Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #4206 - X-Men in 1992 - X-Traitor
I loved Chris Claremont's writing. When at Marvel doing my internship in 1985, he was always hanging around looking for someone to take him to lunch, usually X-Men then editor Ann Nocenti. But he was friends with Jo Duffy and so would often be hanging out in the Epic offices.
I had to tell him that Storm and Forge needed to get back together. :-) He didn't heed my desires.
I was not a huge fan of Claremont's departure in 1991, though I did like a lot of the artists who followed, especially Jim Lee.
However, X-Men lost my interest when they moved to Australia and started to have trouble following who all the foes were, where they came from, what they wanted.
But I did LOVE the introduction of Bishop, so kudos on that.
This is a quickie for COMIC BOOK SUNDAY because, busy.
Thanks for tuning in.
34 Years Ago, Marvel Comics Began the Biggest X-Story of the ‘90s
The X-Men became Marvel’s biggest team in the 1980s, writer Chris Claremont’s run with the group allowing them to step over the Avengers and the Fantastic Four (themselves having best of all-time runs). Soon, they were not only the bestselling group at Marvel but in the entire comic industry. Claremont revolutionized the team and its stories, keeping readers coming back with long-term story arcs that would build and build. He would leave the books for the first time in 1991, replaced by Jim Lee, Whilce Potracio, John Byrne, and Scott Lobdell. They would decide to take a page from Claremont’s book by introducing a long-term story arc that would set the industry on fire: the X-traitor plot.
It all began with the introduction of Bishop in Uncanny X-Men #282 (which I finally own; it’s gone way down in price since I was a teen). The mutant came from a dark future that was caused at some point by a traitor to the X-Men. This would be revealed in Uncanny X-Men #287 and it would set the comic industry on fire. The ’90s belonged to the X-Men; everyone was reading either Uncanny X-Men or X-Men (Vol. 2) and many were reading both. The story was huge, but the weaknesses of the ’90s X-Men books would see it fade away before finally being put to bed in the biggest X-Men story of the ’90s: “Onslaught”.
The X-Traitor Storyline Showed the Power of the X-Men Comics in 1992
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
I can’t impress upon you enough how ubiquitous the X-Men were in 1991 and 1992, even if you didn’t like superheroes. Comic books were way more common back then and the massive successes of X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 and Uncanny X-Men #281 led to them being in even more places. You could buy every cover of X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 at Wal-Mart, all Direct Market editions collected together in a plastic casing that kept them in near-mint condition, something that wasn’t common outside of comic stores. Spinner racks were at every store your parents took you to and they were always willing to buy you a comic (which were $1.50; we didn’t know how good we had it).
So, when Uncanny X-Men #287 dropped and showed this part of Bishop’s origin, it was big news for those of us who were of a certain age. Fans debated it in the letters column of Uncanny and X-Men, as well as in magazines like Wizard and Comic Buyers Guide. Many believed it was Gambit, since he was the only survivor and the energy signature that kills Jean Grey in the recording Bishop is shown could have been his. There was also the chance that it was Bishop himself. No one knew what was going to happen next and fans were rabid for more.
Then the exodus of the Image founders happened. It’s impossible to know if Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell, the two who wrote Uncanny #287, even came up with who it was but once Lee left, it was put on the back burner. “X-Cutioner’s Song” and “Fatal Attractions” would take all of the attention in 1992 and ’93, then 1994’s “The Phalanx Covenant” became the focus. 1995 was “Age of Apocalypse” and its aftermath, beginning the build-up to “Onslaught”.
X-Men: Onslaught #1 would finally close out the story. It was revealed that the traitor wasn’t Gambit or Bishop, but instead was Professor X. Xavier had mindwiped Magneto in “Fatal Attractions” and been tainted his darkness. The fusion of the two created Onslaught and he gave the X-Men an ultimatum – join him or die. They decided to fight and in the resulting battle saw the team got trounced, with Jean escaping to the mansion’s basement, trying to send a distress call from Xavier’s anti-telepathy sphere and creating the recording Bishop and readers had seen back in 1992. The entire thing felt anti-climactic and it exposed the problems with the X-Men’s writing in the ’90s – it was trying to remind you of the ’80s, but was missing the key ingredient of that decade: good writing and good editorial.
The X-Traitor Story Line Remains One of Marvel’s Biggest Missed Opportunities
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
I was 15 when “Onslaught” was coming out and had been following X-Men comics for four years, so I watched the whole X-Traitor storyline develop… or in its case not develop. It was dropped on readers at a time when everyone was still rabid for the team and set the fanbase’s tongues wagging everywhere they could. However, for whatever reason, it was dropped to the wayside for the rather mid “X-Cutioner’s Song”, which felt like a Band-Aid after the loss of Lee, Potracio, Silvestri, and, to a lesser extent, Liefeld. It would be years before it was just shoved into “Onslaught” and tangentially connected to “Fatal Attraction”.
Claremont did the same sort of thing, but there was a difference – he would keep dropping hints on readers, expanding on these kind of long-term ideas and mostly paid all of them off in an entertaining fashion. The X-office in the ’90s was constantly chasing the next big thing, so cool plots were often just dropped into books and then never revisited. I will always love ’90s X-Men comics – I’m spending a lot of money getting them back after losing all of my ’90s books – but they had a lot of problems, many of which came from learning the wrong lesson from Chris Claremont’s landmark run.
Do you remember the X-Traitor storyline? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2608.23 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 4070 days ago & DAD = 724 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #4205 - Marvel Multiverse RPG - Combat and Examples
I have been studying the Marvel RPG and tried to play a few months back. It did not go well. I need to play with people who have been playing and know how it all should roll (or role, as it were).
It's not that I do not understand the rules and the combat sequence. It was more about How Spider-Man could just beat the shit out of Storm while she could not touch him. That didn't seem right.
So here's some resources I gathered.
I like a lot of the game mechanic. I want to play!
Thanks for tuning in.
Combat in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game uses the d616 system (3d6), where players act on initiative, taking one easy, standard, and movement action per turn. Actions include melee/ranged attacks, dodging, or using powers, with a "Fantastic" success (rolling a Marvel symbol/1 on the middle die) dealing double damage. [1, 2]
Combat Example: Ghost-Spider vs. Vulture
1. Initiative (Setup)
Ghost-Spider (Player): Rolls a 13 +3 modifier (Total 16). She rolls a "Fantastic" result (a 6 and a Marvel symbol), allowing her to act in a "bonus round" before Vulture.
Vulture (Enemy): Rolls a 14 +1 modifier (Total 15).
Fantastic Success: When the Marvel die (middle die) is a 1, and the total beats the Target Number (TN), the attack is a fantastic success, often dealing double damage or allowing a knockback.
Damage Types: Health damage (physical) and Focus damage (mental/stamina).
Reactions: Players can use a reaction to "Interpose" (take a hit for an ally) or "Stalk" (move behind an ally).
Action Economy: A turn includes one Move, one Standard, and one Easy action (like activating a power). [2]
Combat is essential in the Marvel Multivers Role-Playing Game. This post will be part 1 of a series breaking combat down into simple steps. Here we will cover ways to play, timing, sequence of play, positioning, initiative, taking turns, delaying turns and reserving actions. In the next post we’ll go over standard actions, reactions, movement actions, falling, and dealing damage. In the final combat post we’ll go over weapons, healing, conditions, team maneuvers, and objects.
If you want to see more about how to play the game, start here. The best resource will always be the core rule book for the game so definitely check that out.
What are ways to play the Marvel multiverse Role-Playing Game?
Like most role playing games, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game involves a lot more than combat. There are always going to be conversations and actions revolving around the characters which don’t need to be adjudicated in any way. Going through a door? Well, if it’s unlocked, just open it. But, this is a super hero game we’re talking about. There is going to come a point in this game where conflicts become physical. This is the point when combat breaks out. When that happens there are rules to follow to make sure the game plays out fairly. But how you represent these rules can vary greatly. The book suggests several ways to play this game. If you have played Dungeons & Dragons you’ve probably played one of these ways.
Theater of the Mind
This method involves no extra setup. There are no maps or miniatures needed. The Narrator describes the situation, players describe what their characters do, and the scene plays out. Groups can and do use this method even for combat. However, for this game it can get tricky because there is no true way to measure what someone imagines in their own mind. This can be advantageous when playing online if you aren’t on a virtual tabletop.
Before combat breaks out I would say this is a perfectly valid method and the one you’ll use most often, even when using miniatures. But for this game in particular, I think having some form of physical representation of the combat is helpful whether that is online with a map on a screen or with miniatures on a physical map in person.
On a map
This is the opposite of theater of the mind. Here you rely on a map of some kind, usually with representations of characters, NPC’s and locations on the map. The neat thing about playing this way is there is a host of different kinds of maps to play on. You can use physical maps with grid lines. If you do, the core rule book gives you measurements to use for estimating distances and it even has rules for vertical movement. These can get a little tricky so we’ll go over those in a later post when we give some actual examples of combat.
You can also play on a physical map with miniatures and no grid. This feels a bit more realistic sometimes but there will be instances where you need to break out a ruler for measurement.
You can even just use a whiteboard or projector to put a tentative map on a screen and kind of estimate the action. There’s not a wrong way to use a map but do make sure whatever your group uses, the Narrator is consistent with the rules of how movement and actions work on that map.
On a virtual tabletop (VTT)
One of the most popular ways to play any TTRPG lately is on a virtual tabletop. There are several of these to choose from for Marvel’s role playing game. The most notable is Roll20. They have the core book, virtual character sheets, and all of the expansion books for the game. Of course, you will need to pay to access these materials. You could also just use Discord voice chat with your friends and play that way. Other VTT’s will probably support the game at some point but for now the main one is Roll20. If you live a long distance from your friends, or any of you have reasons you have to play from home rather than in a group, Roll20 can be a great option. Just be aware if you buy the physical books, you’ll still have to buy the VTT books on Roll20 to play the official version. You can, however, access the basic rules there for free.
Timing
When combat does break out, it is important to keep track of timing. The game tracks this through a series of rounds and turns. Each person in the fight has five seconds per round (in game time, not real time) to do something. There are some rules in the game which affect this timing based on things like powers or locations but in general, each person in the fight has five seconds of action time. Then the round starts again and each person gets another turn until the combat completes. Characters and NPCs can also sometimes take reactions but we’ll go over those in a future post. If you have ever played Dungeons & Dragons this system will feel quite familiar. Even if you have played a turn based RPG video game, you’ll likely catch on quickly.
Sequence of play
One of the things I find most helpful when combat breaks out in this game is to refer to the 6 steps of the sequence of play listed in the book. They are as follows.
Determine positions.
Roll initiative checks to determine the initiative order.
Start a new round.
Each character takes their turn in initiative order.
If any combatants are still able and want to fight, go back up to step 3.
Otherwise, the combat ends.
Once you reach step 6, the game usually goes back to more of a theater of mind state where characters can act a bit more freely.
Determine positions
Before getting into the thrill of the fight, you have to figure out where everyone is. In theater of the mind, this is more of a description where you’ll tell the Narrator about where your character is. If you’re using a map, you’ll put a marker of some kind (miniature or token or whatever) to signify the space your character is in. The Narrator will need to do the same for any NPCs involved in the combat. Before the fight starts, make sure everyone is in agreement about where the characters are but remember the Narrator has the final decision here.
Line of sight
Line of sight is what it sounds like. Can your character see a target in combat? Sometimes this is obvious like if you are having a fight out in an open field on a clear day. According to the core rules anything within 200 spaces is considered in line of sight. But, if there’s bad weather, it’s late at night, there are obstructions in the way, etc. this could be reduced by the narrator. If it’s not clear if the character has line of sight, the Narrator will call for a Vigilance check against a Target Number the Narrator assigns.
One thing to remember is, even though your character can see something, that doesn’t mean they are in reach to attack it. We can see the Hulk coming at us from a long way off but you might not be close enough to punch or even shoot him with an energy blast at 200 spaces.
Characters also block line of sight for other characters. Although, if The Punisher is on the ground and Ant-Man is in front of him in ant form, that’s not going to block Punisher’s line of sight. And if we add Storm to the mix and she’s flying, she probably has better line of sight than anyone on the ground. It will vary based on your character’s powers and position.
Characters may have Trouble against a target who has cover but can still be seen. This works the opposite way as well, so if you need to, make sure your character finds their own cover!
Earshot
This is similar to line of sight. Can your character hear what someone is saying? That’s going to be easier in a quiet library than it will in a wind tunnel. It’s also easier to hear the Hulk than it is to hear a shrunken Ant-Man. Anytime it’s unclear if a character is within earshot, the Narrator will have you make a Vigilance check against a Target Number.
I don’t find earshot to come up a lot but it might depend on the character you play. Daredevil has pretty good hearing compared to everyone else. But that will be impacted by sudden loud sounds right next to his ears. Unless you are playing a character like Daredevil, this won’t come up a ton.
Range
There are powers in the game that have a range. The power should list this for you and it will be on your character sheet once you have filled it out. Attacks within the range are normal, you just roll the check like you do for any other attack. If you are trying to hit something up to double this range you have Trouble when making the check. Anything beyond double range is impossible.
I sometimes find ranges a little tricky (not just in this game either), so I am going to quote an example directly from the book, found on page 27.
“For example, if the range is 20 spaces, attacks at targets within 20 spaces are treated normally. From 21 to 40 spaces, they have trouble. Beyond that, the attack can’t be made.”
Once you’ve done this a few times in your game, you’ll catch on.
Initiative
Once you have everyone in position, and you know where the lines of sight and earshot are, it’s time to figure out who takes what turn. To do this, the players will roll an initiative check. You roll your d616 and then add your Initiative Modifier. This should be on your character sheet.
Players roll for their characters but Narrators roll for the NPCs. The book suggests if there is a large group of identical combatants, the Narrator can make a single roll for the group and have each member in that group act on the same initiative number in whatever order the Narrator wants. This is beneficial and saves time but if there is an overwhelming number of NPC combatants, it can lead to a long turn for the Narrator.
Once the players and Narrator have made their initiative checks, the Narrator puts them all in order from highest initiative to lowest.
But what about ties? Here’s where it can get a little complicated. For a tie, if one of the combatants got a Fantastic result, they go first. If neither or both got a Fantastic result, the combatant with the highest Initiative Modifier goes first. If those are tied and it’s between a player and an NPC, the player wins. However, if the tie is between players, they can decide how to break the tie (often times this just means talking to one another about what makes the most sense) or they can roll off and whoever gets the highest result goes first between the two.
Bonus round
If you get a Fantastic result on your initiative check, you get to participate in the sweet, sweet bonus round! Players and NPCs in this round basically get to take a turn before everyone else who did not get a Fantastic result. It’s hugely to your advantage as a player to have high initiative with a Fantastic result because there is a good chance you’ll be able to land the first blow. But on the other hand, if NPCs end up with high initiative, they’ll get to get a jab in first. Narrators, don’t forget to check this as this is something that can be easily missed when combat starts.
Surprise
There are circumstances where someone in a combat can be surprised. This will be determined by the Narrator. An obvious example is when someone is invisible. Those characters are going to surprise a combatant in most situations. When this happens to a character, they are surprised. In this instance the character has Trouble on their initiative check if it is before the combat begins. Think sneaking up on someone. This can either be the players or the NPCs. Anyone who is surprised can’t participate in the bonus round.
When a character is surprised later in combat, the character who causes the surprise gets an Edge on their next attack. Characters like the Invisible Woman can do this often to great effect and sometimes turn a combat around just through this element of surprise.
Taking turns
Once the initiative order is figured out and we know who is surprised and who is in the bonus round, it’s finally time to take turns. What can you do on a turn? In general there will be two types of actions which can be done. A standard action and a movement action. Characters can perform their standard action first (often this is an attack), their movement first, or they can do some movement, make the standard action, and then continue with their movement. As a player in TTRPGs one of my weaknesses is forgetting to complete my movement so make sure you pay close attention to how much movement you have used.
We’ll go more in depth into standard and movement actions in the next post.
Your character doesn’t have to take an action at all if you don’t want them to. Not usually recommended in a fight though. And there are other things your character can usually do that may not be considered a standard action. Like speaking or reading a sign or maybe pulling on your mask real quick. The Narrator will tell you if what you are trying to do requires a standard action. Anything that requires an Action Check would be considered an action.
Reactions
Each round of combat, characters also get a reaction. This doesn’t have to happen in initiative order but it is usually a response to a trigger of some kind. Once the reaction finishes, the round goes back to initiative order and the character has no more reactions until the next round. A character’s reaction can interrupt another character’s reaction. This can get a bit fuzzy so the Narrator needs to keep close track of things when this happens.
Delaying turns
There can be some instances where you want to wait to act. There are two basic ways to do this, holding a turn, or reserving an action.
Holding a turn
To hold a turn, a player voluntarily reduces their initiative check number. The player can either state what the new number is immediately, or they can leave it secret until they decide to take their turn. Narrators may have rules against this so make sure they are on board here. A held turn can’t interrupt a character’s turn. Once the held turn happens, the character’s initiative becomes the new, reduced number. If you hold for a full round and end up going before you would have with your original initiative check, your new initiative may be higher than it was originally. Either way, the new number is your initiative for the remainder of the combat. You won’t be able to take two turns in a round, no matter how you hold your action. And you don’t get the time back from holding. If two characters are holding and want to act at the same time, the one who started holding first goes first.
Reserving actions
Rather than holding a turn, a player can reserve an action. To do this you’ll typically use a standard action your character could perform but as a reaction when some event happens. The example given in the book is Captain America hiding in a corner out of sight, and waiting to punch the next Hydra agent who comes around the corner.
When this gets really tricky is when there are multiple characters reserving actions. For this, a new initiative order is rolled, but only for this sequence of actions. There’s no bonus round here and after the reactions are complete, the initial initiative order resumes.
In Conclusion
Combat is a huge part of this game. It can often take up the bulk of play since heroes and villains do have a tendency to fight. I tried to break this down into understandable components but you can find the full rules for combat in Chapter 4 pages 25 – 42 in the core rule book.
In many TTRPGs combat is one of the most complex parts of the game. In Dungeons & Dragons it’s roughly a third of the rule book. Once you play a few times, you and your group will get a hang of the flow of the action and it will soon feel natural. You’ll still need to check rules on occasion but you’ll learn something each time you do.
There are more rules to combat to understand. My next two posts in this series will continue with combat but after that we’ll create a character.
Thanks for reading and if you want to grab a hold of the character sheet, you can download it for free right here!
Marvel Multivers Role-Playing Game character profiles are essential to understand if you want to play the game. In this post, we’ll go over what they are, how to use them and why they are so important. If you want to follow along, you can download a character sheet for free right here.
If you want to see more about how to play the game, start here.
(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)
What are Marvel multiverse Role-Playing Game Character Sheets?
Put simply, these are character sheets. They are the basic foundation for most role playing games. And while these are similar in many ways to other TTRPG character sheets, Marvel has added some unique features. We’ll go through the basics, focusing on each section and highlighting the most essential parts.
Character Data
This section is self explanatory for the most part. Here is where you can choose your character’s codename, real name, height, weight, gender, eyes, hair, size, distinguishing features, teams, base, origin, occupation, history and personality.
Identity and Notes sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
If you are using a currently existing Marvel character, obviously a lot of this will be chosen for you. But if you are creating your own character, these are up to you. There are a few that do have some mechanical effects such as size and origin but we’ll get to those in a bit.
Rank
You can think of rank in terms of levels for Dungeons & Dragons or even video games. Rank is based on power and training. Even with the utmost training, Spider-Man will never achieve the power level of Galactus. In this game, there are six ranks you can choose from, each expanding in power. It can be fun to play at any rank but there’s definitely a bit more math involved in the highest ranks. If you play an existing character from the Core rulebook, their character profile will tell you what rank they are. If you make your own character, you’ll need to decide what rank you want to play.
Codename and Rank sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Ability Scores
Most TTRPG’s have some kind of ability scores and the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is no exception. One of the things I love about this system is they made it easy to remember by spelling out the word Marvel to create the scores. You’ll use these scores when making checks in the game. Your character will be better at some of these than others. I’ll dive much further into these in a future post when I create a character but for now here’s the breakdown of the abilities.
Melee – This is for how well you hit or throw. On the defense side, it’s for how well you take a punch. Hulk is good at this.
Agility – This is for attacking at range, dodging and things like running. Spider-man and Daredevil are good at this.
Resilience – This is basically how tough you are and it helps to calculate your health. The Thing is good at this.
Vigilance – This is for situational awareness. It also affects your initiative modifier. Professor X is good at this.
Ego – This is what in D&D terms you might call charisma. It’s how much force of personality a character has and it can affect how intimidating a character is. It also affects psychic and magical powers if your character uses those. Dr. Strange is good at this.
Logic – This is basically your character’s intelligence. Mr. Fantastic is, well, fantastic at this.
Once you have your ability scores, you’ll be able to make ability checks. We’ll get more into this in the future but it’s safe to say the higher your score in an ability, the more likely you are to do well on a check using that score. I won’t go into the calculations here because we’ll do them in a future post where you can see how these calculations are adjusted as things like power sets are added.
Ability score section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Health
This one is pretty easy to figure out. Health is how healthy your character is. This is calculated by taking Resilience and multiplying it by 30. If you somehow have a Resilience of less than 1, you still get a minimum of 10 health. We’ll go over damage reduction in a future post when we go over combat.
Health section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Focus
This is for how well a character can concentrate. It’s also affected by psychic attacks. To calculate focus, multiply Vigilance by 30. And, just as with health, the minimum is 10 even if your character has a Vigilance score of less than 1.
Focus section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Karma
Karma is one of the more unique things in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing game. It’s basically a system that represents those clutch moments where everything seems to be going wrong for a hero but in an instant where the universe comes together, something happens to change the outcome to one more favorable to the hero.
Each character starts with Karma equal to their rank. Rank 1 heroes have 1 point of Karma, Rank 2 have 2 etc.
Mechanically Karma can be used in a few ways. A character can use a point of Karma to give themselves an Edge, give an enemy Trouble, recover Health or Focus, or even to help a teammate recover. You can’t spend more than one point of Karma on any check.
Karma points also regenerate up to the hero’s rank after a good night’s sleep. Narrators can also give out extra Karma points to players who do things like committing heroic acts, role playing their character well, or saying their catchphrase at just the right time. This is at Narrator discretion so it’s not guaranteed. If you have more Karma than your rank and don’t use it before going to sleep for the night, your excess Karma will disappear but you will regain your regular amount of Karma. In other words, it’s good to use Karma when you have it.
There is one restriction here, only characters with the Heroic tag can have Karma points.
If there was one thing I might want to change about this game, it’s that restriction but I won’t go too far into it here. Let’s just say, I can see instances and campaigns where characters without that tag might be able to use it.
Initiative Modifier
This is what helps determine when you get to act in combat. This is equal to the character’s Vigilance but can be increased if a character has an E next to it on their character sheet. For example, Quicksilver has Vigilance 4 but his Initiative modifier is +4E, meaning he has an Edge when it comes to initiative. This makes sense considering he has super human speed.
Speed
This is what it sounds like. It’s how fast your character can move. They have a run, climb, jump, and swim speed. If they can’t swim their speed for swim would be 0. This is affected by the character’s Agility and Size. We’ll get into those adjustments further when we make a character in a later post. If you’re wondering about flight speed for characters who can fly, this will come from the powers the characters have. I’ll do a whole separate post about powers and power sets in the future where we talk about that.
Karma, Speed and Initiative Modifier sections for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Damage
Damage is how much damage your character does in combat but the calculation does get just a little tricky here. Remembering that we use the d616 system where the middle die is the Marvel die, you take the result of the Marvel die on your attack role and multiply it by your rank. This can be affected by powers however, so we’ll get into that in a future post.
Damage section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Size
Just a quick note about size. Basically, mechanically speaking the larger your character is, the faster your character moves but your character is an easier target to hit. The opposite is true for small characters. There are some characters who can change size and this comes into play most often in combat situations.
Power Sets and Powers
This section deserves it’s own post so I won’t go into them here. But the power sets and powers are what makes your hero into a superhero.
Powers section for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game character sheet
Backstory
This is one of the most fun parts of character creation where you get to figure out who your character is and what they are all about. There are some narrative things here and some mechanical things so it can get a bit messy. I’ll just highlight a few things here but I’ll have another post where we go into much further detail on backstories.
Origin – This is how your hero gained powers. It can be through training, a mutation, from high tech or a few other ways. For now, just think of it as how your character got their cool powers, whatever way that might be.
Occupation – This is what your character does for a living. This is as varied as you want as you can be a hero with any kind of a job just like you can be a person with any kind of a job.
Traits – These have a mechanical effect in the game and you typically get them from things like your origin and occupation. Some can be taken by anyone and others are restricted to characters who match certain criteria. How many traits you can have is restricted by your rank.
Tags – Characters can have any number of these and they don’t have a mechanical effect. But they do tell you more about who your character is.
Why are Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Character Sheets so Important?
In order to play the game, you’ll need to understand who your character is. Even if you are playing a familiar character and you know everything there is to know about that character from the comics, you’ll come upon situations where the character sheet is useful. It’s also a handy guide for knowing what math to do when it’s necessary for making checks and performing combat. The good news is, these character sheets are fairly readable as far as these things go. While there are still a few sections on the character sheet I didn’t go over in this post, we’ll talk about those in future posts.
In Conclusion
While understanding the character sheet is critically important, there are a lot more things to know about the game. Some of what is on these sheets makes more sense once you are playing. To get the best sense of how to use these sheets, in a later post I’ll create a character which can be used in a game.
For now, there are more rules to understand. My next post in this series will be an explanation of one of the vital aspects of the game – combat.
Thanks for reading and once again, if you want to grab ahold of the character sheet, you can download it for free right here!
Hello Marvel fans and tabletop gamers! I have with me the Core Rulebook for the new TTRPG Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game. I wanted to take a quick look at chapter one of the book. We’ll be going through chapter by chapter on this blog so if you want to, follow along. Some chapters I will take a much deeper look at than others but my goal here is to give you the basic information of what you need to know if you are considering playing this game. When the first adventure for the game comes out, I’ll review that as well.
(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)
Chapter 1 – How to Play
Coming in at just five pages, this is one of the shortest chapters in the whole book. There is still plenty of information in the chapter but how relevant it is to you is going to depend on how experienced a TTRPG player you are. If you are an experienced player, most of this chapter is going to sound familiar and a lot of it can simply be skipped. If you are brand new to TTRPG’s you’ll definitely want to read the chapter but, to be honest, there are better sources out there that summarize what a TTRPG is and what is expected in that type of setting.
The essential things to know in the chapter are what you need to play, the ways to make your table a safe setting for everyone, and the house rules section.
All you need to play is the book, a group of friends, a set of 6 sided dice, character sheets and something to write with. It’s a pretty standard list for most TTRPG’s and it’s not too hard to come up with the materials so entry into this game is pretty easy.
The section about using safety tools for your TTRPG’s has some good advice in it which applies to basically all role playing games. What it gets down to is making sure everyone is on the same page with what kind of game you want to play, being considerate of everyone at the table, and making sure you have ways to make the game friendly and fun for all involved.
One thing they do recommend, and I strongly agree with, is having a session zero. If you’re not familiar with this concept, think of it as a session where you meet with your players to go over any ground rules, make characters, decide on what kind of game they are looking to play and making sure you as the Narrator don’t cross any lines that would make the game a traumatic experience for anyone.
There is also a list of recommended safety tools which are all very helpful. For a superhero game, these may be a little less necessary than in something like a dark horror game, but they are always good to have.
The book mentions that there are an infinite number of universes in the Marvel multiverse so your game is playing in your own unique version of that idea.
Finally, the chapter lets Narrators know they are free to change rules as they see fit at their table. This is also fairly standard in most TTRPG’s but it’s always nice to see the official rulebook acknowledge that players can make the game into their own, with the permission of the publisher. I’m sure there will be plenty of rules I’ll be homebrewing in the course of my game but I do try to stick to rules as written when I can.
In Conclusion
There’s really not a lot to go over in this chapter. If you are experienced with TTRPG’s feel free to sail right past this one. If this is your first game, read it but just remember this is a pretty short resource to get you started. In fact, some of the safety tools mentioned in this chapter have a larger, and in some cases better, breakdown of what a TTRPG really is and how to make sure everyone has a good time.
Next time, we’ll also be looking at a short chapter but there will be a lot more of a breakdown as we get into the core mechanics. In the meantime, if you are interested enough to buy the book, check out how to do that below. Otherwise, see you next time!
If you have read enough to realize this is a game you want to try out there are a few things you can do to get it. The different methods have some pros and cons so I’ll go into that a bit as well.
And, I’m not trying to make the hard sell here but if you want to help out this blog, buying through the links below goes a long way and it won’t cost you any extra.
You can pick up a copy at your local friendly gaming store. The books should run around $50-60 bucks and not only do you get to support a local business, you get to walk away with a copy in your hot little hands that day, no muss, no fuss.
You can buy a hardcover copy on Amazon for $53.99. This is a great way to get the core book, although it does come with a hefty price tag and of course you will need to wait for it to be shipped to you. If you want to help this blog out buy your copy here.
You can get a copy for Roll20 for $49.99 on drivethrurpg. However, a couple of warnings here. First off, you’re not getting a physical version of the book this way. Also, you need to have an account on the Roll20 Virtual Table Top in order to access the content. (This is a free account and there’s a link in the purchase description on the Drivethrurpg site if you don’t already have one) Finally, and this is my biggest complaint about this purchase method, if you buy this through Drivethrurpg you are not getting a PDF of the book. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get a PDF of this book at this point. If you do want to buy this version and use it on Roll20 it’s a great option. And if you want to help this blog out you can buy your copy here.
If you happen to have Marvel Unlimited, you can get the test version of the book by typing in Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Playtest Rulebook. This will be an earlier edition and some of the rules have changed but it’s got the basics.
If you don’t have Marvel Unlimited and you are willing to shell out $10 to get the Playtest book, you can get it on Amazon. If you want to help out this blog buy it here. Again, it’s not the full current book but it does cover the basics and it gets you started at a much lower price point.
Special Bundles
If you are all in on the game and have cash to spare you could really go all out in a couple of ways.
If you are already big time into Roll20 anyway, the best value through drivethrurpg is to get the Marvel Multiverse RPG Roll20 Mega Bundle. This will give you the core rulebook, a short module made for the Roll20 system called Revenge of the Super-Skrull, and the preoder for The Cataclysm of Kang. Just remember this is only for Roll20 and does not include PDF’s. To help out this blog, buy it here.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2608.22 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 4069 days ago & DAD = 723 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
