Rules and Redundancy for
Defenders of the City
House Rules
Ability Ranks
The Ability Ranks of player characters are not to be rolled, but assigned. The ranks to be used are Monstrous, Amazing, Incredible, Remarkable, Excellent, Good, & Typical, with three powers ranked Amazing, Incredible, & Remarkable. Ranks can be shifted between ability ranks and powers, even to be broken down to gain additional powers. Each character starts with three Talents with additional talents gained by exchanging ability ranks.
Health is determined by combining the ranks for Fighting, Agility, Strength, & Endurance. Karma is determined by combining the ranks for Reason, Intuition, & Reason.
Resources are assigned the rank of Good, but can be improved by exchanging Ability and Power ranks. This rank cannot be lowered during character creation.
Popularity starts at 0, but can be improved by exchanging Ability and Power ranks. This rank cannot be lowered during character creation.
Initiative
In order to streamline combat, group initiative can be used with the party. The initiative order will start in clockwise order from the GM’s chair for the first round, and then switch to counter-clockwise order for the next round.
This allows for players to alternate their actions during each round. Subsequent rounds will follow the clockwise/counter-clockwise method until the end of combat.
Talking During Combat
Talking is a free action, but monologues are not.
"Wah"
Rather than repeat dialogue every player has heard, PCs and NPCs can “Wah” each other information in order to streamline gameplay.
The “wah” refers to the odd sound made by the teachers in the Charlie Brown television series. Most of the Peanut’s characters usually looked up while the teacher spoke, and replied “I understand”.
Campaign Redundancy
A.I.M. - In the Earth-CC campaign, the acronym for A.I.M. stands for Advanced Idea Mechanics.
Asgardians - Asgardians are the most human-looking and powerful of the intelligent races of Asgard, a mystic dimension once connected to Earth by Bifrost, the rainbow bridge. All Asgardians have Good protection from physical and energy attacks, provided by the denser materials of their worlds. While not all Asgardians are as powerful as Odin and Thor, they are long-lived compared to other species in the multiverse.
ECHELON - ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program (signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the United States with the aid of four other signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, also known as the Five Eyes. Created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, the ECHELON project became formally established in 1971. By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins into "a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications" (mass surveillance and industrial espionage).
The Sandbox - The Sandbox was a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility located in Africa, specializing in the handling and study of hazardous materials. It was considered a very desirable assignment by students at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology.
S.H.I.E.L.D. - In the Earth-CC campaign, the acronym for S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. When it originally appeared in Marvel Comics in 1965, the acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division. It was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate.
"Hattori wakizashi (curved Japanese short sword)" by xxx, "KA-BAR 1218 serrated edge fighting knife" by xxx