Standard Actions (Action)
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| Heroic Action Role-Play |
- Main article: Action
There are certain actions that everyone can perform, and which do not require any schticks.
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.
Active Defense
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 means you can't initiate actions or make stunts of your own.
Assist
Trigger Action (Combo)
You aid a friend in performing an action. You must be in a position where this makes sense, adjacent to the creature you are assisting or to the target of the action. Assist triggers after the action you are assisting, which means you know the result of the action you would assist before you decide to actually use Assist. 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 of play. Assist is a variant of Advantage and can stack with other bonuses.
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.
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.
For an unnamed character, it is a Basic Action to assist, and it must be done before the action to be assisted. Unnamed characters often work in groups of 4, one acting and the other three assisting. No Assist 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.
Attack
Basic Action
Make an attack with no special modifiers or rules.
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. If one of your actions is a Full Move, this allows you to move even with actions that normally do not allow movements, such as Seven Sword Strike.
Environment Interaction
Basic Action
You interact with the environment in some manner, opening a door, manipulating controls, throwing 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.
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.
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. Combined with Free Running, you make a Maneuver check to see if you can move your normal or double Move.
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.
Interaction Stunt
Basic Action
Make a Interaction Stunt with no special modifiers, targeting another creature.
Push Luck
Trigger Action (Combo)
If your last action was a failure, you can push your luck to try and succeed anyway. Re-roll the failed check. If you succeed, it counts as if your first roll was a success. If you fail you suffer a Setback in addition to any result of the failure.
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 a named opponent is defeated by you - either at zero hits or suffers another result that makes them unable to continue acting in this scene, you can focus. Also, when you inflict a Setback or Damage Setback on a named opponent, you can focus.