Cam, nice to see you posting here!

What led to the decision to split characters up by storyline? Why not do character books so they are easy to find?

Quote from: danbuter;508289Cam, nice to see you posting here!

What led to the decision to split characters up by storyline? Why not do character books so they are easy to find?

We have worked very closely with Marvel's licensing and publishing departments both before and during the production and development of the game. Our initial planning meeting with Marvel made it clear that they really liked the idea of tying the game to specific events or crossovers. Given the many interesting story lines, changes, power switch ups, and so forth that each character gets, it made sense to us to think of each event as a self-contained "setting" around which we would create product.

We can manage "easy to find" with proper indexing and character lists, too. I think the Basic Game will show off what we're able to do with book and event structure.

Cheers,
Cam

Quote from: Cam Banks;508277Give me a clearer question. Wait, was there a question?

Cheers,
Cam

Do we get character creation rules?

Quote from: Silverlion;508347Do we get character creation rules?

Yup!

Cheers,
Cam

Quote from: Cam Banks;508335We have worked very closely with Marvel's licensing and publishing departments both before and during the production and development of the game. Our initial planning meeting with Marvel made it clear that they really liked the idea of tying the game to specific events or crossovers. Given the many interesting story lines, changes, power switch ups, and so forth that each character gets, it made sense to us to think of each event as a self-contained "setting" around which we would create product.

We can manage "easy to find" with proper indexing and character lists, too. I think the Basic Game will show off what we're able to do with book and event structure.

Cheers,
Cam

Not to mention that's a very clever way of plotting out a lengthy splatbook run.  Everytime Marvel reinvents the universe (which happens now, what, weekly? ) you get a new setting.  :hatsoff:

Quote from: CRKrueger;508368Not to mention that's a very clever way of plotting out a lengthy splatbook run.  

I think you mean transparent.

Quote from: CRKrueger;508368Not to mention that's a very clever way of plotting out a lengthy splatbook run.  Everytime Marvel reinvents the universe (which happens now, what, weekly? ) you get a new setting.  :hatsoff:

That's a great point.  Like I said, the writeup-for-every-arc approach fits the way superhero comics actually work.

JG

There are 1-2 marvel crossover events every year, plus for specific characters certain strong storylines that can be turned into sourcebooks. Plenty to go at I guess. All depends on how it sells. Last time out Marvel cancelled the MURPG (Diceless) game because it didn't sell in D&D numbers, according to some accounts. Some fans didn't get on with it, and it sure could've done with a revision and/or 2nd edition to more clearly define the powers and fix the 'death spiral' but it wasn't as bad as people make out. We'll have to see with this one, but Cam is (in my opinion) making the right moves by stoking up the interest with fans when he shows up on forums.

The MU game was interesting. I think it could have been made to worked really well. I even like the tone of the book, the fact that it avoided commonly used roleplaying jargon and conventions, in an attempt perhaps to be less of a niche product designed for a niche audience.

But what really put me off though was how labour intensive running NPCs in a fight promised to be.

Quote from: Soylent Green;508621The MU game was interesting. I think it could have been made to worked really well. I even like the tone of the book, the fact that it avoided commonly used roleplaying jargon and conventions, in an attempt perhaps to be less of a niche product designed for a niche audience.

But what really put me off though was how labour intensive running NPCs in a fight promised to be.

That and it needed a really good editing pass. I was more frustrated with the fact that it focused on round to round accounting, rather than smaller number of energy to power up actions.

I'm interested to hear on any ideas how the energy mechanic might be improved. Basically, if you had no energy you were screwed, so it was all out for one round, then on the defensive and hope to recover for 3 rounds, then all out again. If someone had significantly more energy (or wounded the other guy and reduced their energy pool) it was a foregone conclusion, with no random slip ups or occurrences that happen in the comics. I think that's why I burnt out with GMing it (that and I was playing in 4 games, and GMing 3, which can't have helped). I was seeing the 'same old' stuff. Players would min/max to get most bang for buck, the less able players would end up with naff characters and the min/max characters could drop thor, but weren't any good at anything else.

I toyed with introducing dice (didn't go down well on MURPG forum) and have toyed with using playing cards too (like the Marvel saga system I don't - or didn't thanks to you - understand). Or maybe just draw two cards, and one side gets high, the other low. Then add the card value to stats/abilities/powers that round, energy would be used to boost the value. Next round the other side gets the high card, the other, the low card. Royal cards double the energy stones the character spends in that round (but if you only spend 1 stone you don't get much of a bonus). Joker wipes out both energy stone totals to zero, and have some bonus if the suit matches whatever action you are attempting (Clubs=Strength, for example).

Anything to add a random element and shake it up really.

So is this game rolling against a target number? Rolling against an opposing die pool and highest wins? Or don't we know.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;508906So is this game rolling against a target number? Rolling against an opposing die pool and highest wins? Or don't we know.

You roll your dice and add the top 2 together to get your result(you can spend plot points to add additional dice to your result if you have them to spend and want to do so). The GM rolls a die pool as well, treated the same way.

The GM's die pool is determined by a few things, but if you're rolling against something that doesn't have stats of its own(ie a situation as opposed to an NPC which will be statted up) it'll default to the "trouble pool," which starts at 2d6 and can increase or decrease(in both number of dice and die type) depending on how contests go. The general trend is for the trouble pool to get bigger as a session goes on, but characters also tend to have more plot points to burn later in the session so it's never as bad as it seems.

I've just read the Leverage (a tv show i believe to be based on the UK caperfest 'The Hustle', not to be confused with 'The Real Hustle' in which a glamour model shakes her assets to confuse idiots with improbable scams) quickstart. If it's anything like this ima have to buy this. Is this system free to use by any chance (Cortex I believe, though i've never played it, leverage, marvel, BSG, Smallville or Serenity).

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;509082I've just read the Leverage (a tv show i believe to be based on the UK caperfest 'The Hustle', not to be confused with 'The Real Hustle' in which a glamour model shakes her assets to confuse idiots with improbable scams) quickstart. If it's anything like this ima have to buy this. Is this system free to use by any chance (Cortex I believe, though i've never played it, leverage, marvel, BSG, Smallville or Serenity).

The generic Cortex PDF is $5 at the moment. It's in the vein of the older games like Serenity that were still your basic Stat + Skill, but the way the basic mechanics work is pretty much the same. The newer games since Smallville(Leverage, Dragon Brigade, Marvel) are all more tailored than that. So in Leverage you're rolling Stat + Role, in Smallville your basic roll is Value + Relationship, and so on.