This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
Freedom City -- Campaign Setting (for Mutants & Masterminds)
Written by Stephen Kenson
Published by Green Ronin Publishing
$32.95; 192-page full-color hardback
The release of Steve Kenson's Mutants & Masterminds set new standards in its approach to the d20 System. Instead of fitting the genre to the system -- in this case, that of the superhero comic -- it stripped out many of the d20 System's sacred cows and retooled it from the basic terms and core die rolling mechanic up, so as to suit the genre. The result was compliant with the terms of the Open Gaming License, and fast and slick in terms of game play. This is exactly what was needed to catch the free-flowing action and combat of the genre. But if there was one particular criticism that could be leveled at Mutants & Masterminds, it was the lack of a background when compared with games such as Brave New World, Aberrant, Silver Age Sentinels, DC Heroes, and DC Universe.
The core Mutants & Masterminds book did include a little detail upon its default setting, "Freedom City" and its premier team of heroes, "The Freedom League," all given in the adventure "Major League." Yet beyond the adventure itself, there was little for the GM to go on with that setting. However, any such deficiency has been rectified with the release of Freedom City, a full campaign sourcebook that describes in detail the city, its heroes and villains, and beyond . . . That beyond includes not just places on Earth -- Atlantis, Kaiju Island (home, of course, to . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 14, 2003
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