After a tough day of combat, characters want to get back to full fighting form. A character who is not dead or shattered regains lost Health and Focus equal to the character’s rank every hour they take it easy. For every hour they sleep, they regain double that.

Example: Spider-Man’s rank is 4. If he rests for two hours, he regains (4×2=) 8 points of Health and 8 points of Focus. If he sleeps for eight hours, he gains back (4×8×2=) 64 points of Health and 64 points of Focus.

Recovery

If a character wants to recover faster, they can spend a point of Karma to make that happen instantly. During combat, this requires an action. If the character is unconscious or demoralized, they can still take this action on their turn. If they are Killed or shattered, they cannot.

To recover Health, make a Resilience check. To recover Focus, make a Vigilance check. The target number for either roll is 10. If the roll fails, nothing is recovered.

On a success, take the Marvel die and multiply it by the character’s rank, just like you would with a Damage roll. The character gains that many Health or Focus points back, up to their maximum scores. A Fantastic Success doubles the amount they get back.

The character cannot spend a second point of Karma to help with this roll.

If a character is unconscious or demoralized, a teammate can use an action to spend a point of Karma to help the character recover too. To help with Health Recovery, the character must be within the teammate’s reach. To help with Focus Recovery, the teammate must be able to communicate with the character instead.

The character makes the roll using their own ability score in either case.

Example: Killmonger ambushes Black Panther (T’Challa) and beats Black Panther until his Health is down to –5, rendering the hero unconscious. On Black Panther’s next turn—while Killmonger is reveling in his victory—he spends a point of Karma to make a Health Recovery check. He rolls The Dice and gets 2 M 5. That totals 13 plus his 3 Resilience, so he beats the 10 target number. That gives him (6 [for the Marvel die] × 4 [for his Rank] = 24; +3 [for Resilience]) = 27 points of Health back. However, the M makes this a Fantastic Success, so Black Panther doubles that result for 54 points of Health back. He adds that to his current Health of –5, bringing him back up to 49 Health. This fight isn’t over yet!

Unconscious

An unconscious character awakens when their Health is higher than 0. While unconscious, they cannot take any actions. Their defenses are all reduced to 10, and close attacks automatically hit them.

Outside of combat, a helper can awaken an unconscious character within reach by making a Challenging Logic check. On a success, the awakened character’s Health returns to 1.

Demoralized

A demoralized character rallies back when their Focus is higher than 0. When demoralized, any Powers the character is concentrating on end immediately. They have Trouble on all action checks.

Outside of combat, a helper can rally a demoralized character they can communicate with by making a Challenging Ego check. On a success, the rallied character’s Focus returns to 1.

Killed

If a character is Killed, they are removed from play permanently. Well, “permanently.” Death is often not the final word in the Marvel Multiverse. Some characters have Powers or Traits that can restore them to life.

At the discretion of the Narrator—and with some solid and reasonable suggestions from the player—even dead characters without such Powers or Traits can come back at some point in the future. Chapter 10 features suggestions for how this can happen.

However, just because the game ends for one character doesn’t mean the player is out of luck. Until that character is brought back to life, the Narrator can give the player the option of playing another character of similar rank.

Shattered

If a character is shattered, they are mentally broken and require long-term care. Many people never recover from such an experience, but heroes often manage it. Exactly how that happens is up to the Narrator. Again, Chapter 10 features suggestions for how this can happen.

Until the character’s mental Health is restored, the Narrator can give their player the option of playing another character of similar rank. If so, the Narrator takes control of the shattered character for that time.