Mutants & Masterminds - or, Gaming at the End of the World, Part 1
This is a complex post. It begins a year and a half ago. Or maybe two and a half years ago.
Many of you who are reading this post know of the gaming company Paizo. It was Paizo who sponsored the "RPG Superstar" contest this past spring. These days, Paizo publishes it's own role-playing game, Pathfinder, which is one branch of the maze of little twisting passages, all different, but all iterations of the #rd Edition rules for D&D. (Wizards of the Cost published D&D under an Open Gaming License, allowing various 3rd Party publishers to use most of the game's mechanics and all but a handful of creatures.)
Before Paizo published Pathfinder, the company was in the business of, first, publishing game magazines for D&D, under license from Wizards of the Coast and then, about three years ago, when Wizards was switching to their own 4th Edition ruleset and ending the Paizo magazines, writing adventures set in their new campaign world, "Golarion", using the D&D 3.5 ruleset. Somewhere in there, the company also published some stand-alone adventures for D&D 3.5, created some generic gaming equipment like maps, published out-of-print science-fantasy novels, and sold all manner of stuff through their on-line store.
This is all background, and many of you know all that anyway.
Well, in April of 2008, the company lent its good will to "PaizoCon", a very small fan-run gaming convention dedicated to the company's campaign setting and materials. I flew out to Seattle for it, and it was fun.
The next year, it was much larger, and run by the same fans with a great deal more direct involvement by the company. I planned to attend again. By that time, Paizo was deep into developing its own game system, and a "Beta-test" version of the rules was available. I said I'd be happy to actually run an adventure or two, set in the Golarion campaign setting, but I asked if I could run them using the D&D 3.5 ruleset, instead of the Pathfinder Beta-test rules. And one of the folks running the con replied that no, the purpose of PaizoCon was to support the company, and that meant that everybody had to run under the Beta-test rules.
Well, then I lost my job, and the convention shifted from April to midsummer, and I just couldn't make it to Seattle, so the point was academic.
So, this year, I got my job back with ACT, and I had the vacation days and wherewithal to attend again. (Note to self: next year, check AmTrak prices...) And the folks in charge were looking for people to run games. And, when I noticed that some people were planning to run games like Cal of C'thulhu and Mouse Guard, I wrote:
I admit to some confusion.
Some time before PaizoCon II, when I thought I'd be attending, I proposed a game, but noted that I wanted to run it under D&D 3.5 rules. My offer was declined, and I was politely advised that Paizo would be better served by having Pathfinder Beta games at their own convention.
So, when I read about all sorts of game systems being proposed, I'm confused.
And Josh Frost, Paizo's Events Manager, wrote back:
I, too, am confused by your story. Come and run/play whatever you want! There will be plenty of Paizo-related gaming and panels to make it truly Paizo Con, but part of the experience is just gaming with others from the community.
I thought that was a great answer. But, having asked, and having gotten that answer, I needed to run something, and it had to be in another game system.
A Proposal
Which uses the Words "Pathfinder" and "Society" too many times
I decided I wanted to run a game that was very tightly embedded in the Golarion setting, and the Pathfinder Society in specific. In the campaign setting, there's this organization known as the Pathfinder Society, and the members-at-large are known as Pathfinders. One of the easy one-sentence descriptions is: "A consortium of Indiana Joneses," but then the one-sentence correction: "Actually, the Society is amoral, allowing anyone to join, so it's more like a consortium of Belloqs." Earning membership almost always requires a three-year apprenticeship in the master headquarters, and then Pathfinders get sent out into the world, on assignment, to obtain some rare lost thing, or take rubbings of a newly discovered monument, or whatever.
The Organized Play environment (think "Living City" or "Living Greyhawk") for Paizo (both when it was under the D&D 3.5 ruleset and now, under the Pathfinder rules) is also called the Pathfinder Society, and presumes that all the PCs are Pathfinders, ready to be sent out on missions.
I've had a bug up my butt for a while about that. The written material indicates that virtually every member of the Pathfinder Society goes through this 3-year training period. There are "battlefield promotions," but they are exceedingly rare, given to powerful adventurers who do a great boon for the Society. And yet, every single member of the PFS Organized Play environment is supposed to start out as a 1st-Level character. It would appear that three years of training don't amount to very much at all.
I wanted to write an adventure for those cadets in Pathfinder Academy. So I designed an adventure where a "field trip" went wrong, and the students ended up in the bowels of an alien ship, forced by circumstance to be the planet's resistance against an invasion from another world. One of the countries in Golarion, "Numeria", is rife with mysterious extra-terrestrial artifacts, so I'd set the bulk of the adventure there. At the same time, I really wanted to get the details straight. Some of the guys who attend PaizoCon are real continuity mavens, and I didn't want to rile them up. Paizo has published thousands of pages of material about Golarion, Numeria, the Pathfinder Society, and so on, and I combed dozens of source articles to make sure I got my facts straight. So I wrote:
Title of the game -- A Lesson in Catastrophe
Description of the game -- For most people, the rank of "Pathfinder" comes after three long years of apprenticeship. Yours is nearing completion, as your instructor walks you through the investigation of an actual ruin in the River Kingdoms, originally the fail-safe lair of a notorious wizard. This is just a training session; certainly, nobody is expecting anything out of the ordinary. But then again, there are many kinds of fail-safes.
I decided that, to highlight the strange science-fiction feel of the adventure, I would use the miniature figures of the Star Wars game, rather than D&D miniatures. And because of that, I decided that the game would use the old d6 engine from the West End Games version of Star Wars RPG.
As it turned out, that was a poor choice. The d6 ruleset is very different from the 3rd Edition D&D rules. They're both sort of generic, so that shouldn't make much of a difference, but it really does. The heart of the matter is that D&D has a "tactical movement" system, where players can use various rules to give their characters advantages in combat. It would certainly be possible to set the d6 combat system on a grid and design rules for Attacks of Opportunity and such, but that was going to be a major chunk of new rules that all the players would have to learn for a quick convention sit-down, and I needed to find another option.
So I realized I was going to need to use another one of those branches in the maze of twisty little passages, versions of the OGL game system. And I hit on Mutants and Masterminds, a superhero version of those rules, and in particular, Warriors and Warlocks, the supplement that returns M&M back into the "Savage Swords of Conan" fantasy milieu.
(Those of you in Northshield can immediately recognize why I keep stumbling over the name "Warriors and Warlocks.")
Skills in M&M work just like they do in 3rd Edition D&D, with a couple of shifts (For example, Spot and Listen are folded into a Notice skill, while Search is kept separate.). There isn't any tactical movement in the default ruleset, but it's easy to reapply the D&D rules. Attacking works just like the players would expect: Attack Bonus plus 1d20, with a target number of the opponent's Defense (also known as Armor Class). So far, there's nothing the players would have to learn.
The first major difference is (a) neither Mutants & Masterminds nor Warriors and Warlocks have classes or levels (like ranger and rogue, bard and barbarian) so character generation is point-based (like Champions). That won't be a big deal, because I'll be designing the characters for the players ahead of time. In fact, I wrote up the characters as 4th-Level PCs under the Pathfinder ruleset, and then translated them over to Warriors and Warlocks.
The second major difference is that characters under M&M don't have Hit Points. Instead, combat damage is a condition, like being hit with a fireball or being subject to a sleep-inducing poison. As with those situations, the attacked player rolls a saving throw to avoid damage. Missing the save by a small amount (say rolling a 15 when you need a 17 or better) can bruise a character; a very low saving throw would knock a character out.
It goes without saying: I like that innovation a lot. Every fight feels dangerous, but the PCs could knock a fire giant out cold in one round if they can coordinate and if the giant gets unlucky.
How the Adventure Went
At the suggestion of a couple of play-testers, I included a seventh character, a sort of quasi-PC, who was the "field trip supervisor", the certified Pathfinder tasked with leading the cadets around the abandoned lair. I found a fellow who'd be willing to play him, and discussed what he knew of the other PCs from their Society dossiers. I explained that it was important that he let the students shine, but that he be likable. At one point in the adventure, the instructor gets kidnapped by brain-altering machines, and at another point, a fiendish shapeshifter impersonates him. The player was game.
As you can see above, I hired Storn Cook, an artist for both the Mutants & Masterminds base rulebook, and the Warriors & Warlocks supplement, to draw up sketches of the player characters. The intent was to get players to choose their character based on the illustration, and then open up the envelope with the stats and other information in it. He did a fantastic job, for a reasonable fee, and got them to me by deadline.
I contacted Green Ronin, the publisher, who sent twelve copies of the beginners' "jump start" rules, and two copies of the W&W rulebook as prizes. I slipped the beginners' guides into the envelopes, and we were set.
Many of you who are reading this post know of the gaming company Paizo. It was Paizo who sponsored the "RPG Superstar" contest this past spring. These days, Paizo publishes it's own role-playing game, Pathfinder, which is one branch of the maze of little twisting passages, all different, but all iterations of the #rd Edition rules for D&D. (Wizards of the Cost published D&D under an Open Gaming License, allowing various 3rd Party publishers to use most of the game's mechanics and all but a handful of creatures.)
Before Paizo published Pathfinder, the company was in the business of, first, publishing game magazines for D&D, under license from Wizards of the Coast and then, about three years ago, when Wizards was switching to their own 4th Edition ruleset and ending the Paizo magazines, writing adventures set in their new campaign world, "Golarion", using the D&D 3.5 ruleset. Somewhere in there, the company also published some stand-alone adventures for D&D 3.5, created some generic gaming equipment like maps, published out-of-print science-fantasy novels, and sold all manner of stuff through their on-line store.
This is all background, and many of you know all that anyway.
Well, in April of 2008, the company lent its good will to "PaizoCon", a very small fan-run gaming convention dedicated to the company's campaign setting and materials. I flew out to Seattle for it, and it was fun.
The next year, it was much larger, and run by the same fans with a great deal more direct involvement by the company. I planned to attend again. By that time, Paizo was deep into developing its own game system, and a "Beta-test" version of the rules was available. I said I'd be happy to actually run an adventure or two, set in the Golarion campaign setting, but I asked if I could run them using the D&D 3.5 ruleset, instead of the Pathfinder Beta-test rules. And one of the folks running the con replied that no, the purpose of PaizoCon was to support the company, and that meant that everybody had to run under the Beta-test rules.
Well, then I lost my job, and the convention shifted from April to midsummer, and I just couldn't make it to Seattle, so the point was academic.
So, this year, I got my job back with ACT, and I had the vacation days and wherewithal to attend again. (Note to self: next year, check AmTrak prices...) And the folks in charge were looking for people to run games. And, when I noticed that some people were planning to run games like Cal of C'thulhu and Mouse Guard, I wrote:
I admit to some confusion.
Some time before PaizoCon II, when I thought I'd be attending, I proposed a game, but noted that I wanted to run it under D&D 3.5 rules. My offer was declined, and I was politely advised that Paizo would be better served by having Pathfinder Beta games at their own convention.
So, when I read about all sorts of game systems being proposed, I'm confused.
And Josh Frost, Paizo's Events Manager, wrote back:
I, too, am confused by your story. Come and run/play whatever you want! There will be plenty of Paizo-related gaming and panels to make it truly Paizo Con, but part of the experience is just gaming with others from the community.
I thought that was a great answer. But, having asked, and having gotten that answer, I needed to run something, and it had to be in another game system.
A Proposal
Which uses the Words "Pathfinder" and "Society" too many times
I decided I wanted to run a game that was very tightly embedded in the Golarion setting, and the Pathfinder Society in specific. In the campaign setting, there's this organization known as the Pathfinder Society, and the members-at-large are known as Pathfinders. One of the easy one-sentence descriptions is: "A consortium of Indiana Joneses," but then the one-sentence correction: "Actually, the Society is amoral, allowing anyone to join, so it's more like a consortium of Belloqs." Earning membership almost always requires a three-year apprenticeship in the master headquarters, and then Pathfinders get sent out into the world, on assignment, to obtain some rare lost thing, or take rubbings of a newly discovered monument, or whatever.
The Organized Play environment (think "Living City" or "Living Greyhawk") for Paizo (both when it was under the D&D 3.5 ruleset and now, under the Pathfinder rules) is also called the Pathfinder Society, and presumes that all the PCs are Pathfinders, ready to be sent out on missions.
I've had a bug up my butt for a while about that. The written material indicates that virtually every member of the Pathfinder Society goes through this 3-year training period. There are "battlefield promotions," but they are exceedingly rare, given to powerful adventurers who do a great boon for the Society. And yet, every single member of the PFS Organized Play environment is supposed to start out as a 1st-Level character. It would appear that three years of training don't amount to very much at all.
I wanted to write an adventure for those cadets in Pathfinder Academy. So I designed an adventure where a "field trip" went wrong, and the students ended up in the bowels of an alien ship, forced by circumstance to be the planet's resistance against an invasion from another world. One of the countries in Golarion, "Numeria", is rife with mysterious extra-terrestrial artifacts, so I'd set the bulk of the adventure there. At the same time, I really wanted to get the details straight. Some of the guys who attend PaizoCon are real continuity mavens, and I didn't want to rile them up. Paizo has published thousands of pages of material about Golarion, Numeria, the Pathfinder Society, and so on, and I combed dozens of source articles to make sure I got my facts straight. So I wrote:
Title of the game -- A Lesson in Catastrophe
Description of the game -- For most people, the rank of "Pathfinder" comes after three long years of apprenticeship. Yours is nearing completion, as your instructor walks you through the investigation of an actual ruin in the River Kingdoms, originally the fail-safe lair of a notorious wizard. This is just a training session; certainly, nobody is expecting anything out of the ordinary. But then again, there are many kinds of fail-safes.
I decided that, to highlight the strange science-fiction feel of the adventure, I would use the miniature figures of the Star Wars game, rather than D&D miniatures. And because of that, I decided that the game would use the old d6 engine from the West End Games version of Star Wars RPG.
As it turned out, that was a poor choice. The d6 ruleset is very different from the 3rd Edition D&D rules. They're both sort of generic, so that shouldn't make much of a difference, but it really does. The heart of the matter is that D&D has a "tactical movement" system, where players can use various rules to give their characters advantages in combat. It would certainly be possible to set the d6 combat system on a grid and design rules for Attacks of Opportunity and such, but that was going to be a major chunk of new rules that all the players would have to learn for a quick convention sit-down, and I needed to find another option.
So I realized I was going to need to use another one of those branches in the maze of twisty little passages, versions of the OGL game system. And I hit on Mutants and Masterminds, a superhero version of those rules, and in particular, Warriors and Warlocks, the supplement that returns M&M back into the "Savage Swords of Conan" fantasy milieu.
(Those of you in Northshield can immediately recognize why I keep stumbling over the name "Warriors and Warlocks.")
Skills in M&M work just like they do in 3rd Edition D&D, with a couple of shifts (For example, Spot and Listen are folded into a Notice skill, while Search is kept separate.). There isn't any tactical movement in the default ruleset, but it's easy to reapply the D&D rules. Attacking works just like the players would expect: Attack Bonus plus 1d20, with a target number of the opponent's Defense (also known as Armor Class). So far, there's nothing the players would have to learn.
The first major difference is (a) neither Mutants & Masterminds nor Warriors and Warlocks have classes or levels (like ranger and rogue, bard and barbarian) so character generation is point-based (like Champions). That won't be a big deal, because I'll be designing the characters for the players ahead of time. In fact, I wrote up the characters as 4th-Level PCs under the Pathfinder ruleset, and then translated them over to Warriors and Warlocks.
The second major difference is that characters under M&M don't have Hit Points. Instead, combat damage is a condition, like being hit with a fireball or being subject to a sleep-inducing poison. As with those situations, the attacked player rolls a saving throw to avoid damage. Missing the save by a small amount (say rolling a 15 when you need a 17 or better) can bruise a character; a very low saving throw would knock a character out.
It goes without saying: I like that innovation a lot. Every fight feels dangerous, but the PCs could knock a fire giant out cold in one round if they can coordinate and if the giant gets unlucky.
How the Adventure Went
At the suggestion of a couple of play-testers, I included a seventh character, a sort of quasi-PC, who was the "field trip supervisor", the certified Pathfinder tasked with leading the cadets around the abandoned lair. I found a fellow who'd be willing to play him, and discussed what he knew of the other PCs from their Society dossiers. I explained that it was important that he let the students shine, but that he be likable. At one point in the adventure, the instructor gets kidnapped by brain-altering machines, and at another point, a fiendish shapeshifter impersonates him. The player was game.
As you can see above, I hired Storn Cook, an artist for both the Mutants & Masterminds base rulebook, and the Warriors & Warlocks supplement, to draw up sketches of the player characters. The intent was to get players to choose their character based on the illustration, and then open up the envelope with the stats and other information in it. He did a fantastic job, for a reasonable fee, and got them to me by deadline.
I contacted Green Ronin, the publisher, who sent twelve copies of the beginners' "jump start" rules, and two copies of the W&W rulebook as prizes. I slipped the beginners' guides into the envelopes, and we were set.