Check Out This Preview of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game

On April 20th, the 120-page softcover playtest book for the new Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game by Matt Forbeck will be available to purchase for $9.99; the final game is due to be released next year, in 2023.

Marvel has revealed some of the playtest book, in which you use the new d616 system and profiles for Spider-Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Wolverine and more, in an introductory scenario called Enter: Hydra. The scenario involves a hostage situation at the Howard & Maria Stark Center for Galactic History.

Marvel Multiverse RPG Alternate Covers

Marvel has revealed some alternate covers for its upcoming Marvel Multiverse RPG (written by Matt Forbeck). The new covers are by Peach Momoko and Logan Lubera, and the standard cover is by Iban Coello. The game uses a new "D616" system and will be released next year with a playtest book. "“…...

www.enworld.org

The d616 system uses three d6s. Designer Matt Forbeck says "If you get a 1 on the Marvel die, you get a fantastic result and something amazing happens. If you get 6 on both of the other dice—or a 6-1-6 result—that’s an ultimate fantastic roll, which is even better."

The words MARVEL contains initials for the game's six ability scores -- Might, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic. Each character has an archetype, such as a striker or blaster, and the archetype combines with the abilities to give bigger attack rolls.

Here's a quick look at Spider-Man! For reference a normal human stat is between -4 and +4.

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Get a First Look at the New Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game

Plus an exclusive Q&A with game designer Matt Forbeck!

www.marvel.com

 

[Jer]

That's a lot of numbers... And they're doing the DnD thing where you have a score and a modifier, instead of cutting the crap and just having a single number for both situations. I also wonder how the modifiers are calculated...

A score, a modifier AND a defense for each attribute. That seems excessive, but I'll read the rules to see how it goes.

One thing going for it is that superhero games don't usually require characters to advance over time, and the power trees they show on the website indicate how powers grow, so there might not be much recalcuation of those attributes once they're first computed.

Is it me or it feels a little too crunchy for the intended target audience?

It depends on who their target audience is. If it's hardcore Marvel comics fans it might actually be fine - the obsession about numerical stats would probably play well with the that audience. If it's supposed to be for fans of the movies I suspect it's a bit too much.

 

[JAMUMU]

The original announcement did say this: "...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...", so I would expect familiar terms and mechanics to be part of it.

It looks familiar, but (to me) not in a good way. Derived stats, movement expressed as an abstract number then as a secondary quantity (that probably definitely isn't just FASERIP's Areas). Numbers that are modifiers that also seem to be other numbers. Power-trees. Roll and add modifers then add another modifier. Mechanically restrictive "classes"/archetypes. That's what I'm taking from reading the feature, and while I don't mind familiar terms/mechanics in-and-of-themselves, it just all seems a bit clumsy and clunky in its implementation.

I do hope to be corrected by the final document, however!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It depends on who their target audience is. If it's hardcore Marvel comics fans it might actually be fine - the obsession about numerical stats would probably play well with the that audience. If it's supposed to be for fans of the movies I suspect it's a bit too much.

The preview specifically mentions the Marvel Comics Universe, not Cinematic, but as in my reply a couple of posts back, they are also calling it an easy-to-learn system. I expect once the full game is out that they will make a supplement for the Cinematic version as well.

 

[payn]

I like the look of the blue and white page layout, that is, until I try to read it. My eyes are so bad now...

 

[beancounter]

That looks pretty neat!

 

[JohnA]

It depends on who their target audience is. If it's hardcore Marvel comics fans it might actually be fine - the obsession about numerical stats would probably play well with the that audience. If it's supposed to be for fans of the movies I suspect it's a bit too much.

Agree, but they gonna sell a lot of copies to the latter. However, we may be in the golden days of TTRPG, and MANY MANY more people are playing DnD than just even 10 years ago; so there is probably the biggest, most capable audience for this game ever right now. For Marvel, right time right place. If this game is good, it's going to possibly rival Dnd. Note, I said "possibly."

 

[bulletmeat]

Why is this making me think of AGE system?

 

[JohnA]

It looks familiar, but (to me) not in a good way. Derived stats, movement expressed as an abstract number then as a secondary quantity (that probably definitely isn't just FASERIP's Areas). Numbers that are modifiers that also seem to be other numbers. Power-trees. Roll and add modifers then add another modifier. Mechanically restrictive "classes"/archetypes. That's what I'm taking from reading the feature, and while I don't mind familiar terms/mechanics in-and-of-themselves, it just all seems a bit clumsy and clunky in its implementation.

I do hope to be corrected by the final document, however!

There some things about Peter Parker's character sheet that immediately catch my eye: The damage done has TWO modifiers-how's that gonna work??? and he also has ranged damage, with the same amount and modifiers; the descriptive text is horrible, no editor would let all of that passive language fly in final copy-if they do, this is a very amateurish production (the second paragraph is an abomination of writing, four passive sentences in a row, barf). My guess, my hope - this is a rough draft.

 

[Jer]

There some things about Peter Parker's character sheet that immediately catch my eye: The damage done has TWO modifiers-how's that gonna work???

It looks like the Fight damage is 3d6 + Agility mod + Might rank while the Ranged damage is 3d6 + Agility mod + Agility rank.

Mixing ranks and modifiers seems really weird but that's what it looks like. Guess we'll see in a few days.

and he also has ranged damage, with the same amount and modifiers; the descriptive text is horrible, no editor would let all of that passive language fly in final copy-if they do, this is a very amateurish production (the second paragraph is an abomination of writing, four passive sentences in a row, barf). My guess, my hope - this is a rough draft.

That writing style you're noticing is very much Marvel's house style - read it in the voice of Stan Lee providing voiceover narration for a cartoon and that's Marvel's style for non-comic book works. It's not a rough draft, it's an intentional style choice.

 

[Gradine]

At the very least, the derived stats are pretty simple to calculate. Modifier appears to be entirely linear (with a 0 = +7), and Defense is just the Modifier +11.

I'm guessing that Spidey here is an example of a pretty high-leveled character (Rank 10, it seems?). I would hope that intro characters are quite a bit more simplified.