Master-Class Skills

[Tommy Brownell]

Master-Class Skills

There are now three skill levels: the normal skill level (just having the skill) and world-class skill level (having the skill underlined), both detailed in the Game Book, and the new intermediary “master-class” level (having the skill italicized).

A hero with a master-class skill gets the standard reduction in the difficulty rating for actions involving that skill – and something more. Any action involving a master-class skill also receives a trump bonus with two different suits instead of the standard one. Strength and Agility Skills can trump with both Strength and Agility suits, while Intellect and Willpower Skills can trump with both Intellect and Willpower suits. Moreover, just as with world-class skills, if the bonus card is of the base suit that would ordinarily be trump for the action, the hero may draw the next card from the deck, and continue until he or she flips a card that isn’t base trump. Summarizing the skill level effects:

Normal Skill – One difficulty rating reduction;
Master-Class Skill - One difficulty rating reduction and two trump suits (Strength and Agility or Intellect and Willpower); and
World-Class Skill - One difficulty rating reduction and four trump suits (any non-Doom).

You can make one of your hero’s skills a master-class skill when creating your own hero by taking a non-Doom card with a value of 5 or more that has not already been played and turning it face-down next to the cards for the appropriate ability. No hero can start with more than two skills of master-class or world-class level and no more than one skill of world-class level. Master-class skills are noted on the hero sheet by italicizing the skill names. [Concept by Aaron Day]

[Trakx]

I don't own the book, but I thought this was published in the Reed Richards: Guide to Everything?

Either way, is this really a game option? I kinda think everyone uses this system of normal/master/world class skills. Of course, then someone created Ultimate Skills - giving skills intensities to be added to their base ability. This power was listed on Steve Kenson's Marvel-Phile website. I don't know if he was the creator of the power, if someone else was, or if it were published in one of the other official books.

[Tommy Brownell]

Ultimate Skills wasn't in any official book...I only vaguely remember it.

Master Class never made it into a book either. but it should have...I only posted it under House Rules because that's what it is, but its also the most widely accepted house rule availiable, I'd bet.

[stormangel]

Never was in a book, but Master Class has always been in my games since I first saw them. It really helps bridge that gap between a really competently skilled person (the normal) to an expert in the field (Master-class) to world's foremost (World-class)

[Trakx]

Agreed.

Now, I once had an idea for a skill level above World Class. This level of skill is very rarely seen, and off hand, I can't think of any characters who come to mind who are at such a level.

The default name is "Otherworldly Class".

At this level, even a Doom card counts as a trump. Like normal Master/World-Class trumping, the first card is the only one which counts as the autotrump and all cards thereafter refer to the skill's base suit. Dooms used as a trump this way do not go to the Narrator.

In other words, if you had Marksmanship at Otherworldly Class, you could lay a 10 of Doom from your hand, and flip the card off the top of your deck as your trump. Unless this next card were an Agility card, the trumps stop there.

[Tommy Brownell]

I don't like the idea of someone being able to trump off the Doom suit, myself.

And I have a problem with someone being a better leader than Captain America...=)

[Trakx]

I don't really stand behind it, but I thought it worked well enough that I'd toss it out there. I imagine it to be in the realm of the more powerful creatures in the comic book universes.

I want to give some examples, but as I said before, none really come to mind. If someone were a better marksman than Bullseye, I would say him. If someone were a better archer than Hawkeye, I'd would suggest him. Those are two examples of heroes that are at the peak of human potential when it comes to their skill of choice.

The Otherworldly Class is the next step. Rare, if ever, would it be found in mortals below the top of the food chain. It is so great of skill that it would more accurately be considered a power.

[stormangel]

I can't see that being anything other than a power. No normal person should be able to go past World-Class level. To have the ability to auto-trump on any card type for a skill seems much more like an intuitive power like Forge's Hyper-Ivention power. Even then, World Class with the Limit that it is a power that can be neutralized seems good enough usually.