APN: I can explain Marvel Saga. Are you being serious? I'm pretty good at it (I think) because I've explained it to more newbies than long term players. Mind you, I've explained them as well.


Now, Marvel Saga is the one with the cards. Not the one with the beads. Which, never quite "worked" for me.

If you have *anything* (some text file with a combat example broken down maybe) that would be great with regards teaching me Marvel Saga. I have the book in front of me but can't find any combat broken down step by step save on 42/43 of the game book (Spiderman vs Electro, Rhino and JJ Jameson with a pen) and thought I had it but wanted to be sure before I taught the basics to my playing group for a tryout.

I get:

Edge & Hand
Playing cards and trump
Doom cards

Injuries are a bit odd - you remove values of cards but for bad guys they have health scores (because they don't have cards)?

Anything you have for noobs/thickos would be appreciated! Cheers!

Quote from: APN;507267Anything you have for noobs/thickos would be appreciated! Cheers!

It would be easier to run a short game on IRC
I can write something up though. I'll try sometime this weekend.

IRC is probably out (I'm guessing you're in America and 'middle of the night' is not good for you). Think I just need the basics - step by step this is what you do with fights, what cards you draw, when, and what happens with the other guy while you're doing all that. If you can sort that out it would be a great help! Thanks for any help you can offer in any case...

They are doing a core book, and a series of event based editions (Civil war for instance).

Therein lies the interesting (covering events) and the problematic. The problem as I see it is that characters will be spread across event books. Without a dedicated X Men or Avengers book you might have to collect several event books to get the avengers line up all in the same place. That said, no one really knows who is going to be in which book. The core book (to my mind) should have Spiderman, Wolverine, Cap America, Thor, Hulk, Silver Surfer and the Fantastic Four as a minimum in it. The thing that gave rise to my concern was the list of villains going in the basic game:

Armadillo, the Brothers Grimm, Bushwacker, Carnage, Chemistro, Constrictor, Controller, Count Nefaria, Crossbones, Crossfire, Crusader, Cutthroat, Electro, Graviton, Grey Gargoyle, Griffin, Hydro-Man, Jigsaw, Living Laser, Mandrill, Mentallo, Mister Fear, Mister Hyde, Purple Man, Razor-Fist, Scarecrow, Silver Samurai, Tiger Shark, Typhoid Mary, Vermin, Zzzax, the Wrecking Crew, the U-Foes, and our friends from the Savage Land (including Karl Lykos himself). Plus Yelena Belova, the other Black Widow.

Lots of these guys turn up once in a blue moon, get their ass kicked and disappear again. Others I haven't even heard of, or haven't seen for so long I don't have a clue whose rogues gallery they are supposed to belong to.

The event books are:

Feb: the basic rule book is released
Mar: the Civil War event book premium and essential versions
Apr: the 50 states initiative book for Civil War
May: Young avengers / runaways book for Civil War
Jun: X-men book for Civil War, and the Annihilation event book premium and essential versions
Jul: Conquest for Annihilation
Aug: War of Kings for Annihilation
Sep: Thanos Imperative for Annihilation, Age of Apocalypse event book Premium and Essential versions
Oct: Generation Next for Apocalypse
Nov: Human High Council for Apocalypse
Dec: X-Ternals for Apocalypse.

I already preordered the core book, but what's in that will determine what else I buy (though I'm a sucker for collecting hero games, so my guess is 'all of them'. We'll see.)

No Dr. Doom in the core book? Screw that. Looks like they're trying for a White Wolf "collectible-splats" approach to this one. I hope it bankrupts 'em.

Yeah, I never even liked FASERIP compared to Hero or even Mayfair's DC, but after the SAGA system, the beads and now this, Face Rip is lookin' better and better over time.
Although I'm not immediately offended by the idea that each character gets separate writeups depending on what story arc is being represented.  Because let's face it, that's how comic books WORK.  It's also how a lot of simulation games work- the German army in The Guns of August isn't nearly as badass in 1918 as they were in 1914, for example.  Certainly the Captain America who said "No- YOU move" wasn't the same one who just punked out and gave up in CIVIL WAR.

In any event, this thread as at least given me the phrase "furry cock cheese of Agamemnon spell."  

JG

I suppose that, so long as the basic book allows players to create their own heroes and villains, it won't be so much of an issue. But it won't give a huge amount of Marvel setting/background to work with. As a generic SHRPG it may then be quite decent. What i've seen of the system and what's implied in that Captain America writeup looks interesting. But this approach really doesn't convince me. MSHAG had about 30 heroes and villains and they were mainly the big guns, including silver surfer, xmen, and the avengers, as well as Dr Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin and Annihilus. No one I hadn't heard of.

Once the NDA is up I'll give you all playtest impressions.

APN I pmed you, let me know where to send this thing...

I still think IRC may be better. Faster to explain as we play than writing out hypotheitcals..

Thanks for doing that Silverlion - hopefully I'll get some use out of the Marvel game now rather than wondering "what the heck do I do with this?"

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;507956I suppose that, so long as the basic book allows players to create their own heroes and villains, it won't be so much of an issue. But it won't give a huge amount of Marvel setting/background to work with. As a generic SHRPG it may then be quite decent. What i've seen of the system and what's implied in that Captain America writeup looks interesting. But this approach really doesn't convince me. MSHAG had about 30 heroes and villains and they were mainly the big guns, including silver surfer, xmen, and the avengers, as well as Dr Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin and Annihilus. No one I hadn't heard of.

Even if they don't, hacking character creation together doesn't look too hard, from the example of that sheet. With more examples to go from, and the actual game mechanics in hand, it should be easy.

Hey folks!

Creating and modifying existing hero data files is not hard at all. It's a lot like how Marvel Super Heroes allowed you to modify or create new heroes in FASERIP. For folks who like to go gonzo over random rolls, we've got a free download being prepped to do that, although that's not a part of the actual Basic Game book.

If you only know about the system from Serenity or Smallville, you may have some basic idea (traits rated in dice, rolling pools of dice, use Plot Points to modify outcomes) but it's a lot different. I like to design toward the license rather than slap the license onto an existing system, so Marvel Heroic Roleplaying got a lot of attention to make it play like a comic book story, with all that you'd expect from that.

Cheers,
Cam

Quote from: Cam Banks;508154Hey folks!

Creating and modifying existing hero data files is not hard at all. It's a lot like how Marvel Super Heroes allowed you to modify or create new heroes in FASERIP. For folks who like to go gonzo over random rolls, we've got a free download being prepped to do that, although that's not a part of the actual Basic Game book.
Cheers,
Cam

Quick someone shake the eight-ball that is Cam and see if we get a clearer answer...