Mutants & Masterminds - [Review] Power Profiles #24: Size & Mass Powers

[jameson (ST)]

Power Profiles #24: Size & Mass Powers

Vitals: Published By Green Ronin • 6 pages • $0.99 • full color PDF

Descriptors, Countering & Features

As one might suspect from the powers of the week descriptors and countering are both brief. There is little than growing and shrinking tend to do from a standpoint of descriptors and countering that needs to be clarified or expanded upon. Two features are mostly in the optional department, but the second, certainly plays into less comic book and more 1950s B-movie science fiction, and so could be worth a look.

The real mass of this section comes from a page and a half long detailed discussion of the Growth and Shrinking effects as well as their modifiers. This detailed breakdown is a nice addition, and helps to clarify the intended mechanic behind the power's ranks (such as the fact that size increase is proportional even if your size rank has not changed). Unfortunately all of this also goes to show that maybe the write-ups of these effects within the core book was perhaps a little brief. I'm not reviewing the core rules here but the distinction remains evident.

Offensive Powers

Four powers and five effects make up this section. Internal Attack is the most interesting from a mechanical perspective. While the Shrink-Ray power once again shows us just how great Affliction really is.

Defensive Powers

Three powers make up this short section. Shrinking Dodge is the most interesting effect here, and makes me consider where the boundary line between an effect with reaction and an enhanced trait with certain descriptors is. In this case the argument in favor of the stated build is the continuing nature of the effect and how it changes the character's makeup, but one could easily have done it the other way with similar descriptors for an instantaneous effect at a lower cost. This is probably an area of player and GM preference.

Movement Powers

As with the previous section this gets three powers. The three effects here are all fairly standard in execution but do offer up a nice selection of movement effects for a shrinking character. Growing characters miss out here, with only the increase speed from increased size ranks to get them by.

Utility Powers

Five powers are contained in the final power section of the profile. Mass Compaction is interesting and mechanically sound, as is its opposite Mass Dispersal. The problem power in this section is Density Increase which seems to provide a lot for low cost with little drawback. Increasing one's Strength and Stamina and Mass (which is really as much an advantage as a drawback) it is costed below what I would have expected (and in fact I would have expected this power to be built with an entirely different set of effects). Perhaps the given drawback of of mass ranks (that of massive mass being incompatible with conventional structures) is enough to balance out the gains, but I worry that this could be slightly under-costed for what it provides.

Other Size & Mass Powers and Complications

Eight complications round out the profile. These are all fairly brief, with the entire section taking less than a page. In addition a small section discusses other powers that shrinking and growing characters might possess, including Strength Powers.

Closing Thoughts

Size & Mass Powers is a tricky beast. On the one hand they are very clearly some of the more difficult super powers to deal with when it comes to game design. There are actions that a super huge character could do that might be well outside what the game can accept at a given level of power without applying enforced limitations. Likewise a small character could potentially suffer massive weaknesses befitting the stature of a bug. Managing these powers without rendering a character over- or under-powered is a tricky business and I think this profile provides a great deal of support with that regard.

That said I feel that the spark of greatness that we have seen captured on occasion with the Power Profiles series is missing here. The lengthy breakdown of the core effects is nice, but never seems to add enough to the core mechanics to stand up to the sidebars we so recently saw in the Strength Powers profile. Likewise very few of the pre-built powers popped off the page the way others have, and the Density Increase power gives me pause to consider game balance. I had high hopes for this profile to elevate these powers the way that some prior profiles had but it never quite reaches those heights.

Rating: 70%, There is some useful information here but this is largely a product for new players, or players new to playing size changing characters.