Natural 20 on Nostalgia Checks!

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, Mutants and Masterminds is soon to debut a new edition!

That's... That's not QUITE what I had in mind....

So, I've decided to take this time to look back on some of the best sourcebooks that they put out for 2nd Edition. Here we go!

Freedom City

Freedom City was one of the first campaign settings for the line, and as such, there is a fondness for it in the hearts of many. It's a homage to comics and their characters, with references to characters, creators, and more. While most of the characters are cleary pastiches of others, some are BRILLIANT pastiches of those characters. Furthermore, it really gives you an idea of what day-to-day life would be like when supervillain attacks and alien invasions are an everyday occurence. Overall, a solid campaign setting.

Golden Age

I've discussed this at length in another post, but this book is awesome sauce. With lots of detail information, you can base Golden Age games of how the comics were back then, how modern comics portray the age, or how the age was in real life.

Agents of Freedom

This is the perfect companion piece to the Golden Age book, as it builds of off a lot of the themes found in that book. This is the book to have if you want to play a cop, a federal agent, or Nick Fury or any of his assorted Howling Commandoes. Like most of the sourcebooks, there's a lot of Freedom City information, perhaps more so than any other genre or age book. Still, this book has style, and gives options to make low-powered characters feasible.

Hero High

This might be my favorite. It's very reminiscent in tone to the Buffy/ Angel books put out by Eden Studios, and that's not a bad thing. It covers every conceivable topic that could come up with running games focused on teen heroes and does it with humor and style.

Paragons

Like Freedom City, Paragons is a campaign setting. Unlike FC, Paragons takes its cues from books like The Authority and shows like Heroes. Also, Paragons is billed as more of a toolkit than a full-fledged setting; as such, it gives numerous options on how to run a more realistic game, or as realistic as a game where players have characters with heat vision can be.

Book of Magic

This is a fun book, as it shows how magic based characters differ in style from other superheroes. Aside from Captain Marvel (the DC one), most magic characters don't follow the tropes that other supers do. This book covers everything from guys like Constantine all the way up to Dr. Strange.

Warriors and Warlocks

Of all the genre books, this might be the best. After the superhero genre, the fantasy genre might be the one that comics is most willing to try. It has a comprehensive history of the genre, and rules that reflect the sword and sorcery. This is the book that sees M&M become not just a great superhero system, but a great COMIC system, and possibly a universal system.

Farewell, Second Edition Mutants and Masterminds. You gave me much enjoyment and inspired my Whirligig Junior character and thus all my Teen Templars stories. Here's hoping that Third Edition is just as engaging.