RPG Name: Mutants & Masterminds
Description: Mutants & Masterminds RPG Green Ronin Publishing
What are your reviews for this role-playing game? Would Mutants & Masterminds play by post work well? Did you ever try a home brew version of this RPG, if so what did you do to improve upon it.
Played As: Mutants & Masterminds PBP RPG? or
Mutants and Masterminds started as a D20 superhero game in the age of the D20 Open System license. While it still has the license text in the back of the book, the game, now in its third edition, is far removed from its Dungeons & Dragons roots.
It is a point buy, effect based system. One purchases specific effects, say Damage, for example, and describes them however one wishes. Feats from Dungeons & Dragons are replaced with Advantages, which perform the same functions with different names. Attributes are purchased as bonuses, so instead of having a Strength Attribute of 18, you merely buy a 4, the bonus an 18 would give you, and apply it directly to whatever rolls you need to make. The power system is quite comprehensive, allowing for a tremendous variety of character concepts. Unlike Champions, which includes multiplication and division of fractions in it's character creation system, the math in M&M is simple and straightforward. It's all addition and subtraction of fairly small(Double digit at most,) numbers.
Game play very is very streamlined. Gone are the large numbers of polyhedral dice. All you need is a single D20 to resolve any action. Damage is handled by the saving throw system, with degrees of failure determining the conditions applied to your character. As each successful hit applies a cumulative penalty to the roll, it nicely represents real combat.
M&M would play just fine as a Play By Post game.