Marvelous Adventures:Main Page

Marvelous Adventures is a streamlined version of the Marvel Superheroes RPG published by TSR, influenced by their own simplification of those rules in the Marvel Adventure gamebook series. What follows is a condensed summary of changes relative to the Advanced Edition of that game.

Chartless FEATs

Instead of the published scale, the "rank number" of a rank is its ordinal position (e.g. Typical = +3, Incredible = +7, etc.). Health and Karma are calculated from the new numbers (e.g. a character with Good (+4) in all physical stats has 16 Health instead of 40.)

Red FEAT Thresholds

FB	PR	TY	GD	EX	RM	IN	AM	MN	UN
20 (16+)	20 (12+)	20 (8+)	20 (4+)	20	20	19+	19+	18+	18+

The rank used to attempt a FEAT is generally referred to an ability, while the rank that opposes it (aka its Intensity) is its challenge. When attempting a FEAT, add 1d20 to the ability rank:

• You have a Green result; if the total is equal to or more than the challenge plus 10;
• You have a Yellow result if the total is equal to or more than the challenge plus 16;
• You have a Red result if the number on the die is equal to or higher than the corresponding threshold listed on the chart below; ability ranks lower than Excellent must "confirm" a Red result with a second d20 roll higher than the value in parentheses.

Example: Captain America wants to show Hitler how he feels about fascism. He rolls a FEAT, adding a d20 roll of 14 to his Amazing (+8) rank Fighting; the total (22) is more than Hitler's Good (+4) rank Fighting plus 16 (i.e. 20), so this is a Yellow result: Cap hits his intended target, inflicting double damage and a Slam result. Adolf is forced to roll an Endurance FEAT (against Typical Intensity) himself; his roll of 8, plus Excellent (+5) rank Endurance, is just equal to Typical (+3) Intensity plus 10 for a green (1 area) result — so the Führer is sent off his feet flying!

Resources

Characters may make additional Resource FEATs in a week if necessary, at a cumulative -2 penalty.

The term of Characters making purchases on loan must make monthly (Cost-2) payments for a number of months equal to five times the purchase cost.

Popularity

A character receives a +1 shift on a Popularity FEAT if the target previously owes them a favor.

Changes to Popularity are tracked in headlines (generally the same as the published awards and penalties to Popularity). A character can 'cash in' 10 headlines to improve their Popularity by one rank; a character who collects 10 negative headlines loses one rank of Popularity.

Everybody loves a winner: Publicly defeating a costumed character (even another hero!) in public generates a minimum of +1 headline (though depending on circumstances this may be counterbalanced by resulting media attacks or criminal charges). Publicly defeating a character with negative Popularity generates headlines equal to their popularity rank (e.g. defeating the Beetle earns +4 headlines, while defeating the Red Skull earns +9).

Combat

Attack FEATs are opposed actions, generally using the target's corresponding stat as the challenge, e.g. a slugfest attack is Fighting vs. Fighting, a shooting attack is Agility vs. Agility. A charging attack can be opposed by either Fighting or Agility; a Grapple attack by either Fighting or Strength. The challenge to make a blindside attack is always Nil (+0).

Stun, Slam, and Bullseye results in combat all inflict double the usual damage (before applying defenses) in addition to their other effects. An attacker's Strength must at least equal the defender's Endurance to require a Stun? or Slam? check (unless the attacker has the Martial Arts A talent).

Rationale: The Stun/Slam rule was in the original Basic Edition, and probably was intended to be in Advanced (since the Martial Arts A talent references it) but I couldn't locate an actual cite.

A character can take 4 combat actions in a turn with an Unearthly challenge Fighting FEAT.

Dodging

Dodging is not an action requiring a FEAT, but a tactic declared along with the character's regular action. A dodging character has a -2 penalty to any FEAT they perform that turn; conversely, characters who are not may only use half (round down) their Fighting and/or Agility as the challenge against attacks.

Example: Spider-Man swings into battle against a group of mooks; their challenge to shoot at him while dodging is, naturally, Amazing (+8), while adjacent thugs might take a swing at him at Remarkable (+6) challenge. The next turn, he spots a canister of deadly gas about to be knocked over, and focuses all his effort on catching it before it can shatter; now the challenge to shoot him is only Good (+4), and slugfest attacks would only be Typical (+3).

Evading

A white result when Evading is "None", not "Autohit". Characters can use the single-roll (at -4) option to evade multiple adjacent characters.

Building & Breaking Things

Devices are rated in Complexity, corresponding to the Reason rank associated with their development; Complexity is an applicable rank for all devices.

FB	PR	TY	GD	EX	RM	IN	AM	MN	UN
Stone Age	Bronze Age	Medieval	Industrial	Conventional	Cutting-Edge	Near-Future	Interstellar	Nanotech	Singularity

This is a replacement for/expansion of the "inventions beyond modern technology add a Monstrous rank" rule).

A green result when inventing is a "proof of concept", giving a +3 to future Reason FEATs to create that invention.

Magic

Spells using personal energy may be cast on an unsuspecting target that cannot themselves detect magic, with a yellow FEAT. Health lost from casting Personal energy spells is recovered at 10 times the usual rate.

Spells using universal energy require a Psyche FEAT to cast, with a challenge equal to the intended power rank of the spell. Failing this FEAT lowers Psyche by one rank for 1-10 turns.

A sorceror can cast multiple spells in a turn with a Psyche FEAT the same as a character can take multiple combat actions with a Fighting FEAT (i.e. Remarkable challenge for 2 spells, Amazing for 3, and Unearthly for 4).

Karma

In keeping with the rescaling from d100 to d20 rolls, all Karma awards, penalties, and expenditures are one-fifth the published values (e.g. it costs 1 Karma to improve a FEAT roll by +1 point, and 10 Karma to reduce a Kill result to a Bullseye).

There is no specific Karma award for monetary donations — these can be treated the same as any other act of charity.

Rationale: It's more of a sacrifice and thus more heroic for e.g. Spider-Man to make a Poor challenge donation than for Tony Stark to make an Good rank donation, and this should be reflected in Karma awards).

Characters can receive +1 Karma for an impressively humorous or dramatic moment.

Rationale: A suitably "Captain America" inspiring speech should be rewarded as much as a suitably "Spider-Man" quip.)

If a member of a team kills another character in circumstances where no other member had any opportunity to prevent them from doing so, the pool is only reduced by 10 points (cf. mysterious or suicidal deaths).

Advancement

Instead of choosing to place earned Karma in an advancement fund, all Karma awarded to a character (including their starting amount) automatically generates a matching amount of advancement points (AP) which can be then spent to improve the character's abilities.

• Increasing the rank of a physical stat, mental stat, or power costs 100 times the new rank.
• Raising Resources costs 80 AP plus 10 times the new rank.
• Raising Popularity costs 10 times the new rank, and cashes in one headline (see above).
• Gaining a new power costs 600 AP, plus 40 times its starting rank.
  • A robotic character with access to a suitably skilled inventor can add powers for 600 AP plus 10 times the starting rank.
  • A sorceror can learn a new magical spell for only 300 AP plus 20 times the starting rank.
• Learning a new Talent requires 400 AP. Receiving instruction from a character who already possesses that Talent allows a character to add AP toward learning that equal to the instructor's own effective rank in the ability (once per day).

Power Stunts are purchased with AP rather than Karma.

Powers & Talents

The Growth power adds its currently active rank to Health points.

Characters with the Journalism talent add +1 to Popularity FEATs that only involve obtaining information.