Yeah, I got into Heroes Unlimited via Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness. S’funny you bring up mecha, ‘cos that was one of the BIG problems with HU. Balance. (Especially for the robots.)

I struggled thru a campaign where one player was a relatively normal guy who could turn invisible, and another was essentially a giant robot with a built in .50 cal machine gun and ion cannon. Try coming up with villians that challenge both at once. Feh…

But I digress. It’s M&M from here on out for all my superhero needs. I look forward to reading more about how it goes, should you get anything going. Might inspire me to dust off my own M&M campaign and get it rolling again…

Ah the 80′s!

Welcome to the Blog BTW BigFella!

Also, if you wanna do the old school random thing, I’d suggest using Palladium’s “Heroes Unlimited” for all the crazy randomized tables, and then stat the characters out in M&M.

(Heroes Unlimited was the first supers themed system I played, and aside from the randomizing, boy what a haphazard system. When I finally got talked into switching to Mutants & Masterminds, it was like being handed a flamethrower after trying to start a fire with two sticks…)

Thanks Greywulf for your tips, I will apply them when I do play.

I still love the d20 system (hell 4e still is d20) I just don’t want to deal with all its crunchy bits anymore. At Gen Con i ran it crazy fast and I loved it. I want some more of that.

Thanks for mentioning it! Maybe it will be useful.

Davids last blog post..<a href=”http://theverbingnoun.blogspot.com/2008/12/rpg-carnival-transform

Also, I discovered something recently: Any feats that require an extensive amount of flipping pages should instead be made into a “power-like” card, requiring no more flipping, and making it feel more like a 4e game.

Dice Monkeys last blog post..So you mean that’s what I was fighting? hmmmm….

Oh, ok then, as you insisted (and I know I’m teaching some serious egg sucking here)……………

1) First and foremost: In M&M, winging it is accepted (and encouraged) behaviour. It’s a book set in a trope-filled world where drama and action takes precedence over the correct interpretation of the rules. That’s a bit of a sea-change to D&D where entire forums are filled with people arguing over the exact meaning of every single darned word in every single sentence in the Core Rules.
2) The archetypes are a work of genius. Study them, bend them and use them as the basis of your own character ideas. About 50% of our characters start (and sometimes end) with an archetype from either the core books or Instant Superheroes.
3) Combat is different to D&D. Very, very different. It’s faster, more fluid, and the players (and Evils GMs!) are encouraged to use their abilities in imaginative and creative ways. Extra Effort and Hero Points = Action! Let that guy with Blast use Extra Effort to gain an Alternate Power at the last moment to create an area effect explosion to Save The Girl from the oncoming tidal wave, oh whatever. In M&M it’s about being creative with what you’ve got, not about ticking off the Powers as you use them in order.
4) There’s a lot of Powers. There’s a lot of Feats. Doesn’t mean you need to know ‘em though. As GM, you only need to know the ones belonging to the Evil Villains, so keep them simple to start with. A Gang Leader and a bunch of Criminal Minions (pp 226-227) are staple foes, and barely a Feat (and no Powers) in sight.
5) M&M plays best when it’s not just a string of combat encounters one after the other. Like comicbooks themselves, a great adventure has the thrill of the chase, investigation, research, puzzles and more. Combat is just one part of the Superhero Experience. That said………..
6) Big, Big Battles are fantastic! When you’ve got characters who can teleport anywhere on Earth, fly 10,000mph, time travel and control dimensions with ne’er a thought, anything is possible. There’s a reason why M&M doesn’t use battlemats

Any questions, just ask.

greywulfs last blog post..Love amid oncoming traffic

However, I for one don’t want to tackle it for the moment. Luckily for the GM, there’s a lot of pre-made stuff in the main book (as well as even more in the campaign book).