Marvel Super Heroes (role-playing Game) - Game Mechanics

Game Mechanics

Marvel Superheroes was driven by two primary game mechanics: column shifts and colored results. Both essentially influenced the difficulty of an action.

A column shift is used when a character is attempting an exceptionally hard or easy action. A column shift to the left indicates a penalty, while a shift to the right indicates a bonus. For example, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) has an Intuition of Excellent, making him significantly more perceptive than the average person whose Intuition is Typical (two ranks lower). The GM might determine that spotting a trap hidden beneath a few sticks and leaves will be fairly easy, and give the player running Mr. Fantastic a +1 column shift. His Intuition will be treated as Remarkable (the next column to the right). However, a trap buried underground might be considerably harder to spot, and the GM might give the player a -1 column shift penalty. In this case, Mr. Fantastic's Intuition will only be treated as Good (the column to the left).

The column for each ability is divided into four colors: white, green, yellow, and red. A white result is always a failure or unfavorable outcome. In most cases, getting a green result was all that was needed to succeed at a particular action. Yellow and red results usually indicated more favorable results that could knock back, stun, or even kill an opponent. However, the GM could determine that succeeding at an exceptionally hard task might require a yellow or red result.

Additional rules in the "Campaign Book" of the Basic Set, and the subsequent Advanced Set, used the same game mechanic to resolve non-violent tasks. For example, if a superhero needs to figure out how to operate a piece of alien technology, the hero would have to succeed at a Reason roll, where the chance of success is modified by the complexity of the device.