Marvel Multiverse RPG Brought Forward & New X-Men Expansion

Marvel has announced that the Marvel Multiverse roleplaying game will be released in August--and that an X-Men sourcebook will come out in 2024.

The core rulebook is already available for pre-order, and will be on sale on August 2nd. It has been revamped based on the playtest feedback from the playtest rulebook released ast year. "After receiving thousands of fan responses, the core rulebook now features the new and revamped rules that make for a fun, fast, and dynamic game — including quick character creation, bombastic combat, and hundreds of amazing powers — plus full profiles of dozens of Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains. All that's needed is the book, three standard six-sided dice, and friends!"

This will be followed by Cataclysm of Kang, a collection of six adventures coming later this year. "This book includes new character profiles and features a series of six interlocked adventures. Fans can play through with a new team or character each time, or form a campaign that takes players from street-level heroes to cosmic champions! Both the core rulebook and adventure book are written by award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Matt Forbeck."

Brand-New X-Men Expansion Book Is Coming To 'MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE-PLAYING GAME' In 2024

'Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook’ Available August 2023

www.marvel.com

Finally, X-Men Expansion will launch in 2024, and will feature the X-Men, their allies and foes, and details of X-Men locations. "This is the first full-sized sourcebook for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, and features the most uncanny Super Heroes of all: the X-Men and all their various spin-off teams, greatest allies and most fearsome foes. The X-Men Expansion is jammed full of vital information about Marvel’s most popular mutants, including dozens of new profiles for characters from X-Force, the New Mutants and Marauders. It also includes full-color maps of famous X-Men locations, including the Xavier Institute, Krakoa and Arakko, plus plenty of thrilling twists and turns for an entire campaign. Answer the call and join the X-Men! The creative team for this book will be announced soon."

 

[Haplo781]

As much as I would like that to be true, I doubt it. Licensed games seem to sell well to collectors and have dedicated but small fan bases, but I doubt it would topple D&D. Same with Cortex. It literally had the chance a few years ago but did not topple anyone.

Eh, maybe. Marvel Heroic came out in early 2012, before the first Avengers movie propelled the MCU into the cultural juggernaut it is today. D&D was a fifth as big as it is now and nobody outside the TTRPG industry really knew anything about it. The 4e kerfuffle was mostly over and the Next playtest was starting. Pathfinder was the top dog. Actual Plays weren't a thing yet and VTTs barely existed. The cultural landscape was very different.

 

[Umbran]

Ooof. Swing and a miss from Marvel here. The preview rules were straight out of an 80s heartbreaker and I can't imagine they'll change enough on full release to improve the multiple massive issues with the core mechanics.

Weird you'd call them an 80's heartbreaker. The rules preview really had nothing in common with the pretty darned fun Marvel FASERIP game.. from the 80s.

A simple-to-learn system with a lot of depth like Cortex paired with a killer franchise could have actually dethroned D&D.

Dethroning D&D is not a reasonable expectation for any particular game.

And Marvel already had a Cortex game, that they killed to make this d616 mess.

 

[ValamirCleaver]

And Marvel already had a Cortex game, that they killed to make this d616 mess.

Who killed what? I thought in 2013 Margaret Weis Productions chose not to renew the Marvel license?

Creative Directions - Creative Directions

web.archive.org

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Weird you'd call them an 80's heartbreaker. The rules preview really had nothing in common with the pretty darned fun Marvel FASERIP game.. from the 80s.

I think I kind of understand the comparison he's making, which is that a lot of '80s and early '90s Fantasy Heartbreakers had ludicrously overcomplicated rules for the apparent sake of having complicated rules, and rules that were designed without any kind of real paramount goal or much understanding of rules design.

And that is totally the vibe the Marvel playtest had. Like these rules aren't complex out of necessity to reach a specific design objective, they're complex because the designer likes complex. The changes in the update didn't seem to reflect a better understanding of rules-design either, just an understanding that people didn't like overcomplicated fiddly nonsense as much as the designer did.

FASERIP was great for sure. I honestly think if you straight-up re-released it with modern art and updated heroes, it'd go further than this game is likely to. Honestly MSHAG (Saga) and the Cortex versions were also pretty solid, so it's kind of sad that this version which is going to launch when both RPGs and superheroes are at their highest crossover zenith for 30+ years is looking to be the weakest, design-wise, by a huge margin.

 

[Umbran]

Who killed what? I thought in 2013 Margaret Weis Productions chose not to renew the Marvel license?

Creative Directions - Creative Directions

web.archive.org

MWP said it was an economic issue - the license cost kept the product to be economically worthwhile for MWP.

Implicit to this is that Marvel didn't want it bad enough to offer a more advantageous license to keep the game going.

 

[Jer]

FASERIP was great for sure. I honestly think if you straight-up re-released it with modern art and updated heroes, it'd go further than this game is likely to. Honestly MSHAG (Saga) and the Cortex versions were also pretty solid, so it's kind of sad that this version which is going to launch when both RPGs and superheroes are at their highest crossover zenith for 30+ years is looking to be the weakest, design-wise, by a huge margin.

Ah you missed one though - the Marvel Universe RPG. Which is also the only one that was also published in-house by Marvel.

I like the playtest version better than that one. Though I agree that where they're sitting now is between that and the other three non-Marvel produced games.

 

[Haplo781]

I think I kind of understand the comparison he's making, which is that a lot of '80s and early '90s Fantasy Heartbreakers had ludicrously overcomplicated rules for the apparent sake of having complicated rules, and rules that were designed without any kind of real paramount goal or much understanding of rules design.

Bingo.

Honestly MSHAG (Saga) and the Cortex versions were also pretty solid,

MSHAG would be a great one to bring back - cards = more art. The system was fantastic too, years ahead of its time. Marvel could probably buy it from Hasbro for a song.

so it's kind of sad that this version which is going to launch when both RPGs and superheroes are at their highest crossover zenith for 30+ years is looking to be the weakest, design-wise, by a huge margin.

Exactly. "Dethrone D&D" was a bit of a hyperbole but damned if an actually good Marvel RPG (or an accessible Star Wars one - I love FFG/Edge Star Wars but it's very much a gamer's game and completely out of print still) could secure a solid #2 spot right now.

 

[Jer]

MSHAG would be a great one to bring back - cards = more art. The system was fantastic too, years ahead of its time. Marvel could probably buy it from Hasbro for a song.

MSHAG was the easiest narrative game I've ever taught to anyone. Something about the game just straddled the line between "traditional RPG" and "narrative RPG" making it easy to get people to cross that line. That's a system that deserves to be resurrected and tried again.

Exactly. "Dethrone D&D" was a bit of a hyperbole but damned if an actually good Marvel RPG (or an accessible Star Wars one - I love FFG/Edge Star Wars but it's very much a gamer's game and completely out of print still) could secure a solid #2 spot right now.

I know this will get things thrown at me, but "gamer's game" is what I think the Cortex Marvel game was. Yeah it's great and I love it, but when I put it in front of casual gamers they generally don't grok it. I don't think it could hit the heights of popularity folks think it should have.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I know this will get things thrown at me, but "gamer's game" is what I think the Cortex Marvel game was. Yeah it's great and I love it, but when I put it in front of casual gamers they generally don't grok it. I don't think it could hit the heights of popularity folks think it should have.

100% agree.

I love Cortex but beginner mode it ain't. I mean D&D kind of isn't too, but D&D relies on the fact that players need to know like 1/1000th of the rules to get started, whereas the Cortex Marvel game, you couldn't even design a character without a deep and fundamental understanding of the rules, and you certainly couldn't play well.

I know the Mass Effect RPG I made using Cortex Prime I intentionally didn't go with some of the approaches Marvel Cortex did because they were too... I don't want to say avant-garde, that'd be an exaggeration, but it's in that direction.

MSHAG was the easiest narrative game I've ever taught to anyone. Something about the game just straddled the line between "traditional RPG" and "narrative RPG" making it easy to get people to cross that line. That's a system that deserves to be resurrected and tried again.

Hmmm. I should drag it out and have a look at it again.

I think the form factor, and the general presentation of MSHAG really damaged it. Also if there was a way to make it work without cards I think it'd be more popular, but I'm not certain that's practical.

 

[Haplo781]

MSHAG was the easiest narrative game I've ever taught to anyone. Something about the game just straddled the line between "traditional RPG" and "narrative RPG" making it easy to get people to cross that line. That's a system that deserves to be resurrected and tried again.

Well conveniently enough the rules aren't all that unique or convoluted. It'd be fairly easy to make a good knockoff without getting sued, probably.

I know this will get things thrown at me, but "gamer's game" is what I think the Cortex Marvel game was. Yeah it's great and I love it, but when I put it in front of casual gamers they generally don't grok it. I don't think it could hit the heights of popularity folks think it should have.

Really? That's surprising to me. Rules seem pretty intuitive and easy to grasp. But then I am very much a gamer.