Okay, so what's M&M?

What follows is an email I sent to Rockjaw (that's Stephen Reid to some of you) about Mutants and Masterminds, the Open Gaming License and why I think M&M is the bee's knees for Superhero RPGs.

Right, a quick rundown on OGL stuff, first. The vast majority of them are
fantasy games, and *do* require the D&D 3.5E rulebooks to run. Exceptions to
this that spring to mind are Spycraft and M&M.

At its core, the d20 system is very clear and simple (here's the 3.5
System Reference Document:
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/srd/srd_revised_html/index.html), but
any given OGL can pick and choose which parts they want to use. So, M&M uses
Basics and Ability Scores, Skills I, Skills II, Feats, Carrying Movement and
Exploration, Combat I and Combat II. The rest of the system is homegrown by
Green Ronin.

The system itself is simple and relatively intuitive - roll 1d20, apply
modifiers, try to equal or beat a target number (known as the Difficulty Class,
or DC). In M&M *absolutely everything* is resolved with rolls like that.
Want to see if you can hack into a secure computer system? Roll 1d20 plus
modifiers. Resisting damage from an attack? Roll 1d20 plus modifiers. In fact,
that last part is probably the single largest departure from "normal" d20 rules
- there's no Hit Points and no Damage Rolls. Which, quite frankly, is great! It
certainly saves on the types of dice you end up using.

Another thing about M&M that differs from standard d20 rules is
that it's not a level-based system. You don't start at 1st level and work your
way up. Instead, the GM sets the campaigns starting "Power Level" (typically 10,
and *roughly* analogous to levels in D&D), which determines the number of
Power Points on which you can build a character. Pretty much everything (Ability
scores, Combat Attributes, Saving Throws, Skills, Feats, Powers, Equipment) is
purchased from that pool of points. As far as Powers are concerned, the system
for determining the cost of a power is almost as diverse as that from Champions
(to use a system I know you're familiar with), but it doesn't need a calculator,
since it deals exclusively in whole numbers, for simplicity.

Essentially, it has the versatility of Champions as far as character
creation is concerned, combined with the simplicity of the d20 mechanic for
rules resolution.

And that doesn't even touch on some of the interesting features of the
GMing system.

For example, in almost every other game I've seen, what Champions would
call a DNPC (a child of your character, for example), would be a drawback or
disadvantage, granting extra points with which to build your character, M&M
doesn't do it that way. Instead of giving you extra points, it considers one
those things to be a "Complication". Complications are basically things about
your character that are story-based, rather than being directly tied to the
character's capabilities. Other examples would include having a tyrannical boss
at work, having a secret identity or being a child and needing to go to school.
Whenever the GM throws something at you that ties in to a complication (stopping
the bank robbery will make you late for school, for example), you get a Hero
Point. Hero Points are the M&M version of what many games call Action
Points, or similar - a pool of points that you can burn to give yourself
temporary buffs, or improve rolls and so forth. Plus, it is *explicitly stated
in the rules* that at any time the GM
may exercise GM's Fiat to force an
outcome (say, allow the Supervillain to escape), but doing so grants all of the
PCs a Hero Point.

I love that last bit - it's saying "We know you GMs are going to cheat
to help the story... so we're going to build it into the rules, and give the
players a reward whenever you do it".

That's pretty much it. The rest is all the nitty-gritty of the rules
themselves.

Pros: Detailed character creation to rival any other system; simple
rules mechanic; flexible and story-driven GMing system.

Cons: Detailed character creation can mean that it takes *hours* to
tweak a character; "Yet another" d20 game, which will put some players
off.