Now I am thinking about if the xenomorphs(aliens) and the yautjas(predators) are in the marvel multiverse, that should mean special rules for creation of ordinary peoples for survival horror games, or stories as X-Files.
This part is interesting:
An RPG news-centric podcast given the announcement of Marvel's new RPG, but there's movie news too, geeky virtual reality software for your webcam and a host of free downloads.
www.geeknative.com
It’ll probably be called “Marvel
Multiverse Role-Play Game”. I say probably because the full title of what’s actually been announced is “Marvel Multiverse Role-Play Game Playtest Rulebook.
The game is being written by Matt Forbeck. He wrote
Shotguns and Sorcery, a series of novels then turned into a Cypher System RPG by Robert Schwalb. That’s a game due more love.
Forbeck, of course, has written RPGs of his own! Including Mutant Chronicles and supporting Deadlands and Tales from the Loop.
Let’s look for easter eggs or, at the very least, interesting quirks in the text and decisions made around this newly announced Marvel RPG.
First up, I grinned when Marvel described the game as an evolution of “the most popular tabletop role-playing games”. By the time you’re at “most popular” you’re thinking of D&D, in part because that’s correct, but in part, because WotC insists publishers use phrases like that to describe the ruleset rather than use “Dungeons & Dragons”.
I get that they have to protect their brand, but I dislike the arrogance. I also don’t like the use of 5e as there are other games with fifth editions. The World of Darkness, for example.
Pick a better code for D&D, Hasbro, or savvy companies like Marvel can use it against you.
That’s one easter egg. Wondering why they don’t call it the “Marvel system”, they’ve gone with D616 instead.
That’s a nod to Earth-616. In the multiverse, 616 is the universe variant that most Marvel Comics are set. There’s even a documentary that explores the cultural impact of comics called Marvel 616.
In Thor: The Dark World, the movie, Dr Selvig has the phrase 616 Universe scribbled on his chalkboard map of the Nine Realms, and there’s plenty of others; for example, in the last Avengers, Scott Lang comes out of a storage locker labelled 616, there’s a mention of it in season 2 of Iron Fist, when police are describing suspects, and perhaps most directly Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home calls this realm Earth-616.
And it’s not an easter egg, it’s in plain sight, but the game isn’t Marvel Role-Play Game; it’s the Marvel Multiverse Role-Play Game. The company is choosing to highlight the existence of the multiverse in the very name of the product.
That’s a good sales idea. Imagine all the spin-offs you empower by doing that from the outset.
Marvel has had RPGs before. They were last active in 2013 when they departed Margaret Weis Productions and took the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. That caused the RPG to
surge to the top of DriveThruRPG’s sales chart for a while as fans rushed to buy it while they still could.
Speaking of DriveThruRPG, I think the Marvel RPG is important because of what it might do to retail.
Marvel points people at comic book stores as a place to buy the playtest. I imagine Marvel already pitch their products to game stores. This will now ramp up.
As it looks like Fandom’s Cortex is not involved in the Marvel RPG, which digital markets do we expect to see the game on? Comixology? Itch? DriveThruRPG? Will Marvel make their own?
Which virtual tabletop, if any, will get the license. Will Marvel have an Open Gaming License?