Mutants and Masterminds

[Zhentarim]

About 3 months from now (May 2019), I'd like to start a mutants and masterminds game. I'm still learning the basics of the system and between now and then I'll be busy (I really should be working right now but I'm being irresponsible). Anyway, I really only know pathfinder, but mutants and masterminds captures the flavor of the game I've been craving the last few months and would like somebody to run a game for me in that system, which I still know very little about.

Edit: A noir setting would be nice.

Edit2: My character concept is similar to Doctor Who, so this would be a sci-fi noir/doctor who mix game.

[Beleriphon]

About 3 months from now (May 2019), I'd like to start a mutants and masterminds game. I'm still learning the basics of the system and between now and then I'll be busy (I really should be working right now but I'm being irresponsible). Anyway, I really only know pathfinder, but mutants and masterminds captures the flavor of the game I've been craving the last few months and would like somebody to run a game for me in that system, which I still know very little about.

Edit: A noir setting would be nice.

What kind of characters do you want to use? M&M is geared heavily towards adventures and action. It can do noirish style, but you're going to get a lot more punching and a lot less investigating from the rules.

So, given the action/adventure oriented nature of M&M gives us some movies, or better yet comics, that you think you would want to emulate the tone or style of?

Just as an aside, PL10 is kind of first X-Men movie power level, where a character can blow a hole in a building with their laser eyes, or punch as hard as a howitzer.

[Zhentarim]

What kind of characters do you want to use? M&M is geared heavily towards adventures and action. It can do noirish style, but you're going to get a lot more punching and a lot less investigating from the rules.

So, given the action/adventure oriented nature of M&M gives us some movies, or better yet comics, that you think you would want to emulate the tone or style of?

Just as an aside, PL10 is kind of first X-Men movie power level, where a character can blow a hole in a building with their laser eyes, or punch as hard as a howitzer.

Well, for flavor, I want a tortured hero.

I'm going to take Regeneration, immortality, age immunity, life support immunity, flight, space travel, precognition, postcognition, and time travel.

[TerrickTerran]

I have always enjoyed noir and I still occasionally read the 1st ed, Noir book. It will take quite a GM to run the game you want but good luck to both of you.

[Son of A Lich!]

Okay, so my recommendation is to go full modern urban arcana here - think something like Dresden Files if you're familiar.

Give players the pp of a PL4 character (60pp) but a PL10. Yes, a character could have a fire ball that is way above their defenses, but we'll cover that in a bit.

Next, the players must choose two different Flaws on any power that is not innate. You want regeneration? Requires an move action and an easily removable item (Small Bag of Rosemary).

You are all playing as a group of people that have uncovered true magic that the world has been trying to keep secret for centuries, and have discovered a terrible secret brewing beneath the city. With magic you don't quite fully understand, you must uncover who is behind the brewing armageddon and suss out who is with you and who is against you.

---

I want to play a computer nerd, who discovered a soul trapped within the darknet when the victim died in a snuff film. I don't have the PP to build up my defenses, but I tap into tech arcana. reroute train schedules, make ATMs spit out cash in currancy that the ATM does support, predict the glimpses of the future with an old iPod shuffle and invest computers with a rudimentary AI. Problem is I cackle with electricity when I do extreme things, I usually need to be at a Keyboard to be accurate in what I'm looking for, and there is always a chance that the spirit I contacted might just take over my body. But hey, it beats working at Kinkos...

I want to play a billionair business man who had a terrible run in with an escort who turned out to be a vampire. Charm and swagger are the name of the game; I can trick people into seeing things that aren't quite there, a half smile is all I need to have a man turn around and offer me his kidneys, I can read the minds of any one that can blow a 2.0 Blood alcohol level and luck is always on my side. I have to be careful, the more I use my abilities, the hungrier I get, and... unfortuantely... My face was forever scared the first morning after my turn. A little illusion magic can keep up the charade, but when people see my true face, they're immune to the illusions... which means I have to be mindful of mirrors at all times. last thing I want is for someone to see the real me in a mirror I forgot to disguise...

I want to play a professor of cultural anthropology and archeology, who uncovered a secret compartment in a Babylonian artifact that connected me to the awe-inspiring visage of Nedu. I can see the past in intrinsic detail for up to an hour after a death. I can cage demons and evil beings in the binds of torturous chains of burning ash... and If I suffer with them, I can even bind the innocent. I can call on impossible to imagine devils from the great beyond to do my bidding for but a small drop of blood and encase myself in a sarcophagus of spectral force. I tend to start fires everywhere I go, but my knowledge of Mesopotomia is unrivaled even by my greatest peers.

---

Honestly, you can just go to town with all sorts of cool different things when you tell people that they have to have magic at a cost. Be sure to encourage a wide variety of Arrays in builds and be sure to keep tabs on what the drawbacks are. Then you just need to play it out like a heist and/or a fiasco flick. Everyone has their motivations and goals, with the big over arching goal of stopping the apocalyptic dread. Death is a really rare thing in M&M, but with the lack of PP to go around and the desire to push powers to their brink, people are going to be really frail but threats are going to be monstrous and terrifying.

other ideas -

MMA Fighter with haunted fist wraps.
Mummified pharaoh who leads a cult.
Demi-god preteen with, like, the biggest following on instagram
Material engineer whose learned to forge Soul-stuff
Coroner who is a specialist in Undead.
Graffiti artist who can bring his work to life.

Don't worry, have fun.

[Zhentarim]

Okay, so my recommendation is to go full modern urban arcana here - think something like Dresden Files if you're familiar.

Give players the pp of a PL4 character (60pp) but a PL10. Yes, a character could have a fire ball that is way above their defenses, but we'll cover that in a bit.

Next, the players must choose two different Flaws on any power that is not innate. You want regeneration? Requires an move action and an easily removable item (Small Bag of Rosemary).

You are all playing as a group of people that have uncovered true magic that the world has been trying to keep secret for centuries, and have discovered a terrible secret brewing beneath the city. With magic you don't quite fully understand, you must uncover who is behind the brewing armageddon and suss out who is with you and who is against you.

---

I want to play a computer nerd, who discovered a soul trapped within the darknet when the victim died in a snuff film. I don't have the PP to build up my defenses, but I tap into tech arcana. reroute train schedules, make ATMs spit out cash in currancy that the ATM does support, predict the glimpses of the future with an old iPod shuffle and invest computers with a rudimentary AI. Problem is I cackle with electricity when I do extreme things, I usually need to be at a Keyboard to be accurate in what I'm looking for, and there is always a chance that the spirit I contacted might just take over my body. But hey, it beats working at Kinkos...

I want to play a billionair business man who had a terrible run in with an escort who turned out to be a vampire. Charm and swagger are the name of the game; I can trick people into seeing things that aren't quite there, a half smile is all I need to have a man turn around and offer me his kidneys, I can read the minds of any one that can blow a 2.0 Blood alcohol level and luck is always on my side. I have to be careful, the more I use my abilities, the hungrier I get, and... unfortuantely... My face was forever scared the first morning after my turn. A little illusion magic can keep up the charade, but when people see my true face, they're immune to the illusions... which means I have to be mindful of mirrors at all times. last thing I want is for someone to see the real me in a mirror I forgot to disguise...

I want to play a professor of cultural anthropology and archeology, who uncovered a secret compartment in a Babylonian artifact that connected me to the awe-inspiring visage of Nedu. I can see the past in intrinsic detail for up to an hour after a death. I can cage demons and evil beings in the binds of torturous chains of burning ash... and If I suffer with them, I can even bind the innocent. I can call on impossible to imagine devils from the great beyond to do my bidding for but a small drop of blood and encase myself in a sarcophagus of spectral force. I tend to start fires everywhere I go, but my knowledge of Mesopotomia is unrivaled even by my greatest peers.

---

Honestly, you can just go to town with all sorts of cool different things when you tell people that they have to have magic at a cost. Be sure to encourage a wide variety of Arrays in builds and be sure to keep tabs on what the drawbacks are. Then you just need to play it out like a heist and/or a fiasco flick. Everyone has their motivations and goals, with the big over arching goal of stopping the apocalyptic dread. Death is a really rare thing in M&M, but with the lack of PP to go around and the desire to push powers to their brink, people are going to be really frail but threats are going to be monstrous and terrifying.

other ideas -

MMA Fighter with haunted fist wraps.
Mummified pharaoh who leads a cult.
Demi-god preteen with, like, the biggest following on instagram
Material engineer whose learned to forge Soul-stuff
Coroner who is a specialist in Undead.
Graffiti artist who can bring his work to life.

Don't worry, have fun.

I like this.

[Beleriphon]

Well, for flavor, I want a tortured hero.

I'm going to take Regeneration, immortality, age immunity, life support immunity, flight, space travel, precognition, postcognition, and time travel.

Precog, postcog, time travel and space flight are GM Fiat type powers. You really don't have any control over them as such, unless the GM makes them useful.\

A list of powers is less helpful to determine what you want to do. Think about the character, what do they do? Do they shoot bees from hands? What do those bees do?

Or to go with your list:

What causes the regeneration? Is it an intrinsic trait a la Wolverine, or is caused by regular injections of something? If injections how frequent, what happens if they stop?
Immortality, is this related to the regeneration at all?
How does the character fly? Jet pack, hover board, wings, psychic graviton manipulation?

[Zhentarim]

Precog, postcog, time travel and space flight are GM Fiat type powers. You really don't have any control over them as such, unless the GM makes them useful.\

A list of powers is less helpful to determine what you want to do. Think about the character, what do they do? Do they shoot bees from hands? What do those bees do?

Or to go with your list:

What causes the regeneration? Is it an intrinsic trait a la Wolverine, or is caused by regular injections of something? If injections how frequent, what happens if they stop?
Immortality, is this related to the regeneration at all?
How does the character fly? Jet pack, hover board, wings, psychic graviton manipulation?

basically, this is a character who cannot die due to an intrinsic hyper-regeneration that can heal even mortal wounds virtually instantly. Even if they want to die they can’t for more than 3 seconds. He’s seen all his family and friends die and is a little emotionally messed up from that. He can’t even age past the appearance and physiology of a young adult.

What keeps him sane is inventing things. His other powers are due to technology. He obviously has the inventor advantage because while his defensive abilities and vast mental powers are innate, his other powers are largely 1-time use gadgets. Flight came up often enough he built a sturdy reusable jet pack capable of long-range flight, as well as a laser pistol that quickly recharges. He also has a precognition headband to chart the stock market. He learned quickly you can only really count on wealth to truly last through the centuries, and while compassionate enough to not want others to suffer, is predominantly interested in gaining power, influence, and money.

I sense the vampire character and me will both understand the curse of immortality.

[Beleriphon]

basically, this is a character who cannot die due to an intrinsic hyper-regeneration that can heal even mortal wounds virtually instantly. Even if they want to die they can’t for more than 3 seconds. He’s seen all his family and friends die and is a little emotionally messed up from that. He can’t even age past the appearance and physiology of a young adult.

What keeps him sane is inventing things. His other powers are due to technology. He obviously has the inventor advantage because while his defensive abilities and vast mental powers are innate, his other powers are largely 1-time use gadgets. Flight came up often enough he built a sturdy reusable jet pack capable of long-range flight, as well as a laser pistol that quickly recharges. He also has a precognition headband to chart the stock market. He learned quickly you can only really count on wealth to truly last through the centuries, and while compassionate enough to not want others to suffer, is predominantly interested in gaining power, influence, and money.

I sense the vampire character and me will both understand the curse of immortality.

Okay, that's good stuff. The jet pack is a device of some kind, same with the laser pistol. The jetpack should have the Removable flaw, the other Easily Removable.

For one time use gadgets Inventor is your go to here. You can also a try a very slow rank variable with the removable flaw to represent the whole Bat-Shark-Repellant utility belt.