INSIDE THE MARVEL UNIVERSE ROLEPLAYING GAME

[Eric J. Moreels]

<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/previews/0503/RPG_cover.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/previews/0503/RPG_covert.jpg" align=left alt="Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game Guide HC preview"></a>Marvel Comics are set to venture into the realm of roleplaying games again this May with the release of the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game. Designed by Q.E.D. Games, creators of Blue vs Gray: The Civil War Card Game, the MURPG will debut with a 128-page hardcover "bible" of the game's rules, initial character profiles, and more.

Here's how Marvel recently solicited the game in the Previews retailer catalog:

MARVEL UNIVERSE ROLEPLAYING GAME GUIDE HARDCOVER
Cover by Mark Bagley
Spider-Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra and the rest of the Marvel Universe come to life in this revolutionary new role-playing game from Marvel Comics. Easier and more accessible than any RPG before, the Marvel Universe Role-Playing Game lets you play over 40 of your favorite super heroes and super-villains or create new heroes and villains of your own. This guide contains everything you need to learn and play, including full game system rules, character profiles, briefings and background for the Marvel Universe, pull-out Character Action Display, and a beginning adventure complete with maps.
128 pgs./FC/Marvel PG.....$24.99

Q.E.D. President Jeffrey Simons recently told X-Fan that the new game system will be a radical departure from Marvel's previous RPG products, the Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game in 1984 and the Marvel Super-Heroes Adventure Game in 1998.

<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/mshrpg.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/games/mshrpgt.jpg" align=right alt="Marvel Super-Heroes Adventure Game"></a>"When we first proposed doing a roleplaying game for Marvel, we were surprised at how quickly they jumped at it," Simons said. "And then we were surprised again when it turned out they had no idea what a roleplaying game was, or how you would play. So we sat down and {designer} Dan Gelber ran a little spontaneous session. So there were {Marvel Comics President & COO} Bill Jemas, {Marvel Comics Managing Editor} David Bogart and a few other Marvel honchos pretending to be superheroes. I think a lot of innocent bystanders got killed, there were bullets and lightning bolts flying around everywhere, but Marvel was hooked. From that moment on, we've never looked back. We've gotten tremendous support from Marvel, especially when it counted, from {Editor-in-Chief} Joe Quesada, Bill and David. When Mark Beazley became our editor, we were overjoyed. He was actually a roleplayer, and he became our strongest champion at Marvel and one of the regular players in Dan's campaign."

"The amazing thing to me is that so many of the other Marvel roleplaying games in the past missed the most important thing about Marvel: it's a comic book. Comic book superheroes don't have a 68% chance of succeeding at what they do. Spider-Man doesn't roll the dice every time he swings from one building to the next. In a comic book, it's not about how good you are, it's about how hard you try. Super heroes are always doing the impossible. So if we were going to make a game that captured the flavor of the Marvel Universe, we needed to make a game where our players could do the impossible regularly. Also, in the comic books, combat happens in a panel or two, at most a couple of pages, then it's on to the next scene. What comic book fan wants to play a game where a 5 minute combat in real life takes over an hour to play in the game? MURPG is a quick game. Basic missions can be played in a couple of hours. Our 3-Mission Issues, one of which comes with each game guide or supplement, are considerably longer, and can easily turn into ongoing campaigns."

Simons explained to X-Fan that the MURPG will utilize plastic counters, known as 'stones', instead of the traditional Dungeons & Dragons d20-esque method of using dice to determine outcomes.

"MURPG is unlike any other roleplaying game, even other diceless ones. The entire game is built around the premise that effort, not probability, should determine outcome. So basically, players put in stones of energy to overcome the stones of resistance of a problem, like catching a falling bus or defusing a bomb. If they put in enough stones, they succeed. If they don't try hard enough, they fail. And just like in life, nobody except the {GamesMaster} is ever sure how hard enough is. That's the basic game mechanic. Heck, it's really the only game mechanic. (We do have a chart to go with it. It compares and contrasts the Difficulties and Resistances of a wide range of activities, relating stones to the real world. It's our only real chart, although there's a table of situational modifiers.) There are two kinds of stones, white stones for health and red stones for energy. You use red stones to do things, and you lose white stones if you're injured. The basic unit of time in our game is a Panel, which is defined as anything an artist can draw and a writer can write in a single panel in a comic book. At the end of a Panel, characters regenerate some of the red stones they used that panel, according to how many white stones of health they have left."

"All of the information a player needs to play is contained on their Character Action Display, which also contains Action Boxes and the Energy Reserve where they keep their stones," continued Simons. "If you want to know what you can do, just look at the Actions on your CAD. It's sort of like a multiple choice test. Pick an Action, put in some stones, describe what you want to do to the GM. MURPG is so easy, two players can get together for what we call 'Brawling' and they don't even need a GM to do it. Each player picks a character, sets out their CAD, and takes their turn at answering the age old questions like, 'Who's a better fighter, Spider-Man or Wolverine?' or 'Who's stronger, Hulk or Thor?'"

Designer Dan Gelber told X-Fan that he creates games that he wants to both play in and run as a GM, something that factored heavily into his work on the MURPG.

"I once saw a gap in RPGs. I wanted a simple but deadly game where the players would wipe each other out without slowing play and enjoy the feeling of mistrust this caused," said Gelber. "So I designed Paranoia to fill that gap, got together with some friends, and twenty years later it wins an award at GAMA! It was a fun game to do. Which brings us to the present. I wanted to run a superhero game. I looked, and every game I saw had so many numbers that I began to feel like an accountant. I needed a game that had fewer numbers and a simple system with less math. More story, less luck. A hero should never have to depend on a die roll. How heroic is that? I wanted a game where story mattered as much as the numbers. A game that was like the comic books. I also wanted a game where you could be a powerful character all at once, without having to play for years, yet where advancement was based on what your character does rather than on random points. But all the games I found had too many numbers, too many charts, and most of them were so rigid that you either had to do an hour's worth of math to do something or found that you could not create the character you wanted unless you played a hundred sessions, just to build up your character to where you thought it should start! The MURPG is just what I wanted. It's fun to run! I have not felt this good about a game since I worked on Paranoia."

"When you create a character in MURPG, you are not trying to break the system, or create the most powerful being ever," Gelber continued. "You are trying to match a vision of your hero to the game system so you can play the character in the Marvel Universe. We constantly tell players that if the Action you want is not there, make it up! Adapt a power and make it your own. It really bothered me when I wanted my character to have, say, a special weapon that was less powerful than a power, but the rules would not allow it. In this system, everything is stones. Count your stones, compare yours to a foe, {get a} result. The description is up to the players. You can say your attack is a force beam, or a battle-axe. Stones are stones. We give different values for each Action during character creation and these have different costs, but that's it. After you create your character, it is just the stones. Darned little math. With the pertinent rules written in on your character sheet, there is no need to constantly refer back to the Game Guide, and with broad Actions there is room for people to provide the descriptions of their characters' Actions and a system for rewarding it. And the wide range of Actions is balanced by allowing players to get disadvantages to offset more powerful creations. We encourage the GM to be generous allowing players to meet their needs."

"The Marvel Universe is a wonderful, fast, free flowing mix it up, and this was not being presented in any of the available RPGs on the subject. Too many numbers, too many restrictions! The idea behind the game is to allow the players to play in the Marvel Universe. To play whatever they want. It is up the GM and the players to create the story between them. It is a joint project, a community story, not a 'game' at all in the normal sense of Chess, or a wargame."

Designer Evan Jones told X-Fan that whilst most Marvel characters will be presented in their most recent incarnation, they will eventually issue supplements devoted entirely to showing alternate variations of certain characters, including name and costume changes.

"First of all, I want to make it clear that we are presenting Marvel characters at what we feel is either their 'most representative' stage of their careers or their most recent incarnation (we used our judgment)," explained Jones. "Jeff likes to call it, 'Their best vision of themselves.' Somewhere down the road, we will be issuing a supplement devoted entirely to character variations, including different teams they served on, different names they went under, different costumes they wore, equipment they used to have (or have newly acquired) and different powers they had, etc. For example, we will provide Hank Pym as Goliath, Doctor Pym, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, and whatever other variations we dig out of our memories and materials. We gave Hulk in his standard form in the guide, but we'll also eventually be providing him in gray-but-smart, green-but-smart, and future Maestro. You may also find six-armed Spidey, no-Adamantium Wolverine, Archangel-as-Death, Caliban before he met up with Apocalypse, lots of Thors and more. We'll look at Exiles, alternates, what have you, as well. Maybe some individual Sentinels in their (roughly) eight incarnations. Or even a few of the heroes we had occasion to pass over. We may even include alternative interpretations of some of the heroes we have already done, selected from those sent in by players. We'll also probably have a supplement devoted to alternate timelines, other dimensions, parallel universes, etc."

"Which brings me to my second point," Jones continued. "What we are trying to do is provide a great ready-to-eat 'meal' that players can start off with fairly quickly. We are also trying to provide prime 'ingredients' and a great set of 'recipes'. But we are also trying to explain how to 'cook' by taking part of one power, combining it with part of another, and creating a new power entirely. And we are trying to show how a GM (and even the players) can make up one's own recipes from scratch. Because I don't want everyone using just the powers we provide. I want GMs adding to the list, and slicing and dicing it to get whatever they can't get from it directly. We'll include the best of those, too, in future supplements. Of course, we'll be adding to the list, too - by adding new powers each supplement to go along with the many new hero profiles we'll include in each supplement."

"In other words, it's a big universe out there. Give us time and we'll get to it. But I know there are going to be people out there who look at the game guide and the first thing they're going to say is, 'How could you leave out Iceman?' So keep in mind, we've already started working on the Spidey's NY supplement, which is number 3, after the X-Men supplement, and the Avengers Supplement. We'll get to everyone, eventually. All GMs, and therefore, all 'Universes' are different. And when a GM manages to get his Universe to balance, that balance will be a very individual kind of thing. The GM should not hesitate to make up new super powers and 'fix the price' to suit the needs of the campaign and may want to bump the purchase price up or down as he sees fit. In short, new recipes for the ingredients, new ways to use the ingredients on their own."

"If the original Dungeons & Dragons first came out today, would anyone take the time to learn how to play it, let alone if it took two books and over 700 pages to learn how to play?" Simons asked rhetorically. "We looked at collectible card games and computer roleplaying games and figure out what gamers are looking for today. When we put it all in the blender along with a couple of old issues of Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men (rare, expensive and quite tasty), what came out was this totally unique, easy-to-play roleplaying game. And then something cool started happening. Everyone who played the game loved it. Even people who didn't want to love it. People who love dice. People who hate comic books. People who had played every RPG made since Chainmail. But I knew we had a winner when my 12 year old niece and my 8 year old nephew were not only able to play the game using existing characters, but wanted to create characters of their own."

The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game Guide is due to arrive in stores on May 7. This will be followed by a 96-page Guide to The X-Men in July, with a 96-page Guide to The Avengers tentatively scheduled for October.

Look for the world premiere of the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game with a 72-page pull-out in InQuest Gamer #96, on sale March 5.

[Nightcrawler-0]

Looks interesting. So basically, it's a betting game, where you hve to balance your energy, while hoping your opponent or the events don't outdo you, I guess.

[skankinwolvie]

When I first started reading the article I was skeptical but after finishing it I'm pretty sold on the concept, I especially like how they will make supplements for pretty much everything you could need in this game to be any marvel character.

[Zachary J. Morrison]

Interesting...I'll have to check this out.

[AngelinLeather]

Ill take a look at it after its been out awhile. Get some response from it.

[Wolverine]

Nice cover by Mark Bagely

[australianreaver]

They left out Iceman?? :p

[TheBoz1678]

I like this stone idea. For too long TSR and now Wizards of the coast of subjugated us all with their hundreds and hundreds of dice and rules. I like this game for it's simplicity and hopefully it will be cost effective, for me anyway

[Alex Guillen]

well it looks interesting on paper at least, I'd have to play it to really give it a fair rating but it does sound interesting.

[Refleshed]

I'm sure gonna check this out as soon as I know someone who has it... I don't think I'm gonna buy it myself though, I'm saving my money for the comics!

[W. Molstad]

Well, just got used to Heroclix. Love that game enough. I liked the old complicated Marvel Game RPG. I played it when I was like 10, so it was easy enough for me to understand. But Heroclix rocks on it. This though would be nice for those looking to create stories I guess, if it is really what it says it is.

Even from a non Marval (Gasp, gasp) stand point, this idea is amazing.

The Live Action Gaming community have been looking for something better than Rock Papper Scissors to run games in, and with the advent of this 'Potential' system, I'm sure great things are on the forefront, even if it's not Marvel based.

Not to mention how cool it will be to play in a diceless role playing game where skill and strategy rules.

Sweet...

Wickedtrybe

I'm still running a Marvel SAGA rules campaign. The rules are simple; not too wide open. My players and I are able to concentrate on storytelling and roleplaying rather then numbers crunching and rules mongering.

Still, we will check out the new system when it comes out. At the very least I will use the material within the new supplements to convert them to SAGA rules. At the very best, we will like the new system and convert our campaign over to it.

Either way, I and my players at www.vayworld.com will strongly support any Marvel Roleplaying game system!

Excelsior!

[Evan Jones]

Hullo, I'm Evan Jones from Q.E.D.. I'll be around to answer any questions you have.

Hello Evan,

Release date?

Best,

Blake

[Evan Jones]

May 7, for the initial Game Guide. The Inquest version has been released (a limited version without such things as Intelligence-based characters and character creation). There have been a couple of sample pages released in Inquest since then, as well.

Did anyone get a look at any of that?

And don't hesitate to shower me with the usual questions and demands for justification! I can't promise you'll wind up agreeing, but I'll at least tell you how we "got there".

[Evan Jones]

And yes, Iceman is in the Supplement!

If anyone has questions about play mechanics or why we rated so-and-so such-and-such, I'll be happy to give you our reasoning. And if you want to bounce house rules off me, that's fine, too. I may be able to give you a heads up so as to avoid rules snags.

[Evan Jones]

They tell me that release date has been a bit delayed. The main Game Guide should be out a few days before the end of the month.

Just wondering why Captain America is given an intelligence of 2 while Wolverine is given a 4?

[CannonballFan]

No dice....dislike change....rules sound good....must buy!!!

All in all it sounds pretty cool. It falls into my 'Under $30" rule, so I'll pick it up and see how it goes. I am a HUGE MnM Fan, but there's always room for one more Supers RPG and it is Marvel after all.

[Evan Jones]

That's actually how Marvel rated them. (We have to take into account such factors as Wolverine's many languages.) We give Cap enough extra Mental Defense to be every bit as strong-willed as W., however, and he has good Leadership, as well.

However, if you want, you could make them both 3 and it wouldn't make an awful lot of difference.

[CannonballFan]

Any update on a release date??

[Evan Jones]

They're telling me before Memorial Day. I heard the 21st bruted about, but I don't know if that actually meant anything. The X-Man Supplement is supposedly set to go on June 4th. Avengers in September!

[WYLDKARDE]

Why did they put Spidey in the 2-5 ton range (STRENGTH OF 5)when like FOREVER in all the Marvel Universes they have placed him in the 10 ton range? (STRENGTH OF 6)
I can only see this IF we are taling the Ultimate version of Spiderman, since he is way younger in that series.
Also, isn't Thor a little "thin skinned" so to speak? (Toughness of 2)I haven't played the game yet, but it seems that as far as taking damage, he is not as tough as I figured he would be. I know he doesn't have the Hulk's, Thing's or Wonderman's hide, but I thought he would have slightly higher defenses than that.

Also for the Avengers Sourcebook, tell them to NOT FORGET TO PUT COUNT NEFERIA IN THERE!!!
Thanks for your time.

[Evan Jones]

We basically went with what Marvel wanted us to. But the numbers could be adjusted without harming the way he is played.

While you're at it you might want to consider scaling his Intel down a point or two and making his web-shooters a modifier (as in the movie) rather than equipment.

All Asgardians get some natural Toughness (which is quite "expensive"), but they're by no means invulnerable. They do get very high physical Abilities, though.

But one thing we've discovered is that the readers and creators often have differing views of the same characters. Even though they are viewing the exact same end product. Creators live in the future and revel quirks and contradictions. The readers take more of a standard Historical perspective and tend to smoothe out (or codify, compartmentalize) contradictions. We have been conforming to the writer's perspective in this but are totally sympathetic to the other view (and encourage you to make any changes you deem fit).

We may even work it out so selected "missing" profiles and alternate interpretations of characters can get posted on the Marvel site. (In the X-Man sup. we do Dazzler as an "Absorption/Redirection type, but that's no reason she couldn't have been done up as a sort of "Mastery of Light and Sound").