On a character’s turn, they can take one standard action and one movement action. They can take these actions in any order, and they can take their standard action at any point before, during or after their movement action.

Example: Spider-Man (Peter Parker) swinglines into the bank on his webs to punch Doctor Octopus. His movement when Swinglining is 18 spaces, and Doctor Octopus is only 10 spaces away. After the Attack, Doctor Octopus is still standing, so Spider-Man uses the rest of his movement to circle around his foe and put himself between Doctor Octopus and an innocent bank teller.

No Action Required

Many fast and simple things a character can do don’t require the use of a standard action or a movement action at all, but a character can still do them. This includes things like speaking, reloading Weapons, reading a sign, doing simple things within reach—like turning on the lights, opening a door or window or picking something up—putting on a mask and so on.

It’s up to the Narrator as to what rises to the level of an action. In general, though, anything that requires an action check also requires an action.

If a character wants to do something that requires enough time that a round would pass, then they wind up skipping their turn that round. While that can make sense in some situations, it’s often not a good idea in the middle of a fight. Kind Narrators should warn a player if this is about to happen, however, so the player can adjust their plans before it’s too late.

Reactions

Each character also gets one reaction per round. A reaction can temporarily interrupt the Initiative order to allow the character to respond to a trigger of some kind, whether it happens on their turn or someone else’s.

If a reaction interrupts another combatant’s turn, the Initiative order returns to that combatant after the reaction ends. Once a character takes a reaction, they can’t take another one until the start of their next turn.

It’s possible for a character to interrupt another character’s reaction with their own reaction. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s up to the Narrator to keep track of the proper sequence of actions and Reactions.