Universal Darkness: Mutants and Masterminds Monster Heroes

Game Master tumbler

Continue the discussion here.

On, grab, I'm not sure I've ever seen that exact situation. I think I've always used the attack roll for whatever weapon was involved in grabbing as the grab. I didn't realize it was a separate attack skill, but now I see that it is.

I think we've worked around that for the current builds.

Long ago Lord Hathaway asked where the campaign will be set. The answer is all over the globe.

I intend to provide you with some team assets, including a cool plane.

Timeline, Rev A

1900
• Jonathan Harker recruited
WW1
• Mummy's Bride recruited
WW2
• Lord Hathaway recruited / subsidizes organization
• Auto-Frankenstein recruited
2000
• Benjamin Griffin/Son of the Invisible Man recruited
• Henrietta Jekyll/Ms. Hyde recruited
2020
• Sehkmet recruited

Well hello there.

Lord Hathaway can make 20s, but not 30s was that right?

As for his base, if we are given one can I re-use those points into, other things?

Sorry about the Power Level confusion. Bad typo on my part. Of course your pairs should add up to 20, not 30.

PHANTOM New image

BTW folks, if you post in gameplay to dot, and then delete the post, it will still keep the thread dotted and added to your campaigns tab without the post filling up the thread.

Good to be here!

BTW for now have associated Helen with Oxford University but can put her somewhere else more plot convenient as needed.

I'm going to write two posts here, one to introduce/reintroduce myself and my style, and the second to try to clarify some things about the campaign.

Hello, I'm GMSuperTumbler, sometimes also Tumbler. When it comes to running games, the thing that most often surprises players who don't know me well is that I tend to offer a lot of narrative control/agency to players. One of the many things that I do for a living is teach improv, and I try to be very much a "yes, and..." kind of GM.

Jubal was in a very successful Mutants and Masterminds campaign with me, which I hope made him feel free to get started putting together the background for the campaign. That is a great example of what I'm talking about.

When it comes to posting, I tend to be somewhat slow. Also, I am most able to post from about 9:00 pm to 12:00 am Eastern time, which I know is not the norm. I can post these days during the work day more than I was able to in the past, but I'm a teacher, so work for me usually prevents me from posting too much during the day.

In this campaign, I'm hoping for a rip roaring action story with a side of monster angst and ennui. We've already talked about inspirations, so I won't go into that again. But I've been reading some interviews with Guillermo del Toro and found a lot of inspiration.

“When I was a kid, monsters made me feel that I could fit somewhere, even if it was… an imaginary place where the grotesque and the abnormal were celebrated and accepted.”

In his work, monsters are often misunderstood creatures unjustly viewed as monsters by society. Instead, the actual monsters often hold power exist in reality, and exhibit humanity’s more hostile and evil aspects. The true evil lies within humanity and institutions.

The Shape of Water, a Monster of a Love Story.

I want to pull in lots of ideas, and I want to incorporate your ideas as well.

As a baseline, think of our little troupe as a mix of the BPRD and MI6 and we will make sense of things from there.

Jonathan Harker's history as it appears in recruitment works for me. The organization is officially called the Monstrous Regiment, though that name isn't necessarily used by anyone. As far as Jonathan knows, he was there at the beginning. I have ideas that there might be a shadowy figure behind its initial organization, but I want to save that for our storytelling.

The mission of the Regiment is to protect humanity from things that are worse than you. That might include devils, demons, aliens, Cthonic horrors, and anything else that comes along.

Since no one is playing an original monster, I'm going to feel free to use the OGs as characters. Dracula is for sure a villain that the Regiment has fought on many occasions (see all of the many Dracula movies over the years). I have thoughts about the rest of them, but I think it is best not to reveal those until it is useful.

I'm very excited about what we are going to get going here.

Character notes so far:

Dr. Jekyll might want to take Investigation skill (which would be used for forensic medicine) and/or Expertise (Medicine). Treatment would cover actual healing and doctoring. Expertise (Medicine) would cover all of the aspects of being a doctor. If she isn't familiar with a research hospital or something like that, it probably doesn't matter. Just a thought.

The Bride has a very specific Expertise in Ancient Human Religion. Expertise is usually much more general than that. Since I made skills relatively cheap, it doesn't bother me too much, but it should probably at least be as general as Ancient Egypt. An Expertise: Archaeology isn't unreasonable and would be much more broad.

Lord Hathaway/Phantom: I think I want you to keep your cool Installation/Headquarters. In fact, I think it would be awesome if we somehow made that a variable effect. I know this is technically possible, but I haven't found a way to do it in Herolab or even an example of it. What that would mean is that you could have an Installation anywhere you need it with whatever you needed in it. So you could have a safe house in Egypt, or a penthouse apartment in Shanghai, or etc. Also, we should have a conversation about what your wealth benefit means. For me it means you get the narrative power to do whatever a very rich person could do, but it doesn't give you carte blanche to emulate other effects and/or equipment.

General notes for building the group:

It would be useful if we have some Investigation skill. And, since we don't have typical movement powers due to the nature of the characters and the campaign, it would probably be useful for someone to have a good Vehicles Skill.

I think between powers and skills we have fighting and face type skills covered.

I intend to start the campaign in the middle of a fight in order to give people a chance to try out their builds

Lord Hathaway/Phantom: I think I want you to keep your cool Installation/Headquarters. In fact, I think it would be awesome if we somehow made that a variable effect. I know this is technically possible, but I haven't found a way to do it in Herolab or even an example of it. What that would mean is that you could have an Installation anywhere you need it with whatever you needed in it. So you could have a safe house in Egypt, or a penthouse apartment in Shanghai, or etc. Also, we should have a conversation about what your wealth benefit means. For me it means you get the narrative power to do whatever a very rich person could do, but it doesn't give you carte blanche to emulate other effects and/or equipment.

Hathway is smart and has Investigation skill

I agree about wealth.
Wealth is a Mundane Narrative thing, any Mundane thing like,
Needs to buy food or get a hotel, hire staff it all goes up to 5 stars,
Hire an Army to fight the bad guy is not Mundane that is a Minion army.
Buy a tank to shoot the bad guy, That is Equipment
and so one, if its Mundane he can have it at a wealth level of 5
His Luxury Yacht as a Eqimant "base" is not a Mundane is a Power point Buy.

I think it could work if its
1) Something that travels,
1: A craft of some kind, A Luxury Yacht {I like this one the best}
2: A traveling circus {very in kind but not really practical}
3: He has a Vast international corporation at his disposal, he could just move the Lab or have Safe houses as you say, {Practical but Dull}
4: Mix of 1 and 3, which I think may work best, and give you and me the change to tell us what the safe House is.

If I make it a Luxury Yacht for now, that also gives us a live of Privacy.

The Bride has a very specific Expertise in Ancient Human Religion. Expertise is usually much more general than that. Since I made skills relatively cheap, it doesn't bother me too much, but it should probably at least be as general as Ancient Egypt. An Expertise: Archaeology isn't unreasonable and would be much more broad.

Not sure where you are finding "human" on my sheet--where are you seeing that so I can fix it? Copy-paste from character sheet says "Expertise: Ancient Egyptian Religion/Cosmology." I can pick a certain period (early, middle, or late kingdom) if you prefer. Obviously Amunet (not Helen) would know her particular era the best, but I hadn't gotten around to determining what actual dynasty period she came from. Do you have a preference?

Should I also specify Expertise: Magic to something like Thothian Hermeticism? (That is to say, something along the lines of Hermetic magic through the lens of Thoth rather than Hermes Trimegistus?)

I intend to start the campaign in the middle of a fight in order to give people a chance to try out their builds

I am cool with whatever, but my two cents: combat is very slow. I get the drama of the in medias res start as a concept--and absolutely agree we need to stress test our builds--but every PBP I've played that's started with a combat has ended up losing players from the start who get frustrated with the pace or what happens in combat. These players here I expect will be fine, but I just point this out based on prior experience.

I will throw out as an alternative maybe a brief "at the office" scene that gives us a chance to RP out a little more how we know each other, THEN change scene to "later that day" in the middle of a fight?

I don't feel strongly about this and if you are set on this direction and/or other players are happy to dive straight into the combat, cool.

Session 0

One thing I forgot to mention, my character tends to drink the blood of her fallen enemies.

Should I fade to black for that?

[aside]it is thought that stories about Sehkmet might be one of the oldest sources of the Vampire legends.[/aside]

PS: On a Variable Headquarters: I long ago lost access to Hero Lab (bought it years ago, have had several new computers since then and thus exceeded their installation limit, and decided just to do without because f*@! them and their f@~&ing DRM.) So I have no recollection how its interface works. But it should be doable.

Indeed: HQs are bought with Equipment Points, couldn't you just build a "Utility Belt" of HQs? Could even add a feature of "in a plot convenient location" to each item.

Thanks ST! Please find the next revision of our timeline of joining the Monstrous Regiment. Need Ms. Jekyll/Hyde and Son of Invisible to confirm their recruitment.

Timeline, Rev B

1900
The founders of the current agency of Monstrous Regiment chased Jonathan throughout England until they finally made an agreement. In exchange for a constant supply of blood, they would join forces hunting other monsters. He was their first monster recruit.
• Jonathan Harker recruited
WW1
• Mummy's Bride recruited
WW2
• Lord Hathaway recruited / subsidizes organization
2000
• Benjamin Griffin/Son of the Invisible Man recruited
• Henrietta Jekyll/Ms. Hyde recruited
2020
• Auto-Frankenstein recruited
• Sehkmet recruited

PS: On a Variable Headquarters: I long ago lost access to Hero Lab (bought it years ago, have had several new computers since then and thus exceeded their installation limit, and decided just to do without because f*+$ them and their f%~%ing DRM.) So I have no recollection how its interface works. But it should be doable.

Indeed: HQs are bought with Equipment Points, couldn't you just build a "Utility Belt" of HQs? Could even add a feature of "in a plot convenient location" to each item.

I like your idea, but Hathaway as a person is about the spectacle, and International man of mystery feel, This is my thinking for Lord Hathaways BoO. Base of Operation

Submersible SuperYacht M7
Run by a AI computer, and a small staff, you can all have your own rooms like Apartments, office space. Gym. It has means to get off an on ship. with ease. Going to one of the Hathaway safe houses. But what it gives us is privacy from Drones and such. .There is a hathaway Lab out of sight, It has a security system, but no large weapons. The fact its a sea and can go underwater IS its security. With small motorboats and a chopper to get us off and on.

O and it 100% has a Orchestral Organ MISIC HE PLAYERS

Image of him doing it. That image of him playing again He would invite the most Famous soloists to his play music with him.

Love the idea that the sound loates over the waves in the dead of night.

And its sooo HAthaway, International man of mystery who loves that Dramatic FlaiR!! What is cooler that having you SuperYacht pop up just off share at the Cannes film Festival, ready to throw ones of his Famous Macraid balls, For the stars, Think Elton John level of party.

VIDEO here

Still called "The Eleanor Roosevelt" He know her as a boy and always liked her. {There is a secondary meaning in there if your clever you can work it out.}

Also looking at the timeline and actually absorbing it--the Bride became "the Bride" in 1933 so her recruitment would be WWII era. She was born in 1913 so was just a child when WWI ended.

@DQ Great! Perfect.

The way to read the timeline is that the years and events are milestones, and the recruitments happen some time between them. So, Harker was recruited some time between 1900 and WW1. And the Bride was recruited some time between WW1 and WW2, so I think I captured what you mean.

Cheers