The Wall

Sometimes, even the nicest things can throw up unexpected problems.

I have been recruited to play in a Mutants and Masterminds campaign. This makes me all sorts of happy. Firstly, because I get to play, secondly because it's M&M and thirdly because of the new experience side of it. It's has the potential to be quite an eye-opener after playing within the same group for umpteen years.

I have had the basic influences of the campaign explained to me by the GM, Ben. It's going to be a campaign similar to The Ultimates and The Authority, whilst not having the same power level of the latter. I'm imagining a rather Morrison-/Millar-esque tone to the entire thing. This is exactly what I wanted. Giddy, I am...giddy!

So, I now have the chance to create a character. As always, I create the stated up character alongside the more fluffy side of the character because I have always found that I gain some degree of synergy from the process. I have my spanking new copy of M&M2 (which is very nice) and I am indeed, ready to rumble.

Or am I?

I suddenly realised that this is it. On balance of probability this is the only character I am going to be able to play for a fair while. Being 'The Iron GM' is a wonderful thing, but as playing comes few and far between, you want to get it right. When we dabbled with Exalted, I got it all sorts of wrong. My idiot brawling giant was a great concept and a cracking character but the limitations that he had made him a very awkward vessel to explore the setting with. Total play time, maybe two sessions. I had an Arab teacher (Bard....) in a nice medieval D20 D&D game - that was much better but he was still a very cunning niche character that played great in his particular arena, but not magnificently elsewhere. Total play time, two sessions. I also had a warrior (of barbaric origins) in our rotating DM game of D20 D&D. That was much better in that he was a very basic character which roamed around within the setting. Total play time, four sessions I believe.

Hey, throw in two sessions of the infamous Shadowrun game and I've had 10 weeks playing in five years. What am I complaining about?!

So the mission is to make a relatively generic character who isn't designed into a corner. Something that can run with the campaign.

At this point I thought, hey - why not access your encyclopedic knowledge of the comic genre and see what you can come up with?

Guess what I came up against? THE WALL

Too much knowledge is a bad thing folks. Every power in the book is a 'oh, I could do that with this and then...oh no, what about this. Oh and that!'

Maybe it's not a wall. Maybe I'm a kid locked in a sweetshop desperately trying to find the key and the great sweets without stumbling outside grasping onto a bag of parma violets.

More later. This isn't as easy as I thought.

Neil