Your hero will constantly be facing challenges to test his mettle and determination. The GM will be rolling the dice for challenges. If it is an opponent, like a villain, then you will roll against his Power rating for the correct Style; if it is an unopposed task, then the GM will assign a difficulty level from the table given above. Again, the descriptions are just general guidelines to help in assigning difficulties. Impossible means just that- your hero cannot attempt the action no matter how hard he tries or how much he pushes himself.
You then roll the die type for your Power rating for the appropriate Style- if you roll higher, you have succeeded; if not, you fail. A tie is just that- there is no change in the situation, or you and your opponent are at a stalemate. In conflicts involving opponents, whoever rolls lower loses 1 from their Power rating. When your hero's BASE Power drops to below d4, he is defeated and suffers the consequences (he is unconscious, or mind-controlled, or gives up the information, or whatever). As your hero loses Power, his Power rating for specific Styles will be affected. For instance, if your hero has a Power of d10 / d12 for Wits, and he loses a die type, his base Power will be at d8 and his Wits will now be at d10. He will be defeated when his base Power reaches below d4. A rating of d20 drops to d12 after two losses.
The most important thing to remember is that each challenge can represent an action or set of related actions, and it is resolved with one die roll. The loser will suffer the consequences.
It is possible to increase the level of effect by lowering the die type of your hero's Power level (this is called Going For Broke). For each level you drop your hero's Power, you can increase by one the levels your opponent loses. The GM may wish to limit this to a maximum of three levels of effect in most cases.
See Recovery for more information about different effects and recovering from them.
If you roll the maximum amount on your die, and the opposing die roll is a one, your hero has achieved a Critical Success. This allows you to either increase your hero's level of effect by 1, or your hero gains some sort of advantage. The exact advantage depends on the situation- if your hero is fighting a supervillain, perhaps he gets to re-roll his Power level or increase it by one for the next round, or the villain suffers a -1 to his Power level. If he is repairing machinery, perhaps he actually improved the machinery so it works better than before.
On the other hand, if you roll a 1 and the opposing roll comes up maximum, your hero has suffered a Critical Failure. The exact effect depends on the action, but it is always bad - your hero slips and suffers a penalty to his die type for the next combat round, or the security system he is trying to bypass is now broken beyond repair or sets of an alarm.
Karma can be used for a variety of effects, and in most cases it can be used two ways:
If Karma is 'burned', then any rolls you make will use the current, lower level for the die type. When Karma drops below d4, it can no longer be used. If you only have d4 of Karma left, you can ONLY burn 1 level. Reducing Karma from d20 to d12 counts as 'burning' two levels.
Burned Karma does not recover until the next adventure.
Try Again: One level of Karma can be burned to re-roll a die twice. You can't use both re-rolls on the same task (save the other one for when you need it), but it is cumulative with other re-rolls (from Specialties or Motivation). Of course, you CANNOT burn Karma to re-roll Karma.
Last Chance: Once per adventure, if your hero fails a task that he ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY must succeed at, like defusing the Doomsday Device, he can use Karma to make one last attempt. The GM may decide to raise the difficulty by one level from what it was the first time. Burning Karma means that he automatically succeeds.
Automatic Success: Burning levels of Karma means that your hero automatically succeeds at what he was trying to do. You have to burn one level if you do so BEFORE the roll, and TWO levels if you wait until AFTER the roll. You still cannot succeed at Impossible tasks this way.
Power Stunts: You can roll Karma (but not burn it) to attempt a new Power Stunt.
Deus Ex Machina: Comic Books are full of incredible coincidences and lucky breaks for heroes and villains alike. Perhaps your hero's main weapon is jammed in a firefight, and he just happens to find another weapon lying around. Or, the heroes have been stranded in medieval France by a time-traveling villain, and one of them just happens to recall the semester of French he took in college. If your hero is totally stumped by a problem, is in a no-win situation, or misses a clue, the GM can let you use Karma to get by. The difficulty for rolling should be based on how important the missed item is or how hopeless the situation is. Usually the player must come up with a solution or way out, and the difficulty can be higher depending on how outlandish the suggestion is. If burning Karma, it should cost one or two levels based on this assessment. Heroes and villains could even escape certain death like this, only to return later.
Narrative Power: Similar to Deus Ex Machina, Karma can be used to alter the comic book story or introduce new plot elements, as long as the GM agrees on them. The difficulty/number of levels burned of Karma will depend on how drastic the change is to the story or how important the plot element could be.
Heroism is similar to Karma in that it can be used either one of two ways:
If Heroism is 'burned', then any rolls you make will use the current, lower level for the die type. When Heroism drops below d4, it can no longer be used. Unlike Karma, if your hero is at d4 and you need to burn 2 levels, you can do so, but your hero drops unconscious immediately after the action is completed (he is exhausted from the effort). Reducing Heroism from d20 to d12 counts as 'burning' two levels.
Burned Heroism will recover fully by the next adventure; see Recovery for more details.
Pushing: You can increase your hero's base Power level (and thus Style ratings) by one. The difficulty when rolling is the level you wish to increase to. If you are Pushing to d20, the difficulty is Inconceivable OR you must burn TWO levels of Heroism. A Push lasts for one challenge or one round of a conflict. You cannot Push beyond d20.
Recovery: You can use Heroism to shake off damage or other effects (like mind control). You can roll against a difficulty equal to the total level of lost Power plus 1 or burn a level of Heroism to completely recover. If your hero was reduced below d4, the difficulty is Inconceivable, or you must burn two levels of Heroism. The GM will tell you how often you can try to use Heroism to recover.
A conflict is any contest where two or more opponents are trying to accomplish a goal and/or wear each other down, whether it is combat, a duel of wits, courtroom proceedings, or a superspeed footrace. Any conflict can be divided into rounds, where each opponent gets a chance to perform one action. A round can be seconds, minutes, hours, or even days, depending on what kind of conflict it is. For example, a combat round could be a few seconds, where each opponent exchanges blows; courtroom proceedings could have rounds representing days, where each side of the case presents its arguments. Each participant will lose levels from their Power as usual until someone is declared the victor or just gives up.
A 'conflict' can also be described as a series of related challenges that your hero must overcome, not all of which involve an opponent. You may suffer losses to your Power level for failures as usual, to represent fatigue, frustration, etc.
Some conflicts are over too quickly to be divided into rounds- one action and it's all over; an example would be a hero and a villain trying to reach a control switch, or a classic pistol duel. Other conflicts are too unimportant to the plot or too boring and tedious to divide into rounds, or maybe there is not enough time to play through the entire conflict. In such a case, the conflict can be resolved as a 'quick contest', with one roll for each participant- the highest roll is the winner; the loser (s) suffer the consequences of defeat. In a contest like a footrace, the order can be determined by the rolls. Entire battles can be resolved with one or two sets of rolls if you wish.
In most cases, all actions can be considered to occur simultaneously. However, sometimes it is important to determine who goes first. In that case, the GM can let all participants roll their appropriate Power level, and everyone goes in order of the roll. A tie means the actions occur simultaneously. This roll can be made each round, or once at the beginning of the conflict. Specialties can modify this roll, as well as certain Powers like superspeed. Karma can also be used to modify the roll, either in the usual ways, or the GM may let you roll your hero's Karma instead of Power. With either option, results of losing should be applied at the end of the round after everyone has had a chance to act.
This really depends on what kind of a conflict your hero is involved in, and what he is trying to do.
Heroes will recover from defeat in time without having to make a Heroism roll. The amount of time depends on the reason why Power was reduced. Losses due to non-damaging types of conflicts will be recovered totally at the end of the scene in which they occurred (a 'scene' being defined as a related set of events or challenges). Fatigue can be overcome in minutes by simply resting. Actual physical damage will heal in hours or days, depending on the type of damage. More severe damage and diseases may take weeks to heal. This time can be reduced by extra rest, good medical care, and so forth. Only effects like fatigue, stress, and physical damage will actually lower a hero's Power level for purposes of attempting challenges, though this can vary (a hero paralyzed or entangled in some sort of bonds will have his Power reduced; the GM may say that a mind-controlled hero is less effective).
Some Powers will have abilities like healing, regeneration, first aid, or surgery. These can allow the hero who has them to make a roll to reduce or eliminate lost Power levels more quickly (or even immediately if it is some sort of super-healing Power). The difficulty of such a healing attempt can be lowered by one level to make it more effective than simply shrugging off the damage using Heroism.
A hero suffering from mental domination should be allowed to make a Heroism roll every so often to recover from the effects. He can make the roll more frequently if his comrades are helping him, or if one of them has some sort of appropriate mental Powers.
As far as Heroism itself (Heroism that has been 'burned', that is), it should take a while to recover (hours or days, maybe quicker under unusually good circumstances). It will be fully recovered by the next adventure at any rate.
Heroes and villains can work together to accomplish a task, like attacking the same opponent. Take the highest Power level of all the team members, and for every 2 people attempting a task, the Power level is raised by 1. Power level can only be raised a maximum of 2 levels, and can never go above d20; raising it from d12 to d20 counts as 2 levels. The only limit is that the Power levels of all team members must be within one of each other.
In the comics, heroes become more capable over time. This is reflected by Hero Points earned at the end of each adventure.
Hero Points are used to improve your hero, of course:
| Improvement | HP Cost |
|---|---|
| Raising a Style rating one level | 10 |
| Raising base Power level by 1 | 15 |
| Raising base Power level to d20 | 30 |
| Raising Heroism by 1 | 20 |
| Raising Heroism to d20 | 40 |
| Raising Karma by 1 | 25 |
| Raising Karma to d20 | 50 |
| Adding a Specialty | 5 |
| Adding a Power Stunt | 3 / 1 |
| Removing a Complication | 30 |
[Writer / Artist] [Origin] [Superpowers] [Motivation] [Costume] [Hero!]