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 Thor on the front cover is from Thor #1 Jan 2020 (fallout of the War of the Realms storyline). So I'm thinking like most that the multiverse would bring us different versions of all the heroes and villains. I loved MHR but didn't care for the character advancement portion of the game. I don't think they are going to do a 5e version as that just doesn't work (hated Mutants and Masterminds even with the changes they made to move away from the traditional D&D system). I'm sure they may take elements of 5e but the Alien comics/movies (now a Disney/Marvel property) is doing well with the Free League system as an RPG. I'm sure they are aware of that and may use elements of that system as well. I don't want the fighting in this game to be too narrative, like to have a little more crunch than Free League games. I'm very curious and hope for no "Levels" or "Hit Points". Time will tell.

None of the previous big Marvel RPGs used levels, nor significantly increasing HP and it doesn't fit the genre, so I'm hopeful they'll avoid it. I think an HP-type system as in a flat measure of damage absorbance isn't a bad fit for Supers, they just need to not increase too much.

Re: 5E I doubt it'll be very close, because it's a licensed product and is using a system it is calling unique, not the OGL, but I do note they're using six stats, which are roughly equivalent to the six D&D stats - Might Agility Resilience Vigilance Ego Logic (shades of SHAZAM) - so STR/DEX/CON/WIS/CHA/INT, essentially - however a lot of games very different to D&D have used similar stat-sets.

That and the "d616" business are more or less everything we know about the system.

And yeah the multiverse theme-ing has to be intentional re: bringing in "your favourite" versions of various heroes.

It's also interesting and a comment on the general revival of fortunes of RPGs (or perceived revival) that Marvel themselves are publishing this, rather than simply licencing it out to someone, which means all the risks and benefits are on them. They must be pretty sure it's going to be a hit - which is I guess not unreasonable give the significant crossover between D&D players and MCU fans.

Honestly despite some concerns I feel unreasonably optimistic about this based on how much I've liked previous Marvel RPGs.

 

[hopeless]

Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition and Psyche using d100 and a table indicating the chance of a simple failure, green simple success, an amber moderate success and a red critical success with some challenges requiring a higher level of success to work.

Is it any better than the much older version that I described above?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition and Psyche using d100 and a table indicating the chance of a simple failure, green simple success, an amber moderate success and a red critical success with some challenges requiring a higher level of success to work.

Is it any better than the much older version that I described above?

We have no idea, do we, dude?

How would anyone answer that question, given that, as I outlined, all we know is the name of the stats and the name of the system.

FASERIP was undoubtedly before its time, design-wise and is still pretty good, but d100 isn't a great resolution mechanism, and it could do with a sort of more-narrative upgrade. It's not unbeatable - though it is, I would argue, better-designed than many later Supers RPGs.

 

[Undrave]

Quote from the article: "Use Might, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic to win the day, and discover your true abilities as you face impossible odds!"

Sounds pretty D&Dish based on that; renamed 6 stats and "discover your true abilities" sure sounds like level progression.

Might
Agility
Resilience
Vigilance
Ego
Logic

I see what they did...
EDIT: I got ninja'd hard but still... I see it.

 

[Undrave]

Biggest movie franchise in the world! This is going to be very interesting to watch.

Technically Pokémon is still a bigger franchise... but I guess it's not a 'movie' franchise...

Where's the tabletop RPG, GameFreaks?!

 

[darjr]

Technically Pokémon is still a bigger franchise... but I guess it's not a 'movie' franchise...

Where's the tabletop RPG, GameFreaks?!

WotC had one written

 

[pemerton]

Technically Pokémon is still a bigger franchise... but I guess it's not a 'movie' franchise...

Does the Marvel Universe have a Katy Perry song yet?

 

[Undrave]

WotC had one written

Yeah back then had the card game licence they made a sorta 'Baby's first RPG' but it was closer to Choose Your Own Adventure than D&D.

 

[darjr]

Yeah back then had the card game licence they made a sorta 'Baby's first RPG' but it was closer to Choose Your Own Adventure than D&D.

Yup and it almost outsold every other rpg prodict.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

<Managed to mess that up nicely>