In Depth Contrast Between MnM and SaS.

Recently I’ve been putting my game through both of the major new super hero RPGs: Mutants and Masterminds and Silver Age Sentinels (tri-stat version) in an effort to choose one over the other.

         I’ve had to prep my session for either game and convert my cast of NPCs both ways. I’ve run combats and assorted skill checks in both. What follows are my present observations on how they stack up to each other.

In this comparison I shall refer to each system as follows:

MnM – Mutants and Masterminds
SaS – Silver Age Sentinels (tri-stat)

What is –NOT- covered in this review is the d20 version of SaS. What is also –NOT- covered is a comparison to Hero. You can find that elsewhere, in this review I merely wanted to look at the two –new- systems that appeal to a similar audience.

         Probably the biggest weakness of this review is that I simply wrote it as it came to me, and essentially in that order as well. There’s a little plan to it, such as putting the powers after everything but the conclusion. But it is largely stream of thought organized into sections.

         At times the review will take on a serious slant towards one game or the other, and I do have my biases. Though if you read it all (yeah I know it’s long) you’ll see that they do go both ways on this.

         Both systems use an open ended point based system without classes, levels, or templates. You can pretty much spend your points as you wish to create whatever concept you desire.

         One key difference is in limits on the upper end. SaS has no caps, and the point costs of various elements lack consistency to their impact on game play, so it is very easy to abuse unless a GM not only actively monitors the character creation process (as any GM should in any game), but also has the knowledge of how each element might play against each other. This takes a very active hand and a good grasp of probabilities, there is a lot of room for error. In my experience it is quite common for a player or GM to create unreasonably powerful or inept characters not because they intended to, but merely by accident as a process of doing what they think is the proper thing to do.

         When I GM’d SaS, I made a long list of caps to deal with this. It has not been popular with my players, and I didn’t like doing it, but I chaos without it, even in my own NPCs. In fact it was a work in progress for some time with me adjusting it after every encounter where a PC or NPC managed to do a few more hundred points of damage than expected.

         By contrast in MnM each character has a Power Level (which is similar to a character level, but works very differently) which governs the maximum score you can have in any given area. For example if your power level is X, you can not get more than an X bonus to to-hit rolls from the combination of your various super powers. The capping system built into MnM is not perfect to maintain play balance, but it does solve all of the major issues. It takes munchkinized characters out of the realm of accidental and unintentional creations and into the realm of complex creations made by players who should know better.

         Hero fans will probably prefer the SaS approach over the MnM one. In SaS there is a list of defects you can choose from, each giving a variable amount of points based on it’s potential impact on the game. Of note is the absence of a general “Psychological Limitation”. There shouldn’t be any PCs in SaS who have “Psych: Heroic” or “Psych: Driven to do good deeds”.

         You get points for the things that hurt your character in the genre, not things that should be assumed or are simply roleplay.

         It’s similar in that regard in MnM, but beyond that the approach is a bit different. Not every MnM character will even have a weakness, and few will have more than one. If a player shows up with three or more it’s probably time to start singing about the Lollypop gang and asking how to follow the Yellow Brick Road. The list of weaknesses in MnM is composed to items that are generally quite severe. Each of these weaknesses is worth the same number of points and it’s a rather generous handout. The game does have a Psychological Limitation under a different name, but triggering it renders your character a gibbering mess of uselessness.

         The core difference here is that an MnM weakness becomes a focal point of your entire character, whereas an SaS defect is an aspect that fleshes out your character. That at least, is the impression I came away with.

         MnM has no hit points, but a damage save. As a result the exact point of loss or victory is unknown until it occurs. You can’t base your strategy off of counting beans, as you never know exactly when you will run out of them.

SaS uses hit points, as most RPGs do.

         In neither game do you weaken as you take injury. In MnM your ability to make damage saves becomes harder with each hit, and in SaS you run out of those beans. Both systems do have optional rules to make injury impair your character however, something many games lack entirely. In both systems these injury mechanics will rapidly degrade your functionality.

Combat action resolution:

         In MnM two die rolls resolve an attack. A to hit roll and a damage save. In SaS there are three die rolls: To hit, defense, and damage.

The number of steps for each system is as follows:

MnM:

1. to hit roll
2. damage save
3. apply results (None, Hit, Stun, KO)

1. to hit roll
2. defense roll
3. damage roll
4. apply armor
5. subtract from hit points.

MnM folds the factors of SaS’ steps 1-2 into its step 1, and the factors of SaS’ 3-4 into its step 2.

Team Attacks

         An important part of the genre is the ability to gang up on a target with a team attack. SaS and MnM take inverted approaches to this situation. In SaS doing a team attack lowers everyone’s ability to hit, but causes you to group damage against their defenses. In MnM combining an attack makes it very easy to get a hit, but you only count the damage from the weakest attacker.

         It’s very hard to did in SaS. You have to do the equivalent of knocking them out twice to kill them. A common option in fact states that you have to specifically declare an intent to kill or the worst you can do is knock someone out. Under this option, you could hit them with the world and merely get a knockout hit.

         By contrast in MnM with equally matched opponents using lethal weapons you have a roughly 25% chance of disabling on a successful hit. This chance goes up for every succeeding hit made with a lethal weapon that does injury of some kind. Lethal weapons are quite common in the game. Almost any normal weapon and many super powers will do lethal damage. Once a victim is disabled any strenuous activity will move them to dying, and from there it’s only a matter of time unless you get healed in some manner. If your victim was a minion (essentially a goon or minor thug), any injury from a lethal attack automatically kills them.

         In actuality because of the disabled step unless you’re a minion death will be a rarity in MnM. If after being disabled a victim simply waits for help or capture they won’t die unless someone specifically targets them intending to kill. Even then, the rules never say you can kill them (though the official FAQ does)… so a rules lawyer player might argue the point and if the game is four color; comics will back him up.

         This gives us the odd situation where it’s harder to bring someone to the point of death in SaS, but much more difficult to finally kill them in MnM.

         MnM has tactical movement which will keep characters restricted to a tactical zone of play. They can switch to non tactical movement at the risk of becoming easier to target. This has the advantage of keeping a combat in a tight zone and preventing the slow movers from being easily neutralized.

         SaS has no restrictions on movement and characters can easily be moving in the thousands of KPH within combat. This is true to some comics, but is harder to manage in play and can make many combatants impossible to target. In play I have seen characters routinely hit a victim and then run a few miles away before they can be hit back. Something many characters can do in a single round.

         To push your abilities in SaS requires the expenditure of 1 XP and a die roll at a significant penalty. If you fail the die roll you fail to push and the XP is now spent on gaining a new level in whatever you were trying to push.

         In MnM all characters have a pool of points that work to affect their Karma. By default everyone has the same number of them, but you can get more in character creation if you spend the character points to have them. These points refresh at the end of every adventure. At any point in the game you can use them to give you an edge. You can remake a die roll, get a sudden bit of advice from the GM, avoid death, overcome injury, dodge a hit, get stronger, move faster, boost a power, or even temporarily gain an entirely new angle on your powers (such as suddenly figuring out how to fly with your powers if you couldn’t before). With many of these tricks, a character could choose to become fatigued afterwards instead of using one of the points in their pool.

         Experience in SaS is very slow. Every couple sessions you get one skill point, and every three to five you get one character point. Couple this with the rules for pushing powers and few character will ever grow much. I am not aware of any groups that have not house ruled to a faster rate of some kind.

         In MnM advancement can be rather fast. The game recommends an XP every session, plus a bonus every now and then for long plots or exceptional work. On the point scale the game works under, this works out to about one third to one fourth the rate you advance in D&D.

         In both systems, as you advance you can spend your points freely using the same rules as used in character creation.

         Both games have chapters on this topic which are largely thematically equivalent. The MnM chapter though also deals with super bases and constructs (robots, golems, etc.)

         MnM is a roll high system on a flat curve; SaS is a roll under on a bell curve resolution system. As a result there is no real cap to the skills in MnM, skills can range in rank from 1 to 23 (1 to 13 for characters built at the default power level). The skill ranks remain slightly distinct across the levels, with full utility tied to stats. In SaS skills range from 1 to 6, and the bell curve resolution ties them to stats in a way that can cause each rank to have a vast impact on success ability.

         SaS has 61 skills, MnM has 40. Both systems include for many skills that are catch-all skills such as Knowledge or Social Sciences. 10 of the skills in SaS are combat specific and their closest analogies in MnM are in the Feats. SaS characters will likely have a much more detailed list of skills than MnM characters as the cost to buy them is much cheaper. MnM’s skills however generally cover a broader range of topic and the game recommends a comic book like approach to skills by taking a super stat in an area to define a wide knowledge of all areas under that stat. It comes down to a matter of taste in the end.

         MnM also has the standard d20 mechanics for resolving routine, unstressed, or slowly completed tasks without a die roll.

         In MnM stats are in the d20 scale. Normals and supers have the same stat range, except for those specific stats that are superhuman in a character. As per d20 it is the even numbered stats that count for play, and the odd numbered stats that count for meeting prerequisites.

         A character in MnM with normal human stats can make for a perfectly viable superhuman able to compete with other supers and by virtue of her powers able to vastly outclass the norms. The system in this regards is the first supers RPG I’ve seen since V&V that doesn’t have a problem recreating the stats of those classic comic book supers who are –normal people with powers- such as many of the X-Men (who do not have super human strength, health, agility, intelligence, and so on –unless- it is their specific power to have it).

         In SaS the stat range for supers starts at about twice as high as the average result of the stat range for normals. The task resolution system is built assuming supers and without keeping an active hand in applying modifiers or using different sized dice breaks down for normals. Because stats are on a bell curve the numbers in the mid range have a bigger impact on game play than those at the ends. In other words the different between a 10 and an 11 is vastly greater than the difference between a 19 and a 20. Stats range from 1 to 20 and those normals average at 4. Supers will want to average around 10.5 and going below 8 will have serious repercussions on the ability to do anything in that stat’s area. Very few characters will go above 15, and most will be in the 9 to 13 range. Having more than one stat above this range not only fails to pay off well due to the curve, but becomes cost prohibitive.

         Because of this difference between linear and curve one can make a fairly solid argument that the MnM stats are also more granular. Any two steps of a stat in MnM have about the same impact on play as any other two steps. The number of viable steps for a character is about 6 (8 to 20). In addition to this each stat has a super-stat that allows for several more steps (10 for the default power level character) of viable interaction. A character that maxes out in a given stat with this will be significantly better than one who stays at the average, but will not dominate game play. Their exact ability to out perform the normal stated character will vary and will be restricted to elements involving that stat. By contrast in SaS a character with a stat as high as 15 has hit a peak of probability, having around an 85% chance of success with any action involving that stat, modified by situational modifiers. However the stat will have a much farther reaching impact in SaS than it will in MnM.

         What that amounts to is a character reaching the peak of performance much quicker in SaS than in MnM (thus it is less granular), and having a larger impact with that peak.

         SaS has no equivalent to the Feats systems in MnM. Some of the entries in this system are covered by powers such as Combat Technique, and some of them are covered by the combat skills. But many of them are simply concepts not present in SaS.

Key examples are:

Headquarters.
         This gives you your own private base and MnM spends 3 pages talking about how to build a super base.

Ambidexterity
         There is simply no concept for this in SaS. But then SaS doesn’t concern itself with offhandedness.

Connected:
         SaS has no mechanics for determining contacts. SaS leaves this as purely roleplay element, but does have mechanics for being part of an organization or even being owned.

Inspire:
         MnM has this and some related abilities which are used to give your team greater confidence. There is no equivalent in SaS for the ‘Cheerleader’ concept.

Infamy / Fame / Leadership:
         SaS’s only rules for reputation are a Famous defect. MnM’s reputation rules can have an impact on a number of other system elements, such as your minions, sidekicks, and NPC interactions.

Rapid Healing
         In SaS, you either heal normally or you regenerate. There is no inbetween, something which became an issue for one of my group’s PCs. MnM handles this in between step with a feat.

Startle / Surprise Strike
         SaS has no mechanics for dealing with surprise in combat. It’s up to a GM to wing this situation. MnM has specific mechanics and a number of abilities to allow you to either take greater advantage of this situation or to even put someone into it.

In general, both systems have fairly large power systems which have a good degree of flexibility built into them. Broken down however… there are some notable differences.

MnM powers can be expanded with extras, power stunts, secondary powers, and additional effects. Any extra, power, or effect in the game can be applied to any other power in this manner in order to expand upon it. You are not limited to just the ones listed under a power, and can in fact take those and put them on another power instead.

SaS has no open expansion to its powers. Instead there are ‘Power Modifiers’ to range, area, targets, and duration. These are not applied to all powers however and if a power lacks a given Power Modifier it is simply locked in to its description in that aspect.

MnM also has flaws with which to limit a given power. Anything can be placed in here and used to modify a power down from its base description. SaS uses defects to achieve the same point, so while its powers cannot be expanded out, they can be contracted down.

Going through power by power let me show the differences and what each system lacks or has that the other does not.

Adaptation / Special Defense / Immunity
         Adaptation allows a character to survive unusual environments. In both systems buying levels of this will nullify the environmental effects. In SaS it also provides some armor against attacks based on that environmental effect, and in MnM it makes such attacks non lethal. Special Defense in SaS allows you to become immune to certain attacks or situations, it maps over to MnM’s Immunity system in most cases.

Alternate Form / Shapeshift / Alternate Form (MnM)
         Very different approaches are taken here. In SaS you build each new shape or form as a sub character with a pool of points you get from this power. In MnM the power merely changes your shape but you have no limit on the number of forms you can assume, the power can be expanded with extras to give you abilities in your new shapes. If the new forms are different beings, such as a werewolf concept, MnM recommends making two separate characters and linking them with the Alternate Identity feat or [accidental] Transformation Weakness. To build a character with unlimited forms in SaS the game recommends using Dynamic Powers.
         MnM’s Alternate Form is the ability to turn yourself into a different type of matter or energy, such as being a being of fire. A number of forms are listed each with its own perks.

Animal Summon / Control
         This Summon part of this concept does not exist in MnM. In SaS it lets you bring forth animals which are built with a pool of points given to you by this power. The ability to bring animals under your control is covered by Mind Control in MnM.

Armor / Amazing Save – Damage / Protection:
         Both systems have Armor which is thematically equivalent in each. MnM splits the concept into a number of variants determined by weather or not it is a device, inherent, or simple hardiness. There is a slight difference in the mechanics of each of these variants (some reduce an attack; some boost your save against that attack).

Attack Mastery / Base Attack Bonus:
         Thematically identical, this is a universal bonus to a character’s ability to hit in combat. In SaS it also serves as a damage boost. Feats in MnM will allow a character to exchange some of this value for increased damage, or vice versa on the fly as a tactical choice.

Defensive Mastery / Defense:
         An opposite to the above. In MnM there are feats that can allow some of it to be exchanged for better offensive options on the fly as a tactical choice.

Block Power / Neutralize (MnM)
         An SaS concept that makes it harder for you to be affected by super powers. The same concept is covered under one of the extras to Neutralize in MnM.

Combat Technique / Feats
         SaS has a number of techniques one apply to combat as tactical choices to adjust the odds in one’s favor. Most of them are covered by MnM feats, which also have a number of options not seen in SaS. SaS does have a few that have no equivalent anywhere in MnM however: One shot left, portable armory, and weapons encyclopedia. The first two of these keep you from running out if you’re based around the use of weapons. The third seems like it belongs in skills as it allows you to merely know the facts on any weapon you encounter.

Computer Scanning / Datalink-Machine Control
         These two take very different approaches to the same genre construct. SaS’ ability lets you scan all the computers in a given area, MnM’s power lets you use computers at a distance and boosts your computers skill-which is what you use to scan those computers or operate them. To control or operate the computers in SaS you are referred to Dynamic Powers. MnM’s power gives you its level as Telepathy against AIs. To control computers or machines in MnM there is the Machine Control power which includes within itself everything from Datalink.

Contamination
         This ability is unique to SaS and represents such concepts as a werewolf or vampire’s ability to make others become like them. You can build this concept in MnM with Transformation

Creation / Create Object
         These two allow you to create non living objects or matter. SaS requires familiarity with what you create, proven through the skills system; MnM scales how complex of an object you can create. In both cases levels in the power determine size or mass of the objects. MnM extras let you animate your objects or have them mimic weapon like abilities.

Absorption / Damage Absorption / Damage Conversion
         This is the ability to have damage done to you make you stronger rather than injured. In MnM it reduces the damage, and this can be used to boost an ability, power an attack, create energy, or heal yourself. In SaS only the healing form reduces the incoming damage, and the other form gives you a pool of points you can use to boost existing abilities your character has. In SaS these points dissipate at the end of battle or during a scene change. In MnM they dissipate at 1 per round, or when used for 1:1 ratio (if you have 10 of them, and fire a rank 8 attack, you have 2 left). MnM caps how much energy you can store (at a very high number), SaS only caps it for healing (fully healed, or double base hit points depending on the version of the power bought).

Divine Relationship / Luck
         This is the ability to be lucky. In SaS it lets you reroll so many die rolls per game session. That ability in MnM is simulated in Hero Points, which every PC has a pool of based on their power level (Hero Points can be used for a number of other things as well).
         In MnM Luck gives you a modifier you can apply to die rolls, or split up between die rolls every round. The MnM power can be expanded to be a cursing attack or blessing like power as well.

Duplicate
         The power to create copies of yourself. In SaS this gives you a pool of points to create an unlimited number of GM controlled lesser copies of you. In MnM the Duplicates are as powerful as the lesser of you or your level of the power in each ability or power you have. In MnM your number of duplicates and the rate at which you can create them is regulated by the power.

Dynamic Powers / Power Flux / Variable Effects / Gadgets
         These are the –changing powers- of these two games. In SaS one version gives you a pool of points and time limit on how often you can change it, the other gives you blank levels you can fill with any power of your choosing if you make a skill check. In MnM Variable Effects is a construct in the power creation rules and Gadgets is the provided example of a power built using that construct. It lets you allocate your levels in to powers of your choosing and switch them by spending a Hero Point (of which you have a limited number per adventure).
         Dynamic Powers is also often used by SaS to handle any construct not covered by the rules elsewhere; it being the power of –do anything- up to this level of potency.

Elasticity
         The ability to stretch yourself. In SaS it determines how far and how many body parts you can stretch at once. In MnM it determines how far you can stretch out and the power can be expanded to allow you to bounce or glide.

Environmental Influence / Weather Control
         In SaS this allows for minor control over the environment and full on Weather Control is simulated with Dynamic Powers. In MnM there is a specific Weather Control power, oddly enough something I haven’t seen a supers RPG do since V&V 24 years ago… As if one of the most popular characters in comics didn’t exist... Weather Control in MnM can be expanded out to a full list of offensive, concealing, and movement abilities.

Extra Arms / Extra Limb Feat
         This gives you extra manipulatory appendages. In SaS your level in this determines your number of limbs, in MnM you can set the number anywhere you desire.

Extra Attacks / Rapid Strike / Rapid Shot.
         In SaS you can keep getting more and more extra actions in a round. In MnM you are limited to One extra attack if you forego movement, and can boost this to up to three with attacks that have an autofire option. The autofire option of attacks in SaS can result in as many as ten shots, based on the success margin of the to-hit and defense actions.
         While this limits the potential of many speedsters, it also keeps action flowing around the gaming table and other tactics are used to simulate speedsters.

Features / Attractive
         Features in SaS makes you look unusual and gain an assortment of minor advantages with no specific defined game effects. The most common use of it is for attractive appearance. The attractive construct in MnM gives you a positive modifier to certain social interaction skills. The other aspects of Features can be simulated with hand waving in MnM or things like Immunities if they have a more solid impact.

Flight:
         In SaS this ability scales up very rapidly and has no difference between tactical and non tactical movement. By contrast in MnM you have tactical movement which never gets beyond a slow moving car, but you can sprint out to non tactical movement which can reach into the thousands of miles per hour, but at the loss of the ability to defend yourself.

Force Field
         In SaS a Force Field cuts down the damage, and every time you exceed it it becomes weaker against the next attack. In MnM a Force Field reduces lowers the damage you save against, and if it lowers it to less than zero the attack is stopped (there are other powers which would math out to a similar effect by having their bonus alone to your damage save be higher than the attack’s total, but not stop the attack).
         A Force Field in MnM will go down if you are stunned or Knocked out (you can change this with an extra), but also comes with one free –gift- extra.
         A Force Field in SaS can also be modified in a number of ways to provide added protection against other threats or repair itself faster. Both systems offer the ability to make a Force Field that can be used as an attacking field.

Gadgeteer / Gadgets
         This is a concept in SaS that has no direct equivalent in MnM. In SaS Gadgeteer allows you to build and repair devices at a superhuman rate, and Gadgets lets you own a number of unusual devices that even if taken away will always be replaceable in some manner or another. Kind of like Batman’s utility belt. In MnM you would use the Gadgets Power which works similar to SaS Gadgets, but is not a preset list. Rather it is the ability to have a pool of ranks that can be allotted to different powers and declared to be gadgets at your character’s whim by expending a Hero Point (all characters have a pool of Hero Points that refresh every adventure, some character have more than others if they purchase additional Hero Points during character creation or with experience points).

Grow / Growth
         SaS Grow and MnM Growth both make you bigger. Both also give you free levels of Super Strength and Immovable. SaS gives you free Armor and MnM gives you free Protection. Two powers which are thematically the same. Each level in SaS doubles your height, every four ranks in MnM raises your size category (Medium at 0, then Large, Huge, Gargantuan, Colossal, and Awesome). In both cases this comes with a number of combat modifiers. Rank 10 in SaS would make you 560 feet tall if you had started at 6 feet. The same rank in MnM would make you 16 to 32 feet tall. If instead we look at it by the percentage of your starting points you have to spend on it, rank 10 in MnM would be rank 6 in SaS for 42 feet tall. Both of these taking up 40% of your character’s point if you were built on the default power levels.

Healing
         Both systems allow healing to bring people back from the dead if they have been dead for no more than a few minutes. Both systems let you regrow limbs. SaS makes it automatic; MnM makes it a power check which is rather difficult to succeed in. SaS caps the amount of healing you can do in a day to a particular victim, MnM caps the amount of healing you can do in a single action.

Heightened Senses / Sense Feats / Super Senses/ Spot and Listen
         In SaS this lets you improve your perception checks or gain new senses like radar sense. In MnM the same concept is done through buying a number of feats to gain new senses and Super Senses or the Spot and Listen skills to improve your perception checks.

Henchmen / Minions
         In both systems this will give you an army of loyal followers. In SaS your level determines how many followers you have whereas in MnM you take the Minions feat and your Charisma, Power Level, and Leadership abilities determine how many minions you get and how powerful those minions might be. In SaS you set the power level of your Henchmen by how much you spend for each level of this power.

Hyperflight / Space Flight
         Thematically Identical

Illusion / Projection.
         In SaS Illusions fool a number of senses based on which version of the power you buy. In MnM they fool whatever senses you set them to foll when you create them. Both systems have a means of building illusions that can harm the victim. SaS gives you one illusion at a time, and then a point cost per additional illusion. MnM gives you an illusion, and then an extra to create multiple illusions within an area. The area for an SaS illusion defines the area within which the illusion resides, with a separate scale for how big it is. Both MnM and SaS link the size of the illusion to the level of the power. MnM has a further extra to make who sees the illusion selectively chosen by the character. SaS Illusions are always selective, and you use Projection to make images anyone can see.
         Illusions in SaS will disappear upon being revealed, where Projections are easier to see through, but do not dissipate. Illusions in MnM do not dissipate once seen through.

Immovable:
         SaS affects knockback. MnM affects knockback as well as trip, throw, and pushing attempts.

Invisibility / Blend
         Invisibility in SaS is bought by the sense per level. It comes in two forms: full invisibility and partial invisibility (which can be seen through with difficulty). MnM invisibility can always be seen through if you’re close enough and the cost per level determines the number of senses it blocks. The level determines how hard it is to see through.
         Blending is an MnM power that is closer to partial Invisibility of SaS in theme. It’s the chameleon effect from movies like Predator and works to give you a bonus on your Hide skill. MnM has an option to turn those you touch invisible (resistable with a saving throw if unwilling), SaS has a power modifier to select a number of targets over an area you can turn invisible with no ability to resist it.

Item of Power
         This is a pool of points for building devices. The same concept is handled in MnM by giving the Device flaw to any power or feat.

Jumping / Leaping
         Jumping in SaS multiplies your base jumping distance but the speed at which you jump is set by your running speed, so you may end up in the air for several rounds. Leaping in MnM is a per round movement with tactical and non tactical modes available as well as the option of becoming a bouncing power.

Mass Decrease / Incorporeal
         In SaS Mass Decrease sets how dense of an object you can move through. In MnM you can move through anything and the ranks determine your ability to penetrate force fields or the strength or the strength of powers you use that can affect the solid world. MnM defines how an incorporeal person can affect the solid world whereas SaS leaves this to GM interpretation. MnM also has the ability to turn others Incorporeal whereas SaS does not.

Mass Increase / Density Control
         In SaS Mass Increase is the counterpoint to Mass Decrease, in MnM they are one power which you can limit to be only one way. Decreasing your Density in MnM though incorporates the Incorporeal power. Both powers make your mass go up, and give you superstrength, immovable, and Armor (SaS) or Protection (MnM).

Massive Damage / Penetrating / Strike / Weapon / Natural Weapon
         Massive Damage is a handy construct in SaS which allows you to do more damage with something than a normal person might. You can use it to simulate everything from martial arts to a weapons master to a guy who throws playing cards with deadly precision.
         Penetrating in MnM is a feat you can get multiple times that negates the ability of your opponents to resist damage. It can handle many of the concepts Massive Damage handles. Strike is a boost to your unarmed melee damage, Weapon allows you to build a weapon (ranged or melee), and Natural Weapon in MnM gives you so much damage per level with some natural weapon. In SaS Natural Weapon gives you one such weapon per rank chosen from a list of things like claws, teeth, fangs, and so on. Combining all of this together with a variety of the feats in MnM (Such as Power Attack) one can build the same basic concepts though in very different ways.

Metamorphosis / Transformation / Boost / Transfer (SaS)
         Metamorphosis gives you a pool of points you can apply to the target to give them new abilities or boost existing ones, including the addition and subtraction of defects. The amount of points given is very small so radical power / concept changes are simply not possible. Transformation in MnM by contrast starts out as a mere shapechanging power, but can be extra-ed into the ability to permanently alter someone into something completely different (duration extra to permanent, mimic extra to give them new powers, and drain extra to take away existing powers), including turning them into inanimate objects or giving them new minds.
         Transfer in SaS allows you to give the target one of your powers temporarily (which may be lower than the one they already have), it is much more potent than Metamorphosis, but much more limited in scope. (Transfer in MnM is a completely different concept I’ll get to later). Boost is equivalent to SaS Transfer, but allows you to increase any aspect of the target and possibly many targets at once. Both SaS Transfer and MnM Boost have options to let you grant more than one ability at once. SaS Transfer is limited to Power Attributes, whereas MnM Boost can be used for anything, but you have to choose what when you buy the power. SaS Transfer is only used to give someone else something, and it is not clear if you have to have that something yourself. MnM Boost is normally self only, and an extra makes it work on others.

Mimic Powers / Mimic
         SaS Mimic Powers can mimic any Power Attribute, Stat, or Skill of any target in range. There is a version to get one at a time, and a version to get all qualifying abilities at once. MnM Mimic is bought for the category (Stats, Feats, Skills, Powers) and you can add more categories by boosting the cost per level. There is a version to mimic one ability in one of your categories at a time, and a version to get everything in your categories at once.

Mind Control
         In SaS Mind Control ranks set the time you can keep someone under control. In MnM this time limit is a factor is more open ended and based on your not losing consciousness or being stunned, though it can be expanded out to as long as you desire. In both systems when you command a target to do something against their nature there is an opportunity for them to resist, with the ease of resistance in SaS or the difficulty of control in MnM set by how against their nature the action is. Resistance of any command breaks control.
         MnM Mind control is normally remembered, and an extra makes it not remembered. SaS mind control is normally not remembered and it is a defect to make it remembered.
         Both versions can be limited down to such concepts as emotion control.

Mind Shield / Mental Protection
         Thematically Identical

Nullify / Drain / Transfer (MnM) / Neutralize (MnM)
         Nullify in SaS can either drain down one or all Power Attributes or shut off one or all Power Attributes of equal of lower level (the one or all aspect is set when you buy the power based on cost). MnM Drain allows you to drain skills, feats, stats, or powers (you choose which when you buy the power, but can expand it out to cover more categories). MnM Drain can also be made contagious, delayed, or staged to go off a second time later on. In MnM you drain over time, in SaS it is instantaneous. In MnM you recover over time and in SaS it is not stated so we can assume at the end of the battle or scene or shutting off of the power if it is the non-draining variety.
         SaS Nullify cannot affect stats, skills, or Characteristic Attributes. MnM Transfer is like MnM Drain only it then gives you whatever you had drained away from the victim (the same concept in SaS is done with Nullify and Mimic working together). MnM Neutralize is the ability to turn off a victim’s powers (similar to SaS Nullify without the Drain Option). It can be expanded to keep the victim from turning their powers back on or to get everyone in an area.

Organizational Ties / Connected
         Organizational Ties is an SaS construct representing your link to some organization that gives you perks of some kind or another. It has no direct equivalent in MnM. MnM does have Connected which represents you knowing useful people, which has no direct equivalent in SaS. Each system treats the other’s construct as merely an aspect of roleplay.

Plant Control
         The base powers are thematically equivalent. The MnM version also includes the ability to animate your plants, move between them like teleport, use them as an ESP like sense, and other effects. Most of this can be simulated in SaS through other powers.

Pocket Dimension / Dimensional Travel / Special Movement – Dimension Hop
         SaS Pocket Dimension takes you to your own private dimensions which may or may not be populated. The power is largely concerned with how you access the dimension and how large it is. MnM Dimensional Travel lets you reach other dimensions and the power is largely concerned with how familiar you are with a given dimension. Both powers have options to allow to make portals for others to use. SaS also allows for the option of forcing someone into your pocket dimension. To travel to another dimension in SaS you will need Special Movement – Dimension Hop, which gives you one dimension you can reach each time you take it. To have unlimited dimensional travel the game recommends Dynamic Powers.

Regeneration
         SaS regeneration sets how many hit points you recover every round. MnM regeneration sets how often you recover a hit. It is thematically identical save for that MnM’s option of recovering from limb loss or near death are not guaranteed to succeed.

Reincarnation
         This power is vastly different in the two systems. SaS’ power works like it does in comic books: after you die, you will rise from the ashes at some point in the future and this is a guaranteed outcome. There are conditions that can stop it, such as a stake through the heart for a vampire or silver bullets for a werewolf. Your ranks in the power determine how long it take till you come back.
         MnM’s power sets your chance at succeeding to come back. You get one roll when you go down and if you fail it your character is gone. If you succeed you come back in the next round of combat at full capacity and able to fully participate, but you may be a completely different person with merely the same memories. The chance of coming back however is very difficult and even at full allowed level for a standard character is not likely to give you more than a 50% chance of success but will use up 27% of your character’s total points.

Sensory Block / Obscure
         SaS sensory block blocks one sense per level by imposing a stiff penalty to checks using that sense. It has no selectivity option so everyone in the affected area is blocked. MnM obscure gives total concealment from a sense over an area determined by the rank of the power. It can be made selective and additional senses can be added. It can also be limited to only provide partial concealment. Concealment in MnM works rather strangely and even total concealment is fairly easy to penetrate (50% odds).

Shrinking
         SaS shrinking allows you to get very small, for only a small fraction of your total points you can be at cellular size. MnM shrinking stops at a much higher point, and a character built at the default power level will not be able to get smaller than 6 inches, though they can make a sudden jump from there to the ‘Microverse’. SaS Shrinking will cut your ability to do physical damage, MnM will not. Both will cut your carrying capacity however. However MnM shrinking has an option to get rid of this problem.

Sidekick
         In SaS this power gives you a pool of points to build a sidekick with. In MnM it is a feat you buy once and the power of your sidekick is based on your Charisma, Leadership ability, and reputation. MnM allows to get additional Sidekicks by taking the feat multiple times, in SaS to do this you would have to split your pool of points across multiple Sidekicks.

Sixth Sense / Postcognition / Precognition / Detect
         In SaS Sixth Sense is a catch all to detect things beyond normal means, such as magic, danger, virtue, truth, and so on. Each level in the power gives you one such sense. Precog and Postcog senses are sub abilities of this power that give you farther reach in time with more level.
         In M&M Precog and Postcog abilities are individual powers. Your levels in the power do not set har far into time you see, but how well you find answers to specific time related issues. Mnay of the senses one could construct with Sixth Sense in SaS are reproducible in MnM through use of the detect feat, which lets you choose something you can detect and make spot checks to sense it.

Special Attack / Energy Blast / Strike / Weapon / Mind Blast / Natural Weapon / Energy Field / Stun / Snare
         Special Attack in SaS is a catch all power that can be used to construct nearly any kind of attack one might desire. It is one of the few powers in SaS which can be expanded as well as contracted through a series of additional abilities and disabilities. Many of the things in these lists would make great additions to other powers in the game but there is no system for extracting them out of Special Attack. In MnM there are a series of different attack powers to capture different styles of attack, each of which can be expanded or contracted through the extras, stunts, and flaws system.
         Several of the abilities on SaS’ Special Attack have no equivalent in MnM: Indirect, Flexible, Incurable. Others in MnM can be grabbed from the lists of extras throughout the game and applied to the attack power of your choice (extras, stunts, and flaws in MnM can be used on any power, and not just those they are listed under).
         A note should be made on Autofire, which works very differently in the two games. In SaS if your attack can autofire you get in one hit for amount your attack roll is over the defenders defense roll. This can result in a massive amount of damage being delivered through a hail of up to ten hits. In MnM autofire lets you make additional attack rolls but at a severe penalty to all your attack rolls in that round. It caps at three attacks in a round and there is some debate among the user community as to weather or not it can stack with other multiple attack methods in the game to give you a total or more than three attacks (such as rapid shotting an autofire for a total of four attacks). This debate continues as the designers have not yet answered it at the time of my writing this, leaving the issue in the hands of individual GMs.

Special Attack – Flare / Dazzle
         One of the sub abilities of special attack is the ability to temporarily overwhelm your victim’s senses, this is matched in MnM with Dazzle.

Special Movement
         In SaS this gives you an unsual method or angle on movement, such as water walking or swinging. Most of the abilities listed here (Zen Direction, Cat-Like, Slithering, and so on) have no equivalent in MnM. Others such as Wall Crawling or Swinging are represented as individual powers in MnM (Clinging and Swinging).

Speed / Super-Speed
         As with all movement powers, in SaS this gives you identical tactical and non tactical velocity which can go with very few levels to allow your characters to cross entire cities in a single combat round. A PC in my game using his SaS version can cross San Francisco 6 times per combat round with no restrictions. In MnM as with all movement powers you have a tactical speed which will never amount to much more than a slow moving car and you can get a non tactical speed that resembles the speeds seen in SaS. Comic book fans will find conceptual problems with both approaches. Both systems give you signifigant boosts to your ability to avoid being hit as well as initiative. An odd quirk of MnM’s system makes it easier for you to be hit when you shift to non tactical speed than when walking down the street at a casual stroll. This is because in non tactical speed you lose your dodge bonus and super-speed gives a dodge bonus. Move too fast and you will not only lose this, but you will lose your dodge bonus from your normal dexterity as well. The game has no penalities beyond a simple -2 for ranged attacks only on fast moving objects, and that -2 applies regardless of weather or not you go by at super sonic speed or the speed of sprinting non super runner. That said, as long as a speedster in MnM stays at tactical movement speeds, they will be nearly impossible to hit and will rarely find themselves trumped in initiative.A similar but less severe situation results for the SaS speedster.

SuperStrength
         This Power works quite differently in each system. In SaS once you have this power you completely ignore your base Body stat when it comes to issues of strength. The game does not say what to do however if you need to make a stat check. Carrying Capacity is completely based on Superstrength so individuals at the same level of power will have the same ability. In MnM each level of the power boosts your normal strength’s carrying capacity by some multiple and acts as a bonus on die rolls needing strength. In both systems the power also provides a generous bonus to damage done based around physical strength. MnM Superstrength suffers from the classic complaint in superhero RPGs that strength based characters can do more damage than characters of other concepts as it will cap out at a higher bonus to damage than any other concept can match. At the standard power this difference is a dramage 1.5 times higher than everyone else. The only saving grace on this issue is that this imbalance is given to all character who use strength as a factor in the damage they do, not just those who use superstrength.

Swarm
         This is a very interesting SaS ability to turn yourself into a swarm of tiny critters. In MnM it is matched by Alternate Form – Semisolid which can be a mass of any particulate matter including critters. Swarm in SaS has a dramatic effect on the nature of your character when the power is active, turning off your ability to use any of your other powers or skills. In MnM there is no such issue.

Telekinesis / Element Control / Energy Control
         The two powers are fairly similar in both systems. The SaS version also comes with an option to be able to move various elements instead, this option is matched in MnM with Element Control and Energy Control, each of which also gives a number of other abilities with the element or energy you choose to control. SaS has Air, Earth, Fire, Metal, Water, and Wood as choices. MnM has Air, Earth, Water, Cold, Darkness, Electricity, Fire, Gravity, Kinetic, Light, Magnetic, Radiation, Sonic, and Vibration.
         Some of the factors in the MnM lists could be mimicked with assorted powers in SaS, but many items on the list also include some unusual thing you can do with that element or energy that doesn’t map over to anything in the other system.

Telepathy
         In SaS Telepathy gets really tricky if you want to read beyond surface thoughts. The only way to do it is to first pummel your victim into unconsciousness. You can only do this if you have one of the two top levels of the power, and having this ability also gives the ability to render the victim dead at your whim once they are unconscious. Only at the top level of the power can you alter their memories.
         In MnM the power gives you a bonus on checks to reads minds, and the deeper you desire to go, the harder the check is to make. Memory Alteration is something you can add onto the power regardless of your level, but a higher level will make it much easier to alter memories. Of all the superhero RPGs I’ve played, only MnM seems to do Telepathy the way it seems to work in the comics I read.

Teleport
         SaS Teleport works like any other SaS movement power and can give you vast distances of travel in a single round of combat. You must know, see or sense the locations in some manner to visit them however. It is much the same in MnM save that it is split into tactical movement and non tactical. MnM teleport also has the option of adding a number of interesting tricks like blinking in and out to avoid being hit or rapid teleporting to hit everyone near a certain point. MnM Teleport also has an option for making Portals. Both versions have options for taking passengers, something all MnM movement powers have (though the option is listed at the end of the powers chapter rather than near the movement powers themselves).

Transmutation
         This power is fairly similar in both versions. In SaS power level sets mass, in MnM it sets size. The SaS version does not say what to do when trying to transmute something someone else is using, the MnM version lets the person using that object resist your attempt. The SaS version does make a case for objects which were created using Item of Power, a special case the MnM version does not cover (something made with a character’s points gets no special treatment if it is just sitting there by itself).

Tunneling
         The same statements made about other movement powers apply here as well.

Unique Attribute / Power Creation Rules
         SaS provides a short paragraph under this heading to essentially gives GMs license to let in new powers players come up with. It does not have any solid guidelines for figuring out how much any new power should cost, or what it should or should not be able to do mechanics wise to ensure smooth game play. It merely states the power should be costed out based on the other powers in the game.
         MnM provides 8 pages (6.5 if you remove illustration space) on creating new powers that goes through and dissects the power design meta-system the author used to build the powers list. It is the most highly detailed such item I have ever come across in any RPG, taking you through step by step the process of building a new power and giving it both balance and a point cost. MnM has a similar small section for doing the same thing for feats at the end of the feats chapter.

Unknown Superhuman Power
         This interesting SaS construct has no equivalent in MnM. Taking this on a PC means that the character has some power they are unaware of. A pool of points is set up which the GM uses to buy whatever powers they desire to give that PC and then to have it come into play at some undefined point in the near future. The pool of points is larger than the number of points spent to get it, thus providing some incentive to take this power.

Water Speed / Swimming
         The same statements made about other movement powers apply here as well. MnM also has the ability to let you make superleaps like a superhuman dolphin as an optional add on to the power.

Wealth
         SaS defines this as your liquid assets and sets them according to your level in the power. MnM has no official rules for wealth stating that wealth in comics has little to do with the effectiveness of the hero. Instead it offers two optional feats that lets you either set an independent income or a general level of wealth

Amazing Save
         As MnM uses d20 like saving throws, this power lets you boost some or all of them.

Animation
         This power lets you animate inanimate objects, or –things-. Examples could be anything from dolls to shadows to pictures.

Astral Projection
         The ability to have an astral form separate from your physical body and travel around on it’s own. This is not D&D astral travel -which is really just a form of dimensional travel with it’s own astral plane- but more like the metaphysical concept where your spirit travels away from it’s shell for a time.

Combat Sense
         This sounds like danger sense, but is really a d20 mechanic to avoid situations where you would lose your dodge bonus. It may be a way to counteract the odd effects of going into non tactical movement in MnM.

Comprehend
         This is a super ability to understand languages.

Corrosion / Disintegrate
         These two powers are very similar in that they work to destroy non living matter. If a GM doesn’t house rule it otherwise, these two powers can make characters who use devices (such as suits of powered armor) nearly useless almost instantaneously. I have been considering a House Rule that devices created with points cannot be destroyed, only taken or damaged. Others have made a rule giving any device that grants it’s user a protection power the benefits of that same power.

Deflection
         This power gives you an ability to not only deflect away incoming attacks but with an option that can be added to it the ability to send those attacks right back at the attacker. In SaS there is a Combat Technique to block a ranged attack, linking that technique to a mimic power would give you this ability if there was a way to apply a trigger to a power in SaS, which there is not unless that power is Special Attack (which has a trap ability).

ESP
         This power lets you sense distant places as if you were there. It is possibly matched by Heightened Senses type I in SaS which allows a sense to operate over an area.

Fatigue
         This power lets you tire out a victim. SaS has no mechanic for being fatigued, so there is no power to put a person in that state. In MnM you can progressively fatigue a victim until they fall unconscious from exhaustion.

Microscopic Vision
         This power actually is present in SaS as one of the items on the list for Heightened Senses Type II. In MnM it is detailed out to how far you can magnify, whereas in SaS it is just listed and open to interpretation.

Paralysis
         The ability to render a target unable to move. Not the same an entangling them which both SaS and MnM have (tangle special attack versus Snare).

Possession
         This ability lets you take over the body and mind of your victim. It has versions where you leave your own body behind, where your body disappears, or where you switch bodies. One of my favorite comic book character is based on this power (Nightcrawler’s Daughter from the Exiles comic) and this is the only Superhero RPG I have that presents the power straight up.

Running
         The ability to move faster without the other effects of super speed. This is merely running speed.

Shape Matter
         The ability to change the shape of inanimate objects rather that the material and nature as Transmutation does.

Slick
         Ever since I read Liberty Project in the mid 80s I have been looking for an RPG to give me a workable version of this power in a simple mechanic. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone even address the concept, and they seem to have gotten it right. Note that the slicked surface does not have to be the ground in this version either.

Slow
         This is the power to slow down a target’s movement and action.

Cosmic Power / Sorcery
         These two powers are constructs of other powers to handle specific common concepts. Each of them is essentially a collection of other powers in the game.

Spinning
         This strange power is the ability to spin like a top. Tasmanian Devil movement if you will, including as an option the ability to tunnel like the tunneling power.

Stun
         Like the Fatigue Power, this works off a specific state in d20 that is not present in SaS and thus lacks an equivalent power. This allows you to put a victim into the stunned condition and hopefully leave them there for some amount of time.

Suffocate
         This power allows you to suffocate a target. It is unclear if the Immunity to Suffocation ability has any affect on this power. Immunities cannot be applied to specific attacks (only to environmental conditions), so it would seem the answer is no. But the wording on this power is such that a rules lawyer might see an argument around that in this case, and people with immunity to suffocation might wonder why this attack could harm them anyway.

Super-Charisma, Super-Dexterity, Super-Wisdom, Super-Intelligence, Super-Constitution
         In SaS only Strength has a super powered version. The rest of stats are considered super merely by how high they are under the normal stat mechanic. As nearly all supers will have all of their three stats way above human norms you have a dynamic where they are superhuman in all of these aspects, which often fails to match many comic books concepts (does Cyclops have super dexterity? If you don’t give it to him in many super hero RPGs, he won’t survive, but most fans of him do not believe the character in the comics actually possesses it).
         By having these powers MnM allows supers to have the same stats as normals except where they are specifically superhuman and yet still remain as viable game characters.

Super-Skill
         This is a super human ability to perform some specific skill. Setting you way above the normal human maximums in that skill.

Telescopic Sense
         This extends your senses out to superhuman ranges. It is partially covered in SaS by Heightened Senses type I, but this power can go much further and yet is not area based like the SaS power.

Time Control
         Few games will attempt to let characters have this ability, even though it appears in comics. This is handled in MnM by letting you apply super speed or slow to yourself or targets. It includes an option for freezing targets in time.

Time Travel
         This is the ability to travel through time, and has an option for making portals. There is some discussion on how Time Travel works and the suggestion that the GM pick a method and lay down the law if someone has this power.

         As I wrote this, the publishers of MnM made an announcement to provide for a scheme letting anyone publish material for their game system:

http://www.greenronin.com/mutants_masterminds/index.php?file=Superlink

The mere presence of that could make this whole discussion a moot point in a few years, if it has anywhere near the impact that d20 has had so far.

         As a counter to this, SaS has this:

http://www.guardiansorder.com/company/press/2002-03-18.html

By which they will license out the ability to produce tri-stat material.

It should also be said that at present there are 3 separate SaS products on the market: A GM’s screen, a character portfolio, and a book of NPCs. A GM screen for MnM has shipped, and a city book is going to press soon.

         I’ve been asked to write a conclusion to all of this. Let me start by saying that it is not my intention to creat hard feelings or start any conflict between these two games. Ideally I'd like to see each publisher address whatever shortcomings come to light in their systems from something like this. I doubt that will happen, but it's what I'd ideally like to see.

        Both of these systems will appeal to a game looking for a fast playing cinematic solution to super heroes. Both are fairly easy to learn and get up to speed on. Both can handle as much if not more of comics than previous super hero RPGs could.

        There are however, significant differences between them. The most striking of these in my opinion comes into play with expanding powers during character design, pushing powers in play, and the interaction between normals and supers. On these three areas MnM has a very strong advantage over SaS. To counter this SaS allows for a lot more breadth of skill choices, a more comic book approach to death and lethality, and the vagueness many enjoy from the freedom of powers like Dynamic Powers.

Make your choice were you will, and if you’re writing product for either of these two games, I hope my observations are useful in helping you improve the game.

That wraps it up

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.