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Marvelous Phile: FEATS

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Hey, guys, Professor Bill of Comic Book University (where tuition is always free) and I’m bringing you the seventh article of the Marvelous Phile, an homage to the excerpt in Dragon Magazine back in the ’80s.

Game mechanic – FEATS

FEATS are used almost every time you roll the dice in the MSHRPG. The Advanced Set allows for more than just “did you hit?” Rather, it also asks, “how?” Even more than that, social interaction can be moderated with a FEAT roll.

Types of FEATS

  • Ability FEATs – rely on the seven (7) primary attributes (your FASERIP)
  • Power FEATs – are based on the rank of whatever power you’re using
  • Talent FEATs – in combat and noncombat, there are many reasons why your talents will come into play
  • Popularity FEATs – can you call in that favor or convince that thug to talk?
  • Resource FEATs – basically, the credit system in the MSHRPG. Can you afford this thing?

These are the general reasons to roll a FEAT. Make no mistake, FEAT is simply the term used for “roll the dice” but it also implies that you’ve done the calculations. Let’s explore how to calculate what you’re rolling and discuss the “column shift.”

Column shifts

Certain conditions, situations, talents, etc. will allow you a bonus to your roll. If you’re trying to hold up a collapsing roof, you’ll get a bonus if another character of similar strength comes to help. Also, someone spraying you with a growth potion could help as now you’re larger with a greater reach. Perhaps you’re trying to repair a device and you have the electronics skill, or maybe the inventor told you some insight about the device that gives you an advantage.

MARVEL RPG

Example:

 

Let’s take a basic human with the law talent and wrestling. Johnny Flex, Esquire from Shyster & Shyster Law Offices is trying to make partner and winning this case can put him on the fast track. Johnny tries to grill the witness using his TY (6) Reason. We try to think of any determining factors that may also influence the roll and we see he gets a +1 CS due to his law talent. We can’t think of any other factors that would help his roll so we look at Typical on the Universal Table and add a +1 to the FEAT, meaning that we shift one column shift to the right, from Typical to Good.

Now Johnny will roll the percentile dice and look for what he rolled on the far-left edge of the Universal Table. He will cross-reference the roll with his modified power rank and checks the result. We’re going to keep things basic this week and say that he succeeded without going into details.

Continuing this example, Johnny’s witness freaks out and moves to attack the judge! Johnny’s closer than the sheriff so he rips his sleeves off and jumps on the witness. He knocks him to the floor and attempts to put him in an MMA armlock. Johnny has EX (20) Strength so he finds that power rank on the Universal Table. He’s about to make a FEAT so he searches for anything he can that will improve his roll to increase his chances for success.

Searching his character sheet, the player sees that Johnny has Martial Arts C among his talents, which gives a +2 CS to grappling. He looks at his Excellent score on the Universal Table and shifts two columns (+2 CS) to the right of his Excellent rank up to Incredible. The Judge rules that Johnny can have an extra +1 CS for ripping off his sleeves because it will help him cinch that hold better and it made the Judge laugh, too. Johnny now adds that +1 CS to his Incredible rank and it becomes Amazing!

Johnny Flex rolls and gets a huge success. He gets the partnership and he’s congratulated on his great tackle.

Make sure you check out my accompanying video on this subject for more details. Also, next time I’ll be discussing intensity FEATs, which involves rolling against someone else’s abilities.

Character profiles

Be sure to check out Comic Book University for a “Behind the Judges Screen” video on this subject. Thanks for reading and keep your dice-hand strong!

Professor Bill

Comic Book University

Class dismissed

Join us for good karma

Marvel FASERIP

The Universal Table determines the outcome of all the action in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG

Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game streams live on Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. Viewers in the live chat are encouraged to get their percentile dice and join in as Professor Bill leads Season Two players Nerdarchist Dave, Travis Boles from WebDM, writer and YouTuber Davae Breon Jaxon, Nerdarchy Nerditor-in-chief Doug and staff writer Megan R. Miller through a street-level campaign featuring original superhero characters.

You can learn more about how karma is gained and used by viewers in the live stream chat here. Live chat participants can use karma to affect the results of dice rolls using the same mechanic as the players. Before rolling the dice, a player can spend karma to add to the result on a 1:1 ratio. After a dice roll, karma can be added to the result on a 2:1 ratio, with a minimum of 10 karma spent. For example, if Ash is about to make a roll to use his Fire Manipulation power, Megan can choose spend five karma to add an equal amount to the dice result. If Megan decides to roll without using karma, and rolls a 60 (a green result), she could spend 22 karma to add 11 to the result, bringing to total to 71 (a yellow result).

Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game Season Two is produced by War Eagle Keep, creating overlays, running sound and a million other things that make to make this live game awesome in the Mighty Marvel Manner! Check out War Eagle Keep on Instagram @war.eagle.keep

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