The new Marvel RPG, Or: Why Jared's Games Have a Shot Now :)

[b_bankhead]

The Marvel rpg excites me not just because it's design parameters sound like something out of my RPG wishlist (rules lite,flexible,limited bookkeeping, and a resolution and time/action control mechanics that actually reflect the genre (karma and panels).

  But the MURPG excites me because Marvel is attempting to do something that I have been preaching since I realised just what Rien-Hagen really did when he created Vampire, that is create a whole new rpg market derived from people who arent the typical hobby shop denizen.

 Marvel is trying to create a NEW MARKET too.  They have correctly decided that 90% of the hobby shop based rpg crowd will never look up from D&D long enough to see if this game is any good anyway, certainly not enough to prevent it from becoming a niche (Marvel superhero gamers),of a niche (superhero gamers) of a niche (rpgs).

  They are targeting the comics readers who arent rpg gamers which is quite a lot. And they are doing it with a game that is designed to give them what they like and to be easy to pick up rather that an accountant's nightmare like Hero games or D&D have evolved into.

 And Marvel has a hundred times the capacity to create a new market than Rien-Hagen did.  They are already international distributed publishers, they can thumb their nose at the politics of the rpg distribution networks. , they have a product built around some of the most recognizable pop culture icons in the world.

In short they have the chance to create a totallyn ew rpg world. A totally new community, which isn't hopelyssly attached to old ways of doing things,that wont be thrown off by an rpg without dice because they dont know rpg's are 'supposed' to have dice.

 I'm stoked, this could actually return me to the ranks of rpg gamer with it potential to break the stranglehold of 'anything you like so long as it's D&D' in my area. And who knows if I decide that the Marvel resolution mechanic is better for simulating comix ,I may start to wonder whats so great about dice in espionage games,space games,fantasy games.... see how dangerous new ideas are, it already has me reconsidering 25 years of gaming habits....

[Jonathan Walton]

Did some emailing with the head of Q.E.D. today.  Thought I'd share:

Jonathan Walton wrote:

> Hey Q.E.D.,
>
> Just heard about the new Marvel Universe RPG when someone posted the
> announcement about it to the Nobilis mailing list.  All I can say is "I'm
> stunned."  First, that you convinced Marvel to do what it should have done
> in the first place, i.e. publish its own roleplaying game.  Secondly, that
> you convinced them to go out on a limb with a system that was both diceless
> and potentially GM-less.  And, thirdly, that you're using a
> resource-distribution-based system, which (aside from Nobilis) has only
> really been used in the indie-RPG community.  Amazing.
>
> If the final product goes anywhere near fulfilling the hype surrounding
> this project, it will be nothing less than a gaming milestone, in no
> uncertain terms.  I hope you guys are up to the task, because it's a tough
> one, and I would really love to see you succeed with flying colors.
>
> Good luck.
> Jonathan Walton
> http://100flowers.indie-rpgs.com


Dear Jonathan:

We weren't scared until we read your email.

"Out on a limb" huh?

The funny thing is, the deeper we got into the system, the more organic to
the Marvel Universe it really felt. So as long as we (and by we I mean
everyone who's played it so far) aren't all sharing the same consensual
hallucination, then it's really not hype, and the game really is what we
think it is.

Of course, indie gamers like yourself will be the true judge on a scale
that's kind of important to us.

You see, while some of us at QED have played pretty much every game ever
published (although we have to admit to drawing a blank on Nobilis), others
of us, like Jeff, the president, have never enjoyed the "pre-packaged"
stuff. He played in 3 or 4 indie campaigns, and ran two of his own creations
for years.

Dan, who has played most other games, has been playing in indie worlds and
running his own unique worlds for decades. One of them even uses Tarot Cards
as the resolution system.

In fact, the reason we started QED back in 1997 was because we had all of
these games we'd come up with ourselves, that we thought were worthwhile,
but that weren't like anything out there, and so we figured what the heck. I
guess everyone starts out that way.

Euro-games are a big influence on us, especially Evan, the third of three,
so to speak. He's our major systems guy, and he fell in love with resource
distribution. And since Jeff hates luck (he has "great strategy, lousy luck"
syndrome), and die rolls just didn't make any sense for Marvel anyway, it
just seemed the way to go.

We do want to say a few words about Marvel, though. We really didn't have to
do any convincing, at all. They have been nothing but supportive all the way
through the process. Maybe because most of them weren't gamers already, they
were more open to a system that was so different. And maybe it's because
resource distribution was what was missing in a comic book rpg all along.
(Sorry Spider-Man, you rolled badly, Aunt May is dead!)  But Mark Beazley,
our editor and an avid D&D'er and die-roller, also took to the new system
right away, so go figure.

Maybe it really is good.

Anyway, we look forward to your opinion once you've seen it. And where can
we go to find out more about Nobilis?

Thanks again for the well wishes.

Dan, Evan and Jeff
Q.E.D. Games, Inc.

[ghoest]

sounds like if the new marvel RPG gets popular it's going to do to RPGs what Wizkid's MageKnight/Shadowrun/Battletech did for the mainstream strategy/combat based games...
I think I'd be interested in reading it, but I wouldn't buy it I've seen too many horrid superhero games (DC Superheros the old marvel RPGs) to invest in something that's either so horrid, it's unplayable or so simple it loses my attention in five minutes...  I remeber reading DC superheros system for the first time (I got it for free from a closing comic/game shop) and thinking MY GOD HOW HIDEOUS THIS IS!!!

[Drew Stevens]

Try and con a friend into buying it, then.

Or blow six bucks on a copy of InQuest from your FLGS when the issue with Wolverine on the cover comes out (they don't mention the actual review, irritably).

All I can say is, the more I read/think about it, the cooler/better for Comic Books it seems than any other Supers system I've ever seen.  Must arrange playtest soon...

[Brand_Robins]

I went to three different bookstores today, and at all of them I stopped to look for the new InQuest. None of them had it, of course, because I live in the butt-end of hell. So now I have jealousy for all those that were able to pick it up.

Anyway, so far as actual constructive comments go, I'd just like to say: ME TOO!

Well, maybe not that constructive.

Seriously, I have high hopes for this game both as something I will play and as something that will sell to a new market. Every time I hear someone say "I will hate it because it doesn't have dice" it only makes me pray all the harder that it sells 500,000 copies before the end of the year. I hope and pray that the arrogance of the position that if it is not D&Dish it is not RP is washed away by the gleeful cries of CCGers and CRPGers having fun playing Marvel.

Yes, I'm bitter today, having had one too many run-ins with dice-fetishists, but really, I mean well. This could be a good, positive, and healthy step for RPGs as a whole.

Not to put any pressure on the Marvel folks, or anything.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Has a MSRP been announced for the Marvel game, when will it be available, and where can I get my hands on a copy of what sounds like a spectacularly intirguing game?

[Brand_Robins]

Has a MSRP been announced for the Marvel game, when will it be available, and where can I get my hands on a copy of what sounds like a spectacularly intirguing game?

It's going to come out in late May / early June and will be a 28 page hardback retailing for $24.99. The 96 page guide to the X-Men will be out in Julyish, and the Avengers guide around October. Both will be $19.99

In the mean time, the new InQuest has the 70 page quickstart preview.

[Drew Stevens]

May 7th, actually.  Leastwise, according to the ad in InQuest.
Rah!

[Matt Gwinn]

It's going to come out in late May / early June and will be a 28 page hardback retailing for $24.99.

This has to be a typo.  

,Matt G.

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah, it's 128 pages.  Also, don't know if the relase date is in "comics time" or not.  Comics generally come out 1-2 months BEFORE the date on the cover, due to strange factors within the community itself.  Some magazines too, actually, since the April issue of InQuest is out now.  Since Marvel's publishing it personally (like a Hardcover graphic novel, and maybe with those same dimensions, ala Hellboy), I would imagine that it would get released along with the other May comics, which is to say, in April.

[Drew Stevens]

*blinkblink*

Ya'know, I hadn't even thought of that.  ROCK! :)

[Brand_Robins]

It's going to come out in late May / early June and will be a 28 page hardback retailing for $24.99.

This has to be a typo.  

,Matt G.

Yes, yes it is.

128. 128.

111111111 -- I obviously need practice hitting that key.

And the publication date is June, but like others said, it might come out in early May if it is on comics time. If the InQuest add says May 7, then I'd go with it.

[wyrdlyng]

So a very Narrativisty game is being designed and distributed to the mass(ier) market. Wait, isn't this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

"And lo, a new generation of gamers who knew not of D20s or click-bases or ultra-foil limited cards emerged. And they focused on telling stories over calculating the airspeed of webbing or the optimal angle of descent for aerial diving move-throughs."

If they pull this off and it becomes a "hit" with the more mainstream masses (the kind the news people might do a story on) this really could send major ripples through the gaming "industry."

The possibility of it all makes me feel light-headed.

[b_bankhead]

If they pull this off and it becomes a "hit" with the more mainstream masses (the kind the news people might do a story on) this really could send major ripples through the gaming "industry."

The possibility of it all makes me feel light-headed.

 If that makes you light headed this will make you float.
What is the natural home of D&D?
Sword and Sorcery.
You are aware that Marvel did comic of one of the greatest heroes of the genre,Conan for about twenty years eh?
What happens when Marvel decides to do a Conan supplement with MURPG rules, it will be nothing less than an invasion of D&D's home territory, with a RADICALLY different approach.

[Drew Stevens]

I rock out for a good long time?

Or a Magnaverse suppliment, for the invasion of BESM's home turf.  Since the same logic behind making MURPG resource based applies damn elegantly to most anime, and it'll be so easy to adapt super powers to anime super powers...