This whole series provided a while plethora of useful character types well before Instant Superheroes, for ready-to-roll heroes or on-the-spot villains, or even providing a springboard for a player's own character.

Good PDF

Love the Ideas of Archetypes

Purchased this before they came out with the large group of Archetypes but a good book <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The Art and the characters<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I now have it twice since I purchachsed the archive <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Very useful in getting a group started gave examples of how characters add up<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Very nice - a great expansion on the archetypes appearing in the MnM rule book, at a great price. Very handy for new players and GMs, too. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: More archetypes, well-contructed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Can't complain at this price. Maybe a little overlap with the existing archetypes in the MnM rulebook. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Absolutely excellent. A must have for any Mutants and Masterminds game.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Mutants & Masterminds: Archetype Archive 1 is exactly what it says it is, a collection of ten new archetypes. Archetypes (in the M&M sense) are packages of statistics, skills and powers to simulate various ?standard? sorts of characters from the superheroic genre (or comic books if you prefer).

This Archetype Archive includes a preview of the Probability Control power to be included in the upcoming Mastermind?s Manual. Which is a welcome addition to the tools available to those who control or manipulate fate and luck and uses a very clever mechanic to do so.

The Ten Archetypes included are all useful additions to the character pool. Including: the Android, ?better than human.? Bulk, for those who want to suck up damage as the immovable object (or unstoppable force). The Fortunate Hero, provided to showcase that new probability control power. Mystic Warrior, take up the weapon of a god and smite evil. Super Solder, ?I am Captain L.A., stop in the name of the Law, criminal!? And, for those who like Bruce Wayne or Ted Kord, there is the Wealthy Thrillseeker, buy your way to adventure.

They are all well built for their style of character. However, it would have been more useful if each had come with a couple of paragraphs (and a name) for each a hero and villain version so they could immediately be dropped into an ongoing campaign.

Overall, a useful addition to a M&M player?s or GM?s set of character resources. Though, it will be more used by Games Masters in most campaigns.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Ten classic character ideas, fully statted for M&M!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is good set of characters for players to choose from. It definitely gives players a choice or it jump starts their creative juices. The art is pretty good too.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The art. The amount of character choices.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Good solid product, the artwork was good and the archetypes are good too.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Artwork and good archetypes. The layout is really good too.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Can't think of anything.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

BOO YAA!!!!!

This is fantastic.... a set of archtypes that are ready to use and are really well thought out.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

BOO YAA!!!!!

This is fantastic.... a set of archtypes that are ready to use and are really well thought out.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The Archetype Archive is a good little collection of easy to use basic characters. They are neatly fit on one page for easy print out and use.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

If all you are expecting is a few more Archetypes in the exact same format as the MnM2 book then this is a good product. The art is good and the layout is exactly as it is in the book. 1 page per archtype complete with picture. I was just expecting more. The archtype descriptions were rather short with some being just a one sentance description of the name. There was no discussion of PL levels above or below 10 or possilbe variations on a theme. A couple of the archetypes had close to a third of the page in whitespace. I also find it anoying when the cover page, table of context, and OGL are counted in the page count. If 20% of the pages aren't really usable material I would like to know up front, especially if it has a high page cost.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Art and Layout<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lack of depth of Archtypes<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Archetype Archive 1 is a 14-page supplement for Mutants & Masterminds. It has a full color cover and interior. It is bookmarked and is designed for the Second Edition of the game. Layout is up to Green Ronin?s usual high standards and the art is good. Each archetype is accompanied by an illustration of the character it represents. The only illustration that I really didn?t like was the Wealthy Thrillseeker. Is that really supposed to be a drawing of a hoverboard?

Archetypes in Mutants & Masterminds are complete characters that a player or gamemaster can use with no further preparation. Of course, they can also be tweaked and customized as desired. You get ten new archetypes in Archive 1 to complement the thirteen in the core book. Each archetype is full statted out and includes a short descriptive paragraph. Point totals are broken down at the bottom of the page to facilitate tweaking.

One of the archetypes, the Fortunate Hero, also has a new power ? Probability Control. I thought this was neat because it is built around the concept of directly affecting a mechanic of the game system, namely die rolls. Probability Control allows a character to affect his (or another character?s with the appropriate extra) ?luck? by ensuring that the result of a particular die roll in a round will be no less than his rank in the power. With an extra, a character with this power can also ?jinx? another character by reducing one of their die rolls to one. I am sure that some clever player will do his best to wreck game balance with this power, but it still looks pretty cool.

It?s hard to do any real in-depth review of a product like this. Either you want and/or need some additional archetypes for your game or you don?t. The archetypes are all fairly ?generic?, but they are well thought out and encompass some common archetypes found in comics. The new power is just icing on the cake. If you need some new heroes or villains for your M&M campaign, then look no further. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It has more iconic archetypes. the new power, Probability Control, is interesting.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the art is good, but not great. More advice on tweaking the archetypes would have been nice.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Ten character archetypes, distinct from those in the M&M corebook, yet still iconic in their own way. Each has their own full page charsheet & illustration, which leaves me wanting to see the original archetypes produced in the same format instead of two to a page.

The artwork varies from good to excellent.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Good clean layout, iconic archetypes usable across a range of campaign styles (from Golden to Iron Age) Good value for money.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The fact that as someone still wedded to 1st Edition, I'm only going to get limited use out of this!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I was a bit skeptical about getting this PDF. Don?t get me wrong, I like digital books, but a collection of archetypes for Mutants and Masterminds? Seems like I may have seen this one before. The main attraction to getting this, at least for me, was that it was produced under Green Ronin?s banner, which of course screams ?official?. So I snagged it and figured, if worse came to worse, I could use it as an example of character creation for my players. I officially take back any skepticism I may have had. Not only do we have a diversified bunch of characters here, but we also get some superior design (in full color), hyperlinks, bookmarks and a preview power! Excellent deal for under five dollars.
The preview power, Probability Manipulation, is a great power build. Easily one can see this power being used by characters modeled after Longshot, Scarlet Witch or Roulette. Without giving too much away, it reminds me of the way Probability Control worked in the Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game (which utilized the Saga system and a deck of Fate Cards) or the Luck power in the old MEGs DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes role-playing game.
There are ten archetypes listed in the PDF. Included are the Android, Bulk, Fortunate Hero, Illusionist, Mystic Warrior, Psychic, Star Child, Super Soldier, Weather Controller, Wealthy Thrillseeker. Each is a finished character, much like the archetypes found in the Mutants & Masterminds, 2nd Edition rule book, and contains art specific to the type of hero they are. In some ways, I would almost say that the choices may have been risky ones, as some of the archetypes could be encompassed by others, but, in retrospect, I believe that the choices worked for the product. Many of the characters used could easily be a comic book superhero, as well as fitting some heroes almost to a tee (i.e.: Weather Control could be Storm, Illusionist could be Mastermind, etc.). Overall, the list is very interesting and easily useable as starting characters for any superhero campaign.
My only gripe with this PDF is that there could?ve been a bit more information provided. Things like customization and personalization are something left to the user, which, while it may not be that hard to do, would be nice if some options were listed. Otherwise the e-book looks very nice and is quite a good resource. I only wish that other Superlink books upheld such a quality when producing their e-books. Kudos to Green Ronin and Ronin Arts. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>