ABILITIES
All characters have certain basic abilities. These are Strength, Dexterity,
Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. They each have a
numeric ability score averaging 10 or 11 for a normally capable human
being. Higher ability scores grant bonuses while lower ability scores
impose penalties. As part of creating your hero, you decide how strong,
smart, and tough your hero is by choosing the appropriate ability
scores.
SKILLS
Skills represent training in a particular sort of task, everything from complex
acrobatics to defusing bombs, programming computers, or piloting a
plane. A skill acts as a bonus for actions involving those tasks. Someone
trained in climbing can climb faster and with more confidence than someone
who isn’t trained, for example. Skills are measured in ranks, reflecting
how much training a character has in the skill. You choose the skills your
hero knows and how well trained the hero is in them.
FEATS
Feats are special abilities—talents or knacks. A feat allows your hero to do
something other characters can’t normally do, or makes your hero better
at doing certain things. They give the hero an advantage over others. You
select your hero’s feats based on what you want your hero to be able to
do.
POWERS
Powers are special abilities beyond those of ordinary human beings.
They’re like feats, only more so. Whereas a feat might give your hero a
minor special ability, powers grant truly superhuman abilities. You choose
the powers you want your hero to have. Chapter 5 presents a wide range
of powers, along with power modifiers and power feats, allowing you to
mix and match to create nearly any super-power you desire.
DRAWBACKS
Finally, heroes often have challenges to overcome. They have drawbacks.
Overcoming these drawbacks is part of what makes a real hero. Drawbacks
range from physical disabilities to unusual weaknesses or vulnerabilities.
You choose your hero’s drawbacks, allowing you to define the sorts of
challenges your hero must overcome in the game.
GAME PLAY
A session of Mutants & Masterminds resembles an issue of a comic book
or an episode of an animated series. The Gamemaster and the players get
together and tell a story by playing the game. The length of the game
session can vary, from just a couple hours to several hours or more. Some
adventures may be completed in a single session while others may take
multiple sessions, just as some comic book stories are told in one issue,
while others span multiple issues. The episodic nature of the game allows
you to choose when to stop playing and allows you to start up again at
any time at which you and your friends agree.
Just like a comic book, a Mutants & Masterminds adventure consists
of a series of interrelated scenes or encounters. Some scenes are fairly
straightforward, with the heroes interacting with each other and the
supporting cast. In these cases the GM generally just asks the players to
describe what their heroes are doing and in turn describes how the other
characters react and what they do. When the action starts happening,
such as when the heroes are staving off a disaster or fighting villains, time
becomes more crucial and is broken down into rounds, each six seconds
long, and the players generally have to make die rolls to see how their
heroes do.
