Pushing It to the Limit: Extra Effort & Hero Points

There are times when heroes have to go that extra mile to get the job done. Two popular features of Mutants & Masterminds are the rules for extra effort and hero points. M&M 2e maintains, refines, and expands these rules, offering new uses for extra effort and hero points to fit the comic book style.

Extra Effort

Players can use extra effort to improve a hero's abilities in exchange for the hero suffering some fatigue. The benefits of extra effort are not limited by power level.

Extra effort is a free action and can be performed any time during the hero's action (but is limited to once per round). A hero using extra effort gains one of the following benefits:

• Check bonus: +2 bonus on a single ability, skill, or power check. This does not include attack rolls.
• Increase carrying capacity: +5 effective Strength for determining the hero's carrying capacity for one round.
• Increase movement: The hero's speed for all modes of movement doubles for one round.
• Increase power: Increase a power by 2 ranks for one round. This only increases the power's rank; you cannot apply power modifiers (but see the power stunt benefit). Permanent powers cannot be improved in this way.
• Power stunt: Temporarily add a power feat to a power. This includes an Alternate Power of an existing power. The power feat must follow the normal rules for adding a power feat. The temporary power feat lasts for the duration of the encounter or until you choose to stop maintaining it, whichever comes first. This includes turning off the power or switching it to a different Alternate Power. Power stunts cannot be applied to permanent powers via extra effort.
• Willpower: Gain an immediate additional saving throw against a power with a lasting effect, such as Mind Control or Nullify. You get this save even if the lasting power has a continuous duration (which doesn't normally allow for additional saves). If you're mind-controlled, the fatigue from the extra effort doesn't affect you until you're free of the control.
• Surge: Gain an additional standard action, before or after your normal actions for the round (your choice). Using this extra action does not change your place in the initiative order. You can use a standard action gained from extra effort to start or complete a full-round action in conjunction with your normal actions for the round.

Fatigue from Extra Effort

At the beginning of the round immediately after extra effort, the hero becomes fatigued. A fatigued hero becomes exhausted and an exhausted hero becomes unconscious the round after using extra effort. If you spend a hero point at the start of the round following extra effort to shake off the fatigue, the hero suffers no adverse effects.

Hero Points

Whether it's luck, talent, or sheer determination, heroes have something setting them apart from everyone else, allowing them to perform amazing deeds under the most difficult circumstances. In Mutants & Masterminds that something is hero points. Spending a hero point can make the difference between success and failure. When you're entrusted with the safety of the world, that means a lot!

Hero points allow players to "edit" the plot of the adventure and the rules of the game to a degree. They give heroes the ability to do the amazing things heroes do in the comics, but with certain limits, and they encourage players to make the sort of choices heroes do in the comics, in order to get more hero points.

Heroes start each game session with 1 hero point. During the adventure they get opportunities to earn more hero points. You can use various tokens (poker chips, glass beads, etc.) to keep track of hero points, handing them out to players, who pass them back to the Gamemaster when they spend them. Unspent hero points don't carry over to the next adventure; the heroes start out with 1 point again.

Using Hero Points

Unless otherwise noted, spending a hero point is a reaction, taking no time. You can spend as many hero points as you have, but only one hero point on any given benefit per round. You can spend hero points for any of the following things.

Improve Roll

One hero point allows you to re-roll any die roll you make and take the better of the two rolls. On a result of 1 through 10 on the second roll, add 10 to the result, an 11 or higher remains as-is (so the second roll is always a result of 11-20). You must spend the hero point to improve a roll before the GM announces the result of your roll. You cannot spend hero points on die rolls made by the GM or other players without the Luck Control power.

Heroic Feat

You can spend a hero point to gain the benefits of a feat (either a regular or power feat) you don't already have for one round (see Chapter 4). You must be capable of using the feat and cannot gain the benefits of fortune feats, only other types of feats. If the feat has another feat as a prerequisite, you must have the prerequisite to gain the benefit of the more advanced feat. For feats acquired in ranks, you gain the benefit of one rank of the feat by spending a hero point. The GM can veto any performance of a feat acquired with a hero point if considered inappropriate for the game.

Dodge

You can spend a hero point to double your dodge bonus for one round. This includes any modifiers to your dodge bonus from feats, powers, or combat actions. The improved dodge bonus lasts until the beginning of your next round. You can also spend a hero point whenever you are denied your dodge bonus, but still capable of action (surprised, flat-footed, etc.). In this case, you retain your dodge bonus until your next action (this is the same as spending a hero point to perform the Uncanny Dodge feat).

Instant Counter

You can spend a hero point to attempt to counter a power used against you as a reaction.

Cancel Fatigue

Any time you would suffer fatigue (including the effects of the Fatigue power and the use of extra effort), you can spend a hero point and reduce the amount of fatigue by one level (so you suffer no fatigue from a fatigued result, are fatigued by an exhausted result, etc.).

Recover

You can spend a hero point to recover faster. A hero point allows you to immediately shake off a stunned or fatigued condition.

If you are exhausted, spending a hero point causes you to become fatigued. If you have suffered damage, a hero point allows you an immediate recovery check as a full-round action. It takes two rounds for a staggered hero to make a recovery check, since you can only take a standard or move action each round while staggered. This check is made normally, the hero point just allows you to make it in addition to your normal recovery checks. If the recovery check is successful, it turns out the damage wasn't as serious as it first appeared, or your hero is able to shake it off.

While disabled, you can spend a hero point to take a strenuous action for one round without your condition worsening to dying. If you spend a hero point on a normal recovery check for bruised or injured conditions, a successful check eliminates all of that condition, rather than just one. The hero point does not improve the recovery check, only its effect.

Escape Death

Spending a hero point automatically stabilizes a dying character (you or someone you are assisting), although this doesn't protect the character from further damage.

Inspiration

Once per game session, you can spend a hero point to get a sudden inspiration in the form of a hint, clue, or bit of help from the GM. It might be a way out of the villain's fiendish deathtrap, a vital clue for solving a mystery, or an idea about the villain's weakness. It's up to the GM exactly how much help the players get from inspiration.

Gamemasters may even wish to expand the "inspiration" facet of hero points to allow players greater control over the environment of the game, effectively allowing them to "edit" a scene to grant their heroes an advantage. For example, a hero is fighting a villain with plant-based powers in a scientific lab. The player deduces the villain may be vulnerable to defoliants, so she asks the GM if there are any chemicals in the lab she can throw together to create a defoliant. The Gamemaster requires to player to spend a hero point and says the right chemicals are close at hand.

How much players are allowed to "edit" circumstances is up to the individual Gamemaster, but generally hero points should not be allowed to change any event that has already occurred or any detail already explained in-game. For example, players cannot "edit" away damage or the effects of powers (hero points already allow this to a limited degree). The GM may also veto uses of editing that ruin the adventure or make things too easy on the players. Inspiration is intended to give the players more input into the story and allow their heroes chances to succeed, but it shouldn't be used as a replacement for planning and cleverness, just a way to enhance them.

Next: We look at how heroes earn those hero points, with heroic actions and the challenges of complications. Come by and check it out!