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."

 

[JEB]

And that's why a blind eye has always been turned to the fan sites posting scans of that material.

And possibly the various retroclones, as well.

 

[aramis erak]

And possibly the various retroclones, as well.

There's no grounds to sue the couple Marvel retroclones - they don't use the same labels, The numerics matching is unprotectable. And the retros aren't using the text nor copyrightable characters.

If Marvel had a competent games person on staff, they'd simply make use of their copyright over the TSR work, and the MHRP work, and put Cam to work statting up the current versions for the MHRP, and someone else doing AMSH stats. Introducing new games when they hold the rights to older ones that are so well loved is, simply put, insane.

 

[Haplo781]

Don't forget how future Cortex licenses were cancelled after the purchase of #DnDBeyond, including Masters of the Universe.

He has every right to be bitter, as I know few designers who have as naughty word of luck in this industry.

It was after Fandom sold Cortex to Dire Wolf Studios AFAIK.

 

[pemerton]

If Marvel had a competent games person on staff, they'd simply make use of their copyright over the TSR work, and the MHRP work, and put Cam to work statting up the current versions for the MHRP, and someone else doing AMSH stats. Introducing new games when they hold the rights to older ones that are so well loved is, simply put, insane.

As far as MHRP is concerned, Marvel don't have the copyright, do they?

From the core book:

Margaret Weis Productions, the MWP Logo, Cortex System (and all derivatives), the Cortex Plus logo, and the Heroic Roleplaying logo are trademarks of Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.
Cortex Plus and Heroic Roleplaying system © 2012 Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.​

From Annihilation:

Margaret Weis Productions, the MWP Logo, Cortex System (and all derivatives), the Cortex Plus logo, and the Heroic Roleplaying logo are trademarks of Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.
Cortex Plus and Heroic Roleplaying system © 2013 Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.​

Marvel would need to reach an agreement with MWP (assuming MWP still own those copyrights).

I agree the new system looks pretty unappealing, at least based on what I've seen of it.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

i just bought the Playtest booklet, and I think it is awesome. Matt Forbeck is a stalwart designer.

The revisions (posted in a PDF at the marvel.com/rpg website), have streamlined several things which were unnecessary legacies of its 5E roots. More in the direction of, say, MnM 3E. Or what D&D 7E might look like.

A solid game. And the Marvel character profiles are lovingly detailed.

In my eyes, this ruleset would serve as a great system for other genres as well.

Lastly, I love the tailored touches of the MARVEL attributes—Melee (formerly Might), Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic. And the d616. Brilliant!

 

[Matt Thomason]

I would bet actual money that the rights to the old FASERIP system are a licensing nightmare and nobody is sure who owns what and it isn't worth the money to them to try to find out.

And that's why a blind eye has always been turned to the fan sites posting scans of that material.

The licensing nightmare does seem to be the case in many older games that used a license

I've noticed a trend in newer ones for the rights to pass back to the licensor, so I've assumed modern licensing contracts specifically do that - for example, all the previous editions of Warhammer Fantasy and 40k RPGs passed back to GW and they in turn relicense them to newer licensors (which is why the current license holders Cubicle 7 are able to sell PDFs of the previous editions). I've always regretted that didn't happen with Marvel FASERIP

 

[Anon Adderlan]

It was after Fandom sold Cortex to Dire Wolf Studios AFAIK.

“With the sale of D&D Beyond to Hasbro in the spring, it no longer made sense for us to operate in the TTRPG space since that was the large majority of our business,”

Cortex has indefinitely paused development of He-Man RPG Legends of Grayskull after sale to Dire Wolf Digital

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

“With the sale of D&D Beyond to Hasbro in the spring, it no longer made sense for us to operate in the TTRPG space since that was the large majority of our business,”

Cortex has indefinitely paused development of He-Man RPG Legends of Grayskull after sale to Dire Wolf Digital

As a fan of none of these franchises (I'm old), it is super-weird to me that we live in a world where there's a Transformers RPG, a GI Joe RPG, a Power Rangers RPG, two My Little Pony RPGs, but Masters of the Universe, which is actually nominally a science-fantasy sword and sorcery cartoon show, can't cross the finish line.

 

[Micah Sweet]

As a fan of none of these franchises (I'm old), it is super-weird to me that we live in a world where there's a Transformers RPG, a GI Joe RPG, a Power Rangers RPG, two My Little Pony RPGs, but Masters of the Universe, which is actually nominally a science-fantasy sword and sorcery cartoon show can't cross the finish line.

My first introduction to sword & planet. And I still have a soft spot for Masters of the Universe.

 

[Tonguez]

Is this still the 616 abomination?

 

[Tonguez]

As a fan of none of these franchises (I'm old), it is super-weird to me that we live in a world where there's a Transformers RPG, a GI Joe RPG, a Power Rangers RPG, two My Little Pony RPGs, but Masters of the Universe, which is actually nominally a science-fantasy sword and sorcery cartoon show can't cross the finish line.

Does Masters of Umdaar count?

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

My first introduction to sword & planet. And I still have a soft spot for Masters of the Universe.

I still think of He-Man as that cheap Blackstar knockoff.

 

[Tonguez]

I still think of He-Man as that cheap Blackstar knockoff.

View attachment 274930

and both were ripping off the Mighty Mightor

 

[Reynard]

My first introduction to sword & planet. And I still have a soft spot for Masters of the Universe.

It's weird, as a kid I grew up with He-Man and loved it, but as a young adult I saw Thundarr and never looked back to Eternia again.

 

[aramis erak]

As a fan of none of these franchises (I'm old), it is super-weird to me that we live in a world where there's a Transformers RPG, a GI Joe RPG, a Power Rangers RPG, two My Little Pony RPGs, but Masters of the Universe, which is actually nominally a science-fantasy sword and sorcery cartoon show, can't cross the finish line.

There are 2 licensed commercial MLP ones; at least 2 more commercial unlicensed ones (one of which is Ponyfinder - a pathfinder clone; the other I know of is Laser Ponies). And I'm aware of a half dozen more fan-done ones that aren't commercialized.

Transformers is playable. I don't find the engine all that nifty; the book is nicely done.
That the same engine is slated for GI Joe makes some sense, Power Rangers a touch less, but still a reasonable option. But MLP? I can't see that one being a good fit.

 

[Jer]

As a fan of none of these franchises (I'm old), it is super-weird to me that we live in a world where there's a Transformers RPG, a GI Joe RPG, a Power Rangers RPG, two My Little Pony RPGs, but Masters of the Universe, which is actually nominally a science-fantasy sword and sorcery cartoon show, can't cross the finish line.

Part of it is that Hasbro is just better at the licensed IP game than Mattel is. Mattel licenses other people's products to make toys and games but really only licenses out their own properties for things that they don't make themselves (i.e. not toys and games).

Hasbro, meanwhile, has been licensing out their IP forever. They have a long-standing licensing agreement with "The Op" (formerly USAopoly) where they've licensed out their own games to another company to make variants of since the 90s. They also started moving into being a "brand company" instead of a "toy and game company" around the same and so have been making those kind of licensing connections in other areas too. When Renegade showed up to ask them for the game license to their biggest nostalgia properties, Hasbro already had a long history of licensing those properties out to other people. Mattel is still playing catch up in that area.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

Transformers is playable. I don't find the engine all that nifty; the book is nicely done.
That the same engine is slated for GI Joe makes some sense, Power Rangers a touch less, but still a reasonable option. But MLP? I can't see that one being a good fit.

It isn't.

Part of it is that Hasbro is just better at the licensed IP game than Mattel is.

The problem is #Hasbro wants to do nothing but license IP at this point. Their physical products are absolute garbage, they're trying to sell eOne, and #DnDBeyond isn't turning out the way they expected. And because of this it's very likely the 3D VTT they're pursuing will be cancelled, as AAA live services like it take considerable effort to develop and require a level of support they're just not willing or able to provide.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

#DnDBeyond isn't turning out the way they expected.

Why do you say that?

 

[Undrave]

He's Kirby's stand in.

Kirby also famously regretted going up in that rocket.

Kirby was The Thing in the What If...? story "What If the Original Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?" Stan Lee was Mr. Fantastic.

 

[Undrave]

Transformers is playable. I don't find the engine all that nifty; the book is nicely done.

I'm super curious how the Transformers game plays out (for obvious reasons, see PFP) but I'd never have to play with...

Heck, I've basically got my social connections kneecapped by the pandemic (our old DnD host has a respiratory disease so he's still pretty much in quarantine mode) and people having babies... and nobody invited me to any sort of online game and I just... I don't know I just can't seem to find the energy to try and organize one myself...