Marvel Multiverse RPG

[roxolid]

With the European (or at least British0 release delayed for the latest marvel game/attempt to get a foothold in the RPG market (the last three games have, shall we say, fallen shy of the mark) has anyone (I'm guessing Stateside as not seen reports its out anywhere else) got any thoughts or opinions about the latest game?

From what I can gather:

It's ok for skirmish type battles
Nothing in the core book about gadgets
Some of the write ups are wrong
The 616 (3D6, one coloured different) mechanic seems ok
Make your own characters is something of an afterthought (we've seen this before in previous marvel games - they expect you to use a pregen it seemed)
No PDF option. To get hold of an electronic version of the book you'll have to sign up for an online service (roll20 and another I've not heard of) and go through their DRM
Kindle version is £40 (!)
The rollout/release has been a bit of a mess. Orders cancelled, delayed, no release date etc.
The characters have been shoehorned to fit into a rank and may be missing certain abilities/equipment

I pre-ordered (I buy up as many supers games as I can. Actually playing all those games... now that's a different story) the book and heard nothing from the seller.

There are two books planned - Kang and X-men but we've seen before they may not appear unless sales of the preceding books warrant it.

People haven't been blown away but I have seen mention comparing to previous marvel games including 'the game with no dice/glass beads' (usually not complimentary) on Reddit and other places.

Anyway, just wondered if anyone got their hands on it yet and opinions.

[andyman]

I decided to pass on it based on what I heard.

[roxolid]

I didn't cancel the pre-order and think I mentioned some of the issues I found elsewhere, but the main one is Rank. When Professor X, Doc Strange, Agatha Harkness and others of that 'good at one thing and they do it very well indeed' ilk can punch due to their x5/6/7 Melee damage multiplier harder than 'Bricks' like Luke Cage and Spider-Man, the game needs fixing, for me. It wouldn't need a huge amount of fixing and some house rules would do it - making it point buy for the various damage multipliers so that Prof X couldn't punch a hole through a battleship (and would struggle to punch his way out of a wet paper bag) - then it may be worth another look.

For the main though the question I would ask is... Does this new Marvel game do anything as well or better than previous Marvel games?

The answer (for me) is no. It's not better or as good as ANY of the previous Marvel games. I know Universe has its issues (I think it needs a random element), Heroic squishes characters into three ranks (D8/10/12) and Saga is hard to get hold of/cards are gimmick but all three are better than the new game. The 'daddy' is still Marvel Superheroes especially in the revised Basic form, for Marvel based supers.

[andyman]

I got the old SAGA system a while back and have the cards. I'd love to give that a spin some time.

[roxolid]

I recently put the Saga rulebook through my new Duplex scanner to spare the poor thing (It's on its last legs, loose leaf and the cover is so faded you can't make much of it out). Also plan to do something with the cards.

Maybe something to give a whirl after the Avengers game? I've never run it (or played it come to think of it) but I think it's 'player facing' so the player does all the card drawing aside from the Gm with Doom cards. Ability + Card + Trump and Edge vs Target Number. Only issue I think I had was Strong characters being really good at combat because high strength. If/when I get chance I'll have another look at it. Also got a pile of fan made files from across the internet/old Saga forum which might be worth a look at some point. On my other computer I have an excel file with every card listed which could be used for play by post - a random number from 1-100 to pick a card and make a note of which ones make up your hand.

It seems to be well thought of anyway albeit hard to get hold of and no clones of the system out there as far as I know (whilst Original Marvel has three or four I think).

[Profit]

Everything I hear about the new "Marvel Multiverse" RPG seems to indicate that it is unfortunately close to DnD, and doesn't really handle much of the unique circumsances of supers role-playing very well.

[andyman]

Hi Profit. I like D&D, but roxolid mentioning how Scarlet Witch can out punch the Thing has me turned off to the new system.

roxolid - I think SAGA would be tough to play online. It may be better to playtest with a small group first. Let me know if you want to try it out as a solo game. It's been a while since I read the SAGA rules, but I did play the Dragonlance SAGA RPG, so I have some experience with the concept.

[roxolid]

I'd have to read up on the game rules (skimmed through them but they seem simple enough). I listed the cards in the game on an excel sheet which can be jumbled about, carved up into smaller chunks or used as is with D100 dice roll to generate cards.



For example, a hand size of four:

nVfJ0NrY1-100
Havok Aura -1 Value 3 Intellect

1-100
Sabra (who?)

1-100
Black Bolt

1-100
Black Knight
1-100�1-100�1-100�1-100

[andyman]

Sabra, the Isreali super hero. I just took a look at her card. I didn't recall her having one. We will need a way to prevent the same card from being pulled twice. I also need t wait until at least next month to start. I joined a Murder Mystery Company and have four shows coming up. A lot of people like to have murder mystery parties around Halloween.

[Profit]

Oh, using Vassal or TTS to create a deck would be super simple.