Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition / DC Adventures

[Shadowchaser]

Okay, for anyone who hasn't seen the Mutants and Masterminds page today... Green Ronin is releasing officially licensed DC comics supplements for the Mutants and Masterminds game. My questions for Colen and the gang (which may be premature) are:

Have you guys talked with the Green Ronin folks about these?

Will any of the DC Adventures content be released in Hero Lab?

If so, will they require additional licenses?


I wouldn't be surprised at additional licenses, and depending on the content I'd be happy to pay a reasonable fee for them. If it requires a new set of rules to do, I'd be happy to pay 20 dollars for 'em. If it's more a question of just licensing the characters (and possibly artwork) for the DC supplements, I'd expect to pay a bit less... but I wouldn't be surprised if DC wanted the money on a 'per-book' basis instead of the 'one-license gets you all the bonus stuff' basis like Green Ronin has been doing with the various books so far.

What do you think, Sirs?

[atlarman]

I just wanted to say Ive read the post on green ronins site and am extremely excited about this.... in fact i was thinking immediatly after getting mand m " i wish they had a dc licinse for this system lol) In fact - I have waited a long long time for a decent easy to use dc game since DC heroes second edition left print.
I only hope 2 things...1) hero lab gets to incorporate dc adventures in some fashion....even if it means add'l licenses and 2) on a purly selfish note i hope GR includes roster cards - ala dc heroes- with the two roster volumes.

[RedBeardSean]

I would love to run, or better yet play, a Green Lantern Corps game, or a GL game that crosses over from the DCU into the Freedomverse.

[roguescribner]

From http://www.greenronin.com/:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GREEN RONIN TO RELEASE MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS THIRD EDITION
Classic Superhero RPG Gets New Edition This Fall

May 12, 2010--SEATTLE, WA: Green Ronin Publishing announced today that it is releasing a new edition of its critically acclaimed Mutants & Masterminds roleplaying game in the fall.

"We've had five years of feedback from one of the most active fanbases in roleplaying gaming," said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. "Once we knew we'd be doing the DC ADVENTURES game, it just made sense to take that feedback and use it create the next iteration of the game."

Mutants & Masterminds debuted in 2002 and was an instant hit. A second edition followed in 2005 and in the ensuing years Green Ronin has released over 25 support books for the game. The third edition builds on these releases and evolves the rules.

"Our goal has been to make Mutants & Masterminds an even better game," said lead designer Steve Kenson. "We worked to simplify some elements of the system and fix known issues, while retaining the flexibility and fast-paced play fans have enjoyed."

"Mutants & Masterminds third edition and DC ADVENTURES share a common rule set," added Pramas, "and books from one line are compatible with the other."

The action begins this fall with the release of the Mutants & Masterminds Hero's Handbook. This full color core rulebook contains all the rules needed to play the game. More information and previews about Mutants & Masterminds third edition will appear on www.greenronin.com and www.mutantsandmasterminds.com in the coming months.

So it may be a little early to ask, but how will this impact Hero Lab? Will licenses be updated or would we have to purchase a separate 3E license?

[RedBeardSean]

I'm pretty happy with 2nd edition, can't see that they need a 3rd for anything other than their profit margin. Still, I'm interested enough to look at the rules, and hopefully Lone Wolf won't cease supporting 2nd when 3rd comes along.

[roguescribner]

Well, if the rules were changed enough to make DC Adventures incompatible with 2E, then a 3E may be deemed necessary. That remains to be seen, I guess.

I guess it's a moot question if Hero Lab gains a DC license (since it's the same ruleset), but if not, then I wonder how M&M will be handled come fall.

[Nigel Fogg The Wayfarer]

Let's be optimistic about this.

Maybe they've taken all this good feedback & tweaks & "can you clarify" questions that have come from the creators & users of Hero Lab and thus, 3rd Edition will be completely in synch with this fabulous software.

Nigel Fogg, aka The Wayfarer

[Duggan]

Given all of the other D20 games supported here, I suspect the conversion will not be huge. Probably just changing some formulas for grappling bonuses, addition or removal of skills, feats, and powers, that kind of thing. Licensing could be yet another issue, of course. *sigh* Most likely a different license entirely. Which sheds new light in some ways on how GR has given such free reign for all of the supplement material to be available in one package. If they were planning on releasing a new edition, there's no need to hoard the existing material for the old edition.

I reserve opinion until I see the new edition, of course. I'm hoping that the changes will be minor enough that we could even apply an "import 2E character" option that would take the existing stats and do the mechanical conversions such that we get the bare-bones character even if they points aren't quite right at first due to cost changes.

[Colen]

I've merged the MM3 and DC Adventures threads, since our response covers both of those games. Here's what's going to happen:

We will be supporting Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition as a separate game system for Hero Lab. It will require a chunk of work from us to convert the old M&M data files over to the new system, which will be treated as a separate game.

We're discussing the possibility of a DC Adventures license with Green Ronin right now. DC Adventures is harder for us to support than "plain" M&M, because there's a major licensor involved - DC - and any licensing agreement we sign with GR would have to be approved by DC. That makes it harder for us to get something signed, since the license needs to be acceptable to 3 parties instead of 2.

However, the above two game systems are compatible (to quote the GR announcement, "books from one line are compatible with the other"). Even if we do not license DC Adventures, you should still be able to create DCA characters in Hero Lab, using the M&M3 game system.

We will continue to support the M&M2 data files with bug fixes and new Hero Lab features, just like we do with the d20 system. Even though we now support both d20 "successors", 4e and Pathfinder, we continue to work on the d20 system files, fixing bugs and adding new features. We'll continue working on the M&M2 files the same way.

Hopefully this answers your questions - please let me know if you have further ones.

[RedBeardSean]

Originally Posted by Colen

Hopefully this answers your questions - please let me know if you have further ones.

You are a god among men. (which makes me wonder again why we don't have Scion for Hero Lab)