Rules Analysis of an MCU Scene: Cap Chases the Hydra Assassin
Doctor Erskine has just been assassinated by a Hydra Agent! Steve Rogers, mere moments after receiving the Super Soldier Serum, chases barefoot after the assassin through the streets of Brooklyn. The enemy has commandeered a Lucky Star Taxi and has a speed advantage, but this is the neighborhood Steve grew up in, and he knows a short cut, leaping over a chain link fence in an alley to close the distance. Steve jumps from car to car, landing on the roof of the taxi. The Hydra Agent loses control, and the vehicle flips over, detaching the car door. Stunned, but alive, the assassin escapes the vehicle, and points his gun at Steve. Steve sees the yellow car door lying in front of him, picks it up, and ducks behind it, stopping two bullets from ending his career as Captain America before it even started.
What a scene! Steve Rogers must use more than his newfound speed and strength to overcome the obstacles in his path, he needs to make use of the environment around him. Let’s explore how you as a Narrator can use the rules of the Marvel Multiverse RPG to create similar scenes at your own gaming table. Let’s deconstruct this scene and get into the rules details!
Closing the Distance: If we look at Cap’s Hero Profile on page 151, he’s got a Run Speed of 5, which means, mechanically, he’s got the speed of an average Hero. Heroes with higher Agility scores, like Spider-Man, have better speeds. So, using the rules as written, we need to figure out another way to close the distance – Steve just can’t outrun a car (even a WWII era car, when the speed limit was 45). I see a few options here.
Vigilance Check: Page 18 of the core rule book tells us that Vigilance governs things like “situational awareness”. A Narrator could suggest the Player make a Vigilance check to see if Cap notices something in his surroundings that could be used to his advantage, like a short cut through an alley, park, or other area a car could not travel. My recommendation would be to set the Target Number (TN) at 14, representing a Challenging difficulty level for a Rank 4 Hero like Cap. See page 13 of the Core Rule book for rules on setting Target Numbers by Rank. A success could cut the distance in half, a Fantastic Success would close the distance entirely.
Logic Check: A player could argue that Cap’s knowledge of the neighborhood should give him some clue as to where the Hydra Agent is fleeing, and allow him to find a more direct route there. I’d certainly allow that – any player that incorporates a character’s backstory into play should be rewarded. In this case, I might set the TN at 12, ruling that a young hero who has spent their entire life in one neighborhood could easily identify where an enemy might be going as a Trivial task (which subtracts 2 from the TN, per the rules on page 13).
Agility Check: A player might disagree with Cap’s Run Speed of 5 (citing the “on your left” scene from Captain America: Winter Soldier). The Core Rulebook enthusiastically supports house rules, so feel free to allow some kind of roll to let Cap kick it into high gear. I’d suggest a higher TN here, perhaps a 16. A failure could result in Steve losing his balance and careening off into a store front, as he did in the chase scene in Captain America: First Avenger.
Increasing Cap’s Speed stat: If playing a version of Captain America that’s as fast as his MCU incarnation is important to the player, his stats can easily be adjusted to accommodate. You can raise his Agility score from 4 to 5, which would increase his move speed to 6 (note how other Average sized characters with an Agility of 5, like Miles Morales, Nightcrawler and Taskmaster, also have a speed of 6). You could balance this by lowering Cap’s Logic to 1, as the MCU version of Cap focuses more on him being a “man out of time” than doesn’t understand references.
Jumping over the chain link fence: Like most Heroes, Cap has a Jump Speed of 3. Per the rules on page 31, this movement can only be applied horizontally, not vertically (that would require the Jump 1 Power, which Cap doesn’t have). You may need to houserule a way for Cap to leap over the fence like he did in the movie. Here are some options:
Rule that the Super Soldier Serum allows Cap to apply only one point of his Jump speed to vertical jumping.
Rule that Cap can jump vertically only when he has a full head of steam, using his standard action as an extra move action in the same round he jumps (Allowed by the rules on page 31).
Consider all movement involved in the vertical jump to be difficult terrain (doubling the movement cost)
Require an Agility check to succeed, with a +2 modifier on the Target Number for every square of vertical jump.
Jumping over a 5 foot object would be “Difficult” (Standard TN of 14 + 2 = TN 16)
Jumping over a 10 foot object would be “Ridiculous” (Standard TN of 14 + 4 = TN 18)
Jumping over a 15 foot object would be “Absurd” (Standard TN of 14 + 6 = TN 20)
Note: Hitting a TN of 20 would require a d616 roll of 16, given Cap’s Agility Non-Combat Check modifier of +4. That means at least a 664 or 655 on the roll – no easy task! That “feels” like a good TN.
Jumping from car to car: Rules as written, jumping from car to car would require no rolls as there is no vertical jumping involved. However, given the cars are moving and Cap is occasionally being shot at, you might require an Agility Check with the standard “Challenging” rating of 14 to avoid losing balance and falling prone.
Hope you had some nerdy fun deconstructing this scene with me, to see how it might work on the tabletop. For me, this wasn’t only a way to gain a better understanding of the rules, but it also reminded me of ways I can make my tabletop battles more cinematic and memorable. Do you have a suggestion for another scene deconstruction? Or ideas for a different kind of article? Please let me know at XXX.
