Rob's Marvel Civil War Game, Interlude 2: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Milestones and You!
I need to unwind, so allow me to hold a discussion on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying's (MHRP) Milestones and how to use them for fun and profit.
For those who aren't deeply familiar with MHRP, Milestone's are the game's main vector for XP. They're typically conflicts that aren't quite to the scale of the game's main plot, but ones that the character is dealing with on an ongoing basis. The game puts the direction of these in the player's hands and rewards them for bringing them up. Depending on what part of the Milestone you complete, you receive 1 xp (usually something minor), 3 xp (something slightly bigger and more important), or 10 xp (a watershed moment for the character that changes them in some way). Once you complete the 10xp part, the Milestone is replaced.
This doesn't mean that your character's inner conflict's resolution is set in stone. Milestones can be swapped out between sessions and during what are known as "Transition Scenes" (read: anything that's not combat/an "Action Scene"). I suppose one could game the system this way, but the intent is to change milestones that no longer make sense in the context of the story and characters.
The books have piles of milestones of varying degrees of quality. Which is fine, if you're using a premade character. If you aren't, like the fool I am, things become slightly harder. Milestones aren't as annoying to built as Powersets (I'll spare the terrible details of my adventures translating Icon's Possession power to MHRP), but are somewhat fiddly.
It's become something of a sport to convert characters into MHRP. The only problem is that a lot of the fan-made milestones suck. They're usually a combination of too vague, broad or short. This was something I wanted to avoid. Granted, some of the official milestones are terrible too. There are milestones which only grant their 1 xp level once, which makes no sense.
I ended up doing a lot of "serial number filing" with official milestones off at first. This had varying degrees of success. Since I seem to have opinions in everything, I feel to share them here. Maybe someone, somewhere will find some use for what I discovered.
Act One:
My first two milestones were definitely based on existing ones in the core book. They had very mixed results. Honestly, they kinda sucked.
I Can’t Save The World if I’m Dead
1 XP: When you’re in a situation where taking Mutant Growth Hormone pills will help you or your teammates.
3 XP: When you lie to a teammate about your stash of MGH pills or when you give a teammate a good reason to believe that you artificially enhanced your powers.
10 XP: When you hurt someone innocent with your enhanced powers or when you destroy your stash of MGH pills and vow to never use them again.
Oh yeah. My character started the game mildly addicted to MGH. I keep forgetting about this.
This is a hack of Stark's Demon In A Bottle milestone. It worked well for the first third of the storyline but this was admittedly because of the role that MGH plays in the event book version of Civil War and because Rob had an interesting idea of who my character's supplier was. It's a little Munchkiny as the 1 xp triggered at the start of almost every combat. The 3 xp didn't really get used that much, but no one in the party really asked why my character was acting odd and he had no reason to lie. Then again, everyone else in the party is kinda crazy.
I cashed out the 10 xp when I had an opening to; the main reason my character was taking MGH wasn't a problem anymore and destroying the pills seemed stupidly dramatic. I think he tossed them off of a roof. I hope a cat in the alley down below ate them.
The Brain is Wider Than the Sky
1 XP: When you use your Psych Master to help a superhuman recover stress.
3 XP: When you choose not to engage in a confrontation in order to rescue or support noncombatant superhuman
10 XP: When you either allow a superhuman to go insane or give up your status or reputation to save a superhuman.
Another hack, this time one of Beast's starting milestones. I wanted this one to work so much (the title is so cool!), but there was no good way to make it work.
The nature of the milestone removes the character from the conflict at hand, something that I'm not really comfortable doing (split the party. Run away from your party. Ignore when your friends need help. These are all bad things, IMHO). We have another player who believes his job is to put out all of the small fires, so there was never anything small for me to do. Even worse, there weren't many innocent bystanders due to the direction that the game took.
This milestone eventually got dumped by the end of Act Two.
Act Two
I was originally debating making some sort of "Only Sane Man in the Room" milestone at the start of Act Two. This evolved from a loose milestone idea that could be called "Cat Herder". These seemed dumb and I never used them.
Test Your Allegiance
1 XP: When you confront another hero about the ethics of actions they’ve taken to help your side or another hero confronts you about yours.
3 XP: When you confess to another hero you’re not certain you’ve chosen the right side.
10 XP: When you either cause enough emotional stress on another hero to force them to switch sides or react to emotional stress or trauma by switching sides yourself.
This is one of the few ones I took wholesale from the books. It's from the Civil War book.
This one was okay and I got an decent amount of use out of it. If I were to redo the milestone it would be 1 xp for talking about not being certain about the side you're on and 3 xp to confront someone about their ethics. Odds are you're going to be admitting some discomfort about the situation before pointing fingers. In my opinion, the "Talking Points Reward 1 xp" styles of milestone has potential for a jumping off point for IC discussion and should be used more often. More on that later.
It became a little problematic when my character and Bob had it at the same time. They formed at little echo chamber and were bringing up the same talking points. I don't think that Conan actually completed this one and my completion was arbitrary at best; "I unleashed a cosmic horror. Did I cause people to switch sides due to the stress of seeing someone's head ripped off? Okay, taking the 10 xp!"
Lesson learned: Try not to have the same milestones as other people in the party. There's many of the damn things that you can find a different one that works.
Act Three
So, on the idea of "Talking Points Reward 1 xp". Act Three was when the party really started to play around with these. I suspect this is because the Civil War books beyond the core book are full of this style of milestone and Rob had PDFs of all of them by this point. They're fun.
Former SHIELD Operative
1 XP when you discuss past work you have done for S.H.I.E.L.D.
3 XP when you help a superhumans evade S.H.I.E.L.D. or other governmental forces.
10 XP when you either take a high ranking position with S.H.I.E.L.D., so that you can make the world a better place, or vow to never work with S.H.I.E.L.D. again, considering the organization an enemy to your fellow superhumans.
I think this one is from one of the X-Men files. This one didn't last long. I got 1 xp twice and then accidentally cashed it out at the end of the session where I picked it up. My character got a job offer.
I don't have much to say about this one, except it was my donation from the IC conversation that killed Rob. Conan started with one of Bob's "Talking Points Reward 1 xp", James made the conversation about one of his, I said "You know, back when I worked for SHIELD..." and then had to stop as Rob laughed his ass off. And then he made me finish the line to get the XP. :(
(Note: I believe that the official game rules cap only one milestone cash out per an act. Rob's a bit more flexible as long as we aren't stupid with out milestones.)
Show Them Nothing but What is Shown to You.
1 XP when you explain something using your medical knowledge to an ally.
3 XP when you use your Psych Expert to create an asset for your allies.
10 XP when you either restore your patient records for other heroes to use or permanently destroy your backups.
AKA Rach tries to fix her Psych milestone. Based off of one of Elsa Bloodstone's milestones.
It's an attempt to take The Brain is Wider Than the Sky and make it more functional to the party. It's still all pysch-based and rewards the PC for being in-character. However, while the original milestone rewarded the character for dropping everything and running away, this rewards putting assets into play for other PCs to use and using specialties to figure out things the rest of the party can't.
Justice Like Lightning
1 XP when you discuss your idealistic goals for the Thunderbolts with your allies.
3 XP when you accuse someone of betraying the ideals of the Thunderbolts.
10 XP when you either release a team member's nanochain in order to achieve an objective or kill a team member for committing a villainous act.
I built this one myself. I really didn't like the official Thunderbolts milestones. They mostly work with the idea that the players character are equipped with nanochains (something that Rob didn't go with) or are trying to destroy the project from the outside. Our game is going a different direction with the idea that will end poorly for everyone, eventually, but is trying to be slightly more idealistic at first. Or maybe that's my bias.
I haven't had a chance to use it at the table yet. I suspect I'll be yelling at NPCs tomorrow.
For those who aren't deeply familiar with MHRP, Milestone's are the game's main vector for XP. They're typically conflicts that aren't quite to the scale of the game's main plot, but ones that the character is dealing with on an ongoing basis. The game puts the direction of these in the player's hands and rewards them for bringing them up. Depending on what part of the Milestone you complete, you receive 1 xp (usually something minor), 3 xp (something slightly bigger and more important), or 10 xp (a watershed moment for the character that changes them in some way). Once you complete the 10xp part, the Milestone is replaced.
This doesn't mean that your character's inner conflict's resolution is set in stone. Milestones can be swapped out between sessions and during what are known as "Transition Scenes" (read: anything that's not combat/an "Action Scene"). I suppose one could game the system this way, but the intent is to change milestones that no longer make sense in the context of the story and characters.
The books have piles of milestones of varying degrees of quality. Which is fine, if you're using a premade character. If you aren't, like the fool I am, things become slightly harder. Milestones aren't as annoying to built as Powersets (I'll spare the terrible details of my adventures translating Icon's Possession power to MHRP), but are somewhat fiddly.
It's become something of a sport to convert characters into MHRP. The only problem is that a lot of the fan-made milestones suck. They're usually a combination of too vague, broad or short. This was something I wanted to avoid. Granted, some of the official milestones are terrible too. There are milestones which only grant their 1 xp level once, which makes no sense.
I ended up doing a lot of "serial number filing" with official milestones off at first. This had varying degrees of success. Since I seem to have opinions in everything, I feel to share them here. Maybe someone, somewhere will find some use for what I discovered.
Act One:
My first two milestones were definitely based on existing ones in the core book. They had very mixed results. Honestly, they kinda sucked.
I Can’t Save The World if I’m Dead
1 XP: When you’re in a situation where taking Mutant Growth Hormone pills will help you or your teammates.
3 XP: When you lie to a teammate about your stash of MGH pills or when you give a teammate a good reason to believe that you artificially enhanced your powers.
10 XP: When you hurt someone innocent with your enhanced powers or when you destroy your stash of MGH pills and vow to never use them again.
Oh yeah. My character started the game mildly addicted to MGH. I keep forgetting about this.
This is a hack of Stark's Demon In A Bottle milestone. It worked well for the first third of the storyline but this was admittedly because of the role that MGH plays in the event book version of Civil War and because Rob had an interesting idea of who my character's supplier was. It's a little Munchkiny as the 1 xp triggered at the start of almost every combat. The 3 xp didn't really get used that much, but no one in the party really asked why my character was acting odd and he had no reason to lie. Then again, everyone else in the party is kinda crazy.
I cashed out the 10 xp when I had an opening to; the main reason my character was taking MGH wasn't a problem anymore and destroying the pills seemed stupidly dramatic. I think he tossed them off of a roof. I hope a cat in the alley down below ate them.
The Brain is Wider Than the Sky
1 XP: When you use your Psych Master to help a superhuman recover stress.
3 XP: When you choose not to engage in a confrontation in order to rescue or support noncombatant superhuman
10 XP: When you either allow a superhuman to go insane or give up your status or reputation to save a superhuman.
Another hack, this time one of Beast's starting milestones. I wanted this one to work so much (the title is so cool!), but there was no good way to make it work.
The nature of the milestone removes the character from the conflict at hand, something that I'm not really comfortable doing (split the party. Run away from your party. Ignore when your friends need help. These are all bad things, IMHO). We have another player who believes his job is to put out all of the small fires, so there was never anything small for me to do. Even worse, there weren't many innocent bystanders due to the direction that the game took.
This milestone eventually got dumped by the end of Act Two.
Act Two
I was originally debating making some sort of "Only Sane Man in the Room" milestone at the start of Act Two. This evolved from a loose milestone idea that could be called "Cat Herder". These seemed dumb and I never used them.
Test Your Allegiance
1 XP: When you confront another hero about the ethics of actions they’ve taken to help your side or another hero confronts you about yours.
3 XP: When you confess to another hero you’re not certain you’ve chosen the right side.
10 XP: When you either cause enough emotional stress on another hero to force them to switch sides or react to emotional stress or trauma by switching sides yourself.
This is one of the few ones I took wholesale from the books. It's from the Civil War book.
This one was okay and I got an decent amount of use out of it. If I were to redo the milestone it would be 1 xp for talking about not being certain about the side you're on and 3 xp to confront someone about their ethics. Odds are you're going to be admitting some discomfort about the situation before pointing fingers. In my opinion, the "Talking Points Reward 1 xp" styles of milestone has potential for a jumping off point for IC discussion and should be used more often. More on that later.
It became a little problematic when my character and Bob had it at the same time. They formed at little echo chamber and were bringing up the same talking points. I don't think that Conan actually completed this one and my completion was arbitrary at best; "I unleashed a cosmic horror. Did I cause people to switch sides due to the stress of seeing someone's head ripped off? Okay, taking the 10 xp!"
Lesson learned: Try not to have the same milestones as other people in the party. There's many of the damn things that you can find a different one that works.
Act Three
So, on the idea of "Talking Points Reward 1 xp". Act Three was when the party really started to play around with these. I suspect this is because the Civil War books beyond the core book are full of this style of milestone and Rob had PDFs of all of them by this point. They're fun.
Former SHIELD Operative
1 XP when you discuss past work you have done for S.H.I.E.L.D.
3 XP when you help a superhumans evade S.H.I.E.L.D. or other governmental forces.
10 XP when you either take a high ranking position with S.H.I.E.L.D., so that you can make the world a better place, or vow to never work with S.H.I.E.L.D. again, considering the organization an enemy to your fellow superhumans.
I think this one is from one of the X-Men files. This one didn't last long. I got 1 xp twice and then accidentally cashed it out at the end of the session where I picked it up. My character got a job offer.
I don't have much to say about this one, except it was my donation from the IC conversation that killed Rob. Conan started with one of Bob's "Talking Points Reward 1 xp", James made the conversation about one of his, I said "You know, back when I worked for SHIELD..." and then had to stop as Rob laughed his ass off. And then he made me finish the line to get the XP. :(
(Note: I believe that the official game rules cap only one milestone cash out per an act. Rob's a bit more flexible as long as we aren't stupid with out milestones.)
Show Them Nothing but What is Shown to You.
1 XP when you explain something using your medical knowledge to an ally.
3 XP when you use your Psych Expert to create an asset for your allies.
10 XP when you either restore your patient records for other heroes to use or permanently destroy your backups.
AKA Rach tries to fix her Psych milestone. Based off of one of Elsa Bloodstone's milestones.
It's an attempt to take The Brain is Wider Than the Sky and make it more functional to the party. It's still all pysch-based and rewards the PC for being in-character. However, while the original milestone rewarded the character for dropping everything and running away, this rewards putting assets into play for other PCs to use and using specialties to figure out things the rest of the party can't.
Justice Like Lightning
1 XP when you discuss your idealistic goals for the Thunderbolts with your allies.
3 XP when you accuse someone of betraying the ideals of the Thunderbolts.
10 XP when you either release a team member's nanochain in order to achieve an objective or kill a team member for committing a villainous act.
I built this one myself. I really didn't like the official Thunderbolts milestones. They mostly work with the idea that the players character are equipped with nanochains (something that Rob didn't go with) or are trying to destroy the project from the outside. Our game is going a different direction with the idea that will end poorly for everyone, eventually, but is trying to be slightly more idealistic at first. Or maybe that's my bias.
I haven't had a chance to use it at the table yet. I suspect I'll be yelling at NPCs tomorrow.