Optional Rules; Hero Ball, Idiot Ball, Villain Ball

The Idiot Ball

The idiot ball is when the character misses an obvious clue, falls into a villains obvious trap, goes along with the villain when he's being villainous because he claimed to be a good guy, etc. This mainly involves the PCs being non-genre savvy for the sake of the plot. Letting the hot girl tie you to the bed (where she can leave you there to steal your stuff), or taunting a villain, or letting him escape so you can rescue the hostages when you could specifically do both at once (by splitting up the team or using time travel or whatever).

The idiot ball is represented by a physical ball passed to the player character. He agrees to act not like a moron, but not to break the plot either. For example, in one session you had to repair a time machine to go back in time because you were trapped in a dystopian  future.  Obviously such a machine would be very useful in your own time. Why not take the time machine schematics back with you and build your own? Well, because you took the idiot ball.


In many cases, the idiot ball means that a villain trying to get away will do so, because despite your ability to teleport, fly, and telekinetically trap him at a distance- you try to foot race him and he escapes. You then give up, instead of searching for him with postcognition. It may also mean using suboptimal tactics in combat which are still effective, but not instant wins. Despite having an area snare power, you still charge the big bad for the brawl, letting your party members kill the minions (even though you could wipe them all out yourself with one power use).

Going back into the exploding base to try to recover your artifact, offering to trade the MacGuffin to the villain so that he will leave your friends alone, etc can qualify for the idiot ball.

The idiot ball has several uses:

1) You may hand the idiot ball back to the GM at some point, removing it's benefits, but having him give it to the villain in the form of the villain ball (below).
2) While holding the idiot ball you get 1 free hero point per session: though that hero point can only be used to power the inspiration feat, the ultimate effort feat, for inspiration (see use of hero points), or to reroll a failed saving throw.

The Hero Ball

This is a variant of the idiot ball. The hero ball happens when a PC refuses to do what is effective if it is not "right". The villain should go to jail rather than being murdered (even if he could escape- let's try to make a better jail). The hero will drop his weapons when the villain has the gun to the damsel's head, even though he'll probably shoot her anyway. The hero is excited to banter with the villains and will accept an honorable duel (even if the villain ends up cheating- the hero will not).  He will keep his word as long as the villain keeps his (which he usually will not). The hero will not simply let the villain escape and can be smart, but he'd rather the villain escape if he can prevent immediate casualties by doing so, which the villain can exploit by putting others at risk.

Holding the hero ball has the following effects:

1) You get 1 free hero point per session to be used to recover from extra effort, for the leadership feat, for the ultimate effort feat, or to reroll an attack roll.
2) When the villain defeats the heroes the villain must make a will save at the hero's power level. Failure means that he leaves the heroes there (rather than finishing the job). If he succeeds he must make ANOTHER save. Failure means he captures the heroes and puts them in a a cell or something rather than killing them. Success on that roll means he will kill the characters. He must make a third saving throw to kill the characters there instead of putting them inside some kind of death trap.
3) Losing the hero ball requires the character to work in an un-heroic fashion. This gives the enemies 1 free hero point to use every encounter for the rest of the session.

The Villain Ball

Jafar would have won if he just paid Aladdin for the lamp. Many villains put the heroes in situations where if they just kept their word they would win forever, but they instead throw it all away for vengance, to display power, or just to be a dick. If the green goblin had not been taunting Spider Man, he would have killed him, but instead he got spiderman pissed off, and lost. All these happen when the villain holds the villain ball.

The villian ball is generally given to the villain by giving him the idiot ball (above), but some villains can come WITH a villain ball- they must act in this non-optimal way, but they get benefits for doing so.

The villain with the villain ball gets 1 free hero point to use against the party each time they battle. However:

The villain is very likely to monologue, or be tricked into it by the party.
The villain will almost always go back on his word and betray the PCs.
The villain may claim the hero as "his kill" and insist on doing it himself instead of letting a henchman (who's already beating him) finish him off.

Basically he acts more comic book like instead of genre savvy. He's easier to be tricked or goaded, and he's more likely to fall into a special trap.

Optional Rules: Sadane and Monologue

Sadane

Sadane, taken from the courtly game of insults from Legend of the 5 Rings. The idea is that the contestants take turns making backhanded compliments or outright insults of a given object until one has nothing further to say.

"Nice kimono, my grandmother had one just like it when she was your age."
"I am honored by this (inexpensive) gift, which must have cost you a large percentage of your wealth!"

Sadane also has its place in superhero fiction, usually where the Hero and Villain taunt each other back and forth before the battle begins. Nowadays it's usually played for comic effect (such as in Mystery Men where Captain America cannot pronounce the word "Nemeses", or in Megamind, where MetroMan and MegaMind go back and forth until Roxanne has to interrupt them and say "Girls, You're Both Pretty!"

Sadane is a nice way to get the PC and the villain going back and forth before the big combat. Usually the GM would start it off by having the villain make some claim of power, or perhaps monologue, and leave the PC open to respond.

1) This is a game for both sides, and it must hold to the original coversation. If a metaphor was used, the metaphor must be carried.
        Example:

2) The game lasts until 1 of 4 situations happens

• The villain can't respond: Hero wins, gains a hero point, go to initaitive.
• The Hero can't respond: Villain gets use of a hero point during the encounter, go to initiative
• A third party interrupts: If the third party is an ally of the villain or the hero, that team person is assumed to have lost the fight. If the third party is not aligned with either the hero or the villain, no one gets a hero point and go to initiative. Interruption can come from someone speaking or someone attacking. 
• A "situation" happens: Such as something exploding, a volcano erupts, etc. This can happen in one of two ways: If this was a completely unexpected thing, no one gets a hero point and you go to initiative. If however this was planned by one party (and Sadane was being purposefully used as a stall tactic), the person who set the situation up benefits. He gets the hero point, and the loser is considered flat footed for the 1st round of combat (unless he has uncanny dodge). 

3) Role Playing Matters: What the character says can be silly, or it can be actually intimidating. Or the PC might not be able to think of things to say (but the character might be better at it). The PC can roll Intimidate in place of a line. The TN starts at 10, and goes up by 10 for each person who speaks (so the PC starts at 10, the villain must beat 20, then the PC must beat 30, etc). If the PC/GM is able to come up with a witty retort on his own, he auto-succeeds his roll. If the results is considered to be especially "awesome" by the party/GM, he may make a free demoralize attempt against the other player. If the contest continues, each additional demoralization attempt may be used against another person in the losing side's group. (So the villain, then some of his henchman, or the speaking PC, then some of the other PCs). A PC who is able to complete a round of Sadane of at least 3 rounds without resorting to rolls gets a free hero point (regardless of who wins) which must be used during that combat.

Monologue Bait

A villain should be assumed to have the fascinate feat and perform:monologue for his monologue- this forces the PCs to listen as he explains his evil plan and stops them from simply attacking him while he gloats. 

But sometimes the PCs WANT the villain to monologue. Maybe they need to hear his evil plan, maybe they need to stall until backup arrives or the computer virus uploads or the bomb counts down. That's when they need to use monologue bait.

This is an interaction effect (and this villains immune to interaction effects cannot be baited). It uses the Bluff skill. This is language-dependent and requires intelligence. 

The Bluff skill is opposed by the better of the villain's sense motive, or will save. Apply the following modifiers:

Heroes Incapacitated: Only works if all the PCs that the villain considers a threat are apparently incapacitated. (Unconscious/Dead/Tied Up/Pinned etc). +5 to bluff check.

Hero Has the Fascinate Feat: +5 to bluff check (he is effectively fascinating the villain using the villain's own performance)

Villain has no ranks in Perform:Monologue: -10 to bluff check as villain is not prone to monologuing. 

Villain has fallen for this before: -10 to bluff check

Villain is not the plan mastermind: -10 to bluff check- henchmen are much less likely to monologue.

Villain's Evil Plan is about to happen within minutes or assumed to be too late to stop: +10 to bluff check.

Villain needs the distraction also: +10 to bluff check

If the check is successful, the villain will begin his monologue. He will use the fascinate feat, which the heroes must still save against, but the hero who goaded the villain automatically passes his save. The villain is considered flat footed, but not unaware- if the hero (or his team) is taking actions or new people show up, it will break the effect. If the hero has the fascinate feat for a a conversation skill, he may use it to ask follow up questions or to goad the monologue into continuing, giving the villain the standard penalties for being distracted by fascinate (no save). 

If the villain's monologue is interrupted, he has "fallen for this before" and will then on give the -10 to checks on subsequent encounters (he will not be tricked again during this encounter). If he completes his monologue and is preparing to attack the party, it will become apparent in the monologue- no one is flat footed.

Baiting a monologue is a standard action, but by using a hero point, the heroes can attempt this as a reaction, perhaps interrupting combat with a big bad before it begins to get him speaking and allowing them some advantage. 

During a monologue, a character who is not fascinated can try sleight of hand moves or stealth moves to make actions without the villain noticing and gain additional advantage. 

Teamwork

Oddly enough, despite superhero stories being all about teamwork a lot of the times, especially the avengers or justice league style stories, this doesn't seem to happen all that much with actual PCs. Sometimes it's because the characters were made separately and they have disparate goals and powers. Sometimes it's because there is lack of a solid leader or communication between members. Sometimes it's because EVERYONE wants to be the one who takes down the big bad and no one wants to be the one who fights the minions, or the reverse: the big bad seems so powerful that everyone leaves it up to each other to fight the big bad, and when he doesn't get attacked or countered, he wipes the floor with the party.

Lack of teamwork does force some PCs to focus on area of effect attacks (area snare, blasts, etc) that damage everyone (selective attack maybe to spare the party) and gives us a heavy case of the Angel Summoner and the BMX Bandit in the party, where some people feel that their character is nothing. I've had PCs make plans where the punchline is "And then Paul will kill all the bad guys". Not as much fun for the other players.

The system leaves itself open to so many ways for the PCs to help each other through teamwork.

The Aid Action: Basically you can make an attack roll against defense 10 to give a friend +2 to attack OR defense on his next turn. Multiple bonuses stack and breaks power level limits. (This is extremely useful when the person getting the bonus has autofire!)

Combined Attack: The team shoots the enemy all at once, and instead of making multiple saves (or winning via impervious toughness or something) the enemy must make 1 save with +2 per PC, potentially making the save unbeatable, or allowing it to bypass his tough defense.

FEATS FOR TEAMWORK

Set Up (Feat): Allows one person to use an interaction skill (such as feinting) and someone else to take the benefit. Allows you to accomplish things in less rounds.

Leadership (Feat): Standard action and Hero Point to remove dazed, fatigued, panicked, shaken, or stunned. Stun is probably the big one here, as nothing else really cures this, and this effectively allows you to use your hero point on someone else's behalf.

Master Plan (Feat): Gives the party +1-+3 for skill checks and attack rolls for 3 rounds (then you lose 1 point over the next 1-3 rounds). You need to have prep time, but there's no action involved in invoking this ability. Breaks power level limits.

Inspire (Feat): Use a hero point to give your allies +1-+5 on attacks,  saves, and skill checks for 1 round. It's a full round action and costs a hero point.

Interpose (Feat) Allows the stronger warrior to take a hit for the weaker warrior.

Teanwork (Feat): Allows the aid action (above) an extra +1-+3 (for a total of up to +5 to attack or defense when used).

POWERS FOR TEAMWORK

Healing/Boost: These are pretty obvious as they increase the strength of other PCs (or yourself). Healing fatigue and taking it into yourself is handy as it allows other PCs to utilize extra effort to greater effect.

Power Use: While normally used on the enemy, this can allow you to use a PC's power using your actions rather than his, especially if he has a power more suited to the given situation.

Deflect: The area version especially as you can protect a party with it.

Gestalt: The ultimate teamwork power, allows you to make a new character with different powers by combining two PCs. Deciding who is in control is another matter altogether, but this can be extremely useful.

Affects Others (Modifier): Allows you to "give" powers to others rather than using them on yourself.

That's all fine and good, but how do you get PCs to actually use tactics like these? Here are some thoughts:

1. Make the enemy weak to a specific weapon, and give one of them to the PCs. This forces the other characters to spend actions feinting and aiding and inspiring the PC with the weapon so that he can make the ridiculously difficult attack roll (or increased his defense so he can survive the attack roll) against the enemy.
2. Give the enemy impervious toughness a few ranks above the PC's power level so they need to combine attack in order to damage him.
3. Have enemies who use these tactics in order to inspire the PCs to try them out.
4. Give out teamwork abilities as mission rewards so PCs don't feel that they need to spend character points using them.
5. Have an NPC battler who helps the PCs use these tactics instead of attacking the enemy themselves.
6. Perhaps give out TEAM hero points that can only be used to power the teamwork feats that require hero points to encourage them to be used more.
7. When you're PLAYING rather than running, have a character who tries to lead the other PCs and plan out attacks ahead of time.
8. Give the PCs time to plan. If everything is always jumping out at them and they don't know what they're up against they will be very reactive. When they're attacking the enemy, they can have a plan and work more in unison.
9. Limit perception based powers. If everyone is using them, many of these teamwork abilities have little to no effect. Encourage PCs to use attack rolls.
10. Have an NPC (or even you as the GM) send them to a leadership camp or make the suggestion to them (like in mystery men with the Sphinx). Reward them with better outcomes if they work together as a team.

Not sure if other people see this in their own campaigns, but PCs who don't work as a team find themselves getting wiped out more often, and it leaves a few power gamers to run the board while the other PCs are getting killed or running around the battle being useless.

UPDATE:

An update to this, and a bit of a correction. I HAVE seen teamwork tactics being used, but not across PCs. I see them being used by Sidekicks, Minions, Duplicates, Summoned Creatures, Animated Objects, etc.  (I'll group them together and call them all henchmen).

Using henchmen, a PC can drastically offset PL limits. Minions don't have hero points, so can't inspire, but they can heal battery, they can AID (and potentially give +5 when aiding each, so 4 henchmen gives  you a +20 to attack- deadly with Autofire), or +20 to defense, or interposing in case of an attack, et cetera. Just something additional to consider when you're approving extra characters. See the Too Many Actions post for more issues with Henchmen.

Skills

Like the feats page, I thought I'd look at the skills quickly and identify their value.

Ride/Swim/Drive/Pilot/Climb/Acrobatics: Worthless since movement powers are so much better. Unless you're in a really weird situation where you need to pilot a jet full of people or something, but usually i see teleportation powers pop up.

Investigate/Intimidate/Gather Info/Search/Notice/Bluff/Diplomacy/Sense Motive/Disguise/Knowledge(all): These powers are all must haves for every single character. They come ALL the time, and people without them always suffer.

Concentration: Nice if you're worried about losing control of your concentration based power, but most people seem to just move the powers to sustained instead.

Craft: Necessary only for characters building things (including with create object powers).

Computers: This is another one many characeters should have but especially any technopath type characeter. Often overlooked.

Disable Device: This is necessary for escaping the villains deathtrap and unlocking doors, but the teleporter gets around it so much I wonder what's the point.

Escape Artist/Handle Animal/ Language/Survival: Survival is good with the track feat, but these skills are a mixed bag. They can be offset (usually cheaper) by powers, or with high strength (for escape artist). Speaking all languages is a 1 point power, and survival doesn't come up when you are immune to hunger or can teleport out.

Profession: An RP skill that does nothing in actuality.

Perform: Great for using fascinate, but otherwise worthless.

Medicine: This is actually a fantastic skill as it can be used to wake up unconscious characters, even if they're suffering from fatigue or damage, allowing them to take actions again! Great for fatigue battery concepts. Sure healing/regen can do the same thing, but healing requires you to take the fatigue into yourself, where medicine allows you to wake a fatigued character with no harm to yourself.

Stealth: Don't rely on invisibility! Stealth is the skill that defeats powers, because they still need to NOTICE you which can be opposed with stealth. Every sneaky character needs this.

Sleight of Hand: Another skill that beats powers. Allows you to take things from an oppnant. Sure you can disarm, or teleport the item from his hands, but that requires saving throws and power level limits. A DC 20 always takes the item, then it's just a matter of being noticed!

Feats

It's been a while since I posted, but I thought I'd go through the FEATS section of the book with some thoughts.

First of all, feats are a great workaround for people who have limited their campaign to "one power per character" or something. For the record, I'm talking about regular feats only- not power feats.

COMBAT FEATS

Accurate Attack/All Out Attack/Power Attack/Defensive Attack: These are all great as they bypass power level limits and allow you to use tradeoffs on the fly. As long as your character is not using perception powers, these are just awesome.

Attack Focus/Attack Specialization: There is also a power feat called power specialization, and therein lies the conundrum. You can spend 2 points for 1 attack, 1 point for 1 if it's just melee or just ranged, 1 for 2 for 1 weapon, or you can specalize in a power for 2:1, but it's a power feat. The difference here is that a power feat can be utilized as an alternate power. So you can take a 20 point power, and 1 point of alternate power gets you a 15 point power +5 power specialization feats if you need them. This is only really good if you focus on melee weapons as a means to bypass power level limits, and then it's much cheaper than buying attack.

Blind-Fight: This could be good I guess, great in games like D&D, but i never really see it come up in M&M. Partially because all the visual powers that pierce concealment, and all the perception powers. It is okay in some edge cases, but I don't really see it.

Chokehold/ Grappling Finesse/Imp Grapple/Improved Grab/Improved Pin/Ranged Pin- Look, grappling is easy to break in M&M, additional limbs, and enhanced strength can give you a nigh unbeatable grapple check. But then, with so many ways to break grapple: teleport, insubstantial, and just immunity to entrapment effects, I never see these really paying off. As long as you can nullify their ability to escape the grapple somehow these can be good.

Dodge Focus: Half the price of defense. 1/2 your defense is dodge anyway. Yeah you can lose it in some circumstances but realistically you should probably take tihs instead of defense. Just make sure you back it up with Uncanny Dodge.

Defensive Roll: The only way to buy up toughness is this, Con score, and powers. Might as well buy this up as this way is cheaper.

Favored Opponent/Critical Strike/Improved Critical: Great power, as it allows you to crit people immune to crits. This with improved critical where you get a huge crit range swing and you're getting +5 to damage TNs. Sure you need favored opponent (which is only good as a precursor to critical strike), but if you build yourself to crit, this makes it worth it.

Evasion: Who doesn't take this? It makes reflex based powers useless. Especially taking it twice.

Elusive Target/Precise Shot: These two counteract each other. As a melee character, this is strong as it can boost your defense above power level limits, but any ranged character worth his salt has the precise shots (or perception powers), so just like taking impervious or persistent, it's kind of a "why bother" power.

Fast Overrun: Do people actually take this?

Favored Environment/Sneak Attack/Rage: These things are all subject to power level limits, and situational. Sure if you can set them up they'd be cheaper than buying your power all the way up, but why bother?

Improved Aim/Improved Block/Improved Defense: These are actually very nice as they break power level limits. Improved aim taken twice is a great way to maximize tradeoff damage. Drop your attack to increase your damage, and offset your penalties with improved aim. You lose an action, but totally worth it! Improved Block/Defense are nice if you're the type of character to use these options. Just beware of the perception based powers.

Prone Fighting: Unless you're playing Dr. Boskonavich this is a niche power at best. It's nice if you're using super slithering or something and just taking it for free defense against ranged attacks, but how often are you fighting prone anyway?

Throwing Mastery: This is actually nice as it allows you to throw harmless things for damage. Great when your # of powers is limited as it keeps you in the action even during nullifies. Keep in mind anything can be thrown- crayons, dice, pebbles, peanuts.

Improved Disarm/Improved Sunder/Weapon Bind/Weapon Break: Not all that many people seem to use weapons- lots of powers, and even those that do can usually be taken down with a stun attack, fatigue, snare, or just damage. A niche bunch at best.

Redirect: Good with improved block.

Move By Action: Not bad if you're a speedster or have a big fly speed, and if you rely on melee as you can attack and then move out of counterattack range. But as most people I've seen either have ranged, perception, or low movement, another niche feat.

Improved Trip/Improved Throw: Seriously? If this is a VERY low powered world, maybe. But making someone prone does very little to stop them from using powers or escaping. Almost never comes up.

Stunning Attack: Not bad in limited power worlds, as its a feat that can hold its own with power TNs. You need to be in melee though.

Takedown Attack: Nice if you get surrounded by minions, but an area attack does just as well. If you're focusing on being a melee fighter of some kind maybe you can make this work, but I rarely see it come up.

Improved Initiative: The fact that there is no upper limit to this means for 5 points you can pretty much always go first, which is nice if you need to go first.

Fortune Feats

Beginner's Luck: I guess this could come up, but skills are so cheap and ability scores so plentiful that I never see this pay out.

Inspire: This can be great for some character types, as the bonuses break power level limits. 

Leadership: Good for a support character with limited # of powers as it can remove conditons if they come up, but the cost of a hero point is pretty steep when the same hero point could get you an alternate power.

Luck: Who doesn't fill this up? Extra hero points, which powers everything your character does? Buy these up!

Seize Initiative: I don't see this being so relevant. Improved initiative costs no hero point, though you need to buy it a few more times to ensure you go first.

Ultimate Effort: This can be great for several effects. Ultimate attack is great when you've sold your attack for extra damage (but not if you need to compound with a critical). Ultimate save eliminates the need to use hero points to reroll saves because you can force a success. And ultimate skill is mostly useless unless it's a skill you can't take 20 on and you need it to succeed RIGHT NOW, but you need to know the skill in advance. This is so situational you may be better of getting this feat via extra effort when you need it. 

General Feats

Ambidexterity: This is useless! Grants no extra attacks, so just in case you need to carry something in your offhand and attack? So situational as to not matter.

Assessment: Another highly situational power that almost never comes up.

Benefit: People seem to take this a lot for role playing perspective, but it rarely serves a mechanical purpose.

Diehard: With all the healing and regeneration floating around this never comes up. 

Eidetic Memory: Another power people seem to love to take and rarely comes up. Depends on how mean your GM is when it comes to Pcs remembering things. 

Endurance: The saves against weather and temperature and running don't come up all that often, and if they do, you can get environmental adaptation instead. I guess these could come up, but it seems that immunity and flight and such are so common I rarely see people put off by these situations.

Equipment: This is the way to spend points on equiment, which is necessary if you want your character to have basic things like cars and cell phones. A must have. I don't know how many superhero teams have had to take the bus to crime scenes! So unless you're all speedsters and teleporters and telepaths you should plan a couple points into this one!

Fearless: Another staple. A 1 point feat that nerfs an entire subset of powers.

Fearsome Presence: Why bother? Everyone should have fearless!

Instant Up: Well it's this or Prone Fighting I guess. If you're using knockback all the time this can be useful, but so many characters fly or teleport it never seems to come up.

Interpose: This is a nice defensive power to protect your team with, assuming you're standing next to them and they're being attacked by a non-perception power. Great for saving civilians as well. 

Master Plan: I like this one, especially combined with Inspire as you can put both of them up at once. You need to spend time setting it up, but it's a nice way to get around those pesky power level limits. 

Minions/Sidekick: I'm not sure how I feel on these ones. It's like leadership from D&D. Does your party really need more characters in combat? This gets so breakable as well. I've seen minions as AI for a fleet of spaceships, a sidekick who was nothing but a "mimic battery" for a mimic to hide their powers in so that they couldn't lose them, and so forth. Great for the PCs, but usually a nightmare for the GM, and you can get into debates as to whether something is a minion or sidekick instead of being equipment or a device. An intelligent sword with powers for example which can take independent actions and may be cheaper than paying for a device? 

Quick Change: A cute RP ability if secret identities are important in your campaign. 

Second Chance: This is actually quite powerful if you know the kind of things you're fighting against, and if you don't, I'd use extra effort to emulate it for the relevant encounter. The ability to re-roll failed saves is huge. I'll take a fatigue for the combat if it means best of two saves against mind control, or petrification, or whatever save or die power the enemy is using (especially nullify!). Often cheaper than immunity, and can be coupled with the 1/2 power immunity (where you take the limited that the power comes in at 1/2 ranks instead of you being fully immune). Hugely overlooked feat!

Teamwork: The aid action is not a team attack, so in edge situations where you are assisting with a skill roll. Skill rolls get so high that this never seems to matter, though you can use it to get them bonus to their attack rolls.

Trance: I've never seen this used ever. 

Skill Feats

Acrobatic Bluff/Startle/Taunt: These are okay I guess if you have the one set of skills and not the other, but since skills or so cheap I rarely see this come up.

Animal Empathy: Depends on the campaign, but this is another one I hardly see become relevant and is so situational you may want to just use extra effort to fake it if it comes up.

Artificer/Inventor/Ritualist: These 3 are the same power with different skills, and of them Ritualist uses only 1 skill while Artificer and Inventor use 2. These have a huge benefit as they grant you temporary powers, and the jury rigging concept that gives the power in rounds is big too. Very few mechanical reasons NOT to take these feats. 

Connected/Contacts/Well Informed: Mainly for RP purposes, but good feats for that purpose if you're that type of character. Helpful for the GM if you have these feats as it allows him to more easily introduce info to the party. 

Distract: Another feat that replaces a skill with a power, good for low # of power campaigns.

Fascinate: I like this mainly because it's an interaction effect that can affect a group. Great for villains who want to monologue, since the party can be held at attention while he goes off. Also good if a PC wants to distract a group of enemies with "Storytelling" or something, just appearing to be a bumbling fool while his friends slip away. Another thing here as since this is opposed by another skill check rather than being "saved against" the TN is not based on power level limits, and the team can aid another to make the DC unbeatable. Likewise the enemy can monologue while his minions aid him to force the party to listen to the whole thing.

Improvised Tools: If you have the skills that are relevant for this, you should take this. If not, don't bother. Why carry tools ever when for 1 point you don't need to? Remember the equipment costs power points also!

Jack of All Trades: Another feat you might as well get unless you plan on having all skills (or at least the trained only ones). If you have a high intelligence character, this is helpful to allow them to make any knowledge check whenever. 

Skill mastery: This one almost never comes up, but I guess it's nice if the GM is specifically putting you in situations where you need to make skill checks while being attacked, but I never see it become necessary. 

Track: This is also a power, so the fact that it's a feat is nice for limited # of power campaigns, otherwise just take it as a power. 

Hide in Plain Sight: A must-have for any sneaky character. 

50 more mission ideas

1) God hating Rakshasa go back in time to stop the first christmas. Can the party save baby Jesus?
2) An evil druid is trying to wipe out humanity with mutant animals and awakened plants.
3) An evil bard is trying to re-create fairy tales by manipulating real people to take roles in the story.
4) A lich is raising the undead. He cannot be destroyed until his phylactery is discovered.
5) The city's previous superheroes were actually on the take, and never solved crimes, they just hired fall guys to take the blame and make them look good. What about all the unsoved cases?
6) Rich businessmen are purchasing surgically quadrapalegic women as living sex dolls, purchased from a mad doctor overseas where the government is corrupt. How far will the PCs go to stop this?
7) The yakuza seek a specific woman for a mysterious reason.
8) A magazine writer works out a mathematical formula for discovering dragon hoards and is going to publish it in a well known magazine. Naturally, dragons are not to thrilled with this and are willing to kill her to bury her research.
9) A villain lives on an alternate earth where every major NPC (and the PCs!) have dopplegangers who are very different than in this world.
10) Well known heroes are being targeted by assassins
11) Someone is resurrecting people using "reversable" healing, and is threatening to take away their restored life if they don't do as they're told.
12) A superhero has chosen a name that violates copyright (such as Captain Crayola). When the hero causes bad PR for the company, they need him dealt with.
13) A sniper from the future appears to be targeting famous musicians, but in truth he is trying to save them from the true assassins.
14) Someone is burning down the houses of hoarders before they spawn garbage elementals.
15) A man seeks the party's help defending him against his future self who he believes is trying to murder him.
16) Someone discovers a formula to give him temporary powers and is robbing places for ingredients.
17) A villain sends the PCs into the deep future (via a power or "the long way") where they see a post apocalyptic earth and must return to the present to stop the apocalypse.
18) Kids are taking a drug making them immune to damage and are throwing themselves off buildings or into cars under the effect. Especially dangerous since they are immune to damage.
19) A child's love for his toys is making them real, like the velveteen rabbit- but the government wants to weaponize this power.
20) A vampire has been kidnapped for experimentation, and the PCs are asked to aid in his rescue.
21) Powerful demons or ghosts have been released, and the PCs are asked to clean up some of the minor ones while the NPCs take out the big bad.
22) The PCs are asked to help a starting hero defeat villains to raise his confidence, but they must help without him realizing it.
23) Animals at a slaughterhouse are awakened and given intelligence, and they revolt against the human captors.
24) A god is resurrected, but due to lack of proper worship takes a very weak or rediculous form, and seeks help rebuilding his faithful.
25) A group of villain misfits with very specific and stupid powers find that if they band together they can make very effective combo attacks.
26) Aliens have fired weapons upon the earth, but due to space distances, the weapons have been fired hundreds of years ago or more. Can you defend against the weapons, and what can you do to stop further attacks?
27) A dark god is reborn into human form, but doesn't remember his dark god powers. Can the PCs show him the power of goodness before he awakens his deity potential?
28) A swarm of spiders or leeches gain the power to control humans by latching onto them.
29) The villain is trying to erase the PCs by going into the past to destroy their ancestors. The only way the PCs can affect the past is by having their postcog communicate with a precog from that era.
30) A child's birthday wish comes true with disasterous consequences
31) Actors in a movie start suffering the same fate as their chacters
32) A collector is shrinking celebrities to keep in jars in his basement.
33) flashing lights from a distant star hypnotize people who see it into crazed or dangerous acts
34) A magical camera traps people inside the photographs it takes
35) A police strike causes scab police to be hired: mercenaries, robots, or even metahumans, but they may not take the law as seriously as they should (or take it TOO seriously)
36) War breaks out between the superhero's country and a rival nation.
37) A time traveler comes back to prevent a major terrorist attack, but by doing so will cause an even greater calamity. The PCs must ensure that the terrorist attack happens.
38) Someone on death row begs the PCs to re-open his old case to try to absolve him of the death penalty.
39) A spell goes awry and becomes a living spell, a vague cloud like ooze causing its spell effect on everything it touches
40) An ooze is created by a magical accident. It can only communicate by changing colors. Will the PCs identify that it is trying to communicate, or simply destroy it?
41) An author is wanted by the police because all his books are coming true and the police suspects he may be purposefully causing it.
42) The child of an exotic dancer suspects that the city's mayor had his mother killed, and asks the party for help.
43) A computer AI is hijacking power plants for energy because it has become obsessed with its own survival after some of its backup batteries start to fail.
44) A villain was turned into something completely harmeless like a glass of milk or something but still manages to maintain his evil empire somehow.
45) A psychic is trying to murder children that he believes will end up becoming murderers or despots, like the next hitler.
46) When a young boy sleeps his nightmares become real.
47) A witch continually switches bodies with young women to extend her lifespan
48) An orphanage is selling the souls of children to demons for money, as no one goes looking for the missing children.
49) When the PCs defeat a masked villain in the course of committing a crime, the find that the masked villain is actually one of them from the future.
50) Demons host a gameshow where the winner gets 3 wishes- but the losers forfeit their souls.

Resurrection and Time Travel

So let's talk resurrection-

Whether it's D&D or Mutants and Masterminds, eventually the characters die. Some of them come back from the dead due to regeneration (wolverine style) and you can argue that they never actually "died"- while some come back like a vampire.

The process as described in D&D (who knows what's happening in M&M since you can make your own deific cosmology) is that the body is repaired (or re-made) and the soul pushed back into it. Some systems call this jarring for the soul and put the negative level in there as part of that. Mutants doesn't do that, but you could still be calling your soul back from beyond.

But what if your soul is still alive, or if you have 2 souls left to recall?

Since the system allows for time travel (or dimension travel) this is quite possible.

Consider the following:

1) PC goes back in time 10 years.  (At age 20). From 2010 to 2000.
2) PC exists in 2000 as a 10 year old (his past self) and as a time travelling 20 year old (his current self).
3) 20 year old PC dies.
4) A resurrection magic is attempted.


What happens?

One might argue since there are 2 souls out there, only one of which is dead, the resurrection goes off with no problems. One might also say that the "closest" soul is that of your 10 year old self, which is not eligible for resurrection, so the spell fails. Consider that you cut your body in half for example- you can't resurrect both halves. But why not?

Well, let's assume that the 2 souls are separate entities. What if both the 10 year old and 20 year old die? You might say "Well, the 10 year old dies so the 20 year old vanishes", but we see from back to the future that as long as time travelers are still there to "fix things" then there may be a delay in the older one vanishing. (Futurama even allowed Fry to become his own grandfather after killing his grandfather in the past).

In any case- which one returns? The old version, or the young version?

Well, let's assume that the young self resurrects in the young body first, then you cast on the old (who is now eligible due to no timeline messing).

Well, what about alternate dimensions? You are going on a sliders style campaign. You enter an alternate dimension with another version of you (not a temporal version, but an alternate version). You both die. Who gets resurrected? The DNA is the same, the "soul" is the same (with different experiences, but the same energy). You might make an argument about the body, but then some resurrection spells don't require the body (and the DNA is the same anyway).

Okay, let's take this further:

Bob goes 20 years into the future. (Time travel- not "the long way").  From 2010 to 2020.

In 2015, recognizing that there is no Bob- resurrection magic is attempted. Does it work? Why not? There is no Bob? You might say that he has no soul here (since the soul went with him). If resurrection just restores a body and there is no "soul", then what happens in 5 more years when the guy shows up from the past?

What if a character dies in 2010, is resurrected in 2015, then goes back to 2013 and attempts resurrection? Will it work? Is there a spare soul floating around out there?

Next step- spells like Clone. In D&D, the clone spell is basically a prepared resurrection where your soul goes back into your body once you die. The clone stays "dead" until your regular body dies, then your soul inhabits it.

What if you cast this spell on an alternate dimension where there are 2 of you. Will it immediately animate with your alternate version?

So many questions- no real answers...