1. The Basics

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[forthcoming]

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Character Creation

Very little has changed in terms of Character Creation in MURPG 2.0: Begin with a concept, get a stone count from your GM, purchase Abilities, Health & Energy, Actions, Modifiers, while taking into account Advantages & Disadvantages and free stones from Challenges. Depending on the character, you may also want to purchase Equipment.

A couple important changes:

Flavour Actions
As part of a stone count, GMs should announce a number of free stones available for the purchase of Personalized Actions. So-called "Flavour Actions" are the type that will rarely be effectively used in a game, but which add depth to a character.

Just a few stones will do the trick - somewhere between 1 white and 5 white stones, depending on the type of game (a game featuring teens may only hand out 1 or 2 stones; a game featuring more experienced and mature characters may offer 3 or more).

Transform Self
The Transform Self option is a special set of character creation rules designed for those heroes and villains who who have two or more principal "forms": Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk, Curt Connors becomes the Lizard, and Rahne Sinclair can transform into a wolf, or into a hybrid form that is equal parts wolf and human.

What it is not: These rules are not meant for characters who can choose a variety of forms as they please - that is the domain of the Metamorphosis Action. Likewise, characters who simply mimic the appearance of other people should use the Shapeshifting Action.

1. Determine the number of forms. Start by choosing a "default" form (usually your "human" form, but not always), and one alternate form. You may choose additional forms at the cost of 1 white per total number of forms. (So, if you choose 3 forms, pay a total of 3 white.)

2. Determine when you transform. Some characters transform with with greater control than others; many cannot even shift voluntarily, and are instead forced to transform under certain circumstances.

By default, your transformation is totally involuntary. Choose which of your forms is your "default"; then choose a trigger that causes you to transform automatically into your other form, such as when you become enraged, or when exposed to the light of the full moon. Get creative! If you have more than one extra form, choose a trigger for each.

At a cost, you can choose to increase the degree of control you have over your transformations:

2w = Suppress Transformation. When your transformation is triggered, you can, with some effort, decide not to transform. If you have already transformed, you can voluntarily shift back to your default form. However, you cannot voluntarily change forms unless your transformation is triggered.

2w or 3w = Voluntary Transformation. For a cost of 2 white stones, you can decide to transform out of your default form even if your trigger hasn't been activated. For 3 white stones, you can also voluntarily return to your default form, as long as your initial transformation was also voluntary; if you were forced into an alternate form, you cannot voluntarily shift back.

5w = Total Control. A combination of Suppress Transformation and Voluntary Transformation: you have complete control over your transformations and can shift to and fro as you please. There is no need to record any triggers.

3. Choose the speed of your transformation. Some characters can switch forms more rapidly than others. By default, transforming costs you all of your Actions in a panel (including Free Actions). You benefit from any defensive modifiers that your new form may have during that page, but you cannot use any Actions or spend any energy.

At a cost, you can improve your transformation speed:

3w = One Action. It costs you only one Action to transform, and you may also take Free Actions. You can use Actions from one CAD or the other (indicating that you are using the action either before or after the transformation is complete).

5w = Free Action. It costs you only a Free Action to transform (you can use one Free Action per panel, which does not count against your usual 2 Actions in a panel). You can use Actions from one CAD or the other (indicating that you are using the action either before or after the transformation is complete).

4. Buy common Abilities, Actions, Modifiers and Challenges. The next thing to do is start building your CADs. First, start buy buying your Abilities and any Actions or Modifiers that are common to all of your forms. Pay only for the lowest rating that any of your CADs will have. That is to say, if you have two forms, and both of them have Toughness, pay for the lowest of the two Toughness ratings.

Pay only once. At the end of Step 4, all of your CADs should look the same.

You should also choose any Challenges that are common to all of your forms and add your Challenge stones back into your pool of white character creation stones immediately.

5. Multiply your remaining stones. Add up the number of white character creation stones that you have left. Multiply this number by 1.5, rounding up to the nearest red or white stone.

6. Improve your individual CADs. With your new total of stones, you may increase the Abilities, Actions or Modifiers of your individual CADs. If one CAD has a higher Toughness rating, pay for the increase.

You can also buy entire Actions or Modifiers that do not even appear at all on your other forms. This is also where you choose any Challenges that apply to on one form; refund these Challenge stones into your pool without multiplying them by 1.5. Once all of your stones have been spent, you are done!

Powered Armor
Making a Powered Armor character is just like making a Transform Self character, with a few specific differences. Instead of an alternate form that you transform into, you pay for a suit of high-tech armor that you don.

1. Determine the number of suits. Set aside one CAD to represent your "pilot", and a second CAD to represent your powered armor suit. You can have multiple suits with different features; in this case, pay one white stone for the total number of CADs (including your pilot) that you wish to use.

2. Determine access to your suit. Owning a powered armor suit necessitates at least a little baggage. Many pilots keep their powered armor suit in a safe location (a safe house, secret lab, or what have you) and must go to that location in order to don their suit. Indeed, this is the default. You can pay extra stones for easier access to your suit:

2w = Homing Algorithm. Your suit is constantly aware of your location and can come to you, on auto-pilot. The speed at which it arrives depends on its method of movement (buying Flight is almost a must), and once it arrives, it takes only a single Action to don. You benefit from any defensive Modifiers while donning your suit and you may use your suit's CAD with your second Action that Panel.

5w = Portable. Your suit collapses into a portable form, such as a stylish briefcase or light backpack. With the push of a button or a simple command, it unfolds, ready to be worn. Donning your suit is a Free Action, allowing you to use it to its full capacity almost instantly.

3. Choose functionality. There is a reason they call it "powered" armor. By default, your suit can operate for up to 2 hours before needing to be recharged. You must return to a specially prepared location, such as your safe house or laboratory and leave the suit powered down for 1 hour to recharge. Moreover, anyone can use your suit if they manage to find it, though they will be as much a danger to themselves as anyone else unless they are familiar with its use. You can improve these traits at an additional cost:

1 red = Energy Supply. For each red stone spent on Energy Supply, your suit will function for an additional 2 hours. Regardless of the size of your Energy Supply, it still only takes 1 hour to recharge.

1w = Recharge Anywhere. By absorbing solar energy, ambient electricity, or through some other high-tech method, your suit can recharge itself anywhere simply by powering down for one hour.

4w = Self-Sufficient. Your suit has a limitless (or nearly limitless) energy supply. You never need to worry about your batteries running low.

1w = Exclusivity. Your suit recognizes its owner (or other authorized personnel) and will not allow others to use it.


The remaining steps of character creation are identical to Transform Self: choose common Abilities, Actions, Modifiers and Challenges, then multiply the remaining stones by 1.5 and pay for individual improvements. Be sure to rename features on your CAD appropriately, if only for fun. A Force Blast becomes a Proton Beam, a stone of Self Contained Life Form to negate the need to breathe becomes "Life Support", and so on. Ultimately, it's flavour that really sets a powered armor character apart from the rest.

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Lines of Experience

Lines of Experience (LOEs) should be handed out at the end of every issue. The number of LOEs depends on the nature of the game: an average game may see roughly 3 lines per issue; games involving very powerful or veteran characters may see only 1 or 2 lines per issue; whereas games depicting young or inexperienced characters with a lot of room to grow might hand out LOEs on a sliding scale (starting with a very high number, such as 10 to 15, and gradually scaling rewards back as the characters grow into their powers).

Improving Actions, Abilities and Modifiers
The cost of improving Actions has not changed: 10 LOEs are sufficient to increase an Action Number by 1 point; Options and Advantages can be purchased for 10 LOEs per Cost Level increase; Disadvantages can be "bought-off" for 10 LOEs per Cost Level decrease. You may need GM approval when it comes to Options, Advantages and Disadvantages.

Some Abilities can be improved as well. The "natural limit" on Physical Abilities is considered to be 3, and most GMs will allow characters to increase their Abilities up to this limit. You may be able to increase Abilities beyond this limit as well, but this is only with GM permission (and usually a good reason). The cost is 10 LOEs per point.

Lastly, some Modifiers can also be improved, but this tends to be rare and almost always requires GM permission (and again, a good reason). Assuming you have permission, the cost is 10 LOEs per MN.

Adding New Actions and Modifiers
With your GM's permission you can add a new Action or Modifier to your CAD. The traditional method of doing this is by spending Challenge stones, but if you haven't any Challenge stones you can use LOEs. There are two ways to use LOEs (choose whichever method is the most effective):

a) Convert 10 LOEs into 1 white stone. Example: As part of the current storyline, Angel's secondary mutation is triggered, allowing him to heal people with his blood. He has 22 LOEs saved up, and so he converts 10 of them into 1 white stone. Mutant Healing costs AN +2 CL, but the GM allows him to take a -1 CL discount because it only works on people with the same blood type as his own. 1 white stone buys him AN 2, and he records this on his CAD. He also spends 10 of his remaining 12 LOEs to further increase the AN to 3.

b) Buy AN or MN 1 for 10 LOEs. This is regardless of the actual Cost Level of the Action. Options must be purchased separately. Example: After being welcomed as a student at the Xavier Insitute, Surge begins learning how to control her power to absorb, store and discharge electricity. After sufficient training the GM gives her permission to buy a "Targeting" Generic Modifier for her Force Blast. The base price of her Modifier is MN +3, so even if she had a white stone she wouldn't be able to afford it. Instead she trades 10 LOEs for a Modifier Number of 1, regardless of the base price. She records this on her CAD and hopes that the GM will eventually let her increase it with more LOEs.

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Movement Actions
Some Actions are designated as "Movement Actions". Unless they specify rules and guidelines for said movement, all Movement Actions function in the following manner:

Stones placed in a Movement Action's Action Box can be "shifted" to movement. Regardless of what this movement looks like (Juggernaut runs while Unstoppable, Toad leaps with Acrobatics), and unless an Action specifies otherwise, the speed of your movement follows the "running" row on the Difficulty & Resistance chart, and your maximum velocity is determined by your Speed ability. (Flight, Phase Shift, Swimming, Teleportation, Wall Crawling and Web Slinging all have specific rules relating to speed. Acrobatics and Unstoppable follow these rules strictly.)

Example: Juggernaut is in a street fight with Wolverine and has just given the X-Man a crippling punch to the gut. Wolverine backs up some 30 yards and tries to stall while his Healing Factor kicks in, but ol' Juggy's seen that trick before. He charges, putting 5 stones into Unstoppable, intending to combine them with Close Combat. To cover the 30 yards between himself and Wolverine, Juggernaut shifts 1 of his Unstoppable stones to movement. Consulting the Difficulty and Resistance chart, we see that 1 stone is sufficient to move him at his maximum speed of 2. He can cover up to 2 city blocks (easily enough to close the distance) and still combine his remaining 4 Unstoppable stones with Close Combat to finish pummeling Wolverine into scrap metal.

The following Actions are considered "Movement Actions" in 2.0:
- Acrobatics
- Flight
- Phase Shift
- Swimming
- Teleportation
- Unstoppable
- Wall Crawling
- Web Slinging

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Initiative

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Difficulty & Resistance

Click here for a link to the Difficulty & Resistance Chart. It will be your best friend while playing MURPG. Difficulty & Resistance haven't changed much in 2.0 - if anything, the rest of the rules have changed around them to make a better fit.

Lifting & Throwing
The lifting and throwing of heavy objects comes up quite often in comic book stories. In most circumstances, your Strength is what determines what you can and can't lift, and how far you can throw it.

To lift an object, first determine it's weight on the Difficulty & Resistance chart. An object's weight is also the Difficulty and number of stones of Resistance required to lift it: You must put in that many stones of Strength to hoist the object up over your head.

For each additional point of Strength you spend, you can throw the object 10 feet. Anything caught in the object's path suffers stones of attack equal to the object's weight. (If you really want to be good at throwing heavy objects, try the Heave Heavy Objects option for Ranged Combat.)

Holding a very heavy object is exhausting. The Resistance to lift an object increases by 1 per panel after the first: +1 Resistance on the 2nd panel, +2 Resistance on the 3rd panel, and so on. There is one exception to this rule: If an object has a weight 3 points lower than your Strength, then you can carry it indefinitely without suffering a cumulatively increasing resistance.


Leaping
Sometimes you'll find yourself in a situation where you need to leap a certain distance - often with dire consequences for failure, such as a 15 story drop! Long-distant jumps are difficult to accomplish, but easy to sort out with the rules.

Consult the Area/Leaping row of the D&R chart to determine the Difficulty and Resistance of a leap. (Halve the distance listed when attempting a vertical leap.) Your Strength must be equal to or higher than the Difficulty to even attempt the jump, but you can use Strength, Agility, or Acrobatics (or Speed, if you have a decent running start) to overcome the Resistance. You must overcome the Resistance in one attempt; you may not whittle away at the Resistance over multiple panels. If you want to be really good at jumping, check out the Leaper Modifier.

If you want to be exceptionally talented at long jumps, consider buying the Leaper Modifier.


Breaking Stuff
Stuff breaks in comic book stories. A lot. Especially if you are playing a character with super strength, you will inevitably find yourself in a situation where you just have to kick in a door, destroy a control panel, or just outright smash something.

First, determine the Difficulty by consulting the "hardness" row on the Difficulty & Resistance chart. You must have sufficient Strength to meet or exceed the Difficulty to have a hope of destroying the object in question. If you have an appropriate tool on hand (a sledge hammer to help break down a brick wall, or a knife to cut through a thick rope), you may add 1 to your Strength for the purposes of meeting Difficulty.

You may also be able to meet Difficulty with an appropriately violent Action, such as a Force Blast. In such cases, use your AN in place of your Strength.

Resistance generally depends on the size of the object: very small or brittle objects such as cell phones or glass windows may have a Resistance of only 1 or 2 stones; a door might have a resistance of 3 or 4; most sturdy walls generally have a Resistance equal to twice it's hardness. As always, this is up to GM's discretion. You can use your Strength or appropriate Actions such as Close Combat or a Force Blast to overcome Resistance.