Plot

Instead of dealing with Karma and all that (how the Marvel system normally works, which rewards advancement points based off of a moral compass), players will get an allotment of Plot.

Plot is awarded at the end of the month for play. Players are guaranteed a certain amount of Plot so long as they play a single session.

Plot is awarded as follows:


Ratings

The three categories - There are three categories, rated 1 to 5, to assess the player's RPing for rewarding Plot

Producer's Choice - How entertaining the character's story has been. 1 is the minimum, 5 is so entertaining that one finds themselves going back and re-reading the logs to recapture the awesome.

People's Choice - How believable the character was. This does not refer to the plausibility of superpowered people, as obviously that suspension of disbelief is required. Instead, this is a measure of how genuine the character's reactions and behavior was in the eyes of the "viewers". 1 is the minimum, 5 is so believable that you could imagine meeting someone just like this in real life.

Network's Choice - How compelling the character's story was. Instead of being how entertaining it was as is now, this is a measure of how much people want to know what happens next in the character's saga. 1 is the minimum, 5 is so compelling that there is a desire to ask for the next time a session will occur so one can get the latest update.

These are rated, by session, by the Producer and anyone else who was involved in the session. The ratings are anonymous, and are merely meant to encourage players to play believable, entertaining characters with a compelling story. This makes the game more enjoyable for everyone. They are not meant to be a critique on the other players, hence the anonymity and the constant inclusion of the Producer. The Player gets an automatic personal contribution of a 5 to each of their ratings (it is assumed that the player is completely invested in their character). The Producer can never rate a player lower than a 2 or above a 4 in any category. If all of the players who are not the player of the character being rated rate that character higher for the session than the Producer, the Producer is "Overruled" and his rating in that category is set equal to the next lowest for the purposes of determining the average.

At the end of the month, all of the ratings for each category (averaged per session by the number of people involved, rounded down to one decimal place) are summed up. These are then averaged again to find the mean value for each category for the month. The player is awarded with the sum of the mean values, rounded down to the nearest integer, for each category in Plot.

Example: Steve has four sessions in a month's time. Two sessions are spent with Paul, one is spent with Paul, Amanda, and Cody, and one is just Steve. The sessions' ratings by the players and Producer are as follows, with Producer Overrules being marked with a [PO Original Value->Overrule Value]

Session 1 (Steve and Paul)
Paul - 3, 2, 4
Producer - 3, 3, 3

Average - 3.6, 3.3, 4.3 [PO 3->4]

Session 2 (Steve and Paul)
Paul - 4, 4, 1
Producer - 2, 3, 2

Average - 4.3 [PO 2->4], 4.3 [PO 3->4], 2.6

Session 3
Paul - 2, 4, 4
Amanda - 3, 2, 5
Cody - 5, 5, 5
Producer - 2, 2, 3

Average - 3.4, 3.8, 4.6 [PO 3->4]

Session 4
Producer - 4, 2, 4

Average - 4.5, 3.5, 4.5

Average for the Month - 3.95, 3.725, 4

11 Plot for Steve this month from ratings.


Adjustments

In the interests of keeping things fair, there will be other Plot rewards meant to eventually balance things out. Characters who consistently get higher ratings will still advance faster and first, but eventually people will get tired of hearing about the latest exploits of Captain Amazingly Advanced and his Bastion of Plot. To make sure gigantic gaps do not occur, and also to award honesty in rolling (or take pity on those whom the dice hate) the following Plot adjustments will be made to each month's plot.

Bell Curve (+1-3 Plot; -1-3 Plot) - This adjustment will be applied to any player whose character's total net worth in Plot is less than that of the player whose character's total net worth in Plot is the highest. The Bell Curve adjustment starts at +1, and increases to +2 when the net worth in Plot difference is 10 or greater, and to +3 when the net worth in Plot difference is 20 or greater. The net worth in Plot values are determined after that month's plot is added to each character's total (before any adjustments). Additionally, if the difference between the leading character and the next highest character is 10 or greater, a -1 Plot adjustment is received. If the difference between the leading character and the next highest character is 20 or greater, a -2 Plot adjustment is received. If the difference between the leading character and the next highest character is 30 or greater, a -3 Plot adjustment is received. Note that these adjustments will not lead to a completely balanced cast all on their own. If one character consistently gets higher ratings than the rest, they will invariably remain in the lead.

Vindictive Polyhedrons (+3 Plot) - This adjustment will be applied if the average of all of the player's rolls is lower than 25. A sampling size of at least 10 rolls is required for this adjustment to be applied.

Rolling Poorly (+2 Plot) - This adjustment will be applied if the average of all of the player's rolls is lower than the statistical average of the dice. The average would be 50.5 (there are 100 possible combinations, each representing a unique number 1-100). A sampling size of at least 10 rolls is required for this adjustment to be applied.

Mean Value (+1 Plot) - This adjustment will be applied if the average of all the player's rolls is within the range of 50.5 to 52. A sampling size of at least 10 rolls is required for this adjustment to be applied.

Magic Dice (-2 Plot) - This adjustment will be applied if the average of all the player's rolls is higher than 75. A sampling size of at least 10 rolls is required for this adjustment to be applied.

It should be noted that all statistical dice rolling means take combined data, so the first month has 1 months worth of rolls, the second has two, and so on. Eventually, everyone SHOULD be getting the Mean Value adjustment pretty consistently.


Awards

Awards are given every month. Plot earned from Awards does not count towards a character's net worth in Plot.

Producer's Choice (1 Plot) - This award goes to the character whose ratings from the Producer were the highest of all players. In the case of a tie, all tied players receive this award.

Random Choice (1 Plot) - Each month, a character is picked by a random algorithm (most likely a die roll). That character receives this award for that month.

Player's Choice (1 Plot) - This award goes to the character whose ratings from their fellow players were the highest of all players. In the case of a tie, all tied players receive this award.

Quotable Dialog (2 Plot) - This award goes to any character who has at least one in-character line that summons teh lulz. This is a purely subjective award, and can be awarded to as few as none or as many as all characters for a given month.

Quotable Commentary (1 Plot) - This award goes to any player who has at least one out of character remark that summons teh lulz. This is a purely subjective award, and can be awarded to as few as none or as many as all characters for a given month. Players who win the Quotable Dialog Award are not eligible for the Quotable Commentary Award for that month.


For those who do not want to do the math, the minimum amount of Plot one can acquire in one month is 2 (all from the lowest ratings possible from every player, with all players in all sessions for that character, and -3 for being 30 points of net worth ahead of the next highest player), and the maximum amount of plot one can acquire in one month is 25 (15 from all ratings @ 5 for all sessions, +3 Bell Curve, +2 Rolling Poorly, 1 from Producer's Choice, 1 from Random Choice, 1 from Player's Choice, and 2 from Quotable Dialog).


Spending Plot: Advancement

Advancement is done in New Rank number terms. Advancement of an attribute costs (New Rank / 10) Plot, rounded up. Advancement of Resources costs (New Rank / 10) Plot, rounded up. Advancement of a power costs (New Rank / 5) Plot, rounded up. When Advancing a Power Suit, attribute and power costs are rounded down instead of up.

Players can advance 1 whole rank at a time in any single thing per month. Whenever the increase to the item being enhanced would result in a column shift (Typical to Good, Good to Excellent, etc), this is called Cresting. Cresting costs an additional 4 Plot for an ability, 2 Plot for Resources, and 5 Plot for powers. When Advancing a Power Suit, cresting costs 2 Plot for an ability and 3 Plot for powers.

New Powers can also be purchased as an aspect of Advancement, but they are expensive to acquire. New Powers cost 60 Plot, base, plus (Starting Rank Number * 8) additional Plot for Innate Power and Learned Power characters. Learned Power characters also have to invest an amount of training time equal to 1 week game time per starting Rank Number. Tech Based Power characters spend half this number to purchase new powers, but must also acquire the appropriate materials and invest the time into making them work. New Powers can never have a starting Rank greater than Excellent.

New Talents can be acquired for 10 Plot as long as the character can find a teacher. Characters with the Student talent only pay 8 Plot for New Talents. Learned Power characters do not need to find a teacher and only spend 5 Plot for Talents (4 Plot if they have the Student talent, 3 Plot for new Languages and 2 Plot with Student). A Learned Power character in this case is one that has Learned Power for either Attributes or Powers or both.

Contacts must be acquired through the course of gameplay, and then they cost 5 Plot.

Allies must be acquired through the course of gameplay, and then they cost 10 Plot plus an additional amount of Plot equal to their Resource rank number.

A Contact can be upgraded to an Ally by spending 5 Plot plus an additional amount of Plot equal to their Resource rank number. It also must be plausible that the individual or group suddently decides they have a vested interest in helping the character out whenever the character asks.

Spending Plot: Roll Enhancement

Prior to rolling for a FEAT, a player may announce that they are spending plot. After rolling, regardless of the result, the player spends a single point of plot. The player may spend additional points of plot if they so desire, but only the first is compulsory after announcing that plot will be spent. For each point of plot spent on a roll, the roll result is modified by 10. It is worth nothing that plot spent in this way lowers the character's net worth in plot.

Spending Plot: Power Stunts

Power Stunts are how a character can acquire powers related to the powers they already have without spending an absurd amount of Plot on them. A Power Stunt is the character using their power in a creative way such that it emulates another power. An example would be using Cold Generation to make a bridge of ice to skate on, thus giving the character a movement based power that would ultimately increase their land speed. By spending 10 Plot, the character can make a single attempt at a power stunt. If this is the first time the character has attempted this stunt, they must then roll a Red FEAT for the appropriate power for the stunt to be successful. If the character has attempted this stunt before, but succeeded fewer than 4 times, a Yellow FEAT is required for the stunt to be successful. If the character has succeeded at this stunt 4 times, only a Green FEAT is required for the stunt to be successful. Plot may be spent as normal to improve the results of these rolls and potentially guarantee success.

The Power Rank for the stunt is determined by the first attempt. If the first attempt succeeds (the character gets a Red FEAT), the Power Rank for the stunt is equal to that of the source power. If the first attempt fails, the Power Rank for the stunt is equal to that of the source power -1 CS.

After the character has succeeded 5 times at a given Power Stunt, it becomes something they can do normally just like any of their other powers. Things which hinder the source power for the Power Stunt hinder the Power Stunt as well.

Power Stunts cannot be performed off of other Power Stunts.

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