Resolve and Adversity

Although Heroes have powers and abilities beyond the ken of normal men and women, that is not what makes them heroes. What makes these characters heroes is that they have the courage to get out there and try to make the world a better place. They are heroes because they live by their ideals and stand by their principles, even when that is hard to do. They are heroes because they never give up, despite the hardships they encounter and the dangers they face, sometimes at the hands of the people they have sworn to protect. In short, they are heroes because of their Resolve. This section explains how Heroes earn Resolve and how they use it to bend the rules of the game or the game world itself in their favor. It also covers Adversity, which GMs use in much the same way.

Resolve

You begin every issue -- again, that is every game session -- with some amount of Resolve. Your starting Resolve depends on your highest ranked Ability or Power (subject to the exceptions below): the lower the rank, the higher your Resolve. The less superhuman you are, the more determined you must be to put on a mask and go fight crime. Or the crazier. Either way, Heroes who are somewhat underpowered begin play with more Resolve than their mightier counterparts. The Resolve table indicates how much Resolve you have at the start of every issue. If you can increase the rank of an Ability or Power through other Powers like Boost or Shapeshifting, use your maximum possible rank when checking this table. The best way to track Resolve is with something like poker chips or glass beads.

Resolve table

Exceptions

• Talents do not affect Resolve. As mundane proficiencies and skills, Talents are not in the same league as Abilities and Powers. Plus, the superhero genre is full of resolute Heroes who compensate for their lack of superpowers with a variety of finely honed skills.
• Powers that cannot be used for attack, defense, or to affect other characters or objects do not affect Resolve. Examples include Danger Sense, Detection, Expertise (except for combat skills), Flight, Leaping, and Running.
• Super Senses, Swimming, Swinging, Teleportation, and Tunneling do not usually affect Resolve.
• The GM has the final say when determining which Powers affect Resolve.

Carryover Resolve

Resolve does not carry over between issues. When an issue ends, unspent Resolve is lost. This is to encourage players to spend Resolve. However, GMs can occasionally allow Resolve to carry over between issues. For example, if a Hero with 3 Resolve ends an issue with 5 points of Resolve, the GM can let them start the next issue with 5 Resolve. This should be done sparingly, however, as it encourages hoarding.

Earning Resolve

No matter how much Resolve you have when an issue begins, you are going to want more. There are a variety of ways to earn Resolve over the course of the game. Although some of the more common ways are set forth below, what these examples really amount to is roleplaying an interesting superhero, doing cool things, and making dramatic choices that keep the game exciting for everyone. Thus, GMs should feel free to award Resolve whenever they see fit.

Defeats

Suffering a brutal defeat and then coming back stronger than before is a classic comic book trope. Like everyone else, Heroes sometimes fall. What makes them heroes is that they always get back up again. That being the case, you earn 1 Resolve any time you suffer a significant defeat, failure, or setback, which may or may not involve combat. You can only earn this extra Resolve once per battle, even if you get defeated multiple times in the same encounter.

Flaws

As mentioned in Chapter 2, you earn 1 Resolve whenever you bring one of your Flaws into play in a way that causes problems for you or your allies. Of course, you can only do this when it makes sense within the context of the game. For example, your fear of heights cannot suddenly rear its acrophobic head at the beach just because you need that extra point of Resolve. Note that certain Flaws work differently, granting you 1 extra point of Resolve per issue instead.

Interludes

You can earn Resolve by creating and playing out an interlude. Like subplots and flashbacks, interludes are short scenes that involve the Heroes but are not directly related to the current story of the game. For more information about what interludes are and how they work, see Chapter 9.

Motivation

You earn 1 Resolve whenever you do something unwise, out of character, or detrimental to yourself or your allies because of your motivation. Heroes generally stand by their convictions, even when it is difficult -- which is the only time convictions really matter -- and they should be rewarded for doing so. However, this is not meant to encourage impulsiveness, stupidity, or intentionally derailing a game.

Roleplaying

You earn 1 Resolve whenever the GM feels you have done something exceptionally clever, dramatic, funny, heroic, or just plain cool. Great roleplaying, brilliant comedy, clever problem solving, and strategic thinking could all merit this reward, as could taking the time to help a new player.

Sacrifice

If you find yourself in a pinch and out of Resolve, you can dig deep and push yourself. This grants you 1 point of Resolve you have to use immediately (on that same page), but once you do, you pass out from the strain of whatever you were doing and you remain that way for the rest of the scene.

Spending Resolve

As the narrative currency of the game, Resolve can be spent in a few different ways. The basic uses for Resolve are set forth below. As with everything else, GMs should feel free to expand how Resolve can be used in their games.

Assisting Allies

You can share Resolve with your allies, giving them as many points as you wish. You must describe how you are assisting a character when you give them Resolve. This is purely for the sake of the narrative: your actions have no mechanical effect other than letting you share Resolve. If you cannot actually assist your ally (because you are unconscious, not in the scene, otherwise occupied, etc.), you have to spend 2 points of Resolve for every point you want to share, and you have to narrate a brief flashback or memory that involves your Heroes and relates to the situation.

Challenge Rolls

You can spend Resolve to add extra dice to your challenge rolls on a one-for-one basis. You can spend as much Resolve as you wish, and you can decide whether to do so after rolling the dice. You can also spend 1 Resolve to reroll a challenge roll completely. If you have already spent Resolve to add extra dice to the roll, you can reroll those extra dice as well. Last, you can spend 1 Resolve to reroll any other type of roll, such as the one made to determine if your Unreliable Power works.

Combat Spends

There are several ways to spend Resolve in combat. They include:

1. Seizing the initiative to act first (or if the GM prefers, to double your Edge) on every page of the action.
2. Recovering from a defeat or a special effect.
3. Knocking a target backwards.
4. Luring an attacker into hitting something or someone other than you.
5. Enhancing your team attack by making your dice explode.
6. Reducing the impact or lethality of certain Gritty Combat Rules.

For more on this, see Chapter 4, Combat.

Lucky Breaks

You can spend 1 Resolve to make up some minor detail about the game world, usually a lucky break or incredible coincidence that works in your favor. For example, if you get knocked off a rooftop, you can use this to say you land on a pile of discarded mattresses. This is always subject to the GM's approval.

Power Stunts

You can spend 1 Resolve to use one of your Abilities or Powers in a way that imitates another Power. If the stunt is even remotely reasonable, the imitated Power has the same rank as the Ability or Power used to imitate it. To be clear, this does not grant you a new Power. It lets you use an existing Ability or Power in a creative way that momentarily imitates the effect of another Power.

Using Powers

As discussed in Chapter 2, you may have to spend Resolve to use certain Powers. Because only Heroes have Resolve, one of the players must spend Resolve any time a friendly Extra uses a Power that requires it. If none of the players are willing to spend the Resolve, the Extra cannot or will not use the Power at that time.

Mind you, this does not affect how these characters use their Powers when they are not around the Heroes. But as long as they are, the players must spend Resolve if they want their allies to use Powers that require it.

Adversity

Let the players have their pathetic little pools of Resolve. As the GM, you have something even better, you have Adversity.

Adversity represents both villainous determination and the cruel whims of fate that make the Heroes' lives more difficult and their stories more interesting. Like Resolve, the best way to track Adversity is with something like poker chips or glass beads, but only because science has yet to devise a way to crystallize players' tears. Ah, well.

Earning Adversity

The GM begins every issue with 1 point of Adversity for every Hero in the game, and never carries Adversity over between issues. One point of Adversity per Hero is rarely enough to make those fools pay for their insolence, but there are ways to earn more, as discussed below. GMs should, of course, feel free to add to this list as they see fit, but they should not earn Adversity as easily as Heroes earn Resolve. Adversity is supposed to be more of a fixed resource than Resolve.

Challenge Level

Some scenes are supposed to be especially challenging or dangerous. One way to support this is to give these scenes a Challenge Level, usually from 1 to 3. Scenes with a Challenge Level are going to be more difficult for the Heroes because the GM earns extra Adversity when these scenes begin. Multiply a scene's Challenge Level by the number of Heroes in the game to determine how much Adversity to award the GM. For example, in a game with 4 Heroes, a Challenge Level 2 scene drops 8 Adversity into the GM's evil clutches. GMs can use this extra Adversity however they wish, spending it right away or saving it to torment the Heroes later that issue.

Only a handful of scenes in any story should have a Challenge Level. Most of these scenes will be Challenge Level 1, which is suitable for high-stakes action scenes and ordinary fight scenes involving super-powered enemies. Challenge Level 2 takes things to another level (literally) and is best used for pivotal action scenes or climactic fight scenes against especially powerful or recurring Villains. Challenge Level 3 (or greater) should be reserved for battles against nigh-unstoppable foes and other truly epic scenes, the kind that conclude major story arcs or entire series.

Unheroic Actions

Heroes are expected to act heroically. Whenever a Hero performs a cowardly, selfish, treacherous, or otherwise unheroic action, the GM immediately earns 1 Adversity. The same applies whenever Heroes do anything contrary to their motivation. This occurs even if they have been coerced, forced, or tricked into taking such actions. The universe cares little for excuses and less for semantics.

Spending Adversity

Remember when we said Adversity is better than Resolve? Well here is why: you can use Adversity to do anything players can do with Resolve, and more. If the rules say you can use Resolve to do something, you can use Adversity to do the same thing.

Plus, you can spend Adversity on behalf of any NPC whether they are Villains, Foes, Minions, or Extras. You do not have to worry about sharing because all these characters have access to the same pool of points. There are also three things you can do with Adversity that Heroes cannot do with Resolve.

Flaws

As discussed in Chapter 2, Flaws work differently for NPCs than for Heroes. While Heroes use Flaws to earn Resolve whenever they wish, NPCs do not have this luxury. For these characters, Flaws operate more like actual weaknesses, coming into play and causing problems whenever the opportunity presents itself (which is why GMs should think carefully about the Flaws they give their NPCs). GMs can spend 1 Adversity to prevent a Flaw from getting the better of a Villain, Foe, or Extra for the rest of a scene, but no character can benefit from this more than once per issue.

Misfortunes

You can spend 1 Adversity to throw a misfortune at the Heroes.

Misfortunes are random problems, obstacles, and instances of bad luck that make the Heroes' lives more difficult. They include things like having a Hero's weapon malfunction or run out of ammo, having a stray attack cause collateral damage that endangers civilians, having a Hero lose their mask in a fight, and so on. Misfortunes should always be challenges and complications that make things more interesting and fun. Do not use them as heavy-handed plot devices (for that, see Villainy below) or to punish the Heroes for no reason.

Villainy

Once per story, you can spend 1 Adversity to have a Villain automatically perform an act of villainy, meaning anything necessary to advance the story. This can be used to have Villains do things like throw switches, grab hostages, or escape so they can face the Heroes another time. Use this tool sparingly. If you do this too often, your players will start to feel powerless and the game will stop being fun. Villainy applies only to Villains; Foes and Minions lack what it takes to use Adversity in this manner.

Super Tip

Spending Resolve should never make things worse. If a player spends Resolve to reroll a roll, let them keep the first roll if the second turns out to be worse than the original.