Aiming

Aiming is an action where your hero spends an exchange to aim a distance attack or weapon at a target. If, instead of attacking, the hero aims at a specific target, the difficulty rating for the attack on the next exchange is reduced to 0 for that target only. Aiming applies only if your hero and the target are at firing distance (see the next page)((panel)). Cardplay and opposition values still apply to an aimed attack.    While aiming, your hero can't switch targets, dodge attacks, move, or even talk to anyone in a voice loud enough for the target to hear. Doing any of these prohibited actions eliminates the benefit of aiming.

Distances

During a fight,questions like "Can my hero get to Electro in time?" and "Do Cyclop's eyebeams reach far enough to blast Sabretooth?" will pop up. How close do heroes have to be to effectively battle their foes? In the MARVEL game we settle this question with a simple systemof distances. It is up to the Narrator to decide and keep track of the distance between the heroes and villains during a fight.    Closing or widening the gap between a hero and foe (or maintaining the same distance when the foe tries to charge or flee) requires a successful easy agility (Agility) action. If the hero succeeds, he or she may close or widen the gap by one distance category (striking distance to firing distance, for example).    Striking Distance: Any time that two combatants can get close enough to lay their mitts on one another, they're within striking distance. As long as they can get to one another in the space of one exchange (within a dozen feet or so), they are considered to be at striking distance. This is the only distance at which physical brawling may occur, and firing most projectile weapons (guns and bows mostly) gets on difficulty level harder at this distance.    Firing Distance: When the combatants aren't close enough to pummel one antoher, but a projectile or thrown weapon is effective, they're within firing distance. This could be anywhere from 10 or so feet to 100 yards or more. Brawling is impossible at th is distance, but most distance attacks are possible as long as the combatants have an onubstructed line of sight to one another.    Visual Distance: If the combatants can see on another but are too far away for most projectile attacks, they're within visiual distance. Telepathy, psychic blasts, and artillery usually work at visual distance, but nothing else does (with exceptions for cosmic beings like the Silver Surfer). The best the heroes can hope for is to keep their foes in sight long enough to close the gap and engage them in battle.

Contingent Actions

Each hero gets on action per exchange, but some things happen later. A grenade might go off after it hits, or a hero's action may cause a rocket to fire into the air. Effects that occur at the end of teh exchange happen as contingent actions. They occur after the main actions and counteractions are finished, and after damage is dealt.    Spells constitute a large category of these effects. To take effect at the end of an exchange, a spell must have been declared as the hero's action. As noted under the power description of Magic, a "dabbler" mage (intensity 9 or less) must draw a card at this stage. If the card's value is above the mage's intensity in Magic, the spell fizzles. Otherwise, the spell goes off now. Its effect may create a new action, counteraction, and/or results mini-step inside this exchange.    In a player hero vs. Player hero fight, a player whose hero has a higher Intellect than others in the fight may wish to change his or her declarations after hearing other declarations. After changing declarations, the player makes his or her hero's action contingent, and performs no actions during the hero actions step.

Visit the official Marvel Site by following the link on the logo at the top of the page or go to: http://www.marvel.com.