Does anyone...

[Moritz]

...happen to run this game (M&M) and are looking for players (D/FW)? I hate to see a good board be silent sans the bot.

Moritz

[Tipop]

I just started a game, but I'm in central California, sorry. You can read about it here.

[spotlight]

Hey, Tipop, I just read your game story. You seem to run your games much as I do. However, I usually keep two or three story threads in mind. That is, I know what the players need to do, or rather, the characters, and let them pretty much write their on story line. As an example, in one champaigne I ran several years ago, a speedster character decided to run down the toll road. She had no change in her pocket and so just ran thru the gates at top speed (about 80mph), It took the cops chasing her and ticketing her to bring her back to join the groups chosen direction, but it took much longer for her (the character) to be taken seriosly by the group.
Now I have never used the M&M system, only HeroGames Champions. I am quite willing to learn other formats if it will attract players to my champaigne. Check out 'Play By Post' on this site, I am about to get at least one story line started.

[Digital Arcanist]

I play Mutants and Masterminds, Cinematic G.U.R.P.S., and Hero System's Champions. I've been playing these games for a few years now.

[PhishStyx]

I tried M&M once but didn't like it a lot. Apparently as I'm told by others, this must be due to my GM's various insane control freaking problems and my own obvious ignorance of the wonders of D20/OGL.

[Digital Arcanist]

Mutants and Masterminds takes some getting used to. Most people think it will be easy because you need only one d20 but it has some complicated rules.

A lot of people complain about the excessive math used in Champions, but that is by far my favorite system to use. The power creation system is limitless in the powers and effects you can create. I think the rules are pretty simple as well. I think the only problem is that you need so many d6's. I suggest getting a brick or two of them. My local shop sells the bricks for under 4 bucks so its comparable to buying one nicer set of polyhedron dice.

As a GM I like to adhere strictly to the rules. I like to exercise a few optional rules but only for the sake of realism of actions and effects. I think its the drawback of being an engineer and physicist. Things must act according to the laws of the universe....especially if you are not in a fantasy setting. This also helps to keep my control freak tendencies to a minimum as well as put all the players on equal footing. When everyone plays by the book then I can't be accused of favoring any PC or NPC.

[Skunkape]

I think the only problem is that you need so many d6's.

Ah but the sheer pleasure of throwing all those d6's as a GM just gets me going!

I always loved it when I had a major villain attack the PCs and the looks they gave me as I started counting out d6's! Ah, heaven!

[Moritz]

Counting, math, 3 hours to run a 30 second battle... no thanks.

[Digital Arcanist]

Battles become tedious if you let them. With new players things will take time but my group was relatively experienced and battles took no more time than a battle in any other system.

One of my players, in an early campaign, had an autistic son who had the rain man ability. Every time you would throw out a handful of dice he could count the pips automatically. He was a cool little guy who's autism wasn't that severe from my limited understanding of the disorder/disease. We never had to count or do the math, which was somehow wrong/ironic seeing how we were a collection of engineers and mathematicians. I miss that little guy, he had a wicked sense of humor.

I use a random number generator applet nowadays. It helps to speed things up and it has a graphic of rolling dice and some dice sounds to, supposedly, draw you into the experience.

[PhishStyx]

Counting, math, 3 hours to run a 30 second battle... no thanks.

I have played 2 completely separate games with different very experienced GM's (they were in different towns) using Hero rules, and both games were exactly like that. Measuring inches, math, more math, endless HOURS of MATH, fractions and yet MORE math.

At least, the second game session was fun because the players sat around joking and laughing while the GM was doing the math that none of us understood for us. After that game, my friend, Ron, said to me, "you were right, that game DOES suck!" Why did he say that? Because it took him more than a half hour to convince me to play it.

Last year, another friend (a guy named Ed) bought the books and insisted that I buy them too and learn Hero for him to GM it, so that I could know the rules that he was going to be ignoring as he GM'd. He got pretty pissed off when I refused to sink $50 or $70 or whatever Hero costs into a game that I knew he'd just abandon in a few months as "too hard."

So no, I have no love for Hero whatsoever.

[Moritz]

I use a random number generator applet nowadays. It helps to speed things up and it has a graphic of rolling dice and some dice sounds to, supposedly, draw you into the experience.

I have this amazing champions dice program that tells you stun, body, killing, non killing, nnd, etc. Love it. But my players and/or GM hated it because it was automated and people didn't believe it was random.

[Digital Arcanist]

Well to be fair, nothing computer generated is truly random. We would need quantum computers with trinary number capabilities. A code monkey could write code to generate more high rolls than low but unless you are adept at computer programming an applet is random enough.

A good mathematician, in time, can find the pattern and accurately predict the rolls and make actions accordingly. If you need to cheat that badly while role-playing, there are much simpler and easier ways to cheat. I, myself, like to use weighted dice if my GM or another player is giving me a hard time. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire and nothing wipes the smirk off a GM's face like rolling three natural 20's and auto-killing his favored monstrous creation in the first round.

[fmitchell]

Never played M&M, although I have the rulebook. (Unread. Fancy that.)

Played a boatload of Champions in college, and, yeah, between counting out phases based on speed and the math of advanced power frameworks it tends to bore me. (Imagine an entire session of gadgeteers configuring their power pools. And that campaign ended when a player figured out how to use all the Applied Phlebotinum from previous adventures to make cross-dimensional travel impossible, thus ending the premise of the campaign.)

I've also played a small game called Truth and Justice, which has a more freeform way of constructing powers, and uses exactly 2d6 for everything. A lot depends on the GM and players agreeing on what are and are not valid uses of powers, and damage is kind of abstract, but combats themselves go fast.

[Moritz]

Marvel Super Heroes baby, Marvel Super Heroes.

[PhishStyx]

Marvel Super Heroes baby, Marvel Super Heroes.

I do love some "Ye Olde Skoole" Marvel Super Heroes.

The same Ed that I mentioned above got me into MSH, and I've loved that ever since.