[Free RPG Day 2025] The Avengers Expansion Preview

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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The Avengers Expansion Preview is the Free RPG Day release for 2025 for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. It is superior in every way over the release for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game for Free RPG 2024. The X-Men Expansion Preview, was literally that, a preview of the then forthcoming title. The Avengers Expansion Preview is anything but a preview of the forthcoming supplement detailing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for the roleplaying game. Instead, it presents a complete scenario that can be played in a single session. What is slightly misleading is that whilst the cover does depict members of the Avengers, the players do not get to roleplay them. Instead as the cover states, they get to roleplay members of the current version of the Thunderbolts! This is more in keeping with the current version of the team’s line-up as vigilantes, founded by Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, prepared to deal out justice to those villains, who time and again, manage to avoid punishment. They are The Destroyer (Sharon Carter), Red Guardian (Alexi Shostakov), U.S. Agent (John Walker), White Widow (Yelena Belova), and The Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes). Whilst not quite the same, this line-up is similar to that seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film, The Thunderbolts, so players could take inspiration from the film in roleplaying them.

The scenario is designed for four or five players, it being suggested that the Narrator roleplay The Winter Soldier as an NPC. There is some advice on running the scenario, what the Narrator will need, and more, but ultimately, the Narrator will need the quick-start rules (available here) or the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game rulebook, and also the character profiles for The Thunderbolts (also available here). The scenario is a two-act affair in which the Thunderbolts are invited to Tony Stark’s birthday party in the Avengers Tower. In the first act, the heroes arrive at the Avengers Tower in the secure garage, ready to go through security and ascend to the actual party. This is a social affair in which the heroes get to interact with fellow guests and others. They journalists such as Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle, archaeologist and adventurer, Doctor Kate Edwards, and even a celebrity mentalist, The Amazing Merlin. These can be selected by the Narrator or chosen randomly, but they present a good mix of characters, all with different motives and interests, some which actually align with those of the heroes. The scene takes the heroes out of their comfort zone and puts them on the red carpet as minor celebrities, with all of the challenges that entails.

The second act begins with a bang—onscreen! Having got through security and been able to watch the party upstairs on various video screens, the heroes see it crashed by a woman riding in a howdah atop a giant white swan. However, before the Avengers present at the party can react, the woman sends them all into a slumber using a Runestone. It is clear that the woman is using magic and the Runestone suggests that she might be an Asgardian. Security clears the Thunderbolts just in time and tells them to get in there and deal with the problem. If the first act was social, the second act is physical and a big fight. The Heroes are facing none other than the very powerful Enchantress and her henchman, Skurge. The fight is quite a tough one, as in addition to the Asgardians, the Heroes are facing trolls and ice giants. Simply facing them head on is likely to lead to defeat and the success of the Enchantress’ plans, but there are clues around which will suggest an alternate means of stopping her, at least for long enough until the Avengers can be woken up and are ready to enter the fray once again.

Again, the Narrator is given some advice on how to stage the battle and the adventure comes to a close with some suggestions as to what will happen next, which will vary depending upon how well the Thunderbolts succeeded. Lastly, there are some associated adventure seeds that the Game Master can develop if she wants to take the Thunderbolts on further missions.

Physically, The Avengers Expansion Preview is well presented. The map is nice and clear and it should be no surprise that the art is good too, given the sources that the designers can draw upon. The adventure does actually reference a lot of issues of various comics from the seventies, eighties, and nineties, though they are not required reading to run or play the scenario.

Some players may be disappointed that given that The Avengers Expansion Preview is a preview for the forthcoming Avengers sourcebook that they do not get to play the Avengers. This may be a fair point, but the Thunderbolts are far from uninteresting and anyway, according to Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, they sort of are depicting the Avengers! Nevertheless, The Avengers Expansion Preview is a solid, serviceable scenario for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game.

Marvel Merc Mayhem

Just in time for the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe is a one-shot adventure for use with the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. Of course, this is not the first time that Deadpool has made an appearance in roleplaying, but that was only in solo format. First with You Are Deadpool and then You Are (Not) Deadpool. However, this is a proper roleplaying game scenario requiring both a Narrator and up to six players in which the infamous ‘Merc with a Mouth’ puts together a team of minor superheroes—many of whom only dedicated Marvel Universe devotees will have heard of—and sends them off on a mission. These consist of ex-Valkyrie, Annabelle Rigs, the attack macaque Hit-Monkey, the secretive mercenary Paladin, the Inhuman-infused Ren Kimura, the alternative She-Hulk, Lyra, whose strength weakens as she gets angrier and angrier, and the undead Terror, cursed to suffer immortality! Alternatively, stats are included for Deadpool himself, along with Wolverine, so that a smaller group of players could play through Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe.

Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe opens with an eight-page comic strip that introduces each of the Player Character options for the scenario—and not just for the Narrator, but also the players which can read this strip to get an idea of how each of the cast should be played. Then it is into the scenario and explaining what the Narrator requires to run it. This is no more than the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game core rulebook, from which the Narrator will need to draw several NPC villains who will appear in the scenario. The advice for the Narrator is to keep it moving and to keep it light and not too serious. This affects the tone of Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe, but it is more tongue in cheek and slyly snide, rather than in your face and obnoxiously insulting. So, it is not adult in tone and thus is suited for a teenage audience.

The scenario starts with the Player Characters individually hired by Deadpool and asked to meet at a shipyard. This triggers the first action scene in the scenario as the Player Characters have to make a run in between and over the shipping containers, all whilst under attack, before they get to meet up with their employer. At this point, Deadpool explains that he is trying to set up his mercenary agency, but all of a sudden, the pool of soldiers for hire seems to be shrinking and he suspects that something or someone is behind it. Deadpool wants the Player Characters to investigate and if they are successful, he might have more work for them. This assignment will take the Player Characters around the world and back again, starting in New York at the Lower Manhattan Mercenary Job Expo. This is a fun scene in which the Player Characters get to attend a jobs fair where the possible employers are A.I.M., The Hand, Hydra, Latveria, and others, and sell themselves as well as investigate who might be hiring all of the hired guns. The persons or organisations responsible are present, but the other potential employers lend themselves to further missions for the Player Characters to undertake beyond the pages of Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe. Subsequent chapters will see the Player Characters participate in an underground tournament over the skies of Madripoor, before having to fight to save the day, and lastly, confront the scenario’s actual villain in a deathtrap maze!

There are a few notes on continuing the adventure after Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe, but the scenario is rounded out with all of the write-ups for its Player Characters and some of its NPCs. The others appear in the pages of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game core rulebook. Included here is the new Power, ‘Power Slider’. This specifically for the version of She-Hulk which appears in the scenario as her power wanes when she gets angry. ‘Power Slider’ is for powers that change due to certain circumstances or situations.

Physically, Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe is bright, colourful, and exciting, with lots of Marvel Universe artwork as you expect and want. The writing is decent and if you are not reading the Deadpool dialogues in the style of Ryan Reynolds, then you are not fulfilling that secret contractual obligation you signed when you purchased the book. In which case, Ryan Reynolds’ lawyers will be in contact with you shortly.

Deadpool Role-plays the Marvel Universe is an action-packed, fun scenario for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game which should take a session or two to play through. Although the players could create their own, it gives a chance for the players to roleplay some lesser-known characters from the Marvel Universe and throw them up against a threat that Deadpool could deal with, but honestly can’t be bothered. Which makes for a good one-shot and the chance for the players to make these lesser lights their own rather than necessarily adhering to their portrayal on the page or on the screen.

[Free RPG Day 2024] X-Men Expansion Preview

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Of all the items published for Free RPG Day 2024, the X-Men Expansion Preview is not the shortest—that honour goes to the Lost Tome of Monsters: Free RPG Day Edition from Foambrain Games which consists of a Pinature and an encounter—but it is the release with the lightest of gaming content. It is a preview for the forthcoming Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: X-Men Expansion, which explores and presents the X-Men, their origins, rosters, members, associated teams, events, and threats for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. The Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview provides a snapshot of what is going to be contained in the supplement and a bit more. The more begins with its opening section, a ‘Rules Primer’, which explains the Marvel 616 System used in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. It is quick and simple, but it does not include any examples.

The bulk of the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview is dedicated not to the X-Men, but a team which it always preferred to keep secret—X-Force. As explained in this potted history, X-Force carried out the tasks which the X-Men could not. As the leading protectors of Mutants in the Marvel Universe, the X-men had to be heroic and be seen to be heroic—in all senses of the word. Not so the X-Force. Its members could use force, subterfuge, and militant means to carry out its mission of dealing with threats to Mutant-kind. They could even kill if necessary. A cross between spies, vigilantes, and special forces operatives, they did the dirty work that the X-Men could never do and never sanction. In game terms, this means that members of X-Force are not always heroic and their operations often stray into morally grey areas. The history of the X-Force includes seven different line-ups and details locations important to the team, such as the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Pericles, and Cavern-X. Floor plans for the latter, a case base in Arizona, are also included.

There are notes on playing as members of X-Force, noting its darker themes of clandestine action and secrecy, as well as its proactive approach. Joining the team is done by invitation only, based on what the current leader wants. In the case of Cable, frequent leader of X-Force, this means combat skills, discipline, and the ability to undertake dangerous missions. Potential members must be Mutants and they should ideally have some military or espionage background. It also notes that there is sometimes a commonality in terms of powers between team members, such as the health regenerating abilities of Deadpool, Wolverine, and X-23. Rounding out the description of X-Force is a couple of sets of adventure hooks, five suitable for any X-Force roster and five for the Krakaon X-Force, the most recent roster. These are no more than a paragraph in length and will need a fair bit of development upon the part of the Game Master.

Rounding out the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview are stats for the Mutants Bishop, Dazzler, and Gambit. Although nice to see these, only one of them, Bishop, has been a member of X-Force.

Physically, the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview is clean and tidy, and very readable. And that is really the best that can be said about it, since it would actually take quite a bit of effort to really turn any of its content into something playable and ready to be played at the table. Many of the characters across the different rosters are not here or given in the core rulebook for Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, such that it would be difficult to assemble a full team. A team of all-stars—sans Cable—would be possible. Then the Game Master would need to develop one of the adventure hooks included in its pages. Of course, a preview like this, is only designed to give you a snapshot of what in the forthcoming game book and the Marvel Multiverse X-Men Expansion Preview does a good job of that—and actually it is not a bad read either.

Getting Marvelous

It is surprising to think that there have been five roleplaying games based on Marvel Comics in the last four decades, going all the way back to Marvel Super Heroes published by TSR, Inc. in 1984 before coming all the way up to date with the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game published by Marvel Universe in 2023—and even that was not the first roleplaying game published by Marvel. The Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game lets you play using a huge cast of characters—heroes and villains, from Abomination, Agatha Harkness, and Baron Mordo to Ultron, Venom, and Vulture, from American Chavez, Ant-Man, and Beast to the Winter Soldier, Wolverine—both Laura Kinney and Logan, and Wong. There are over one-hundred-and-twenty-eight villain and hero writeups in the pages of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, a mix of the well-known and the lesser known—and all of them playable. A group can play at street level with characters such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man—both Miles Morales and Peter Parker; join the Avengers with heroes like Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, Squirrel Girl, and Thor—both Jane Foster and Thor; stand up for mutants such as the X-Men with Beast, Colossus, Cyclops, Iceman, Professor X, and Storm; or go to the stars with Captain Marvel, Gamora, Groot, Nebula, Nightcrawler, Rocket Raccoon, and Star-Lord. Thus, it allows the players to roleplay a wide variety of the Marvel Universe’s heroes from both the comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe—both on the big screen and the small screen. Or alternatively, the players can create heroes of their own, from heroes of the street to heroes of the cosmos.

The Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game leaps into the mechanics first. It uses what the game calls the Marvel 616 System. This is named for Marvel-616, the universe where the majority of the stories are told in the Marvel comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That conceit aside, the Marvel 616 System uses three six-sided dice. The middle one of these is called the Marvel die and is either a die of a different colour or an official Marvel Multiverse die which has the Marvel logo on the six face. To have his hero undertake an action, a player rolls the three dice or ‘d616’, adds the relevant ability score, and if it is equal to, or exceeds, the Target Number succeeds. A Target Number typically ranges between eleven and sixteen, but can be further adjusted depending upon how trivial or absurdly difficult the action is. There are three possible special outcomes. One is if the result on the Marvel die is the Marvel logo or a six on the die of a different colour. This is a Fantastic Success and will typically double damage inflicted in combat or grant an ‘Edge’ or bonus on the hero’s next action. It is possible to roll a Fantastic Failure, meaning that the result on the Marvel die is the Marvel logo, but that the roll has failed. This means that although the action has failed, something beneficial has still happened to the hero. This is handled as a narrative effect. There is no critical failure mechanic. There is however, an ‘Ultimate Fantastic Roll’. This is a roll of a six on the two standard dice and the Marvel logo on the Marvel die, which guarantees a success on the action no matter how difficult, and enables the hero to ignore any Troubles besetting him. The dice can also be modified by Edges and Troubles. An Edge comes from favourable circumstances and allows one die per Edge to be rerolled and the highest value used, whilst a Trouble comes from unfavourable situations and forces a player to reroll one of his highest dice results per Trouble and use the lowest value. Edges and Troubles cancel each other out.

Combat uses the same mechanics, beginning with rolling for initiative. This roll cannot fail, as it determines the order in which the combatants act. The fun wrinkle here is that if a Hero or a villain rolls a Fantastic Success, then they have a bonus round in which only they act! A Hero can take one standard action, such as attack, dodge, escape, grab, move, and so on per turn, as well as a reaction like escape, fastball special, help teammate, skulk, and more. Attacks are made against a defender’s Defence Scores—derived from his abilities—and the damage determined by the result of the roll of the Marvel Die, which is then multiplied by the attacker’s Rank. The multiplier for the damage can be altered by the attacker’s powers and decreased by the defender’s powers. It is easy for a Hero to inflict sufficient damage to kill, but the default assumption is that any character with the Heroic Tag will hold back sufficiently to inflict enough damage to take a defender out of a fight, but not kill him. If the Heroes or villains are members of a team, then together they can also perform a team manoeuvre, such as “Avengers Assemble!”, once per fight, which can be an offensive, defensive, or rally team manoeuvre. It costs Focus per participant to activate a manoeuvre. The rules also cover attacking and ploughing through objects, whilst a knockback effect requires the Mighty power and a Fantastic Success to succeed.

Some twenty powers—or rather power sets—are described in Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, from Elemental Control, Illusion, and Magic to Telepathy, Teleportation, and Weather control. Each power consists of at least one basic power and then extra powers which alter or improve the basic power. These are ranked, so that the basic power is Rank 1 and then the other Rank 2, Rank 3, and so on. For example, Phase Self is the Rank 1 power for Phasing, but Phase Object and Partial Phase are Rank 2. In addition, there are Basic Powers. These include Brawling, Combat Trickery, Flight, Iconic Weapon, Mighty, and more. Most require the Special Training Origin to have, but Special Training is the means by which highly skilled characters, such as Hawkeye or Shang-Chi, can be created. Overall, the powers and power sets cover most of the hero types that a player might want to design, but what they are not, is necessarily flexible. Each power does a set thing and what a Hero is in general not trying to do is push the envelope beyond those limits. There is scope for it narratively, at least, if a player rolls a Fantastic Success.

A Hero in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game has a Rank, which determines how much damage he can suffer, how many points can be assigned to ability scores, and how many powers and traits he can have. The Rank ranges from Rank 1 and Rookie to Rank 6 and Cosmic. He has six abilities. These are Melee (which also covers strength), Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic, and together they form the acronym, M.A.R.V.E.L. They can be zero or less, but they can be much higher. Each works as a straight modifier in the Marvel 616 System. Health is how much damage a Hero can suffer, whilst Focus represents his concentration and willpower. A Hero has karma equal to his Rank. Karma is spent to inflict Trouble on a villain or to give a Hero an Edge. Once used, it is earned through good roleplaying, being heroic, use of a Hero’s catchphrase at the appropriate time, and if a Trait causes the Hero a problem.

A Hero will have several Traits and Tags. Traits typically provide an Edge, whilst Tags are roleplaying hooks. For example, Ms. Marvel has the Traits of Determination, Glibness, Honest, and Quick Learner, and the Tags of Heroic, Inhuman Genes, Mentor: Captain Marvel, Obligation: School, Secret Identity, and Young. Glibness allows her to talk to anyone for the first time and persuade them to give her a hand, which gives her an Edge of her Ego checks, whilst Obligation: School will cause her problems if she fails to attend school or do her homework. A Hero’s Traits and Tags are derived from the two elements of his Backstory, his Origins and Occupation.

Creating a Hero is a matter of a player making choices based upon the Hero’s Rank, assigning Ability points, and then choosing Origins and Occupation, followed by powers. Notably, if a Hero has powers from fewer Power Sets rather than more, he gains a bonus number of powers. A player can also choose to reduce the number of powers his hero has to increase his abilities or add traits.

Codename: Mother Penitencia
Rank: 2
Karma: 2

Real Name: Violetta Santillan
Occupation: Health Care Worker
Origin: Magic: Demonic
Base: Chicago

Melee 1 Defence Score 11
Agility 0 Defence Score 10
Resilience 2 Defence Score 12
Vigilance 1 Defence Score 11
Ego 3 Defence Score 13
Logic 3 Defence Score 13

Health 60 Focus 90

Powers
Magic (Demonic): Sense Sins, Penance Stare, Hellfire Chains
Magic: Sense Supernatural
Teleportation: Blink, Teleport 1, Blink Barrage
Brawling

Tags: Chaotic, Supernatural, Obligation: Family, Obligation: Night School, Heroic
Traits: Clinician, First Aid, Out of Shape, Skeptical, Secret Identity

Background: Violetta Santillan is in her thirties, a health care worker who works in a care facility. She has been studying to be a doctor, but illness in the family meant she had to drop out of school and then she had a family of her own. As the children have got older, she has been trying to go back to school to study. After one of the residents died, he left her a book. When she opened it, she was suddenly cast into Hell and told that she would be the next wielder of the powers of penitence. She is deeply conflicted about her new role, especially as it transforms her, her eyes blazing black, black horns curling from her head, her fingernails turning jet black. So far, she has stopped a couple of attempted robberies at the care facility, and dealt with a street robbery. Worse, she is taunted by the demon, Irzollath, who claims that the gift of penitence was not hers to take and taunts her to act immorally.

Almost a fifth of Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is dedicated to detailing its powers and power sets, whilst two fifths are dedicated to detailing the one-hundred-and-twenty-eight heroes and villains. The chapter on the Marvel Multiverse itself packs in a lot of information, covering history, the current state of Earth-616, other universes and dimensions, and moving between. However, it is a broad overview at best. For the Narrator there is solid advice on setting up and running a game, the scope of a game—from single issues to ongoing series, as well as on how to handle some of the more difficult aspects of the setting and super heroics. This includes interdimensional and time travel, mind control, illusions, and more, as well as hero death—and return. Oddly, this chapter is also where social interaction is covered, which essentially boils down to Logic and Ego attacks versus a target’s Logic Defence or Ego Defence. Overall, the Narrator advice is more than decent.

Unfortunately, Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is not without its issues. One is a matter of choice, given the number of heroes and villains in the roleplaying, there is likely to be characters missing for some reader. Notably, both Silver Surfer and Kate Bishop are missing from the list, whereas Titania of Gamma Fight is included. The A.I.M. Agent, Average Civilian, and Night Nurse are the only Rank 1 characters listed, but not police officer. The writing tends towards the succinct, leaving Narrator and players alike unclear as how powers work or in particular, tags, work. In this, Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is better suited to the experienced Narrator, who is likely to be more aware of the storytelling style of roleplaying. The powers could have been better organised. The powers are listed alphabetically rather than by power set, and the power set trees, showing the reader what power he needs to choose for his Hero before getting the one he wants, placed at the back. So, there is a lot of flipping back and forth during creation and there are no page numbers listed in the power set trees making it even more awkward. Lastly, there is no scenario in the book, unfortunately. In this, and in the lack of an example of play, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game does not necessarily serve the Marvel fan coming to roleplaying for the first time. More experienced roleplayers will have no issue picking up and playing the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, but may want to look at other superhero roleplaying games if they want more choices and greater flexibility.

Physically, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is a fantastic looking book. How could it not be? After all, it has access to, and does draw from an incredible back catalogue of artwork. A nice touch is that the chapters are colour-coded for ease of access. However, it does need a slight edit in places.

The Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game does give what you want with a roleplaying game based on a huge comic book universe and franchise. It lets you play your favourite heroes from the Marvel universe, but it also lets you create your own heroes and take them on their own adventures in the Marvel universe. It feels fantastically comprehensive in the choice of Marvel heroes to play and the types of Marvel-style heroes to create and play. Overall, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game is a very solid, very serviceable, and very playable superhero roleplaying game that will be appreciated by fans of the Marvel Universe.