Fantasy Gaming via Mutants and Masterminds

[Xeviat]

Okay, after much work, I decided upon a few things.

First, combat options like trips and disarms will utilize 4E-esque simplifications: Trip is Force (new Str skill) vs. Reflex or Fortitude ... yada yada. Opportunity Attacks will probably not be added in unless I find them necessary for "tanks" to perform their role in locking opponents down.

I'll start the game at PL 1, but ... every statistic will have a limit of PL +5. This extra +5 accounts for what ability scores can bring to the playing field.

Characters will gain 30 points to spend on their starting abilities: things that would be considered racial abilities and ability scores. Then, characters will gain 15 points per level.

I will be using my proposed ability score changes, including removing raw Defense (which is combined with Reflex). I'll look into adjusting ability costs on abilities like snare which had an attack roll and then a reflex save, as 4E style attacks are generally "attack vs. X defense", only using secondary defenses for secondary effects.

I looked into having auto-scaling attack and defenses, but I decided against it as it will cause issues with ability scores; I'd either have to limit how high they can get (limit them to 20, limit base abilities to PL, thus everything is limited to PL+5), but that takes away some potential character archetypes (like Heracles).

The last of my concerns is with equipment, and I think I found the solution. Basic equipment will be bought with proficiency feats: so far I feel that the only ones really needed are Weapon Proficiencies and Armor Proficiencies (as every other piece of equipment is mostly a skill tool). How Proficiencies will work is that you buy a proficiency as a feat (like Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons, Light Armor, or Heavy Armor), and that feat allows you to utilize said items without penalty. Simple Weapons and Light Armor are tier 1 feats, while Martial Weapons and Heavy Armor require the lesser as a prerequisite. Since the Equipment feat buys you 5 points for equipment, this means that Simple Weapons and Light Armor would need to be designed to be worth 5 points, and Martial Weapons and Heavy Armor would be worth 10 points.

Magic items, though, will be purchased as devices. A small concession has to be made between the DM and Players with realism: Players will gain a number of points at the end of sessions, and if a player wants to use those points to say he or she found a magic sword, then by all means they can. The points spent could be explained away as "you need to attune yourself with its magic", or some other gibberish. SilvercatMoonpaw was right; most characters within the genre aren't covered with magic items, they tend to be special and rare.

I'm hoping to get some more feedback in the next few weeks as I put an adventure together. Any more feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated. If it works out well, I want to run a PbP game here.