Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game -- X-Characters

[Arachne]

Found a short from February that explains the X-Men expansion coming out next year. Sounds like it'll be based on Krakoa.

Also, I forgot to mention that C'mon got the rights to do accessories for the game. They're the ones who did Marvel United, so they'll probably do a Kickstarter with lots of exclusives. A practice I hate, but maybe I'll cave this time if they've got some good stuff.

[Arachne]

Surprisingly, I got the book on Thursday, after ordering it from a slightly more local store. I think I've read enough now to give a review.

BTW, character sheets can be found at https://www.marvel.com/rpg

TL;DR It's good, with a few flaws. The rules are light and solid, but it's missing some basics things, like non combat encounters, and the power rules aren't always clear. There's lots of character profiles, 100+, but a lot need some work. Overall, I like it, but I feel I'll have to make adjustments and figure some stuff out on my own.

First off, the quality of the physical book and layout:

Overall, it's a nice book. Stitch bound, hard cover with a matt finish to the cover. The paper seems durable, but a little thin. I don't think it's prove to tearing, but sometimes it's hard to turn just one page. The layout looks nice and the chapters are colour coded, but the index/glossary is fairly useless, and there's almost no cross-referencing. The hundred+ profiles aren't listed anywhere. I'm thinking of copying a list from somewhere and making it into a bookmark so I know who's available.

The art is good. Some new, mostly not. The artists are named either in the credits or on the art, which is really nice. (I haven't found the credit for the art on the Table of Contents, though.)

Chapter One: How to Play

This is pretty basic "What is a roleplaying game" stuff. Read it if your new to roleplaying games or new to gamemastering, otherwise you can just glance over it.

Chapter Two: Core Mechanics

The basic rules of the game. The rules are fairly light and easy to remember. The basic mechanic is roll 3 six-sided dice, add your ability score and compare to a target number. The "Marvel" die is used to determine Fantastic success or failure (and calculate damage). There also rules for edge and trouble, but otherwise that's about it. Easy to learn, but not much for how to deal with situations outside of combat. I guess, if you've chasing after the badguy you just roll agility vs. their agility defense? Or if your trying some scientific experiment you just roll logic vs. a target number? Extended conflict/challenge rules would be very nice to have. I have a hunch I could just import the challenge rules from Fate Condensed, but I'll have to look into that.

Chapter Three: Character Profiles

Basically, this chapter is all about explaining the terms on your character sheet. It could have been merged with the chapter on character creation, but it is nice to know what things mean before reading up on combat. It's only 5 pages, so you can go through it pretty quick.

Chapter Four: Combat

This is just what it says, how to fight and deal, or take, damage. It's not too complicated. I like that there aren't any opposed rolls. Ability + 10 determines defense target numbers. You roll attacks against your enemies target number, they roll attacks against yours. (Some powers, like Sturdy 1, will reduce your opponents damage multiplier.) It should make combat run a lot faster than games like D&D. One thing that's odd is that weapons don't count for much damage. An arrow and a bullet have the same damage multiplier, and modifiers don't stack, you just take the highest -- which may come from a "power" like Accuracy 1. The really weird thing is that a sword will do more damage than a sub-machine gun.

Chapter Five: Creating a Character

Basically, this chapter goes into the character sheet more deeply and tells you how to use it. It's fairly straight forward. You chose your rank (1-6), assign your ability scores (5 per rank), choose origin and occupation (which gives you traits and tags), pick your powers (4 per rank), and calculate secondary scores (such as health and focus). It's actually very easy, except for picking all those powers.

Chapter Six: Backstories

This chapter covers origins and occupations, as well as traits and tags. Traits have a mechanical affect, tags are more for roleplaying. You can take 1 extra trait per rank in addition to the traits you get through your origin and occupation. Tags are theoretically unlimited, but gamemasters should keep an eye on this. The Immunity tag, for example, could really screw up your game if taken too often or for the wrong things. Immunity: Bullets, for example, would make for a pretty boring game. Taking Sturdy 4 in powers, on the other hand, would make you pretty much bullet proof, but a real expert could still find a way to take you down.

One more thing about origins. Some of them, like Spirit of Vengeance, are very specific to the Marvel Multiverse. Playing in a different setting is possible, but it would take some reskinning and rewriting to make it work. Marvel really wants you to stick to their setting.

Chapter Seven: Powers

This chapter's big. Over sixty pages, if my math is right and 9 or 10 powers to a page. You can build almost* any character with it if you take the time to see what's available. Powers are devided into sets and you can use a number of sets up to your rank, plus the basic set. If you use less sets than your rank (ignoring the basic set), you get extra powers. Rank - Power Sets = Extra Powers

Some powers aren't explained nearly as well as they should be, though. For example Mental Punch (Psylocke's psi-blade) let's you attack with melee to do focus (mental) damage, but it doesn't say if you calculate damages with melee or logic. I'm assuming logic. There's telekinesis, but they don't tell you how much you can lift. Presumably, it's based on the size chart with average as a basis and increased by level of the Brilliance power.

*Almost any. I had to create a new power set to get Moonstar's working properly. Fortunately, that's actually pretty easy. I'll explain more when I post her updated profile. Which brings us to...

Chapter Eight: Characters

This is the best and worst part of the book. There are well over a hundred character profiles in this chapter, covering a lot of different ranks and power types. They also use characters I would expect to make it into the core book, which is really nice.

However, the profiles are all over the map in terms of accuracy. Ranks are all over the place. Some characters are missing powers, some have powers they don't have in the comics. (Moonstar's a full telepath, for example, no mention of her powers being empathic whatsoever.) I understand the rank problem, people have different ideas, and the game will play better if all the characters are close in rank, so players are going to be changing them up, anyway. (That said, making Hawkeye rank 2 was really cruel. He doesn't even have high Accuracy powers.) The rest though, that just shows a lack of knowledge about some of the characters.

Long story short, you'll probably want to change some things if you're using these characters.

Chapter Nine: The Marvel Multiverse

I've just skimmed this chapter, so far. Basically, it's the history and geography of the Marvel Multiverse. Primarily the 616, but other universes get some mention. I will say I smiled sarcastically when I saw one of the subheadings was "Continuity Matters". I almost laughed out loud when the next one was "But You Can Ignore It". There's also a section on the sliding timescale. Overall, it's useful, but probably not a lot of new information for longtime comic readers.

Chapter Ten: Narrator

Yes, GM's in this game are called Narrators. I haven't read all of this chapter, as I'm playing solo, for now. It's got some good basic info for first time GM's, and some good stuff on using specific kinds of powers. Also on bringing characters back from the dead and other concepts particular to comics. There's nothing groundbreaking, but it's worth a look.

All in all, a pretty good rpg with some noticeable gaps in the rules. If your running this game be prepared to make a lot decisions on the fly.

[Nicoclaws]

Thanks for the work !
It seems rather unimpressive, if you have to do all the heavy work of checking if characters profiles are accurate everytime, but maybe it's usual for RPG books ? I'm not too familiar.
It's too bad they're focusing on the combat. I understand fighting is a big part in Super Heroes, but it's not the only thing.
Anyways it seems like you can be really overpowered easily in this game XD

[Arachne]

No problem, it was kind of fun.

I think the character profiles are just highly subject to opinion. Like, they gave Sunspot Elemental Protection powers, but, personally, I would have handled that with an Immunity: Heat tag. It just fits my concept of the character better.

Yeah, the focus on combat kind of sucks. At the moment, I'm blaming Marvel, not the designer. There are going to be more rules in later books, so I suspect it's a bit of a money grab.

I think, if anything, the characters tend to be underpowered. I can't see how they're going to do Silver Surfer at rank 6, for example - he way more powerful than Magneto and Xavier. It makes sense to make the characters less powerful, though. It's easier to increase rank than decrease it.

There is a lot you might want to alter in this game if you're a perfectionist like me, but it's pretty easy to do.

I'll right more later, I've got to go, now.

[Phoenixx9]

Surprisingly, I got the book on Thursday, after ordering it from a slightly more local store. I think I've read enough now to give a review.

BTW, character sheets can be found at https://www.marvel.com/rpg

TL;DR It's good, with a few flaws. The rules are light and solid, but it's missing some basics things, like non combat encounters, and the power rules aren't always clear. There's lots of character profiles, 100+, but a lot need some work. Overall, I like it, but I feel I'll have to make adjustments and figure some stuff out on my own.

First off, the quality of the physical book and layout:

Overall, it's a nice book. Stitch bound, hard cover with a matt finish to the cover. The paper seems durable, but a little thin. I don't think it's prove to tearing, but sometimes it's hard to turn just one page. The layout looks nice and the chapters are colour coded, but the index/glossary is fairly useless, and there's almost no cross-referencing. The hundred+ profiles aren't listed anywhere. I'm thinking of copying a list from somewhere and making it into a bookmark so I know who's available.

The art is good. Some new, mostly not. The artists are named either in the credits or on the art, which is really nice. (I haven't found the credit for the art on the Table of Contents, though.)

Chapter One: How to Play

This is pretty basic "What is a roleplaying game" stuff. Read it if your new to roleplaying games or new to gamemastering, otherwise you can just glance over it.

Chapter Two: Core Mechanics

The basic rules of the game. The rules are fairly light and easy to remember. The basic mechanic is roll 3 six-sided dice, add your ability score and compare to a target number. The "Marvel" die is used to determine Fantastic success or failure (and calculate damage). There also rules for edge and trouble, but otherwise that's about it. Easy to learn, but not much for how to deal with situations outside of combat. I guess, if you've chasing after the badguy you just roll agility vs. their agility defense? Or if your trying some scientific experiment you just roll logic vs. a target number? Extended conflict/challenge rules would be very nice to have. I have a hunch I could just import the challenge rules from Fate Condensed, but I'll have to look into that.

Chapter Three: Character Profiles

Basically, this chapter is all about explaining the terms on your character sheet. It could have been merged with the chapter on character creation, but it is nice to know what things mean before reading up on combat. It's only 5 pages, so you can go through it pretty quick.

Chapter Four: Combat

This is just what it says, how to fight and deal, or take, damage. It's not too complicated. I like that there aren't any opposed rolls. Ability + 10 determines defense target numbers. You roll attacks against your enemies target number, they roll attacks against yours. (Some powers, like Sturdy 1, will reduce your opponents damage multiplier.) It should make combat run a lot faster than games like D&D. One thing that's odd is that weapons don't count for much damage. An arrow and a bullet have the same damage multiplier, and modifiers don't stack, you just take the highest -- which may come from a "power" like Accuracy 1. The really weird thing is that a sword will do more damage than a sub-machine gun.

Chapter Five: Creating a Character

Basically, this chapter goes into the character sheet more deeply and tells you how to use it. It's fairly straight forward. You chose your rank (1-6), assign your ability scores (5 per rank), choose origin and occupation (which gives you traits and tags), pick your powers (4 per rank), and calculate secondary scores (such as health and focus). It's actually very easy, except for picking all those powers.

Chapter Six: Backstories

This chapter covers origins and occupations, as well as traits and tags. Traits have a mechanical affect, tags are more for roleplaying. You can take 1 extra trait per rank in addition to the traits you get through your origin and occupation. Tags are theoretically unlimited, but gamemasters should keep an eye on this. The Immunity tag, for example, could really screw up your game if taken too often or for the wrong things. Immunity: Bullets, for example, would make for a pretty boring game. Taking Sturdy 4 in powers, on the other hand, would make you pretty much bullet proof, but a real expert could still find a way to take you down.

One more thing about origins. Some of them, like Spirit of Vengeance, are very specific to the Marvel Multiverse. Playing in a different setting is possible, but it would take some reskinning and rewriting to make it work. Marvel really wants you to stick to their setting.

Chapter Seven: Powers

This chapter's big. Over sixty pages, if my math is right and 9 or 10 powers to a page. You can build almost* any character with it if you take the time to see what's available. Powers are devided into sets and you can use a number of sets up to your rank, plus the basic set. If you use less sets than your rank (ignoring the basic set), you get extra powers. Rank - Power Sets = Extra Powers

Some powers aren't explained nearly as well as they should be, though. For example Mental Punch (Psylocke's psi-blade) let's you attack with melee to do focus (mental) damage, but it doesn't say if you calculate damages with melee or logic. I'm assuming logic. There's telekinesis, but they don't tell you how much you can lift. Presumably, it's based on the size chart with average as a basis and increased by level of the Brilliance power.

*Almost any. I had to create a new power set to get Moonstar's working properly. Fortunately, that's actually pretty easy. I'll explain more when I post her updated profile. Which brings us to...

Chapter Eight: Characters

This is the best and worst part of the book. There are well over a hundred character profiles in this chapter, covering a lot of different ranks and power types. They also use characters I would expect to make it into the core book, which is really nice.

However, the profiles are all over the map in terms of accuracy. Ranks are all over the place. Some characters are missing powers, some have powers they don't have in the comics. (Moonstar's a full telepath, for example, no mention of her powers being empathic whatsoever.) I understand the rank problem, people have different ideas, and the game will play better if all the characters are close in rank, so players are going to be changing them up, anyway. (That said, making Hawkeye rank 2 was really cruel. He doesn't even have high Accuracy powers.) The rest though, that just shows a lack of knowledge about some of the characters.

Long story short, you'll probably want to change some things if you're using these characters.

Chapter Nine: The Marvel Multiverse

I've just skimmed this chapter, so far. Basically, it's the history and geography of the Marvel Multiverse. Primarily the 616, but other universes get some mention. I will say I smiled sarcastically when I saw one of the subheadings was "Continuity Matters". I almost laughed out loud when the next one was "But You Can Ignore It". There's also a section on the sliding timescale. Overall, it's useful, but probably not a lot of new information for longtime comic readers.

Chapter Ten: Narrator

Yes, GM's in this game are called Narrators. I haven't read all of this chapter, as I'm playing solo, for now. It's got some good basic info for first time GM's, and some good stuff on using specific kinds of powers. Also on bringing characters back from the dead and other concepts particular to comics. There's nothing groundbreaking, but it's worth a look.

All in all, a pretty good rpg with some noticeable gaps in the rules. If your running this game be prepared to make a lot decisions on the fly.

Wow, great break-down! Thanks for all the detail.

I was speaking to someone who had the book and said that they really didn't get the game. I asked some things and here is what I got:

1) Ranks: Said ranks don't necessarily mean power rank but had to do with experience. So 1 was inexperienced and 6 was cosmic. Although "Cosmic" sounds like a power rank to me, lol. Is this true?

2) When told some of the characters in the book, I asked who was listed as more powerful, Xavier, Frost or magneto. They said they could not tell, because it does not give strength listing or telepathic level or magnetic level or anything to do with tonnage, etc. Is this true? Have you been able to figure out who is more powerful, stronger, etc of these 3 I mentioned?

3) I asked what stats were given, such as Strength, Speed, Endurance, Durability, Willpower, etc. They said none of these, but others they were not familiar with such as mele, ego, vigilance. What are these things and what do they mean? So this game is not giving stats on the characters?

As you can tell, I am quite confuzzled, lol.

[Arachne]

Wow, great break-down! Thanks for all the detail.

I was speaking to someone who had the book and said that they really didn't get the game. I asked some things and here is what I got:

1) Ranks: Said ranks don't necessarily mean power rank but had to do with experience. So 1 was inexperienced and 6 was cosmic. Although "Cosmic" sounds like a power rank to me, lol. Is this true?

No, Ranks indicate how powerful a character is. However, since some "super powers" are really skills (like in the Melee or Tactics power sets), and you get more powers per rank, I can see how there could be some confusion. Just checked and Rank 1 is called "Rookie", so that adds to the confusion.

2) When told some of the characters in the book, I asked who was listed as more powerful, Xavier, Frost or magneto. They said they could not tell, because it does not give strength listing or telepathic level or magnetic level or anything to do with tonnage, etc. Is this true? Have you been able to figure out who is more powerful, stronger, etc of these 3 I mentioned?

Xavier is Rank 6 and has a 9 in Logic (more on that below). Emma is Rank 5 and has an 8 in Logic, so she not quite as powerful. Magneto's Rank 6, so about as powerful as Xavier, but relies on different stats (Ego for Elemental:Iron powers).

Figuring out how much someone can lift with their powers is notably only explained for the Mighty power, which says to treat the character as one size larger per level (1-4) for purposes of strength. It can be extrapolated that Magneto would use Discipline 4 (what Mighty is to Melee, Discipline is to Ego), to lift 4 sizes above Average with his powers. According to the Objects and Sizes chart on page 39, that's Titanic, so he could lift a cruise ship.

3) I asked what stats were given, such as Strength, Speed, Endurance, Durability, Willpower, etc. They said none of these, but others they were not familiar with such as mele, ego, vigilance. What are these things and what do they mean? So this game is not giving stats on the characters?

Oh, there's plenty of stats. Ability stats, health and focus stats, initiative, damage reduction, speed, defense, and Karma.

The ability stats are:

Melee -- close combat fighting and use of strength
Agility -- ranged combat and agility
Resilience ‐- endurance or toughness
Vigilance -- alertness
Ego -- elemental abilities, emotional intelligence and charisma
Logic -- psionic abilities and technical intelligence

Here's the ability section of the character sheet:

Screenshot_20230809_160206.jpg

The Damage multipliers are your Rank plus any power or weapon enhancements, but those two don't stack together unless you've got an Iconic Weapon. (Like Mjolnir.)

Everything else is derived from these and your rank. There are also traits that can give you an "edge" or "trouble" on your rolls.

As you can tell, I am quite confuzzled, lol.

No problem. Overall, I like the game, but the rules seem kind of half finished, I would have rather they cut out a few of the 130 profiles for some clarification. Hope that helped.

If you've any more questions, just ask.

Oh, and the designer did a Q&A. It's a chat transcript, so it's long, but it might help. https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/2023/08...ddGw3PwWbpesbM

[Nicoclaws]

No problem, it was kind of fun.

I think the character profiles are just highly subject to opinion. Like, they gave Sunspot Elemental Protection powers, but, personally, I would have handled that with an Immunity: Heat tag. It just fits my concept of the character better.

Yeah, the focus on combat kind of sucks. At the moment, I'm blaming Marvel, not the designer. There are going to be more rules in later books, so I suspect it's a bit of a money grab.

I think, if anything, the characters tend to be underpowered. I can't see how they're going to do Silver Surfer at rank 6, for example - he way more powerful than Magneto and Xavier. It makes sense to make the characters less powerful, though. It's easier to increase rank than decrease it.

There is a lot you might want to alter in this game if you're a perfectionist like me, but it's pretty easy to do.

I'll right more later, I've got to go, now.

I don't play TTRPGs so I didn't know DMs modify the rules so much but I guess it fits.

[Arachne]

It actually says in the book that you can modify character profiles and even create new powers and power sets. As long as your using the character creation rules, your not really modifying actual rules.

That said, no RPG has rules for every situation (though GURPS and Hero System certainly try), so there's always going to be times when the GM* has to make rulings and rules up on the fly.

*DM stands for Dungeon Master and is a term owned by Hasbro (who own the company that owns Dungeons & Dragons), so the generic term is Game Master or GM. Marvel Multiverse RPG actually uses the term Narrator.

[Phoenixx9]

No, Ranks indicate how powerful a character is. However, since some "super powers" are really skills (like in the Melee or Tactics power sets), and you get more powers per rank, I can see how there could be some confusion. Just checked and Rank 1 is called "Rookie", so that adds to the confusion.



Xavier is Rank 6 and has a 9 in Logic (more on that below). Emma is Rank 5 and has an 8 in Logic, so she not quite as powerful. Magneto's Rank 6, so about as powerful as Xavier, but relies on different stats (Ego for Elemental:Iron powers).

Figuring out how much someone can lift with their powers is notably only explained for the Mighty power, which says to treat the character as one size larger per level (1-4) for purposes of strength. It can be extrapolated that Magneto would use Discipline 4 (what Mighty is to Melee, Discipline is to Ego), to lift 4 sizes above Average with his powers. According to the Objects and Sizes chart on page 39, that's Titanic, so he could lift a cruise ship.



Oh, there's plenty of stats. Ability stats, health and focus stats, initiative, damage reduction, speed, defense, and Karma.

The ability stats are:

Melee -- close combat fighting and use of strength
Agility -- ranged combat and agility
Resilience ‐- endurance or toughness
Vigilance -- alertness
Ego -- elemental abilities, emotional intelligence and charisma
Logic -- psionic abilities and technical intelligence

Here's the ability section of the character sheet:

Screenshot_20230809_160206.jpg

The Damage multipliers are your Rank plus any power or weapon enhancements, but those two don't stack together unless you've got an Iconic Weapon. (Like Mjolnir.)

Everything else is derived from these and your rank. There are also traits that can give you an "edge" or "trouble" on your rolls.



No problem. Overall, I like the game, but the rules seem kind of half finished, I would have rather they cut out a few of the 130 profiles for some clarification. Hope that helped.

If you've any more questions, just ask.

Oh, and the designer did a Q&A. It's a chat transcript, so it's long, but it might help. https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/2023/08...ddGw3PwWbpesbM

Hi!

Thank you for getting back to me and with such a good and detailed explanation! It did help. I think the writers made this more confusing than it needed to be. I heard another book is coming out in November 2023, maybe it will condense and simplify the rules?

OK, if you do not mind, let me see if I understand what you told to me:

1) Ranks: These ARE power levels. The higher the level, the more powerful. Someone at Level 6 is more powerful overall than a 5,4,3,2 or 1.

2) For Psychics: like Charles, Emma, Jean, Exodus, etc, use both the Rank and Logic to determine who is the more powerful psychic? A Rank 6 Logic 4 would be more powerful than a Rank 5 Logic 9 psychic?

3) Superhuman Lifting Strength: is determined by Mighty. But not every character gets mighty? Magneto has 4 Mighty and can lift a cruise ship. A physically strong character with Mighty 4 could likewise lift that Cruse Ship but with their muscles, while someone like Graviton would use his Gravity power.

4) Melee: This is fighting/combat skill. But is it also strength level for normal-level strength characters? How is the strength of non-super powered characters shown? What about someone like Black Widow, Falcon, a shield agent---would Melee be their human-level strength? If not, what does show that?

5) Vigilance: I would think characters with enhanced senses and psychics would have a higher level, or someone like Destiny who can see/predict possible future events?

Thank you for being so friendly and helpful! I really appreciate it. Please let me know if I understood everything correctly--or not.

[Arachne]

Hey, it's helping me solidify the rules in my own head.

1) That's right.

2) Good question. A rank 6 Logic 4 Psychic would do more focus (mental) damage than rank 5 logic 9, but they'd have a harder time breaking down the targets defenses. The rank (6 or 5 respectively) would be be multiplied by the results of the Marvel die + the ability (4 or 9 in this case), but the logic score would be added to a 3d6 vs the target's defense (probably logic defense, but I'm not sure) to get into the target's brain in the first place.

Basically, you use an ability score like logic or melee to hit and a rank and ability, to do damage (Marvel die × rank +ability), but powers can effect damage multipliers. So a rank 4 psychic could take Brilliance 2 (which counts as two powers) and have a damage multiplier of 6 (rank 4+2). IIRC, Xavier has rank 6, Brilliance 4 and logic 9, so he's doing a minimum of 29 points focus damage (2×10+9) if he hits someone with no focus damage reduction. (On the Marvel die a 1 is treated as a six, so the minimum roll is 2.)

3) Almost. Mighty only effects muscle strength, Magneto's magnetism would be strengthened by Discipline which effects ego based powers.

4) Hmm, sort of? The strength of someone without strength powers is determined by size which for most humans is Average. That means they can lift their own weight, but they'd have to do a Melee check to see if they succeeded. (Yeah, it seems weird to me, too.) An average human has -3 to +3 in Melee, so going higher suggests being superhuman, but you still can't lift more than a human, you just have a much better chance of actually succeeding at it. At least, I think that's how it works...

5) With Vigilance, you have what you put into it. There might be powers that affect it, but I'm not sure. There's a trait called Combat Awareness that gives you an extra reaction per round in combat and the Battle Ready trait gives you 30 more points of Focus which is otherwise Vigilance ×30. Focus is your mental health, but also a currency for higher level powers.

I can't help with precog powers because they're not in the game, yet. The Q&A I linked to says Destiny will be in the X-Men expansion, though, so they're coming.

[Phoenixx9]

Hey, it's helping me solidify the rules in my own head.

1) That's right.

2) Good question. A rank 6 Logic 4 Psychic would do more focus (mental) damage than rank 5 logic 9, but they'd have a harder time breaking down the targets defenses. The rank (6 or 5 respectively) would be be multiplied by the results of the Marvel die + the ability (4 or 9 in this case), but the logic score would be added to a 3d6 vs the target's defense (probably logic defense, but I'm not sure) to get into the target's brain in the first place.

Basically, you use an ability score like logic or melee to hit and a rank and ability, to do damage (Marvel die × rank +ability), but powers can effect damage multipliers. So a rank 4 psychic could take Brilliance 2 (which counts as two powers) and have a damage multiplier of 6 (rank 4+2). IIRC, Xavier has rank 6, Brilliance 4 and logic 9, so he's doing a minimum of 29 points focus damage (2×10+9) if he hits someone with no focus damage reduction. (On the Marvel die a 1 is treated as a six, so the minimum roll is 2.)

3) Almost. Mighty only effects muscle strength, Magneto's magnetism would be strengthened by Discipline which effects ego based powers.

4) Hmm, sort of? The strength of someone without strength powers is determined by size which for most humans is Average. That means they can lift their own weight, but they'd have to do a Melee check to see if they succeeded. (Yeah, it seems weird to me, too.) An average human has -3 to +3 in Melee, so going higher suggests being superhuman, but you still can't lift more than a human, you just have a much better chance of actually succeeding at it. At least, I think that's how it works...

5) With Vigilance, you have what you put into it. There might be powers that affect it, but I'm not sure. There's a trait called Combat Awareness that gives you an extra reaction per round in combat and the Battle Ready trait gives you 30 more points of Focus which is otherwise Vigilance ×30. Focus is your mental health, but also a currency for higher level powers.

I can't help with precog powers because they're not in the game, yet. The Q&A I linked to says Destiny will be in the X-Men expansion, though, so they're coming.

Thank you again, my friend, as this is really helpful!

You do seem to have a good grasp on the rules/game.

I understand your above post, but how to know all of that makes my head spin, lol. Maybe they will continue to refine it with the next book?

[Arachne]

I hope so.

A lot of RPGs are hard to wrap your head around at first. I find building characters helps, but you don't really understand most of them until you've tried them out. I just watched a video by someone who did run a game, and they think health points are broken because they don't scale with rank. I'm not sure that's true, I don't have enough details to know, but it's not something you're likely to figure out just reading the rules. I suspect the problem is a bad build for a villain that fights alone vs teams. They really need some invulnerablity (Sturdy power) in that case.

[Phoenixx9]

I hope so.

A lot of RPGs are hard to wrap your head around at first. I find building characters helps, but you don't really understand most of them until you've tried them out. I just watched a video by someone who did run a game, and they think health points are broken because they don't scale with rank. I'm not sure that's true, I don't have enough details to know, but it's not something you're likely to figure out just reading the rules. I suspect the problem is a bad build for a villain that fights alone vs teams. They really need some invulnerablity (Sturdy power) in that case.

Hi, just wondering if you have any new insights to this game?

I cannot wait to see Jean Grey, Exodus, Cuckoos, Rogue, Lorna, Havok, Moondragon and other characters. I hope they put out other character profiles and without years-long waiting period. I think Jean and others are supposed to come out in November 2023, right?

How high do the Logic and other stat ranks go? Is it 20?

I am trying to imagine Jean's stat (Jean is now supposed to be more powerful than Xavier telepathically) and I know 6 is the highest rank, so Jean could not be higher than that (equal to Xavier), but I guess it would be her Logic score that would put her above Xavier? I also wonder with Xavier wearing Cerebro, how much more powerful he would be and if there are stats for that?

Are you enjoying this game? Do you think it is good or do you think Marvel should have updated the character stats and kept their original MSHRPG game format?

[Arachne]

One new insight: There's a major bottleneck at rank 6. Dormammu only has about half his powers, and none of them are Sturdy. (Apparently, in one game he got taken out in one round against a team of rank 4 characters.) My solution would be to let the really high level villains (like him and Thanos) go up to higher ranks.

There's also at least one typo in the book. Mirage and Grand Mirage both cost 10 focus, but Fool and Grand Fool cost 5 and 10 respectively. I'm pretty sure Mirage should only cost 5. I'm also not sure what damage Elemental Blast does. The book says Agility, but the power is Ego based. For now I'm saying you use Agility to hit and Ego for damage, but I could be way off on that.

Jean's on the cover of the Kang adventure book coming out in November, so I assume her profile is in the book. IIRC, there will be around 60 new profiles in it. The X-Men expansion coming out this spring (it's been delayed a couple of months) has a 100 or so new ones, I believe.

The highest a stat can go its 3 + rank. So a rank 6 character can go up to 9. I'm glad you asked that -- I missed it on the first read-through.

Like I said, there's a bottleneck at rank 6. I honestly don't know how they're going to do Jean, since she's got telekinesis as well as telepathy. That means she'll have one less power than Xavier since she's using two power sets. And she'll probably have better balanced stats. Xavier's got 0 in Melee.

Despite that, I still think it's a pretty good game. It won't please people that want a rule for everything (that's what Champions for Hero System is for ), but what rules are there are easy to adjust. Moonstar's powers don't work quite right as written, but the only game I've seen before this that could create her fairly easily is BASH. In MMRPG, all I've had to do is create an Empathy power set based on the Telepathy set, which turned out to be easy. (I just haven't got it written up properly, yet.)

I'm going to put up the profile I made for Nova sometime today. His was really simple once I got over my perfectionism. (I spent way too long debating what his ability scores should be.)

[Phoenixx9]

One new insight: There's a major bottleneck at rank 6. Dormammu only has about half his powers, and none of them are Sturdy. (Apparently, in one game he got taken out in one round against a team of rank 4 characters.) My solution would be to let the really high level villains (like him and Thanos) go up to higher ranks.

There's also at least one typo in the book. Mirage and Grand Mirage both cost 10 focus, but Fool and Grand Fool cost 5 and 10 respectively. I'm pretty sure Mirage should only cost 5. I'm also not sure what damage Elemental Blast does. The book says Agility, but the power is Ego based. For now I'm saying you use Agility to hit and Ego for damage, but I could be way off on that.

Jean's on the cover of the Kang adventure book coming out in November, so I assume her profile is in the book. IIRC, there will be around 60 new profiles in it. The X-Men expansion coming out this spring (it's been delayed a couple of months) has a 100 or so new ones, I believe.

The highest a stat can go its 3 + rank. So a rank 6 character can go up to 9. I'm glad you asked that -- I missed it on the first read-through.

Like I said, there's a bottleneck at rank 6. I honestly don't know how they're going to do Jean, since she's got telekinesis as well as telepathy. That means she'll have one less power than Xavier since she's using two power sets. And she'll probably have better balanced stats. Xavier's got 0 in Melee.

Despite that, I still think it's a pretty good game. It won't please people that want a rule for everything (that's what Champions for Hero System is for ), but what rules are there are easy to adjust. Moonstar's powers don't work quite right as written, but the only game I've seen before this that could create her fairly easily is BASH. In MMRPG, all I've had to do is create an Empathy power set based on the Telepathy set, which turned out to be easy. (I just haven't got it written up properly, yet.)

I'm going to put up the profile I made for Nova sometime today. His was really simple once I got over my perfectionism. (I spent way too long debating what his ability scores should be.)

Oh, that is bad for Dormammu! He is ultra-powerful, and needs to be shown as such! There are others that will need to have all of the high-levels that he has such as the Phoenix Force. I hope smeone at the Marvel Game sees this/finds out and then makes corrections in the next book.

I agree, the Ranks need to go up higher and maybe 10 would be perfect. 6 or even 7 do not give enough distance between all of the characters. 10 is much better spacer (and maybe even go 11-15 for the super-high-end characters).

Oh, good to know Jean will probably be in November. I hope they get her stats correct, as in every game they seem to low-ball her, but now she is Ubber-Powerful in the comics sans PF, so I am looking forward to excellent stats for her.

So as written now, Jean could at max be Rank 6 Logic 8 because she has 2 major powers (TP + TK)? I guess she really has 3 powers if one counts Empathy as Marvel has made that a separate one for Jean which would put her at R6 L7? Or 4 if we count the PF connection, making Jean R6 L6?

I would love to see whatever character profiles you created!