Basic Set Design: Jeff Grubb Editing: Steve Winter Able Assistance: Timothy B. Brown and Steven E. Schend Cover Art: Jeff Butler Interior Art: Jeff Butler and the Marvel Bullpen Typography: Angelika Lokotz Cartography: Dennis Kauth Design & Production: Paul Hanchette Special Thanks: William W. Connors, Jon Pickens, Jim Ward TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd . PO. Box 756 120 Church End Lake Geneva Cherry Hinton WI 53 147 TSR, Inc. Cambridge CB1 3LB U.S.A. PRODUCTS Of YOUR IMAGINATION"" United Kingdom This book is protected under the copyright law of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written consent of TSR, Inc. and Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. MARVEL SUPER HEROES is a trademark of the Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Marvel characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of the Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. "'Copyright 1991 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The TSR logo and PRODUC TS OF YOUR IMAGINATION are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Game Design Copyright ")1991 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. 6900XXX1902 Table of Contents Introduction ....... ......................... 3 Running the Game ... .. ... ...... ..........31 Heroes (and Other Characters) . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 Running an Adventure ............ .............31 Abilities .... ...." .... " ................... 4 Running Campaigns . ........... ............ 34 Ranks and Rank Numbers ............ ........ 5 Karma Awards . ............................35 Variable Abilities .... ....... ..... ............ 6 Karma Losses ....... ......... ..............37 Powers . ................ ............. ...... 7 Karma Pools and Groups ... .... ..............38 Ta lents . .................. ..... ...... ... .. 8 Character Advancement (Optional) . .............38 FEATs ...................................... 9 Karma Awards Table . .... ... .............. ...39 Column Shifts ........ ........... ....... .. 10 Running Popularity (Optional) ............... .....40 Intensities .... ................. ........ ..... 10 Running Resources .............. ..............40 Intensity Table .. ......... ... .......... ...... 12 Running Weapons ............. ................ 41 Material Strength ..................... .. .. 12 Weapons Chart ... .... ......................42 Karma ......... ....... ........... ........... 13 Running Vehicles . ... .... .................. ...42 Vehicles Ta ble ........................ ..... 42 Movement ........... ........ ................ 14 Types of Vehicles ............................43 Clutter and Crowds ...... .................... 14 Optional Rules for Vehicles ............ ........43 Vertical Movement ............. .... .......... 15 Running Magic ............ ........ ...... ..... 44 Flight ..... .................... ... ....... 16 Swimming . ................ ................ 16 Character Generation in the Leaping ...... ...... ...... ........ .... ..... 16 MARVEL SUPER HEROES'" Role-Playing Game ...45 Speed Table . ............ ....... ..... ..... 16 Generating Characters ............... ..........45 Origins . ............ ... ... ........ ...........45 Combat .... ......... .........., ............. 17 Origin Table ........ ......... ..... .........45 Health and Combat ..... ................... .... 17 Major Abilities ..................... ...........46 Types of Combat . .................. .......... 17 Random Ranks Ta ble ......... ... ...... ... ...46 Fighting Combat-Slugfest . ............ ...... 18 Variable Abilities . ..........................47 Agility Combat-Ranged Attacks ...............20 Powers & Talents ... .................... .......47 Range Tables . ......... ....... ... ........ ...21 Powers Available Table .......................47 Strength Combat-Rassling ................ ...22 Power Categories Table .................... 47 Endurance Combat-Charging . ...............23 Powers List ........ ............. ...........48 Defensive Actions (Optional) ...... ...............24 Ta lents Available Table ..... .... ........... ....49 Slams, Stuns, and Kills ..................... ... 25 Talents List ................. .... ............49 Life, Death, and Health .... .... ........ .........26 Last Step-Filling In the Blanks ......... ........ 50 Regaining Consciousness ............... ... ...27 Final Note ..................... ... ...........50 Healing .... ................................27 Recovering Lost Endurance ................... 28 Appendices ............. .......... .... .... ..51 Using Powers in Combat ....... .... ..... .....28 Powers Appendix . ....... .....................51 Tactics (Optional) ............................. 29 Talents Appendix ........................... ... 59 Mini-Adventures ....... ................ .......60 2 Welcome to the MARVEL SUPER HEROESTM Basic Set tro's wrist with his web-shooters. At the same time, Elec­ All the fun begins here. tro wants to nail Spider-Man with his energy blast. The This is the MARVEL SUPER HEROES!" Basic Set rule rules tell you who gets to do his thing first, and whether book. It is designed for first-time role-players, the guys he does it right. (Hey, even Spidey misses sometimes.) (and gals) who have been following the Marvel Universe All the rules are in this book. However, not everything for years and want to try their hand at dealing with in this book is a rule. We've included a lot of helpful hints threats to humanity like Doc Ock and Kingpin. Those of and examples of how to play this game. We also show you who have played role-playing games before, just you how to create a character of your own , fight bad hang on for a moment-this is old hat for you-as we lay guys, and for new Judges, how to run an adventure. out the basics. The other book is the Campaign Book. It contains lots A ro le-playing game is a game where people play the of neat stuff: game statistics for the major heroes of the role of another individual (well, duh!). Yo u get a chance Marvel Universe with explanations of their powers, a to be an actor playing the part of a spaceman, a barbar­ goodly smattering of villains (with hints for the Judge on ian prince, or in this case, the Amazing Spider-Man. Most how to handle them), plus soldiers, policemen, and other simply put, it's cowboys and indians for grown-ups. In­ important NPCs. stead of running around the back yard , you're sitting The two maps show typical Marvel comic territory-a around the table with friends, munchies, and these rules, standard cityscape which can be used in any adventure. having a good time. The large cards included in the box are of two types. One player is the Judge. His job is to get the ball roil­ The first is a set of character cards which contain sum­ ing, set up the scene, run the bad guys and their nefari­ marized stats for all the major heroes of the Marvel Uni­ ous plots, the police, the soldiers, and the passersby who verse. Cut these apart with a scissors , then give each shout, "Look, up in the sky!" (oops, sorry, that's another player the card for whatever hero he is playing. The sec­ company). ond item is a set of "Stand-ups" which, when folded and The other players (called by the dull but functional glued, can be used as playing pieces in the game. name "players") run the heroes, the main characters of Last (and not least) are the funky-looking ten-sided the story. As a player, you get to fo il the plots of the bad dice. They're called percentile dice and can be used two guys as Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Captain America, or even ways. Yo u can roll a number from 1 to 10 (with one die) a hero you created yourself. A character that is con­ or 1 to 100 (with two dice). When rolling from 1 to 10, a trolled by a player is called a player character. Charac­ "0" means "10." When rolling two dice, choose one die ters controlled by the Judge are called nonplayer to represent 10s (usually the darker one), and one to characters, or NPCs. represent 1 s (usually the lighter one). If the dark die Role playing is two parts actiong, two parts story telling. comes up 5 and the light die comes up 7, the number The Judge has the framework of the story, but it is what rolled is 57. If the dark die is 2 and the light die is 0, the the players do and say that gets things rolling. Imagine a number is 20. If the dark die is 0 and the light die is 5, comic book where the reader makes things up as he the number rolled is 05, or just 5. If both dice ro ll 0, the goes along. Now imagine several readers, all making number is 100. things up together at the same time and you get the idea. OK, with all that out of the way, let's talk about ... The rules tell the Judge and the players how to decide what happens. Imagine Spider-Man trying to snag Elec- 3 Heroes thump, or otherwise injure someone else (usually a bad guy), either with your bare hands or with weapon. Cap­ (and other characters) tain America is a good example of a character with a high Fighting ability. Even though he has no real super Pull out the Campaign Book and look up Spider-Man's powers, his prowess lets him hold his own against more entry. It states that Spider-Man has Remarkable Fighting, powertul opponen�. Amazing Agility, Incredible St rength, a Health of 160, Agility is the ability to aim well and move with dexterity Karma of 70, sticks