New Marvel Multiverse Tabletop Role-Playing Game On the Way

Marvel is delving back into the world of tabletop roleplaying games, announcing that Marvel Multiverse is on the way. The company announced on Friday that the roleplaying game will arrive in 2022 with the Playtest Rulebook and will bring Marvel officially to the gaming table for the first time since 2013.

The announcement reveals that the game will be using a new system known as the D616 System, a reference to the prime continuity (Earth 616) of the Marvel comics universe. The Playtest Rulebook is written by Matt Forbeck (The Marvel Encyclopedia, Dungeons & Dragons: Endless Quest), with the D616 system described as “an accessible and easy-to-learn system for newcomers to tabletop RPGs and a natural evolution for those familiar with the most popular tabletop role-playing games on the market. Use Might, Agility, Resilience, Vigilance, Ego, and Logic to win the day, and discover your true abilities as you face impossible odds!”

Marvel has been no stranger to the RPG community, with four RPGs designed for the company. The first, Marvel Super Heroes, was designed by original D&D company TSR and is perhaps the best-known of the systems. It was expanded into the Marvel Superheroes Advanced Game, which used the same system involving attributes, percentile dice, and power categories from “Feeble” to “Unearthly” and beyond. The second game was the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game, designed by SAGA Games, which ran from 1998 through 2000 and used a Fate Deck mechanic. The other two games, Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, were designed by Marvel themselves and Margaret Weis Production in 2003 and 2012. Both were short-lived despite strong sales.

The announcement notes that the Playtest Rulebook will allow people who pick it up and play it “an opportunity to help shape the game with a chance to offer feedback on the rules before its full release in 2023.” More details will be coming soon.

“As a lifelong Marvel fan and gamer, this project is a dream come true,” said Forbeck. “Fortunately, after writing a couple editions of The Marvel Encyclopedia and designing tabletop games professionally for over 30 years, I feel ready to help make this the best Marvel TTRPG experience ever. I can’t wait for everyone to have the chance to play it!”