Customer Reviews

Mutants & Masterminds: Pocket Player's Guide (Mutants & Masterminds d20 Superhero Roleplaying)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I won't review this fully as there are lots of reviews of the Mutants and Masterminds main book. (As a GM I got tried of always fighting my players for my copy of the main book. So bought one of these.) It's basically the 1st half of the main manual. All you are missing is the GM sections which talk about running a campaign, and include some NPC stats. I highly recommend it for people who aren't running the game. The one thing to keep in mind is that it's a pocket guide, and the print is smaller than the main book. It's readable for anyone who can read a paper back novel. Other than that it's word for word the same as the main manual.

(For a general overview of the content, see the M&M full size book. )

Nothing kills the mood of a game quicker than hunting for rules references in one book among a gaming table filled with 6 people. Everyone having their own copy is ideal but expensive, especially if you play more than one game or change games frequently. Mongoose did a 3rd edition 'trade size' book like this, LARPs had their books all printed like this, and now we have the M&M Pocket Player's Guide.

I run a regular M&M campaign, and the presence of 3 of these (currently) at my table has been a huge boon. Everyone can consult their powers, skim for feats and how they'll spend their xp, look up combat maneuvers, etc. without slowing things down or passing around the hardcover.

Really, to make a good book like this I think Pinnacle had it right with Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition: sell the core for cheap, so everybody buys a copy. At ten bucks, I actually gave Savage Worlds another shot and I didn't even like the game!

The current price (maybe not the amazon discount price, but the MSRP) is too high for what the book entails. Pay double that and you get nearly any full game in a hardcover. I'd think to snag players and make a truly marketable player's guide, you'd have to go the route of Pinnacle (and I still don't like Savage Worlds, so I'm not shilling for their system).

Now I have a lot of respect for Green Ronin and I love Mutants & Masterminds, my rating only reflects on the price vs what you get.