M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

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DominusExMachina
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Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:37 pm

M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by DominusExMachina »

Recently (relatively speaking) on Amazon.com, there were listings posted for two new accessories for the Mutants & Masterminds Third Edition product line. These products (along with the tenative release dates and Amazon.com descriptions for them) are:
  • Mutants & Masterminds Basic Hero's Handbook by Steve Kenson (tenative release date: June 26, 2018)
    Every hero needs an origin story and this can be yours! Written with new gamers in mind, the Basic Hero's Handbook streamlines and clarifies the flexible, robust third edition rules of Mutants & Masterminds. With simplified character creation and a selection of ready-made adventures, the Mutants & Masterminds Basic Hero's Handbook lets players jump right into the action. The book is fully compatible with the Deluxe Hero's Handbook and the entire library of third edition Mutants & Masterminds supplements, instantly expanding your character options and adventure potential. Whether you're just getting started, or want an extra player-friendly reference at the table, the Mutants & Masterminds Basic Hero's Handbook is the choice for your world-saving needs!
  • Rogues Gallery: A Mutant & Masterminds Sourcebook by Crystal Fraiser,‎ Steve Kenson,‎ Christopher McGlothlin,‎ and Alexander Thomas (tenative release date: July 10, 2018)
    Rogues Gallery collects super-villains from Green Ronin's popular online series, with the addition of new material and never-before-seen characters. It has dozens of fearsome foes for your Mutants & Masterminds series, enough to keep your heroes busy stopping schemes and saving the world for quite some time! In its pages you will find solo and loner villains, teams and alliances, organizations and outliers, and bad guys of many different power levels, backgrounds, and styles, suited for different M&M series, all with complete game information. Plus each villain comes with ready-made adventure hooks, making the book a collection of more than a hundred possible adventures as well!
The fact that the release dates for - and final appearances of - these products are subject to change aside, it got me thinking: what other M&M 3E products could be put out? With this thought solidly is mind, I'm starting this thread as an open forum for putting forth and discussing ideas for any and all desired future Mutants & Masterminds Third Edition products, which may fall into the following groups:
  • Accessories tied to the Earth-Prime (a.k.a. "World of Freedom") continuity.
  • Adventures tied to the Earth-Prime (a.k.a. "World of Freedom") continuity.
  • Fiction tied to the Earth-Prime (a.k.a. "World of Freedom") continuity.
  • Updated Editions of existing material, be it campaign settings from previous editions (i.e. META-4, Paragons), accessories from previous editions (i.e. Crooks, Ultimate Power, Worlds of Freedom), adventures from previous editions (i.e. A More Perfect Union, Time of Crisis), or even entire product lines that use some version of the M&M ruleset (i.e. DC Adventures)
  • New Campaign Settings that use the third edition M&M ruleset (as well as any attendant accessories and adventure modules).
It should be noted that there are no hard or fast guidelines for posting here; just post what M&M 3E products you'd like to see in the future.
Spectrum
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by Spectrum »

Ah, clearly they are continuing of their jackassery of selling their loyal fans an online product- often out of a misguided feeling of saving the brand- only to turn around and sell the same product again with more information..invaliding any earlier purchases.

Yay Green Ronin!
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
DominusExMachina
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:37 pm

Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by DominusExMachina »

Spectrum wrote: Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:06 pmAh, clearly they are continuing of their jackassery of selling their loyal fans an online product - often out of a misguided feeling of saving the brand - only to turn around and sell the same product again with more information..invaliding any earlier purchases.

Yay Green Ronin!
This thread is for putting forth and discussing ideas for future M&M products, NOT lambasting Green Ronin's business decisions (counter-intuitive though they may be)...

Guess if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself...so without further adieu, here are a couple of my ideas for future additions to the Mutants & Masterminds Third Edition product line:
  • Hero High Alumni: a follow-up look at the students of Claremont Academy from years past.
  • Supers Revisited: a look at the heroes and villains of Earth-Prime from previous editions of Mutants & Masterminds.
MacynSnow
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by MacynSnow »

As a longtime superhero nerd,i've got a couple of ideas that would sell pretty good.....

First,Settings;
Marvel Adventures:You know how they made DC Adventures?why not do the Same thing with Marvel,as it wouldn't take much convincing them to do it recently....
Elseworlds:But if they still want to stick with DC,they can make a book about the alternate realitites of DC(kind of like what they did with Time Of Crisis),only instead of an Adventure Modual it's more of an information book so you could set your Campaign or visit for a game...

Now for Adventures;
In the Darkness Dreary...:Now i like a good scare every now&then(keeps my old man ticker moving correctly and all that),so this would be a Street-level/beginning Heroes adventure involving two groups going at each other:The Serpent People and The Foundry.The Prize? The Body and soul of a Destined child....
The Renegades Revenge:A former teen sidekick to an older hero has suddenly returned for not only revenge on the Hero for "Betraying him",but also the Heroes current Team he's mentoring...AkA,the PC's!...

Let me know what you think of these,i love hearing comments(yah's or nays).... :D
DominusExMachina
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by DominusExMachina »

MacynSnow wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:40 pmAs a longtime superhero nerd, I've got a couple of ideas that would sell pretty good.....

First, Settings:
MARVEL Adventures: You know how they made DC Adventures? Why not do the same thing with Marvel, as it wouldn't take much convincing them to do it recently....
First of all, 1) welcome to the thread, MacynSnow, and 2)...THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!

Anyhoo, I could see Green Ronin giving Marvel Comics the DC Adventures treatment...hopefully with more success than Margaret Weis Productions had with their "Cortex System"-based MARVEL Heroic Roleplaying Game...
MacynSnow wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:40 pmElseworlds: But if they still want to stick with DC, they can make a book about the alternate realities of DC (kind of like what they did with Time Of Crisis), only instead of an adventure module it's more of an information book, so you could set your campaign or visit for a game...
With all the stories done under the Elseworlds imprint, that alone might have to encompass several volumes...but in the wake of the Multiversity and Convergence events, it wouldn't be entirely out of the realm of possibility.

In fact, I'm kinda hoping Green Ronin will launch an updated version of the DC Adventures Roleplaying Game, including things like:
  • A history of DC Comics, from its formation to the present day.
  • An expanded and updated lineup of over 2,000 DC Comics characters, including those from DC's Milestone, Vertigo, and Wildstorm imprints, brought to life using the updated Mutants & Masterminds Third Edition ruleset.
  • An expanded and updated history of the DC Comics universe, multiverse, and multi-multiverse (as well as the Dark Multiverse) from the Big Bang to the present, including information on everything up to the events of Doomsday Clock.
  • An expanded and updated guide to the cities, countries, and worlds of the DC Comics universe.
MacynSnow wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:40 pmNow for Adventures:
In the Darkness Dreary...: Now i like a good scare every now & then (keeps my old man ticker moving correctly and all that), so this would be a street-level/beginning heroes' adventure involving two groups going at each other: the Serpent People and the Foundry. The prize? The body and soul of a destined child....
Hate stealing the thunder of Tales from the Crypt's Crypt Keeper here (deliberately hackneyed puns aside), but this one sounds like it would be a real "scream come true"! (cackling wildly in true Crypt Keeper fashion) Many of the magic- and tech-based villains outlined in the Threat Reports, Freedom City, and Atlas of Earth-Prime accessories would make good optional and/or alternative villains for this adventure, as would Malador the Mystic (from the Deluxe Hero's Handbook - 10th Anniversary Edition).
MacynSnow wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:40 pmThe Renegade's Revenge: A former teen sidekick to an older hero has suddenly returned for not only revenge on the hero for "betraying him", but also the current team he's mentoring...a.k.a. the PCs!
Ah, the old "spurned sidekick seeking revenge against his/her former master" plot...classic. A good way to step this one up would be to pit the PCs against two or more such opponents...a team of "Freedom's Rejects", if you will.
MacynSnow wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:40 pmLet me know what you think of these: I love hearing comments ("yays" or "nays").... :D
It should be obvious..."YAYS" TO ALL!
Chris Brady
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by Chris Brady »

I don't believe that GR has the DC license anymore, which is why we haven't seen anything from that line for years now. I could of course be wrong.

For those lambasting GR for reprinting previous edition books, I'd like to point out they wouldn't do it, if it didn't sell. It's just how the market works.

That said, I'd like to see more settings, in and out of the Earth Prime era. I'd like a Pulp setting, a Cosmic Heroes setting, an Iron Age one... Some updated books would be nice, if they fit.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by FuzzyBoots »

{nods} Last I checked, you can't even get the DC Adventures PDFs off of the Green Ronin store anymore, although there are of course physical copies out there.

Also, as I understand it, having to go back and forth on everything with DC was a major cause of delays, which may sour them on the idea of shackling themselves to another major comic book publisher.
MacynSnow
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by MacynSnow »

True,but Marvel has been known to be fairly leeniant(i think i mis-spelled that....) with tabletop gaming companies using their stuff so long as they put certain characters center stage.

That being said,i had a new adventure module idea ;
Black Skies,Red Sails:As the PC's are just finishing a previous adventure,they're approached by none other than Captain Kraken with an offer of "Parley"....It seems the "good captin' " is from Anti-Earth and needs to not only get home,but stop the evil Kraken from permanently opening a portal between the 2 worlds.....
IneloquentElephant
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by IneloquentElephant »

Barbary Coast With the popularity of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean and 7th Sea, I would love a setting/extended ruleset focused in the 17th-18th century. With ships as mobile headquarters, I could see how epic ship-to-ship battles could be. With powers easily represented as items of power, curses, or mythical creatures there are plenty of ways to play this setting out. Exploration and Discovery would really expand the uses for certain skills (Technology and Vehicles would be very interesting).

Noir From Jessica Jones to Dick Tracy, I see this as a wonderful and unique niche in the superhero genre. I enjoy a game where Investigation and Mystery are king.

I could also see settings focused on post-apocalyptic and the obligatory zombie setting. Each of these settings lends itself well to a single book and can easily run across all PL's.
EpicEclipse
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by EpicEclipse »

Ahh... the Margaret Weiss Cortex system Marvel Heroic Role-playing game. I have my copy. I think the primary focus on playing as existing Marvel heroes over creating original characters with an unintuitive system for creating your own characters, or even sheeting existing Marvel characters that aren't presented kinda shot themselves in the foot. As a system it's not terrible, but it really lacked the intuitive means to allow players to be original.

As for 3e stuff I'd like to see; I'd love to see a minions handbook, templates for all kinds of simple low-grade fodder minions, ready-made to save time on adventure building or that could also be used for the Sidekick and Minion advantages and Summon power. The handbook has some stuff, and I'm talking about an expansion on what it presented there.

More settings would be nice too. I missed out on some of the really good ones from 2e, unable to get copies any more. Rehashed and updated alternate settings like Paragons and Wild Cards would be nice.

The anime-themed supplement is another one in would like to see updated and released like Hero High revised (but doing a better job of not just copy/pasting things.. looking at you Untapped Potential..)
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Beleriphon
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Re: M&M 3E - New Product Ideas

Post by Beleriphon »

I line with the three, maybe four threads, I had at one point about M&M gribblies something about deities I the comic book sense. Like build up a good solid fun character inspired by different deific backgrounds as though they were M&M Characters. I went from straight PL8 to around PL20 with a wide range of builds. My personal favourites were ones that had interesting side characters like a PL15 Ares with his three children as Sidekicks.

I'm thinking like a Green Ronin inspired Deities and Demigods line.
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