Interest Check: Mutants and Masterminds 3E Monthly

[DMReckless]

FG License: Ultimate, players need none
Game System: Mutants and Masterminds 3E

Time Zone: EST
Day of week and time: Saturday 5pm-10pm
If new game, planned start date: August 27th 2016
Planned Frequency: Monthly to bi-weekly
Term: long term campaign

Text or Voice: Text
Roleplay & Combat mix: 75-25
Number of Players in game & needed: up to 6, minimum 4
Character starting level & equipment: PL 8 with 15 PP/PL and trade-off with max of +6 on attacks
Character restrictions: Characters are mutant teenagers and should not be omnipowered (able to fill in pretty much every role-like a robot or shapechanger who has a bunch of different forms/powers or magician who can cast every sort of spell.) Each character will have the following Complications: Mutant, Freshman, and one other they choose.

Details of your scenario:

Welcome to the Corsican Academy, freshman! A private school in the Adirondack region of Northern New York, this school isn't your typical high school. The Corsican Academy has a unique student body. Every student joining the private institute has recently developed abilities not given to the rest of humanity. Termed mutants after popular comics and movies, these kids have been targeted by a government which would rather control them then let them be unchecked weapons of mass destruction. The Academy offers an alternative to enslavement or imprisonment: training and education.


As a Freshman, you will be assigned a "Study Group", a unit of four to six students who study, practice, and live together. Your study group will be assigned a Junior as an Overseer. This J.O. will be responsible for maintaining the academic and disciplinary standards expected of a freshman student. Your first task as a Study Group will be to come up with a name and a crest for your Study Group.

Headmistresses Maya Snow and Chimera Darke and Headmaster Anton Chezney welcome you to the Corsican Academy. If you listen to your J.O., you may just survive.


This is a high school drama meets superheroes campaign. The primary source of adventure will be conflicts with other students and/or local townies, as well as "Danger-Room" type scenarios. Occasionally, things may attack the Academy, and if the students wander too far off campus, they may meet with Black Suits who want them under the government's thumbs.

My thoughts are that I'll run this once or twice a month, with a game calendar filled out once I figure out how to do that.

If there is another night that works better, please feel free to mention it. I may be able to work something out.

Link to Gamecalendar page:

[gaara6666]

Hey stratton this actually sounds freaking fantastic. I would 100% love to play but my saturdays are limited because of work. So I could not play til 7pm est time. My mondays though are wide open.

[EmeraldGordiant]

This sounds pretty cool. I got the Mutants and Masterminds module to play around with but haven't actually played it any. With a Monthly to Bi-weekly schedule it shouldn't cut into my 5e Campaign I'm DMing so this would be awesome.

[Dayson]

This sounds perfect for me. I am a noob, so please be patient.

[Dinin Devilhand]

I can definitely make this happen after the 27th. Very experienced with the M&M 3e system and moderately experienced with Fantasy Grounds.

[Blahness98]

Man.. only if I didn't work until 2 hours before end time. Good luck in your endeavor.

[HogarthUndead]

I'd be interested if there is still room. I have a little experience in older M&M but not much, and very little fantasy ground experience. I tend to be a good learner though. I've made up a couple characters in excel for practice, but would love to know what others are already leaning towards before choosing a character.

[gaara6666]

I am leaning toward an extra dimensional space/capture character if I get into the game

[EmeraldGordiant]

I'm gonna do super powered mind with telekinetic/pathic abilities I think

[DMReckless]

Guys, since there was initially little interest, and then an explosion (Woo!) with several people new to Fantasy Grounds and/or Mutants and Masterminds, I will be spending the next few days (Fri-Sat) helping people to create characters and setting things up in FG. The start date will have to be moved back, but I think we can work things out pretty well.

My Skype name is "dmreckless". Please include the phrase Corsican Academy in any Skype contact requests so I know where you're coming from.

Full disclosure, although I have run several M&M 3e campaigns and am familiar with that ruleset, I have not run it in Fantasy Grounds. I have used Fantasy Grounds for Pathfinder Games, and am hoping the M&M ruleset runs as smoothly.

Edit: Gara has indicated he would like a later start time. Does 7pm-11pm EST work for people, or is it too late for some?

[DMReckless]

This is the M&M 3ED System Reference Document (https://www.d20herosrd.com)

[Dayson]

Anytime Saturday works for me.

[EmeraldGordiant]

Most Saturdays other than this coming one should work for me due to my campaign having to be rescheduled this week.

[HogarthUndead]

I'm leaning towards a 12 year old super-genius inventor. I'm still open to something else though. Here is the latest iteration of what I'm working on.

Nicholas Cook
PL8

Abilities
Strength 0, Stamina 3, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 18, Awareness 10, Presence 0

Powers
"Mental Quickness:
Mental Quickness: Quickness 20 [Limited]
(10 points)
Move like I think Device:
Physical Quickness: Quickness 20 [Limited, Removable], Dodge: Enhanced Dodge 10 [Removable], Parry: Enhanced Parry 10 [Removable], Speed 10 [Removable]
(22 points)
Comprehend Languages:
Comprehend Languages: Comprehend 1
(2 points)
Perfected mind and body:
No need to sleep, eat, or drink. : Immunity 2
(2 points)"

Equipment
"
Standard Equipment
Utility Belt (25 ep), Flashlight (1 ep), Rebreather (1 ep), Computer/cellphone/comlink (3 ep)"

Advantages
Assessment, Eidetic Memory, Equipment 6, Improvised Tools, Improved Initiative 4, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades, Leadership, Skill Mastery [Technology], Well-Informed

Skills
Acrobatics (+0), Athletics (+0), Deception (+0), Expertise (+18), Expertise (+18), Expertise (+18), Expertise (+18), Insight 4 (+14), Intimidation (+0), Investigation (+18), Perception 4 (+14), Persuasion (+0), Sleight of Hand (+0), Stealth (+0), Technology (+18), Treatment (+18), Vehicles (+0)

Offense
Initiative +16


Defense
Dodge 10, Parry 10
Toughness 3 (Def Roll 0), Fortitude 3, Will 10

Power Points
Abilities 62 + Powers 36 + Advantages 18 + Skills 4 + Defenses 0 = Total 120

Complications
Mutant, Freshmen, Responsibility

Design Notes

[EmeraldGordiant]

I'm leaning towards a 12 year old super-genius inventor. I'm still open to something else though. Here is the latest iteration of what I'm working on.

Nicholas Cook
PL8

Abilities
Strength 0, Stamina 3, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 18, Awareness 10, Presence 0

Powers
"Mental Quickness:
Mental Quickness: Quickness 20 [Limited]
(10 points)
Move like I think Device:
Physical Quickness: Quickness 20 [Limited, Removable], Dodge: Enhanced Dodge 10 [Removable], Parry: Enhanced Parry 10 [Removable], Speed 10 [Removable]
(22 points)
Comprehend Languages:
Comprehend Languages: Comprehend 1
(2 points)
Perfected mind and body:
No need to sleep, eat, or drink. : Immunity 2
(2 points)"

Equipment
"
Standard Equipment
Utility Belt (25 ep), Flashlight (1 ep), Rebreather (1 ep), Computer/cellphone/comlink (3 ep)"

Advantages
Assessment, Eidetic Memory, Equipment 6, Improvised Tools, Improved Initiative 4, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades, Leadership, Skill Mastery [Technology], Well-Informed

Skills
Acrobatics (+0), Athletics (+0), Deception (+0), Expertise (+18), Expertise (+18), Expertise (+18), Expertise (+18), Insight 4 (+14), Intimidation (+0), Investigation (+18), Perception 4 (+14), Persuasion (+0), Sleight of Hand (+0), Stealth (+0), Technology (+18), Treatment (+18), Vehicles (+0)

Offense
Initiative +16


Defense
Dodge 10, Parry 10
Toughness 3 (Def Roll 0), Fortitude 3, Will 10

Power Points
Abilities 62 + Powers 36 + Advantages 18 + Skills 4 + Defenses 0 = Total 120

Complications
Mutant, Freshmen, Responsibility

Design Notes

I'm pretty sure he said 15 PP total

[cyphus5]

This just screams to be made into a X-Men meets Community TV show game. The part about study group gave me the idea. That could be fun.

[HogarthUndead]

hmm i was pretty sure 15pp/pl meant 15 pp per power level, which seems to be the standard in the book.

[DMReckless]

Correct, 15 PP per Power Level, so 120 total is correct.

[EmeraldGordiant]

Okay thanks for clearing that up. Pretty new to the module

[DMReckless]

This just screams to be made into a X-Men meets Community TV show game. The part about study group gave me the idea. That could be fun.

You may enjoy the show Misfits. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1548850/)

[DMReckless]

on Nicholas, I'm concerned with some of those numbers; more info tomorrow bedtime

[gaara6666]

stratton i should be around saturday night in the fantasy grounds teamspeak. I could use a crash course on 3rd ED M&M since it has been a few years.

[dakkonwastes]

i am interested as well, if there is room.

[dakkonwastes]

To Nicholas: very new to the system (just cracked the book open new) so I could be wrong, but isn't there a cap based on PL? Total skill modifier (ability+skill+advantage) cannot exceed PL+10 and your intelligence alone is 18. Technology, investigation also at 18 (presuming intelligence linked along with your other 18's) would double skill caps alone.

Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken, just trying to come up with a character myself.

[HogarthUndead]

Sorry, the way the excel sheet outputs for forums might be a bit confusing. The 18 is the ability+skill+advantage. If you look at investigation or insight you'll see it lists the skill rank directly after the name, then the total. However since the majority of his capability comes from raw ability and not skill at this point, most the skills have nothing after them but the total because they have no skill ranks.

[dakkonwastes]

ah ha, I see that now.


Sorry, the way the excel sheet outputs for forums might be a bit confusing. The 18 is the ability+skill+advantage. If you look at investigation or insight you'll see it lists the skill rank directly after the name, then the total. However since the majority of his capability comes from raw ability and not skill at this point, most the skills have nothing after them but the total because they have no skill ranks.

[dakkonwastes]

disregard

[HogarthUndead]

Jack of all trades, and to a lesser extent eidetic memory are the mechanical aspects that allow him to use those skills. Of important note too are that not all expertise skills are int based, that is just what it defaults to on the sheet. Also i am pretty sure i need to create a power with a lot of enhance ability aspects to represent how his mutation changed his abilities to be what they are, and put his other mutant related powers together with it. But I'm by no means an expert and I wont be shocked if i made a handful of mistakes.

[dakkonwastes]

yep, found jack of all trades myself, looks like a minute before your post.

[DMReckless]

My main concerns are as follows: Quickness 20 is too powerful for the campaign concept. Combining super-speed with super -genius is likely to result in someone trying to gadget/invent their way out of every problem, which is essentially a omnipower. Frankly, someone of that level of intellect who can both think and act out two months worth of invention in six seconds is just not what I'm looking for in this campaign. It's a power combination that is legal within the game rules, but one ripe for abuse.


Not entirely unrelated:

I'd like to institute a cap of 14 on all Abilities and Power Ranks, in addition to the normal Power Level Limits.

Many powers are already capped due to restrictions along attack-damage range, but the game has no built in limits for utility or movement powers. I'd prefer to add the limit in for this particular campaign.

[DMReckless]

I am available on Skype now and will be throughout the afternoon and evening, with some time off to go to the gym and maybe help the inlaws.

[DMReckless]

Game #2 Tonight at 7pm EST