School’s Haunted! Expanding Bite Club for your Halloween campaign!

Bite Club a Halloween Astonishing Adventure!

 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween! And once again, we here in the Mutants & Masterminds office are offering a thematically appropriate adventure for the holiday season! Following on the tail of Monster Mash-Up, we offer the newest Astonishing Adventure: Bite Club! Unlike previous Halloween adventures, this installment is specifically a hero high caper, intended for PL 8 heroes who attend the prestigious superhero school known as the Claremont Academy!

Over the course of Bite Club, the heroes discover a coven of vampires threatening their school, but who are they and why threaten a school full of super-powered kids? Bite Club takes place over just a few days and focuses on the growing drama and lurking threat posed by children of the night. But if you want to expand Bite Club for free, you can cannibalize our previous adventures to flesh out the perfect adventure for the spooky season.

Using Monster Mash-Up

You can use Monster Mash-Up as written as an opening scene for Bite Club. Several Claremont students attend the Laugh at the Dead show, including the heroes and the supporting cast. The hallway confrontations from Scene 1 of Bite Club can either happen before the show begins or take place in the stress and chaos after the heroes battle Scream Queen and Madame Macabre.

Using Nothing to Fear

Nothing to Fear ends up being a more useful collection of scenes to supplement Bite Club than an adventure you can drop into the middle.

Fearmaster makes a useful tool for the adventure’s mastermind, who sics him on the school once anyone begins investigating the vampire attacks. The emotion-manipulating supervillain plants his gas dispensers across the campus to cause widespread chaos. The mastermind hopes the young heroes will assume the vampire attacks were yet another fear-induced hallucination, and it also allows him to study the young heroes’ emotional reactions.

Doc Holiday may be a young student at the academy or serving as an intern, only to have his magical powers triggered by Fearmaster’s gas. But he might instead appear later, emerging on Halloween to try and usurp the growing vampire clan to serve him, using their stolen bio-energy to fuel his empowered state rather than the fear and panic of the parade crowd.

However you choose to run Bite Club, have fun and enjoy your Halloween!

Bite Club – When High School Really Sucks

Astonishing Adventures: Bite ClubAstonishing Adventures: Bite Club, is available now!

High school – so many of us couldn’t wait to escape it, and yet, it’s one of the most popular settings for superhero adventures. Perhaps because the alienation and angst felt by a lot of teenagers matches up so well with the secret identities and soap-opera melodrama of comic books, or because the teens who were “art nerds” and “theater kids” in high school later go into creating comic books…and, ahem, roleplaying games.

Whatever the case, maybe the only thing better than the genre blend of high school and heroes is to add a dark touch of horror to the mix! Bite Club, the newest release for the Astonishing Adventures series, does just that, offering a perfect Mutants & Masterminds adventure for your Halloween happenings! The adventure is designed for a group of teen heroes attending the Claremont Academy, a secret school for the super-powered in Freedom City, but you can run Bite Club with other types of heroes as well, perhaps visitors to the campus, concerned mentors, or guest-teachers.

If you don’t have a regular Hero High game featuring teen heroes, it also makes for a fun change-of-pace adventure for your Halloween holiday: Have your players put together a group of power level 8 heroes, or grab the Next-Gen characters from the Hero High sourcebook, and they can play a session where they see the challenges faced by the teen set, where the stakes aren’t as high as saving the world, but may involve mending a broken heart or two—and speaking of stakes and hearts, we don’t want to give away too much about the adventure itself, but you can probably guess…

Bite Club is available in the Green Ronin Online Store, and on DrivethruRPG!

Aldean Arcana in the Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide

While The Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide makes use of the core Fifth Edition spells and spellcasting classes, it does make a few adjustments to reflect the nature of magic and the Arcane on Aldea.

Blue Rose Adventurer's GuideAldea is a highly magical world, where adepts not only wield considerable power, but have transformed the world through its application, making life better and easier for people. Unfortunately, that same power has been misused by the corrupt, nearly destroying the world as well.

Adepts

Aldeans commonly use the term “adept” to refer to those awakened souls able to use magic, although technically the term is for those who have mastered such abilities; in the Old Kingdom, adept was a title similar to “master” in a craft, the achievement after apprenticeship as a student and graduation to independent practice. Now, among the uninitiated, the term is often confused for those who simply possess arcane talent, even if they lack training and skill. “Adept” often refers to anyone able to cast spells.

Arcane Limits

Aldea’s plane is particularly isolated from other planes of existence, so much so that the shadow-gates were the only known means of breaching the barriers between planes. Thus magic and spells reliant on contacting other planes or summoning creatures from them either work differently or do not work at all on Aldea without the use of a shadow-gate. The following spells are non-functional on Aldea without the use of a shadow-gate: conjure celestial, contact other plane, gate, planar ally, plane shift, teleport, and teleportation circle.

The Occult

Arcane Adept

Art by Aaron Riley

Aldean philosophers and scholars theorize that arcane power ultimately flows from the soul, and that the Souls of the Eternal Dance all possess at least the potential power wielded by the gods themselves, who created and shaped the world from the Sea of Possibility. Of course, those selfsame souls are now embodied and have forgotten much of their divine nature, but a spark of that still remains within every soul, and some find and draw upon it to wield magic in the world.

Also like the god Anwaren, the souls of the Dance are vulnerable to the lure and temptation of Shadow, particularly when wielding the power to influence and transform. When the arcane arts are used to usurp the sovereignty of another soul, there is resistance, a backlash from that soul’s divine nature. In essence, when the arcane is used to alter another person’s body, mind, or soul without their consent, it can corrupt the soul of the adept. Aldeans refer to magic that does these things as occult, for such things are obscured by Shadow.

The following spells are considered occult when cast on an unwilling person: antipathy/sympathy, calm emotions, command, compulsion, confusion, detect thoughts, dominate person, enlarge/reduce, enthrall, eyebite, fear, feeblemind, geas, hideous laughter, hypnotic pattern, imprisonment, irresistible dance, magic jar, modify memory, phantasmal killer, polymorph, suggestion, symbol, true polymorph, vampiric touch, and weird.

Note that a few of these spells are not considered occult if they are used on a willing subject, such as calm emotions, modify memory, or polymorph, for examples. Others are always occult, because they cannot have a willing subject by definition. Likewise, many of these spells are not considered occult if they are used on creatures other than people: dominate monster, for example, is not occult.

Also spells that summon fiends or undead creatures, or that create undead creatures, are occult by definition including animate dead and create undead, and planar ally and gate (involving fiends).

Arcane Items

Old Aldis created many arcane wonders long ago, and the Shadow Lords who followed it often used their powers to create terrible and powerful items, some of them cursed. Some of these objects from both eras of Aldean history still exist, although the secrets of their making have been lost. The Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide describes more than three dozen unique magic items found on Aldea, including seven artifacts.

Amusement Park for Danger Zones – Available Now!

Danger Zone Amusement ParkAs previously mentioned on the Mutants & Masterminds Monday Livestream. This week we are proud to release the Amusement Park for our ongoing Danger Zones series for Third Edition!

Atop a rushing subway car, trapped in a raging apartment fire, crushed beneath the animated oaks of a possessed parkland, superheroes face as much danger from the world around them as they do from their most nefarious villains.

“Buckle up, gentlebeings! This ride’s about to get bumpy!

The smell of cotton candy and screams of delight can’t keep evil at bay, and the hall of horrors makes a delightful hunting ground for things that feed on fear. Welcome to Danger Zones: Amusement Park, home of the wildest rides, the biggest shows, and the greatest thrills on Earth!

Danger Zones helps you bring your world alive by describing 30 different urban backdrops for superheroic action, from the classic warehouse to the neighborhood coffee shop to the hospital they’ll need to recover when the adventure is done. Every location includes a map, as well as useful information on how to use that setting’s unique features in a cunning plot or superhero slugfest.

To help populate your urban jungle, Danger Zones also provides a catalog of colorful characters, ready to come alive in your Mutants & Masterminds, Third Edition campaign!

Danger Zones: Amusement Park is available for purchase now in the Green Ronin Online Store, and on DrivethruRPG.

Check out the previous Danger Zones Here!

You can also find all of the earlier Danger Zones settings on DrivethruRPG!

Aldean Classes – Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide

Last week we took a look at Ancestries in Aldea, so this week we thought we’d focus on Aldean Classes. All of the core 5e classes exist in the world of Aldea, and The Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide looks at each, how they fit into the various nations and lands, and offer new class-feature options unique to Aldea and the Western Lands:

Blue Rose Adventurer's Guide for 5e: Pre-Order Today!


Barbarians – The Path of the Wasteland: Fit for surviving in the most Shadow-tainted wastelands and desolate places, these barbarians literally live off their own fury and determination and possess tremendous survival instincts.

Aldean Fighter ClassBards – The College of the Roads: Also known as the College of Fate, these bards learn the secrets of the Roamers, including how to perceive and tug at the weave of fate and to perform the sacred Sel-Shanna, the Moon Dance.

Clerics – The Radiant Domain: More than just mundane light, clerics of radiance are devoted to the Light, the essence and wellspring of creation, which opposes the power of Shadow. Any of the Gods of Light can claim this domain, along with clerics of the Eternal Dance itself. Clerics of radiance are found in all of the lands of Aldea, but particularly Aldis and Jarzon, although they often differ in their views of how best to shed their light to banish Shadow.

Druids – The Circle of the Clans: The most common druids on Aldea, by far, are the Circle of the Clans, who serve the clans of Rezea. They are commonly known as witches, or the wise-ones, adept keepers of lore, wisdom, and power. They gather on the plains at night under the stars and the light of the moon to work their magic.

Fighters – The Peacekeeper: It is said “let those who desire peace prepare for war” and those who emulate the Peacekeeper do just that. They are prepared, able, and willing to fight, if they must, for a cause they believe in, but a Peacekeeper’s goal is to prevent fights, when and where possible, and to end them as quickly, and with as little harm, as they can.

Monks – The Way of the Spirit Dance: A reflection of the Eternal Dance within the material world, the tradition of the Spirit Dance is thought to be one of the oldest spiritual practices in Aldea, passed down from master to student since time immemorial, and granting those who learn and master its rhythms and steps great spiritual and magical insight.

Paladins – The Oath of the Rose: Rose Knights are sworn to the cause of Aldis and the Blue Rose, to be the champions of the Sovereignty. The power of oaths and dedication is palpable to an awakened soul, and paladins are found among all of the cultures of Aldea. They include the Knights of Purity in Jarzon and the dreaded Knights of the Skull in Kern.

Rangers – The Shadow Hunter: Some rangers following the Hunter archetype on Aldea stalk the forces of Shadow itself. These Shadow Hunters gain access to additional traits concerning their particular foes.

Rogues – The Rebel: The rebel is an infiltrator and an inciter of change, sometimes through stealth, cunning, and persuasion, other times through violence. They may be a lone figure, inspiringAldean Wizard Class people to take action, the leader of a cell or network, or even hidden within the very power structure they seek to overthrow.

Sorcerers – Primal Sorcery: There are sorcerers who wield the primal magic of the elements, forged by the gods at the dawn of the world. These sorcerers often hail from particularly ancient families, although bloodlines and inheritance are often obscured by the chaos of the Shadow Wars and all that followed.

Warlocks – The Autumn King and the Winter Queen: Although it is said that all souls of the Eternal Dance have the potential for the arcane arts, the truth is that not all souls awaken to that potential in each life, and most will not do so in this life. Still there are some who hunger and thirst for arcana and seek some means to slake it. Warlocks on Aldea turn to two additional particular patrons for their arcane arts: the Primordials, particularly those of Autumn and Winter, of earth and air, and of madness and the Moon.

Wizards – The School of Psyche: The School of the Psyche explores the true source of magic on Aldea: the awakened souls of the Eternal Dance, and the vast Sea of Possibility, the pure power of the mind and soul working in concert. Some psychic wizards refer to their work as the “grand unity of the arts,” seeking a deeper understanding of all arcana through this lens.

On the Threshold of Apocalypse: Five and Infinity Chapter 5 Available NOW!

On the Threshold of ApocalypseThe Epic Finale of the Five and Infinity Adventure Series

Earth is slain; the ruins of London have fallen on Blattarum, the plane of lost and broken things. This is the work of the Nexus, a servant of uttermost darkness, whose obsessions guided the hands of countless selves scattered across as many alternate worlds. Yet heroes may find hope in the wreckage of Earth: precious life they unknowingly created, and perhaps even a chance to undo the end of the world. But what they’ve gained, and what they might regain, may belong to incompatible destinies….

After Armageddon Lies Hope

Written by Meghan Fitzgerald, On the Threshold of Apocalypse is the finale of the Five and Infinity adventure series, challenging Modern AGE characters levels 13 to 16. It’s part of the Threefold setting, so for full use of the adventure, the Modern AGE Basic Rulebook and Threefold campaign book are required.

This adventure can stand alone, but it’s also the fifth part of Five and Infinity adventure series, which takes your Modern AGE Threefold characters from levels 1 to 16.

Undo the End

Get Five and Infinity Chapter 5: On the Threshold of Apocalypse at the Green Ronin Online Store or DriveThruRPG 

Collect All Five and Infinity Installments

 

Aldean Ancestries in the Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide

The Blue RoseBlue Rose Adventurer's Guide for 5th edition Adventurer’s Guide talks, not about “race” but ancestry, as the Aldeans consider “personhood” a matter of the mind and soul, the souls of the Eternal Dance, given physical form by the gods to save them from being lost to the hunger of the Exarchs of Shadow. Ancestry is a matter of the physical form a particular soul is reborn into from the Wheel of Rebirth. The various ancestries of Aldea—human, night person, sea-folk, vata, and rhydan—are described in “Welcome to Aldea: A Blue Rose Primer.” Here we look at what ancestry means in 5e game terms:

Abilities

Ancestries in Blue Rose do not apply ability score adjustments. Instead, all characters receive a +2 bonus to one ability, and a +1 bonus to another, both of the player’s choice. Likewise, ancestry doesn’t determine the languages a character knows or speaks, and there are no “racial languages,” that’s a function of the culture the character was raised in. Of course, some people in Aldea are telepathic, so language is often not a concern.

Traits

Ancestries in Blue Rose

art by Aaron Riley

Ancestries do have their own particular traits, whether the adaptability and innate talents of humans, the darkvision and relentless endurance of the night people, the amphibious nature of the sea-folk, or the arcane talents and rapid recovery of the vata. Rhydan in particular have their own traits, given their animal forms, their innate psychic abilities, and their ability to rhy-bond with a particular companion. The Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide gives full traits for rhy-cats, rhy-fen (dolphins), horses, and wolves, but also guidelines to create rhydan traits for any beast with a Challenge Rating of 1/4 or less.

Cultures

The various Western Lands of Aldea described in “Welcome to Aldea: A Blue Rose Primer” have their own cultures and languages, and it is these that influence the backgrounds of different characters. Humans are by far the majority ancestry, with other peoples fitting in and around human communities, but humans and vata in the Theocracy of Jarzon, for example, have more in common with each other than they have with their human and vata kin from the Plains of Rezea on the far side of Aldis, for example.

Backgrounds

Aldean characters choose a background like any other character, and the Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide provides local interpretations of various classic backgrounds within Aldean cultures, along with new options, like Reawakened, Refugee, and Shadow-Scarred, and all of their associated traits.