Today is the official launch date for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Playtest Rulebook. You can find out more about it on the official Marvel site dedicated to the game. The site also features downloadable character sheets, errata, and all sorts of other good bits to make the game easier to play and more fun.
It’s also the launch day for Demiplane’s electronic version of the rules.
And for the official Roll20 virtual tabletop tools.
So it’s a big day! On top of all that, Christian Hoffer at ComicBook.com and Rob Wieland at Forbes.com recently interviewed me about the game, as did Adam Bradford of Demiplane.
As I write this, the print version of the book has risen to #37 for all books on Amazon, making it #1 in Fantasy Gaming, #1 in Comics & Graphic Novels, and #14 in Science Fiction & Fantasy (currently between Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Dune). That puts it in some damn fine company.
Speaking of damn fine company, I dedicated the book to the memory of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby (the creators of the Marvel multiverse) and Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson (the creators of tabletop RPGs). This book stands on the shoulders of those giants in their fields.
I also want to give a big shout out to the creators of the four previous Marvel roleplaying games for giving us all so many hours of fun: Jeff Grubb and Steve Winter (Marvel Super Heroes); Mike Selinker with Michele Carter, Bill Olmesdahl, Steven E. Schend, and Steven “Stan!” Brown (Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game); Dan Gelber, Jeffrey Simons, Evan Jones, Bill Jemas, and Mark D. Beazley (Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game); and Cam Banks, Rob Donoghue, Will Hindmarch, Philippe-Antoine Ménard, Jesse Scoble, Dave Chalker, John Harper, Jeremy Keller, Jack Norris, Aaron Sullivan, and <ahem> me (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying).
I want to thank the entire team at Marvel for bringing me onto the project and shepherding it to market, especially CJ Cervantes, Brian Overton, Jeff Youngquist, Jesse Berger, and Trent Bielen. I also want to give huge thanks also to my co-designers, John Nee and Mike Capps. The game wouldn’t be nearly as incredible without their amazing contributions and hard work, especially early on.
Thanks also to Simeon Cogswell for the amazing job they did with the graphic design and layout, and to Brian Patterson for his amazing map included in the adventure. Plus to the legion of artists whose work graces the game, especially Iban Coello, Peach Momoko, and Logan Lubera, who provided the three different covers. (You can get Iban’s everywhere, but Peach and Logan’s covers are alternates you can find at comics and games stores.)
We actually couldn’t fit all of the art credits into the game, but editor Brian Overton went through and came up with this 4-page PDF that not only identifies the creators of each piece of art but also the characters it shows and where it first appeared. Thanks to all of them (and the writers of those comics too) for inspiring us.
As always, special thanks to my wife Ann and our kids — Marty, Pat, Nick, Ken, and Helen — who supported me every step of the way, including playtesting brutally early versions of the rules.
On top of all that, I’m incredibly grateful to everyone out there for checking out the game, playing it, and helping us bend it into shapes that would shame a pretzel to see where it breaks. As I told Adam Bradford during our interview, “Help us help you have fun!”
This is just the first part of what I hope will be a long and amazing line of games, books, and tools that we’ll be entertaining each other with for years to come.
Game on!
