When a character deals damage with an action check—like with a close attack or a ranged attack—that damage is expressed as a multiplier applied to the action check’s Marvel die. To that, you then add the ability the character used for the action check.

A character’s basic damage multiplier is their rank, but some powers—like Mighty or Accuracy—can add to it. These may give a character a bonus to their damage multiplier for certain types of attacks and should be kept track of separately. There’s space for this on the character sheet.

Example: She-Hulk is Rank 4, so her damage multiplier is 4. Her power Mighty 4 adds +4 to that for close attacks, which gives her a damage multiplier of 8. To that, she adds her Melee score, so when she hits with a close attack, she does (dMarvel×8)+5 points of damage.

Damage Types

There are two types of damage. Physical injuries cause Health damage, and mental injuries cause Focus damage. Health damage is deducted from the target’s Health, and Focus damage is deducted from their Focus.

Example: Shang-Chi’s punches do dMarvel×4+7 points of Health damage. If he gets a 6 on the Marvel die, that totals up to (6×4+7=) 31 points of damage. A Fantastic success would double that, doing 62 points of Health damage.

Effects of Damage

If a character’s Health is reduced below 1, they are knocked unconscious. Any powers they were concentrating on end immediately.

While unconscious, a character cannot take any actions. Their defense against ranged attacks is reduced to 10, and close attacks automatically hit them. If a character’s Health is reduced to a negative value equal in magnitude to their maximum Health, or worse, they are killed.

If a character’s Focus is reduced to 0, they are demoralized. Any conditions or powers they were concentrating on end immediately. While demoralized, they have trouble on all actions. If their Focus is reduced to a negative value equal in magnitude to their maximum Focus, or worse, they are shattered: frozen in place by fear and stress.

Stacking Damage Multipliers

Things that grant bonuses to damage multipliers do not stack. This means that they do not add together. If you have two or more multipliers that could apply in a situation, the largest one takes effect, and the others do not.

Example: She-Hulk picks up a club that adds +1 to the user’s Melee damage multiplier. She also has Mighty 4, which adds +4 to her Melee damage multiplier. The modifier from Mighty 4 is higher, so only that has any effect. Her bare fists are more powerful than any club.

Fantastic Damage

If a character gets a Fantastic success on a close-combat check, the attack does double damage. Total up the regular damage and multiply it by 2. Many powers also give the Fantastic success an additional effect.

In addition, if the character has the Mighty power, they can deal knockback to the target.

Damage Reduction

Some powers and equipment grant damage reduction. This is expressed by a number, like Damage Reduction 2.

When calculating damage that an attack does to someone with damage reduction, reduce the damage multiplier by the amount of damage reduction. If the damage multiplier is reduced to less than 1, the attack does no damage at all, not even from the attacker’s Ability score bonus.

If the attack gets a result that increases the damage multiplier, apply the damage reduction before figuring the increase.

As with damage multipliers, things that grant bonuses to damage reduction do not stack. This means that they do not add together. If you have two or more instances of damage reduction that could apply in a situation, the largest one takes effect, and the others do not.

Example: Spider-Man (Miles Morales) punches Iron Man (Tony Stark) and hits. Spider-Man’s Melee damage is (dMarvel×4)+3. Iron Man’s armor gives him Sturdy 2, which reduces the damage multiplier by 2, so the damage that gets through from a successful punch is (dMarvel×2)+3 instead.

Spider-Man takes another shot at Iron Man and gets a Fantastic success. This makes his damage (dMarvel×4)+6 instead.

Iron Man switches over to his Hulkbuster armor, which grants him Sturdy 4. Spider-Man hits him again, but this time, the Armor reduces his attack multiplier to 0, so the punch does no damage at all.

Knockback

If a character with the Mighty power gets a fantastic success on a close attack, the character has the option of dealing knockback to the target instead. If the character is attacking with an additional power, they must choose between the power’s standard special effect (beyond double damage) and applying knockback.

For every damage multiplier the character has for the attack, the victim is knocked directly backward 5 spaces. If this causes the target character to smash into something, they take no additional damage. That’s already figured into the Fantastic success.

Example: She-Hulk punches Iron Man and gets a Fantastic success. She-Hulk has a damage multiplier of ×8. Iron Man’s armor gives him a damage reduction of 2, so (8–2=) 6 damage multipliers apply to a regular attack. The punch can knock Iron Man back (6×5=) 30 spaces.

Holding Back

Most heroes don’t want to kill anyone. As such—unless their player expressly says otherwise—any attack a character with the Heroic tag makes that would kill a target instead leaves that target 1 point away from dying.

Similarly, most heroes don’t want to shatter anyone. Any attack a character with the Heroic tag makes that would shatter a target instead leaves that target 1 point away from being shattered.

The Narrator can overrule this in certain circumstances, however, so players should be careful with how their characters attack others. If a character drops a building on a crowd, for instance, they shouldn’t expect to not cause any casualties.