Marvel Super Heroes

Solange nur mindestens einer die Feuerkraft/Stärke hat, um die Wartungsklappen in den Füßen des Octodroiden zu knacken.

Besonders der Dungeoncrawl am Ende mit drei verfeindeten Fraktionen im besetzten Baxter Building. Arcades Todesfallen erfordern natürlich Anpassung auf die Spieler, wenn man nicht mit den FF spielt.

General
Timed Effects: Rather than to roll 1d10 to determine if something lasts 1-10 turns, at the end of every round 1d10 is rolled. On a 1-2, the effect perishes. That affects explicitely stunning and kitbashing.
(That is to reduce book-keeping.)

Resources
Resources are handled as FEATs, not as Resource Points, with costs taken from the Advanced Set.
(Deducting RP for bus tickets and so on always felt too fiddly for me, especially once such corp sharks as Tony Stark or Kingpin come into play.)

Resource FEATs follow the normal FEAT rules: -2CS or lower: Auto-Success, -1CS: Green FEAT, same column: Yellow FEAT, +1CS: Red FEAT.

Auto-Successes don't count as weekly Resource FEAT.
(Tony Stark (effectively AM resources with Business/Finance) doesn't need to think twice about buying international plane tickets (RM), leasing a Maybach (RM) or paying the stipend for another Avenger (EX) - but an original Rubens painting (IN), a private plane (IN) or actually buying a Maybach (IN) still cut into his weekly pocket money.)

Powers
Powers are picked from the Advanced Set.

Powers may also be picked from the UPB and its two addendums.
(I keep the UPB stuff optional to not overwhelm the players, and to save them from wading through weird stuff like prehensile hair unless they know what they want or want to inflict that onto themselves.)

Talents
Talents are picked from the Advanced Set, with the following changes:

• Martial Arts is just Martial Arts, with effects as per the Basic Set
• Wrestling grants +1CS to Grappling and Grappling damage, not +2CS to Grappling alone

New Talents:

• Kitbasher: Grants at the beginning of each adventure 50 karma points solely to be used for kit-bashing
• Sorcerer: Grants at the beginning of each adventure 50 karma points solely to be used for improvising spells as power stunts

Combat
Actions don't need to be declared in advance

You can still attack while you dodge, with -2CS to your attack as per Revised Basic Set

Karma
Heroes automatically gain the sum of their RIP as additional karma at the end of an adventure.
(That is to keep RIP relevant even after character creation when the character isn't an inventor or wizard.)

Rather than to add Karma points to your die roll or to knock down colors of a foe, flat 20 Karma are spent to re-roll the die and keep the result you like better (whether of a foe or your own). You can re-roll as often as you like as long as your karma lasts.

Power Stunts cost only 20 Karma. After a total of 500 Karma points is poured into a stunt, it becomes a permanent sub-power.

Advancement requires no creation of an advancement fund. Advancement costs are as per the Basic Set.

New uses for Karma:

• Windfall: Grants an additional Resource FEAT in the same week. Cost: 20 Karma per FEAT.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu!?: For a single FEAT, the actual rank of an ability or power may be raised, with all effects as damage etc. Cost: Difference in rank number.

(Ever wondered how someone like Iron Man or Spiderman could punch out the Hulk one week and be shown having his regular strength the rest of the time? That's how.)

Invention
Inventions are made as per the Advanced Set.

Inventions may receives limitations like powers to reduce their effective cost or raise their effective rank.

Kit-Bashing costs only the effective cost in Karma, not effective cost x10.

Magic
New Power: Magic Power**
Uses up three power slots. Initial rank is equal to Psyche.
Magic Power initially grants these three spells with a power rank equal to Magic Power:

• Astral Projection (P)
• Eldritch Bolts (Mental Attack) (U)
• Force Field (Force Field-personal) (P or U)

All further spells must be acquired as power stunts.
Spells simply simulate powers. New spells start on a rank of Magic Power** -1CS.

Power Rank of the spell determines Area of Effect and Duration as per Realms of Magic.

Each spell has to be declared as Personal, Universal Spell or Dimensional Spell.

Personal Spell:
Affects only caster or willing target. Needs a Psyche FEAT to be used.
Caster must make an Intuition FEAT afterwards; if failed, loses 10 Health Points.
Magic-User must just be able to see the target, but needs no gestures or incantations.

Universal Spell:
Affects anyone.
Needs a Psyche FEAT to be used. Target may resist with Psyche FEAT.
Caster must make an Intuition FEAT afterwards; if failed, -1CS to Psyche for one day.
Magic-User must be able to see the target and to gesture (i.e. can't be ensnared or grappled).

Dimensional Spell:
Rather than to be tied to a particular power, dimensional spells are tied to a particular entity. That entity may grant any power.
Caster must make a Popularity FEAT, using Intuition as rank. The required color depends on the relation to the entity:

Entity is a contact: Green FEAT
Entity is neutral: Yellow FEAT
Entity is unfriendly: Red FEAT

If the desired entreaty is contrary to the nature or principles of the entity, difficulty is raised by one color (maximum Red).

Afterwards, he needs to check for negative attention with a Psyche FEAT:

Entity is unfriendly or hostile: Green FEAT
Entity is neutral: Yellow FEAT
Entity is friendly: Red FEAT

If the entreaty is opposed to the principles of the entity, the check is one color easier (Green minimum).
If that check succeeds, the entity notices the invocation and reacts negatively as per Realms of Magic.
For Dimensional Spells the Magic-User must be able to see the target, to gesture and to speak (i.e. can't be ensnared, grappled or muted).

Character Creation
Contacts are used as per Advanced Set. Number of Contacts is rolled on the Powers table

Characters are generated as per the Basic Set, with the following origins:

Alien
+1CS to all FASERIP
-1 power
-4CS to Resources
-2 Contacts (minimum 1)
R+I+P karma gain is halved, both at character creation and at the end of every adventure

Altered Human
+1CS to any single FASERIP
-2CS to Resources

Hi-Tech-Armor-Hero
-2CS to F, A, S, E (off-set by armor)
+1CS to R (Minimum Excellent)
+1CS to Resources
must pick Body Armor as first super power
all other powers must be equipment

(Note: Covers solely armored heroes. If you want to play a gadgeteer without a battle-suit, become a Talented Human instead.)

Magic-User
-2CS to F, A, S, E
+1 CS to P (Minimum Good)
-2CS to Resources
- 1 power
receives automatically for free Magic Power as first super power
all other powers must be spells or magical items

Mutant
+1CS to E
-3CS to Resources
-40 Popularity (as per the Basic Set, not in addition)
+1CS to any single power rank

Robot
-2CS to Resources
-20 Popularity (as per the Basic Set, not in addition)
-1 Contact
receive automatically for free Invulnerability* (CL1000) vs Emotional, Magical and Mental Attacks (if powered by technology) or vs Emotional and Mental Attacks (if powered by magic)
magically powered Robots gain +1CS to any single power rank

Talented Human
-2CS to A, S, E
Resources unaltered
+1 CS to two of the following, R, I, P, Resources or Popularity
-2 powers (minimum 0)
+3 talents
+1 Contact
+100 Karma at the beginning of each adventure (including the first)

(Note: Talented Human covers people like Punisher, Batman, Hawkeye or Colleen Wing who aren't altered humans in the league of Spiderman, nor depend on battle-suits like Iron Man, nor are dedicated magic-users like Doctor Strange. They have to make up with training, wits and sheer luck (hence the massive karma boost).)

Super-Sorcery** (three slot power)

Super-Sorcery allows to simulate any other super-powers as spells, with a total combined rank of the Super-Sorcery power rank.

Activating a spell requires an action and a Psyche FEAT as for an universal spell (along with the need to be able to gesture, and the possibility to temporarily lose Psyche ranks).

Dropping a spell to make room for different spells is a free action.

Spells are declared as personal, universal or dimensional, with the usual effect.

A super-sorcerer can borrow more power than he can normally safely handle. He can borrow more power rank points than his rank in Super-Sorcery (and even gain spells of higher rank than Super-Sorcery), but he must keep track of the number of power points above his limit. Whenever the die result of a spellcasting FEAT is equal to or lower than the number of "over-borrowed" points (including the FEAT to "over-borrow" in the first place), he must make a Psyche FEAT or roll for backlash (d%):
01-02 Dimensional Rift: Red Psyche FEAT or drawn to other dimension by displeased entity
03-04 Scarred For Life: unconscious for 1d10 hours, Psyche permanently -1 rank, no spell-casting for 1d10 days
05-15 Mind Whip: all spells drop, unconscious for 1d10 hours, no spell-casting for 1d10 days
16-35 Mental Blast: all spells drop, stunned for 1d10 turns, no spell-casting for one day
36-69: Mystic Feedback: All spells drop, stunned for 1d10 turns, no spell-casting for 1d10 hours
70-99: Magic Fatigue: All spells drop, no spell-casting for 1d10 rounds
00: Power Surge: Caster taps into a power source, Psyche temporarily increases by 1 rank for the rest of the day

Example:
Black Wizard is a magical villain with Psyche IN (40) and Super-Sorcery RM (30), which grants him 30 points to buy spells with.
He plans to rob a bank, and thus prepares the following spells:

• Body Armor GD (10) = 10 points: Enough to repel any handgun shots at him.
• Slashing Missile GD (10) = 10 points: To cut down any opposition and prove that he is serious.
• Flight GD (10) = 10 points: To get away fast after the robbery.

That uses up 30 points, exactly his allowance.

The robbery goes well, until all of a sudden The Thing busts in.
Black Wizard realizes that his measly Slashing Missile won't cut it, but needs the big guns. On his action, he drops both Slashing Missile and Flight in the first round (reducing his spells to 10 of 30 points). He spends round 1 "over-borrowing" to activate Energy Generation MN (75), bringing his spell total to 85, 55 points above his safe limit. From now on, any casting roll of 55 or less will result in a backlash. The result of the activation roll is a 97, so the over-borrowing itself goes well.
In round 2, he wins initiative and tries to fry The Thing with his Monstrous Energy Beam. The roll is a 27 - so not only a failure, but a backlash! The Psyche FEAT fails, and the result on the backlash table is 08, knocking out Black Wizard for 1d10 hours and making him easy to pick up for the cops.