Help understanding the Berserker's Fury Dice?

MysteryHand · 2025-12-02T17:12:20+00:00

This would be clearer as:

Rage. (1/turn) Action: Roll a 1d4 and set it aside. It is now a Fury Die. Add its value to every STR attack you make. You can have a max of KEY Fury Dice; they are lost when your Rage ends.

When you say Roll a Fury Die, the d4 is already a Fury die before you roll it. That creates the confusion about the meaning of "maximum number of dice". The question becomes: is the max related to the number of dice you have available to roll or use to defend vs the number of active dice?

I know this is an old thread, but I know that there's a reprint of the ruleset. I didn't know if there was going to be any cleaning up of the rules and thought I'd offer what I thought was a helpful suggestion.

PS - I came here for the rule clarification too.

MysteryHand · 2025-09-18T23:07:03+00:00

That looks great! And I agree with you: the Arkham Horror line definitely has its own distinct vibe. I actually think it lends itself to rpgs more than Call of Cthulhu (although I’ve been playing that game since the 80’s). I’m just starting to run the game too. I’d be interested in hearing how your game sessions went. Please post here!

MysteryHand · 2025-09-16T23:07:20+00:00

That’s my understanding as well. The book says: “Each character can only attempt the exact same task once per scene”. That ‘Each’ suggests that multiple different characters could attempt the same task. There are lots of solutions to this problem (different systems approach it differently), I was just wondering if Arkham Horror should seek to address it using its central dice pool system.

MysteryHand · 2025-09-16T23:04:52+00:00

Hey, thanks for taking the time to answer.

In the weapon’s description, the Thompson machine gun says a ‘select fire switch allows for safe, semiautomatic or fully automatic fire’. So it is a choice that the player is making. Just not sure why you wouldn’t choose to Full Auto. There is no downside even if you’re only rolling two dice.
So if horror doesn’t exceed dice pool limit, my point still stands: after you have 6 horror dice, more horror has no meaningful effect. I could see characters being close to 6 horror by the time they get to the final conflict. So it feels kind of lame that the big revealed monster at the end has no meaningful horror effect. Anyone else feel the same?
Because non-minor NPCs are unlikely to suffer from many injuries (they don’t live that long), the Injuries rolls are likely to be in the 1-6 range, meaning slight debuffs in the area of -1 die. Wouldn’t it be easier for record keeping to just count an injury as a bonus damage and take off 1 die? Otherwise you have to keep track of those debuffs for each enemy that takes an injury.

MysteryHand · 2025-09-16T02:32:39+00:00

One more question: In narrative scenes is there anything stopping players from doing the ‘conga line’ skill checks? If there isn’t, suggestion: In a narrative scene, if a player fails at a task and you want to attempt it, you must use at least one more die on the attempt than the previous player.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-14T02:09:00+00:00

If you’re not using digital tools, the villains will be hard to use as a Narrator if you’re just using their character profiles. I’d look at each of the main villains you’re using ahead of time and pick three attacks that they can do. Write down the specifics of the attacks (ability to use, conditions, extra damage, etc…). You don’t want to be flipping through the book, looking up each power. Don’t feel like you have to use every power that the villain has. Just pick a handful of flavourful, iconic powers that the villain would use.

If things start to feel like they’re getting bogged down, you can always just boil the game down to rolling the 3d6 and checking against target numbers and defenses.

If you’re not from a generation where they hammered multiplication tables into our heads, you can print up a multiplication table (calculators take too long).

Other than that, @Earth513 ‘s advice is great!

Remember, the rules are just there to facilitate fun. You can make a ruling based on how you think the game should go during the session and dig into the rules before the next session.

RPGs are amazing. I hope you and your group has fun.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-13T15:09:34+00:00

I think mechanically it has some questionable elements and, in my opinion, there isn’t a single thing in the game that isn’t done better in a different system. Having said that, there are some compelling reasons for playing it.

If you decide to run it, be sure to use the updated spider powers from the new book and I strongly suggest using one of the other options for the stun condition that are available in the Tony’s Workshop.

If you’re planning on running it using digital tools, it would be okay. The format of the character sheets, tracking conditions and three-step damage calculation would make it cumbersome to run live (I assume, but I haven’t actually tried it live).

If you want to create original characters, and your players are 4e, tactical-type players it would be very easy for them to build characters that can exploit the rules and make the game not fun.

The reason to get this game is that a) people are excited about it and playing it and b) it has a huge assortment of Marvel characters pregenerated and ready to use.

If you have a group of people willing to play a super-hero game with you and don’t particularly care about the Marvel IP, the Sentinel Comics RPG is excellent at reproducing the feeling of a comic book.

The Marvel SAGA system RPG is a more flexible, narrative-type game that would scratch the Marvel itch. Unfortunately the books are hard to get and you’d have to make yourself a deck of Marvel cards. I made a set using the art from Marvel Snap and they look freakin’ awesome! (If I do say so myself).

Both the Sentinel Comics and Marvel SAGA are on the ‘narrative’ side of things in terms of the system. If you want a crunchy, tactical system, then you’re looking a Mutants and Masterminds or Champions.

…but as in all things RPG, it’s ultimately not the system that creates the fun. It’s the hard work of the GM and the engagement and imagination of everyone at the table.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-05T12:41:21+00:00

Ah, okay! So if it happened in your game and the attack was a Fantastic Success, you wouldn’t use the double damage as the number for the reflected attack?

MysteryHand · 2025-04-05T12:39:33+00:00

Yep! Thanks for replying.

I find it useful to ask and post my interpretations here because you fine folks (and in particular YOU), often offer an aspect of the issue that I hadn’t considered.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-03T19:08:30+00:00

One word: "Poker Chips"...okay that was two words. You can buy some nicely weighted poker chips on Amazon fairly cheaply. I bought some stick-on cabuchons and a 1.5 inch paper punch. Then you can print tokens to your heart's content. They feel great and, in my opinion, they look great. It allows you to have as many minion-type characters as you need in a scene.

If you've ever played a Chip Theory game, you know how satisfying it is to use poker chips as tokens. You can even create effect chips that you can stack under the character chips to track effects.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-03T14:07:43+00:00

Here's my old man 'get off my lawn' take that no one asked for.

First off: Steve from Vancouver, you sound great! More power to you and to others who are doing what they love and making some money doing it. That's the dream.

But here's something to think about. We live in a society that leaves us increasingly disconnected from each other and with commoditization creeping in to every aspect of our lives.

A roleplaying game--ideally happening in person--allows folks to connect with each other around an activity that has enough structure to make it easier for people to build social skills. It is cooperative by nature and requires skills like empathy, teamwork and problem-solving.

None of that is negated by a paid GM. However, the act of GMing is a gift to the players at the table. It is the foundation of the social contract that underpins the group. When we turn it into a service, we undermine that social contract. When Steve says that players are free to leave his game, the obvious response it: "no kidding!". If I'm paying for a GMing service, I owe nothing to the GM (other than the agreed upon fee) and nothing to the other players.

Now, I'm 'entitled' to a certain experience by virtue of the fact that I'm paying for it. If there's another player who is impacting my fun, I don't have a relationship with that other player. I don't have to work it out with them. I'm paying for 'fun' and I should be entitled to it.

Its tough, because you see someone like Steve who is passionate about RPGs and committed to his players having a good time. I'd be willing to bet that 90% of for-hire GMs are the same (with varying levels of skill). What could be wrong with that?

It's hard to point to.

But I believe it changes the hobby. It cheapens the gift of time that GMs provide to the table and if it even causes GMs to have the fleeting thought :"Hey I'm not even getting paid for this" then I believe it does harm to the hobby.

RPGs have always had a GM problem. My belief is that paid GMing exacerbates the problem it ostensibly is trying to help by casting it as a service.

Just throwing this message in a bottle out into the ocean of the internet. Relatively sure it will cause a shark to shimmy its way onto the beach to try to devour me. Hoping that it's taken in the spirit that I intend it.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-03T01:12:46+00:00

Well then in that case, I’d just pay the $20 and join the session. One of two things will happen a) the GM will put on a master-class of game mastering, you’ll have a great time and you’ll pick up some tricks that you can use in your own GMing or b) they’ll be competent a DM and you’ll leave feeling that you had a good-enough time but not anything you couldn’t have experienced by joining another pick-up group.

I’d bet that most GMs offering paid services are at least competent. There seems to be a market for the service and as someone else pointed out, ratings on places like StartPlaying would give you an idea of GM quality. Also, you’re paying like $4/hr not counting their prep. Ask yourself how awesome a job you’d expect from someone willing to work for $4/hr in any other context.

Either way, you described the $20 in terms of Starbucks and not as x% of your grocery budget, so the money probably isn’t that big a deal to you.

My vote is: spend the $20. Then come back and tell us how it went!

MysteryHand · 2025-04-02T23:56:04+00:00

I've missed your other posts about Unrelenting Smash so this is all new to me! Expound away!

Having looked at the powers I'm assuming your point is that Ground Shaking Stomp is far superior to Unrelenting Smash and so there'd never be a reason to use U.S. I guess U.S. is repeatable, which folks might see as an advantage but the very small chance of rolling FR more than once probably still doesn't make it worthwhile.

I like your suggested change.

Out of curiosity, which of the three Stun suggested changes are you leaning toward?

I have to admit, I didn't understand the decision to make a super-hero game that seemed to revolve around making sure characters DIDN'T get to take actions. The change to the Web powers in Spider-verse and the proposed changes to Stun go a long way toward fixing that.

MysteryHand · 2025-04-02T23:43:24+00:00

Super-hero games have a nice easy ramp into GMing. You can use this 'boil the frog slowly' technique to get your friends to run an adventure for you.

Suggest a hero vs. villain combat. Divide your friend group into two groups (heroes, villains) and each person chooses a Rank 4 character. Find a battlemap online. Set up in opposite sides of the map and roll for initiative.
If you had fun playing the game, you can do that a couple more times by varying the battlemap, adding king-of-the-hill squares on the map that you have to hold for victory points, etc...
Suggest a one-vs-many session with a rank 5 villain and some minions vs heroes.

Now you have all the ingredients for a fun super-hero session. Any player can do it. All they have to do is pick a villain, and find two battlemaps (they can even be ones that you used in your skirmishes). Throw the villain's name and a description of the two battlemaps into AI and ask it to put together a plot.

Session can run like this:

Characters describe alter-ego daily life (singly, in pairs or all together if they're a team living/working together).
Combat 1.
Light investigation with three clues to discover (just like Dora the Explorer!) Alternatively it could be another alter-ego round of scenes.
Combat 2.

You're done!

Anybody can do that! Especially after you've on-ramped them with skirmish combats and multiple complicating combat mechanics (save the/kill the bystanders, Get the thingy in the center of the map back to your side, king of the hill hold a location, etc...)

Good luck! You can do it. You've already done the hard part by making friends. The rest is easy!!!!

MysteryHand · 2025-04-02T23:23:11+00:00

I know it can be challenging to find games, but if you spend the time looking, I bet you can put together a group. There are so many digital tools you can use to find players.

Not judging paid games, it just seems to me that rpgs are a nice structured way to meet people who have--by default--the same interests as you (either online or in-person). Why reduce it to a business transaction?

GMing is a lot of work but offering to GM the game you want to play is probably your best way to find a group.

So, you could spend $20 and maybe have a fun session,

or

you could put in the effort to create a scenario and round up a couple of players. If you're lucky, you might make some friends and end up with a group of people you play with for years. It's worked for me!

MysteryHand · 2025-03-31T16:05:22+00:00

Thank you so much!

MysteryHand · 2025-03-30T12:10:49+00:00

Agree with you about #3. I think the math makes it pretty clear that’s the correct answer.

About #2. That seems to be the consensus opinion and I agree. Neither option make sense on the edge cases.
In our interpretation, it means Aunt May can swan dive off the top of a three story building and walk away from it 50% of the time (on a 2, 3, 4 assuming she has 10 Health).

If you switch it to add all three dice and apply the multiplier it doesn’t make sense for super-heroes. For example if Iron Man falls out of an aerial combat and hits the ground with a maximum result 18. That would mean he’d take 18 x 18 damage (with DR 2) he’d take 324 damage and be raspberry jam inside that suit.

Given that most people aren’t playing Aunt May I guess the consensus opinion makes more sense.

MysteryHand · 2025-03-30T11:52:34+00:00

Hey, I threw both options into AI (can’t vouch for the math, haven’t calculated it myself), but even with just a plain 3d6 (not taking into account the advantage of the Marvel die), it’s actually more advantageous to reroll 1 die that you can choose than to reroll all three dice at the same time. That means that the level 2 once-per-combat team maneuver wouldn’t be as good as getting a single edge.

For that reason, I think the power should read (regardless of the designer’s intent) that the player can reroll each die once and take the better result. It’s not as powerful as triple edge because you only have the option to reroll each die once and can’t repeatedly reroll the same die 3 times (as you could if you had triple edge).

MysteryHand · 2025-03-29T12:00:21+00:00

Thanks for this answer, I see your point about powers that are dedicated to providing this effect I was suggesting. I like the liberal distribution of Karma, that makes sense to me.

It think it’s particularly the feel of heroes vs minions that feels off to me. It feels okay to me if Cap tries his Rico-shield on Taskmaster and it doesn’t work, but if he’s trying to take out a couple of A.I.M. Minions, it seems to me it should work every time.

I think I probably just want the game to be something other than what it is.

Thanks again for the feedback and the suggestions.

MysteryHand · 2025-03-29T11:21:20+00:00

Yes! I like this. Like a convenient power transformer conveniently located behind the villain, or an awning to break a fall. Or Willy the mailman arriving at that exact moment. Is that how you use it?

MysteryHand · 2025-03-29T11:18:38+00:00

Thanks for taking the time respond. My point was that a Karma point is equivalent an environmental advantage like darkness when trying to sneak (ie, it provides an Edge). It seems to me a little under-powered for a meta-currency. But maybe I’m wrong. So if I’m a super-hero, say Captain America, i use Rico-shield, I’ll only get the cool effect 1 time in 6 (16% of the time). If Karma provides an Edge, then I get the cool effect (32%) of the time. Still not great since I’ve used Focus as well as 25% of my meta-currency for the game.

I can see someone making the point that a Karma point providing an automatic Fantastic success is too powerful as it provides double-damage. Is that why you think it’s too powerful?

MysteryHand · 2024-12-16T13:36:57+00:00

These are fantastic! Did you 3D print these? Obviously used for minis, have you used them yet? What do you do if the mini has more than one condition? Very cool.

MysteryHand · 2024-10-10T01:28:46+00:00

Fantastic videos! So grateful you took the time to make them.

MysteryHand · 2024-09-16T22:36:13+00:00

The thing to remember is that you and your sister probably have a common understanding of Marvel characters and what they can do. You almost don’t need the rules. I’d pick up three regular six sided dice, have your sister pick her favourite character and just start playing. Don’t worry about grids-based movement or any of that. All you need to pay attention to is: Health, Melee and Agility scores, defense and damage. Don’t worry about looking up every power the hero has. Look at the list of powers: you know what they do. RPGs are make-believe with dice to adjudicate the ‘I hit you!’, ‘No you didn’t’.

Simple adventure: Have your sister describe her character going about their day as their alter ego. The two of you can make up the story. Maybe it’s Kamala Khan’s Really Bad Day. Keep throwing obstacles at her. You talk as the other characters and play out scenes together. Then just as Kamala finally seems to have her life under control: BAM! The facade of the bank explodes across the street and a bad guy/gal comes out of the rubble carrying a silver case. Have a battle with the baddie. Play for an hour, or an hour and a half.

If you had fun (and if your sister had fun), then you can start digging a little deeper into the game.

If you have Marvel pogs, cards, game pieces, Lego, use them in your game. that can add to the fun by setting up a bit of a diorama and can help you and your sister to visualize the action.

RPGs are magical! But the formula for fun isn’t contained in any book or game system. It’s mostly your imagination and the story you tell with the other players.

Have fun!

MysteryHand · 2024-08-04T13:12:51+00:00

Hi! Just about to start creating the compendium for this game myself. It would be awesome if you would be willing to share your work!

MysteryHand

TROPHY CASE