The Marvel Multiverse game feels out of step with modern tabletop RPGs

Why do we enjoy superhero stories? This question kept nagging me while I read through an early preview of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. Is it an aspirational fondness? Do we study their fictional lives so that we might better model our own on their exploits? Or is it instead a devotional kind of admiration for a more perfect humanity? The new playtest document spends more than 120 pages scaffolding rules and minutiae for a system that ultimately feels like a third option: Reading comics in order to choose the best action figures for a display case. The game’s characters feel static, unmoving and sterile, and the game too heavily focuses on fan service and gimmicks.

This new game was created by Matt Forbeck ,, a New York Times bestseller who co-designed the system with Mike Caps, John Nee and John Nee. This is far from being the first time. The granddaddy of RPGs, TSR, began the tradition with 1984’s Marvel Super Heroes and followed it up with Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game in 1998. Marvel took matters back into its own hands by directly publishing Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game in 2003, while Margaret Weis Productions managed to license Marvel Heroic Roleplaying in 2012.

Image: Marvel Worldwide/Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Multiverse RPG‘s predecessors took different tacks when translating the high-action and often pulpy nature of comic stories to the tabletop — in one case using a deck of cards instead of dice – but none managed to capture a long-running audience. Despite Marvel’s near chokehold on popular culture, Forbeck and his team have not been guaranteed success. The current RPG scene boasts plenty of systems facilitating caped crusaders — Masks: A New Generation or Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game are two recent standouts — which have succeeded alongside dedicated communities keeping old workhorses such as Mutants and Masterminds thriving.

Marvel Multiverse RPG is a decidedly mainstream game, from its presentation to its mechanical bones. Anyone familiar with Dungeons & Dragons will immediately recognize the structure, a familiarity that feels intentional. Any game angling for mainstream success in this moment wants to appeal to the massive contingent of players hooked on 20-sided dice. You can see who the game is trying to court by looking at its information-dense character sheet, which has all of the lines and boxes in a tightly structured format.

After a fairly solid introductory chapter that explains RPGs and how they’re played, the book starts making a lot of weird assumptions. Although a section about safety rules emphasizes the need for establishing baseline expectations in a session zero, it doesn’t provide any details on specific tools that players have to enforce those boundaries. There’s a lot of “players should feel free to express” talk that seems to leave the onus on individuals to voice discomfort, which runs against the whole point of modern safety tools.

Game masters, called Narrators in this system, will feel equally left out because the playtest rulebook explicitly hopes they are “a seasoned role-player who has rolled lots of dice before.” One short, introductory adventure is included, and it’s more of a glorified combat tutorial. Crafting any scenarios beyond that will be done sans guidance from the rules, tips on creating enemies and their stat blocks, or much of anything else. The future versions of the rules will provide resources for aspiring Narrators, and help expand the list of punchable villains beyond just a few Hydra grunts.

One of the more advertised mechanics in Marvel Multiverse RPG is the d616 system, a cheeky reference to the comics’ setting on Earth-616. Players roll three six-sided dice anytime an action flirts with danger or conflict, checking the results against a target number to determine success or failure. The differently-colored Marvel Die grants access to “fantastic” results and other bonuses when it lands on the Marvel brand’s logo, which replaces the one-pip face. That resulting one also counts as a six, except when the other two dice also show ones because that’s a dreaded botched roll. A botched roll is not something you want.

Image: Marvel Worldwide/Marvel Entertainment

If you are confused about what ought to be an easy system, don’t worry. Fans may be irritated by this joking gesture, but it can also confuse the one lever that the player uses to attack, defend and access their superpowers. The beauty of critical hits and failures on the 20-sided die is the immediate clarity of the roll. If players are forced to consider whether the collection of numbers and others is good or bad, it’s difficult to create tension.

To the game’s benefit, its rank system shows real promise. The rank system works exactly like traditional RPG character levels. It grants access to more advanced traits and powers until the squad has completed some missions. They do a double-duty by framing character’s growth over the course of a campaign. Players can choose to start anywhere on the rank ladder’s 25 rungs, establishing their heroes as fresh-faced newcomers or someone who has crushed a Sentinel or two. A group can set a limit on their growth and restrict the group’s adventures to Hell’s Kitchen, or other far-flung reaches. This limit is always adjustable, increasing the risk and adding to the intrigue.

The back half of the playtest document details an already impressive list of powers for souping up your supes. Grouped by origin, they create a progressive structure meant to be unlocked over time — this imitates a fledgling hero’s gradual mastery of their own abilities and acumen. The exercise is a little too hypothetical, as the current material only scratches the surface of the world these heroes will protect. Players can create their own Avenger or Spider-Person, complete with an origin and backstory, but how does that inform their actions?

There are guidelines that explain the damage threshold, who can pick up vehicles and what speed is lost each turn when gliding.

Superhero stories are melodramas, narratives of heightened emotions, loud declarations and desperate actions. In a universe as vast as Marvel’s, these heroes are constantly at odds, confronting, supporting, and confiding in each other. Their actions sometimes have dire consequences, encapsulated in Uncle Ben’s well-heeled adage about power and responsibility. The current version of the game doesn’t reflect a world where the collective efforts of the few push back on evil’s machinations. The game barely holds characters responsible for their actions. Heroes can attack any victim and “hold back”. The game’s moral loophole could be expanded upon in full, however the current information misunderstands what makes these stories work.

I’d love to see Marvel Multiverse RPG build the sort of toolbox that empowers players to craft their own Into the Spider-Verse, Logan, or Immortal Hulk — the kinds of stories that delve into a well-known mask searching for the person who wears it. Roleplay shouldn’t be limited to reenacting stories using action figures. This game should allow us all to discover the superheroes we admire and to reach for greater heights.

Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Playtest Rulebook will be available at retail starting April 20. Marvel Entertainment provided a copy of the pre-release version for review. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.