The Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game was the second role-playing game set in the Marvel Universe, published from 1998 to 1999. It was written by Mike Selinker and developed by TSR, Inc. (at that point a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast) using TSR's SAGA System of RPG rules.
Rules[]
Instead of using dice, this game included specific cards. A player had a hand of cards, which was bigger the more experienced or powerful her character was (thus also replacing experience points), and chose a card whenever attempting an action. The card included a number that was to be added to the player's skill and, should the card's suit match the type of action, then the card was considered a "trump", giving the characte ra bonus (e.g. the Spider-man suit for agility actions, the Mr. Fantastic suit for intellect actions, etc.) The game's Narrator may resort to the "aura" icon next to the suit (a plus sign, a minus sign or a circle) to check whether a random situation was favorable to the characters or not.
The card also included two short texts, one of which was an Event that the Narrator could include in the action for unpredictability (e.g. "Structural collapse", "Police Sirens"), and the other was one of the Callings. Each character had a single Calling, which defines their priorities. If the Event in a card is used, and a character has that card's Calling, and that character does not responde to that event, then the character is punished by either getting involved in the event against his or her will, or losing that adventure's self-improvement bonus.
In most circumstances, when the player uses a card, it is replaced with a new card from the deck (with the Narrator preventing abuse - a player with a low-numbered card may be looking for a way to use it to fail, with minimal or no impact, so as to replace that card with a probably better one). However, if the player loses all of the hand without having a chance to replenish it, then the character falls unconscious. The character can also fall unconscious in other situations.
The game included a method to convert characters from the "faserip" format of the previous Marvel game to the SAGA system.
Supplements[]
The following supplements were published:
- Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game (box) (1998)
- X-Men Roster Book (1998)
- X-Men: Who Goes There? (1998)
- A Guide to Marvel Earth (1998)
- Avengers Roster Book (1998)
- Avengers: Masters of Evil (1998)
- Fantastic Four Roster Book (1999)
- Fantastic Four: Fantastic Voyages (1999)
- The Reed Richards Guide to Everything (1999)
- Marvel Team-Up Roster Book (1999)
One adventure for this game, How Do You Stop the Rhino From Charging?, was published as an article in Dungeon magazine #71 (November/December 1998).
Related material and other games[]
- This was the second Marvel superhero RPG game. The previous one, also published by TSR, Inc., was Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game (1984-1993).
- TSR relationship with Marvel eventually came to an end, this game was discontinued and the gaming license reverted to Marvel Comics itself. In 2003, Marvel published its own, different game, Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (MURP), discontinuing it in 2004.
- From 2012 to 2013, Margaret Weis Productions published Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (MHRP).