1 on his Toughness saving throw resulting
in a quick defeat. What do you do?
In some cases, you can just go with the outcome the dice give you. If
none of the heroes spot the trap, have it go off. Odds are the heroes will
only end up captured and will have the opportunity to escape and thwart
the villain later on in the adventure. Even if the results of the die roll are
unexpected, so long as they don’t spoil the fun of the adventure, feel free
to go with them. Unexpected twists and turns can be fun, not only for the
players, but also for you when you run the game. Award the players a hero
point for the setback, and continue on with the game.
On the other hand, some die rolls result in anticlimactic or just plain
dumb outcomes. In these cases, feel free to change things a little to make
the outcome more interesting or more in line with how the game should
go. In the above example, you might decide that the villain is only stunned
rather than being knocked out, giving the heroes the upper hand, but not
ending the climatic encounter prematurely.
Isn’t this cheating? Well, yes, in a manner of speaking it is, but it’s
“cheating” in order to make the game more interesting and fun for everyone
involved.
So
long
as
you
don’t
alter
the
outcome
of
die
rolls
unfairly
or
maliciously
and
you
do
it to help ensure the game is fun, interesting,
and challenging, you shouldn’t have a problem. Beside, the players don’t
have to know you change the occasional die roll. That’s one of the reasons
it’s a good idea for Gamemasters to roll their dice out of sight of the players
and then announce the results.
faking it
Sometimes you’ll run into a situation in the game the rules don’t cover, or
that you’re not sure how to handle. In these cases, feel free to just fake it.
Come up with a roll or rolls you feel suits the situation and go with it, so
you can keep the game moving rather than getting bogged down in page
flipping and rules arguments. One of the great things about the Mutants
& Masterminds system is pretty much everything can be resolved with
a simple action check. So when all else fails, just have a player make a
check with the most appropriate trait (ability, skill, or power). If the check
beats your estimation of the Difficulty Class, it’s a success. Otherwise, it’s
a failure.You also can fake it when dealing with certain trivial situations in the
game. If there’s an important piece of information you want the players
to know, don’t bother seeing if they succeed at a Search check. You can
pretend to make the checks, then ignore the results and tell the players
what their heroes find. Likewise, if a 10th-level hero is going to take out a
1st-level minion, you don’t have to make all the rolls. Just ask the player to
describe how the hero defeats the hapless thug.
inteRaction
There’s more to superhero adventures than just slugfests and trading
energy blasts. Characters also interact in various ways. Villains threaten
and give long-winded speeches about their brilliant master plans. Heroes
make wisecracks or offer stirring speeches about heroism and duty. Heroes
often must interact with the public and the media, or with authorities
or government officials. Heroes also interact with each other, which can
sometimes lead to conflict before they agree to cooperate.
Generally, the Gamemaster determines the attitude of any NPC the
heroes encounter during the game. The heroes can then try to influence
the non-player character’s attitude using Charisma and various related
skills (such as Diplomacy or Intimidation). The Interaction Table shows
the effects of character attitudes and the difficulty class of attempting to
change an NPC’s attitude with a Charisma or skill check. Note that a particularly
bad Interaction roll can actually make an NPC’s attitude worse.
For example, a result of less than 5 makes an unfriendly character turn
hostile. In general, a hero can attempt to influence another character only
once (see Chapter 3 for details on retrying interaction skills).
While heroes can use their Charisma and skills to influence NPC
attitudes and NPCs can do the same to other NPCs, note that heroes generally
cannot affect the attitudes of other heroes, nor can NPCs modify
their attitudes. The players choose the attitudes of their heroes and when
they change. Only powers like Emotion Control and Mind Control can
influence a hero’s attitude.
maintaining game balance
Part of the Gamemaster’s job is to make sure the game is fair and balanced,
so everyone can have a good time and all the heroes have an
equal chance of doing some fun and exciting things in the course of the
adventure. It can be tricky sometimes, but Mutants & Masterminds gives
you some tools for balancing the traits of the heroes and handling problems
that
may
come up.
Rules issues & house Rules
While this book does its best to present a complete and balanced game
system for superhero roleplaying, no one game system is perfectly suited
to every gaming group’s needs and tastes, and Mutants & Masterminds
is no exception. Sooner or later, issues may arise over particular rules and
how they are applied in your game. In some cases, it may be an unexpected
situation not covered by the existing rules, and requiring you to
extrapolate and come up with a ruling. In other situations, a particular
rule may be problematic , making the game less fun for everyone because
it doesn’t suit your style of play.
In all situations, remember Rule Number One (see page 7). If a rule
doesn’t suit your gaming group, then by all means, change it! A corollary
of Rule Number One: the Gamemaster overrules the rules. That is, if you
decide to make up a particular “house rule” about how something works
in your game, or to interpret something from the rulebook in a particular
way, then that’s the way it works in your game. Players should be respectful
of
the
Gamemaster’s
job
to
set
up
and
regulate
the
rules
of
the
game
for
everyone’s enjoyment. Any disputes should be discussed with an eye
toward finding a solution everyone finds satisfactory, rather than trying to
inteRaction
GAMEMASTERING
175
TM
at t t u D E mE a n S pO S S b l E ac t O n S
Hostile Will take risks to hurt or
avoid you
ROLEPLAYING GAME
stick to the exact letter of the rules. The spirit of Mutants & Masterminds
is to have fun. As long as you focus on that, you can’t be far off.
unbalanceD heRoes
The power level limits built into the rules help ensure Mutants &
Masterminds characters of the same power level are at least in the same
general ballpark in terms of overall combat effectiveness. Still, there may
be times when a particular combination of powers and abilities makes a
character too powerful when compared to the other heroes or to the villains
in your
campaign.
When this happens, talk to the player and ask him or her to change the
character’s traits to something more balanced and better suited to the
campaign. If necessary, explain that the character makes things less fun
for everyone as-is and changing the character will make the game better
for everyone. Suggest some possible changes to make the character balance
out better.
saying no to youR playeRs
Attack, interfere, berate, flee
Unfriendly Wishes you ill Mislead, gossip, avoid, watch
suspiciously, insult
Indifferent Doesn’t much care Act as socially expected
Friendly Wishes you well Chat, advise, offer limited
help, advocate
Helpful Will take risks to help you Protect, back up, heal, aid
Fanatic Will do anything for you Fight to the death under
attituDe
in t a l nE w at t i t u D E
overwhelming odds
at t t u D E hO S t l E un f r E n . in D f f . fr E n D l y hE l p f u l fa n a t c
Hostile 19 or less 20 25 35 45 150
Unfriendly 4 or less 5 15 25 35 120
Indifferent — 0 or less 1 15 25 90
Friendly — — 0 or less 1 15 60
Helpful — — — 0 or less 1 50
A big part of maintaining game balance is the ability to say “no” to your
players and to set some guidelines for characters and stick to them. Some
of those guidelines are already in place: the limits imposed by power level.
They help ensure players can’t just put all their power points into a single
overwhelming combat trait (like a +30 attack bonus, or something similar).
Even with those limits in place, there may be times when a player comes
up with a character concept or trait that isn’t suited for the game and can
be unbalancing. For example, it can be hard to run mysteries around a
hero with a lot of ranks of Mind Reading. If you plan to have mystery stories,
you
may
want
to
consider
limiting
Mind
Reading,
Postcognition,
and
similar
powers,
or
finding
innovative
ways
for
villains
to
get
around
those
powers.
If
you’re
running
a
four-color
game
in
which
lethal
attacks
are
rare
and
a
player
wants
to
run
a
blood-thirsty
vigilante
hero,
you
may
just
have
to
say
no and ask the player
to come up with another idea.Having standards for your series and sticking to them can save you a lot
of trouble in the long run by heading off problems before they happen.
saying yes to youR playeRs
Many roleplaying games (even this one) spend a lot of time telling you
how to say “no” to your players: how to tell them a power they want is
unbalanced, how to tell them the character they have in mind doesn’t
fit into the group, and so forth. Some might get the idea that it’s the
Gamemaster’s job just to say “no” and frustrate the players. Nothing could
be further from the truth! True, sometimes you must be firm and say “no”
to something for the betterment of the series and to safeguard everyone’s
enjoyment, but a Gamemaster who also learns to say “yes” to the players
can ensure everyone has fun.
Players are a cunning lot, so it’s a virtual certainty that, sooner or later,
they will come up with something for their heroes to do that’s not covered
in the rules. It may be a particularly innovative maneuver, a new use for a
skill or power, using the environment to their advantage in some way, or
something you never would have considered before. When this happens,
take a moment and ask yourself: “Would it be fun if what the player is
proposing happened?” A good way to think about it is, if you saw something
similar
in
a
comic
book
or
a
superhero
cartoon
or
movie,
would
it
be
cool?
If the answer is “yes”
then you
probably
should let the player
try it.
Gamemasters have three major tools to help them say “yes” to their
players:
• Bonuses and Penalties: Remember the GM’s rule of thumb: if
something generally aids or makes a task easier for a character, it’s
worth a +2 bonus. If it makes the task harder or hinders the character,
it’s
worth
a
–2
penalty.
This
can
allow
you
to
assign
modifiers
for
almost
any
situation
on
the
fly,
without
having
to
look
things
up
and
slow
down
the
game
while
puzzling
out
all the pluses and minuses.
Just evaluate the overall situation and decide if the conditions are
beneficial, neutral, or detrimental, and assign a +2, +0, or –2.
• Extra Effort: When players want their characters to be able to pull off
something outlandish, rather than saying “no” let them try but make
them pay for it buy saying it counts as extra effort (see page 120). Extra
effort already allows players to pull off all kinds of stunts, so there’s no
reason you can’t expand the list when they come up with other ones.
This works particularly well with innovative uses of powers. Since extra
effort allows a character to temporarily use an existing power for an
Alternate Power feat, it can cover a lot of ground.
• Hero Points: Like extra effort, hero points allow characters to pull
off amazing stunts. If a player wants to do something that isn’t normally
a
part
of
the
character’s
abilities,
require
a
hero
point
to
make
the
attempt.
The
hero
point
doesn’t
do
anything
but
let
the
character
try
something
outlandish,
and
players
won’t
be
able
to
pull
off
such
stunts
all
the
time
because
they
have
a
limited
number
of
hero
points
to
spend. Still, it allows for those amazing, one-of-a-kind stunts that
happen in the comic books.
potential pitfalls
Some staples of the comics, while enjoyable in the stories themselves,
don’t translate as well to the medium of roleplaying games. You might
want to take these potential pitfalls into account when planning your
adventures.
Defeat anD captuRe
Heroes in the comics are frequently defeated early on in a story. The typical
structure
is:
the
heroes
encounter
the
villain,
suffer
a
defeat
or
reversal,
and then come back from defeat to overcome the villain. In longer stories
there may be several reversals: the villain beats the heroes and escapes,
then beats the heroes and puts them in a deathtrap, which they must
escape to make their final confrontation with the bad guy.
Defeat in the comics isn’t a serious problem, since it usually just
results in the heroes facing another obstacle, like a deathtrap. Mutants &
Masterminds tries to encourage this kind of narrative structure by awarding
hero points for defeats, capture, and similar setbacks suffered by
the heroes. Essentially, the more the heroes struggle early on, the more
resources they have to overcome the villain later in the adventure.
Some players, however, don’t care for the idea of defeat, even if there is
some kind of reward for it. This may come from other RPGs, where defeat
has much more serious consequences, up to and including the death of
the heroes! It can also come from associating any kind of defeat or setback
with “losing the game.” These players may overreact to potential
defeats in the game.
The best way of handling this is to discuss it with your players. Point
out that an early defeat by the villain is not necessarily a “defeat,” but a
challenge, and that they earn hero points for those encounters, leading
up to the point where they can use them against the villain. If this doesn’t
address the issue, you may need to give the heroes setbacks other than
defeats.
escaping villains
Often, in the comics, the villain gets away. Usually it is during the initial
encounters of a story: the heroes run into the villain, who escapes for the
next encounter. In the comic books, it’s easy for a writer to engineer the
villain’s escape. In a game, you may have to contend with players unwilling
to
let
the
villain
go,
so
long
as
there’s
any
chance
of
snatching
victory
from
the jaws of defeat. These players will try anything and everything
before they give up, which can cause problems for the story and spoil the
game for others. The main ways of dealing with this issue are: providing
the villain with an effective escape route, and proper application of hero
point awards.
In the first case, make sure your villain has at least a reasonable chance
of escape. It’s not enough to simply say “... and the villain makes his
escape.” At least try and provide the players with a plausible explanation.
Perhaps the villain has some kind of planned escape route: a secret tunnel,
a hidden door, a pre-programmed illusion, or a teleportation device,
for example. The villain might use a distraction to provide the time needed
to escape, such as threatening innocent citizens, triggering some sort of
disaster, a smokescreen or darkness field, or a clever bluff or some sort. If
you need to, you can make the villain’s escape plan something the heroes
can’t thwart, but beware of unexpected cunning from your players. Just
because you think the villain’s escape plan is foolproof doesn’t mean a
player won’t come up with a way to foil it!
The second element is that heroes get hero points when the villain
escapes, which they can use to try and make sure the capture sticks next
time. Like defeats (previously), these bonus hero points encourage players
to “play along” with the style of the genre. Think of it as a kind of “get out
of jail free” card: you get to have the villain get away, but when you do
the players get a hero point.
guest heRoes
Comic books sometimes have “guest stars” in them and some guest
heroes may be more popular than the book’s main character! In an RPG,
however, the “guest stars” are usually non-player characters run by the
GM, so it’s not a good idea to let them dominate the action. This just
makes the players feel upstaged and superfluous.
That’s not to say you can’t have guest heroes show up in your adven-thought, and it’s ruining everyone else’s fun, that’s a mistake. Tell your
players you made a mistake letting that power into the game and you
have to change the way it works in order to make the game fun and fair
for everyone.
Be reasonable and straightforward in handling your mistakes and your
players are much more likely to be cooperative and understanding about
them.
aWaRDing heRo points
An important part of the Gamemaster’s job is handing out hero points
to the players, which influences the flow of the adventure and helps the
heroes to accomplish important tasks later on. Essentially, you decide
how easy or difficult a time the heroes have by how many hero points
you hand out. The key difference is the players have discretionary power
over when and how they spend their hero points. So you’re not necessarily
handing them an easy win, you’re just giving them resources they can use
to overcome challenges in the adventure.
As GM, you have discretionary power over handing out hero points. The
Hero Points section (see page 121) provides guidelines, but how often
opportunities to earn hero points crop up is largely up to you. Giving
out more hero points encourages players to spend them and makes for a
more action-oriented and four-color game. Handling out fewer hero points
encourages players to save them until they really need them, most likely
for the climactic encounter of the adventure.
A good guideline for awarding hero points is at least one per encounter
in
the
adventure
leading
up
to
the
final
encounter.
For more difficult
adventures, you can award more hero points by creating more setbacks for
the heroes. You should usually try to limit hero points from complications
to one per encounter as well, and try to give the heroes’ complications
“equal time” in the adventure (or, if not in that one adventure, over the
course of two or three adventures).
SAC
aWaRDing poWeR points
The Gamemaster awards heroes power points at the end of each adventure.
This represents the experience and confidence the heroes have
gained, along with other factors contributing to an increase in their abilities,
skills, and powers.
Generally, heroes each receive 1 power point for a successfully completed
adventure,
lasting for one game session. If the heroes overcame
especially powerful foes or difficult challenges, the GM can increase the
power point award to 2 points. For adventures lasting more than one
game session, the heroes should get 1 power point per session, plus a
possible bonus of 1 or 2 power points at the end if they did particularly
well.
Gamemasters may vary this rate of advancement by awarding more power
points per adventure, allowing heroes to increase in power faster, which
may suit certain styles of game play. The Gamemaster also may choose not
to award a power point for an adventure in which the heroes did especially
poorly, such as failing to defeat a villain’s major scheme or allowing many
innocent people to suffer harm they could have prevented.
Players can spend their heroes’ awarded power points between adventures
to
improve
the
heroes’
traits,
limited
only
by
the
campaign’s
power
level.
They
also
can
choose
to
save
up
unspent
power
points,
waiting
until
the
campaign’s
power
level
increases,
in
order
to
spend
them
to
improve
a
trait
already
at
its maximum
rating
or rank.
incReasing poWeR level
As heroes earn power points through adventuring and spend them to
improve their traits, they will eventually run into the limits imposed by
the campaign’s power level (see Power Level in Chapter 1 for details).
For a while, this can be a good thing, since the power level limits encourage
heroes to diversify and acquire new skills, feats, and powers rather
than simply pumping points into their existing traits to increase them to
unwieldy levels. However, sooner or later, you’re going to want to raise the campaign’s power level, giving the heroes a bit more room for advancement
and spending their earned power
points.
A good guideline is to follow the starting power point totals when
it comes to power level: when the heroes accumulate an additional 15
power points from the start of the campaign or the last time the power
level was raised, it’s probably time to raise the power level by +1. So a
power level 10 campaign starts out with 150-point heroes. When they
have earned another 15 power points (bringing their total up to 165), the
GM should consider raising the campaign’s power level to 11, allowing the
heroes to spend some of those power points to increase traits like attack
and defense bonus, damage and saving throws, which are currently at the
maximum limit.
When you increase the campaign’s power level, you should also re-evaluate
the
capabilities
of
the
villains
and
other
challenges
the
heroes
face.
While
NPCs
don’t
earn
additional
power
points,
and
aren’t
even
subject
to
the
same
power
level
limits
as
the
heroes,
you
should
feel
free
to
improve
the
traits of some non-player characters in the campaign to keep pace
with the heroes, ensuring those antagonists remain a suitable challenge.
It’s also fine to have others lag behind, as the heroes outstrip some of
their old foes, who no longer represent the kind of threat they did before,
plus you can always introduce new villains and challenges suited to the
campaign’s power level as things progress.
otheR ReWaRDs
Although good deeds are usually their own reward, heroes do sometimes
receive other rewards in addition to power points. The Gamemaster should
feel free to award any of the following to heroes according to the adventure
and the needs of
the series.
money
There may be rewards for the capture of certain wanted super-criminals
and grateful governments or corporations might choose to reward helpful
heroes with money. Heroes often use these rewards to help fund their own
efforts (paying for their equipment, headquarters, etc.) or else donate it
to charity. Other heroes are more mercenary and may even require a paying
client
before
they
’ll use their powers to help anyone. Altruistic heroes
tend to look down on such opportunists, but the mercenaries counter that
they’re risking their lives, why shouldn’t they get paid for it?
Sometimes the monetary rewards of heroism come in the form of
ongoing support from a wealthy patron, trust fund, corporation, or government
agency. All can offer financial backing to a hero or team of
heroes and provide them with the resources they need.
Heroes who come into a sudden windfall can invest some earned
power points acquiring Wealth (see page 132) to represent their
increased resources, if that optional system is in use. Otherwise the GM
can simply award the heroes with an appropriate amount of money
or access to a wealthy patron (although access may come with some
strings attached).
equipment
Heroes who overcome a supervillain may be able to keep some of the
villain’s equipment. The authorities may want to impound super-devices
as evidence or to have them examined by “top men,” but they may allow
heroes to keep them in some cases (particularly if the heroes don’t tell
anyone about them). Generally any device a player intends to become a
regular part of a hero’s abilities should be paid for using earned power
points. The GM may require the hero to have enough power points set
aside for the device or that all of the hero’s earned power points go toward
“paying off ” the device’s cost. A one-time use of a captured device may be
allowed by having the player spend a hero point.
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Heroes also may receive equipment from grateful inventors, businesses,
or the government, much like monetary rewards. A patron could provide
a team of heroes with a headquarters, vehicles, and other equipment.
Again, the GM decides what things require power point expenditure and
which are free — at least in terms of point cost.
fame
Once you’ve saved the world a few times, people start to remember your
name. Superheroes often become famous and Gamemasters can reward
the heroes with increased fame and popularity. As the heroes become
better known for their heroism and good deeds, the authorities become
more cooperative, people start recognizing them everywhere, and fan
mail starts arriving by the truckload.
Of course, fame has its drawbacks, which include persistent fans, greater
public scrutiny, and things like constant offers for product endorsements
and such. Famous heroes are more likely to be targeted by supervillains
looking to make a name for themselves or novice heroes wanting to join
an established group. While the heroes are most trusted by the authorities,
they’re
also more
likely
to be called upon in times of
need.
On the other hand, heroes may also become infamous for their deeds,
particularly if they’re known to be ruthless or mercenary. Infamy may
dog heroes with bad publicity, whether or not they’re actually guilty of
anything. After enough “Threat or Menace?” editorials, people start to
wonder if the hero really is a good guy. Reversals in reputation and sudden
infamy
make
good complications
(see page
122).
honoRs
In addition to fame and fortune, heroes may receive the gratitude of the
people they help. They get awards from civic groups and organizations
like the police and fire departments. The mayor gives them the key to
the city or arranges for a parade in their honor (or both). The governor or
President honors them on national television. Monuments may be erected
in their honor and charitable institutions founded or dedicated in their
names. A hero team’s trophy room can contain various plaques, medals,
and other accolades. An awards ceremony makes a good ending to an
adventure or, perhaps, the beginning of one. After all, what villain can
resist so public a target as a hated enemy receiving an award?
cReating aDventuRes
An adventure is a single story in an ongoing campaign or series. Think
of an adventure as a single comic book story. Sometimes the adventure
stands alone, with a clear beginning, middle, and end all in the same
issue (or game session). Other times the adventure is part of a “story
arc” or “mini-series” spanning several issues before the entire story is
wrapped up. Your Mutants & Masterminds adventures can be the same
way. A related sequence of adventures makes up a campaign (or series),
just like a number of comic book issues makes up a series.
Creating a Mutants & Masterminds adventure is a fairly simple process.
First,
define
the
threat
around
which
the
adventure
revolves.
Then
outline
the overall plot, and describe the encounters the heroes are
likely to have during the adventure. You’ll also want to make sure you
have statistics and character sheets for important supporting characters
and villains.
befoRe you begin
There are a number of things to consider when you begin planning your
adventure, including the plot threads from previous adventures, complica-
tions, and the themes and events of past adventures.fabulous fiRst issues
ROLEPLAYING GAME CHAPTER NINE: GAMEMASTERING
one hunDReD aDventuRe iDeas
Stuck for an idea or just not sure what to do for your next adventure? Look over this list and pick something that sounds interesting or roll 2d20, ignoring
the “tens” digit, to generate a number between 1 and 100 (treating a roll of two zeroes as “100”). Instant adventure idea!
1. An asteroid, meteor, or comet is on a collision course with the Earth.
2. An intelligent super-virus begins taking over the minds of people
exposed to it.
3. The heroes’ archenemies band together to take out their foes by
trading opponents.
4. Atlantis invades the surface world because of pollution of the
oceans and underwater weapons testing.
5. A super-villain attempts to trigger a nuclear war.
6. A vigilante is assassinating criminals in the city and the heroes
must enforce the law.
7. Criminals have stolen advanced weapon prototypes they are using
to commit robberies.
8. A “monster” threatening the city turns out to be a confused alien
infant.
9. An omnipotent entity comes to Earth looking to have some fun
“playing” with a group of heroes.
10. A fire rages through the city, threatening lives and property.
11. Mercenary villains are hired to capture or kill the heroes.
12. A tidal wave or tsunami threatens a costal area.
13. A villain transforms people in the city into creatures (demons,
zombies, plants, etc.) under the villain’s control.
14. A vampire is on the loose, feeding on innocent victims in the city
at night.
15. A would-be sorcerer botches a spell, opening a gate to a demonic
netherworld.
16. Cultists are kidnapping people to use as sacrifices to their evil
god(s).
17. Villains commit crimes posing as the heroes to blacken their good
names.
18. Shapeshifting aliens infiltrate the government and law enforcement
and outlaw the heroes.
19. A villain attempts to use mass mind-control to take over a city,
country, or the world.
If this is your first Mutants & Masterminds adventure, you need to consider
a few things, including how to get the heroes together as a team.
They may already be a team when the adventure begins, or circumstances
in the adventure might bring them together.
The key things for a first adventure are to introduce the players to
the setting and the major supporting characters. So the first adventure
should be typical of the sort of adventures you plan to run. Give the
players a feel for how things work in the world so they can get into character
and
into
the
setting.
So,
for
example,
if
you’re
running
a
four-color
game where character death is a rarity, it’s probably not a good idea
to make the first villain a murderous madman who kills with impunity.
Likewise, if you’re aiming for a gritty paramilitary style game, you probably
don’t
want
your
first
adventure
to
be
filled
with
wacky
humor
and
Silver
Age
puns.
If this is your first adventure, you should also decide if the heroes are
already together as a team or if they will have the opportunity to form
20. A rampaging monster is let loose on the unsuspecting city.
21. An earthquake strikes a major city, causing numerous disasters
and opportunities for looters.
22. Another team of heroes has gone missing.
23. Aliens invade the Earth. The “aliens” might also be from another
dimension, demons, mutant monsters, etc.
24. A scientific accident creates giant insects that swarm through the city.
25. A villain captures the heroes in order to “play” against them in a
life-or-death game.
26. The rightful ruler of an alien empire comes to Earth seeking help
to reclaim her throne.
27. An alien warrior arrives looking for a worthy opponent to challenge
him.
28. A villain attempts to steal all of the heroes’ powers for himself.
29. The heroes are kidnapped to become gladiators in an alien
arena.
30. A mythic god starts a modern cult of worshippers, but isn’t exactly
what he seems.
31. An accident sends the heroes to a parallel Earth where good is evil
and vice versa.
32. A villain attempts to melt the polar ice caps to flood the entire
world.
33. A murderous spirit goes on a killing spree, possessing innocent
host bodies.
34. A hero is infected with lycanthropy, slowly transforming into a
were-creature.
35. A villain steals a powerful weapon and attempts to blackmail the
government with it.
36. A secret and corrupt government black-ops organization tries to
co-opt or eliminate the heroes.
37. A new crime lord begins consolidating power in the city.
38. Assassination attempts are made against government or public
a team during the adventure. Both approaches have their good points.
Starting things with the team already assembled allows you to skip some
exposition and get right into the action. It also avoids the problem of the
heroes not getting together, which can happen. Allowing the players to
roleplay the formation of the team, on the other hand, can be fun, and
lets the players to better define the nature of their team.
When last We left ouR heRoes...
If the adventure is not the first in your series, then the first thing to do is
look over your last few adventures. Are there any dangling plot threads
left over from those stories, ones the players might be interested in fol-
lowing?
figures.
Sometimes these dangling threads are placed deliberately, to give the
players things to wonder about and look forward to in future adventures.
In other cases, they crop up because certain things just didn’t
get resolved in a previous adventure, and players might be wondering
when (and if) they will be. As a general rule, try and leave a few plot
threads open at any given time. They don’t always have to be the same ones. You can wrap up certain plots while opening up new ones to keep
the series moving along and maintain player interest. In fact, it’s best if
you occasionally tie up existing plot threads before starting new ones,
providing some closure and keeping things from getting stale.
a change of pace
When you start creating an adventure, look over your notes from your last
few adventures (if you’ve had a last few). Take a look at any trends in the
adventures’ threats, villains, and so forth and decide if you need a change
of pace. Running the same sort of adventure time after time can make
your game predictable and dull. Sometime you need to shake things up a
bit and give the players something new to sink their teeth into.
Have your last few adventures all been crime-fighting? How about
sending the heroes to another planet or dimension for an adventure or
two? After a few adventures of fighting off an alien invasion, give the
heroes a vacation on a tropical island where there’s a sinister Voodoo cult,
or to a mountain ski lodge haunted by a ghost. Try an adventure where
the heroes are in their secret identities the whole time, or without their
powers. Maybe an accident causes the heroes minds to switch bodies, or
gives them different powers. The possibilities are endless. Just make sure
your “change of pace” adventures are really a change of pace and not just
random wackiness (unless that’s what your game is all about).
Defining the thReat
Mutants & Masterminds adventures usually focus on a particular threat
or challenge. It might be anything from an alien invasion to a super-vil-
lain looking to conquer the world to something as simple as the heroes
cracking down on a crime wave in the city or attending a parade in their
honor. When the threat presents itself, the heroes must figure out how to
overcome it.
If you need ideas for possible threats, look no further than your local
comic shop or supermarket spinner rack, filled with inspirational comic
books. You also can get ideas from television, movies, and even the news
and major world events. If you’re stuck for an idea, take a look at the list
of One Hundred Adventure Ideas (see page 180).
The threat in a Mutants & Masterminds adventure is often a villain
with a plot the heroes must thwart. Take a look at Chapter 11 for ideas
on creating your own villains, along with some ready-made archetypes.
outlining the plot
Once you have an idea for a threat in mind, give some thought to how
it will manifest itself. Outline a series of events that will take place. This
gives you the overall plot of your adventure, a sort of roadmap you can follow
while you’re
running the game
to know
what
is likely
to happen
next.
For
example, you decide the threat in your adventure involves the crew
of an alien ship stranded on Earth. Unable to speak any Earth languages
and mistrustful of humans, the aliens need to acquire some advanced
technology to repair their ship. They begin to track down and steal the
things they need, using their own advanced technology and alien powers
to overcome security and the conventional authorities. After they’ve made
four thefts, they make the repairs to their ship and leave for home, smugly
satisfied that humanity was no match for them.Now, that’s what would happen if the heroes weren’t around. Odds are
the players aren’t going to just allow the aliens to get away with their
crimes. Perhaps the heroes are called in after the first robbery to begin an
investigation, or maybe they are called in during the first robbery, giving
them a chance to encounter the aliens and learn something about them
(and probably fight them). The heroes can then begin investigating, trying
to piece together who the aliens are, what they want, and what they ’ll do
next. They might figure things out and set a trap at one of the potential
targets. They might try to track the aliens back to their hidden ship, or
capture one of them for interrogation. The aliens may come back for a
captured crewmember, and so forth. Exactly how things end up depends
on what the players choose to do.
Try to focus your plot on the actions of the antagonists, letting the
heroes react to things as they happen. It’s hard to base the plot on
what the heroes will do because you don’t always know what that is. By
focusing on the villains’ actions, you give the heroes the freedom to do
whatever they want in response, and you can change the villains’ plans
accordingly.
encounteRs
Your plot outline gives you a number of potential encounters the heroes
may have during the adventure. An encounter is a single challenge, interaction,
or activity, such as a fight with the villain, the investigation of a
crime scene, a chase through the city, and so forth. Using your outline,
you can get a good idea of the possible encounters during your adventure.
In the previous example, the heroes may have encounters with the
aliens at any of their four robbery sites. They also may investigate those
sites and encounter the aliens at the crash site of their ship.
Outline the possible encounters and take note of the important details
in each one. For example, if the heroes encounter the aliens during one of
their robberies, you’ll want to know where the robbery takes place, what
the place looks like, what time of day it is, and if anything in the environment
could affect the outcome of the encounter. If the aliens steal
radioactive isotopes from a nuclear power plant, a fight might risk damaging
the reactor, causing a meltdown (a possible complication). That’s a
different encounter than if the aliens steal parts from a high-tech robotics
factory, where the fight could involve a robot assembly line (which offers
the characters big, heavy things to chuck at each other).
The typical arrangement of encounters in the classic comic book story
is: the heroes are alerted to the threat. They take action, but suffer a setback.
They
try
to
deal
with
the
threat,
facing
various
challenges
along
the
way.
Eventually, they overcome these challenges, face the threat directly,
and overcome it. The difficulty and number of challenges in the middle
determines how long the story is, from a single quick game session to
an entire campaign (with each challenge in the middle being an entire
adventure of its own).
The early encounters in the adventure serve a few purposes. First,
they introduce the players to the threat and allow them to find out more
about it. If it’s a new villain, for example, the heroes learn the villain’s
name, powers, agenda, and so forth. If it’s an existing villain, they find
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out the villain’s current plan (and perhaps how the villain escaped from
prison or survived certain death from a previous story). If it’s a disaster,
they see the first signs and get expert advice on what’s likely to happen,
and so forth.
Initial encounters also provide opportunities for the heroes to earn hero
points. This means the early encounters in the adventure don’t have to
go well for the heroes. In fact, it’s better for them in the long run if they
don’t go well. The more setbacks the heroes face early on, the more hero
points they earn for use later in the adventure. In the classic comics story,
the heroes encounter the threat and suffer defeat of some sort. The villain
may get away, their powers may prove inadequate to deal with the problem,
their
plan
may
not
work,
and
so
forth.
The
heroes
then
regroup,
come
up
with a new
plan,
and try again.
Of course, not every encounter has to end in defeat for the heroes, otherwise
the
players
may
get
frustrated.
Keep
in
mind
you
can
also
put
the
heroes
up
against
minions
and
minor
challenges
for
them
to
overcome
on
the
way
to
the
big
finale.
You
can
award
hero
points
for
setbacks,
too,
to
give
the
players
a
sense
of
accomplishment
along
the
way
so
their
problems
don’t seem quite
as bad.
the gRanD finale
Then there’s the big finish to the adventure, the grand finale. This is when
the heroes finally confront the major threat of the adventure and have a
real chance to deal with it. It may be a final showdown with the big villain,
stopping
the
villain’s
plans
at
the
last moment, averting disaster, or
confronting an alien invasion fleet on the edge of space. Whatever the
case, it’s when events in the adventure come to a climax and it’s time for
the heroes to step up and save the day.
The finale is the big payoff of the adventure, what the players have
been working towards, so you need to make it as exciting and fun as
possible. That means the finale should be challenging; encouraging the
players to spend all the heroes points they’ve racked up during the adventure
(remember, they can’t save them and spend them later!). On the
other hand, the finale shouldn’t be so tough the heroes can’t win, or the
adventure just ends in frustration. It’s best if things end in a decisive win
for the heroes, although sometimes their victory may be a pyrrhic one.
the WRap-up
The wrap-up or epilogue is where you finish up anything after the climax
of the adventure. It’s where the heroes haul the villains off to jail, find
out any remaining information, resolve the adventure’s mysteries, and so
forth. There may still be some dangling threads left over at the end of
the adventure (see When Last We Left Our Heroes..., on the previous
page) but generally things should be tied up and resolved by the end.
You can play out the wrap-up, allowing the players to describe what
their heroes are doing, or just sum things up for them. For example, “After
you capture Atom Smasher and shut down the runaway reactor, the
authorities move in to take the supervillain into custody and repair the
damage to the nuclear plant. The city is safe once again.”