Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Blog

Nerdarchy > Events  > Marvelous Phile: Fire and Flame in Marvel Super Heroes RPG
MARVEL RPG

Marvelous Phile: Fire and Flame in Marvel Super Heroes RPG

Kickstarter Korner Oct. 2017, Week 4
Kickstarter Korner for Nov. 2017, Week 1

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

Game mechanic – fire!

Professor Bill opens the pages of the comic book universe in Season Two of Marvel Super Heroes, produced by War Eagle Keep.

In the previous adventure (season 2, episode 3) of Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game live play, our heroes had to get to the infamous villain, Blacklash! He was on the top of a train car and the heroes were on the other end. Unfortunately, there was a fire inside the train car, so to get to Blacklash, they had to climb.

This gave way to all sorts of fun because I used a game mechanic I devised where they needed to make Agility FEATS every time they tried to climb forward. Now, if they would have tried going through the fire it would have been a different story.

Here’s what would have happened.

The fire itself was RM (30) intensity. Therefore, every round they would have stayed in the fire they would have taken fire damage. Since it would have taken a minimum of two turns to get through the train car, none of the heroes would have gotten through alive. Standard body armor does not prevent fire damage – there is a separate power for that.

You can make your fire any intensity you’d like depending on the circumstances. I wanted mine particularly hot because I wanted my heroes to face the hazard on top of the train.

As long as there is combustible material around then the fire will continue burning at standard intensity. If a fire of lesser intensity comes into contact with an item of higher material strength then it will not burn or melt. However, it will still conduct heat.

FASERIP Example

A RM (30) intensity fire will burn objects of EX (20) material strength or lower, melt or damage an item of equal material strength, and items of IN (40) material strength or higher will not be damaged.

Again, the items will still transfer heat, so picking up an iron bar that has one end in the fire will still do damage to the character.

If the material strength is lower than the intensity of the fire, then the item will burn or melt, causing the item to be reduced in material strength by -1 Column Shift until repaired. This could cause other complications for the heroes.

FASERIP Example

A house is on fire. The hero needs to enter the house but the heat is so intense that the door frame has warped. The average strength of a wooden door is TY (6). In the fire, it is reduced to PR (4), but while a door that is not on fire opens and closes by evened hinges in the door frame, a warped door can only be opened with a Strength FEAT, so she can either pull at the door (taking damage) or try to break it down. Fortunately, the FEAT is made against PR (4) material strength since the fire has weakened it.

Anyone who’s stood anywhere near a fire knows that it radiates heat. Anyone in a fire takes full damage, while anyone one area away (10 feet) will take -3 CS reduced damage. Someone who is two areas away will take minute -6 CS of damage.

FASERIP Example

A car is on fire and the flames are of RM (30) intensity. The body of the car is of GD (10) material strength so it begins to melt, meaning you can make the hero role a Strength FEAT to get the door open. While he is in the fire, he will take 30 points of damage every round. He gets the door open, taking damage all the while, and finds the driver. In order to get this person out of harm’s way, the hero must carry the individual two full areas away. If he moves him only one area away then the driver will take -3 CS (6 points) of damage, while two areas away is -6 CS (Sh 0) and far enough away from this particular fire to avoid injury.

Fire spreads at the rate of one area per round if there is sufficient combustible material.

Standard fire extinguishers are of GD (10) ability. A fire can be reduced in intensity by the amount of retardant used. Therefore, the RM (30) fire can be reduced by 10 points per round. So, in three rounds, the fire can be fully extinguished.

It should be noted that portable fire extinguishers only work in a one area range, so if it were two cars, or a room larger than one area, then one area would be reduced while the others still burn hot. Also, the fire can return to those areas quickly depending on what sort of retardant was used (a foam versus water, which can evaporate in the heat).

Character profiles

That’s all for this week. See you next week right here and on the Live Stream.

Professor Bill

Comic Book University

Class dismissed

Join us for some good karma

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 web editor 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

[amazon_link asins=’B06XDFZRKY,1302904108,B00E5I2M6I’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’0e3d1b51-bdb7-11e7-ab44-bd6279ba6ea3′]

 

Share
Professor Bill

Bill, Comic Book University on YouTube Da Bill (on Facebook)

1 Comment

Leave a Reply