Welcome to Freedom City

Freedom City is a setting for superhero adventures using the Mutants & Masterminds superhero roleplaying game, although it's suitable for use with any superhero RPG. Freedom City is a fictional metropolis somewhere on the east coast of the United States of America. In the tradition of the great fictional comic book cities, the exact location of Freedom City is left somewhat vague in the sourcebook, allowing Gamemasters to place it anywhere they like in their own world.

The primary goal of the book is to provide a resource for players and Gamemasters. Players can use Freedom City as a source of character ideas, background elements, subplots, complications, non-player characters (particularly supporting characters), and enemies for their heroes. They can also use the characters in the book as examples when creating their own heroes.

Gamemasters can use Freedom City as a ready-to-run setting for a Mutants & Masterminds series, or take elements of the city and transplant them to a new location or a different setting. The book is full of people ranging from social workers and media personalities to Mob bosses and mayors, all ready to be dropped into a setting or adventure.

Freedom City provides numerous locations, which can be used as part of the city or incorporated into another city in the GM's campaign. There are businesses, government offices, hotels, casinos, hospitals, restaurants, tourist attractions, and numerous other places Gamemasters can borrow for use in their own games.

Finally, Freedom City has dozens of characters: heroes, villains, and some in between. There are also superhero teams, solo villains and villain teams, criminal organizations, and a government super-agency, all ready for use in any Mutants & Masterminds game.

Basic Premises

Throughout the Freedom City book, certain assumptions are made about the World of Freedom and how it works. Gamemasters should feel free to tinker with these basic premises as desired, but should also be aware that changing them can and should alter the character and feel of the setting. These basic premises parallel the classic comic book superhero worlds in many ways, to make Freedom City fit a modern-day four-color world:

• People with super-powers have existed throughout Earth's history, but have become more prominent and numerous since the late 1930s, with the first appearance of the Centurion. Freedom City in particular is an epicenter for superhumans, but they are found in other cities and places around the world.
• Nearly every sort of super-power or gimmick found in the comic books can and does exist in the World of Freedom. There is magic, super-science, and aliens, lost worlds, gods, megalomaniacal supervillains, and more. Despite this, the world on the surface is still very much like our own and most of the history and society from our world also exists there.
• Costumed heroes and villains with superhuman powers have been public figures since the late 1930s. The overall history of superhumans roughly mirrors the history and trends of superhero comic books in the real world since their introduction in the 1930s.
• Superheroes and villains have aged since their first appearances, with the exception of some who are particularly long-lived or immortal. There have been several distinct “eras” of superhuman activity in the world, which resemble different periods in comic book publishing history. There was a Golden Age in the 1940s until the mid-‘50s, a Silver Age in the late ‘50s through the ‘70s, a Bronze age until the mid-‘80s, an Iron or “Dark” Age in the late-‘80s through much of the 1990s, then the start of the modern age of superheroes, which leads up to the present day.
• Virtually any type of character or plot from the superhero comic books can (and probably does) exist in Freedom City. All the various superhuman origins, powers, and themes co-exist in the setting. Any of the origins discussed in Mutants & Masterminds are available in the setting.
• Although everyone has heard about superheroes and villains, and probably seen them (on TV, if nothing else), most people in Freedom City still live fairly ordinary lives, despite the occasional invasion from outer space or similar threat.

Fun Facts About Freedom City, Second Edition

Page Count: 256
Number of Chapters: 7
Number of Superhero Teams: 3
Number of Superheroes (full game stats): 32
Number of Supervillain Teams: 10
Number of Supervillains (full game stats): 96
Number of Supporting Characters (full game stats): 20
Total Number of Characters (full game stats): 148