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

 

[Parmandur]

I'm gonna guess they'll use some kind of special dice, that seems to be all the rage nowadays to squeeze more money out of the fanbase. You're gonna need to buy the book and the dice set and there will be a special set with both.

They seem to be signaling the opposite, actually.

 

[Undrave]

Ugh if they do that's a dealbreaker for me. I've had enough of special dice.

But I doubt it given d616, because d66 and d666 are just normal d6es rolled in a specific way.

I was thinking they could use a d6+d16 thing somehow. d16 aren't impossible to find but they're not standard so they would release their own set of dice.

 

[pemerton]

I'm not going to go so far as to say the use of a D16 is inconceivable. Just that it's incredibly unlikely.

The systems will almost certainly use a d20 as its key resolution tool. That's how you make it easy for D&D players to understand and pick up.

There are plenty of non-d20, non-D&D adjacent games that use a d20 for resolution. HeroWars/Quest is one; The Green Knight RPG (the movie-inspired one) is another. That latter game also uses stats (Courage, Charm, Cunning, Intellect, Might) and skills that sit under them (three skills per stat, and all the stats do is feed through to the skill bonuses). But its resolution system and its play have almost nothing in common with D&D besides both being RPGs.

So I think it's very possible to have a 6-stat, d20 based game that will - in its surface features - be accessible to D&D players, and yet have a game that in its maths and the nuances of its play is quite different from D&D. I think that that is more likely to be where the interesting design questions arise for this Marvel RPG.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not going to go so far as to say the use of a D16 is inconceivable. Just that it's incredibly unlikely.

The systems will almost certainly use a d20 as its key resolution tool. That's how you make it easy for D&D players to understand and pick up.

There are plenty of non-d20, non-D&D adjacent games that use a d20 for resolution. HeroWars/Quest is one; The Green Knight RPG (the movie-inspired one) is another. That latter game also uses stats (Courage, Charm, Cunning, Intellect, Might) and skills that sit under them (three skills per stat, and all the stats do is feed through to the skill bonuses). But its resolution system and its play have almost nothing in common with D&D besides both being RPGs.

So I think it's very possible to have a 6-stat, d20 based game that will - in its surface features - be accessible to D&D players, and yet have a game that in its maths and the nuances of its play is quite different from D&D. I think that that is more likely to be where the interesting design questions arise for this Marvel RPG.

There is a lot you can do with Platonic solids, mathematically.

 

[Marc Radle]

I'm gonna guess they'll use some kind of special dice, that seems to be all the rage nowadays to squeeze more money out of the fanbase. You're gonna need to buy the book and the dice set and there will be a special set with both.

I’m curious what you mean by ‘all the rage nowadays’. What current games require special dice other than the typical 7 we all have?

 

[pemerton]

There is a lot you can do with Platonic solids, mathematically.

Even more than that: there's a lot you can do with a d20 + bonuses rolled against a target number that will affect the play of the game.

To elaborate by reference to The Green Knight (which I played twice on the weekend, after my boxed set arrived on Friday morning, and so it's on my mind!):

Characters are defined by whether or not a stat is ticked (you get 2 ticks) and whether or not a skill is ticked (you get 4 ticks). As I said, each skill sits under stat and so each skill has zero ticks, one tick (stat ticked, or skill ticked, but not both) or two ticks (both stat and skill ticked). The corresponding bonus is +0, +2 or +4. Action resolution is d20 + bonus.

So far, so simple. And pretty easy, I think, for even a casual d20 player to pick up.

The target number for all actions is the character's Dishonour score. This starts at 10. If you succeed in an Honourable action, it drops by 1. If you fail in an Honourable action, or attempt a Dishonourable one (whether you succeed or fail), it grows by 1. And a further rule: if your action is Dishonourable then you want to roll equal or lower rather than equal or higher, and you subtract rather than add your bonuses.

There are some further rules that affect the Dishonour score: some character abilities can manipulate the way action resolution affects Dishonour; at the top of each action order every character gains a point of Dishonour (so every encounter is on a clock); and at the end of each Encounter the GM awards Honour or Dishonour according to a fairly systematic list of actions they may have performed during the encounter, and the way the encounter resolved.

This is an illustration of how rules for setting target numbers, feedback rules between action resolution and those target numbers, rules for how encounter outcomes affect other parameters, etc, can all shape the game play pretty profoundly while having a system that, on its surface, looks pretty familiar and is easy to pick up if all you know is D&D.

Now to be clear, I'm not predicting that this Marvel game will look anything like The Green Knight, nor that it will be as different in its play from D&D as The Green Knight is. I'm just trying to make the point that you can get a pretty varied range of incentives, play experiences, etc while using d20 + bonus => target number as the core of your resolution engine.

 

[Undrave]

I’m curious what you mean by ‘all the rage nowadays’. What current games require special dice other than the typical 7 we all have?

I know Fate uses different dices... And the guys who do the Star Trek RPG, aren't they known for specialty dice? And the Star Wars one used special dice too right?

 

[Parmandur]

I know Fate uses different dices... And the guys who do the Star Trek RPG, aren't they known for specialty dice? And the Star Wars one used special dice too right?

The Star Trek RPG uses 2 d20, they do sell d20s with Star Trek stuff on them. Fate dice can be replaced with any do, just rolling for odd or even. Star Wars and the heritage version, Genedis, used special dice, but isn't a currently updating game. All the active games I can think of use do, d20 or d100 in some combo primarily, other dice optional.

 

[Undrave]

The Star Trek RPG uses 2 d20, they do sell d20s with Star Trek stuff on them. Fate dice can be replaced with any do, just rolling for odd or even. Star Wars and the heritage version, Genedis, used special dice, but isn't a currently updating game. All the active games I can think of use do, d20 or d100 in some combo primarily, other dice optional.

Well, nevermind then, I wasn't paying attention I guess.

Well I guess it might just be one of those systems where you throw a bunch of d6 and the 6 are successes? So it's d616 as in "roll Xd6 and get one 6 to Y"?

 

[Campbell]

2d20 uses effect dice which you can purchase from Modiphius, but you can also use standard d6s for. Vampire 5th Edition also can benefit from special dice, but standard d10s work pretty well.

The only major RPGs that pretty much require special dice I am aware of are FFG's various games and Fate.