Effects in MHR
Your GM is excited to be on a new learning curve, this time with the new Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system. By sharing these details with you readers, I hope to improve everybody's game. The next few entries will focus on mechanics, so things may seem a bit dry in here.
The dice pools have been rolled and the action succeeds. "What did you do, Ray?"
You may have given the target Stress. If your effect die is bigger than the target's current stress rating, the die becomes the new rating. If not, that stress gets a step up. This has two game effects: when any stress rating exceeds d12, the target is stressed out and can no longer take an active part in the scene; and a character's stress can be added to any attacker's dice pool against him or her.
Effect dice don't have to cause stress, however: they can be used to create Assets and Complications to aid or hinder any character. A classic asset is the "Fastball Special" in which the pitcher adds his effect to the projectile's attack pool. Knockback is a complication: the knocked back character becomes easier to hit and to resist. Unless a player activates the Watcher's roll of a 1, an asset or complication is always a d8.
If a player uses a plot point or the Watcher burns a die from the Doom Pool, the only real restriction on effects is that a given attack can only inflict a given type of stress, an asset or a complication on a character once. If Magneto stabs Cyclops with a shard of metal for d10, the pain may cause Scott mental or emotional stress as well as physical, or leave him limping, but it won't cause more physical stress... yet.
The dice pools have been rolled and the action succeeds. "What did you do, Ray?"
You may have given the target Stress. If your effect die is bigger than the target's current stress rating, the die becomes the new rating. If not, that stress gets a step up. This has two game effects: when any stress rating exceeds d12, the target is stressed out and can no longer take an active part in the scene; and a character's stress can be added to any attacker's dice pool against him or her.
Effect dice don't have to cause stress, however: they can be used to create Assets and Complications to aid or hinder any character. A classic asset is the "Fastball Special" in which the pitcher adds his effect to the projectile's attack pool. Knockback is a complication: the knocked back character becomes easier to hit and to resist. Unless a player activates the Watcher's roll of a 1, an asset or complication is always a d8.
If a player uses a plot point or the Watcher burns a die from the Doom Pool, the only real restriction on effects is that a given attack can only inflict a given type of stress, an asset or a complication on a character once. If Magneto stabs Cyclops with a shard of metal for d10, the pain may cause Scott mental or emotional stress as well as physical, or leave him limping, but it won't cause more physical stress... yet.