This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly

Mutants & Masterminds

Mutants & Masterminds

Written by Stephen Kenson

Designed by Super Unicorn

Published by Green Ronin Publishing

Cover by Alé Garza

Illustrated by Axel Ortiz, Corey "Rey" Lewis, Cully Hamner, D'Alexander Gregory, Dan Bereton, Dennis Calero, Greg Kirkpatrick, Jacob Elijah, Jake Parker, Kevin Sharpe, Noel Jacob, Ramón Pérez, Rob Haines, Sean Chen

192-page full-color hardback; $32.95

The d20 system is slowly expanding to encompass almost every genre; with the latest to receive the d20 System treatment is that of comic book superheroes. Of course, one of the earliest independent d20 RPGs to appear was a superhero game . . . but to be frank, Eric Metcalf's The Foundation -- A World In Black & White can at best, be described as "forgettably mediocre." Since then the genre has been better explored with the Silver Age Sentinels -- d20 Edition RPG from Guardians of Order, and to some extent by the Open Gaming License-compliant only Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 published by Hobgoblynn Press. The newest game to join this list follows in the footsteps of Godlike by not actually being a d20 System game, but by falling under the terms of the Open Gaming License.

What this means is that Mutants & Masterminds -- designed through Super Unicorn, but published by Green Ronin Publishing -- stands alone, and the owner need not have possession of the Player's Handbook before it can be played. Further it allows the designer to dispense with a number of the d20 System's more "sacred . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.




Article publication date: December 11, 2002


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