The Universal Table Explained

The Universal Table - Root of the FASERIP system

Adam Worth and I have recently started another podcasting endeavor, this time it's a live role-playing podcast were we play the original Marvel Superheroes FASERIP game. It's called Class 1000: A Marvel Super Heroes Live RPG, or The Class 1000 Podcast for short.

For those of you that have never played in the system, but want to follow along, I thought that I should explain the Universal Table (pictured above) and just how it gets used. You see, every Ability and Power in the game is assigned, pretty much randomly, one of the levels you see on the chart. They range, starting anyway, from Poor (4) to Monstrous (75). When you want to do something in the game, you find the rank on the table, roll percentile dice (giving a result from 1-100), and see what the color result it. Here's a quick example:

A hero wants to punch an opponent. The hero has a Remarkable (30) rank in Fighting and it attempting a "Blunt Attack", since he's just using his fists. Let's look at the possibilities.

• A Blue result is a Critical Fail. Not only does he miss with the punch, but now he's so out of position that his enemy has an easier time hitting him, or even just getting away.

• A White result just means that the punch misses.

• A Green result is a straight up hit. The hero does his Strength rank in damage, unless he was pulling his punch, to the enemy.

• A Yellow result means that the enemy was hit but he also might be Slammed for additional damage or effects.

• A Red result, the highest possible, was a hit that might also result in a Stun effect.

OK, so what happens on a Stun or a Slam? Well, the enemy rolls on the table as well, but this time he rolls his Endurance and sees what color he comes up with. Let's look at the Slam results first.

• A Blue result is still a Critical Fail. This guy gets Grand Slammed and has to roll on the Stun table.

• A White result means that he is Grand Slammed, which is what you would see from a Sal Buscema drawing with one of the characters flying away from the hit.

• A Green result means that he was knocked back one Area (the unit of distance measurement for the Marvel system).

• A Yellow result means that the enemy was only staggered. No additional damage, but he gets a minus on his next action.

• A Red result means that he resisted the Slam entirely.

Now onto the Stun possibilities.

• A Blue result means that the enemy is knocked out for anywhere between 10 to 100 rounds, which is a LONG time for encounters.

• A White result means that he is only knocked out for 1 to 10 rounds.

• A Green result means that he was knocked out for a single round only.

• A Yellow or a Red result means that he resisted the Stun entirely.

That's the basic idea of what's involved in making the rolls for this game. I hope it clears up any possible problems you might have listening to the show. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the Facebook Group we have, so the other listeners can get in on the conversation.

=========================
Like what I'm doing here on the blog and podcast? Why not check out my Patreon Page to see how you can help me do more? http://www.patreon.com/TheHammerStrikes

Make sure to check out the public poll over on the Patreon Page. Open until September 30th!