New Marvel RPG - Cortex System

1LR reported the other day that the new Marvel RPG will use the Cortex System from Margaret Weis Productions. Here's what it says about the Cortex System at http://www.margaretweis.com/mwp-online-store/cortex/23-cortex-system-role-playing-game:

The collaborative efforts of  Cam Banks, Nathan Rockwood, Floyd Wesel, Jennifer Brozek, Digger Hayes, Jamie Chambers and Jim Davenport bring you Cortex. Leap into a game where the characters and the drama are at the heart of the story, where the action is fast-paced and the dice roll freely. The Cortex System Role Playing Game offers you a fun set of rules that are flexible enough for any genre, setting, and storyline you can imagine!
Character creation lets you run with a concept and be ready-to-play in less than half an hour. The rules make it easy for new players to understand, and allow the Game Master freedom to improvise when the action takes an unexpected turn. The Cortex System rules provide a simple, intuitive foundation upon which the rest of the game is built—everything from an honorable duel withswords, the repair of a starship engine, psychic powers, criminal investigation, and anything in-between.
This book takes a toolkit approach, with all the rules needed to play and a host of options and add-ons. We give you some examples, and a whole chapter full of advice—but the rest is up to you! Bring your dice, some friends, and your imagination to play in a game with no limits.

This is the same rules system that is used for Smallville and Supernatural. Those games looked intriguing to me. If nothing else they looked like they were well put together games. MWP has to be doing SOMETHING right to land these high-profile properties!

Should be interesting to check out this gaming system in the near future. I like that character creation takes less than 30 min. and it seems the rules system is designed to be simple and flexible. How they pull this off, I'm not sure... but we'll see.

New Marvel RPG announced!

1LR demanded a new Marvel RPG and the gaming world listened! During the last GenCon, Margaret Weis Productions announced that they will be releasing 16 Marvel Universe RPG books in a year, starting in February 2012.

The system will be Cortex Plus - I've got to admit that I've never played anything with the Cortex Plus gaming rules. Kinda nervous about that.

It seems like the game will be based on events in Marvel history such as the Civil War. I'm not sure how this will go for a long term campaign... we'll have to wait and see. Each event book will have a "premium and essential edition." Not sure what that means. Does that mean two versions of the same book - a cheap version and a deluxe version? Or two different books for each event, both of which  you must buy to play it? Also, the "premium and essential editions" will be supported by three supplements (or accessories) - each "in a similar format to Marvel's own trade paperbacks." I'm also not sure what this means. What's the purpose to the supplemental materials? how do they fit in with the "premium and essential editions?"

If you do the math, 16 books - that could only be three or four events, depending on how they're counting the premium and essential editions (as one book or as two different books?).

The press release found at http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/08/05/gen-con-new-marvel-comics-rpg-games-announced-by-margaret-weis-productions/ does say that original characters may be played so that's good. It also says that the rules are easily explainable so that's also good.

Let's hope this thing is good. Marvel fans deserve a good RPG after the last two stinkers.

Where's My Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game?

I know what you're thinking: 1LR has just spent the last two or three months telling me all about Marvel Roleplaying games! There have been THREE of them AND countless other board, card, and miniature games!

I hear you. But the world has been without a Marvel roleplaying game in print for far too long. I think it's high time that the Marvel Universe return to the world of roleplaying. Specifically, this post is calling for the continued publication of the Classic D100 system.

Let's look at the facts: The Marvel D100 system is STILL, over twenty years after its publication, wildly popular. Many people still play using this system. Well run dedicated fan sites are a testament to this fact. If the game was cleaned up and returned to print it would sell like gangbusters. And it would be so easy to do! Smooth the integration of all the rules and publish new stat sheets to reflect the characters are they are in today's comics - poof! Instant fortune!

I'm sure the logistics of this venture would require Marvel and Wizards of the Coast to work out some deal. It probably isn't likely. But that's never stopped me from making irrational demands before! A

A revival of the classic Marvel RPG would be good for all parties involved - the companies involved, the roleplaying industry as a whole, and the fans. Let's not over-complicate this thing - let's just make it happen. I want my Classic Marvel Super Hereos Roleplaying Gmae back in print. And I want it now.

Marvel Super Heroes D100 - Gaming Notes #4 (FINAL)

Recap: The X-Men are on the trail of Apocalypse, a powerful mutant who may be holding their missing teammates. Mr. Sinister gave them a tip that there was someone using his technologies in the Morlock tunnels who might be able to help them locate Apocalypse. After hours of fruitless searching, they open a door and see... a blue-furred Beast!

The Beast greets the heroes warmly, which is strange to the human-form Beast that has been adventuring with the X-Men. The Beast explains that he is from an alternate reality that was ruled by Apocalypse. He was thrown into this reality's past 20 years ago when his reality ceased to exist. He offers the X-Men a device capable of tracking Apocalypse in exchange for access to their scientific equipment.

The heroes, with this new Beast in tow, return to the X-Mansion to rest and heal. They hear the news that Avengers mansion was destroyed by the Masters of Evil and the Avengers have been badly hurt. Magneto calls from Muir Island and reminds them of the urgency of their mission - find the missing teammates!

Suddenly the Apocalypse detection device goes crazy... Apocalypse just appeared in Washington DC with his "four horsemen" and demanded the surrender of the President! The X-Men leap into action! When they arrive on the scene, they witness the destruction that has been wrought. They also notice Uatu, the Watcher, a cosmic level being who appears to record historically significant moments in time. The X-Men attack, only to realize that the four horsemen are their four missing teammates - Magma, Rogue, Angel, and Sunspot, all of whom are now controlled by Apocalypse!

In the combat, Longshot quickly goes down as does the Beast. Wolverine takes down Sunspot but makes a tactical error in attacking Apocalypse directly! It appears the X-Men will be easily defeated when a man with grey hair wearing body armor appears above the battle... Cable! He is badly injured and passes along this message, "The Scarlet Witch! She is the end of all mutants! No more mutants! You must stop her! She's too powerful to live!" Images of the horrible future (Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Decimation, Schism, Mutant Extinction) flash in the minds of all assembled - including Apocalypse. Apocalypse teleports away with his horsemen saying, "With the Scarlet Witch's power I could reshape the world in my image!"

The X-Men scramble to the New Jersey suburb where the Scarlet Witch and her husband the Vision live. The town is on flames - the Avengers are losing a pitched battle to defend the Scarlet Witch against Apocalypse (which is odd because the Avengers are still recovering from their mansion being destroyed...). Approaching, the X-Men are surprised when the Scarlet Witch blasts their plane out of the air!

The X-Men escape the burning vessel and rush into combat only to be stopped when the Scarlet Witch summons Magneto, Quicksilver, Crystal, and Wonder Man to defend her! They quickly engage in a three way battle -
On one side are the X-Men - Longshot, Colossus, Wolverine, and Beast.
On another side are Apocalypse and his three remaining horsemen - Rogue, Angel, and Magma!
On the final side are the Scarlet Witch's reality-warped puppets: Magneto, Quicksilver, Crystal, Wonder Man, Vision, and Agatha Harkness!

Apocalypse swiftly knocks Agatha Harkness down and Rogue steals Magneto's powers, putting Magneto out of commission. The Vision and Wonder Man quickly defeats Wonder Man's good friend, the Beast, and Magma puts Longshot out of commission. A battered Colossus is barely standing. Crystal and Angel exchange blows Quicksilver and Wonder Man pound on Wolverine with a flurry of blows, almost knocking him unconscious.

As a last ditch desperation grasp at victory, Wolverine goes into a berserker rage and beheads the Scarlet Witch! 

Instantly, the Avengers and her extended family are returned to their rightful places. Apocalypse, his prize stolen from him, says that the Scarlet Witch must not have been strong enough to survive and disappears, leaving his failed horsemen behind. The X-Men pick up their fallen comrades and head home. A dark future was averted but at what cost?

Marvel RPGs #11 - Summary

So, to summarize the entirety of the Marvel RPG experience, there have been three Marvel RPGs printed. Ranked in order of quality, they would be...

#1 - D100 "Classic" Marvel Super Heroes - The extensive amount of product that was released for this system combined with a simple and flexible rules system brings to life Superhero RPGs and the Marvel Universe like no other. Still beloved by fans today.
#2 - Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game ("Energy Stones") - Using resource allocation instead of dice, this game sold well but wasn't supported by Marvel and ultimately failed to impress fans.
#3 - Saga System (Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game) - Deeply flawed and rejected by fans, this card-based system caused fans to balk by the droves. Simply the least liked Marvel RPG.

The Marvel Universe remains an amazing place to roleplay. Since there are is no current system to turn to, I strongly suggest you check out the Marvel D100 roleplaying game. You can still get it cheap on ebay (or perhaps BitTorrent if you want an illegal download).

One has to wonder how the RPG scene has gone since 2004 without a Marvel RPG. Certainly this void shall be filled soon, considering that DC just released core rules using the Mutants and Masterminds engine.

But whatever the new RPG is, it had better be darn good (using the D100 system again would be a nice start!) or fans will stick with what they like - Classic Marvel Roleplaying.

Marvel RPGs #11 - Heroclix

While Heroclix aren't an RPG, they are an extremely awesome game unto themselves. Concerning RPGs, they make for fantastic miniatures.



What's neat about them is the variety that is available. There are hundreds of characters that have been Heroclixed. But even the same character has many different versions of themselves out there, all historically based in the Marvel Universe. Not to mention the THOUSANDS of Heroclix that are generic (thugs, cops, etc) and from other properties, making it easy to integrate, say, you favorite DC heroes into your Superhero RPG. How cool!

What's even cooler is that they have made a ton of larger Heroclix more or less to scale. Bringing out a giant Sentinel or Galactus is more impressive when it dwarfs all the other figures on the board.

So Heroclix have a totally awesome secondary purpose - supporting your RPG adventures.

Marvel Super Heroes D100 - Gaming Notes #3

Previously, on Marvel Super Heroes RPG - X-Men...
The heroes defeated the Marauders in downtown Omaha in search of Mr. Sinister's base so they can rescue the kidnapped baby, Nathan Summers.

Angry crowds gather around the street-clothed heroes and the villains they just defeated. Devastation surrounds them in the aftermath of the battle. Two cops are calling in reinforcements but the mob surges forward, chanting anti-mutant phrases. Rocks are thrown at the unconscious Marauders by a few irate rioters. The situation is quickly spiraling out of control until Wolverine steps forward and calms the crowd. The mob disperses with some interested onlookers lingering to see what will happen next.

Cyclops and Colossus enter the orphanage in search of Mr. Sinister's base, which they believe to be under the orphanage. Finding the orphanage empty, they go to the basement where they hear sniffles and children crying. The children are huddled together in the basement with the orphanage staff trying to sooth their fears as best as they can due to the loud, destructive fight that just occurred outside the orphanage. Cyclops tell them the danger has passed. One of Cyclops's old orphanage guardians from when he was a child at this orphanage recognizes him and agrees to let me look around the orphanage. Their search is fruitless - it turns up nothing.

Meanwhile, outside more police show up and rope off the crime scene. Freedom Force, the mutant government team, has been called to take the evil mutants into custody. Wolverine catches Marvel Girl saying as she calls Nathan "her baby," when, in reality, it's Madelyn Pryor's baby. He confronts her but she dodges the question. A blind lady in the crowd catch's the Beast's eye - it's Destiny from Freedom Force. She warns him, "Beware the red death. It's an end to all mutants. Stop the coming Apocalypse!"  then disappears back into the crowd. Knowing that the rest of Freedom Force can't be far behind, the X-Men redouble their efforts to find Sinister's base.

A search of the exterior of the orphanage and the sewer turn up nothing so in desperation, the X-Men have Jean Grey read the mind of one of the Marauders, Scalphunter. They discover that their is a dimensional portal nearby that is activated by a device the Marauders have. Jean lifts the device and they proceed to the nearby door.

Upon entering, they are transported to a long, dark corridor with a large, bright room at the end. "Welcome, my brothers!" Mr. Sinister greets them warmly. A force field prevents them from attacking Mr. Sinister and Dazzler, who is with him holding Nathan. Mr. Sinister and the obviously mind-controlled or possessed Dazzler explain their master plan to the X-Men: They had to have the Morlocks killed to weed the mutant gene pool of those unworthy. Sinister claims that the Morlocks were created by somebody else using his technology. He explains how he has manipulated Cyclop's, Jean's, and Madelyne's lives so that Nathan can be born - the mutant he hopes will grow to be capable of destroying the ancient, evil mutant - Apocalypse. He reveals that Apocalypse most likely has their missing teammates (Rogue, Sunspot, Magma, and Angel) and that he desires to rule the world. He doesn't know where Apocalypse is, but he is guessing that the one who stole his technology to create the Morlocks does. Sinister has Dazzler return Nathan to the X-Men saying, "I have what I needed," before disappearing.

Mr. Sinister's tesseract base starts collapsing and the X-Men struggle to get out. Uncharacteristically, Marvel Girl seems reluctant to save anyone except Nathan. Finally, she does but once outside Dazzler hands Nathan to Marvel Girl and both of them start walking away. The team pursues Marvel Girl and after Cyclops strikes her with an optic blast, she reverts back to her normal self. It seems Madelyne Pryor had taken over Jean's mind when Jean had made mental contact with the comatose Madelyne earlier. Freed from Madelyne's influence, a weakened Jean flies back to the X-Mansion with the rest of the X-Men. Jean stays behind with Nathan and Psylocke at the X-Mansion while the rest of the X-Men return to the Morlock tunnels in search of the one who can lead them to Apocalypse.

After ten hours of fruitless searching in the scorched-clean tunnels, Beast's "kit-bashed" radar device detects an energy signature. Opening the door, the X-Men discover in a room crowded with computers and lab equipment... A blue, furry Beast!?! How can this be? Is this another clone or imposter or something else? Find out next time...

Marvel RPGs #10 - "Energy Stones"

The is the third and final Marvel RPG. The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game was released in 2003 by Marvel, not a third party gaming developer. That was perhaps mistake number one.

Mistake number two was making this a diceless game. The last diceless Marvel RPG was not well received by the fans. This mechanic is almost WORSE. At least in the last Marvel RPG there was a random element - cards. In this RPG, there is no random element at all. It's resource allocation - putting colored "stones" into attack, defense, and energy categories (plus or minus situational modifiers). 

I'll give them credit - they weren't afraid to put out something completely different. They really tried to recreate the "feel" of a comic book - even using terms such as "panel" and "page" to define time. But the rules fail as a RPG on almost every level. 

The books themselves look nice (there were only ever three of them). They cram a lot into a slim book. Ultimately, however, this system is too flimsy to make for a fun RPG game. Compared to the D100 system, this RPG is a laughable imitator. 

Marvel RPGs #8 - D100 Online - The Best of the Rest

Here are some other noteworthy websites dedicated to the Marvel D100 system:

http://rivendell.fortunecity.com/battlespire/85/homepage.htm - The creators of this website must really know their superhero RPGs. They have listed conversion charts from most major superhero RPG systems into Marvel D100. Lots of other information is presented, including information originally available only from Dragon Magazine in the Marvel-Phile. Very well done.

http://webspace.webring.com/people/jt/the_black_condor/ - This website has a unique focus. It is purely devoted to charting the alternate realities in (and out) of the Marvel Multiverse. World write-ups and character stats are provided. So when the players, say, get their hands on Doctor Doom's Time Machine or travel to other realities, this website is there to help out the Judge in need!

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/heroicus/files/stats-2.html provides character write-ups and stats from dozens of non-Marvel properties, formatted for  the D100 system.

http://marvel.wikia.com/Main_Page The Marvel Database is always a useful tool for clarifying continuity or character questions.

So there you have it! A basic beginner's guide to Marvel D100 on the web! Let me know if you think I left out a noteworthy website dedicated to Classic Marvel RPG and I'll give it some love!

Marvel Super Heroes D100 - Gaming Notes #2

Continued from MSH D100 Gaming Notes #1...

Longshot, Beast, Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine are standing over the unconscious Madelyn Pryor, still absorbing her warning to, "Beware the Juggernaut!" when thundering footsteps issue forth from Scott and Madelyn's burning Alaskan home. The Juggernaut begins walking toward the Blackbird where Colossus awaits. Juggernaut throws a tree, obviously targeting the Blackbird. The X-Men and X-Factor spring into action. At first they try to attack the Juggernaut but after Wolverine gets easily knocked unconscious they change tactics to simply delaying him long enough so they can get out of there. Storm blinds him with a snowstorm and the X-Men board the Blackbird with Madelyn's unconscious body.

Juggernaut emerges from the burning building...

Longshot gets the "drag-out" on Madelyne Pryor.

The X-Men race to the Blackbird (storm flying on poker chips).

  They rush to a hospital where Madelyn and the injured Beast are admitted. The doctors inform Cyclops that his wife is in a coma but they may visit with her briefly. Marvel Girl contacts Madelyn telepathcially and discovers that it was the Dazzler, working with the Juggernaut, that took her baby, Nathan. This is puzzling since the Dazzler is normally a "good guy." Madelyn passes along the information she gleaned from Dazzler's mind about Mr. Sinister's home base in Omaha, Nebraska. Marvel Girl also accidentally learns all about Cyclops and Madelyn's private lives... much to her great disappointment. Cyclops had never told Marvel Girl that his new wife looked exactly like her. In a fit of rage, Marvel Girl lashes out at Cyclops and storms out of the hosptial.

The X-Men once again race off in the Blackbird, this time to Mr. Sinister's secret HQ under an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska. An orphanage that Cyclops grew up in! How odd...

The X-folks go in street clothes to the orphanage with Marvel Girl remaining on the Blackbird. They are jumped by the Marauders, the people responsible for the massacre of the Morlocks! Oddly, Ripcord is among their number even though Colossus had snapped his neck during the Mutant Massacre... A grand Melee breaks out! Citizens flee in terror as the two forces tear each other (and the city around them) to shreds. Storm conjurs a fog to hide most of the combat from the eyes of the citizens. The X-forces stand victorious, but not before Cyclops is knocked unconscious and Storm is badly injured.

What will the heroes do next? What is Sinister's master plan? To be continued...

Marvel RPGs #7 - D100 Online - Ben Riely's Marvel RPG Page

Ben Riely's Marvel RPG page is special to me for a number of reasons.

1) My son is named after Spider-Man's clone, Benjamin Reilly.

2) It is THE website to go to for up-to date Marvel D100 character write-ups.

3) I don't know where he gets dozens and dozens of these character icons or if he makes them but they're really cool:

I mean, seriously! Those things are SICK!

Benjamin Riely's Marvel RPG Page http://www.angelfire.com/comics/benriely/index.html is a bit of an oddity, actually. Ben comes across as being a bit young to have played the Marvel D100 RPG when it was originally released. He claims to have only played the Marvel D100 RPG twice with a friend that moved away! It must have made a big impact on him!

Ben's website literally updates character's stats and standings in real-time. For example: The Fantastic Four became The Fantastic Foundation so Ben came up with new profiles for all of the related characters to reflect this change. He keeps the old profiles on there. This was really helpful to me when I ran a Marvel Civil War era game. Since there was no officially produced character stats for, say, the Sentry or Ronin I went to Ben's website and found them. Ben's inexperience with the system shows sometimes. His "Cape Killer" stats, for example, were a little too overpowered to reflect the actual characters.

Still, Ben Riely's Marvel RPG Page is hands-down among the top Marvel D100 resource websites. Fantastic job, Ben!

Marvel Super Heroes D100 - Gaming Notes #1

My Marvel Super Heroes D100 campaign just started the other night. We have seven players in all playing characters from the X-Men and X-Force teams from 1986 - Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Longshot, Cyclops, Beast, and Marvel Girl. We're following Marvel continuity up to right before the Mutant Massacre. In the comics, Longshot doesn't join the X-Men until later, but because he joins, the Mutant Massacre goes much, much worse than it did in the comics. Basically, X-Factor, X-Men, and New Mutants are all severely injured/missing/killed except for the seven PCs and Psyloche.

Our adventure starts off after Thor scorches the tunnels clean - sealing the tunnel behind our heroes. X-Factor and X-Men characters bark at each other for awhile until Storm and Cyclops settle a temporary peace of sorts. The characters proceed down the tunnel until they run into some crocodiles! One of the dead Morlocks, Pied Piper, had controlled them but now they are scared and angry! The PCs quickly dispatch the crocs (learning how to play the system as they go - many players are new to MSH) and continue on their way.

Arriving at the X-Mansion somed hours later, the characters rest and relax, trying to heal up.

Wolverine goes to Cerebro but finds that it has been destroyed! He smells Sabretooth! In a rage, he hits the alarm, pops his claws, and leaps out the window following Sabretooth's scent! The X-Men leap to action, but not in time to help Wolverine as he struggles in one-on-one combat with Sabretooth! Defeated and wounded, Sabretooth leaps from the cliff into the ocean but not before delivering a message, "Mr. Sinister sends his regards!"

Sabretooth leaps over the cliff to escape Wolverine.

The X-Men catch up to Wolverine but cannot find Sabretooth. Wolverine passes along the cryptic message. Noone has ever heard of "Mr. Sinister." Databases reveal nothing and Cerebro is beyond repair. Magneto calls from Muir Island where the mutants severely injured in the Mutant Massacre are being cared for. He wants the X-Men in the field pronto to look for their missing comrades and to find the Marauders responsible for the slaughter.

Suddenly, a massive psychic cry for help hits Cyclops and Marvel Girl - it's coming from Alaska where Madelyn Pryor, Cyclop's estranged wife and child, live! "They're after Nathan!" the urgent message says. The X-Men rush to the Blackbird and are in Alaska within the hour.

Cyclop's house is an inferno and much of the woods have been leveled. Clearly a massive fight took place here! Colossus lands the plane a 1/4 of a mile away while Marvel Girl carries her teammates to the ground. They quickly find Madelyn Pryor on death's door. She weakly speaks telepathicly, "She took our son, Scott! A blonde woman dressed in white took our son! You must save him!" The X-Men are about to leap into action when they hear thundering footsteps coming out of the burning house. Madelyn warns, "Beware the Juggernaut!" and lapses into a coma...

To be continued...!!!

Marvel RPGs #5 - D100 Ultimate Powers Book

Perhaps the greatest book published for the Marvel Super Heroes (Classic Marvel D100) RPG is the Ultimate Powers book. This is an entire book with nothing in it buy descriptions of super powers. If any one book from the classic Marvel RPG transcends Marvel and the Marvel RPG itself it is this book. This book is still heralded as the most comprehensive listing of all superpowers.

Let's take teleportation as an example. Seems simple enough - disappear from one spot and reappear in another spot. Not so. You have various methods of teleportation. Do you travel through another dimension, is it a folding of reality, or do you create wormholes? There are also a variety of restrictions and potential limitations. Can you teleport others with you? Can you only teleport other objects? Can you take inorganic matter with you (your clothes, etc.)? Can  you teleport to other dimensions or time periods? How far can you teleport? Are there any signs that you teleported (light, sounds, smells, etc.)? How frequently can you teleport?

See how such a simple power can be made unique by fleshing it out completely. So while the Watcher, Cloak, and Nightcrawler all teleport it is complete different power for each of these.

Oddly, there were several powers accidentially left out of this book (nine to be exact). You can find the information at http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/ultimate-addenda.html (Classic Marvel Forever website). Elongation! They left out elongation!

Still, a FANTASTIC gaming resource for any superhero RPG and an ESSENTIAL book for the Marvel RPG.

Marvel RPGs #4 - D100 Cardboard Heroes

Most of the time, I an opposed to miniatures and being "on the grid" in RPGs. I think it slows down combat and makes it more unrealistic.

I think if you've GOT to use minis, why not use the cheapest ones possible? Why spend hundreds of dollars on paints and minis and waste all that time and effort? But that's just my preference.

The Classic Marvel RPG is "on the grid" and to play fully by the rules you must use minis. But it is very flexible and I actually like it! Instead of "five foot squares" the map is broken into "areas." Depending on the surroundings, areas can be large or smallIn a crowded building with hallways, doors, rooms, etc. areas will be quite small (ten feet or so). . In an open field, areas will be quite large (as big as 44 yards). This adds a great deal of flexibility to movement - you're simply moving through and to areas. Want to stop behind the corner of the building? No problem if it is in the area you are moving to.

But the best part are the miniatures.

 Every set came with tons of cardboard miniatures. These miniatures were three sided. Cut them out, fold each miniature, and glue them. Done! Instant miniatures!

What's really cool about these miniatures is they have a "front" and the three sides are the three different perspectives of the same character - rear, profile left, and profile front right. Instead of having a "facing forward" stance on all three sides, this was a very nice touch. You can see they had fun with it - the Invisible Woman is actually invisible in one angle and Mr. Fantastic is stretched across all three angles.

These miniatures were an extra added bonus with almost all of the boxed sets. I believe at this point I have all of them and there are literally hundreds - even very obscure characters. They also gave you miniatures of bystanders, common thugs, Hydra agents, generic shield agents, cops, crowds, scenery, etc. etc. etc.

Not having to spend any extra money to populate my game with dozens of cool miniatures? What a brilliant idea. Another great reason why the classic D100 Marvel system was so brilliant.

Preparing for Classic Marvel RPG

Soon my gaming group will be playing the classic Marvel D100 RPG. I'm going to be the Judge so I'm busy preparing.

I am very flexible as to the era in Marvel history and characters involved so I allowed my players to choose whatever they wanted. The group consensus was to play in the classic '80's mutant world.

Now, I'm not the biggest X-Men fan so it has taken me a considerable amount of research to rebuild the world of the X-Men during the 1980's. Thank God I have my Official Marvel Indexes, Official Marvel Handbooks, Marvel Sage, and Official Marvel Encyclopedias. Those, along with several online resources such as The Marvel Database, have been invaluable.

With the help of these resources, I settled on a time directly after the Mutant Massacre in 1986 for our campaign. One of the difficult things with the X-Men is how do you separate them from all of the other mutants - I thought the Mutant Massacre was a perfect jumping-on point.
I'm altering the history just a bit to make the Mutant Massacre more devastating. In MU continuity, the X-Men were really beat up with Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and others out of action afterwards. I'm expanding that to take out almost everyone except for the heroes selected by the players. Here's the team roster the players selected:

Bryan - Longshot
Brian - Colossus
Dave - Beast
Sam - Wolverine
Chris - Marvel Girl
Jessica (new to RPGs!) - Storm (?) This may change
Also along for the ride will by Cyclops, perhaps as an NPC.

While it is possible to recreate the world of the X-Men during 1986, it is more difficult to find out exactly what was going on with the rest of the Marvel Universe such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Avengers. Once again turning to my reference sources and online resources, I have recreated a "map" of what was going on in the Marvel Universe at large.

I'm pumped for this campaign! The MU is such a sandbox - it holds so many possibilities! We should be starting in about two weeks (for real this time) so look for updates on how it is going in the near future!

Marvel RPGS #3 - D100 Resolution System

Whether you're a fan of superhero RPGs or not, this table is something I feel that all roleplayers can appreciate. What this table represents is a simple percentile-based resolution system AND a basic combat rules summary. How great is that?




Now, you may not be able to make out the details on this chart so let me tell you what you're looking for.

Across the top of the page is a list of every combat maneuver you can make and it tells you what the color results mean. For example, for Blunt Attacks you use your fighting skill. A white result is a MISS, a green is a HIT, a yellow is a SLAM and a red is a STUN.

Now, the large chart tells  you how to find your results. To the left is a list of the percentages. Across the top is the skill, power, or attribute ranks from "Shift 0" to "Beyond." This represents the entire range of power from Aunt May to God himself. Say you have Amazing level fighting and you roll a 87 - find the place where the Amazing column intersects with the 87 row - it's yellow. At the top of the page this tells you than your result is a SLAM. Congratulations! Not only did you hit but you SLAMMED your opponent away from you, perhaps into a wall doing more damage! Awesome!

See? It's that simple!

What a fantastic system. I a shocked that Wizards hasn't using this system in any other RPG. Perhaps they can't due to their original agreement with Marvel or something. Who knows.

Marvel has tried various other RPGs over the years and, although they all take place in the same universe with the same characters none of been as popular at the classic D100 RPG. This chart is the reason why.

Marvel RPGs #2 - Classic D100 System overview

The very first and, in my humble opinion, best Marvel RPG ever was the D100 system. This game was called Marvel Super Heroes. It is now referenced as the "classic" Marvel RPG.



As you can see from this cover, this system was published by TSR. TSR took full advantage of its Marvel license putting out dozens of products that sold very well from 1984 into the early 90's. Eventually Marvel and TSR parted ways for whatever reason (probably Marvel wanting too much money for licensing rights - Marvel was going through a bankruptcy at the time).

While the core resolution is one of the best ever devised (it is simply and very flexible to fit all situations), one of the biggest drawback to this game is the increasing complexity the rule books went through. The old rule books were usually never revised or updated to reflect additional rules complications or clarifications. Originally, this game was released as a "basic" set in which players could basically just play their favorite heroes from the comics. Rules were very simply. When this proved to be popular, TSR released the Advanced Set - Kinda like a version 2.0. But where things get complicated is when you consider other sourcebooks that expand greatly one particular aspect of the core rules - say, super powers or magic. These "enhanced" advanced rules are not reflect in TSR published character write-ups or adventures, making things unnecessarily complicated at times. To add to this, like a lot of RPGs published in the 80's the rules aren't always as specific or clear as you would like them to be.

But, all nit-picking aside, this is a fabulous system and an extremely fun world to play in. I have been using this system for decades and I own an extensive amount of material for this system. TSR really did explore every aspect of the Marvel U - there are literally hundreds of comic book characters that had officially published character sheets sold for them. Some popular characters even had multiple different versions of the same character released (say, Spider-Man as a teen, Spider-Man with six arms, Spider-Man as an adult, etc.). What's better is that these sheets were perforated and three hole punched so you could store them in binders and organize them as you wished.

You can find a plethora of material available on Ebay and other online sources still to this day for very reasonable prices. If you're a fan of the Marvel Universe and like RPGs, I STRONGLY encourage you to purchase the core "advanced" rules for this game and give it a shot. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Cool Marvel Movie Swag

Marvel has produced some fabulous movies this summer. Usually, movie tie-in merchandise is cheese and is an obvious grab for the money. But this summer Marvel has released some outstanding toys.

First up, the Foam Thor Hammer for kids. It looks fantastic and is safe to beat your friends with. Win-Win! Every kid has a sword but a warhammer is something special indeed! For $11 how can you go wrong?

Next is the Captain America Flying Shield. Let's be honest - it's a Frisbee. BUT it's a Frisbee with a strap on the underside so a kid can strap it to his arm like Captain America does. How awesome is that? Plus, it is not flimsy at all - it's really durable! For $9 buy one for every kid in the family!

Marvel has already released a whole bunch of masks for their heroes (Cap, Spidey, Wolverine, and Iron Man - Thor has a helmet). This Iron Man mask is $8. The masks are well constructed with easily adjustable straps. It's funny how a kid instantly takes on the personality of the character when they wear the mask. Combined with some of the cool swag from above and you have an instant pint-sized Super Hero costume. What great, cheap (but durable) fun!

Way to go, Marvel!

What's Next - Classic Marvel Superheros D100

Eclipse Phase should be wrapping up in a week or two. Next, my gaming group is moving on to Classic Marvel Super Heroes D100 RPG! This is one of my favorite systems and worlds of all time. I can't wait!