[Free RPG Day 2026] Secret Wars Expansion Preview

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. 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. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Secret Wars Expansion Preview is a scenario for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game which as the title suggests, previews the Secret Wars Expansion supplement. Both scenario and supplement are based the Secret Wars comic and event published by Marvel Comics in 2015. This involved the destruction of the Marvel Universe and various other alternate universes with the Earth of each universe being combined into a Battleworld. The Battleworld for the Secret Wars Expansion Preview is Egyptia. This Egyptian-themed Battleworld gives fealty to the God Emperor Doom, his rule enforced by his cadre of Thors. The action of the scenario takes place in the city of Men-Nefer in the Lower Kingdom of Egyptia, the location of the Temple of Khonshu, dedicated to the Battleworld’s ruler, Baron Khonshu. She has oppressed the mutants in her realm, forcing them to work, building pyramid and other monuments to her, promising retribution upon the ordinary population if they rebel. However, this does not mean that there is no underground resistance and recently, its leader, Mastermind, has learned that Baron Khonshu is holding an important prisoner in her temple—Ra the Sun god. If he can be freed, then he can rally the people and help overthrown Baron Khonshu. As the scenario opens, Mastermind has gathered his best agents—Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Polaris, Rogue, and Wolverine—and together they will strike at the temple and free Ra!

The scenario is designed for four or five players, and chronologically takes place before the events of Secret Wars Journal #1. 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 various heroes. There is a little bit of background to the scenario, but not too much and it gets going fairly quickly. It is essentially, a strike and prison breakout mission as the players need to work out how their superheroes are going to cross the city under curfew—when Baron Khonshu leaves her temple to wander the land—and get into the temple. Several methods are suggested with Mastermind serving as sounding board for any ideas put forward by the players and their characters.

Once a plan of action has been decided, the action starts as the Player Characters and Mastermind make their way to the temple, find a way in, deal with guards, and free the Sun god. This is a straightforward scenario, but it includes a few surprises along the way, such as the nature of the guards at the temple, who exactly Ra is, and who the Thors are that the Player Characters will face at the climax of the scenario. Stats are included for Baron Khonshu, Spector, and the Temple Guards. There are suggestions as to what might happen at the end of the scenarios and several adventure seeds too, if the Game Master wants to continue the scenario.

What is interesting about the scenario in Secret Wars Expansion Preview is the chance to play familiar characters from the Marvel Universe of Earth 616 in an unusual situation as alternate versions of those characters. Notably, the scenario’s primary NPC, Mastermind, is actually a villain on Earth 616, but here is a more sympathetic character, even though he is not without his own motives.

Physically, Secret Wars 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 Secret Wars Expansion Preview is a solid, serviceable scenario for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game and a decent preview of the Secret Wars Expansion.

Your Invincible Starter

A good starter set has to do a number of different things. It has to introduce and explain the roleplaying game it is a starter set for, whether that is the roleplaying game’s setting, mechanics, or both. It has to both tell and show what the players and their characters are expected to do in the setting and how they do it, first with the rules and then with a scenario. It has to provide everything that a group needs to play—rules, scenario, pre-generated Player Characters, and dice—and ideally more. Maps, handouts, tokens, and the like are all items that will help bring the world of the roleplaying game’s setting to life and give the players something to look at and interact with. Above all, a good starter should showcase the roleplaying game and entice both Game Master and her players to want to roleplay more with the rules and in that setting by picking up the core rulebook, and if the contents of the start set support continued play, whether that is providing an extra set of dice or maps for the setting, then all the better.

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In a world of superheroes, events on Earth are about to change. The planet’s most powerful superhero, ‘Omni-Man’ has been revealed as the killer of Earth’s premier superhero team, the Guardians of the Globe and when confronted by his teenage son, ‘Invincible’, almost killed him. Thousands of civilians died too, and in the aftermath, ‘Omni-Man’ fled the planet. In the wake of these events, the Global Defence Agency, operating from a secret base under the Pentagon, a secret organization that safeguards the world from the shadows and keeps a close watch over all superpowered activity, is forced to take a pro-active stance. It is recruiting superpowered individuals to protect against superpowered criminal activities, alien invasions, and so on. This is the set-up for Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying and specifically, the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set. Published by Free League Publishing, both are based on Invincible, the American comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, and published by Image Comics, and subsequently developed as a television series on Amazon Prime. Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying is a departure for Free League Publishing since presents a genre that the publisher has not previously explored.

The Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set is the introduction to the setting and the rules for the roleplaying game. Open up the box and inside can be found a full set of ten six-sided Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying dice, ten Initiative cards, ten Social Scene cards—one each for five of the pre-generated Superhero characters included in the box, and a pack of twelve stands for the standees also in the box. Below this there is a ‘Read me First’ sheet which explains what is in the box, what the Game Master and her players need to do next, and once the contents of the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set have been played through where they should look. Underneath this is the twenty-two page ‘Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Rules’ book, thirty-six page ‘Metro Mayhem’ scenario book, five Reference Cards, a thirty-four by twenty-two inch, double-sided poster map, thirty-two standees for the heroes and their adversaries, and a set of action tokens. The Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set does carry a minimum age of sixteen plus as the source material is often brutal and bloody.

The ‘Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Rules’ book introduces the set properly and quickly explains what it is, the basics of the setting, the use of safety tools, and its play structure, which divides its scenes into three types. ‘Briefings’ are when the superheroes are told about their mission, ‘Action’ scenes focus on combat and action, and ‘Social’ scenes are where the bulk of the roleplaying and interaction takes place. The ‘Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Rules’ book includes a set of Social Scene cards that can be used during the scenario to initiate scenes and interactions appropriate to each superhero. These cards each give two options and enable a player to explore the agenda and hopes of the superhero that he is playing. It then breaks down how a superhero is defined. He has a role, six attributes, several derived stats, plus Powers, Talents, Drawbacks, Personal Details, Resources and Gear, and reputation. The eight Roles are Blaster, Brains, Brawn, Controller, Defender, Leader, Striker, and Wildcard, and they define how a superhero operates, but provides no mechanical benefit. The six attributes are Fighting, Agility, Strength, Reason, Intuition, and Presence, and they range in value between ‘1’ or ‘Poor’ and ‘12’ or ‘Invincible’. A superhero’s Powers, Talents, and Drawbacks will vary from superhero to superhero, but the options available are not explored in the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set. Instead, they limited to those presented on the pre-generated superheroes and thus enough to play through the given scenario. Personal Details encompasses a superhero’s Occupation, Personality, Drive, Flaw, and Key Relationships.

Mechanically, Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying uses the Year Zero Engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. To have a superhero undertake an action, his player rolls a number of dice equal to the appropriate attribute value. The Game Master can add or deduct dice depending on the difficulty of the task, whilst Gear used and the support from allies can add dice. Each roll of a six is counted as a Success and only a single Success is required to succeed at most tasks. If more Successes are rolled, these can be used to gain bonus effects called stunts. These can be used to have a superhero to complete the task quickly or quietly, learn something new, and help a friend by passing him a Success if they are working on a similar project. However, if no Success are rolled, the Superhero has failed and that failure should ideally have dramatic effects. Alternatively, the player can choose to Push the roll. When this happens, the player rerolls any dice which do not show a one or a six. Whether the roll is a success or a failure, the Superhero suffers a point of Stress for each one rolled overall.

Conflict in Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying uses the same core mechanics. Initiative uses a deck of cards numbered from one to ten, and extra cards may need to be drawn if a Superhero has additional actions. In a round, a Superhero can perform a Full Action and a Quick Action or two Quick Actions. A Full Action is a Slugfest, Charge, or Shooting attack, using a superpower, breaking or lifting something, saving bystanders, and so on. Quick Actions can be to move into an adjacent zone, blocking a slugfest attack or dodging a shooting attack, engaging in banter, and more. Some of the Quick Actions can be used to interrupt the actions of an opponent and they can be saved for this purpose to use later in a round. A combatant can also give an Order to grant extra dice to an ally’s action. Movement can be on the ground and in the air with different elevations counted as separate zones. The action also allows for smashing through doors and walls. In a Slugfest attack, extra Successes can be spent on Stunts including Double Damage, Knockback, Stun, Bang Heads, Trap, Disarm, and Deadly Hit, and Special Stunt. Those for Shooting attacks include Double Damage, Suppressed, Trick Shot, Disarm, and Deadly Hit. A player is also free to create his own Stunts and use with the Game Master’s permission. Armour reduces damage, but when a combatant’s Health is reduced to zero, he is broken and suffers a Critical Injury. Critical Injuries can be inflicted without reducing a combatant’s Health to zero. Critical Injuries take weeks or months to recover from, but Health is recovered faster. A combatant can suffer Stress, often from a Banter Action in combat, but primarily through the use of a Superhero’s Powers. When a Superhero’s Resolve is reduced to zero due to Stress, he is stressed out, cannot use any Superpowers which require Stress to be gained or push any rolls.

The rules also cover minions, challenges, and other hazards. Notably, a Superhero can use a Slugfest attack to ‘Wreck a Zone’, the Superhero or Supervillain ripping up objects and using them to hit, throw at, or smash an opponent. This grants bonus dice to an attack, means the attack can be made into an adjacent zone, and completely wrecks the zone, meaning it cannot be wrecked again. It requires a minimum Strength wreck certain types of terrain and this means it is possible to level office interiors, city streets, and whole buildings! Just like we see in superhero films, Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying allows for the possibility that a fight between superpowered individuals is not without its consequences.

The Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying comes with six pre-generated Superheroes ready to play. They are Atom Eve who can manipulate matter; Bulletproof who can absorb damage to boost his combat skills; Monster Girl, who transforms into a monstrous troll-like creature due a curse, but gets younger when she transforms back; Rex Splode, who has a blast attack and can leap great distances; Robot, a construct who has great reasoning and can analyse a situation and create a plan to support his allies; and Invincible, who is half-alien and can fly and is tough and lucky. Of the six, Invincible does not have Social Scene cards, so his player will need to suggest situations or scenes when can reduce his Stress. All of the details on each character sheet are clear presented. For example, “BLAST: You can perform a shooting attack with Damage 3, Range 0/3.” is Atom Eve’s direct attack form, whilst she has the Talent of “KNOWLEDGEABLE (NATURAL SCIENCES): You get +3 dice to REASON rolls to recall, find, or understand information related to physical sciences like biology, chemistry, astronomy, genetics, physics, and geology.” For the most part, the Powers for all six pre-generated Superheroes are straightforward and easy to understand, and most of them are quite direct in their effects. Of those that are not, Robot’s superpowers are supportive in nature and will require some consideration in how they are used in play to best support the other Superheroes.

The events of the ‘Metro Mayhem’ scenario book take place after Invincible has been defeated by his father, Omni-Man, leaving him to recover from his injuries whilst he flees the planet. Global Defence Agency asks the Superheroes to investigate the activities of the Mauler twins, hyperintelligent criminals who do not know which one of them is other’s clone, following their escape from Stronghold Penitentiary. The scenario begins with a briefing before being divided into three acts. The first two Acts have an Action Scene each, followed by Social Scene—when the Social Scene cards can be used to set-up particular scenes, whilst the Action Scene of the third Act is followed by the epilogue. The story takes the Superheroes first to warehouse to investigate the activities of the Mauler Twins, followed by a confrontation with the supervillain behind it all, and concludes with dealing with the consequences of the supervillain’s plan. It is an exciting affair, with the Superheroes having the chance to save scientists and civilians, fight supervillains, and ultimately go up against kaiju, all with a little time in between for some roleplaying and interaction. All of which is played out on the maps, one side showing individual locations where Acts One and Two take place, and the cityscape where Act Three occurs.

Physically, the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set is very well presented. All of the components are decent quality and both the rules and the scenario are written in a clear fashion that makes it all easy to grasp and understand. Backed up, of course, by plenty of artwork from the comic book series that gives it a Four Colour style contrasting with its often bloody scenes of conflict. Many of the components can be used beyond the playthrough of the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set, including the dice, reference sheets, and standees and counters. This makes it a good utility pack for Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying as much as it does an introduction.

The honest truth is that the Superhero genre is not one that most people thought that the Year Zero Engine would ever try to tackle. The Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set shows that it can work, the result being a fast-playing, bruising, knockabout system that gives the players and their Superheroes lots of dice to roll and lots of Powers and Stunts to choose from, and so lots of options. The core mechanic is simple—in fact simpler than most Year Zero Engine roleplaying games—and where the roleplaying game’s complexity does come, is in those choices and the spending of the extra Success to choose Stunts. So, a player will need a little time to not only understand how the Stunts work, but primarily how his Superhero’s powers work. Of course, this is like almost any other roleplaying game, but in a superhero roleplaying that is intended to be fast-playing as Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set is, the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set almost needs a training mission to get the players used to their Superheroes and their choices.

Ultimately, the Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying Starter Set is a great introduction to Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying and the world of Invincible. It presents everything necessary to play in its bruising, knockback, and sometimes bloody world using surprisingly simple rules, but giving players and their Superheroes plenty of choices when it comes to their actions.

[Fanzine Focus XLIII] Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons,RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but then there are outliers, fanzines for genres, let alone roleplaying games, which you would never expect to receive support in this format.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. Published by VX2 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a product which is very different in many ways. It is a fanzine for the superhero genre, it is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, and as superhero fanzine, it actually presents a post-apocalyptic setting. All three factors make it standout as different. As the name suggests, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is the third in the series for the fanzine, but there is only a total of four issues.

The first issue in the series, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap presented an overview of its setting. This is the future of the North American continent after society was society ripped apart in 1986 by an event known as the Shock which followed the successful attempt by the mysterious Omegas to destroy a psionic computer network powered by extradimensional energy. The resulting Aftershock killed millions, made more disappear, substituted familiar landscape with alien ones, turned the sky violet, and changed some of the stars to alien ones. Governments collapsed and supervillains seized control to establish their own, ultimately dystopic fiefdoms, together known as the Supremacy. The Shock also disrupted the Grid underlying the whole of reality and weakened it, leading to the opening of ‘Gridgates’ to other worlds and aliens visiting the Earth. Reality storms imperil travel so that long term travel in in convoys and all forms of broadcast media act as vessels for a necrocosmic plague. Only the wealthy has access to any form of direct communication, whilst messages and recorded media are delivered directly. Long distance travel is via the Thunder Road, a continental network of highways and fuel stations controlled by Lord Thunder, the leader of the Sanction.

In the world of Gridshock 20XX, the Player Characters are Vectors. They possess the ability to warp the Grid and thus reality, manipulating it in their favour. Vectors are typically human, but can also be gatecrashers from other realities or hybroids—one of the genetically engineered labour force. They are fully detailed in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster, whilst Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is more obvious in its content. It is also different in its format, being presented in landscape rather than portrait format. The issue describes the eight regions of the North American continent. This goes from Beringia and Cascadia in the northwest all the way to Asia across the Bering Causeway, down to the Sunrise Sector on the Pacific coast, and across the North American continent. This includes The Sanction, ruled by the vainglorious Lord Thunder from his capital of Junction City (formerly Las Vegas) and the fertile region of The Orchard of the Midwest, the Exhuman-infested and near lifeless Deadside around the Great Lakes, the Supremacy-dominated New Homelands that are a battleground for Exhumans from Deadside, and the Seaboard Sector on the northeast Atlantic coast. Each includes an overall profile, three points of interest, details of its inhabitants, its interactions with the wider world, three notable individuals in the region, possible artefacts to be found there, scenes that the Player Characters might see in the region, and an explanation of how its set-up can be used in play. Some entries also include stats and further details of an important individual living region. Other than that, the issue is stat-free. Each chapter packs a lot of information into its pages, whilst leaving plenty of room for Game Master to add her own details. In addition, page numbers are listed in the sidebars that reference elsewhere in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions and also Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 4: Reference, pointing the Game master to further details.

For example, Sunrise Sector is a corporate-dominated sector of the Supremacy with several city-sized arcologies. The population is kept quiet with diet of jazzy entertainment and sensationalist news, consisting of a mix of gossip, reports of gang violence, robot rampages, labour strikes, and so on, some of which is actually genuine. The capital is the Administrative Archipelago, whilst the worst arcology is Strawberry Heights, currently suffering rampant labour unrest and superpowered gang crime. Most Sunrisers consider the Sunrise Sector to be closed thing to living in pre-Shock civilisation, but crime, controlled by the Temple—an organised crime cult operating from Bergingia—is rife. Sunrise Sector is the leading robot manufacturer for the Supremacy and also has its own state-run superteam and stars of the reality television series, Youthquake. One member, Kid Cambrian, once a joke because all could do was breath underwater and swim fast, but now able to summon giant waves of seawater carrying prehistoric monsters he can control and remaining a member of the team by ruthlessly manipulating the voting system for the television series, is full detailed with a write-up and stats. This is a nicely done write-up—elsewhere in the description of The Sanction, Lord Thunder himself is detailed—and it would have been great to have had his teammates detailed too. The set-up highlights how society in Sunrise Sector is divided between those that fully buy into the promises that its Administrators make via the media that constantly bombards them, that a golden age is preserved, everyone is cared for, and anyone could be a star, and those resist the messages.

Physically, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is very nicely presented in swathes of blue and black. The artwork is decent, but the the format does make it awkward to use in places.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is the gazetteer for the series. At the same time as it leaves room for the Game Master to create her own content in the Gridshock setting, it does leave the reader waiting for more detail. Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 3: Regions is good, but it could have been double the size.

[Fanzine Focus XL] Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons,RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but then there are outliers, fanzines for genres, let alone roleplaying games, which you would never expect to receive support in this format.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. Published by VX2 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a product which is very different in many ways. It is a fanzine for the superhero genre, it is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, and as superhero fanzine, it actually presents a post-apocalyptic setting. All three factors make it standout as different. As the name suggests, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Rooster is the second in the series for the fanzine, but there is only a total of four issues.

The first issue in the series, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap presented an overview of its setting. This is the future of the North American continent after society was society ripped apart in 1986 by an event known as the Shock which followed the successful attempt by the mysterious Omegas to destroy a psionic computer network powered by extradimensional energy. The resulting Aftershock killed millions, made more disappear, substituted familiar landscape with alien ones, turned the sky violet, and changed some of the stars to alien ones. Governments collapsed and supervillains seized control to establish their own, ultimately dystopic fiefdoms, together known as the Supremacy. The Shock also disrupted the Grid underlying the whole of reality and weakened it, leading to the opening of ‘Gridgates’ to other worlds and aliens visiting the Earth. Reality storms imperil travel so that long term travel in in convoys and all forms of broadcast media act as vessels for a necrocosmic plague. Only the wealthy has access to any form of direct communication, whilst messages and recorded media are delivered directly. Long distance travel is via the Thunder Road, a continental network of highways and fuel stations controlled by Lord Thunder, the leader of the Sanction.

In the world of Gridshock 20XX, the Player Characters are Vectors. They possess the ability to warp the Grid and thus reality, manipulating it in their favour. Vectors are typically human, but can also be gatecrashers from other realities or hybroids—one of the genetically engineered labour force. Whilst Vectors have superpowers, they do not operate as the superheroes of old. They do not wear spandex and they do not patrol looking for crime. That, combined with the flashiness of their powers, would make it easier for the Supremacy to find them. Instead, they travel the Thunder Road, looking for work and when they can, attempting to strike a blow for justice and freedom. Vectors are meant to be proactive and fight for what is right, forge new alliances, push their powers to the limits of reality—and perhaps beyond, reclaim hope and rebuild civilisation, and explore the secrets of old world and the new.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is the character book for the series, the bulk of which is devoted to twelve Vector Templates that a player can chose from. These have one of five sources—Genetic, Mystic, Necrocosmic, Omegalithic, and Technologic. Genetic means that the source is biological; Mystic means the source is derived from a bond or pact with the supernatural; Necrocosmic is tied to the Necrocosm, the dark echo of where daemons come from; Omegalithic, linked to the weird crystalline substance salvaged from encounters with the Omegas before the Shock; and Technologic means that a device or cybernetics are the source. The Vectors Templates consist of the Ace, which is skill and training focused; the Fabricator, equipped with an illegal portable omegatechnology factory; Free Agent, which has been in stasis since before the Shock and uses a psionic amplifier for its powers; a Gatecrasher, an alien from another world or dimension; the Gridjockey, which can use any power by rewiring the Grid temporarily; the Hybroid is a human genetically engineered with animal DNA; the Neogenic has unique superhuman abilities; the Outcaster is empowered by the Dreaming Mother; the Revenant had his lifeforce drained by an unliving being from the Deadside, but is still in possession of his Geist and still needs to feed on the lifeforce of others; the Roguebot is illegal in the Supremacy; the Suitjack is bonded with a relic battlesuit of pre-Shock Omegatechnology; and the Ultra-Knight is a hunter of daemanoids and other evildoers.

Besides the base stats, each Template instructs the player to select one or more powers and specialities, whilst choosing three qualities from the list given. A player can take a Template as written, but each Template also suggests three variants. For example, the Ace Template also gives the Neo-Ninja, the Neutraliser, and the Vigilante as alternatives, whilst for the Outcaster, there is the Daemonologist, Exorcist, and Warlock. In each case, there is an explanation too, of how to create them from the given base Template. All together, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster provides thirty-six possible Vector types beyond the base twelve for a total of forty-eight options.

The last two pages of Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster details a pair of ‘Threats and Menaces’. The first is Daemons, of which there are several types and which can only assume physical form in Realspace for a limited amount of time. The information here expands upon that given in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap, whilst the second type is given ready made stats. These are for Exhumans, those who have had their lifeforce drained by an unliving being from the Deadside. Ordinary humans drained are converted into Shamblers, whilst Superhumans so drained return as Exhuman NPCs after a few panels. Several types are included, like the Annexator, which boosts the abilities of other Exhumans, the Demolisher—which can be formed from ordinary Shamblers in time, and the Shambler itself. These nicely tie in the with the Revenant Template earlier in the book as well as expanding the threats available for the Game Master to use.

Physically, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is very nicely presented in swathes of red and black. The artwork is decent, but the typography is difficult to read in places.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 2: Roster is a solid continuation of Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap. It firmly focuses on the player and the types of character he can create, whilst for the Game Master the Templates can be used for NPCs as well as using the monsters.

[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.

[Fanzine Focus XXXIX] Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons,RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Another popular choice of system for fanzines, is Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, but then there are outliers, fanzines for genres, let alone roleplaying games, which you would never expect to receive support in this format.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. Published by VX2 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, this is a product which is very different in many ways. It is a fanzine for the superhero genre, it is a fanzine for ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying, and as superhero fanzine, it actually presents a post-apocalyptic setting. All three factors make it standout as different. As the name suggests, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap is the first in the series for the fanzine, but there is only a total of four issues.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap presents an overview of its setting, gives a timeline that runs from antiquity to now, and makes a few additions and changes to the ICONS system. The setting is the North American continent, its society ripped apart in 1986 by an event known as the Shock. This occurred when the mysterious Omegas attacked a project to build a psionic computer network powered by extradimensional energy. The Omegas stopped it, but the Aftershock swept round the world, killing millions and making millions disappear, substituting familiar landscape with alien ones, turning the sky violet, and causing stars to occasionally be replaced by unknown ones. Almost none of the superheroes who fought the Omegas survived and those that did are missing. In the chaos of the Aftershock that saw government collapse, the world’s supervillains and their allies seized control and each established their own fiefdoms or sectors that as a whole became known as the Supremacy. Each Sector is different in terms of its leader’s vision. For example, Sunrise Sector on the west coast is a corporate-controlled kleptocracy and the Sanction is a wasteland of oil fields dominated by a daemoniac narcissist, but all are dystopias of one kind or another!

The Shock also disrupted the Grid which underlies the whole of reality and weakened it, enabling links called ‘Gridgates’ to be established to other worlds, enabling aliens to visit the Earth. Reality storms imperil travel so that long term travel in in convoys and all forms of broadcast media act as vessels for a necrocosmic plague. Only the wealthy has access to any form of direct communication, whilst messages and recorded media are delivered directly. Long distance travel is via the Thunder Road, a continental network of highways and fuel stations controlled by Lord Thunder, the leader of the Sanction.

In the world of Gridshock 20XX, the Player Characters are Vectors. They possess the ability to warp the Grid and thus reality, manipulating it in their favour. Vectorisation means that this is accompanied by visual displays that means that it is never subtle. Vectors are typically human, but can also be gatecrashers from other realities or hybroids—one of the genetically engineered labour force. Whilst Vectors have superpowers, they do not operate as the superheroes of old. They do not wear spandex and they do not patrol looking for crime. That, combined with the flashiness of their powers, would make it easier for the Supremacy to find them. Instead, they travel the Thunder Road, looking for work and when they can, attempting to strike a blow for justice and freedom. Vectors are meant to be proactive and fight for what is right, forge new alliances, push their powers to the limits of reality—and perhaps beyond, reclaim hope and rebuild civilisation, and explore the secrets of old world and the new.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap makes some chances to ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying. The Game Master is replaced by the Grid Master and Vectors possess Vector Potential instead of Determination and Vector Points instead Determination Points. The attributes Prowess and Willpower are replaced by Fighting and Willpower. Some Powers are renamed, such as Attribute Boost instead of Ability Boost; others are replaced, such as Fabrication for gadgets; and still others are shifted from being Powers to being Extras of Powers, such as Force Field being made an Extra of Force Control. In addition, there are several new Powers. These include Fabrication, Geist Control, Gridjockeying, Protection, and Signature Vehicle. Limits and Extras are provided for all. Of these, Geist Control gives a Vector control of daemons, Ultra-Geists, and Liminals when they enter the Realspace of Earth, working like a Mind Control Power, whilst Gridjockeying enables a Vector to use a ‘Grid Intrusion Neural Interface’ to duplicate the effects of another Power! However, it is limited to the basic effect of a Power without mastering one via the ‘Routine’ Extra.

Optional rules in Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap allow for the Vectors to share and detail a motorrig, suggests some Qualities for Vectors, and offers a list of Specialities to reflect the action-orientated setting of Gridshock 20XX. There are some changes to how damage is handled, but notably this is not a setting in which there is ready access to armour. Unless it is a specific Power, armour simply reduces lethal damage to blunt damage.

Physically, Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap is very nicely presented in swathes of yellow and black. The artwork is reasonable, but the cartography is slightly difficult to read. The layout does switch in places between portrait and landscape format, not always to easy effect.

Gridshock 20XX ’Zine 1: Roadmap sets everything up for the three parts of the Gridshock 20XX quartet with a lot of intriguing content that suggests a very different style of superhero setting and a very different style of post-apocalyptic setting. Perhaps a combination of Mad Max meets the Thunder Lord?

Prohibition & Powers

The set-up for Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is really simple. It is the 1920s. It is the USA. Prohibition is in full swing and under the terms of the Volstead Act, the sale of alcohol is outlawed. Which means there is money to be made from making the stuff in illegal stills or smuggling it across the border from Canada. Which means criminals are getting rich from making people happy and officials and cops are topping up their pensions by looking the other way. However, not every cop or bureau agent is on the take. Some want to enforce the law and are brave enough to do it. Some even have the power to back it up, not just with a sense of fairness and justice and a Smith & Wesson .38 Special Model 1899 Military and Police Hand Ejector, but the ability to fly or create a stream of acid or pick up things up with their hair or manipulate probability or control small objects. Used at the right time and in the right fashion, any one of these abilities can help the law bust criminal activities or arrest a crook. However, the life of a law enforcement Caper—as these powered individuals are known—is not that easy, because just as a would-be Caper is drawn to uphold the law, another Caper is drawn to break it. There are Capers protecting gangs and syndicates, running numbers games, cooking the books, bootlegging, and bringing the number one prohibited substance into the country—alcohol.

Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is published by Nedburger Games, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is a super-powered roleplaying set in a Jazz Age, but not a Jazz Age that we would fully recognise. Capers are a known and recognised phenomenon, appearing in newspapers and news reports, many stories being of a sensationalist nature, whilst the Department of Justice has established a Registry of Abnormal Persons and begun tracking their locations and activities. Currently, registration is voluntary. Capers may face religious intolerance and there are doctors and hospitals who will not treat them, but the US Army is actively recruiting them and the media loves them! Elsewhere, Carla ‘Lucky’ Luciano is the right-hand-woman to New York Boss Arnold Rothstein and Al Capone’s mentor is Giada Torrio, and a broader range of ethnicities and genders are accepted at all levels of society. It is thus ahistorical, rather than truly historical and more representative of modern sensibilities. As is the feel of the roleplaying game and its look, is more akin to a cartoon show. A cartoon show that can be told from two different angles. One is with the cast of Capers as members of law enforcement and the other is with the cast of Capers as members of a criminal gang or organisation. In that, it shares some resemblance with the set-up in TSR, Inc.’s Gangbusters: 1920’s Role-Playing Adventure. However, as a super-powered roleplaying game, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is very much a ‘Street Level’ campaign and very much not a ‘Four Colour’ setting. Essentially, this is not a traditional cowl and capes style of superhero roleplaying game, but a setting more akin to the masked adventurers style of the following decade of the thirties—and that is even if the Caper wears a costume at all. All of which is detailed in a simple, easy to grasp introduction that explains its situation within a few pages.

A Player Character in Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is either an Exceptional or an actual Caper. There are also Regulars, but these are normal people and so not what a player will be typically roleplaying. An Exceptional will not have full superpowers, but will instead have Perks, such as ‘Lucky’, ‘Power-Resistant’, or ‘Speciality Skill’. There are only nine Perks given in the roleplaying game, as compared to the thirty-nine major and minor powers. What an Exceptional makes up for in terms of a limited choice of Perks is having a wider choice of general abilities, whereas a Caper will have a limited choice of general abilities and more powers. Beyond a concept, such as gangster, enforcer, bounty hunter, journalist, or federal agent, a Player Character has three Anchors. Consisting of Identity, Virtue, and Vice, these define who the Player Character is, and by roleplaying them, provide a means of the Player Character regaining Moxie. He also has six Traits—Charisma, Agility, Perception, Expertise, Resilience, and Strength—which are rated between one and three for Regulars, but can go as high as four or five for Capers. Each Trait has an associated Defence value, which is sets how difficult it is for an opponent to overcome a Player Character. He will have between three and five skills, and if a Caper either one or two Minor Powers or one Major Power, whilst if an Exceptional, a combination of either Perks or Trem-Gear. The latter consists of devices, weapons, and suits powered by the previously unknown radioactive element called Trembium, which is also found in the blood of Capers. It is possible to be injected with Trembium and temporarily gain powers, but similarly, it is possible to be injected with Anti-Trembium and Powers be temporarily negated. This sets up some interesting story possibilities, whilst the quick guide Trem-Gear in the book, with careful adjudication upon the part of the Game Master, might lend itself to some possible gadgeteering.

In general, skills are fairly broad, so Conveyances covers all vehicles, Sciences all of the sciences, and so on. How they are used varies though, depending on what a Player Character wants to do. To perform an impressive driving feat, for example, a bootlegger reverse, a player might combine his character’s Charisma Trait with his Conveyances skill, whilst attempting to drive into a narrow alley at high speed would use Agility and Conveyances instead. Notably, there is no Gambling skill or Performance skill, so the Game Master and player will need to work together to get skill and Trait combinations that work.

In comparison, Perks and Powers in Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties are much narrower in scope. Perks tend to provide better protection against an Exceptional’s powers than a Regular has. Minor Powers are more tightly focused and flashier in their use, and include Acid Stream, Body Armour, Concussion Beam, Dimensional Manipulation, Force Field, Mental Shield, and more. Major Powers are broader and include Dimension Step, Elasticity, Invisibility, Mimic, Speedster, and many enhancement to Traits, like Super Expertise or Super Strength. Some Powers are simply active all the time, whilst others require a Power Check to activate. Many also provide a range of different effects or Boosts. For example, the Speedster Major Power has the Chaperone Boost, the Damage Boost, the Lightning Boost, the Speed Boost, the Water Walk Boost, and the Whirlwind Boost. When creating his character, a player selects one of these Boosts as the standard effect for that Power. He can still do the others, but they are not as easy for him to do.

Creating an Exceptional or a Caper is a matter of making choices and assigning a few points to the Player Character’s Traits. The only random element is determining his Anchors—done by drawing cards from an ordinary deck of playing cards, but even this does not need to be done randomly.

Our example Caper is Arabella Bellange. She is a former magician’s assistant who graduated to stage magician when the magician had an unfortunate accident that meant he could not perform for a few months. Not Arabella’s doing, but rather he was unlucky and she was lucky. It seems that life goes that way for Arabella. She looks good on stage or when doing close-up tricks, but things just seem to go her way—and that includes the cards. Which suits her fine. She wants fame and money and she has the ambition to drive her into crime if she met the right person. She might come out of whatever they do smelling of roses, but her friend might not be so lucky…

Name: Arabella Bellange
Type: Caper
Identity: Leader
Virtue: Moderate
Vice: Vain

Body 9 Mind 9 Hits 14
Speed 30’
Level 1

TRAITS
Charisma 3 (Defence 10) Agility 2 (Defence 9) Perception 2 (Defence 9)
Expertise 2 (Defence 9) Resilience 2 (Defence 9) Strength 1 (Defence 8)

SKILLS
Deception, Insight, Sciences, Sleight of Hand

POWER
Minor – Probability Manipulation (Rank 1)
Minor – Hypnosis (Rank 1)

Mechanically, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties uses decks of ordinary playing cards and every player needs to have a deck of his own. Whenever a player wants his character to act, he flips over a card. The value of the card, its suit, and its colour determines the outcome and specific effects from the desired action. The value of the card determines if the action is a success or a failure, ranging from a Task Difficulty of Routine or four to Incredible or Ace. The Task Difficulty is set by the Game Master and kept secret until the Player Character succeeds or fails. The suit of the card will determine the degree of the success or failure, with Spades cards being the best and Clubs cards being the worst. So, if the value of the card indicates the action is successful and its suit is Spades, it is a ‘Success with a Boon’, but a ‘Success with a Complication’ if the suit is Clubs. Conversely, if the value of the card indicates the action is a failure and its suit is Spades, it is a ‘Failure with a Motivation’, but a ‘Botch’ if the suit is Clubs. The ‘Failure with a Motivation’ result means that the Player Character is pushed to try again and receive a point of Moxie to use on his next action. Drawing an Ace means that the Player Character succeeds with a Boon, or two, if the Ace of Spades. Drawing the red Joker will end the player’s turn and means the Player Character suffers a botch, but the black Joker means the Player Character succeeds with a boon and can take another action.

This is drawing just the one card, but a player can draw more. His Caper or Exceptional has a Card Count equal to the Trait being used. If using an appropriate skill, the Card Count will increase by one and if the Game Master grants Advantage on the action, it increases by one again. (Conversely, having Disadvantage on an action will decrease it by one and if the card Count is reduced to zero, the action cannot be attempted.) Each extra card flipped after the first replaces the previous card, the aim being to draw the best card possible, effectively turning every action into a gamble! A player’s deck is typically reshuffled after the end of a fight or significant scene.

For most actions, a player will determine the Card Count from a Trait or a combination of a Trait and an appropriate Skill if his character has one. For a Power Check, when a player wants his character to use a Power, the Card Count is equal to the Rank of the Power.

In addition, a Player Character has access to Moxie. It can be spent to increase the Card Count on an action, reduce incoming damage, gain a Boon, shape the narrative, take an extra action related to a Trait, recall a card (which must be a card used in current action rather than a previous one), reshuffle the deck immediately, and to have an Exceptional or a Caper commit an act of self-sacrifice, meaning that he takes damage from an attack rather than a colleague or NPC. Moxie is gained at the end of significant encounters, a player roleplaying his character’s Anchors—such as staying true to a Virtue or suffering a complication due to a Vice, or his character doing something cool or entertaining.

For example, Arabella Bellange is playing a high stakes Poker game. If she wins, she gets top billing at the speakeasy where she has been performing. If she loses, she has to work for the owner, Domenic ‘Peanuts’ Conigliaro, in the speakeasy for free for a year. Arabella wants to play this as straight possible, since she does not want to suffer any slight to her reputation that an accusation of cheating would cause, so is counting the cards and working the odds rather than resorting to deception. This will use her Expertise Trait, which gives her a base Card Count of two. Her Sciences skill will increase this by one to a total of three. The Game Master sets the Task Difficulty at Challenging or ten.

Arabella’s player turns over the top card of her deck. The card is a three of Hearts. This is not good enough to beat Arabella’s boss’ hand, so her player draws a second card, the nine of Spades, followed by the seven of Spades. Again, not enough. Arabella’s player decides to spend some Moxie. First to increase her Card Count by one. This means she can draw another card, but she spends a second to reshuffle her deck. Then she uses Probability Manipulation Power and its Control Boost to look at the top three cards of her deck and rearrange them. The cards are the ten of Diamonds, the eight of Clubs, and the Ace of Hearts in that order. Now the ten of Diamonds is enough to win the Poker game, but the Ace of Hearts is a surefire win and it grants Arabella a boon. She moves this to the top of her deck and with her last card drawn because of her increased Card Count draws the Ace of Hearts. Arabella’s boon is not only top billing at the speakeasy, but a better clothing allowance because a girl has to look her best… The Game Master agrees to this, but also because this ties in with her Vice of Vanity, awards her a point of Moxie.

Combat in Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties uses the same mechanic. Each participant will make an Agility/Sense Reaction Check to determine his place in the Initiative order, whilst Agility/Guns or Agility/Ranged Weapons are used for ranged attacks and Strength/Fisticuffs or Strength/Melee Weapons are used for melee combat. In either case, the Target Difficulty for the attacker is equal to the Defence value of the defender’s Body value. The amount of damage inflicted is determined by the Suit and Colour of the card used for the attack, Black and Spades inflicting the most damage. Damage typically ranges between one and six points, but can be higher, as the weapon used will modify this. If a Player Character’s Hits are reduced to zero, he is either temporarily removed from the story or dead, player’s choice. If a player chooses to have his character die, then he gets one final turn in which he can use all of his Moxie to affect the narrative. Similarly, if a character reduces an enemy to zero Hits, his player get to decide whether he is merely knocked unconscious or is killed.

An important or unexpected fight can be preceded by a standoff, in which the participants stare each other out and attempt to assess the abilities of their would-be opponents. Played out over three rounds, it can gain a Player Character the initiative and more cards to play on the resulting action check. Other actions include assessing an opponent, intimidating him, or using a Power to boost the Player Character.

Overall, there is pleasing depth to game play, with players not just aiming to draw cards of a value sufficient to overcome a challenge or inflict damage, but also of the right colour and suit to get a more beneficial outcome. Although a player will mainly be relying upon better Card Counts to increase the possibility of drawing better cards, the use of Moxie allows for some limited manipulation of the cards , hopefully, towards a better outcome.

In terms of setting, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties provides a short section of goods and services that noticeably includes prices for speakeasies, breweries, casinos, and hotels for gangster Exceptionals and Capers who want something to invest their ill-gotten gains in, as well as thirteen different Backdrops in which the Game Master can set her campaign. These are the big cities of the USA, notorious for their criminal underworlds during the era of Prohibition. Atlantic City, Chicago, and New York have several pages devoted to them each, covering recent history and the current state in the city, notable organisations and places, and people of note. Plus, stats are provided for the latter as well as a map of the city and story hooks for both law enforcement and gangster campaigns. The others, including Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, and Miami, only receive a page each, so will require some development upon the part of the Game Master to bring into play, especially if she wants to base her campaign in any one of them. The main three though, are very playable location write-ups ready for a campaign.

Similarly, law enforcement is given a broad overview before the Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties delves into a toolbox containing all manner of strange elements to bring into play. These include a selection of alternative earths, like ‘Capek’s Earth’ where automata have become part of everyday society; ‘Flipside’ where anyone from Principal Earth occupies the mind of their counterpart on this openly violent world where Al Capone is already dead; and ‘Madworld’, where the Central Powers used Capers to slaughter thousands in France, Capers in the USA are hated, hunted, and outlawed. These are all given the same degree of detail as the Backdrops of Atlantic City, Chicago, and New York, and together expand the storytelling possibilities of a campaign set in the world of Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties. There is a lot here that the Game Master can play around with in combining classic superhero style stories and elements with the cop with powers versus robbers powers nature of the setting. There is even Stone Island Beach, a secure island prison off the coast of New York for Capers, much like The Raft from the Marvel Universe.

All of this supported with advice for the Game Master on how to run the game, allow scope for player agency and input, adjudicate the rules, design adventures and encounters, and even on how to give animals powers and set up ‘events’ in which more people—either around the world or in one city—suddenly become Capers and explore the consequences that ensue. It is good solid advice, but there is a certain brevity to it. What it does not do is look at long term play in any of the roleplaying game’s three genres—law enforcement, crime, or superheroes—and the differences between them. What does a campaign look like? After all, a law enforcement campaign is going to be different from a criminal enterprise gang. The first is all about investigating criminal empires and tearing them down, whilst the second is all about building criminal empires up and preventing them from being torn down. The bibliography will provide some inspiration, as will familiarity with the genres, but this is definitely where the Game Master wanting to run a longer game of Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters could have done with more help and advice.

Physically, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties is neatly, cleanly presented. The artwork has a cartoon style, and there is a short, but engaging cartoon strip in the middle of the book.

Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties has a setting that is actually unique and sounds cool—superheroes and supervillains in the Roaring Twenties fighting for law and order or crime and corruption. The addition of superpowers is the game changer, of course, both in terms of the setting and play, but the various abilities feel suitably low key and never like they are going to overwhelm the setting or the storytelling. This is helped by the fact that the card-based mechanics always make the game play feel as if the players and their characters are pushing their luck and gambling on the outcome. If underdeveloped with regard to long term play, Capers: A Super-Powered Game of Gangsters in the Roaring Twenties offers a breezy, fast-paced, and intriguingly different combination of genres in a familiar setting.

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.

—oOo—

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.