Pyramid Pick
Mutants & Masterminds RPG (based on d20 System)
Published by Green Ronin Publishing
Written by Steve Kenson
Graphic Design by Super Unicorn
288-page full-color hardback; $32.95
And so 2002, the year of the Great Superhero Game Revival, closes with the debut of Mutants & Masterminds, the first "massively open content" non-fantasy game to emerge from the shadow of the Wizards of the Coast Open Game License. And emerge it does, in full-color splendor, ready to tackle the daunting world of superhero gaming with a pencil in one hand and a passel of 20-sided dice in the other. Let's see how it measures up.
Think about the game engine on which Open Gaming is based, and you're obliged to think about classes and levels. However, Mutants & Masterminds does not use classes (unless you infer a single implied "superhero" class). "Levels" refers to Power Levels which serve as a guide to setting character and campaign balance. There are no experience points in the game, but there are Power Points to be earned. An initial allotment of Power Points is used to purchase all character traits (no rolling for Abilities!); more Power Points can be earned in play for character improvement. In essence, Mutants & Masterminds is a point-buy character system meshed smoothly into the Open mechanics.
The book follows the fairly standard organization for a core rulebook of this family. An introduction describes the game, provides definitions of terms, and highlights differences between Mutants & Mastermind . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 27, 2002
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