Marvel Universe Handbooks, Future Plans, Etc.

[Yancy Street Clown]

Greetings,

I just picked up the game (I've been a Marvel fan for ages, and was looking to run a new super-hero RPG) and I just wanted to say great job. It's taking a while for me and my players to get a handle on the system, but so far the results are fun and feel totally "Marvel" in play.

I have a question on the direction of the game. It is clear that the core design of the game is focused on pre-gen characters playing in published events. I've pre-ordered the Civil War Book, and will get the others, but here is what I am wondering...

Is there a plan for the game to eventually veer into a mode where characters would be published in a "handbook" style without an appended event? I really enjoy the idea that the character data file is tied to a point in the history of the MU. As an old timer some of the sheets I'd like some of the characters in older events (The Kree-Skrull War, The original masters of evil, Korvac, Proteus, Etc) that would reflect some characters much earlier than most modern events - and provide stats for those who may no longer be active/alive.

Also, the one "light" portion of the rules seems to be focused around character generation, balance, and advancement of XP in a long-term campaign. Are there plans for a more in-depth look at these mechanics in a future book?

[Beast]

Doubtful. From what I understand from what Cam and Folks have said, what Marvel really liked was the idea of bundling things into 'Events' for the book. I don't see that format changing. Especially when there's teases of Secret Invasion, Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, and such being on tap as Event Books for 2013. It's also easy enough to tweak the datafiles for earlier eras of the characters.

Re: Dead/Depowered/Retired heroes... they don't tend to stay that way for long. Hell, Thunderbird recently made a temporary comeback in both Necrosha and Chaos War. So even a character that's been dead since the 70's can easily show up in a future book. Plus there's DLC and such that can offer others. Proteus and Korvac have both made appearances in recent years. Korvac very recently.

I thought the character generation area of the book was pretty detailed. Especially when you used established characters as a starting point. The recent release of the Random Datafile Creation stuff really fleshed a lot of this out as well. So I would look into that if I were you. It might fill in some of the blanks you seem to be drawing with the system. But I think the core book is fine, if you know what you want to build when you sit down.

[Mouse]

Everything that I've seen Cam and crew mention has been Events and expansions for Events. So it seems for at least the foreseeable future, the MHR line is going to be structured around Event releases. The default game play mode is for the GM to read the book, for the players to choose from available characters, and to get to playing.

Which, if you think about it, really cuts down on prep. This makes it much friendlier for casual gamers or for people who might be trying out the game because they like the comics.

[Majestic]

By the way, welcome to the forums, YSC. Good question, btw!

[Yancy Street Clown]

Thanks Everyone!

The Event structure is cool, but I see enough potential in the system it would be nice to reach beyond that. I suspect players will rapidly want to make their own heroes, and their own stories, and while it is certainly doable to create these things ourselves, its always nice to see a publisher support those aspects as well.

To the balance and character issue: For the most part I like the balance, one issue is power sets. A second power set, another die in the pool (I know this is a rough generalization) so a character with two sets, advantage. Die levels, etc... in a game where pre-gens are the rule, not a problem - but a true RPG style campaign with user characters a bit problematic. Also the issue of XP and milestones, and spending the XP with a long term game (many events, characters continuing from event to event) again I realize this is easily taken care of with "house" rules, but I wondered...

Thanks all for the feedback, as a marvel comics fan, and as someone who designed and wrote in the RPG industry I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with this one…

[Supplanter]

To the balance and character issue: For the most part I like the balance, one issue is power sets. A second power set, another die in the pool (I know this is a rough generalization) so a character with two sets, advantage. Die levels, etc... in a game where pre-gens are the rule, not a problem - but a true RPG style campaign with user characters a bit problematic.

Make sure every one-set hero takes Versatile or Multipower and that the two-set heroes don't. (This mimics, I think, the approach taken with the official datafiles in the basic game.) OR, adopt the house rule that everyone gets two free power traits per roll no matter which set they come from. Keep Versatile around for poor Cyclops. Multipower can go away. Done!


Jim

[Yancy Street Clown]

Excellent ruling Jim... thanks for the thought...

[Supplanter]

Excellent ruling Jim... thanks for the thought...

I can only take credit for conveying it to you.

The design team came up with Versatile and Multipower as equalizers for one-set heroes after one of the early playtest rounds. So that's actually what they're for! But it may not be called out in the "make your own datafile" section. (Or maybe it is and I don't remember . . . )


Jim

[Yancy Street Clown]

I don't recall seeing it there, but I may have missed it. It is indeed a great balancer and makes total sense.

So even if not your original idea, my thanks for pointing it out!

[Cam]

Playtesting was one of the inspirations for Multipower and Versatile, but there are good reasons for the multiple dice from a set = –1 step per additional die. I like the resource choices this forces on some characters, and I don't think the "two power traits from any set" pays as much attention to the fact that many power sets DON'T have multiple power traits that would work well together in a single action or reaction.

Now, I'm not one to tell you how to play (other than by writing the game the way it's written) but I'm interested in seeing how bending rules leads to emergent behavior or unexpected consequences, too.

Cheers,
Cam