We don't say "Energy Pool" because we think the term confuses the issue. Witness all the critics who object to the "Black Cat example" in the rulebook on the grounds that "cracking a safe shouldn't make her too tired to defend herself from an ambush." What the red stones measure is not energy as such, but focus, attention and desire on the part of the character, and narrative power on the part of the player. (Unlike other superhero game texts, MURPG does not say You are like a hero in a Marvel comic. It says, You are like the writers and artists of Marvel Comics. This means the GM is like the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, and what a mixed bag they've been. Well, if the shoe fits . . . )

So we say "Effort Pool" and "Intelligence-Effort option" and suchlike. Our modifications to the mechanics follow:

The Intelligence-Effort rules are unchanged. Characters who choose the Intelligence-Effort option ignore what follows.

Health Refresh - The default refresh in our campaign is not Health, nor even Durability exactly. In fact, you don't buy Durability directly. You buy a Refresh Rate at CL = AN + 3. e.g. Nate buys Oni a refresh rate of 5. He pays 3 x 3 = 9 white stones. He gets a 15-stone Effort Pool.

Durability - A character's default Durability is equal to his or her refresh score. So is starting Health. e.g. Oni has a refresh rate of 5. That means he has a Durability of 5 and a starting Health of 5.

New Challenge: Fragile - You can take points of "Fragility" at character-creation time. Each point grants you a white chargen stone and lowers your effective Durability and starting Health by one. Your refresh rate remains unchanged. e.g. Jim buys Already a refresh rate of 5, paying 9 stones. Already gets an effort pool of 15 stones. Jim also gives Already 3 points in the Fragile challenge. Already's Durability now equals 5 - 3 = 2, as does her starting Health. Her refresh rate is unchanged. Jim's net cost for Effort/Refresh/Durability/Health is 9 - 3 = 6 white stones.

Explanation: A critical mass of campaign participants don't like the default Health-Effort death spiral. (As your character gets hurt, his or her refresh goes down, making them less capable of resisting further damage, and round and round.)

We also found that a structural peculiarity of the attribute rankings led to us designing almost every "unenhanced human" as an Int-Effort genius. "Peak Human" for all Abilities except Intelligence is set at 3. Intelligence for "peak humans" can go up to 8 or more. So the only way in the default rules for a non-metahuman vigilante to get an Effort Pool greater than 9 is to choose the Intelligence-Effort option and be very, very smart. This is reasonable enough for a character like Batman, who is brilliant and runs on willpower and rage. But we can't all be geniuses, at least theoretically. Hence the change centered around the Fragile Challenge.