But you don't care about me, so let's get to the point.

Above and Beyond is the latest M&M Superlink product at the time of this writing, by Valent Games. It handles cosmic Mutants and Masterminds characters (those of PL 20 and up, though much of the material is by no means exclusive to those levels) and can be bought at RPGnow.com for $8.50 here.

Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, let me tell you just what M&M Superlink is. It is an initiative from Green Ronin, the trademark holder of the Mutants and Masterminds RPG, that allows third parties to officially publish material compatible with the M&M RPG. This prevents anybody from publishing material under M&M's name that might damage the game's good reputation, while simultaneously allowing people with good ideas to make a couple of bucks for their hard work.

Above and Beyond falls solidly in the latter case.

First Impressions

This "book" only exists in electronic format, as a zip file of approximately 4 MB. You get 2 .pdf files for that, the standard and slightly more eye-pleasing version and another printer-friendly version. They are otherwise identical.

The book is 84 pages long, 78 of which are actual useful material. The rest gets gobbled up by the title page, the Open Gaming License at the end, and other such standard fare. There is an index at the back. I counted very few typos, and none of them were serious enough that would spoil my fun or cause confusion in what the author intended to write.

There is some art, all of it in color. The quality is low if you compare it to the M&M rulebook, but one has to keep in mind that Valent Games is a very small company and Above and Beyond was written as a third-party product. When viewed in that light, the art looks rather good in fact. I opened the file half-expecting to be slapped in the face by pictures that looked like they were done with crayons, but no such slapping took place.

The Lineup

First we encounter the inevitable Introduction. Apart from very concisely lining out what the book is and is not supposed to be, this chapter gives a list of suggested reading material, not all of which is comics by the way. While reading this chapter there was something I immediately noticed: I liked the writing. It managed to grip me right from the get-go and it wasn't dry. Even in the list of suggested reading material there was a fair amount of wit. Off to a good start with A&B.

Next comes Chapter 1. This chapter gets into the lives of the cosmics. What does it mean to have that kind of power? How do you view people? How do people view you?

Like the two chapters that follow, this one is just essays and discussions. Mind you, they're very good essays and discussions. Apart from the usual problems superheroes face (secret identity, power brings responsibility, etc.), cosmics have some other things going on. Like setting yourself up as a god, or solving world hunger in half an hour. Why don't these people do that? And if they would, what are the consequences?

It's a useful and thought provoking chapter about the hard choices a cosmic character is faced with. Then we run into... Chapter 2. You'd almost think there was a pattern of some kind.

Again, lots of essays. Again, very good ones.

This chapter handles running a cosmic powered game and as such is for the GM only I think. It gives some good advice on which game-breaking powers to watch out for and how to manage them.

Telepath PCs are always a GM's nemesis, but what happens when a single application of Mind Control will let one enthrall, say, the continent of Africa? How do you keep a villain's secrets from a character like that? And let's not even get into what Time Travel will do to your campaign, a notorious game-wrecker in every genre there is.

If you're pondering on how to handle players with such powers, this chapter is your new best friend. There is also a list of 101 cosmic adventure ideas at the end, which makes for a nice addition.

The next Chapter's another one for the GM. This time we talk about campaign setting. So you know you want to run a game of cosmic power, now what? Why are the characters so powerful? What kind of things are they supposed to accomplish? Where? By what means? And how realistic is your game?

Then at long long last it's time to dive back into the game mechanics in Chapter 4.

We start out with skills. What is the DC for disguising yourself as a bizarre alien? How hard is to detect somebody by listening for heartbeats? Every skill is listed together with their epically cosmic uses.

Next are Feats. It wouldn't be d20 without new feats, now would it? Most of them can be used by non-cosmic characters. In fact, only a single one can be used by cosmic characters exclusively (20 Punches), while the rest have far lower or even no prerequisites. Most of the feats are useful while not being ludicrously overpowered, like some people might expect from a third-party d20 product.

Then there are new powers, with cosmic people in mind. Characters of much lower level could also take them, by simply buying ranks, but they are designed in such a way that only very high level characters will have the necessary points to buy them up to truly meaningful ranks. Speaking of design, all powers listed include a paragraph that explains how the powers were designed and how the final cost per rank was calculated. A useful and considerate feature.

While most of the new powers are very potent (hey, it's oriented for cosmic people), I'm not sure all of them are to my liking. For instance, Shroud The World In Darkness allows a person to, once per day, cover the planet you're on in darkness. It lasts until you remove it or lose consciousness, such as going to sleep. Now that's a bit of an odd one. While it is of course a result of the way M&M handles its powers, it strikes me as very peculiar if the world goes bright again for eight hours per day. Some effects are better left as plot devices. I'm all for plunging the world into eternal night, but I'd just tell my players that The Atomic Brain is about to launch a nuclear warhead that, if it is detonated in the atmosphere, will cover the planet in the smothering embrace of nuclear winter. That is immensely more satisfying than a scene where Brain-Guy does his mojo and the world goes black... only to return to normal 30 seconds later, when he gets stunned by one of the hero's attacks.

See what I mean? Mind you, this is the exception, not the rule. Other powers are far more appropriate.

This chapter ends with three pages on how to handle a superhero facing hordes of enemies, such as an entire military squadron of some kind. The system is kind of sketchy and denies being a full tactical system. And rightfully so. The system... works, barely. It basically tells you how to create a single unit out of the many individuals and abstractly go from there, but it does mean that every time part of the unit is lost (damage is taken), you'd technically have to re-calculate the stats. It also doesn't factor in the devastating effects of an Area power. A good hit with a regular bolt of lightning will knock out just as many tanks as a hit from an energy blast that blossoms into a 3-mile radius sphere of solar flames. Frankly, this section could do with a bit of tweaking to your own tastes.

In chapter 5 we are introduced to eight cosmic hero NPCs and six cosmic villain NPCs. Included are histories, full stats, most have pictures (in fact all pictures in the book are about these characters), and notes on how to run the heroes as villains, and vice versa.

All of them are fairly original, but may or may not be of any actual use for a campaign of your own, depending on what sort of theme you're going for. They all tend to be fairly vanilla, so if you want to run your campaign with the players being archangels fighting off the forces of darkness in a post-apocalyptic world, you're out of luck. Nothing angelic or demonic in sight. (Ok, Creator looks like a demon. But that doesn't count.)

The final chapter presents us with several locations for use in a cosmic game as well as several ideas for headquarters. From planet to galaxy to dimension, all of them are potentially useful. But again, just as with the NPCs, you might not get any mileage out of them.

The Verdict

Style: Although the book managed to pleasantly surprise me with its art, it is still rather mediocre looking. It doesn't look really bad, no don't get me wrong. It's just that this is a third party product you buy for the content, not the eye candy. The writing's good though. I give it a 3, because the style is simply nothing special (and nothing relevant in this case either, I dare say).

Substance: It's too bad the mass combat system was incomplete and the NPCs or locations will be of limited use, because the book's other shortcomings are really minor and quite easily overlooked. Who really cares a single power might be better as a non-statted plot device? Too bad indeed, because that would've made the book excellent. As it stands it's still very good. Thus I give a 4 for substance.

PS: I know I said that some parts of the book might not be useful, but don't let that put you off. The essays alone are wonderful pieces of help I could recommend to anyone playing a Supers game, and the new feats and powers are really great. It's not as if the pricetag will kill you.