Hero Points

Your character in Tales of the Secret Wars isn't just some random nobody caught up in the action. They're a hero, whether or not they know that yet. They're someone with the potential to go beyond the average person and do incredible things. This isn't necessarily a supernatural or metaphysical trait. Not all heroes are chosen ones destined by fate. Sometimes, being a hero just means being the one who stands up in the face of adversity and says, "This far, and no further."

Hero Point Maximum

Hero Points are a banked currency. Your Hero Point Maximum dictates how many you can hold at one time.

• Each character starts with a hero point maximum of 1. 

• Every time you complete a chapter, you increase your hero point maximum by 1.

• Every time you complete a personal Aspiration or plot from your backstory, you increase your hero point maximum by 1.

• The absolute cap for any character is a Maximum of 5 Hero Points.

Gaining Hero Points

You spend Hero Points to survive and do incredible things, and you earn them back by leaning into the narrative.

• Session Start: At the start of each new game session, you gain 1 Hero Point (unless the GM rules otherwise, such as starting mid-combat).

• Virtue: If your character fulfills their Virtue in a meaningful way, you gain 1 Hero Point.

• Vice (Temporary): If your character indulges their Vice, complicating the situation, you gain 1 temporary Hero Point that disappears at the end of the current Scene if unspent.

• Heroic Action (Temporary): If your character engages in particularly heroic or dramatic action, they gain 1 temporary hero point for the remainder of the scene. This has to be a "fist-pump" moment where you do something awesome that will be talked about in the future. Simply saving an innocent won't cut it. But deciding to launch yourself through a stained-glass window into the villain's lair to surprise them and distract them single-handedly while the rest of your team finishes setting up the trap for said boss would definitely qualify.

Using Hero Points 

Spending a Hero Point is a Free Action that can be taken at any time, even if you are Unconscious, as Hero Points can represent fortune and fate as much as they can represent active decisions on the part of your character. When you spend a Hero Point, choose one of the following benefits:

• Act Out of Turn - you can spend a hero point to act immediately. Your initiative changes to the current value, and you have your turn immediately following the current one. You can also grant this bonus to another character, so long as you are in the same encounter and your character can reasonably affect the other character's position in initiative order (shouting out a strategy or teeing them up for an action).

• Anima Surge - you can spend a hero point to fully restore your anima pool, or a related pool (such as a terror pool for horrors). 

• Cheat Death - when your character would die, you can spend a hero point to be restored to 1 Wound Point. You are Stable and conscious, but you gain the Wounded and On Death's Door conditions.

• Extra Action - You immediately gain 1 extra Action to use during the current round.

• Inspiration - If you are stuck, ask the GM for a hint about what to do next. If the GM determines there is no useful information to be gained, your Hero Point is refunded.

• Reroll - Reroll any one d20 roll you just made. (This is a Fortune effect; you take the higher of the two rolls).