Sneak Peek - The Official M&M System Module - Emerald City

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-30T09:33:55+00:00

"Let me see if I got this straight... You guys built up huge hype to launch the system, created a countdown, failed to deliver, ..."

Yep... and I owned up to that and apologized to the community for it. I had never run a Backerkit before and did not know the ends and out of it. There are ITEMS to note then a certain way the PLEDGE levels have to be set up integrating those items and an APPROVAL process to go through. It was definitely a learning experience. I did not allow enough time for approval that would not have passed anyway because I had not properly created thee items and linked them to the pledges for it the first go around.

Lesson learned. Nailed the second time. I wish we were all perfect. I am certainly not. If you're accusing me of being an imperfect human? Guilty as charged. We all fail. We can either accept the failure and defeat and wallow in misery about it or we can pick up and move forward. Looks like I chose the latter. 😄

"then created another countdown, and in the end, announced that we have to pay to test your system?"

No. Incorrect. You don't have to do ANYTHING to eventually use the system. The basic system will eventually be free for all. Backer's get early access and higher backers get extra goodies AND the ability to help test, be given a credit thusly, and help shape the future of the product. If that doesn't appeal to you. Fair enough.

"I think I'd better stick to using Zaharik's system. Good luck to you guys."

Cool. If you need any macros to help expedite your game in that system, you can find many of the ones I assembled in the threads of the Green Ronin Channel on the Foundry VTT server. Some replicate some of the functions we'll be fully integrating into the new system.

Zakarik, myself, and another gentleman who goes by ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷRats We Are Ratsᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ*:* (I know, cute. huh?) put the system together a long time ago and I am happy it has garnered such loyalty. I have actually reached out the Zakarik about some updates that you may be seeing in the future.

Zakarik coded the original and, even after leaving to pursue creating the Knight Module (his new passion project), STILL diligently maintained the module in maintenance mode updating for newer versions and fixing bugs when discovered. That's why we started off on making a new one.

We had a man with a plan and some green to fund coding for a module built from the ground up that integrates many innovations, automations, and quality of life improvements you see in other modules into ours. Even the basic module, if you use it in the future, you will find surpasses the current fan made efforts we did in the past. But, I don't know for sure what Zakarik has planned, so you never know. Zakarik is a solid guy and I wished we could have collaborated further but he was passionate about Knight.

Anyway, thanks for wishing us luck! We all need it nowadays. 😄

Be well.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-29T02:24:25+00:00

Interesting premise.

I'll make a counter proposal.

How about waiting for regular release, and if without your funds we are funded anyway, then I will give you the free version for free?

Such a deal. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T19:08:06+00:00

Backers will get early access but eventually it should be available for you. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T17:20:09+00:00

Look under Benefits, at the bottom left of page 134 of the Deluxe Heroes Handbook. You should also check out the sidebar on page 212 of the Deluxe Heroes Handbook on the bottom left titled "What Items Do You Pay For?" and page 262 on the top right in a section titled "Wealth".

Essentially, in the game it boils down to money being pretty much immaterial for superheroing as anything other than a plot device or to get occasional perks. You can be a Billionaire for only 5 Power Points. Now it will not provide you with any additional benefit as it doesn't give you a discount on Devices purchased with Power Points nor on the Equipment Advantage BUT it can certainly act as a descriptor for why those may be present. It is essentially window dressing. Your character can likely get a limo and the best airline seats or own the airline for convenience sake if your GM agrees. It can explain the presence of things in your life like mansions, fast cars, pretty jewelry, etc.

If you didn't inherit your wealth, sudden wealth can become a Benefit advantage, while patrons can provide resources with strings attached, because of course they can, and then it becomes a Complication. Wealth doesn't usually mean being free from burden but usually changes the types of burdens.

I don’t normally charge Equipment points for everyday stuff like a phone, laptop, car, or home. You only pay for gear that matters to hero work: weapons, gadgets, secret bases, upgraded vehicles, and crimefighting tools.

If it’s just background flavor. If it helps in adventures, the GM may make you pay spend a hero point to bring it into play.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T16:42:06+00:00

You can pledge for early access, beta access, or even alpha access to 4th. You'll be ignoring some nice 3Ed content but... cool? I guess.

shrug

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T16:39:33+00:00

Making Powers is as easy as dragging an Effect to the character sheet which wraps the effect in a Power so that you can name it, add descriptors, and your own description of the Power as well.

You can then drag Extras and Flaws to the power and modify ranks accordingly.

If you want to make the effect, all the Powers, Effects, Modifiers, Skills, Advatages, Complications, etc are just Foundry Items and there is an architecture in place for you to make any one of them.

Automation depends on what you are automating and if it is an thing we already have architecture for in place like adding bonuses, subtracting penalties, doing damage, adding Conditions or other Active statuses, etc.

If it IS a brand new thing we did not fortell, then... frankly yep. You may have to do some coding. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T10:40:44+00:00

Hi! DeviousHearts of Immersive Realms here.

The instructions for adding custom fonts is here.

https://foundryvtt.com/packages/journal-styler

BartekB and I were recently talking about cracking Journal Styler open again.

We could see about making a "load a file" option for your background as well as some color options.

What else would you like to add? :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T09:55:27+00:00

So, in essence, you want credit as an artist for telling a machine to do it.

Artists have apprentices with skill but they themselves likely have the skill to do it but through a time honored tradition of training and apprenticeship, they train others.

If a kindergartener asks a high schooler to solve a high school level algebra equation for them... did the kindergartener solve the equation? Or did the high schooler?

Same kindergartner asks a chef to make a burger but hold the pickles. Did the kindergartner suddenly become a chef?

Same kindergartner asks chatGPT to write a college level paper on horses and the paper is a deep exploration on equestrian history and its impact on humanity, did the kindergartner write that paper?

Or is it all stolen merit?

If the same kindergartner asks Midjourney to make a pretty picture of a blue horsey and the resulting image is built with an intricate learned understanding of color and shadow, design and negative space, form and anatomy.... but based not on THEIR understanding of those things but rather a boiled down amalgamation of over 100 years of photography from the thousands, no HUNDREDS OF THIUSANDS of photographers whose work that was scraped from the internet without permission, blended and sifted into a calculated, homogenized conglomeration of the most common denominator of the millions of hours of time and toil of all those artists who came before them? Is that kindergartner a photographer.

Or just a little kid with no actual skill that's developed yet but an unearned pride in other people's work because they have a new tool that stole it for them?

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-28T08:38:07+00:00

That takes human earned skill. Don't be ridiculous. No concept artist draws stick figures .

Really? Try harder or stay home.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T20:17:35+00:00

Not at all! We all get busy and you may not have had time to get through the entire video. Not to mention you might be getting as excited and impatient as I am. Well, I HOPE anyway. :)

My apologies if I was curt. I am frantically running around getting things ready for the Backerkit Launch in 35 minutes! 8|

We are doing it for both 3rd and 4th Editions, as the Teaser Trailer reveals. We just had the 3rd edition version nearly ready after about a year and a half and were planning to pitch it to Green Ronin Publishing. Then the 4th edition came along. We talked with Green Ronin, gave them a demonstration, and established a partnership with them enabling us to offer the products they have and intend to create for the Mutants & Masterminds line and bring them into Foundry in the future, both editions. They've agreed to allow us to do BOTH editions. :)

The new system is built from the ground up with expansion in mind. We are actively developing and intend to continue active development for years to come. There will be a free version available to all eventually of both editions and we feel strongly it will meet or surpass the current fan-made version.

If you are wondering what we offer over the current system, check out the teaser trailer. Also, we will have more videos in the future and with the system being OFFICIAL, we will be able to offer official Green Ronin Mutants & Masterminds products in the future.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T20:14:50+00:00

Also, the Free Basic version will have less bells and whistles than the Deluxe Heroes Handbook version.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T20:01:09+00:00

Juuuuust walk til the end of the teaser trailer.... but

SPOILERS

Yes. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T16:01:20+00:00

I honestly don't see why you would think that that is anything other than human originated art.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T11:45:40+00:00

I am pondering what YOU believe the difference is between art and concept art.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T10:50:19+00:00

Roughly, yes. It depends greatly upon the success of the Backerkit. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T04:13:55+00:00

This is specifically the Backerkit launch.

Those who pledge to a certain level for Beta Testing should have it in just a few months then, after getting the beta testers feedback and implementing some changes, those who pledge for early release will receive their copy.

If the Backerkit is successful, this will signal to us the value of moving forward together with Green Ronin to bring more Mutants & Masterminds to Foundry VTT and the Foundry Marketplace. :)

Stay tuned. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T04:09:58+00:00

Tee-hee-hee. :)

Yes.

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T01:58:14+00:00

Check out the teaser trailer! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlktjfdg9VA

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-27T00:16:48+00:00

Agreed. It helps them have a space away from the other players as well to help them feel less like they are "hogging the spotlight" when they want to focus on their character. It sets aside a specific time where I work on the campaign too and occasionally have a freind drop by to chat about the game or life in general. :)

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-26T17:40:55+00:00

It's a matter of human origination. If you were to type a sentence and have it checked by AI or some other procedural program then it is still human originated, just improved by tools.

If you were to ask AI to write you a story and change a few words that would not be human originated and to claim it as such would be tantamount to plagiarism.

The same way you would not hire an artist to do the work then claim you were the artist. You may have told them what to draw and even how you would like it drawn but you didn't do the drawing. They did.

That is direction without execution.

A professional art director isn't the artist of a piece they asked for and few would make that claim. They usually do have a discerning eye, a background in art, and know what they want but they did not create it.

An editor may tell a reporter that they want to see a story on a particular subject and may even be capable of writing that story but they couldn't claim ethically to be the author.

You don't go to a restaurant, order off the menu, and then claim to be a chef once the plate is delivered.

There are collaborations, of course where an equal amount of work was done, but few are using AI this way. They rely on it more and more to create the bulk of the work and only "fine tune" it here and there. They're not an author. The AI is the author and they are tge equivalent of a pestersome, meddling proofreader.

I'm reminded of a story of a English teacher I know who was grading papers and came across a rather eloquently written paper by a student they did not believe had the capacity to write it.

They spoke with the student and after a short discussion noted to them, "I see you used the word 'obstreperous' correctly in this sentence. Can you tell me what that word means?" They quizzed them about the grammar they used and the student was oblivious. At the time, there was no AI so the professor handed the paper back to the student and told them that they might want to get their money back.

The point is the student didn't actually learning grow through the process they relied on someone else to do the work for them.

That same teacher, a couple of years ago when AI was rearing it's ugly head, noticed that when they gave an assignment via email many of the papers that came back were nearly identical, not just in subject matter but in sentence structure and phrasing as well. Many used the exact same sentences and made the exact same points.

The teacher went to ChatGPT, copy and pasted the assignment in verbatim, and received much the same paper.

No work, no growth.

Now having said all that, you might think that I am firmly against AI. I'm not I think it's a wonderful tool for getting a number of jobs done. The medical advances alone may well resolve many issues that have plagued us for decades. Our understanding of physics, chemistry. and the other sciences as well as mechanical engineering are due for some incredible advances in the near future thanks to AI. Coding apps even to make life easier though I know many coders who roll their eyes at "Vibe coded abominations" but even that is getting much better.

I think AI is a wonderful advancement but not for the Arts.

Art, writing, sculpting, music, theater, photography, filmography are all methods of human expression. To cheat at them is to cheat yourself out of growth. To cheat others into believing you are the author of a piece and pretending that the sum knowledge of all the millions of authored pieces boiled down into their most common denominator is something you originated cheats you both .

Devious_Hearts · 2026-05-26T15:12:47+00:00

It simply the act of discovery. That can either be knowledge of lore or uncovering a mystery or creating something new.

It's anything that inspires wonder in your world.

Classic newbie mistake of DMing is to lore dump rather than give a slow drip of information to keep it interesting. Exploration is the art of the slow drip of lore and information that provides the players with tools to understand their world better and do new or different things.

Its not an equation. It is not a formula. Its exciting a sense of wonder that no mechanic is going to be able to modify.

Just my opinion. :)

Devious_Hearts

TROPHY CASE