Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Concerns About Marvel: Heroic RPG

As you all - the regular readers anyhow - should know, I am currently running a Marvel Heroic RPG. It is going well, and my players seem to be having fun. However, the game does enough things differently that I am having some concerns about the system and wanted to expand on my thoughts. Perhaps someone here will have the solutions for my woes, or perhaps it is just something that needs to be out there to be addressed. Some of these are a lot less serious than others, but they still deserve at least some mention. Let's begin.

Character Progression Is Stunted
One of the coolest things about the Marvel Heroic RPG is that when you make your character you get to make him/her at the power level that you feel they should be at. There is no power levels or leveling up system for you to deal with. If you want to start off as Wolverine, then you get to start off as Wolverine. In a very real way this is one of the game's selling points. Hero's you make can be just as good as the main heroes in the Marvel universe, or - if you want - you can actually pick up and play one of marvels big heroes.

On the downside however, it can lead to character progression feeling stunted. Now, this is a trade off players have to keep in mind, but it can cause problems when you feel like you have no way to spend your XP or that your character isn't growing in the way you've grown used to in other games. Now, again, the player can mitigate this, but it is something that I've noticed as a potential problem. Especially now as several of my players are thinking to try other characters out (not a bad thing.) Normally this wouldn't concern me, but when 1/2 the game all want to swap out for someone different, perhaps weaker, an that 1/2 are the people who have gamed the longest, you can see it as a warning sign.

The Woes of One Powerset
Some of the most awesome and spectacular characters in the Marvel universe would have only one powerset. The Hulk, for instance, only has his Gamma Radiation stuff going on that turns him into the Hulk. Venom and Carnage, on the more villainous side, only have their symbiote to give them powers. Someone like Superman would only have one powerset (Kryptonian Blood, or something.) However, when you do this in the game you in effect cripple yourself. Your average dice pool for something like combat is one die smaller than other characters, but that one die is incredibly significant. You now have to spend more Plot Points to have additional effects (since you don't have the dice to do it normally) or to add more dice to the total of your roll. Your chances for variance in rolls is a lot higher. More importantly, you feel one of your big die's rolls a lot more keenly since if a D12 rolls poorly you likely have very little to back it up.

I don't think this was intended by the designers as a potential problem. I think they meant for all characters to do fairly well here. However, in play both my players who have limited themselves to one powerset have said they've keenly felt the effects of it. I've also found myself adding in a second power set, even if it may be a bit redundant, on some villains just so they can keep up. Fortunately, this problem is quite easily solved simply with having a second power set on the characters. Still, it is something to keep in mind.

Unlockables Are Weird
This is more from a GM standpoint, but I feel weird about the unlockables that are supposed to be present. It feels weird to allow a player to spend 5 xp to "make Black Panther available later on or otherwise have him help." To me, that sort of stuff should be covered by Role Play and Role Play alone. As such, I've had trouble with dropping unlockables into my games. It is something I need to get over - probably starting with how I view XP in this system - but it is still there.

The Core Problem
The core problem that I am seeing is the same that I saw when my group tried out Houses of the Blooded by John Wick. The game is different from the kind of RPG that I, and many of my group, are used to playing. It is different on a fundamental level as well. Because of that, the differences are going to be more glaring and cause more growing pains. I still like the system. In fact, I like it a lot. However, there are issues that I need to find my own way around or the game will suffer from it.

Your thoughts?

7 comments:

  1. Great review, I keep meaning to pick it up, but I just haven't gotten it yet, I keep buying FATE stuff for some reason...

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  2. Unlockables does seem like a strange concept. The only comparison I can think of is to the CP2020 lifepath results that end up with the PC making a friend/gaining a contact. This costs nothing, is just down to chance, and is usually controlled by the GM. Spending xp for 'awesome thing to happen' doesn't seem quite right...

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  3. Yeah, there are definitely things that can be done with XP, but it is still weird and different. Especially since much of the things players have spent XP on has been non-permanent stuff. Such as starting each session with more plot points (only lasts for one act) or unlocking the use of something/turning something better (lasts one act or one story.)

    With how they're used it feels less like EXPERIENCE points and more like something else. Narrative Points or something.

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  4. I ditched unlockables and milestones, expanded expertise in both directions (runs from a d6 to d12) and installed an xp advancement system. I converted existing PCs from my ongoing Marvel game for my players for a brief test run and when I run a full on Marvel campaign from scratch I will have a character creation system. My players want to create their own characters, not run ones from the comics.

    I also hacked the system to run a Star Trek game. Overall I like the system, but there are some bumps.

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  5. I also find the unlockables a bit troublesome, as I don't tend to think about gaining aid of NPCs as a prize, but rather an aspect of role play. It does, however, mirror other games like D&D 4ed, where tabletop RPGs are trying to incorporate elements of video games.

    I do, however, love the idea of milestones -- where your experience comes from playing your character to its concept.

    Like others, I have expanded on the specialties: stretching it to d6 (trained). If the character has a background or concept that would suggest some experience in a specialty they don't have, I allow them a d4 if they are under 3dx for a test.

    Here's my initial review: http://blackcampbell.com/2012/02/23/quick-review-marvel-heroic-roleplaying-rpg/

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  6. I have a question that I haven't found a good answer for yet: suppose a hero wants to do something completely outside his ability set. Like Luke Cage has to land a chopper. OK he gets one die for his affiliation, MAYBE a distinction of he's lucky, no power set, and no skills. That's two dice not even enough for two dice and an effect die. If he spend a PP then he can maybe get enough dice together for a roll... But still it seems like unless your hero is doing something with in his bailiwick the system really isn't designed to handle it...

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  7. I have a question that I haven't found a good answer for yet: suppose a hero wants to do something completely outside his ability set. Like Luke Cage has to land a chopper. OK he gets one die for his affiliation, MAYBE a distinction of he's lucky, no power set, and no skills. That's two dice not even enough for two dice and an effect die. If he spend a PP then he can maybe get enough dice together for a roll... But still it seems like unless your hero is doing something with in his bailiwick the system really isn't designed to handle it...

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