Character Creation | Abilities | Powers | Skills | Card Play | Actions & Combat |
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CHARACTER CREATION
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Heroes by the Numbers: rules for point based character creation and improvements

ABILITIES
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POWERS
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Power Descriptions

Disallowed Powers
Cosmic Energy Control & Darkforce Control
Why? Both of these powers are specific to the Marvel Universe and as such have no place in Meta-Earth campaign.

Magic
Why? Because even though magic does exist in the campaign world, it isn't something that I want taking center stage. Magic and those who use it, will remain as occasional plot hooks, but won't be allowed for player characters, as it isn't something that I am interested in exploring in any depth within the game.

Activating
Activating or using a power is an action. Activating a defensive power may be done as a counteraction.

Attacking
The intensity of a power is used for both its action and effect. When using a power to attack, use the power's intensity and trump suit. So, for example, if Bitstream attacks an opponent with her intensity Electrical Control, she makes an easy Electrical Control action, opposed by her target's Agility.

Battlesuits (New Power)
Battlesuits are powered technological armor that grant their wearers a variety of powers. Like other equipment, a battlesuit has an intensity and various powers, which the suit's wearer can use as if they were his own. Battlesuits usually grant Body Armor (raising the wearer's Defense to their intensity) and often provide Ability Boost (Strength), Life Support, Flight, and some form of ranged attack.

Battlesuits are a package deal: Your hero gets several powers but, but ALL of them have the Triggered-Powerless hindrance. Rather than getting power stunts via the normal hero-creation rules, the hero can obtain a number of "power slots". Battlesuits start with a minimum of 5 power slots, at no additional cost. Powers that are only collections of stunts, such as Resistances require one power slot per for each stunt selected. Equipment Powers also require one power slot per power.
A battlesuit can have more power slots than 5 at creation, but each additional one costs one additional XP.

Note: This power framework may be used with other technological comic conventions such as utility belts, and trick arrows.

Enhanced Senses
One of your normal senses is enhanced. Your power intensity must be equal to or at least one greater than your Willpower to take this power and each sense is considered a seperate stunt. Use your power intensity in place Willpower when using you enhanced senses. Enhanced Hearing allows you to detect faint sounds on many frequencies. Enhanced Smell gleans subtle clues by smell. Enhanced Taste allows you to detect poisons and even disassemble recipes just by touching food to the tongue. Enhanced Touch allows you to read and discern fine details by running your finger along an object. Enhanced Vision lets you see things no normal person could see.

Force Fields
(Option A)
Force Fields serve to absorb damage from attacks. Unlike other forms of defense, force fields can also be damaged by attacks. When a force field takes damage in excess of it's intensity, the protected characters suffers the excess damage normally (applying his or her Strength). The force field's intensity is then reduced by the amount of the excess damage. A force field reduced to 0 intensity collapses. A hero can restore his or her force field to full strength by spending an action or counteraction to do so.

Example: Aegis is fighting the Hulk and ol' greenskin lands a punch against the acrobatic hero for 20 damage points. His intensity 14 Force Field soaks up most of the damage, but 6 points get through. Aegis' Strength handles it, so he takes no damage. His force field, however, is reduced by 6 points, to intensity 8. "Man, he nearly shattered my field with that punch!" Aegis thinks. Unless Aegis spends an action to reinforce his field, the Hulk's next punch is sure to collapse it, and do some damage to Aegis in the process.

(Option B)
(If an attack exceeds the forcefield's intensity the protected character suffers damage, though natural defenses still apply. The protected character must make an Average (8) Willpower action to maintain the field or it collapses and requires a full exchange to recharge.)

Mind Control
Normally, if a person is succesfully mind controlled they black out and are unaware of their actions. Though I think they would be suspicious of such blackouts, and would at least be informed by others of their behavior after the fact.

The power description doesn't say anything about what happens with failed attempts at Mind Control. I've decided to give an aura reading in such cases to determine if the person was aware of it or not.
Positive would mean that you were definitely aware that someone was trying to mind control you. Neutral means that you were aware of a strange compulsion to do something, though not necessarily aware that the idea came from anywhere except your own head. Negative would mean that you were completely unaware of any attempt to mind control you.


SKILLS
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Click here for skill descriptions

Multiple Skill Use
The rulebook states that if a character has twosuitable skills for the same action, only one applies. My interpretation / justification is that what the rules & designers meant is that you can only use one skill per action in terms of difficulty modification. Other skills, that don't affect the *cardplay* of that action can still be in effect (Richochet, Contingent Action, Fast Exit, etc).

This would allow Captain America to throw his shield with worldclass accuracy AND have it rebound to his hand (since the Richochet doesn't affect cardplay, it's more of a side effect). [By Robert FV]

Aerial Combat
Fighting in the sky. Your hero may use Flight Intensity instead of Strength to attack while flying. The Hero can use Flight instead of Intellect for declaration order during aerial combat.

Fast Exit
If both combatants have the Fast Exit skill, the benefits of the skill are effectively canceled out for both combatants. The skill is also effectively canceled if the opponent has a super-speed power, such as Lightning Speed or Flight (if actually in flight), with a higher Intensity than the character's Agility. [by Thomas M. Costa]

Martial Arts
Martial Arts attacks use Agility and trump on Agility. A martial artist may choose to attack and trump with Strength (like a normal melee attack) if desired.

Wealth
On most occasions, you won't care if a hero has money. The Marvel game doesn't concern itself with accumulation of treasure or economic accomplishment overly much. Nevertheless, there may be a need at times for a better and fairer gauge of a hero or villain's access to resources and base wealth. In this way, wealth is treated much like a skill, one in which you may have normal level (a.k.a. Comfortable), Master-Class level (a.k.a. Rich), or World-Class level (Mega-Rich). In addition, a new hindrance is described below that details another Wealth level, Destitute.

Destitute: Your hero has no possessions except the ragged clothing on his back and perhaps his weapons. The hero cannot assume he or she has even the simplest of necessities, even food and shelter. Moreover, he or she has no job and for various reasons seems unemployable. The hero has a 0 Willpower for all Wealth actions. This Wealth level is considered a Hindrance. Exemplars: Cloak & Dagger, the Morlocks, Vermin.

Comfortable: Your hero has access to any basic good he or she needs. Your hero is assumed to have access to the basic necessities of life, such food, clothing, and shelter, and most likely, a form of common transportation. This is the basic Wealth level assumed for all heroes. The hero uses Willpower for all Wealth actions. Exemplars: Captain America, Cyclops, Spider-Man.

Rich: Your hero is a millionaire. He or she is able to afford almost any normal item he or she desires, from boats and planes to mansions and small businesses. The hero gains a one difficulty rating reduction and two trump suits (Intellect and Willpower) for all Wealth actions. Exemplars: Archangel, Mr. Fantastic, Professor X, Wasp.

Mega-Rich: Your hero is a billionaire. He or she is able to afford almost anything he or she can imagine from Concord Jets to own islands, from advanced weaponry to small armies. The hero gains a one difficulty rating reduction and four trump suits (any non-Doom) for all Wealth actions. Exemplars: Annihilus, Dr. Doom, Mandarin.

The Narrator can mandate a Wealth action for a hero to get something of value. This is usually only done when it is questionable whether or not the hero could gain access to the item. This action uses Willpower as its base ability with the difficulty set according to an average person's ability to afford the item. (A suitable table is available on p. 127 of Reed Richard's Guide to Everything.) Why Willpower, you might ask? Because Wealth checks are only necessary in questionable circumstances and Willpower represents both the hero's charm and determination, perhaps the two most important abilities any person seeking something can have.

A successful use of the Finance skill, will further reduce the difficulty rating by one additional level. Other Willpower-based skills, such as Manipulation or Politics, with the Narrator's approval, might also be used to reduce the difficulty rating instead of the Finance skill, but not in addition to the Finance skill. It should also be pointed out that the Finance skill provides an understanding of business and economics and is used to get the upper hand in a business situation. It is the art of maintaining and making Wealth, not of the Wealth itself.

Toward that end,the Narrator can force occasional Wealth actions to keep fortunes intact.The Narrator devises a potential economic setback a robbery, a natural disaster, a market crash, or the like and sets an intensity for it. The player must then make a challenging Willpower action (note this one difficulty level higher than described in Reed Richard's Guide) opposed by the intensity of the setback. The Narrator can add the value of the narrator card as well if the setback is one that should be somewhat random in its impact. The Narrator should keep in mind that, just as in the comics, such setbacks are usually short-term in nature.

CARD-PLAY
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Conflicting Trumps
When more than one trump could apply to a situation due to the presence of powers, skills, and equipment with conflicting trump suits, apply the following rules. (Note, this most often occurs with offensive powers, skills, and equipment, such as the power Energy Blast, Strength-based skills that allow for the hurling of melee weapons such as Hammers, the offensive Agility-based skills such as Marksmanship, and equipment such as blasters.)

Power action/trump suits generally supersede skill action/trump suits and skill action/trump suits generally supersede equipment action/trump suits. However, particularly complex equipment, such as powered armor and most equipment that mimics non-offensive Intellect- and Willpower-based powers - this is a Narrator call - is treated as if it were a power and not equipment.

Note, "damage" or effect is still dependent on the Ability plus cardplay plus weapon "+" bonus or the power or equipment intensity plus cardplay, as appropriate.

This can yield the following examples:

* If a character has the Energy Blast (Intellect-based) power and the Marksmanship (Agility-based) skill, power trumps skill, thus the character uses his Energy Blast power intensity for his action and Intellect suit for his trump suit, but still applies the benefits of Marksmanship.

* Conversely, if a character has the Marksmanship (Agility-based) skill and a blaster (Intellect-based), skill trumps equipment, thus the character uses his Agility for his action/trump suit, applying the benefits of Marksmanship. Damage in this case is either the character's Agility plus cardplay and weapon bonus or the blaster's intensity plus cardplay, as appropriate.

* If a character wants to throw his hammer (Agility-based when thrown) and has the Hammers (Strength-based) skill, skill trumps equipment, thus the character uses his Strength and the Strength suit for his action/trump suit, applying the benefits of the skill and the weapons damage bonus. Note, the character can still choose to throw the hammer with his Agility, but he does not gain the benefits of his skill and damage is based off of his Agility. Moreover, characters without the Hammers skill are limited to throwing the hammer with their Agility.

* However, if a character is keeping watch (Willpower-based) with nightvision goggles (Intellect-based) and has the Observation (Willpower-based) skill, the goggles are treated as a power and power trumps skill, he uses his goggle intensity and the Intellect suit for his action/trump suit.

Note: the equipment trump for some items becomes largely meaningless, as in the case of a blaster, for example. [by Thomas M. Costa]
 
Pushing Out of Combat
Pushing out of combat presents a unique problem, given the recovery rules (Game Book, p. 37-41) in Marvel. Effectively, there are no consequences to pushing to the limit out of combat. Consequently, if a player pushes a card "out-of-combat" that card cannot be returned to the player's hand for two aura durations. This makes pushing "out-of-combat" a less desirable, more desperate action. [by Thomas M. Costa]

ACTIONS & COMBAT
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The various combat maneuvers in the Reed Richards' Guide to Everything are in use in the game.

Counteractions
Heroes cannot use a power more than once per exchange, so a hero can use a particular power for an action or a counteraction, but not both. The exception is passive powers that remain "on" like Force Field. Activating a defensive power (like a force field) is considered a counteraction.

Dodging
Heroes use Agility to dodge attacks in combat. Danger Sense and Lightning Speed include faster reaction time and may be substituted for Agility for the purpose of dodging. Other movement powers may not. Consult the power description in the Marvel Game Book if there are any questions.

A hero can attempt to move someone else out of the way of an attack by making an average Agility action against the attack total. The hero must be able to move the target normally (the Narrator may call for a Strength or Intensity action if this is in doubt). If the action is successful, the hero moves the target out of the way of the attack. The hero's action total is also used to avoid any attacks against the hero.

Initiative
The order in which the heroes take actions is determined by the Aura of the GM card, + aura allow heroes to go first, - aura allows villains to go first, * aura allows actions from sides based on Agility, with the higher Agility score going first and then the next highest and so on. (Ties occur simultaneously.) Some skills and powers allow for other factors to determine the hero's action order instead of his Agility score, such as the power Lightning Speed, which allows the hero to use his Lightning Speed (or other movement power when actually in use, such as a flying character actually in flight) intensity instead of their Agility score to determine action order. Action order allows for faster characters to act before slower characters.

Surprise
Willpower, rather than Intellect, is used to determine if a hero is surprised. Enhanced Senses can be used in place of Willpower to avoid surprise.

Touch Attacks
Touch attacks need some clarification. There are characters such as Jolt, who punches foes with her Energy Blast, or Psylocke, who used to use her Martial Arts to deliver her Psionic Blast. These attacks are called concurrent attacks and handled as follows:

1. Touching someone is an Automatic action (0). If the hero has a skill or ability that makes an attack Automatic, touching is even easier, effectively granting the hero a +4 bonus. The hero may also opt to attack their opponent to deliver their touch-based attack. Of course, the touch-based attack is dependent on the touch or blow hitting its target.

2. If the attack hits, the hero handles the physical attack as normal (a touch does not cause physical damage).

3. The hero then handles the concurrent attack of the touch-based power, which automatically hit, as if it were a completely separate attack, with card-play also handled as normal. [by Thomas M. Costa]
 
Example: Say Jolt (Strength 6X, Agility 11D, Edge 1, Hand Size 3; Energy Blast 12 [Limit: Touch only]) is fighting Flag Smasher (Strength 7D, Agility 4C, Edge 1, Health 17; Body Armor +2). Jolt has a 6 of Intellect, 9 of Willpower, and 8 of Doom. The Narrator's card is a 6 of Willpower. Jolt, as the hero with a much higher Agility, attacks first (an easy action). She plays her 9W for a total attack of 15. Flag-Smasher dodges with the 6W for a total of 14 (Agility 4 + 6W + 4 action difficulty). Not good enough. Flag-Smasher is looking at 15 points of damage minus his Strength and Body Armor total of 9. He takes 6 points of damage and is down to 11. Then Jolt redraws for the 6W, getting a 5 of Doom - not much help. Jolt then handles the concurrent Energy Blast attack, playing the 6I to give her trump. The trump gets her a 7 of Strength for a whopping total of 25. Flag-Smasher is going to hurt. He deducts his 9 points of defense, bringing his total damage from the Energy Blast to 16, more than enough to take him out. Jolt redraws to replace the 6I.

Another example might be a grudge match between Psylocke (Strength 6C, Agility 8B, Edge 2, Hand Size 4; Martial Arts; Psionic Blast [Limit: Touch only] 15 - as edited) and Sabretooth (Strength 10D, Agility 10C, Willpower 9D, Edge 2, Health 25; Body Armor +2). Psylocke has a 5 of Agility, 6 of Intellect, 6 of Willpower, and 6 of Doom. The Narrator's card is a 7 of Intellect. Psylocke launches forward with her Martial Arts attack (an automatic action), using her 5A. The trump gets her a 5 of Strength for a total of 18. Sabretooth barely gets tagged (Agility 10 + Narrator's 7 = 17). Sabretooth then takes 6 points of damage from the blow (18 - [Strength 10 and Body Armor +2]), bringing his Health to 19. Psylocke redraws a 5 of Willpower- could be useful later. She automatically hits with her concurrent Psionic Blast attack, her "Psychic Knife," and plays the 6 of Willpower to get trump and a 5 of Strength, for a total of 26. Sabretooth defends with his Willpower of 9, taking 15 points of damage. He's hurt, but still standing and with his Regeneration, Psylocke might be in a lot of trouble

Weapons
Ranged weapons use Agility to hit, melee weapons use Strength. Weapon "pluses" apply only to damage, not to attack value. Weapons include all equipment as well as weapons created and wielded by a hero's powers (such as Aegis' force-field weapons).

Distances

Close Range
* 0-10 feet.
* hand to hand distance
* Aiming missile weapons impossible at this range

Medium Range
* Approximately 100 yards.
* Max distance for thrown weapons
* All ranged attacks work normally
* Artillery cannot function accurately at this range

Long Range
* Approximately quarter mile(1300feet)
* Max distance for ranged attacks (including psionics) and projectile weapons
* All ranged attacks must be aimed at this distance to have a chance of hitting target. Aiming requires a full exchange

Artillery range
* Approximately .5-10 miles.
* Combat is possible with only very large missile or ranged weapons, which must be aimed.

Visual Range
* 10+ miles
* Aiming is impossible without guided weaponry

Movement
Under normal circumstances PC's can move one distance category per exchange. Movement powers with Intensities of 2 or higher increase the number of categories that can be moved per exchange.
2 intensity=Close to Long (2 categories moved)
3 Intensity= Close to Artillery (3 categories moved)
4+ Intensity= Close to Visual/Line of sight (4 categories moved)

Knockback & Distance
Any PC who has to lose more points on Health(Cards) than he has points of Strength (base) gets knocked back one distance category. If the lost points are twice as much as base Strength, then the knockback is two distance categories, etc, etc.
 
DAMAGE AND RECOVERY
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Health For Heroes
While there are advantages to the official system, there are also some inherent drawbacks. One of the biggest drawbacks is that you must discard a card for each damaging hit. While this doesn't seem like a problem, think of it like this; a hero with a 2 edge can be K.O.ed by as little as 4 points of damage. For an example, Rogue has 25 health points, but could be knocked out after taking only 4 points of damage.

However, I do like the concept of damage chipping away at a character's overall effectiveness through cardloss. Thus when a character takes damage they lose points from both their Health score as well as their hand size. A character who still has Health points remains conscious despite any cardloss that would indicate otherwise. In such cases, the hero retains at least one card to play with. This should be their lowest value card.

So using the above example of Rogue. Say she has a hand of all 1's. She takes 10 points of damage. By the official rules she's have to lose 10 points worth of cards, which she doesn't have, so she's be knocked out. By these rules, this brings her Health down to 15, and she has to discard all of her cards except one. She is still conscious but severely impaired in her overall effectiveness until she regains Health & Cards back through recovery.

If Rogue took 10 damage but also had all fives in her hand, she would only lose two cards and 10 points of Health. If she took 9 damage and had a 9 card, she could discard that one and lose only one card in addition to 9 points of Health.

Additional Injury
The GM can (but not necessarily will) check for additional harm anytime a combatant loses more points in Health or cards than he has in Strength (base) or Health from an appropriate attack. This does not occur if the attacker was pulling their punch (that is, choosing not to take trump).
Additional Injury Table

* The GM may allow a complex aura reading in such cases based on Edge score. If the results are overall positive or neutral, then it is downgraded to a coma. If Negative, RIP.

Alcohol Intensity
I was reading up on the effects of alcohol in the RRGTE page 29 . It says that alcohol has an intensity of 1 for each oz. of alcohol consumed. Given the various intensities of proof, I am going to handle it as follows:

At such time as the intensity exceeds the hero's strength, his Willpower drops to 0, and all other ability scores drop by the difference between the alcohol's intensity and hero's Strength score. At Strength 0, the hero blacks out.

Blacking Out
According to the Sedation power stunt of Psychic Blast, blacking out implies being unconscious for at least 15 minutes.

Sobering Up
The only antidote to being drunk is time. In this case, the antidote (time) inflicts it's intensity in damage to the chemical (alcohol). Anytime a positive aura shows on the Narrator card, it's value will be recorded. If this value exceeds the alcohol intensity, reduce the alcohol intensity by the difference. Positive narrator card values will be added together over time, so eventually (provided the hero doesn't continue to drink), the hero will sober up and no longer suffer the ill effects of intoxication.
Suppose enough time and positive aura's have turned up to give a total intensity of 20, to a drunk who has consumed 15 intensity points worth of alcohol. The alcohol's intensity drops by 5 (20 minus 15), to give a new alcohol intensity of 10.

DRAMATIC EVENTS
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Dramatic Events
Once per Adventure, players can propose a Dramatic Event to occur within firing distance (approximately 100 yards) of their charcters. A Dramatic Events can be improbable (but not impossible). The Activation of a Dramatic Event requires the expenditure of a Plot Point.

Every Turn a player will be assigned a list of Events equal to their hand size by the GM. The player can choose one of the events and present it as a Dramatic Event. The player states how the event affects the current situations, using the events name: i.e. "An OVERLOAD occurs in Cyclop's visor, causing him to shoot Wolverine' or "The wall suffers PROPERTY DAMAGE and cracks apart."

The GM then decides if the Event is logical under the circumstances, and if so, the Event occurs. If not, the hero is at the mercy of fate. This happens when your explanation is weak, such as trying to make the event CAUTIOUS ACCEPTANCE into a meteor coming through the roof.

Whenever a Dramatic Event occurs the GM draws a card, and if it is from the Doom suit, some additional, and usually disastrous, effect occurs. For example, the overloading visor causes Cyclops to wide angle beam everyone in the room including your hero, or the wall and its accompanying supports crack open and collapses the roof.

(more than one dramatic event per adventure may be possible through the expenditure of experience points)
 

LINKS
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Most of these houserules came from Steve Kenson's Marvel-Phile site.

The Marvel SAGA Index has writeups of the Marvel SAGA rules for those without access to the official rulebooks.

SAGARULES

Meta-Earth Wiki

Meta-Earth Yahoo Group

Meta-Earth Archives