Mastermind - How Much and What is Useful in SC 2.0?

[TheAuldGrump]

I am somewhat tempted by Mastermind, but am wondering how much and what will be good in the current edition.

The Auld Grump

[Psion]

I am somewhat tempted by Mastermind, but am wondering how much and what will be good in the current edition.

I don't have my copy handy (guess I ought to buy the PDF myself... ), but whilst I don't find it quite as portable as agency, there's still useful stuff there. Mechanical bits like the senior prestige classes won't fit, but you might use them for inspiration. Mouthymerc already did a bang-up job converting the NPC classes to SC 2.0 NPCs in the License to Improvise forum.

The biggest thing I still find useful is the threat and villain/foil generation sequences which act as a sort of muse when I need villain ideas; they are basically d20 based tables to the tune of AEG's Toolbox. The one hiccup is that there is a class chart for NPCs that could use updating.

[Agent 333]

(Does a quick runthrough of the book)
Chapter 1: Legion: The first few pages are some good GC advice on how to make minions interesting and memorable while still being faceless hordes. Then there's about 20 pages of rules stuff that's completely overridden by the NPC system in 2.0.

Chapter 2: Leadership: About half the chapter is dedicated to running good foils, henchmen, and masterminds, with some nice tables for motivations and flaws that are some really good inspiration. The second half is mostly mechanical stuff that's been overridden.

Chapter 3: Organization: The mecanical parts of this chapter are spread throughout, though most of them are 'soft' mechainics that can be used as inspiration for some minor tweaks to the Org and/or NPC rules of Spycraft 2.0. The Threat randomizer is particular nifty as it lets you build a whole enemy organization randomly, which can produce some memorable (and some humerous) results.

Chapter 4: Playing a Villain Campaign: Well, if you ever plan on doing what that chapter title says, I suggest you give it a read. If not, then this chapter's pretty worthless. Only about half mechanical.

Overall: I'd say it's still about 40% usefull in a Spycraft 2.0 campaign. Even the mechanical side of things can be used as inspiration. The much looser NPC system of 2.0 is really nice, but can be too broad if you're not careful. Mastermind has some great ideas as to how to focus your NPC building to not be... out there.

[mouthymerc]

Chapter 1: Legion: The first few pages are some good GC advice on how to make minions interesting and memorable while still being faceless hordes. Then there's about 20 pages of rules stuff that's completely overridden by the NPC system in 2.0.

I especially like the Minion Tags for adding personality to your minions.  They are pretty much usable as is.

[Desertpuma]

(Does a quick runthrough of the book)
Chapter 1: Legion: The first few pages are some good GC advice on how to make minions interesting and memorable while still being faceless hordes. Then there's about 20 pages of rules stuff that's completely overridden by the NPC system in 2.0.

Chapter 2: Leadership: About half the chapter is dedicated to running good foils, henchmen, and masterminds, with some nice tables for motivations and flaws that are some really good inspiration. The second half is mostly mechanical stuff that's been overridden.

Chapter 3: Organization: The mecanical parts of this chapter are spread throughout, though most of them are 'soft' mechainics that can be used as inspiration for some minor tweaks to the Org and/or NPC rules of Spycraft 2.0. The Threat randomizer is particular nifty as it lets you build a whole enemy organization randomly, which can produce some memorable (and some humerous) results.

Chapter 4: Playing a Villain Campaign: Well, if you ever plan on doing what that chapter title says, I suggest you give it a read. If not, then this chapter's pretty worthless. Only about half mechanical.

Overall: I'd say it's still about 40% usefull in a Spycraft 2.0 campaign. Even the mechanical side of things can be used as inspiration. The much looser NPC system of 2.0 is really nice, but can be too broad if you're not careful. Mastermind has some great ideas as to how to focus your NPC building to not be... out there.

I have my copies in both softcover and pdf but haven't looked at them in quite some time.... looks like I need to do that...