Marvel Shares Sabretooth's Stats

The Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is launching next years and Marvel has shared Sabretooth's statistics. They previously previewed Spider-man and others here.

 

[doctorhook]

Worst superhero RPG design I’ve ever seen.

Is this sarcasm? I can’t tell.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Is this sarcasm? I can’t tell.

Nope.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Is this sarcasm? I can’t tell.

A lot of people here really hate this system, it seems. Not sure how prevalent this opinion is outside of EN World.

 

[Jer]

Its just a personal preference thing but when bonuses +42 get to be more than double your base roll 3d6 I do start to wonder whats the point.

Fixed damage with a little randomness can be a fine design to use.

This particular implementation is going to be really swingy as you move through power levels (somewhat more random at low levels, more predictable at high levels) which is a bit weird but in principle it can work. Especially with the 3d6 already providing a bell curve distribution on the roll - which will tend make the base damage more stable than a single die roll anyway. Personally I'd go all the way and just add a fixed 11 to the roll and go all the way to fixed damage myself, but people do like to roll dice.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

A lot of people here really hate this system, it seems. Not sure how prevalent this opinion is outside of EN World.

The backlash to the playtest document was prevalent across RPG Twitter, blogs, and podcasts, too. It’s not going great.

 

[John R Davis]

No. We tried it. It made our eyes bleed. It looks straight out of mid 80s mechanics

 

[DarkCrisis]

No. We tried it. It made our eyes bleed. It looks straight out of mid 80s mechanics

Funny enough, the old TSR Marvel RPG seems to still be pretty playable (and flavorful)

 

[Jer]

Funny enough, the old TSR Marvel RPG seems to still be pretty playable (and flavorful)

The original FASERIP system is actually a really solid system. The charts make it feel a little dated but they work well once you get used to them and the Karma and stunt mechanics need some fixing but the base design is solid and IME very easily picked up by novices and casual players with a bit of coaching. Much less daunting than Mutants and Masterminds or other trad type supers games in that respect.


The only other systems that work as well IME with novice/casual players are the Marvel Saga rules (which do take a bit of time to get used to but work smoothly once you do) and Icons. Neither of which have the fun battlemap combat bits by default since they are intended to be played theater of the mind.

 

[doctorhook]

No. We tried it. It made our eyes bleed. It looks straight out of mid 80s mechanics

For what it’s worth, I’m at a point in my gaming career where “straight out of mid 80s mechanics” is a compliment. There was a lot more willingness to try new mechanics back then, compared to now when folks seem to complain if a game isn’t either 5E or PbtA.

 

[Umbran]

Funny enough, the old TSR Marvel RPG seems to still be pretty playable (and flavorful)

Yeah. Mid-80s mechanics was FASERIP, which, aside from the table lookup, is pretty smooth stuff.