One of the reasons that super heroes work together in teams is that a good team is far more than the sum of its parts. Together, the heroes can do things that they would never be able to manage alone.

When the heroes from the same team fight alongside each other, they have the ability to use a team maneuver. This is a special group maneuver that helps the entire team at once.

Being a Team

To qualify as a team, a team must have at least two characters on it, like Cloak and Dagger or Luke Cage and Iron Fist. However, there’s no upper limit on how many members can be on a team. The Avengers, for example, have had dozens of members on their rotating roster over the years.

A character can be part of more than one team. Wolverine (Logan), for example, has been part of the X-Men, X-Force, the Avengers and even the Fantastic Four. Some characters wander around a lot and are part of all sorts of teams, while others tend to stick with a single team for their entire career. Some never join a team at all.

Even if a character is a member of multiple teams, they can take part in only one team maneuver per battle.

Those who are outside of the team can fight alongside the others, but they don’t get to take part in the team’s maneuver. Not unless they declare themselves part of a team-up.

Note that villains can form teams as well—like the Sinister Six or the Masters of Evil—so super heroes should watch out for villains trying to use these same maneuvers against them too.

Team-Ups

Team-ups are a long-standing Marvel tradition. Any two characters can form a team-up and declare themselves a team for a single adventure. They can take advantage of the unique combination of their powers to make amazing things happen.

In a similar way, a single character can team up with an existing team for a single adventure.

Choosing a Team Maneuver

At the start of an adventure, the team members should get together and decide on their team’s maneuver. There are three types—offensive, defensive and rally—and each has three different levels.

A team can use a maneuver only once per battle, so it’s important to pick the right type. However, if the team decides that they’d like to try a different maneuver type, they can switch them by meeting back at their headquarters—assuming they have one. In a pinch, any safe place where the heroes can talk about strategy for a bit can suffice, but the team can switch their maneuver type only once per day.

How powerful a maneuver a team can manage depends on the team’s average rank. The higher that is, the more powerful the maneuver the team can pull off.

Higher-level maneuvers cost more Focus. If a team wants to use a maneuver of a lower level of their chosen type, though, they can. They then pay the lower Focus cost.

Maneuver Levels

Find more in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook.

Activating a Team Maneuver

When activating a team maneuver, each team member must be within 5 spaces of at least one other team member involved in the maneuver. Also, they should shout out the team’s rally cry, like “Avengers assemble!”

Activating a team maneuver can be done only at the start of a round. To make it happen, each team member involved in the battle must be able to communicate with each other, and they must pay the required Focus cost on their own. If a hero cannot pay the Focus cost, they have the option of spending a point of Karma for themselves instead.

Those who—for whatever reason—cannot pay the cost do not get to enjoy the maneuver’s benefits. Unconscious or demoralized team members do not have to join in and pay the costs, but if they somehow manage it, they can take advantage of the benefits too.

Offensive Team Maneuvers

Level 1: The team members all get an edge on any attack they make this round.

Find more in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook.

Defensive Team Maneuvers

Level 1: The team members all have Damage Reduction 2 for this round.

Find more in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook.

Rally Team Maneuvers

Level 1: All actions taken against team members have trouble this round.

Find more in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook.