The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game: Drama Rules v1

So after a few sessions I have a few thoughts on how to modify this game. I have a few issues with games that don't have BITs now... which is a flaw, I suppose, but considering how character-centric so many super-hero comics can be can I really be blamed for looking at this and thinking "This could use something akin to BITs?" If you need to know what sorta thing I'm aiming for read my Marvelous Manifesto. My review of the system, which gives some impressions I had of it in my usual rambly tone, can be found here.

A few terms:
Red stone (R): Energy you can put toward an action. You have two numbers to satisfy in being successful: Difficulty (minimum number of stones to complete a part of the action) and Resistance (number of stones you need to complete the whole action). Scaled from 1-10. You normally recover one R for every three white stones you have.

White Stone (W): Your health and your ability to regenerate red stones. If you lose Ws you can choose to be knocked out, which puts you at the mercy of the GM.

These are the two resources in the game. You also have panels, which are a single "unit" of action. Panels can last any number of time, but if it's not specified it's assumed to be 30 seconds. A certain number of panels make a page, which doesn't seem to have a mechanical effect but it makes journaling the sessions really cool. Any number of pages make up a mission, and any number of missions make up an issue.


I want to complicate it a bit. I'd like to introduce the following aspects to the character:

Each player makes up to three Ideals for their hero. Ideals are the thing that the character idolizes and wishes for more than anything and chases as hard as they can... until the call of the hero is finally heeded. There must be at least one Ideal. You are rewarded for betraying your Ideals in a dramatic fashion.

There are also Challenges, which can also be up to three per character. These are the things that the character is incredibly uncomfortable about. Each of these Challenges are rated from 3 (most uncomfortable) to 1 (a minor bother). You are rewarded for letting these things inconvenience you and making your life harder. Being in the presence of a Challenge will make the Difficulty and Resistance of all your tests go up by the Challenge's rating.

Example: One of Wolverine's Challenges is "Can't stand being talked down to"(2). Whenever Wolverine is in a situation where someone is talking down to him and he's trying to accomplish a goal the Difficulty and Resistance of his task increases by 2. Ouch!

There are two Goals each session: the player's Goal and the GM's. The player's Goal is what the PC is trying to accomplish that session. It's a natural extension of one of the player's Ideals. The GM's Goal is the heroic mission that session. You are rewarded for accomplishing these goals.

Now, all of this is dropped on top of a third resource: Blue Stones (B). Blue Stones are awarded to you for roleplaying your CIGs (c'mon, you know it's catchy).

You can use Blue Stones to:

• Push: Turn 1B into 3R.
• Shortcut: Spend 1B to invent a "shortcut" in the narrative and get 1R to boot. Example: Spider-Man is being chased by the Green Goblin and has exhausted all of his red stones in previous battles, saving civilians, and now running like hell. Exhausted, Spider-Man's player chooses to spend 1 Blue Stone to say the wall-crawler pulls up a manhole cover and escape. Goblin can't fly all that well in these particularly tight tunnels! In addition to the 4 Red Stones that Spider-Man normally gets at the end of a panel  Spider-Man's player gets 5, because the player had chosen the Shortcut option.
• Gather Strength: Turn 3B into 1W, which wears off at the end of the mission or when damaged as normal.

At the end of a session award Lines of Experience as normal. After that award Blue Stones. You get Blue Stones by:

• Sacrificing Your Dreams: You get 1B per Ideal betrayed in a dramatic and tragic way.
• Everyman: Sort of like Burning Wheel's Embodiment reward, 3B for great roleplaying. This has to be above Sacrificing Your Dreams, this has to be about portraying  a thoroughly normal person interacting with things that are not normal at all.... including the things that used to be normal but not feeling any real connection to them. This is for those moments of loneliness, beautifully narrated by the player, for the heartfelt speeches about trying to get back to a normal life, for those knock down drag out fights with the significant other about why on earth you can't back down from what you're doing and why you believe in it. Something has to break to get this award. I'll let you decide if that's literal or not.
• Allowing Something to Die: You close out an Ideal, declare it done, 1B per Ideal given up. This can only happen after an Everyman award.
• Facing Challenges: Instead of running away in the presence of your character's Challenges you manage the task at hand and the thing that's your Challenge, for a number of panels equal to the Challenge Rating. You gain Blue Stones equal to the Challenge Rating of the incident. 
• Achieving Goals: If the player achieves his or the GM's Goal that's 1B. If the player achieves both then it's 3B.
• Making Everyone Laugh: This is a pretty heavy system. If you can stop the table dead with laughter that's worth 3B.

Let me know what y'all think!