The next step is to determine your character’s ability scores. Remember, their first initials spell MARVEL: Melee, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego and Logic.

The average score for any ability is 0. Standard human-level abilities range from –3 to +3, but your character’s rank, Traits and Powers can lift those higher.

Selecting Ability Scores

When creating a character from scratch, you determine a character’s ability scores by allocating points among the six abilities. The number of points you have available to allocate to your ability scores is determined by the character’s rank, as shown on the Ability Score Points table.

You can spend the points however you like. In addition, if you lower a score below 0, you can use those points to increase Other Scores. For instance, lowering a character’s Ego to –2 would give you 2 points to use on other scores—although it leaves the character particularly weak and vulnerable in that area. You cannot voluntarily lower any score below –3.

The default cap for any score is 3 plus the character’s rank. For regular folks who are Rank 1, that means the standard cap is 4. For someone like Captain Marvel, who is Rank 6, it’s 9.

Ability Score Points

Ability Defense

To figure a character’s defense for each ability, just add 10 to the ability score. When they defend with that ability, that’s the target number for the attacker.

Example: Spider-Man has an Agility score of 7. That makes his Agility defense (7+10=) 17. Someone attacking him in close combat would need to get a 17 or better to hit him.

However, Spider-Man also has the Spider-Sense power, which adds +2 to his Agility defense, so his actual Agility defense is (17+2=) 19.