The Unheroic Demise of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

In the world of super-hero comics the death of a hero can be an ostentatious event and great characters often don't stay dead for long. Unfortunatly I feel that the loss of licencing from Marvel for Margaret Weiss Productions' Marvel Heroic Roleplaying will not follow the same narrative cycle as the heros it portrays.

Annihilation - omen of an RPG.

This one really hurts as I've only seen good stuff regarding this game and have purchased almost everything on the shelf for it at my FLGS. I even asked if they could bring in a hard copy of "Civil War - X-Men"

So what happened here? I have my own theories and something about the following quote from MWP doesn't ring quite true - there's something not exactly transparent.

"And in Marvel news… the economics of licensing a tie-in product is always something we have to weigh carefully. We brokered an admittedly ambitious license with Marvel. Our first event, CIVIL WAR, was successful and well received, but it didn’t garner the level of sales necessary to sustain the rest of the line. We’ve learned from this and are taking a very different approach with the other licensed properties we’re bringing out to you in the next three years. We believe we created a great game. Those of you that have supported us have been terrific, and we appreciate you. But, unfortunately, we will not be bringing any new product out under the Marvel line. We know this affects our customers. Those that have pre-ordered Annihilation will receive a full refund or a credit worth 150% of their Annihilation order to use on existing or future product".

Really? This game has hardly been out for a year. It also was the 2012 ENnie Awards Silver Award winner for Best Game and Gold Award winner for best rules. They even say in the quote above that CIVIL WAR was successful and well received. How much better was this expected to be. I can't help but think that somehow this has something to do with Marvel over valuing their licence for this game after the success of the Avengers movie. If this game can't make enough money to be viable then I seriously doubt Marvel will be able to find a game company (or develop a game themselves) that will "garner the level of sales necessary to sustain the rest of the line".

If MWP would come clean with the details maybe the fans could do something regarding this. Specifically, did MWP dump the line because they couldn't make enough money on it? I hope not because they just invested in that tired old property "Firefly". If they dumped Marvel Heroic because they felt they couldn't keep both it and their other newly acquired properties then that would be tragedy. That would essentially mean that they were not prepared to let Marvel Heroic grow and produce returns for them and that they took the money we spent on it and rolled it into a licence for crap like "Firefly".

If that isn't the case, it means that Marvel wanted too much for the line as negotiated between the two  and MWP couldn't make enough profit to viably keep publishing the line- "an admittedly ambitious license". Also if the stuff already written is now being scrapped that means MWP expected to take a loss if they continued. The other scenario here is that Marvel was in a position to request even more for the licence after a set time period, and seeing the success of their Avengers movie, jacked up the fees, making Marvel Heroic unviable. 

Here's the situation. If MWP pulled out because they felt they would rather focus on other properties because they were more profitable than Marvel Heroic, but Marvel Heroic was still making money then basically it's over. If MWP lost the license from Marvel because it was too expensive then it's clobbering time. Basically it's unlikely that a new Marvel RPG is going to do better than Marvel Heroic. Its popular and won 2 ENnies. Marvel has to understand the "actual value " of its propery in the RPG game industry. They can either make some money or no money. But here is the game changer. If a game that was popular in the circle of customers that would be interested in such a game didn't generate enough value to continue the line, we need to let Marvel know that we want it to support Marvel Heroic, and that we will not be supporting any forthcoming system. This in effect will make any Marvel RPG completely unviable, unprofitable and generate nothing for Marvel and its properties. If Marvel wants to make any money from our hobby they need to renegotiate a new deal with MWP to continue the Marvel Heroic line. Simply put, we don't need Marvel to keep playing this game, we can make the content ourselves,the OSR has proven that it can be done, and MWP could easily publish the operations manual without the Marvel IP. Marvel has an opportunity to create even more fans, make some money, and watch a game line grow, with the future opportunity to make money on RPGs for every comic book tie in / event they have ever published and/or ever will. However this is Disney - creator of the Disney Vault - they're perfectly willing to sit on this, It's worked for them in the past. This time it's different, because if we keep building our own events and data files then there will never be a demand for a Marvel RPG. Our community will become the one with all the content and all the players. If Marvel sits on this they lose.

d30 Quest

Some people really don't like the "funky" (I can't stand that word) dice included as part of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rules. I'm not one of them. I like dice, especially RPG dice, a lot. When I first noticed the GameScience "Zochi" dice I was interested right away but didn't move toward a purchase mostly because of a single die in my collection - the d30.

My d30 purchased c. 1986 at Hans Christian Toys at the local mall.

At the time I thought this was the coolest thing ever, even though I'd never read any rules that used the thing, and I had assumed that said rules would be forthcoming (why else make the thing - right?). That didn't really happen, at least not for me. My friend Chris, whom I ran most of my dungeons for, also bought one. We never used it for anything other than rolling to hit or for damage (and not under any house rule either - just when we thought it would be crazy). The only hint I ever received that this chunk of plastic had any use in an RPG was when I discovered that The Armory published a book of tables for use with it. I can't remember when I first discovered this product and I can't remember if I saw an advertisement for it or saw it at a game store. I've never had one in my hands but you can look at one online here.

It's a crime that this wasn't included with every d30.

So DCCRPG comes along and I'm super excited about this. I want to see how the new dice work in the game and I have a reason to get new dice (I lie to myself that this is even a requirement to get more dice). Best of all my d30 is actually good for something.

I order a 12 piece Gamescience set  on eBay and it was great except that it doesn't come with the d7 or d30 so I have to get those extra at my FLGS. I see what they have at the store and the d30 is huge (I already thought the d30 I had was massive) and has nothing even close to a hard edge on it. I'm not a big fan of "polished" dice and this one is by far the worst. So what do I do next. I find another set of dice I can use for DCC with mostly different shapes and go and buy those too even though they are mismatched sizes and the d30 is exactly like the one I bought at my FLGS. I'm still glad I bought them however.

Nice useless pips under the 16, 19, 26 and 29 Brainiac.

So what I decide I really want is to be able to find a d30 like the one I originally had. It's pretty beat up so I'd like to have a new one or one like new even though it still rolls better than the two newest ones I've acquired. Then I get word from my friend Jim that there is a d30 like the one I want in with a bag of other used dice for three dollars. I'm still not sure what kind of dice some of those are, but the d30 is exactly like my old d30 except for the colour and much better condition. What great luck.

A real treasure.

I don't know if these are GameScience or Armory, but they don't wear as well as any other GameScience dice I own so I'm going to assume they are Armory. The bigger ones I am lead to believe are Koplow. Besides those three, I can't find any other companies or styles of d30, but I'll keep looking.

My two styles compared to a GameScience d20.

Game Play Update

As has been obvious to anyone dropping by here I haven't been very active lately. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's been a busy time for gaming since JimCon in November.

Around the new year I was invited to join a group for a game held every two weeks. The home it is hosted in has a dedicated game room which is very nice and the hosts are active gamers (thanks Greg and Sara). Our first meet up was to decide what kind of experience we wanted to build here. We came to a decision that we would start with Basic D&D to create a campaign. I offered to DM (the players are Greg aka Radek, Sara aka Emmie, Jim aka Greybeard, Tyler aka Philippe and Paul aka Rogan). It was discussed that perhaps we could play a variety of game systems but most of the players wanted an ongoing campaign so they could develop their characters. I suggested that we could possibly have a campaign where the characters are transported to different worlds that would support a unique genre and allow the use of a new game with characters being converted to the new system. We've been going through the "Haunted Keep" and that's been very fun and of course it supports basic. I'll be switching us over to Castles & Crusades soon as it will be easier to convert the majority of the materials I have in mind for the near future. Once we move to C&C I'm not sure that moving away from that sytem will be necessary. Horror and Pulp adventures are being considered and I may just run something with the Lejendary Adventure rules. Only time will tell.

Also in the new year I was invited (through JimCon acquaintances) to come out for a monthly game day being put on by people interested in miniatures gaming. I've been playing Battletech with Nathan.  My game is starting to see some improvement. I'm actually using some tactics. I missed this last month but am looking forward to using my new miniatures next a few weeks from now.

I've also been playing in some Pathfinder Society games. I GMed Night March of Kalkamedes at the spring Game Knight Game Day and have been playing a few selected scenarios here and there. 

My Alchemist Gravidad died. I'm also finding the d20 Fantasy rules that Pathfinder uses to be somewhat unsatisfying, especially compared with Tom Moldvay's Basic D&D rulebook. I'm not the first person to say this, nor is this the first time I've mentioned it, but Moldvay's presentation of the D&D rules may be the single best version ever made and are especially the most elegant.

7 RPGs Meme

Ok, here goes....I don't usually participate in these things but I think it's interesting to read about what games other people play and hope you do too.

Basically the idea is to post the top seven RPGs you've played or refereed. These are mine.

Dungeons & Dragons (B/X and 1e)

Star Wars (WEG)

Marvel Superheroes (TSR - also Advanced Game)


Pathfinder

Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP - I.C.E.)

Conan (TSR)

Ghostbusters (WEG/Chaosium)

JimCon II

Ok so a lot has been happening since my last post.

JimCon II
I ran three games at what is becoming Winnipeg's best gaming convention.

Friday evening was Battle Tech. Me and Ray (who writes Shadowrun stuff for Catalyst Game Labs) played a game of my own invention where his mech lance (House Steiner) was attempting to beat rival factions to a drop ship lost for over 200 years. In the way was a lance of Com Star mechs blocking any transmissions allowing for the request of reinforcements. Ray was able to aquire the signal jamming trasmitter, winning the scenario. I had a couple of other scenarios planned that led to the drop ship and its cargo but Ray had to check out some other tables. It was a great game. We used the Total Warfare rulebook, which I find is very much the same rules as the original boxed set that I brought along with me.

Saturday was Castles & Crusades.
What a downer – nobody signed up to play. I had a couple of people look over the rule books and a few were even interested in playing until a Pathfinder table opend up for them.  I did an interview for TV and rescued a dog wandering around in the parking lot. Thanks JimCon volunteers for helping me out!

Sunday was Gamma World (2nd Edition)
We played an adventure of my own divising that took place around the "Free Town of Pinawa".
Turns out that one of the players was actually from Pinawa, Manitoba.
I wasn't quite prepared for all the charts in this game but it seemed like everyone had as much fun as I did. I really found the system refreshing to run in its uncomplicated rules set. Everything was there in that ancient box.

Super Heroic

   I wish I had more time and a group of players that were

interested in a variety of games.

Recently I acquired a copy of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

This game is very cool. Its all about collective storytelling and dramatic tension.

I adore the initiative in this game. The first person to react usually goes first. Its really isn't that important as that person chooses who goes next and so forth. Don't get caught with letting all the bad guys go last!

Players essentially build dice pools based on their powers (and other stats) in combination with their description of the action(s) they are describing. Dice pools are made up of d4 to d12. Stats are described as having a die value. Ones are discarded and the two (or more if you spend plot points) highest (usually) dice are totalled up. You choose your effect die from any left over. Its not the number on the die that counts toward effect but the size of the die.

I haven't played a game yet but it looks interesting. I'd like to give it a whirl at/on ConstantCon sometime.

I understand that this game is based on the Cortex System also by Margaret Weiss Productions. This rules set looks like a universal system to build whatever type of game you want around it.  I might have to take a look at this sometime and build some kind of warped fantasy thing out of it.

The supers thing has made me take a look back at the old TSR Marvel Super Heroes game. I still think this game holds up, however I do think that Marvel Heroic suits my tastes as an experienced and adult player much more than the older system. If your never had a chance to play MSH (FASERIP) or you don't have your old edition anymore you can get the 4C System (Four Colors System) here for free.

At the time Marvel Super Heroes was excellent. The universal table was a great way to express the powers of the heroes being played. I don't think that translated into 3rd edition Gamma World very well and wasn't quite what was required for Adventures of Indiana Jones. TSR Conan somehow worked well with this though I'm not sure why.

I also looked into the BASH Superhero RPG this looks like something in between Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Heroic.

Marvel heroic is $19.99 Print – $12.99 PDF
4C System is $6.30 Print – FREE PDF both at Lulu
BASH Ultimate Edition is £23.99 at Cubicle Seven  
$9.99 PDF at RPGNow

Mostly all a great value. I'm especially fond of Marvel Heroic being a new game at a great price. Its even printed like a comic book graphic novel collection.

I've been really busy creating this OSR Manitoba group lately as well as playing Pathfinder Society Organized Play games (my character was killed by JuJu Zombies tonight).

The idea of running classics RPGs seems to be fairly popular but I haven't run or played in any games yet. I'm hoping to get something going on July 29 (the day in the year opposite my birthday).

I guess the main theme here is that although I haven't been working on RPG projects - including blogging - I've been playing. With playing has come a lot of new friends and a network of players and GMs. Its a great source of inspiration. I really enjoy the different play styles and seeing what is important to a person's game.

I've also become quite interested in Google+ games in hangouts. I haven't tried one yet but I'm going to host one soon and maybe jump into one via ConstantCon. Also wanting to try out Tabletop Forge.