System

Xen's Fantasy Game System (XFGS)

Alpha 0.1

Introduction

This system is based on the existing Phil's Superhero Game, with a few additions for genre specificity.

The driving factor behind the system is that the game designer dislikes systems that lock people into playing a Class. To survive in a brutal fantasy world, as would be needed in any world, a character needs to be an all-rounder. To have a trick or two that someone else might not know about.

This system is designed to be simple, quick and versatile.

The basics

This game is based on the highest number idea. In general (there are, of course, exceptions, but keep reading for these), you roll 1D20, and add the result to your score. That is then your final score.

The score for a task is generally: Ability+Skill+D20= Score

The score is then compared to the Challenge Rating, which is given to the players by the Games Master (That is, the person who is running the game for you).

There are two special rolls that you need to be aware of. A roll of 20 is always a success, and called a critical success. A roll of 1 is always a failure and called a critical fail.

Critical successes mean that you achieve whatever it is you’re trying to do. This doesn’t mean that what you’re about to do will go your way. If you are trying to kick open a door that is boobytrapped, and you roll a 20, you will definitely kick open the door. This does not warn you about the boobytrap, and does not, necessarily, stop it from going off. A critical success might also mean that you have found a way to do whatever task you were doing in a way that works better for you in general permanently. (see quirks)

A Critical Fail means that something bad has happened to you, or your party members. Either you’ve managed to misfire and shoot yourself in the foot, not noticed useful material, or in some cases find that a task that you are trying to do you are physically incapable of doing (and may never be able to do ever (see quirks).

In theory, every task can be tried. For those untrained in a task, the task might not be (rationally) likely to succeed, and might even have a Challenge Rating (CR) above what a person could roll. That does not mean that a person should not be allowed to try. There is always the chance of a natural 20, and even a non-succesful roll can be improved by the use of Luck.

Luck

This game is designed so that the characters can be heroes. There are going to be times when a hero doesn’t manage to pass a roll, but really feels that they need to do. As such, each character has 5 free Luck points that they can use for these actions. These refill at the end of the story arc, the GM will tell you when. If these run out, because a hero has been particularly unlucky, or wanting to be particularly heroic, the character can then also use the Experience Points that they have built up on their sheet for the same thing.

Luck Example

A Luck point allows a hero to roll 1d6 to attempt to increase their score. Each time a point is spent, you get an automatic bonus 1, to represent the Character point you have spent, and you get to roll, and add 1d6 to your roll.

Ability+Skills+1 (+1+1d6+1+1d6+ etc) +D20=Score

You can keep rolling the 1d6 as often as you have character points or XP to spend. If you roll a 6, the dice ‘explodes’ (you are very lucky), and you get a free roll, adding this number, ignoring any 1’s to your total. However, if you roll a 1d6 on the dice, you lose ALL ACCUMULATED POINTS FROM THE DICE. This is not considered a Critical Fail.

For example, a hero is trying to pick a particularly difficult lock. They have 9 in lockpick (Ability of 4 and skill in lockpick of 5). They roll a d20, and roll 5. This is very difficult lock, with a difficulty of 21. As they are in a battle, and desperately need to free the prisoners behind the locked door, the hero decides to press on.

They spend a character point, and roll 1d6 for another 4, adding the 1 for the character point spent, they now have 19. Being so close, they decide to roll again.

If they roll any number other than 1 on the d6, they will succeed this test. If they roll a 1, they will loose all that they have gained from the dice roll (in this case the 4), and only be left with the character point spent (which will 2. One for each dice).

Luck and Critical Fails

Luck cannot be used to improve, or make a critical fail not happen. For that, you must use Fate points

Luck Stat

The Luck stat is a special stat that a hero can buy with XP, either when they create their character, or later during the game if their character has been particularly lucky.

For each point that a character has in Luck, they gain an extra 5 luck points

Under Duress

Heros are not generally required to make a roll if their skill is naturally over the Challenge Rating for a task. There are are some exceptions to this. A roll is always required when Under Duress. This is a time of stress for the hero, and there is a chance that they might make a mistake. In some instances, the difficulty of the simple task may be increased because of the duress.

For example, a hero can unlock a simple door given time, the right equipment and peace without a roll. In this particular instance, however, the building is on fire, their life is in direct danger by the spreading flame. The Challenge Rating of the task has now moved from simple (10) to difficult(15). This is not the challenge rating of the lock, but a combined difficult of all the situational factors. This might get even more difficult if the hero doesn’t have the right equipment (+3 difficulty for this particular lock), and being actively shot at (+4). This makes the challenge rating 22.

Being under duress can make even the simplest of tasks nigh-impossible. Only a real super-hero would even attempt them.

Fate Points

Heroes are watched by Lady Fate. The granting of the first Fate Point by The Lady is what separates a hero from an ordinary person. Fate points are powerful, and rare.

Every hero begins the game with 1 fate point.

Fate points are awarded at the whim of the Lady, though they are most often awarded for doing her bidding, and following the fate she has mapped out for you: Being the hero you are meant to be.

Fate points are awarded for a hero being selfless, giving themselves to save others. For being a hero. This should be extraordinary acts of valour, and not just a hero using their healing ability to heal the wounded.

Using Fate Points

A Fate point is a powerful item. It gives a player access to fate itself, allowing them to rewrite fate as they see fit. This may not necessarily be in their favor. A fate point can be used for all manner of things. Perhaps a hero is in desperate need of a weapon, and while searching an abandoned cabin, they use a fate point to find one. The weapon they find, of course, will be at the discretion of Lady Fate (Or, in game terms, the GM). Abuse of the Fate point will may mean that Lady Fate will withdraw her favor, or worse, grant that hero a black mark.

Using Fate: A GM's Perspective

Fate points are meant to be there to aid the players in their time of need. They can even roll-back a disastrous critical fail. However, they cannot play with the fabric of reality itself (generally speaking). A player cannot use a fate point to find a specific item in a location where it would not normally be found. They cannot summon the Great Sword of Akash to their bedroom, for example. Players who annoy Lady Fate will gain a black mark.

A Black Mark of Fate

Lady Fate is not to be trifled with. Those who do will have her favour removed, and gain a black mark. Players with a black mark cannot use Fate Points unless they have more Fate Points than they have black marks.

Optional Rule: For every black mark that a player has, it increases the number needed to roll a critical failure.

A player with five Black Marks has managed to anger the Lady so that their fate holds only one thing: Death. The Lady will relentlessly, and without mercy hunt the player (and all who are with them) until they are dead. For the good of the party a hero with 5 black marks should leave the game.

=Black Mark Example

If a player gains 1 black mark, they require 2 Fate points to be able to spent a fate point. The other fate point is untouchable while they have the black mark.

While they have the black mark, on the roll of a 1 or 2 on the D20 they have Critically Failed. A character with 3 black marks would critically fail on a roll of 1,2 or 3, and so on.

=Removing Black Marks

A Black Mark can be removed in a number of ways.

• They can visit the Temple of Fate in Ithica, and pay a large sum of money to have it removed. NOTE: The Temple does not take kindly to repeat visitors.
• They can request a fate quest. A Fate quest is a quest given by the lady that they must succeed at. Failure will mean another black mark.
• They can follow their fate in an exemplary manner. The problem with this can be finding out what their fate actually is.
• Lady Fate can be capricious. She may remove it at her own whim.

Redeeming Villain Points

A hero might decide to mend their ways. A hero with villain points can seek redemption by being heroic in the way they would hear hero points. They may then choose rather than receive a hero point, to erase one of the Villain points. A GM may also decide to remove a villain point for an exceptionally heroic action, as a benefit.

Activation

In many cases a hero would like to use a super-power. To use a super-power, it must be activated, especially under duress. Activation requires making an easy roll against a Challenge Rating of 10 (unless under duress where the challenge rating is 15). This then allows the value of the superpower to be used instead of another ability or skill.

Activation works for a sequence. One Combat, or one scene, as is appropriate.

Building a Character.

Abilities

To know how well, or badly a character can achieve a thing, a hero needs statistics, or stats for short. Generally, these break down into 7 categories. During character creation, each score point in these abilities will need to be bought.

Strength

This is a measure of how physically strong a person is. This covers actions done with the body.

Health

This covers how healthy a body is. This stat is primarily used to see how much damage your body naturally takes, how long you can keep doing something, and how difficult it is to ward off poisons. This skill is responsible for working out which soak dice you roll when spending Character Points to soak damage.

1 = d4 2= d6 3=d8 4=d10 5=d12 6=d12+d4

When a character has a health score of 6 or more, for each 5 more, add another dice. So a character with 7 in health is rolling a d12+d6, 8 is rolling a d12+d8. It is only a one on the largest dice (eg. d12) that counts for stopping the roll culmination. If a hero has 10 in health (and therefore has 2 d12’s), the hero must pick which dice is the ‘major’ dice before rolling. It may be helpful for the two dice to be of different colours.

Agility

This covers how agile someone is. That is, how supple and nimble the whole body is. This the dodge skill (that is, how difficult you are to hit) is based off this stat.

Dexterity

This deals with fine manipulation of things. This is the skill used for picking pockets, or locks.

Intellect

This stat covers how intelligent your character is. This stat is the basis for any special knowledge a character has. This is the characters learned knowledge.

Awereness.

This stat covers how much the character is aware of things that are going around them. This stat is the basis for perception rolls, willpower, and general knowledge checks. It is also the skill that initiative is based on.

Presence

This covers a character’s force of personality. How charismatic they are, or even, how unnerving they are. It covers persuade and intimidation checks.

Ability Scale

Abilities need not have a positive range. A negative in an ability shows that that ability is disabled, or in some way missing. The negative score would mean removing that number from the total number rolled.

Score Description -1 Disabled in some way 0 Young Child 1 Child / Elderly 2 Teenager 3 Average Human Adult 4 Trained Human Adult (Weight lifter/Academic) 5 Professionally trained. (eg. Professor, Personal trainer etc) 6 In the top 20% of their chosen field 7 In the top 10% of their field 8 Amongst the best in their field locally 9 Amongst the best in their field nationally 10 Best in their field globally 11 Low Superhuman 13 Moderate Superhuman 15 High Superhuman 17 Very High Superhuman 20+ Omega level Superhuman 40+ Alpha Level Superhuman

Defenses and Initiative.

These scores are the passive defences that a body has. It takes into account the natural difficult it is to hit someone, or to poison someone and so on.

In some cases (such as during combat), a character is aware that they are going to be hit, and it may be more beneficial to use a skill or superpower, rather than these scores.

Dodge

This score is based on Agility. Dodge is the score that will be used when someone is shooting at you from a distance. Initially, this will be based on your Agility score. During character creation (and when improving a character while spending XP) this score can be increased. When a character improves their agility score, their Dodge score also improves by the same amount. For example: a hero has an Agility score of 4, and a Dodge score of 6. They improve their Agility score to 5, because of this, their Dodge score becomes 7.

It cannot be increased to more than double a character's Agility.

Instead perhaps take 2 x Agility + Awareness + Points in Dodge = Dodge Skill.

Fortitude

This is the score is based on Health and Presence. This score is used whenever someone is trying to poison you, or you are trying to avoid breathing in poisonous gas. It is also the score that is used when trying to hold one’s breath underwater, or to keep pushing yourself forward physically. Pushing yourself beyond your limits requires your mental fortitude, as well as physical.

It cannot be increased to more than double a character's Health.

Parry

This score is based on Dexterity. This score is used whenever someone is trying to hit you. It defines how naturally able you are to block someone who is trying to hit you, up close and personal.

It cannot be increased to more than double a character's Dexterity.

Perhaps make Dex x 2 + Awareness + Points

Toughness

This score is based on Health. This score shows how resilient someone is to taking damage. This score is always removed from the amount of damage a character would receive when a character takes damage.

Example: A hero has been hit in the face by a brick in a sock. It is a successful strike, and would do 10 points of damage. A hero has a toughness of 6, so the hero only takes 4 (10 minus the toughness of 6, which is 4) points of damage.

This score is always used when taking damage. Any other abilities or skills that reduce damage are added to this score.

Will

Will is based on Awareness. It shows your mental stability, your will to keep going, your strength. It is used for the defence against mental attacks, and it is also used to wake a character up from unconsciousness, and to keep a character from dying.

Initiative.

It is based on Awareness. Initiative is used to work out who goes first in a fight. This can be affected by skills, and by super-powers. Unlike other skills, a base of 10 is not added to this. It can be improved by XP, and has no limit.

Body Points

Body Points (BP) are an indicator of how much physical damage a hero can take. This is worked out by adding Health to the number 20, followed by the value of a D20. This value can be increased by XP at the creation of a hero.

This amount is increased when the value of Health is increased.

Skills

Skills are abilities that the hero is trained in. They may have a mechanical skill from a day job, or they may have learned acrobatics while growing up in a circus. Each of these skills has a controlling Ability. For example, acrobatics is a skill that uses the full body, as such it comes under Agility. The scores are then both combined to give the score for the skill (as shown in the Basics section).

Having a positive number in a skill means that a hero is trained in that skill.

Skill are generally common-sense abilities, and no exhaustive list could ever be created. Skills follow the general idea that the higher score the better.

Score Description 1 Hobbyist. Something they do occasionally 4 Professionally trained 6 Able to teach professionally 8 researcher in the subject 10 best in the locality 14 best nationally 17 best globally

Two skills with the same name are not necessarily equivalent. They should be shaped with quirks(see below), and with the way in which the character uses them. If a character concept revolves around trivia, then perhaps their skill check on knowledge for something that could be considered trivia will succeed at a lower Challenge Rating than someone who specialises in the area, but not in that particular field. This is meant to create interesting, and unusual characters from the way in which they are played.

Fighting Skills

Some skills will naturally be fighting skills. Brawling, or swordfighting, for example. Some skills might be more general, like Marksmanship. In a fight, it may make more sense to use these skills than the general defensive skills like Parry or Dodge. To do so, simply take the total skill score, and use that as the score to hit a character. For example, A Hero has Brawling at 11, and an Agility score of 4, giving them a Brawling score of 15. This is more than their Parry skill 14.

At earlier levels, their natural ability will be better than their trained abilities. This is to be expected, after all, it takes time to learn how to be a hero. In this case, always use the higher of the scores.

NOTE: Sometimes fighting skills are general. Such as Marksmanship. This gives the hero the ability to use many weapons (guns/crossbows etc) interchangeably. Broad skills like this do not confer such fighting bonuses. General skills cannot be added to damage done with a weapon. (eg. Melee does not add a damage bonus, whereas Sword use does. However, sword use can only be used for fighting with swords, and not bottles. see also Combat)

There is not an exhaustive list of skill here, as they can be picked by the player, with consent of the GM. An example list to follow (eventually).

Superpowers.

Not every hero has superpowers, but they all follow the same basic idea. Whether it is advanced technology, or your super strength, they all fit onto the same basic template. When creating a superpower, give the super-power a name (like Darkness Control, Elongation, Super-speed). Below the name, write a description of how you imagine your power works. For example, if your power is “Phasing”, and you imagine you have the ability to pass through solid objects. What you now need is a description about how that happens. Do you vibrate at the same speed as the molecules? do you become ethereal and ghost-like? The description will affect what super-power skills you can have, and how the power is affected in the game world. Vibrating through walls at the speed of molecules might mean you still get zapped when you pass through a power-cable, becoming ghost-like might not be possible in sacred ground, or it may mean leaving your body behind.

They affect the superpower skills you can have (see below). A Phaser who vibrates might get the power “Earthquake”, but an ethereal phaser couldn’t. Whereas an Ethereal phaser might reasonably argue that they can phase through people, perhaps even use that to take control of another person’s body, which a vibrating phaser couldn’t do. All of these effects, of course, will need to be checked with the GM, so that they match the flavour and the character concept you have.

As with everything, the higher the score, the more you can do. A rough guide can be found in the table of sizes and weights. These are not hard-and-fast rules, but rather guidelines to work out what the Challenge Rating is. The challenge rating is usually the size/amount/etc +10. So, to create a small amount of a substance (for example, fire), the challenge rating is 11.

Like with skill, superpowers have an over-riding ability that controls them, and below that they have different skills. Not all super-powers readily break down into many super-skills, and sometimes it will be necessary to have more than one super-power to achieve the desired effect.

For each point in the super-power a hero has, they gain another skill slot. These skills are different things that the hero has perfected over their time with the power.

For example, a hero with Darkness Manipulation at a score of 5, has 5 skill slots available. They may have spent time learning to hone the darkness into a bolt. As such they have learned the skill “Dark Bolt”, which they have trained to level 3. When a hero wants to hit someone with dark bolt, they add their super-power(5), with their skill, Dark Bolt(3), for a score of 8, then roll 1D20. The total is their score.

This score of 8 is also used to work out the damage that the Dark Bolt does.

Super-power skills are designed to be obvious from their description. Skills like “fireball”, or “dark bolt” are obvious in their description. If a skill requires a sentence to describe what it does, it is likely that this may need to be re-thought, or be several super-power skills. Super power skills can also enable a hero to break the normal ideas of physics and reality.

This process is applied for every super-power. Any time a hero wants to use their power in a way that they are not trained, they must HALVE their super-power score.

During the game, a hero may need to suddenly use a skill that they are not trained in. As heroes get to know their super-powers quite well, this is one of the few things that a hero can learn during the game. The process is the same as learning a super-power over time (during the usual process of spending XP), but the difficulty is increased to at least 15. The GM may require a higher roll, depending on the circumstances.

Super-powers are designed to be just that, super. Where an ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to have a chance at doing something, someone with a trained super-power may be able too. Take, for example, the idea of parrying a bullet out of the air. Assuming a hero has Super-Reflexes, and has the skill bullet parrying, or similar ( some super-skills may have different names, based on the power, and the skill being used, but achieve the same effects. Similar names might be impossible parry, or combat deflection) the hero is able to attempt to knock a bullet out of the air of the air. They would do this by making a standard roll (Super-power+super-Skill+d20), with the difficulty being the attacker roll.

If a hero during the learning phase rolls a critical fail (1), the hero is unable to attempt to learn this skill again (they can try the skill untrained). This should be noted in the quirk box.

If during the learning phase, the hero rolls a Critical Success, the hero has found a surprising way of using the skill, and gains a natural +2 to the skill. This should also be be noted in the quirk box.

optional rule: Activation. Some powers require activation. Armoured Skin (or similar skills), have a chance of not being active, rather than simply automatically adding their score to the toughness. To active it, they need to make a roll, under duress (roughly 15 or more) to activate the power before the total is added to toughness.

Minor Skills

Some super-power acts are so minor that they don’t need to be trained, however, the hero’s ability to do them needs to be recorded so that when under duress they do not suffer penalties to trying to do these minor skills. These skills do not have ranks.

Minor skills should not be things that could make a drastic in-game affect directly. A good example of a minor skills is the thumb-lighter. A small flame that appears on the top of a hero’s thumb. This is a minor skill, and of itself doesn’t have a big game effect. It is designed to make the hero look good. Generally speaking, there is no need to need to make a roll for these powers.

However, there are times when this might need to be used under duress. For example, a hero needs to light a gas main as a distraction. Using a large fire-ball will blow everyone up, but the thumb-lighter will give them a makeshift flame-thrower. As they are under duress, a roll may be needed. If this was not a minor skill, the hero would be using their super-power halved to make a difficult roll, as it is a minor skill, they can use their full super-power to attempt this feat.

A hero can have double their super-power score in minor powers.

Combat

Combat is likely in a super-hero game, as hero's attempt to overthrow the villains, and save the day.

Combat is therefore designed to be quick and simple, to keep the action fluid and exciting.

Combat happens in rounds.

To decide who is going first, everyone rolls a D20, and adds their initiative to the result.

In order, every hero takes a turn. A turn is defined as something that could be rationally done in 5 seconds. Each of these actions in theory happen at the same time, but for the sake of ease of play, they tend to happen one after another. A hero can choose to “hold their action” until after another hero has taken their turn.

During the round. Any hero can speak to another hero when it’s not their turn. It is the role of the GM to make sure that this conversation is “in Character”, and not about knowing that character A has an X number in a super-power. Talking is considered a “free action”, that is, it doesn’t use up the hero’s action for that round.

During combat, a hero may want to use an active defence, rather than a passive defence. The passive defence is the default values named above, the active values are an activated super-power. For example, a hero may have a high-tech sword. As this is counted as a superpower for the sake of the rules, with 7 (Agility (4) sword use(3)), this would be doubled to 14, which is better than their default parry 13. To use this, at the start of the combat, they may choose to activate the parry. This then because their parry value for the duration of the combat.

If the hero critically fails at their activation they have made themselves easier to hit. Their score becomes the value of the super-power without being doubled.

If the hero critically succeeds at their activation they have made themselves more difficult to hit, and the value of the super-power is tripled.

Combat Turn Order

Decide Initiative Anyone with an initiative power can choose to activate it. Roll initiative + d20, the highest goes first. Each player may take a single action. A single action may be anything that takes roughly 5 seconds: Activating their superpowers for improved defences Moving more than 5ft Making an attack

Attacking

During their turn, a hero will likely want to attack a villain.

To make an attack, a hero chooses the relevant fighting skill.

If the skill is a physical weapon (sword or gun), they then use skills like sword fighting, or pistol use. These are then added to the controlling Ability, and added together. The difficult for the attack is the defender’s Parry (in the case of a sword) or Dodge in the case of a gun, and so on. If the skill is a super-power, they use the relevant super-power skill (dark bolt, mental attack). The difficulty is the target’s Dodge in the case of a ranged dark-bolt, or Will in the case of a mental attack, and so on.

Example:

Swordfighting (Agility(4)+Sword Skill(3)) + D20 (14) = 21

Or

Darkbolt ((Darkness Manipulation (7) +Darkbolt skill (3))=10) + D20 (14) = 24

Causing Damage

If the attack succeeds, the hero makes a damage roll.

For a physical weapon, damage is calculated by the following calculation:

Weapon’s Skill +Weapons Damage + (D20) = Final score.

Example: Swordfighting 7 (Sword Skill (3)+Agility (4)) + 10 (Weapons Damage (Strength +5) + (D20 (14) ) = 35.

For Super-Powers the damage is calculated by the following calculation:

Super Power Skill*2 + D20= Final Score

Example: Supower Skill 20 ((Darkness Manipulation 4+Darkbolt skill 6)*2) + 7 (D20 (14)= 34

For ranged weapons:

Weapon Specific Skill + Weapons Damage + D20

eg:

Weapon’s skill 7 (Bow (3)+ Dexterity(4)) + 10 (Arrow) + 14 (D20)= 31

NOTE: When rounding damage, always round up.

If a hero critically fails the damage roll, then they have done damage to themselves. Either their weapon slips from their fingers, or backfires. They may take the amount of damage that is left to take, or the GM may apply other negatives and difficulties.

If the hero rolls a critical success in doing damage, then the damage total is doubled, if the hero wishes (there are times when a hero may not necessarily wish to do double the amount of damage, especially if that damage might kill a villain).

In some cases, a hero may want to do extra damage with a relevant superpower. A good example of this is a hero with a sword, and super-strength. In this example, they may wish to activate (see above) their super-strength instead of using their default strength. If a hero did successfully activate their super-strength when using a sword (as in the above example), then their strength is replaced with their super-strength * 2. They are not added together.

Damage

When a hero is hit by a villain, they will take damage.

The amount of damage is worked out like this (this is called a Soak Roll):

Total Damage Dealt - Toughness - (Armour)-D20 = Damage

Example: Damage Dealt (27) - Toughness (13) - 7 (D20 (14)) = 7

If a hero rolls a critical fail at this point, the hero takes damage, but has also done themselves a critical injury, such as breaking an arm, or twisting an ankle. These can give minuses to the hero from this point onwards. For example, breaking a left arm might give a -2 to agility, which will affect all rolls connected to it (including Dodge), thereby making them easier to hit.

If a hero rolls a critical success, the hero takes no damage, no matter how much less than the full damage the soak roll is.

Armour here also includes any super-power designed to protect the user from damage. Remember that an armour super-power must be activated. Any activated armour super-power should take the super-power value (super-power+skill) and times the result by 2. In this instance, only one type of armour works at a time. Super-power natural armour, and a kevlar vest would both work. However, two kevlar vests only have the armour rating of a single kevlar vest (if you can punch through a kevlar vest, you can punch through two).

Soak

On some occasions, a hero might want to avoid taking damage. They can do this by choosing to roll their health dice (see health), and spending a Character Point(CP) (or, if they are out of Character Points, and XP). For each Character Point they spend, they can roll their health dice and add the number to their soak score (above). If they roll a 1 on their major health dice, then they loose all the Character Points spent so far, and all the benefit achieved from them, and are reduced down to their basic soak score.

Unconsciousness

If a hero takes more damage than half their current Body Points, they fall unconscious. Any actions that require them to be concentrating stop. A hero remains unconscious until they roll a successful Will roll against Challenge Rating 25, or a suitable moment after the item of Duress has passed. A hero may not wish to become conscious, and can choose to remain unconscious and therefore not make the roll.

Dying and Death

As in all comics and films, heros die.

If a hero reaches negative Body Points in damage, they are considered to be Unconscious. They may not recover from the state until they have been healed above 0 Body Points.

If they have taken negative body points that is equal to or greater than double their health, they are considered to be dying. For example, a hero with a health of 10, is on -5 body points, they are simply unconscious. If the hero then takes another 6 points of damage from being on fire, taking them to -11 points of damage, the hero begins to die.

A hero does not instantly die. There is a chance that their team-mates might try to rescue them. The hero’s action immediately following them beginning to die a hero must make a Will roll against a Challenge Rating of 25. Every turn there after, the Challenge rating increases by one. So, the next turn, the Challenge Rating becomes 26. This rating increases for 10 rounds, until the Challenge Rating becomes 36 (that is, the start of the hero’s turn, giving the maximum amount of time for other heroes to try to save them. Once the challenge rating becomes 36, that hero is dead.

If at any point the hero fails the roll (and does not have enough character points to succeed) the hero is also considered to be dead.

optional rule: If a hero critical fails any of these rolls, then the hero is dead, and may not be resurrected.

optional rule(may be used instead of the above rule): If a hero critical fails any of these rolls, then the hero is dead. If the hero has a chance of resurrection, they must take a permanent disability/disfigurement of some kind.

Damage Chart

Weapon Name Damage Rock 1 + Strength Glass Bottle/Scalpel 2 + Strength Knife 3 + Strength Wooden Baseball bat 5 + Strength Metal Baseball bat 6 + Strength Generic Sword 8 + Strength Arrow 10 + Dexterity Falling per story fallen 10 Pistol 15 Shotgun (both barrels) 20 Collision at 30mph (or, roughly, 1 pt per mph of the total collision force) 30 Sniper Rifle 35

A Note on the damage chart

Above there are two types of damage, active and passive. The sniper-rifle, for example, does more damage (high-calibre bullet), but a lot of the actual benefit of a sniper-rifle is distance, plus the accuracy of the sniper-rifle (shown in the skill of the user). Similarly, a generic sword does very little more than a baseball bat as, essentially, it’s a sharpened piece of metal. Much of the damage depends on the skill of the wielder. When ever damage is done intentionally, there should be the relevant skill, plus the D20 added to it.

Passive damage, like an accidental collision has nothing to add to it, and takes into account factors like road surface and the like. Of course, an intentional collision would include the driver’s ‘driving’ skill (or, perhaps, a critical failure would include the drivers bare skill in the damage).

Quirks

During the game, characters will find that they are passing more rolls than some, and failing more rolls than others. Perhaps a character simply can’t juggle swords when they are showing off. These kinds of random actions should be turned into Quirks. Quirks give permanent negatives and positives to actions. For example, a hero has (through random luck) just rolled 3 critical successes in a row to a task. That task could be made into a Quirk, and now gains a +2 to success to any future actions.

It can also work the other way. A character has managed to critically fail a certain task repeatedly. That character is just not cut out to using that skill in that way, and it becomes a quirk. That character is now at a -2 to those tasks in future.

When a character gains a negative quirk, those characters should increase their permanent Character Points by one for each negative quirk they have.

optional: For each positive quirk a character has, they should reduce their permanent character points by one.

Quirks are designed to ensure that it is play-style, and skill usage that drive the character, rather than simple statistics.

Character Creation

NOTES: This is roughly identical to how the DC heroes character creation works. There may be a need fo a little more points in order to buy the skills. Super-Hero powers are now all 15XP each to buy, as they are now generically more powerful.

Super power cost is affected by the advantages and disadvantages to buy the power. So, removable (-1) means that purchase cost is 14XP. Levelling up then means that the cost is 10x the level going to -1. Eg. Ice Manipulation in a necklace (removable -3 (as it’s fairly easy to remove, or fall off in a fight) would be 12XP to buy at level 1. Level 2 is 2*10-3=17XP, level 3 would be 27XP and so on.

Advantage and disadvantages

XP Earning

(Generally earn roughly 3-5 XP per session)

XP Spending

Abilities: 7 times the level they are going too. Skills: 2 times the level they are going too. Defenses: 2 times the level they are going too (as listed on the sheet) Powers: 10 times the level they are going too, minus any penalties the power has Super-Skills: 5 times the level they are going too. Minor Skills: 10 each.