How to play Mutants & Masterminds

How to play

Build your hero: The GM sets a power level (PL) for the series, usually 10, and you get 15 power points per level, so 150 at PL 10. Spend them on eight abilities (Strength, Stamina, Agility, Dexterity, Fighting, Intellect, Awareness and Presence, at 2 points a rank), on defences, skills and advantages, and on powers. Choose at least two complications, a motivation and one more, to give the GM story hooks.

Power Level limits: Power level caps pairs of traits rather than single ones. Your attack bonus plus the effect rank of that attack can't exceed twice the PL. Dodge plus Toughness, Parry plus Toughness, and Fortitude plus Will each have the same cap, and no skill modifier can go above PL + 10. Within a pair, you can trade one side for the other.

Checks and degrees: Roll a d20, add your modifier and compare the total with the DC. Every 5 full points above or below it adds a degree of success or failure, and a natural 20 on a check improves the result by a degree. Close attacks roll against 10 + the target's Parry and ranged attacks against 10 + Dodge; a natural 20 always hits and a natural 1 always misses. On your turn you take a standard action and a move action, or two move actions.

Building powers: A power is an effect, such as Damage, Flight or Protection, bought in ranks. Extras add to its cost and flaws reduce it. A descriptor says what it looks like, so the same Damage effect can be fire, sound or raw force. An array of alternate effects lets one pool of points hold several powers that you use one at a time.

Damage and conditions: There are no hit points. When a Damage attack hits you, make a Toughness check against 15 + the damage rank. Succeed and nothing happens. Fail by one degree and you take a −1 penalty to later Toughness checks; fail by two and you're also dazed; three and you're staggered; four and you're incapacitated. The penalties stack, and you recover one condition for each minute of rest.

Hero Points: You start each session with 1 Hero Point, and the GM awards more, especially when your complications cause you trouble. Spend one to reroll a die, where a 1 to 10 on the reroll counts as 10 higher; to gain an advantage until the end of your next turn; to shake off being dazed, fatigued or stunned; to get a clue from the GM; or to edit a detail of the scene. Unspent points don't carry over.

Strategy

Balance your pairs: Power level caps pairs of traits, so every point you put on one side of a pair is a point you can't put on the other. At PL 10, a hero with Toughness 12 can have at most 8 in Dodge and in Parry. The rulebook lets you lean either way but asks the GM to look closely at any pair where one side is more than 50% higher than the other. Balanced heroes are harder to exploit: a villain will find the low side of a lopsided build. Don't forget Fortitude and Will: Mind control, afflictions and other nasty powers often target Will or Fortitude, not Toughness. A hero with no Will is one bad roll away from fighting their own team. Use the maneuvers: Anyone can trade up to 2 points between attack and effect with an accurate or power attack, or trade defence for attack with an all-out attack. The Accurate Attack, Power Attack and All-out Attack advantages raise that to 5, which lets one hero adapt to a slippery target or a very tough one. Advantages cost 1 point a rank, so they are cheap ways to add options. Push with extra effort: Once per turn you can use extra effort to take an extra action, gain a +2 bonus, add a rank to a power or perform a power stunt, a temporary alternate effect of a power you already have. You're fatigued afterwards, unless you spend a Hero Point at the start of your next turn to cancel it. That combination is how heroes pull off the big moment. Play your complications: Complications earn Hero Points when they come into play, so write ones the GM can actually use: a secret identity, a rival, a responsibility you can't ignore. Suggest moments for them to matter. The more often they bite, the more Hero Points you have for the fights that count. Build simply first: A first hero is easiest to play with one clear attack, solid defences and a way to get around. Arrays and variable powers are powerful but take practice.

Tips

- Know your PL caps before you spend points: attack plus effect, and each defence pair, top out at twice the PL. - Your Hero Point reroll is at least an 11, so save it for rolls that decide a scene. - Write complications the GM can use; each one that comes into play earns a Hero Point. - Descriptors are free flavour: the same Damage effect can be fire, sonic or psychic. - Close attacks target Parry and ranged attacks target Dodge, so learn which defence your foe lacks. - Extra effort gives you an extra action or a power stunt, and a Hero Point cancels the fatigue. - Don't neglect Will: mind control is a fast way to lose a hero. - Start with a sample archetype from the Hero's Handbook and adjust it rather than building from nothing.

Players and time

A GM and a small group of players, in sessions of a few hours. Building a hero from scratch takes a while, so new players can start from the ready-to-play archetypes in the Hero's Handbook, which are built at PL 10, and customise them.

DC Adventures

Green Ronin's licensed DC Comics game used the same third-edition rules, with the DC heroes and villains fully written up. It is out of print and no longer sold by Green Ronin, but its books still work with Mutants & Masterminds if you find copies.

Icons Assembled

ICONS: The Assembled Edition is Steve Kenson's lighter superhero game, published under his Ad Infinitum Adventures banner and distributed by Green Ronin. Heroes can be created with a few random dice rolls, and resolution uses six-sided dice rather than a d20. It suits groups who want superhero play without M&M's detailed hero building.

Common beginner mistake

Maxing out one side of a defence pair. At PL 10, Toughness 20 leaves Dodge and Parry at 0, so nearly every attack hits and each hit adds a stacking −1 until you drop. Balance Toughness against Dodge and Parry, and keep some Will.