Sometimes circumstances surrounding your character in the game can help the dice go your way, and sometimes they hurt the character’s chances instead. That’s the difference between having an edge and having trouble.

Edge

If your character makes an action check under extra-favorable circumstances, uses special skills, employs top-notch tools or otherwise has some kind of advantage, the Narrator can grant your character an edge on that action check. When that happens, you can reroll a single die of your d616 roll for that action check and use the better of the two numbers.

Example: The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is sneaking up behind an A.I.M. scientist in the dark and attacks him. The Narrator declares that the agent has an edge because the A.I.M. scientist doesn’t see them coming. The player makes an action check and rolls 1 5 2, for a total of 8. Adding their ability score of +1 makes that a 9, but the target number is 10.

Because the agent has an edge, the player gets to reroll one of the dice. They decide to reroll the 1, and this time, they get a 5. Their roll is now 5 5 2, for a total of 12. That plus their ability score gives them a 13, which is plenty for their attack to hit.

Note that the player could have rerolled their Marvel die—which was a 5—in the hopes of getting a 6 or an M. But since they only needed 1 more for their attack to hit, they played it safer by rerolling the 2 instead.

Stacking Edges

Sometimes a character may have an edge from several circumstances that can stack together, giving you a double edge, a triple edge and so on. The Narrator determines if various sources of edge can stack (add up to help you) or not.

For instance, if a character trying to sneak up on someone is both invisible and moving through a noisy nightclub, the Narrator could rule that they have two edges: one for people not being able to see them and another for people not being able to hear them.

On the other hand, if a character is invisible and the lights are out, there’s no extra benefit to being invisible in the dark. That situation would give the character only one edge instead of two.

When you have edges stacked from two or more sources, you can reroll the same die repeatedly or reroll different dice, choosing as you go.

You don’t have to use an edge. It’s always your choice. If you’re happy with your roll as it is, you can leave it alone.

That said, it never hurts you to use an edge, as you always get to use the better result.

Trouble

The opposite of having an edge is having trouble.

A character may have trouble on an action check if they attempt the action under bad circumstances, lack the appropriate expertise, use poor equipment or otherwise suffer from a drawback. When a character has trouble on an action check, their player must reroll the best of their dice numbers in that roll, and they must use the worse of the two numbers.

An M is always considered to be the best die number.

Example: The character has one arm tied behind their back when they’re attacking, giving them trouble. They roll 6 M 5 on their action check, for a total of 17. They must reroll the M and use the worse of the two results. They roll a 2, so their roll is now 6 2 5, for a total of 13.

Remember, if the action check comes up 6 M 6, that’s an ultimate Fantastic success, and it automatically succeeds. Ignore any trouble at that point.

Stacking Trouble

Sometimes a character may have trouble from several circumstances that can stack together to cause double trouble, triple trouble and so on. As with edges, the Narrator determines if various sources of trouble can stack.

When you have trouble stacked from two or more sources, you might have to reroll the same die repeatedly or reroll different dice as you go. You always reroll the best die.

Example: The character has one arm tied behind their back and they’re fighting blindfolded, giving them double trouble. When attacking one of their captors, they roll 2 M 5 on their action check, for a total of 13. They must reroll the M and use the worse of the two results. They roll a 2, so their roll is now 2 2 5, for a total of 9.

For their second trouble, they have to reroll the 5. They get a 6 this time, which means they must keep the 5. Their roll is still 2 2 5, for a final total of 9.

Mixing Things Up

It’s possible to have both edges and troubles at the same time. These things cancel each other out in equal measure, so you only need to deal with what’s left.

Example: On one roll, a character has trouble from two factors and edges from three other factors. (They must be having a pretty wild time!) The two troubles cancel out two edges, leaving the character with just one edge.

Later, the same character has lost two of the edges. They still have trouble from two factors but now have only one edge. The edge cancels out one of the troubles, leaving the character with one trouble.