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

 

[Dr. Bull]

Darn. I hoped this was going to be a strong game with a useable system of skills and powers. After reading it for the second time, I have more doubts than hopes.

ICONS managed to capture more in fewer pages. M&M, Champions, and FASERIP make more logical sense. The crunch justifies the flexibility.

How are powers ranked? Does Wolverine heal at the same rate as Deadpool? How fast is fast? Can you build a wizard from this system? Can you create an invisible speedster? How does a genius design gadgets?

What should we do? Encourage Marvel to overhaul of the system?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What should we do? Encourage Marvel to overhaul of the system?

Given this is a preview and effectively a playtest, a large amount of negative feedback from people who bought it about the level of crunch and general "forced" nature of the system seems like it would be the only thing likely to achieve much.

It is disappointing. FASERIP got so much right the first time around. Indeed all the previous Marvel RPGs got more right than this - FASERIP, MSHAG, and MSRP.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do you think the designers went with the 'Marvel Die' to roll 1 instead of 6 to avoid something super happening on 6-6-6, thus avoiding the satanic backlash?

Nobody mentioned the hidden Easter Egg of Spider-Man being in the new Fantastic 4 movie, since he is listed as being part of that group.

Spider-Man has been associated with the FF since Amazing Spider-Man #1, when he broke into the Baxter Building to try and join the team. He was a full member during the brief period about 10 years ago when the Human Torch was dead.

 

[Morrus]

Darn. I hoped this was going to be a strong game with a useable system of skills and powers. After reading it for the second time, I have more doubts than hopes.

ICONS managed to capture more in fewer pages. M&M, Champions, and FASERIP make more logical sense. The crunch justifies the flexibility.

How are powers ranked? Does Wolverine heal at the same rate as Deadpool? How fast is fast? Can you build a wizard from this system? Can you create an invisible speedster? How does a genius design gadgets?

What should we do? Encourage Marvel to overhaul of the system?

Participate in the playtest process, I guess. That's what it's for.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I for one, dearly hope that Marvel doesn't decide to bow to the sea of narrativists out there and make a game more like MHRP. I think this is a solid base for a supers game. At least if they do cave in I have the copy I bought yesterday.

 

[Greg K]

I for one, dearly hope that Marvel doesn't decide to bow to the sea of narrativists out there and make a game more like MHRP. I think this is a solid base for a supers game. At least if they do cave in I have the copy I bought yesterday.

While I like a lot about MHR (based on a reading), my favorites are Icons, Marvel SAGA, BASH: UE, Mutants & Masterminds 2e. Personally, as I wrote earlier, based upon the previews I have seen and the discussions I have read t I have read, I think the mechanics place it among the worst superhero rpgs that I have seen. It is not Enforcers, Foundation, or Superhero 2044 bad, However, I do consider barely a step above those games- ranking along the lines of both Heroes & Heroines and Heroes Unlimited: Revised and the worst of the Marvel rpgs (yes, even below MURPG with the stones).

 

[Jer]

I think it's an interesting experiment. Supers games typically try to go for some kind of disassociated mechanics for power systems because trying to cover the vast swath of possible superpowers is viewed as too unwieldy - to cover all possible powers you can define a handful of possible effects and then have players "theme" those effects to be what they want to express as a power. The ur-example is Champions, but Mutants and Masterminds and Icons both follow this pattern. Then you have the more narrative approaches like Masks or Sentinels or MHRP where the powers are really abstracted, which also allows you to represent lots of powers with a small amount of rules.

I haven't seen anyone try to make a supers game without one of those two approaches to powers in a while. Big long power lists went out of style, and it's interesting to see someone try to bring them back with a different take on it. I'm hoping to get a few of my regular group together to try it out - I've got my Marvel Heroscape minis and Heroclix minis that we can dig out and try - it seems like the kind of game that would benefit from minis instead of theater of the mind, even though the rules say it could be played TotM. I wish they included some supervillains in the playtest tho - I'm going to have to make some with the playtest rules alone to have a real test of the system. (I'm also curious to see how the dice system works - it seems interesting on paper, I want to see how it works in practice).

I doubt that it'll replace Icons with the regular group - that's been our supers game of choice for a while now - but it's such a weird almost retro approach that I'm really curious to see how it plays at the table.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

Participate in the playtest process, I guess. That's what it's for.

Not really.

The only feedback our rodent overlords are interested in is how many buy the playtest, and how many participate in feedback. Everything else it irrelevant. They're already locked into major design choices which won't be changing no matter how poorly they work. And contrary to intuition people who pay to participate are more likely to continue doing so regardless of how satisfied they are with the initial product.

The design priorities are as soulless as them come. Like hey, how about we use the #Marvel logo for critical successes, because that would condition folks to feel excited whenever they see it? How about we have the stats spell out #Marvel, because that's what #FASERIP does? How about we have classes and levels, because that's what Dungeons & Dragons does? How about we push folks into using our digital tools with unnecessarily convoluted and pedantic charts and power trees, because virtual tabletops and actual plays are all the rage? Because we don't know what makes these successful, only that they are.

Ultimately they're attempting to compete with Mutants & Masterminds, which is already the most popular supers RPG on #Roll20 and only growing. What they fail to realize is unless Green Ronin pulls a 4e they will never achieve a similar market share because there are already established products which fill that niche better than they do.

Expect the final product to be virtually identical, sport multiple variant covers, be aggressively tied into digital tools, and then silently disappear once #Disney discovers it isn't making enough money for them. Again.

 

[Morrus]

Not really.

The only feedback our rodent overlords are interested in is how many buy the playtest, and how many participate in feedback. Everything else it irrelevant. They're already locked into major design choices which won't be changing no matter how poorly they work. And contrary to intuition people who pay to participate are more likely to continue doing so regardless of how satisfied they are with the initial product.

The design priorities are as soulless as them come. Like hey, how about we use the #Marvel logo for critical successes, because that would condition folks to feel excited whenever they see it? How about we have the stats spell out #Marvel, because that's what #FASERIP does? How about we have classes and levels, because that's what Dungeons & Dragons does? How about we push folks into using our digital tools with unnecessarily convoluted and pedantic charts and power trees, because virtual tabletops and actual plays are all the rage? Because we don't know what makes these successful, only that they are.

Ultimately they're attempting to compete with Mutants & Masterminds, which is already the most popular supers RPG on #Roll20 and only growing. What they fail to realize is unless Green Ronin pulls a 4e they will never achieve a similar market share because there are already established products which fill that niche better than they do.

Expect the final product to be virtually identical, sport multiple variant covers, be aggressively tied into digital tools, and then silently disappear once #Disney discovers it isn't making enough money for them. Again.

OK.

 

[aramis erak]

I for one, dearly hope that Marvel doesn't decide to bow to the sea of narrativists out there and make a game more like MHRP. I think this is a solid base for a supers game. At least if they do cave in I have the copy I bought yesterday.

For whatever reason, in the last week, Amazon cancelled my preorder (without notice!).
For the reason of the various descriptions of it, I'm almost glad.