Marvel | Roleplaying Games
‘Marvel Multiverse’ is a Terrible Game
Play these games instead
Marvel Multiverse is the ‘Morbius’ of tabletop roleplaying games. It didn’t need to be made, and it was made by someone that doesn’t get Marvel. That last bit is particularly confusing because the head designer had written Marvel tie-ins before.
Marvel Multiverse has a few things going for it. The explicit nod that everyone’s table is its own universe is particularly refreshing. Still, the game is mostly a train wreck. Character generation is a slog. The hero profiles look terrifying to new gamers. Determining Target Numbers slows the game WAY down. Rolling to hit and then rolling again for damage is ridiculous. Marvel Multiverse doesn’t make you feel like you’re in a comic book universe.
Play something else.
Spectaculars
Last month I recommended Spectaculars as a stand-in until an official Invincible RPG was published. I ended the piece saying there was no point to reskinning it for Marvel because Multiverse was about to drop and it would probably be excellent. I was obviously wrong.
The game shares some of the official Marvel RPGs’ best features. Like the original Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game, Spectaculars uses a D100/percentile dice. Like Marvel SAGA, Spectaculars’ character creation relies on cards, although to a lesser extent. Like Marvel Universe, Spectaculars refers to gameplay in comic book terms — issues, series, etc. Like Marvel Heroic, Spectaculars treats a gang of mooks as one entity. Like Marvel Multiverse, Spectaculars features Archetypes as its core splat.
Spectaculars’ comic-like feel stems from a few things. For example, the heroes are on relatively equal footing story-wise. The Super Soldier with one power and the Powered Armor Pilot with 3 powers both affect the game’s world, and the story, fairly equally. The Powered Armor Pilot will have more options, but the Super Soldier will get more Hero Points, which let players alter their chances or circumstances, for taking fewer powers. This doesn’t make much sense in the real world, but this isn’t the real world. It’s a comic book (or a TV show based on a comic book).
But no game is perfect. Spectaculars’ logic breaks a little when street-level heroes and cosmic-level heroes cross over. Hawkeye is just as effective as Captain Marvel, regardless of whether they’re fighting mob goons or Thanos. You can mitigate this a few ways. Hawkeye will obviously get Space Arrows once he’s off-world, so that explains that. The goons can be penalized with Challenge Dice since they’ve never fought anyone like Captain Marvel before. Still, you’ll have to address it to keep the internal logic consistent.
Also, all the physical components make the game kind of fiddly.
Still, Spectaculars can easily be reskinned to emulate most Marvel realities, including the MCU.
Risus: The Anything RPG
Risus is a rules-lite game from the 90s, when rules-lite barely existed. I’ve recommended Risus before, but it’s worth repeating.
Like Marvel Super Heroes, Risus was way ahead of its time. Like Marvel SAGA, Risus has fast and fun rules. Like Marvel Universe, Risus has zero randomness during character creation. Like Marvel Heroic, Risus leans on descriptive traits, but to a larger extent. Like Marvel Multiverse, Risus uses six-sided dice, which everyone already owns.
Risus’ Cliche-based rules are particularly Marvel-like. A lot of Superhero Sobriquets, like “Merc with the Mouth” and “God of Thunder”, make good Cliches. And you can lift more Cliches from any of the older Marvel RPGs, including Multiverse’s Archetypes.
The game’s ridiculous level of simplicity makes traipsing across Marvel’s multiverse easy and fun. The core rules are only 6 pages long, and character stats can be as simple as this:
- Doctor Strange
- Description: Tall, dark hair. Patiently waits for everyone else to catch up. Drinks tea. Seemingly knows everything and everyone.
- Clichés: Master of the Mystic Arts (4), Former Hotshot Surgeon (3), Kung-Fu Wizard (2), Music Snob (1)
In Risus, it’s assumed that characters have everything their Cliches call for. A Master of the Mystic Arts obviously has a Cloak of Levitation just as a Music Snob has a music collection.
The core rules are free and the Risus Companion is the same price as Marvel Multiverse’s unfinished “playtest” rulebook.
Marvel is the biggest entertainment brand on the planet. The massive gravity of the IP could have pulled in both new and old gamers and buried D&D. But Marvel Multiverse doesn’t feel like Marvel at all. Instead, it feels like D&D with superpowers instead of spells.
