Friday 30 March 2012

Mutants and Masterminds

Okay, so I posted the summary of my solo game of Mutants and Masterminds and I have to say it was good fun.

First impressions
As a fan of superheroes and comic books, the initial summary I heard of the game was intriguing and the more I heard the more I wanted to play. After getting hold of the pdf of the rule book I was even more hyped about playing. Definitely lots of reminiscing about favourite heroes from this.

Gamebook
Very very pretty. There were times I felt I was reading a comic book rather than a rulebook. It was also fun playing "spot the superhero homage"; there are defiantly a fair few scattered through the book for those that know their heroes. Nicely laid out and not hard to follow.

Character creation
Little bit number crunchy - defiantly have a calculator on stand by or lots of sheets of paper. After that, its pretty straight forward. You can follow the templates given for generic types of superhero or splash out and make your own or even attempt to recreate your favourite icon. You start with basic abilities which you can raise or lower depending on your character (though you're a super so you're probably going to raise them). Next you move onto skills and there is a huge range to chose from to develop your character further. Then you get powers. Its amazing when you get to the powers section how you start looking and working out what powers belong to which heroes you know about but that might just be me. All of this is bought using the same power points pool so you see what I mean by number crunching. But if even a number noob like me can get it right, you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

Game mechanics
Only one d20 needed. You roll and then add the appropriate modifier. For example, the hero Ghost Shot is trying to sneak up on a demon. She rolls an 11 on the d20 and adds her stealth bonus which is 5, giving her a total stealth of 16. The demon rolls a 14 and adds his notice bonus of 5 to give him 19 and therefore spots Ghost Shot before she can shoot him in the back (which no doubt will resolve in a huge fight). Its a simple mechanic system that is easy to get the hang of. Ranks on powers are something you need to remember to keep an eye on when using them though, especially in combat.

Overall
Its fantastic game and system that I would be happy to play again or even run. A few of my friends have expressed similar sentiments. Defiantly something to pick up and have a look at and possibly try, especially if you like comics, superhero movies or just like the idea of flying around and saving the day. Or conquering it. After all, what is a world without supervillians?

Item: One superhero

A summary of my first foray into the role play game Mutants and Masterminds.

First, the main character: Superhero Ghost Shot, a mystical warrior with the ability to turn herself unsubstantial and invisible and fly, however her main ability is to fashion different spells into mystic arrows which she fires from  her bow. And she's a damn good shot.

The story began on any other day. Ghost Shot, in her civilian identity was enjoying her lunch break from work with her cousin. Her cousin was doing her usual thing of expressing concern about Ghost Shot's hobby of choice, since she is the only person who knows her secret identity (Its going to happen when you share a flat and you then get them to sew you a costume). Three masked guys come in and start waving guns around the cafe, declaring that its a stick up and to hand over any valuables. Ghost Shot waits until two of the thugs approach their table and then -whilst she is leaning down under the table on the pretence of getting her purse- she summons an arrow of mystic binding and jabs it in the nearest thug. The man falls down ensnared. However, the two remaining thugs grab hostages - an old woman and Ghost Shot's cousin - to force the super in the room to give themselves up. Clearly not one of Ghost Shot's better plans and she panics, not sure what to do next lest she get people killed. The bound guy eventualy breaks free and points his gun at Ghost Shot, identifying her as the super that got him. As soon as the other guys dropped their hostages to point their guns at her, she lived up to the 'Ghost' in the name Ghost Shot. Panic ensued and civilians escaped while Ghost Shot dealt with the thugs with judicious use of ghosting and a few more binding, paralysing and mystic blast arrows. Then followed ghosting back to the apartment to scream into a pillow for a good few hours at nearly getting her cousin killed and blowing her secret identity, both of which were thankfully safe however.

The next day while at work (furniture restorer for an antique dealer), there was the sudden sound of explosions, screaming and evil laughter from outside. Ghost Shot realised from her studying of Arcane Lore that the laughter was that of demons. A quick stop to get changed into costume and she ran out to fight them. Distracting one demon from his civilian target she failed to notice the other demon that charged her. Luckily, heavy application of protection spells helps. Quickly taking to the air, she starts to shoot at the demons with mystic blast arrows. Out of nowhere a guy on a motorbike charges one of the demons and hits it with his bike. He is then immediately knocked out by the demon. Ghost Shot manages to take the demons out, but not before one of them roared for back up. Quickly, Ghost Shot took the unconscious biker into the safety of her work and leaves him there, flying out to confront the demons. And is almost immedatly whaled on and sent crashing into a nearby window by said demon backup. She does her best to take them out whilst being beaten up by the demons. The last one left standing starts to roar for more re-enforcements when he stops. The biker from before walks up and orders the demon to sit, which it does whilst also being assaulted mentally. Ghost Shot then shoots it in the face with a mystic bolt, knocking it out. The two then decide to work together to deal with the rest of the demons. Ghost Shot takes to the air and finds one lone demon, which she takes out in three shots. It calls for re-enforcements just before it goes down and before the biker reaches her position. The pair decide to set up an ambush for the remaining demons, Ghost Shot in the air to pick them off with her bolts while the man acts as decoy. Their plan works and the demons are defeated. Ghost Shot asks the biker what his name is, to which he tells her he hasn't got one yet before driving away on his motorbike.

Thus ends the first adventure of Ghost Shot, mystic warrior! Here's hoping there gets to be more adventures.

To follow: Thoughts on the Mutants and Masterminds game and system.

Thursday 29 March 2012

Hello world-thing!

Hello, yes, hello! First blog and all that, all nice and shiny still before tit all gets messy from random posting on juxtaposed things and dusty because I forget it exists for a few months. So yes! Here is a blog! Isn't it nice?

What you'll probably see posted on here are overviews of role-play sessions I'm in and I think are interesting enough to give to let others see and ones where I at least vaguely remember everything that happened. One of the two. I might add some musings on different game systems and what I like about them and different games as well. You know, stuff that's probably already done but I may as well add to the collective pool of general musing.

Anyway, I think that's a satisfactory introduction thing. Do enjoy, pull up a chair/cushion/bench/sofa/small elephant and make yourself comfortable.