Marvel to Launch Official 'MARVEL MULTIVERSE' Tabletop Role-Playing Game in 2022

Matt Forbeck announced on Twitter that he’s working on a new in-house D616 Marvel RPG due for a 2022 release! It looks like there will be an open playtest.



What’s the D617 System? “… the all-new D616 System, an accessible and easy-to-learn system for newcomers to tabletop RPGs and a natural evolution for those familiar with the most popular tabletop role-playing games on the market. Use Might, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic to win the day, and discover your true abilities as you face impossible odds!”

Marvel to Launch Official 'MARVEL MULTIVERSE' Tabletop Role-Playing Game in 2022

Use the all-new D616 game system to embody your favorite Super Heroes and Super Villains like never before!

www.marvel.com

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The main reason to think dice like a d20 would be ysed is that they sell those duce sets in Walmart and Target, so they are very, very widely available.

I presume dice sets include all dice equally? I mean, they sure used to. Looking at Walmart and Target in the US the dice sets they sell are either all d6 or equal-ish numbers of all dice. So d20s are exactly as available as d12s, d10s, d8s and d4s aren't they?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Putting aside mechanics......what kind of adventures happen in super hero games? How do you keep them from being all powerful all the time? I've never played a super hero game.....and am curious what kinds of stories people ran.

My experience is that they tend to be about discovering and then foiling the plans of more-powerful villains whilst often dealing with some kind of interpersonal drama (possibly including maintaining a secret identity). You don't really need to keep people from being "all powerful" because few superheroes are, especially Marvel ones, and people tend to roleplay them rather than rollplay them. Plus a lot of the systems involved are kind of narrative-oriented (all the way back to the late '90s) and keep things fairly balanced in terms of how narratively powerful everyone is, even if one guy can lift a battleship and another is just telepathic or whatever. It's a little easier with Marvel as their top guys tend to be a rank in power down from DC (with some exceptions that fans will argue about literally endlessly).

Depending on the exact RPG though the focus and nature of the campaign can vary wildly, as one might expect.

 

[Parmandur]

I presume dice sets include all dice equally? I mean, they sure used to. Looking at Walmart and Target in the US the dice sets they sell are either all d6 or equal-ish numbers of all dice. So d20s are exactly as available as d12s, d10s, d8s and d4s aren't they?

The one's I've seen in the board game sections of Target next to the D&D Sets are sets of the classic 7 dice, yes. My impression from Forbeck has said so far, and admitting isn't much, is that people who bought the D&D Starter Set st Tsrget and an extra set of dice may be be core target demo here.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The one's I've seen in the board game sections of Target next to the D&D Sets are sets of the classic 7 dice, yes. My impression from Forbeck has said so far, and admitting isn't much, is that people who bought the D&D Starter Set st Tsrget and an extra set of dice may be be core target demo here.

Which would be the same target audience as Marvel FASERIP and MSHAG, no? FASERIP used a d100-based system and MSHAG didn't even use dice, just a deck of cards that came with it.

 

[Parmandur]

Which would be the same target audience as Marvel FASERIP and MSHAG, no? FASERIP used a d100-based system and MSHAG didn't even use dice, just a deck of cards that came with it.

I think they might want to poach more from the market leader than TSR managed to do.

 

[MGibster]

I think this is a really important point, and one that a lot of RPG and even MCU fans just can't wrap their heads around--cape comics aren't about realism, so stop complaining about Black Widow and Hawkeye being in the Avengers, or arguing about whether Batman can beat Superman in a fight. Batman can, if that's what the story is, and Black Widow can kill alien soldiers with her dual handguns because these narratives are about clashes of will, not the nuances of pistol-caliber ballistics.

I'm with you there. Batman is my favorite DC hero (Spider-Man my favorite Marvel hero), and I've got no problem with him being able to defeat Superman in a fight provided the writers come up with some clever way for him to win. That said, I much prefer the Batman stories where he's in Gotham pitted against the likes of mundane criminal organizations, corrupt officials, and his rogue's gallery than the stories where he's fighting Darkseid but even those stories can be pretty good. And when Batman contributes to defeating powerful villains like Darkseid he doesn't usually do it with punches or a batarang to the throat he finds some other way to gain the upper hand.

 

[pemerton]

Putting aside mechanics......what kind of adventures happen in super hero games? How do you keep them from being all powerful all the time? I've never played a super hero game.....and am curious what kinds of stories people ran.

Speaking just from my own experience, which is solely with MHRP: the heroes thwarted an assassination attempt in Congress, made by a Doombot but failed to track down its origins; foiled various attacks on the Smithsonian but failed to stop Titanium Man returning to his secret base in Khazakstan; followed the trail of the Smithsonian attacks to Tokyo and Clan Yashida, and then back to Washington and Dr Doom's secret base beneath the Latverian Embassy in Washington, DC.

We haven't played a session since then. But from my perspective it was pretty typical 80s- and early 90s-style Marvel (which is the material I'm most familiar with).

 

[MidnightBlue]

I have to admit that I'm a little bummed by the news of a new Marvel RPG with a different system, instead of it getting the Cortex Prime treatment to carry on after Marvel Heroic ended. I have every Marvel RPG...FASERIP, SAGA, Marvel Universe Roleplaying (also published by Marvel directly), and Marvel Heroic...Marvel Heroic being my all-time favorite. I've used that little $19.99 Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game book to create a TON of fun characters, NPCs and settings (Golden Age, noir, 4-color, grim-dark, fantasy, sci-fi, and tons of licensed property conversions for personal use)...probably the best $20 I've ever spent.

I know 5E rules the world right now, and I'm not saying anything negative about it, but it isn't my preferred system. I'm sure I'll grab it...because I won't be able to stop myself...but when I have a choice in the matter, we'll be playing Marvel Heroic, I'm sure.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I know everyone is pegging 5E D&D as an influence, but what about other current systems? After all, unless it is a typo, the announcement does say:

a natural evolution for those familiar with the most popular tabletop role-playing games on the market

Games plural. And on the market, so no older games that were popular, but now out-of-print.

So besides 5E, what other games are hot right now that would not clash rules-wise?

 

[Parmandur]

I know everyone is pegging 5E D&D as an influence, but what about other current systems? After all, unless it is a typo, the announcement does say:



Games plural. And on the market, so no older games that were popular, but now out-of-print.

So besides 5E, what other games are hot right now that would not clash rules-wise?

Pathfinder and Starfinder, possibly.