Marvel to Launch Official 'MARVEL MULTIVERSE' Tabletop Role-Playing Game in 2022

eyeheartawk · Jun 4, 2021

Umbran said:
Well, it looks like this is being published by Marvel Entertainment itself. It is hard to yank a license out from under yourself.

Fair point. I didn't catch that. Let me rephrase.

What's the over/under until Marvel stops publishing this when they see first hand how little money is in RPGs in comparison to everything else they slap Marvel on?

Abstruse · Jun 4, 2021

eyeheartawk said:
What's the over/under on how many books come out for this before Marvel yanks the license out from under them? Recent history has shown that this will be likely.

On the one hand, this is being done in-house by Marvel so there's no license to yank. Marvel owns the Marvel properties.

On the other hand, this is the second tabletop RPG that Marvel has done in-house after the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game, which they supported for a little over a year before letting it stagnate and selling a license to Margaret Weis Productions for Marvel Heroic.

Umbran · Jun 4, 2021

eyeheartawk said:
What's the over/under until Marvel stops publishing this when they see first hand how little money is in RPGs in comparison to everything else they slap Marvel on?

We'll see. I think Marvel Entertainment, under Disney, is apt to have rather more business sense than they used to. The flip side of the coin is that, for Disney, developing and publishing an RPG is a petty cash endeavor.

payn · Jun 4, 2021

eyeheartawk said:
Fair point. I didn't catch that. Let me rephrase.

What's the over/under until Marvel stops publishing this when they see first hand how little money is in RPGs in comparison to everything else they slap Marvel on?

I think it will really depend on marketing and social media presence. This could piggy back off 5E popularity if it got its own critical role kinda thing going.

eyeheartawk · Jun 4, 2021

Umbran said:
We'll see. I think Marvel Entertainment, under Disney, is apt to have rather more business sense than they used to. The flip side of the coin is that, for Disney, developing and publishing an RPG is a petty cash endeavor.

That's my thinking. I'm sure it will make money. But will it make enough money to justify their effort when they could make just as much licensing spiderman on a lunchbox, and far more easily?

bulletmeat · Jun 4, 2021

I'm foreseeing a lot of cards, chits, special dice, particular 'character cards', etc. Lots of things to try to keep a steady stream of cash coming in. Then the universe books, heroes & villians for each. Specific organizational books, etc.

Umbran · Jun 4, 2021

eyeheartawk said:
That's my thinking. I'm sure it will make money. But will it make enough money to justify their effort when they could make just as much licensing spiderman on a lunchbox, and far more easily?

But they already have the lunchbox, and pretty much every other kind of merchandise you can name. I've got a Spider-Man spatula, for cripes' sake! Once you have saturate the market with lunch boxes, you start looking for new opportuinities, even if they are marginal.

Us old people may not be familiar with it, but Marvel has a New Media unit these days that has been working its way into the podcast space, including scripted dramas.

It is a hop, skip, and a jump from there to looking at Critical Role's popularity, and sensing something worth trying. But, you can't really try that unless you actually have an RPG upon which to center a podcast....

TwoSix · Jun 4, 2021

Quote from the article: "Use Might, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic to win the day, and discover your true abilities as you face impossible odds!"

Sounds pretty D&Dish based on that; renamed 6 stats and "discover your true abilities" sure sounds like level progression.

Sunsword · Jun 4, 2021

The full press release can be viewed here but in Spring 2022 there will be Playtest of the Marvel 616 system designed by Matt Forbeck (Deadlands, Brave New World, Shotguns & Sorceries).

darjr · Jun 4, 2021