Action

You can automatically do anything a normal person can do without difficulty. Simply tell the Game Master and describe what happens. However, any time you try to perform a non-combat action whose outcome is uncertain, you have to make a challenge roll to determine who earns narrative control and gets to describe what happens in the game world. Things work a little differently in combat, but out of combat, challenge rolls generally determine who gets to narrate the outcome of an action.

When making a challenge roll, you roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to the Trait that applies to the action attempted. You earn one success for every 2 and 4 rolled, and two successes for every 6 rolled. To speed play, you can take 1 automatic success for every 2 dice you choose not to roll.

Once you have your successes, you have to subtract the action's threshold to determine your net successes. If you're acting against an opponent, they make their own challenge roll against you, and you use their successes as your threshold. If you aren't acting against an opponent, the Game Master assigns a static threshold using the table below as a guide. Challenge rolls made against a static threshold are usually referred to by their difficulty and threshold, often followed by the name of the relevant Trait — for example, an Average (1) challenge roll or an Average (1) Might roll.

When you subtract your total successes from the action's threshold, the result is called your net successes. This determines who gets to describe what happens, as indicated on the table below. As used below, the Actor is the person making the roll and the Opponent is the person resisting it. Actions like cracking a safe or scaling a wall don't involve an Opponent, so the Game Master acts as the Opponent.

Super Tip!
Comic books are a visual medium. What you look like matters in a superhero roleplaying game, so draw or find an image of your hero that you can share with everyone else in the game.

| Two mighty heroes, Citizen Soldier and Gatecrasher, are putting on an arm wrestling exhibition for charity. Both have 12d Might, which is the Trait that applies to this action. Citizen Soldier doesn't bother rolling, and instead takes 6 automatic successes for his 12d. Gatecrasher, meanwhile, rolls 12 dice and gets a 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, and 6, for a total of 7 successes (one for 2 and 4 and two for every 6). Because both characters are trying to do the same thing — win the contest — the one who rolls more successes is considered the Actor. That would be Gatecrasher. Subtracting Citizen Soldier's 6 successes, Gate ends up with 1 net success. Gatecrasher gets to describe how the arm wrestling contest plays out, but Citizen Soldier can add an embellishment to the narration.

Embellishments

Whenever an embellishment is allowed, the party who doesn't have narrative control can add to the other person's narration in some small but meaningful way. An embellishment should be a clarification or additional detail that expands on the original narration without contradicting it. Embellishments can't render the original narration untrue or true but effectively meaningless.

Compromises

When someone else has the right to embellish your narration, you can offer a compromise. This means you describe a less-than-perfect outcome for your action in exchange for them giving up the right to embellish your narration. In order to have a compromise, both sides have to agree on the final narration. Opponents are never obligated to accept a proposed compromise.

Describing The Action

The point of this narrative system is to make the game more exciting by paving the way for creative and unexpected outcomes. When characters take action, players and GMs are expected to narrate interesting results, first and foremost.

Although we expect players to slant things in their favor and GMs to slant things against them, narrations should usually involve something more than a simple I win or you lose. For example, if you fail a challenge roll while trying to leap from one rooftop to another, the Game Master should come up with something more interesting than just having you fall to your death. Maybe you stop short at the edge of a building and drop something you were carrying. Maybe you almost make it across and end up dangling by your fingertips, ready to lose your grip at any moment. Maybe you drop onto a scaffolding some thirty feet below. Be creative and make your descriptions interesting.

Traditional Results

Not everyone is comfortable narrating their actions. If this describes you, that's fine too. While these rules are designed around the idea of rolling for narrative control, you can just as easily apply a more traditional framework of rolling to determine success or failure by using the table below. When using this table, the Game Master determines the nature of all silver linings and complications. You can even mix and match these systems, with some players using narrative results and others using traditional results.

Assisting

Many actions are easier to accomplish as a team. Whenever you perform such an action, you get a +1d bonus to your challenge roll if you have one assistant, a +2d bonus if you have a few assistants, or a +3d bonus if you have many assistants. Occasionally, you and your fellow heroes have to perform individual actions as a group, like when sneaking into a villain's lair. In cases like these, everyone involved in the action makes their own challenge roll. However, as long as the group members can communicate with and assist one another, characters who earn more than 3 net successes can distribute their extra successes among their allies to help them succeed as well.

Contests

Some challenges are more dramatic and interesting when broken up over multiple rolls. These challenges are called contests, and they're broken down into 3 exchanges. Each exchange covers a separate part of the overall task and requires its own challenge roll. The winner of each exchange is allowed to describe something that happens during that exchange—think of this as an embellishment—and earns a +2d bonus on their challenge roll in the next exchange. Whoever wins the third and final exchange gets to describe the overall outcome of the contest

Defining Moments

Whether you're a solo act, part of local team, or a member of an international league, there are times when everything rests on your shoulders. When that happens, you always have the option of declaring that this is a Defining Moment. This does two things. First, any 6s you roll explode: they count as 2 successes, you get to roll those dice again to try for extra successes, and you can keep rerolling them as long as you keep rolling 6s. Second, every point of Resolve you spend on that challenge roll earns you 3 extra dice instead of the usual 1 extra die (as discussed in Chapter 4).

You can only declare one Defining Moment per story, and only one hero can declare a Defining Moment per scene (although heroes in different scenes can declare Defining Moments that just happen to occur at the same time). Most importantly, Defining Moments take their toll on you. Once a Defining Moment is over, you must permanently reduce one of your Abilities by 1d!

Defining Moments should be rare and special. You shouldn't expect to have one every issue, or even every story. It's only when you find yourself in a situation that rests entirely on your shoulders, involves your allies or someone you love, or speaks directly to why you became a hero in the first place (and why your Motivation keeps you doing it) that a Defining Moment is appropriate.