Last time on Telling Tales, I mentioned that I was writing up a one-shot adventure to run for the Marvel RPG (the new one, not the old TSR one). This week, I’m going to use the two demo sessions I ran as examples of good story rising from a brilliant rules system. The Marvel game isn’t like a standard supers RPG, with endless tables and point values for every imaginable super power. Instead, it lays out the most essential traits of the most iconic heroes, and gives the players every reason to act in ways that feel natural to that character. That wonderful union of system and story is what I’d like to talk about today, because it’s a rare find in an RPG.
Let me set the stage. Dr. Doom is attacking Times Square! The heroes converge on the scene… only to find Wolverine already victorious. Turns out it was just a Doombot. Suddenly, the heroes with connections start getting new reports: Doom is in Grand Central Station! Doom is at the Statue of Liberty! Doom is at… Macy’s? The good guys need to split up and deal with these Doombot threats, and they need to be at their best, just in case one of the Dooms turns out to be the real deal. Who should go where?
In many RPGs, the decision of how to split the party would be a huge one. In Marvel, it took seconds. Every hero in the game has three Affiliations: Solo, Buddy, and Team. Different heroes are better or worse in different match-ups, receiving either a d10, d8, or d6 to their dice pools. Wolverine, for instance, is obviously at his best when he only has to worry about himself, so he’s at Solo d10. The Thing and Nightcrawler are classic buddy heroes who love a good one-on-one team-up, so they get Buddy d10. And team-oriented heroes like Captain America, Hawkeye, and Mr. Fantastic work best in a larger group, with a Team d10 to work with. So when Cap said he wanted to protect Lady Liberty, Hawkeye and Richards stood with him. Nightcrawler and Thing were already planning their post-Doom shopping at Macy’s, which is just as well: Wolverine had taken off on his own for the subway before the last alert even arrived.
As the Watcher (the DM), I was able to start planning those scenes in advance, because I knew exactly how the party would break itself up. The Macy’s fight could be more light-hearted and fun, since there was a cuddly orange rock monster and a devilish swashbuckler heading that way. The subway station was going to be a serious brawl, so I went ahead and added a whole mob of vicious Doombots that Wolverine could spend an hour slicing to bits. And on Liberty Island, I could throw a nefarious plan into the mix, because I’d be seeing some serious teamwork from a couple of accomplished leaders.
Here’s a few fun things that happened tonight, each one supported by a rules mechanic in Marvel Heroic Roleplay:
-Mr. Fantastic becoming a slingshot to send Cap flying at Doom’s head.
-Deadpool constantly complaining about the poor writing of this adventure.
-Spider-Man cracking jokes while he operates the Avengers database better than any sitting Avenger.
-The Thing smothering an explosion with his body and suffering only a nasty soot stain.
-Wolverine knocking two Doombots onto the third rail in the subway tunnel.
-And finally, Hawkeye using his teammates’ diversion to sneak into the perfect position, then taking out the final Doombot and a nefarious device in one fell swoop.
All in all, the Marvel RPG hits all my narrative gamer buttons in the best possible way. The rules don’t get in the way of the story; they push you deeper into the story. Spider-Man gets a bonus die for making wisecracks! Iron Man gets experience points for being an alcoholic! If you haven’t checked the game out, do some poking around for a podcast or review. Any fan of narrative gaming or superheroes won’t be disappointed. Oh, and since this is starting to sound like an advertisement, here’s full disclosure: I had the chance to be a playtester for the game, and got to be Spider-Man before it even came out. Does that make me biased? I don’t think so.
It made me Spider-Man. And the game that can offer me that has my full support.
