From web-slinging youngsters to mutants with god-like powers, I feel nearly any gamer who’s ever learn a Marvel comedian or watched a Marvel film or present has thought to themselves this could be fairly sick to play in an RPG. And whereas RPG techniques have come and gone, the most recent entry on the town, The Marvel Multiverse RPG, from CMON is right here that can assist you get proper into the motion. Distributor Asmodee USA despatched alongside a replica of the brand new Starter Set for us to take a look at, so you realize what to do… learn on for my ideas!
What’s Included In The Marvel Multiverse RPG Escape From Planet Hulk Starter Package?
The Escape from Planet Hulk Starter Package comes with everybody it is advisable get your group of avid gamers suited up and able to battle the massive bads. Every set comprises:
- Booklet with Starter Set Guidelines, 64 pages
- Booklet with Energy References, 8 pages
- Booklet with “Escape from Planet Hulk Journey”, 24 pages
- 6 Character Sheet Folios
- One 2-sided big map, sized 864×1120 mm
- 1 Punchboard with 6 Heroes and 50 spherical tokens for Villains and different Characters
- 3 customized “616” Cube (2 common cube and 1 Marvel cube)
With one Sport Grasp and 6 accessible characters to play with, you might doubtlessly run this field set for a gaggle of seven! I would not suggest it, that feels slightly on the heavy facet to me, but it surely is doable. The included characters are an attention-grabbing combine, permitting you to play as Black Panther, Captain America, Black Widow, Storm, Spider-man (Miles Morales), and Wolverine (Laura Kinney).
The Journey In The Field
The journey contained within the field begins with a bang, as our characters discover themselves immediately and magically transported to Planet Hulk by The Grandmaster, the place they’re pressured to face off in opposition to robotic drones in a televised bout. However as a captured Hulk begins doing what he does greatest, chaos erupts and gives our heroes an opportunity for escape.
With out spoiling an excessive amount of of the story for gamers, you will spend the remainder of the journey discovering different captured (and surprising) allies, battling again in opposition to the Grandmaster, and utilizing your energy, pace, and crafty to make an escape – however not earlier than an iconic villain steps into your path to mess issues up.
This journey works very well as a educating machine, slowly introducing the numerous totally different techniques of the sport. The humorous factor about Marvel Multiverse is that, for a system designed round such a preferred IP, it is truthfully sort of crunchy! So having an introductory journey to information each the sport grasp and the gamers by is essential. I am truthfully undecided that I would need to run this recreation straight out of the core rulebook for brand spanking new gamers.
The Core Mechanic Behind Marvel Multiverse RPG
The core mechanic of the sport revolves across the ingenious d616 system. In essence, this method sees you rolling 3d6, with one of many three d6’s being designated the Marvel die. These cube are rolled, added up (together with any related modifiers), and set in opposition to a goal quantity to beat. In the event you beat the quantity, your motion (attacking a villain, throwing a automotive, taking pictures laser beams out of your eyes) is profitable (and harm will probably be rolled if related).
However here is the place the system has a enjoyable twist – the Marvel die. In the event you roll a six on that die, one thing good will occur whether or not you succeed or fail the examine. So, for instance, as an example you are enjoying as Captain America, and also you need to use your protect to smash a management panel earlier than computerized doorways slam shut, locking you inside a chamber. You roll your cube and fail the examine, however that Marvel die is a 6!
How will we squeak out some profit from this failure? Perhaps the protect ricochets off of the console and, whereas it would not shut it down, it bounces and crashes into an air duct, opening up a brand new (however doubtlessly extra sophisticated or harmful) route of escape! Or possibly the protect misses the console fully, however knocks out a couple of of the guards coming to take you down!
Although the sport can get sophisticated with its harm and powers, this component actually shines shiny for me. It jogs my memory of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG’s like Fringe of Empire, the place you’d roll customized cube with pips that might see you failing a examine however nonetheless getting some form of profit (or the alternative, succeeding with some dangerous luck thrown in). This results in loads of narrative flexibility, inviting each the gamers and the DM to get into character and assume creatively concerning the scenario they discover themselves in.
BONUS: Marvel Multiverse RPG 2D Miniatures
The journey itself solely contains cardboard tokens to your heroes and villains, however Asmodee additionally despatched alongside their two new kits of 2D miniatures, which every function a random assortment of heroes and villains. It ought to be famous that this product wasn’t made with the journey in thoughts – so none of those characters present up within the journey itself.
The primary pack comprises Captain Marvel, Photon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Titania, Iron Man, Bullseye, Jessica Jones, Kraven the Hunter, and Physician Doom. That is fairly the combination!
I actually like the standard of those 2D acrylic miniatures – in a world the place plastic painted minis are always elbowing for house on my cabinets, it is good to have the ability to tuck twenty miniatures right into a tuck field.
And I feel the 2D nature even provides to the expertise when enjoying with these comedian e-book characters. It is like they’re leaping off the web page!
The second set comprises the next characters: Ms. Marvel, Wasp, Thanos, Sabretooth, Luke Cage, Physician Unusual, Physician Octopus, America Chavez, Hela, and Iceman.
It is an odd assortment throughout these two kits, however I feel it encourages gamers and GM’s to include these heroes and villains into the sport in a enjoyable manner. It is sort of like hero and villain adlibs! I might see a GM taking a look at this pile of miniatures and, in a pinch, throwing Physician Octopus, Titania, and Luke Cage right into a scene simply to see what occurs.
Marvel Multiverse RPG – Escape from Planet Hulk Ultimate Ideas
Giving ultimate ideas on this product is attention-grabbing, as a result of I’ve totally different ideas concerning the recreation system itself and this field, however how do they intersect with each other?
I discover the sport itself to have a extremely enjoyable core mechanic, I really like that d616 cube rolling mechanic, it is clear and simple to know, however then there are different components – like the way in which you calculate harm – that both really feel unbalanced or overly sophisticated.
However here is the place it will get complicated for me – I am not simply reviewing the core system, and I feel this field itself is fairly rattling nice! With a pleasant and gradual intro into the sport, and good parts, this Starter Set might assist loads of gamers get previous the educational curve.
In the event you love comedian e-book motion, and the Marvel comedian e-book world, it is a nice entry level – however be warned, this is not going to be the Kapow! sort of motion you may anticipate from a Marvel RPG.
The merchandise used within the creation of this overview had been supplied by Asmodee USA.
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