Saying "Yes" to your Players, Changing the Campaign

Mutants and Masterminds is a broken system. There's no doubt about it. With ultimate mimics, time travellers, and PCs who can blast you through ESP from another planet, there can easily be characters that no villain can hope to defeat.

Then you have your background stuff- the easily affordable army of ninja spies the PCs have working as an unofficial police force in the city, or the fleet of star destroyers they bought that are waiting (in secret) in case the PCs need to go conquer an alien solar system (you never know). Or the sidekick whose sole purpose is to further optimize an existing PC.

You spend a lot of time saying "no" to your player. But the real challenge is in saying "yes" to your players.

Certainly there are times when no is appropriate, mostly because 1 PC is taking away the fun from another PC. For example, when 1 PC has taken power sets that make you wonder why he doesn't just solo every mission.

From Left to Right:
Badass, Badass, Omnipotent, Genius, Badass, Badass

At those times, "No" may be the appropriate response to a hero build. But what if EVERYONE is the super powered character? How do you maintain a fun campaign with all this going on?

Bigger and Badder: The simplest and most direct route is to raise the power of the enemies. Bigger and bigger super-villains with grander and more complicated plans continue to rise, but there's a limit to that. Sometimes the PCs are strong enough to disintegrate a planet, but in the meantime, a bigger villain can be the answer. 

Ethical Choice: Sometimes the issue isn't whether you CAN break it, but if you SHOULD. What if the PCs are put in the middle of a dispute and both sides have a point? What side do they take, what's the result of their choice? The PCs power level is irrelevant if it comes down to making the right (or the best) ethical choices. 

Change of Venue: So your heroes have a powerful ninja army patrolling the streets of New York and stopping all the crime? Maybe we need to spend some time in a foreign country helping to rescue a political hostage? Maybe the heroes need to travel to the future/past/or an alternate dimension where the army of ninja's don't exist. The army of minions, star destroyers, or whatever are still relevant in protecting the earth, and they are making it POSSIBLE for the heroes to leave without all hell breaking loose.

Promoting the Stakes: Not just "raising the stakes" but promoting them. We're not talking about going from a "threat to the city" to a "threat to the world"- but recognizing the players for the godlike characters they've become. The mafia is no longer a threat to the characters, but now they are being approached for assistance by major power groups themselves- perhaps the Gods themselves are seeking aid on an internal power struggle, or an elite group of mages needs assistance in maintaining a seal on a dark demon. The PCs go from being a big fish in a small pond to a much bigger pond, as a "reward" for their super powerful characters.

Maintaining an Empire: PCs with lots of property or minions may benefit from a mission based on maintaining said empire. Maybe it's a subversive element within their own ranks, or a time traveler seeking to erase their empire, or maybe its out and out war with another powerful group. There is a lot of red tape involved with having a huge business venture or army of minions, and that should come up (sometimes) if the PCs have them.

Promoting the Sidekick: Powerful sidekicks may eventually want to go off and do their own thing: they don't want to remain in the shadow of the hero forever. A mission might involve the sidekick wanting to start his own hero team, or join another one- one without the main character who will consistently view them as a subordinate. This can be a feather in the cap of the PC who trained them until they were ready to head out on their own, and can be a source of future missions as the other group runs into trouble, becomes trouble, or can be called upon to get the main group out of trouble!

They can't stay young forever!

Earth 2: There's always some mission out there where the heroes have to fight villainous versions of themselves. Whether its an outright mirror of opposition or the heroes just fight clones of themselves, or if they're legitimate dopplegangers from another dimension, or if it's a mimic/shapeshifter pretending to be the PC to ursurp their empire (or attack them with their own broken power sets). The more powerful a PC is, the harder it would be for him to defeat himself. Even moreso if it's a temporary complication such as mind control where the REST of the party has to defeat him.

Time for a Journey: This is similar to the Change of Venue, but it's more long-term. The Earth is saved, and its well in hand. All the super villains are defeated, there are no more missions here. Now the campaign model needs to change to fit the powerful PCs. Similar also to promoting the stakes, but the powerful PC must journey for an ever increasing challenge, or simply retire.

When saving the world was too easy- Metro Man retired and became Music Man

But not all hereos want to retire- some need new challenges. Perhaps they go into space to find more enemies to fight, or they challenge the gods themselves. If this is one PC, it's a way to replace them with a more suitably built PC. When it's the whole party, you simply change. Now the earth is fine, so they're on a star trek campaign visiting new worlds, or they're sliding to different dimensions where they can do more good. In any case, they may never return to the earth as they know it, but they're doing good elsewhere. Whether the campaign follows them on their new adventures, or stays behind to focus on new heroes is up to you.

Turning Villain

Well, you've done it. You've put yourself out of a job. Great job hero. You were too "amazing" for any villains to keep up with. Savor your victory- savor your endoresement contracts- but then it gets boring. Allow the PCs some time to fight rediculusly easy encounters. Then maybe tempt them with the idea that if there are no more supervillains, they need to help create them. Perhaps the campaign shifts to something more evil. 

Captain Amazing had to help villains escape so he could stay in the limelight

This was also toyed with in Megamind where the villain won, and was so bored he needed to create a new hero to fight, which quickly got out of hand as well.

The Glory Days are Over

Instead of having the heroes go villain, why not time skip- 10-20 years! The heroes are now old, having kept the world well in hand, and their secret identities have become their only identities. Maybe this was government forced like in the incredibles, or maybe not. Now new threats have developed after all this time, and the PCs must get the band back together to fight a new threat, perhaps while they are now embedded in a new lifestyle that doesn't lend itself to dropping everything to fight again. (Perhaps they now have some kind of aging penalty to their stats).

Training the next Generation:

Instead of helping your sidekick move on, maybe you need to take a ragtag bunch of misfits and help them learn to be heroes- without getting involved yourself! Sure, if things get out of hand, you and your old PC buddies can come in and lay down the thunder, but eventually you want to retire as heroes, and you need new people to take up the mantle. Have the PCs make sidekicks or lower PL characters to train, and try to engage the action into these new characters. Eventually the PCs will move over to controlling the new characters as the old step into the background, but in the meantime, the higher PL characters can dominate in case of emergency.


Any other ideas on what to do when the PCs get to strong?