Standard Actions (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

Main article: Action

There are certain actions that everyone can perform, and which do not require any schticks.

Do not confuse the terms "standard actions" and "Basic Actions". A standard action is an action listed here that anyone can use. A Basic Action (capitalized9 is a specific type of action you can use when your initiative comes up that costs three shots.

Full Move

Basic Action

Move as an action, doing nothing else. This adds to the normal movement allowed with a Basic Action, as a result you move twice your Move. If you do this when you are not allowed to move with a Basic Action, such as when using a Static piece of gear, you can still make a normal move this way, but you do not get any other action.

Attack

Basic Action

Make an attack with no special modifiers or rules.

Assist Action

Basic Action

You aid a friend in performing an action. Decide on a person, skill, and action to assist. If your chosen friend attempts this as their next action, he gains a bonus. You must be in a position where this makes sense.

Make a Confident Roll of the skill you are assisting, the difficulty is your friend's skill rating. If you succeed, your friend gets a +1 modifier to his roll. Several assistants can help the same action, to a maximum bonus of +3. When assisting someone of the same or lower skill, you can forgo the die roll for speed.

To assist, you should generally be physically capable of the action you're supporting (in the right spot, not prevented from acting), but need not have any relevant schtick or equipment. The GM has the final say on whether assist action is relevant to a certain task, and how many helpers can assist. If the creature being assisted does not take the action for any reason, your assistance is moot.

In some situations it makes sense to assist using another skill than the one you are supporting. Suppose a friend is using Create to fix a radio tower, it might be possible to use Maneuver to assist by climbing to where help is needed. The GM decides when this is feasible.

The Assist Action never activates Trigger Actions, but if you move when you assist, your movement triggers actions normally.

Unnamed characters often work in groups of 4, one acting and the other three assisting. No assistance rolls are required as long as all the unnamed characters have the same skill. This allows the group a single action with a +3 bonus. If the mook actually taking the action is stopped, such as with Carnival of Carnage, the entire action fails.

Combination Action

Limit Break

You perform two Basic Actions in quick succession. If you are allowed to move as a part of both these Basic Actions you can also move before, between, or after acting - but only once.

Finishing Stunt

Finisher

Use a power or stunt you can normally use and which is either a Basic Action or a Limit break. If this action fails, there is no effect, and the target suffers no additional effect from the Finisher. If this action succeeds, it effectively has infinite outcome; it scores an automatic Setback or otherwise works as well as it reasonably can. If the action you choose to do is a Limit Break, roll for it normally. If it is a Basic Action, the task is Routine and the roll is Confident.

Defend

Trigger Action (Defense)

When you are being attacked, you can defend. This adds +3 to one particular skill used as the difficulty of someone else's task. The most typical defense is Active Dodge, but almost all skills can be used as a defense at some point.

In a situation where shots are not counted, defending means you are not fully participating - you play defensive rather than engaging in the situation - which in means you can't initiate actions or make stunts of your own.

Environment Interaction

Basic Action

You interact with the environment in some manner, opening a door, manipulating controls, trowing a lever, picking something up off the floor. This takes a separate basic action, but if the environment interaction can be described as part of a Stunt, you can combine the two actions into one. Examples are closing a door in the face of opponents (using Maneuver to make them to lose shots), picking up the fallen enemy flag (using Impress to make them lose morale), kicking a dagger lying on the floor to make a thrown weapon attack, and so on. Sometimes, Environment Interactions can be attacks, like rolling a boulder down on enemies below you, using the normal attack rules. More often, an Environment Interaction sets up a later attack.

Interaction Stunt

Basic Action

Make a Interaction Stunt with no special modifiers, targeting another creature.

Gauge Skill

Trigger Action or Limit Break

When you see someone else use a skill, you can make an opposed roll of that skill against them. If you succeed, you know how skilled they are and get to know 3 skill schticks they know relating to the skill they used. If you fail, you still know the result of your own roll and this gives you some information about how skilled they are. You can use this skill on someone even when they are not using a skill, but in this case it is a limit break.

Action Advantage

Limit Break

Athletes undergo mental training to achieve top results when it really matters. Any hero can achieve this kind of concentration.

Make a Basic Action. You gain an Advantage that must be spent immediately on this action. Out of combat, this must be a specific, quick action - you cannot use this to get a bonus on a task taking more than a minute to complete.

Setup Finisher

Finisher

You set your target up for someone else to use a finisher on. One other person designated by you that is in position can immediately use a finisher on that target as a Trigger Action.

Triumph

Focus

When an named opponent is defeated by you - either at zero hits or suffers a Setback or effect that makes them unable to continue acting in this scene, you can focus. You cannot use this stunt if your triumph ends the scene.