Advancement?

[doc]

One of the difficulties with MA was that it really had no way to advance except with Mental Resistance. There was no way of getting better with weapons, or developing a character in any real way. While the game itself was a lot of fun, that was always what kept us from playing it for long term games.

On the other side, we took the MA mutation rules and made up a really fun, simple superhero game that kept us amused on many rainy afternoons

Doc

[Finarvyn]

That's true -- I don't remember any rules for character advancement, and that can be a major disadvantage for a long-term campaign.

I think what kept our group together was the "newness" of each level; in essence you have a dozen worlds for the players to explore in the starship Warden, plus the opportunity to experiment and see what mutations each charcter had, plus the puzzle of how to get from level to level, plus the interest of dealing with a command center. This seemed to keep our games new throughout and piqued the interest of the players to the point where I don't recall anyone ever complaining about advancement.

[coffee]

Jim Ward was the original Monty Haul DM (as far as I know; he hasn't denied it...)

I think he cut out the advancement so he could give high powered goodies away right from the start.

Actually, it kinda solves two problems at once: How to keep low level characters alive, and how to keep high level characters from slapping you around like a dog's chew toy.


Still, I'm glad they didn't try this with D&D!