Creating a character in Supers! Revised is composed of a number of steps, some of which can be interchangeable. Below are the basics:

Character Concept: Pretty straightforward overall, sometimes can be helpful to look at archetypes.

Archetypes:
Animal Avatar: Has the traits of a particular animal, but at a super scale.
Battlesuit: Gains powerful abilities by donning a suit of incredible armor.
Blaster: Uses a particular weapon or energy form to blast opponents.
Brick: Defined by incredible strength and toughness.
Construct: Empowered by an “unliving” state and an unnatural construction.
Crime Fighter: Employs a diversity of skills to investigate and fight crime.
Elemental Controller: Bends a basic element of the universe to his or her will.
Energy Controller: Wields a particular type of energy with great versatility.
Gadgeteer: Builds the perfect gadget for any given situation.
Martial Artist: Possessed of esoteric training and an expert in hand-to-hand combat.
Mentalist: Uses psychic abilities to solve problems and fight enemies.
Mimic: Mimics the properties of substances and/or energies.
Paragon: Charismatic and noble, as well as strong, fast and tough.
Shape Shifter: Can assume the shape of one or more different forms.
Sorcerer: Wields versatile magical abilities.
Speedster: Defined by incredible speed and reaction time.
Warrior: A rough and tumble brawler.
Weapon Master: Uses a particular weapon to take down foes

Background/Origins: Not strictly necessary but can be helpful.
Altered Human: Powers come from science accidents or intentional experimentation.
Android/Robot: Powers come from having a synthetic form.
Artifact: Powers come from a cosmic or magical object.
Hi-Tech: Powers come from advanced technology, whether in the form of power
Non-Human: Powers come from inhuman physiology, be it Atlantean, Amazonian, extraterrestrial, etc.
Magical: Powers come from practicing magic or being imbued with magical energies.
Mutant: Powers come from a natural mutation.
Special Training: Abilities come from intense training of body and skills.

Creation Pool: This game has a creation pool of 20D for Resistances/Aptitudes/Powers

Resistances: All character have 4 basic Resistances; Composure, Fortitude, Reaction, and Will. All Resistances start at a base 1D, reflecting an average person (with 5D being Superhuman level). When any Resistance is dropped to 0D that character is out of the scene (barring healing of some sort).

Composure: Measures emotional stability.
Fortitude: Ability to withstand physical damage.
Reaction: Ability to react swiftly to an event. Generally a combination of mental and physical quickness. Reaction is rolled at the start of combat to determine initiative.
Will: Mental strength, ability to resist mental attacks, possession, and similar things.

Aptitudes: Broad skill categories allowing people to perform feats feasible in the real world. Because Aptitudes are mundane the amount of dice usable are capped at 3D. Once an Aptitude as at 3D any further dice need to go to a specialization. For example: Fighting 3D (Swords 4D) means a person rolls 3D in general but 4D (keep the best 3D) when using a sword. All Aptitudes start at a base of 1D just like Resistances.
Academia
Aircraft
Animal Handling
Art & Craft
Athleticism
Awareness
Business
Fighting
Intrusion
Investigation
Medical
Military
Occultism
Performance
Presence
Shooting
Sleight of Hand
Streetwise
Survival
Technology
Vehicles

Powers: All Powers start at 0D so putting 1D into a Power gives it a value of 1D. There are also Power-specific Boosts and Complications.
Absorbtion
Additional Limbs
Armor
Astral Projection
Burrowing
Communication
Damage Aura
Density Control
Dimensional Travel
Duplicate Self
Elemental Control
Elemental Form
Emotion Control
Energy Control
Energy Form
Ensnare
Flight
Healing
Illusions
Imbue
Insubstantiality
Invisibility
Invulnerability
Life Support
Mental Blast
Mental Paralysis
Mental Shield
Mimic Aptitude
Mimic Energy
Mimic Power
Mimic Substance
Obscure
Physical Paralysis
Plant Control
Power Steal
Probability Control
Regeneration
Shape Change
Size Control
Stretching
Summoning
Super Aptitude
Super Brain
Super Leap
Super Running
Super Science
Super Senses
Super Speed
Super Strength
Super Swimming
Super Weaponry
Telekinesis
Telepathy
Teleportation
Transformation
Time Control
Vampirism
Wall Crawling
Weather Control
Wizardry

Boosts: Boosts can be added to Powers to improve them or add effects.
Affects X
Area Effect
Extra Effect vs. X
Extra Effect when X
Extra Knockback
Lingering Effect
Linked Power
Multi-Power
Ongoing
Persistent Damage
Reflection
Sharable
Split Action
Trigger
Variable Effect

Complications: Complications modify powers to make them less effective or more difficult to use in certain circumstances.
Always On
Ammo/Charges
Burnout
Concentration Needed
Conditional
Debilitating
Delayed Use
Device/Easily Taken/Fragile
Judge's Discretion
Limited Use
Negated by X
Only in Hero ID
Only vs. X
Side Effect
Touch Attack
Uncontrollable
Unreliable
Visible

Trade-Offs: Decrease effect of one part of Power to increase another. For example Flight 3D can be traded-off to be faster (4D) but less maneuverable (2D).

Advantages: Cost their value in Creation Dice.
Allies
Alter Ego
Animal Friendship
Attractive
Base of Operations
Celebrity
Charismatic
Companion
Dumb Luck
Feign Death
I Brought This Along
Instant Change
Intimidating
Is That Your Best Shot?
Leadership
Mentor
Non-Sentience
Occupation
Omni-Translator
Police Powers
Security Clearance
Size (Big)
Size (Small)
Super Vehicle
Unliving
Water Breathing
Wealthy

Disadvantages: Subtract their value from the character's overall cost.
Accidental Transformation
Addiction
Bad Luck
Dependent
Enemy
Mental Hindrance
Phobia
Physical Hindrance
Poor
Power Loss
Public ID
Rage
Secret
Social Hindrance
Unskilled
Vulnerability
Weakness
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Wed 17 Aug 2016.

COMBAT RULES:

INITIATIVE
When a fight starts, all combatants must roll Initiative to determine who acts first. This involves making a Reaction, Super Speed or Super Senses check. Combatants take their turn in accordance to the results of this Initiative check, acting in order from the highest result to the lowest. Ties are resolved by comparing Reaction Ratings; characters with higher values go first. If characters are still tied after comparing Reaction Ratings, Reaction is rolled to determine who goes first. Initiative is re-rolled every round with the GM rolling initiative for everyone to keep things moving. Also, if there are several characters with Initiative before an enemy I will be utilizing flexible initiative where characters can go in any order so there is no need to wait for a character with an initiative before yours.

ACTIONS
Several kinds of actions exist in Supers!. Below is a listing of these actions and explains how they can be used in a round. The Split Action Boost modifies how many actions characters can take in a round.

Dynamic: Dynamic Actions are used to actively do something in a round. Dynamic Actions include Attack Actions and concerted Aptitude checks as determined by the GM. Generally, characters can take one Dynamic Action per round. Dynamic Actions always end a character’s round.

Defense: Defense Actions are performed in response to Attack Actions. Characters can defend as many times as they are attacked in a round. Generally they must use a different defense each time unless they are using Armor/Mental Shield or have the Split Action boost.

Movement: Movement Actions are used to get around. Generally, characters can take one Movement Action per round. Movement Actions must be taken before Dynamic Actions or not at all. Using a movement Power to get around doesn’t preclude its use for attack or defense that round.

Free: Free Actions are actions that don’t cost characters their Dynamic or Movement Actions for the round. Free Actions include making checks at the GM’s behest (such as Awareness checks to notice something), making short speeches or statements during a fight and activating or deactivating Powers. Powers can either be activated or deactivated during a round but not both. Generally, characters take their Free Actions on their Initiative.

DELAYED ACTION
Instead of acting on their Initiative, characters can choose to delay their actions in a fight. This allows them to take their actions later in the round, even to preempt another character’s actions. Characters need not declare what they are holding an action for; they simply forego their turn and act when desired. Characters who delay actions return to the Initiative order on the following round when Initiative is rerolled.

ATTACKING
Attacks in Supers! are physical, social or mental in nature. Physical attacks are perhaps the most common and involve using appropriate Aptitudes or Powers in attempts to physically harm, restrain or otherwise incapacitate foes. Some Aptitudes (like Fighting or Shooting) and Powers (like Elemental Control, Energy Control, Ensnare, Super Strength and Super Weaponry) are obvious choices for making physical attacks, but judges should encourage player creativity. Flight and Super Leap, for example, are Powers normally used for movement. Characters, however, can describe using these Powers to slam into foes and thus justify their use for attack purposes.

Social attacks involve using Aptitudes or Powers to cause emotional harm. The Presence Aptitude and the Emotion Control Power are most commonly used for these purposes, but judges should encourage other creative approaches to making social attacks.

Mental attacks involve launching assaults with Powers like Telepathy or Mental Blast.

Characters can normally attack once per round and may only do so with Aptitudes or Powers they have not used for defense earlier in the round. Characters with the Split Action Boost, however, can attack more than once per round.

DEFENDING
When attacked, characters select an appropriate Attribute with which to defend. They can only make one defense roll per attack launched against them, and the Attribute they choose must be one they have not used for attack or defense earlier in the round. The Armor and Mental Shield Powers are exceptions to this rule. Both can be used to defend against multiple attacks, but provide -1D for defense each time they are used in the same round. The Split Action Boost also allows characters to use an Attribute for defense more than once per round.

Whether or not a particular Attribute is appropriate for defense depends on the nature of the attack, the narrative approach taken by the defending player and the Judge’s ruling on the matter.

PHYSICAL ATTACKS
In most cases, characters can defend against physical attacks with Composure, Fortitude or Reaction (see page 29). Characters can also use a slew of Aptitudes and Powers to deflect, absorb or avoid physical attacks. Fighting can be used to parry blows, Athleticism can be used to dodge, and Shooting might allow a gunslinger to blast arrows out of the air before they reach him. Flight and Super Speed can be used to evade, Super Strength can be employed to bat aside cars hurled with Telekinesis, and Super Brain might allow a character to sidestep an energy blast by calculating its trajectory. These are just a few of the nearly endless possibilities. Armor, of course, is specifically designed to defend against any attack that causes physical trauma.

SOCIAL ATTACKS
Characters can always defend against social attacks with Composure. As is the case with physical attacks, however, Aptitudes and Powers can also serve as viable defenses. A character faced with the taunts of a smart-mouthed prankster could choose to defend by using Presence to counter with a quip of his own. A powerful behemoth facing an intimidation attack could defend with Super Strength, smashing his fists into the ground and roaring, thus remaining resolute via adrenaline.

MENTAL ATTACKS
Characters can defend against mental attacks with Composure and Will. As is the case with physical and social attacks, characters can also employ a variety of Aptitudes and Powers to defend against such assaults. Awareness and Occultism can help characters keep their wits about them in the midst of a mental contest. Characters subject to mental invasions can also block with their own mental Powers,
including Mental Blast and Telepathy. Mental Shield, of course, is specifically designed to protect against mental attacks.

FLEXIBLE DEFENSE
As evidenced by the above descriptions, the narrative approach employed in Supers! offers a wide variety of defense options. GMs ultimately decide what options to approve in a given circumstance, but they should be flexible in allowing for the creative use of Aptitudes and Powers. If a player’s explanation is plausible and adds to the excitement of the game, the GM should probably give approval.

NO VIABLE DEFENSE
Given the flexibility of the narrative approach employed in Supers!, characters will usually be able to muster some sort of defense, even if only a 1D Aptitude. In the event that all defense options are exhausted, defenders roll ½D for defense. In instances where targets are unconscious or otherwise completely incapacitated, attackers resolve their attacks against a Target Number of 1.

RESOLVING ATTACKS
Attacks are resolved as opposed checks between attackers and targets. An attacker declares an attack and rolls an appropriate Attribute against a target. The target responds by choosing and rolling an appropriate Attribute for defense. The results are then compared, with the defense roll becoming the Target Number the attacker must match or beat in order to succeed. The target takes damage if the attack roll matches or beats the defense roll. If not, the attack misses or otherwise fails to cause any damage.

DAMAGE
Attacks that match or beat a target’s defenses do damage to that target’s Resistances. The amount of damage caused depends on the level of success. Unlike non-combat actions, combat rolls can exceed Superior Successes, as shown below.

Normal Success (succeed): 1D
Major Success (succeed by more than 6): 2D
Superior Success (succeed by more than 12): 3D
Superior Success+ (succeed by more than 18): 4D
Superior Success++ (succeed by more than 24): 5D
Superior Success+++ (succeed by more than 30): 6D

APPLYING DAMAGE
Each die of damage dealt is subtracted from the target’s Resistances. In most cases, characters who suffer more than one die of damage may choose to spread the damage among several Resistances. Characters are effectively incapacitated when any one of their Resistances reaches 0D or less.

Which Resistances are affected by an attack depends on the nature of the attack, the narrative approach taken by the target and the GM’s ruling on the matter. As previously mentioned, attacks are physical, social, or mental in nature. Generally speaking, damage dealt from these various types of attacks is applied as follows:

Physical Harm: Subtracted from Composure, Fortitude or Reaction.
Social Harm: Subtracted from Composure.
Mental Harm: Subtracted from Composure or Will.

The above guidelines do not always apply. Some Powers force specific types of damage, even though they are essentially physical in nature. Damage resulting from attacks using the Ensnare Power, for example, can only be applied to Composure and Reaction. Such exceptions are specified in the various Power descriptions.

Although the nature of an attack determines a range of options for the application of damage, the target of the attack often has a great deal of narrative leeway in determining how damage is actually applied. By choosing which Resistances suffer damage, the target effectively shapes how the narrative of combat unfolds. As always, the GM has final say on whether a target’s choice makes narrative sense.

REACTION DAMAGE AND INITIATIVE
Characters that suffer Reaction damage must reroll their Initiatives at the beginning of their next round. Characters who used Super Speed or Super Senses instead of Reaction to determine their position in the combat order need not reroll.

KNOCKBACK
A staple of the superhero genre is that heroes get knocked around. Characters in Supers! fly back 5 feet per 1D taken in Fortitude damage. Knockback is normally just for show and does not cause any additional damage. In some instances, however, the GM may rule otherwise. A character that falls off a 30-story building due to knockback may find himself making a Fortitude check against a relatively high Target Number unless he finds a way of breaking his fall.

The Extra Knockback Boost doubles knockback distance per die in the Boost. The Super Strength Power is considered to have one free die in Extra Knockback per die in the Power.

Although knockback is a fun rule to implement, GMs should feel free to declare that certain types of attack do less knockback or even no knockback at all. Examples might include cutting and slashing attacks (less) and poison gas attacks (none) among others. As always, GMs should make such decisions based on what makes narrative sense.

RECOVERY
Characters recover Resistances relatively rapidly. Resistances below 0D recover at a rate of 1D per hour. Resistances at 0D or above recover at a rate of 1D every 10 minutes. Characters recover Resistances one at a time and choose the order in which they recover.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:04, Thu 17 Nov 2016.

COMBAT MANEUVERS:

BREAK
Fragile objects and devices can be targeted by opponents using a Break maneuver. Break attempts are resolved like Called Shots (see below). A Major Success indicates that the targeted object is temporarily broken by the Break attempt and requires a round to reactivate, put back together or otherwise fix. A Superior Success indicates that the object is severely damaged and requires an hour or longer to fix. Whether or not the object can be repaired without access to a lab, machine shop or other facility is left to the GM’s discretion.

CALLED SHOT
Characters can call their shots to achieve effects other than damage. Creating an effect that lasts for one round requires a Major Success. Examples include throwing sand into an opponent’s face to cause momentary blindness or knocking a sword from an opponent’s hand.

Creating an effect that lasts for a full scene or longer requires a Superior Success. Examples include ripping the eyes from a robot to blind it until repaired or knocking an opponent’s sword into a lava pit. A Superior Success would also allow a character to Disarm an opponent and retain the weapon.

CRITICAL STRIKE
Characters can attempt to exploit their targets’ weak points in order to do more damage. In essence, this is the damaging version of a Called Shot. To pull this off, characters reduce the number of dice used to attack, but add twice that many dice to their total for purposes of determining damage if they hit. Reducing the initial attack roll by 1D, for example, would allow a character to add 2D to the result for purposes of determining damage if the attack is successful.

FULL ATTACK
Characters can engage in a Full Attack, receiving a +1D bonus to an attack roll. Characters who choose to do so commit fully to offense for the round, thereby depriving themselves of the focus and finesse necessary to execute defensive maneuvers that require any measure of intentionality. As a consequence, they can only rely on appropriate Resistances for defense until their next action.

In some instances, GMs may allow characters taking a Full Attack to defend with Powers deemed sufficiently passive in nature. A GM, for example, might allow a character wearing a power armor suit to use her Armor for defense after taking a Full Attack. The rationale, in this case, is that doing so requires no active maneuvering; the suit covers her entire body and therefore simply protects. In other narrative situations, however, GMs might rule otherwise. A GM, for example, might not allow a character to use Armor defined as a handheld shield for defense immediately after taking a Full Attack due to the fact that the shield must be actively raised against incoming attacks. Occasional exceptions aside, most Powers and all Aptitudes should be rendered unusable for defense for one round as a consequence of taking a Full Attack.

FULL DEFENSE
Characters can engage in a Full Defense, receiving a +1D bonus to all defense rolls until their Initiative on the following round. Characters can only engage in a Full Defense if they have yet to take a Dynamic Action that round. Doing so causes them to forfeit all of their Dynamic Actions (including attacks) until their next turn.

GRAPPLING ATTACK
Sometimes characters need to physically grab onto their targets to carry them off, restrain them or just hitch a ride. This is called a Grappling Attack. Initiating a Grappling Attack is resolved exactly like any other attack, except that a Normal Success establishes a successful hold rather than inflict damage. Major and Superior Successes cause damage to appropriate Resistances if desired by the grappler. Similarly, escaping a successful Grappling Attack is resolved like any other attack action, except that a Normal Success breaks the hold in lieu of causing damage.

Major and Superior Successes cause damage as usual if desired by the escapee. The effects of a successful hold are determined by the GM according to the narrative circumstances. GMs have the discretion of ruling that Grappling Attacks may only be performed by Additional Limbs, Fighting, Super Speed, Super Weaponry and other Attributes that evoke some measure of training or finesse. When using this option, however, grapplers should be able to attack their targets with other Powers, such as Super Strength, after a hold is established.

INTERRUPT ACTION
A character with a held action may try to interrupt another’s action. To do so, the interrupting character rolls an appropriate Attribute against another character’s attempt to perform an action. The other character’s action fails if the interrupting character’s roll meets or beats the action’s result total. Otherwise, the intended action is successful. If the action being interrupted is an attack against a third party, and the interrupting action is successful, the target of the interrupted attack does not roll to defend and takes no damage. If the Interrupt Action fails to stop the attack, the target of the attack rolls to defend as normal. Targets of Interrupt Actions never take damage from such attempts; at worst they lose their action for the round. Characters without a held action may spend a Competency Die to perform an Interrupt Action. Doing so costs them their next available Dynamic Action.

TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM
A character with a held action may step in front of, redirect or otherwise become the target of an attack that is intended for someone else. Instead of the intended target rolling to defend, the character rolls to defend and takes damage (if any) as normal. Characters without a held action may spend a Competency Die to perform this maneuver.