It’s been an exciting year (X-citing?) for Marvel’s merry mutants. Deadpool & Wolverine is the undisputed blockbuster champion of the summer. X-Men ‘97 impressed fans and critics alike on the streaming side of things by bringing together young and old fans to celebrate one of the best versions of the original mutant hero teams.
It was only a matter of time before the mutants returned the tabletop role playing game realm. Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game opted to focus its first sourcebook on the heroes and villains of the mutant world. The company sent along a copy of Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: X-Men Expansion for this article.
X-Men Expansion Contents
Designers Matt Forbeck, Devinder Thiara, Elisa Teague, B. Dave Walters and Marty Forbeck were given the unenviable task of distilling over sixty years of comic book history into a single book. The majority of the book is split up into three types of chapters; histories of mutant teams, important locations to mutant stories and new rules including fresh powers and other mechanical bits. The book comes to an end with over 80 new profiles that can be used as heroes, villains or inspiration for original characters.
Each of the team chapters details the history of the team, the memberships at various points in the timeline, important locations like headquarters and the enemies that they face on a regular basis. The write ups include X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, Marauders, Alpha Flight and Exiles. Excalibur was cut due to space issues, but fans can download the information as a free PDF from the Marvel RPG website.
The location chapters detail important places and concepts to mutant stories. There’s a whole chapter on schools and how to run a young mutants campaign. Other chapters detail the other times and places that crop up in mutant stories, including the hypermedia nightmare of Mojoworld and the bleak future seen in Days of Future Past.
The rules chapters includes new power sets that fit many of the characters in the new profiles, suck as Luck for characters like Domino or Longshot. There are also some additions and clarifications to existing powers like Telekinesis and Growth. There are even rules for things useful outside the mutant domain, such as team maneuvers and managing public reputation.
X-Men Expansion Impressions
I was impressed by the history included in this book. I felt that the writers hit the important points of the teams I was familiar with. Because of that, I felt like I had a good grasp on the teams I didn’t know as well after reading their sections.
The mutant classes chapter was the standout setting section for me. Teaching young mutants how to use their powers and deal with a world that hates them is a powerful theme running through nearly every comic that features mutants. The campaign ideas here can be as simple as starting up a fresh class of mutants at the Xavier School to a huddled bunch of runaways trying to escape an oppressive future.
I was a little disappointed in the rules chapter. Marvel Multiverse RPG is built for beginners but rules like narrative explanations for powers seem like they would be confusing to new players expecting hard and fast rules for everything. If the designers can figure out how to represent something like being possessed by the Phoenix Force mechanically, they should be able to figure out how to explain Multiple Man’s self cloning ability.
I can also see a looming challenge as the game expands. I expected Jean Grey to have a profile in this book since she wasn’t in the core book. She’s not in this book, but appeared in Cataclysm Of Kang instead. While having hundreds of character profiles is one of the draws of the game, locating a specific character can be tough.
I hope that Marvel considers offeringcharacter profiles that players can print out and use in their games. Barring that, some sort of master index would also be useful to locate where a particular character shows up. Fans who have the game on Demiplane Nexus can already do this but a free, public facing version would help even more people enjoy this game.
X-Men Expansion brings some of my favorite characters back to role playings gaes after a far too long absence. It’s a great primer for Marvel fans young and old that’s full of ideas to spark new characters, campaigns and more. With the Krakoan Age ending, now is a perfect time to write a new chapter of mutant history with your friends at the table.
