Effects

Actions have consequences—in life, in comic books, and in this game. These repercussions direct the flow of the game and lead to heroes achieving what they want…or stumbling along the way. The game represents this with effects. An effect is a trait created by using an effect die. Like other traits, effects are rated with dice. They come in three flavors: assets, stress, and complications.

Assets (page 23) are similar to stunts, resources, and push dice, because you include them in your dice pool before you roll. They’re different from those traits because they’re not created with Plot Points but as effects, just like stress and complications. Therefore, the assets you add to your dice pool are the effects of previous actions. Assets usually last until the end of the Scene.

Stress (page 23) and complications (page 29), however, are a bit different. They’re temporary traits that are inflicted on your hero during conflicts that don’t go your way. Instead of including them in your own dice pool, they’re available to any opposition dice pool that you roll against. In the same way, you can always build up your own dice pool by adding in the stress or complications of the characters you’re up against.


I'll have a separate post to detail Stress tomorrow...