Mutants & Masterminds vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare Mutants & Masterminds and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mutants & Masterminds | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern, Superhero | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Superpowers, Heroic, Crunchy, Character Building, Tactical, Cinematic | Social Intrigue, Faction Play, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Drama, Character-Driven, Resource Management, Superpowers, Social Combat, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 + modifier against a Difficulty Class. Heroes are built from a Power Points budget capped by a series Power Level (usually 10), which limits paired trait totals (attack bonus + effect rank, dodge + toughness) to twice the level. Damage is resisted with Toughness checks that escalate conditions (bruised, staggered, incapacitated) instead of tracking hit points. Hero Points let players reroll, edit scenes, or recover from conditions; complications coming into play earn them back. | Roll attribute plus skill in d10s, counting 6+ as successes against a difficulty. Paired 10s add extra successes. Hunger replaces ordinary dice in most pools: a winning critical containing a Hunger 10 becomes messy, while a failed test containing a Hunger 1 becomes a bestial failure. |
| Dice | d20 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | OGL | Community Content Agreement for the Storytellers Vault |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Green Ronin Publishing | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2013 | 2018 |
| Languages | English, Italian | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese |
| Best For | Groups who want unlimited freedom to design any superhero concept (from masked vigilante to cosmic powerhouse) with a flexible point-buy build system and tactical combat that emphasizes power-level balance. | Groups who want campaigns about vampire coteries balancing political ambition, predatory hunger, and relationships with the humans they still care about. |
| Highlights | Modular power-construction system builds any superpower from effects, modifiers, and flaws; Power Level caps enforce balance even when individual traits vary widely; Hero Points reward roleplaying complications with mechanical benefits; conditions track damage progression instead of using a hit point pool | Using supernatural powers can increase Hunger, making the next hunt harder to postpone. Convictions and human Touchstones make moral compromise carry consequences beyond winning the immediate conflict. Coteries share hunting territories and social assets, giving political ambitions a foothold in the city. |
| Considerations | Character creation requires significant rules mastery to navigate the point-buy power construction; resolving an attack involves multiple checks per action: attack roll, Toughness resistance, condition tracking; Power Level caps can frustrate players who want to push paired-trait limits like attack and effect rank | Messy criticals and bestial failures can put predation or compulsions into scenes where players hoped to stay in control. Character creation requires choices across clans, powers, feeding habits, advantages, and human ties. Establishing the chronicle’s relationships and boundaries for mature themes takes group preparation even when using a published city. |