Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/explor30/public_html/wp-content/plugins/microkids-related-posts/microkids-related-posts.php on line 645
Many people have written terrific reviews, musings, resources, and content for the new Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game by Margaret Weis Productions. I’ve given it a fair amount of musing myself, but decided I’d start by compiling the useful unofficial fan activity into one place.
Book Cover: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying – Basic Game
I know there’s much, much more out there. I’d love to keep adding to this list until it’s longer than my arm, so please leave a comment with links to more reviews, Actual Play reports, podcasts, fan-made datafiles/Events/Milestones/etc, and any tips, tools, and resources for players and Watchers.
The fan community’s creativity is what will ensure this game flourishes.
Official Margaret Weis Productions Website
-
- Forums
- Developer’s Blog – by Cam Banks
- Official News:
- Civil War Coming Soon
-
- Official datafile roster for Civil War and the 50 States Initiative supplement
- Products
- Free Downloads
- What if? Hulk Bonus Content
- Hawkeye Datafile
- What if? Thor Bonus Content
- Form-Fillable Blank Datafile
- Random Datafile Generator – An excellent resource for easily creating compelling heroes or villains
- Example of Play
**All of the following links are unofficial fan content unless otherwise noted.**
Interviews ^
- Podcasts
- Interview with Cam Banks – on The Doom Pool Podcast (Added 7/8/12)
- Cam Banks on Marvel Heroic RPG – on The Walking Eye #24 (Added 6/22/12)
- Marvel RPG with Cam Banks and a Surprise Guest – G*M*S Magazine (Added 4/12/12)
- Gen Con: Cam Banks – Bear Swarm! – Aug 29, 2011
- Marvel RPG Interview with Cam Banks – BAMF Podcast – Sep 20, 2011
- Margaret Weis and Cam Banks Interview – Dungeon Crawlers Radio – Jan 9, 2012
- Cam Banks Interview – Jennisodes – Jan 23, 2012
- Cam Banks talks Marvel Roleplaying Release! – Vigilance Press – Feb 21, 2012
- Another Conversation with Cam Banks – Bear Swarm! – Mar 12, 2012
- Text
- Marvel Two-In One! Cranium-Crushin’-Conversation With Jeff Grubb And Cam Banks Simultaneously! – Playing D&D With Porn Stars (Added 6/22/12)
- Interview with Cam Banks – Gaming Tonic
Reviews of Events and Supplements ^
- Civil War Event Book
- Review of Civil War (Marvel Heroic RPG Supplement) – on Pony Riders Blog (in Portuguese)
- Review: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War – on GameHead (Added 7/15/12)
- Tommy’s Take on Civil War Event Book Essentials Edition – on The Most Unread Blog on the Internet. Ever. (Added 7/12/12)
- DriveThruRPG purchaser Reviews (Added 7/12/12)
- Pick a Side – on What’s He On About Now? (Added 6/30/12)
- Review: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War – by Ian Williams on Game Head (Added 6/27/12)
- MHR Civil War Premium Review – on Shark Bone (Added 6/25/12)
- Civil War Supplements
- Tommy’s Take on Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways – on The Most Unread Blog on the Internet. Ever. (Added 10/08/12)
- The Supplements So Far – on Futile Position
General Reviews and Reviews of the Basic Game ^
- System Shock: What Makes Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Unique – on Professor Beej (Added 6/22/12)
- System Shock: Introduction to Marvel Heroic Roleplaying – on Professor Beej (Added 6/19/12)
- Marvel Heroic RPG Review – on Play Board Games (Added 5/31/12)
- EN World Review – on Neuroglyph (Added 5/11/12)
- Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: A Review – on Futile Position (Added 5/11/12)
- Margaret Weis Productions – Basic Game (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying) – on Roleplayers Chronicle (Added 5/10/12)
- Review of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game – by Allen Shock on rpg.net (5/5 stars on style and substance)
- Marvel Heroic Roleplaying – A Phenomenon in the Making – by Joe Blomquist on Underwear on the Outside (Added 4/9/12)
- MHR is a hit with my Pathfinder (D&D only) Group – by Ghost Rider on MWP Forums (Added 4/3/12)
- DC Gameday: All Marvel All the Time – by d20Blonde on The Illuminerdy (Added 3/28/12)
- Platonic Solids (Added 3/27/12)
- Berin Kinsman’s Dire Blog (Added 3/22/12)
- A Hero Twice a Month (Added 3/22/12)
- Marvel Heroic RPG – on PKSullivan – Thorough review of game elements (Added 3/20/12)
- A Heroic Experience: Some Time with the Marvel RPG – on Thoughtcrime – Great analysis of the feel and experience of the game rather than just the details
- Make Mine Marvel – on STUFFER SHACK
- Bygone Futures – Telling heroes’ stories
- Read through Review – on A Game of Whit’s
- Critical-Hits – A review from someone new to comics and Cortex Plus
- On System Sans Setting
- on RPG.org
- Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer
- Dice Monkey
- Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Arrives – by Ian Williams on Gamehead
- For the True Believers – on What’s He Going On About Now?
- The Black Campbell
- Some additional thoughts on this new Marvel RPG (and 24: The RPG) – Tower of Zenopus
- Now’s your chance to reshape the marvel universe with the new Marvel RPG
- Opportunity Actions: Review – by The Opportunist on RPG Musings
- Ideologies of Madness
- Video Review: Game Geeks #198
- Audio Reviews
- Marvel Heroic RPG Review + Demo – BAMF Podcast – Feb 23, 2012
- Marvel Heroic RPG – Sideways Tower Podcast – Feb 26, 2012
- Campaign Confessions: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying – Idle Red Hands – Mar 15, 2012
Actual Play Reports (Breakout SPOILERS) ^
- Tales from the Metal Planet Empire
- Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Session 1 – by Chris Woods (Added 6/22/12)
- Savaged! Playing Act 2 of Breakout – on What’s he On About Now? (Added 5/10/12)
- Avengers Assemble! – ErikScottdeBie.com – Reflections after a few weeks of play
- From Buzz on storygames.com (Added 3/20/12)
- My First Session
- Gameday 31 – Second time running was much more fun and smoother
- Into the Savage Land – on Plot Points: Act 2 of the Breakout Mini-Event run by Mark Meredith via G+ Hangout. I had a great time playing Mr. Fantastic.
- Collateral Damage – ChattyDM’s ongoing campaign on Critical-Hits
- First Play: Breakout – on Plot Points (I played in, and ended up taking over as Watcher for this game)
- Fearsome Avengers Event (PBEM) – on Plot Points
- Launch Party Reports
- Marvel Launch Parties + Cheat Sheets – By John Stavropoulos – Excellent starter resources from NerdNYC
- On What’s He Going On About Now?
- Minneapolis Marvel – Playing a Launch Party with Cam Banks
- Assembled! My Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Launch Party – Running a Launch Party
- Podcast
- The Doom Pool Podcast – A bit of Breakout (Added 7/8/12)
- BAMF!– Actual Play of Breakout (Added 5/11/12)
- Minions of the Monster Master – Episodes #51 and #52 are Actual Play of Breakout (Added 5/9/12)
- The Walking Eye – Mar 16, 2012
- Episode Two – April 7, 2012
- Episode Three – April 25th, 2012
- Marvel Heroic RPG Review + Demo – BAMF Podcast – Feb 23, 2012
- Marvel Actual Play Demo – Vigilance Press – February 26, 2012
- Videocast
- Video or Audio: Let’s Play an Interesting RPG – The RPG Doctor – March 4, 2012 (Video part 2, part 3, part 4)
Inspiration, Tips, and Resources
Resources (All are unofficial unless otherwise noted) ^
- Audio: The Doom Pool as a Mechanic – on The Doom Pool Podcast – (Added 7/8/12)
- Marvel Pathways Character Generation Method – on Shark Bone (Added 6/27/12)
- Dry-erase Datafile model – by @johnoghue (Added 6/22/12)
- Printable sheet for organizing your dice pools – on Bold Pueblo
- Generic Milestones – by Grimmshade and me here on Exploring Infinity (Added 6/5/12)
- Along Came a Spider: Choose Your Own Marvel Adventure – by DainXB here on Exploring Infinity (Added 5/29/12)
- Four-color Fan-made Blank Datafile – by Duck Call Lass on Bold Pueblo Games (Added 5/22/12)
- Making a Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Event: Like Clockwork – on Futile Position (Added 5/16/12)
- Crusaders in the Dark: Soundcrime #3 – Marvel music playlist on Thoughtcrime (Added 5/10/12)
- Milestones for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – on rpg.net (Added 5/9/12)
- Watching Earth 616 – combing the Marvel Universe for exciting characters, places, and events to use in your game (Added 4/15/12)
- Official Random Datafile Generator – An excellent resource for easily creating compelling heroes or villains (Added 3/29/12)
- Custom printer-friendly datafile – by Malakor on cortexsystemrpg.org
- Point-based Character Creation – on System Sans Setting (Added 3/22/12)
- Peter Robbins’ collected links – GoogleDoc (Added 3/21/12)
- Effect Quick Reference – GoogleDoc – How/when to create/use various effect options (Added 3/21/12)
- X-Country Milestones and Unlockables – for the Legacy of Marvels campaign
- Audio: Marvel’s Civil War (with Thom’s quick, dirty point-buy character creation system) – on Sideways Tower Podcast
- Core Mechanics: Mixed Dice Probabilities – by @glimmthegnome on Glimm’s Workshop
- Marvel Launch Parties + Cheat Sheets – By John Stavropoulos – Excellent starter resources from NerdNYC
- My GoogleDoc datafile template for online play and sharing. Make all the copies and modifications you like. (Second and third tabs feature templates for Watcher characters)
- Plot Points (Dedicated fan site featuring articles about many game elements)
- Milestones to tie new heroes into the Marvel milieu – on Githyanki Diaspora
Tools, Tech, and Community for Online Play
- Pen & Paper Games– Find local players, groups, and games
- Player Registry – search by ZIP code, radius, genre preferences, availability and more
- Running a Play-by-post Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game – on The Hopeless Gamer (Added 4/27/12)
- Play Marvel Online – chat-based community for playing Marvel Heroic Roleplaying online
- Tabletop Forge – digital tabletop app to enhance Google+ Hangouts (Updates via G+)
- Infrno.net – Social media site for online tabletop gaming (hosts a number of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying games)
- MapTools Framework for Heroic Roleplaying – shared by Plot Points, created by The Online Dungeon Master (direct link)
Datafiles (Heroes and Villains) ^
- Here on Exploring Infinity
- Lost Files of Marvel! Unofficial Datafile Index – over 600 fan-made datafiles
- The Gang’s All Here – Gangs, groups, and organizations for your supers game
- DC’s Royal Flush Gang (Added 6/19/12)
- City of Heroes’ Outcasts (Added 4/5/12)
- City of Heroes’ Trolls
- G.I. Joe
- Stryker Crusade & the Purifiers
- Lost Files of Marvel – on rpg.net – Extremely extensive thread
- Badass Presidents as Marvel heroes – by Talath on MWP forums
- Raccoon City – Claire Redfield on myth-weavers.com
- On Plot Points
- Villain Datafiles – in process on Plot Points
- Hero Datafiles: Gambit, Hawkeye, Psylocke, Nightcrawler, She-Hulk, Nico Minoru, Slapstick, Nick Fury, Daisy Johnson, (and others)
- Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game– on the MWP forums (Added 4/2/12)
- Many datafiles in conversion from Strands of Fate (Villains) – by Tonpa on Freedom City – (Heroes are here) Google translate from Finnish (Added 3/21/12)
- From the Legacy of Marvels Campaign
- Tell us your character and we’ll stat you a Marvel – on rpg.net
- The Cheesy 70s and 80s Hostess Villains – on rpg.net
- Heroes and Villains from drnuncheon’s Renegades Campaign (in process conversion from ICONS)
- The Black Campbell – Taking a Crack at Marvel Character Creation
Adventure Ideas/Story Inspiration ^
- Ready-to-play Scenarios ^
- Here on Exploring Infinity
- Action Scenes! by Grimmshade
- Events
- Batman’s Arkham Asylum – by Esteban Jauregui Lorda
- Armor Wars – by Kyle Sears
- Days of Future Past – by Kyle Sears
- Winter Soldier – Operation Brubaker
- Events
- Like Clockwork: 3-Act Event – on Futile Position (Added 6/22/12)
- Secret War – on Plot Points
- A World That Fears Us – on The Doom Pool
- X-Men Avenged Event – by David White on Plot Points
- Council of Four – by David White on Plot Points
- Event Seeds
- The Authority, from across the bleed, here to kick 616 in the nethers – on Githyanki Diaspora
- The Trinity from another world’s Golden Age (Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman arriving in Marvel Earth-616 during WWII) – on Githyanki Diaspora
- Scenes
- Only Enemies Await – on The Doom Pool (Added 4/26/12)
- Murder Games – on A Sage Among His Books (Added 3/27/12)
- Spider-man vs Maximum Wesker – Claire Redfield on rpg.net
- Flows Like Blood: Vergil vs Carnage – Claire Redfield on myth-weavers.com
- Here on Exploring Infinity
- Other Story/Event Inspiration Resources
- Event: X-Men: Eloi “Gamma World comes to Marvel Earth, literally” – by Supplanter on the MWP forums
- Event: Secret War – on Plot Points (in process)
- Non-marvel Campaign Ideas – on rpg.net
- Heroic Locations – Danger Room – by Grimmshade here on Exploring Infinity
- Giant-Size X-Ment Kicks it Off – on The Doom Pool (Added 3/29/12)
- Official Random Datafile Generator – An excellent resource for easily creating compelling heroes or villains (Added 3/29/12)
- 101 Superteams– on rpg.net. Great for populating your supers universe. (Added 3/29/12)
- The beginnings of a similar list for villain teams – later in the 101 Superteams thread. (Added 3/29/12)
- 101 Supers Settings – on rpg.net – 192 and counting actually (index). An astounding source of inspiration for unique supers settings (Added 3/29/12)
- Borrowing Ideas from Comics – on Plot Points
- Heroic Story Arcs from City of Heroes
- Villain Story Arcs from City of Villains
Campaign Pages (Settings with heroes, villains, events, etc) ^
- Freedom City – Mid-conversion from Strands of FATE – Google translate some from Finnish (Added 3/21/12)
- Meteor City
- Heroes and Villains and Organizations (Added 3/21/12)
- Locations and Places (Added 3/21/12)
- Character Creation Example (Added 3/21/12)
- Legacy of Marvels
- Renegades – by drnuncheon, (an ICONS conversion: Issue #6 and later are using Marvel Heroic Roleplaying)
Commentary and Tips ^
- The Event/Act Structure and Ongoing Campaigns – on The Doom Pool(Added 08/29/12)
- I’m Too Good a Gamer for Pre-Generated Characters! – on Gaming Tonic (Added 7/16/12)
- Excellent tips for new Watchers on balance – by Doc_Nova on MWP Forums
- Why You HAVE TO Go and Make Things so Complicated – on Plot Points (Added 6/22/12)
- Failing Forward in MHRPG – on The Doom Pool (Added 6/19/12)
- Being Bad – on The Doom Pool (Added 4/26/12)
- On Overgeeked (Added 4/6/12)
- Plot Points and XP – on Overgeeked
- Quick Villains – on Overgeeked
- Don’t Take the Affiliation, Even Though It’s Awesome – by Rob Donoghue on Some Space to Think (Added 4/6/12)
- The Doom Pool Economics – How The Marvel RPG Balances Itself According to Party Size – on Plot Points (Added 4/4/12)
- Benchmarks – by Midnight Blue on the MWP Forums. (Added 4/3/12)
- Mind Control and XP – on Platonic Solids (Added 3/27/12)
- Making an Event using the OM guidelines (Run-through with an example) – on PKSullivan.com
- The Doom Pool– site of various articles (Added 3/27/12)
- Design Diary: Making The Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy (Added 4/4/12)
- Setting and Emergent Stories – essay by Ron Edwards – Non-supers or MHR specific (Added 3/21/12)
- Thoughts on Milestones (and some examples) – by kagechikara on rpg.net
- Shaping Event Milestones – by kagechikara on rpg.net (Added 3/21/12)
- Thinking about Heroic Roleplaying and Making Events – on Githyanki Diaspora (Added 3/20/12)
- Here on Exploring Infinity:
- Making the Most of Vehicles in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying – by Grimmshade
- Knockback and Chases – by Grimmshade
- On Eldritch Fire Press
- Plot Points (Dedicated fan site featuring articles about many game elements)
- United Watchers Association – Google+ Page for discussion and ideas
- Accidentally Designing Marvel’s Action Order System – Fred Hicks on Deadly Fredly
- Learning to Play Marvel Heroic Roleplaying – by @arcanespringbrd on critical-hits.com
- Reflections from first play – on UK Roleplayers
Examples of Play ^
- Social Combat! – by Brawndo on rpg.net using an example from Legend of Korra
- Raven (Mythic GME) – by SKINer on the MWP forums. (Added 4/9/12)
- Spider-man vs The Vulture – extensive detailed playthrough of Amazing Spider-man #2 (and beyond) by spatula on the MWP Forums (Added 4/3/12)
- Re: Balance in play, not in stats or character generation – Jack on rpg.net
- Re: Assists and multi-targets – Jack on rpg.net
- Re: Using mental conflict – Jack on rpg.net
- Re: Creative stunts: “People of New York” – Princess Stacey on rpg.net
Hacks – taking Heroic Roleplaying in new directions (settings/genres/tone/etc) ^
- Houserules
- Descriptive Stress – on Martyrs and Madmen (Added 6/19/12)
- Highly Trained Folks Power Set Idea – by Supplanter on MWP Forums
- Campaign Assets and Complications – on Martyrs and Madmen (Added 4/26/12)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Eclipse Phase – on that70sgame (Added 4/27/12)
- Nightfall – on that70sgame (Added 4/27/12)
- Stargate – on Shark Bone Games
- Star Trek
- Star Trek – by Bree-Yark on Overgeeked (Added 4/6/12)
- Hacking Cortex Plus for Star Trek – on Lord Oz (Added 4/2/12)
- Star Wars
- Star Wars – by timejockey – Brimming with sample datafiles for all the archetypes you would expect, and a whole host of cleverly designed Watcher characters (all you’d need for a long campaign) thoroughly covering the Trade Federation, Droids, Galactic Empire, Dark Siders (Sith), Fringers, and great use of vehicles throughout. Highly recommended. (Discussion on MWP Forums and earlier discussion on cortexsystemrpg.org forums) (Added 4/6/12, created 3/5/12)
- Star Wars – on Martyrs and Madmen (Added 4/21/12)
- Mage – discussion in process on rpg.net (Added 4/6/12)
- Exalted
- My Exalted Hack – by Jeremy757 on rpg.net (Added 4/4/12)
- Exalted – by Worldwalker on rpg.net (Added 5/5/12)
- Fantasy/D&D 4e
- Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying: A D&D 4e Hack – by Dave “The Game” Chalker on critical-hits.com (Added 3/26/12)
- Additional races and classes – by me here on Exploring Infinity (Added 3/29/12)
- Heroic Adventuring – Rob Donoghue’s reflections on running Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying
- Yet Another Fantasy Marvel Hack – on angille.net (Added 10/08/12)
- Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying: A D&D 4e Hack – by Dave “The Game” Chalker on critical-hits.com (Added 3/26/12)
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Index Card Tactics (very loosely related to MHR but an excellent Cortex Plus game) – on Some Space To Think(Added 10/08/12)
- Legend of the Five Rings
- Legend of the Five Rings: Heroic Edition – on Terribad Ideas I’ve Had (Added 6/22/12)
- Mass Effect– Apparently popular since there are at least four distinct, unrelated hacks, probably more
- Mass Effect – by PK (@p_k_sullivan) on pksullivan.com
- Updated hack version 0.2 – Mar 20, 2012
- Characters (Kaiden Alenko, Ashley Williams, Urdnot Wrex, Garrus Vakarian, Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, Liara T’Soni, PK’s Shepard, and more forthcoming)
- Making an Event: Mass Effect (Excellent walkthrough and example of building your own event by the book)
- Mass Effect Discussion on rpg.net – Community brainstorming: power sets by gear type, etc
- Mass Effect Race/Class packages following the model of Dave Chalker’s 4e D&D hack (Added 4/4/12)
- Ideas for running Mass Effect
- Reaper Pool and Loyalty Pool – on Terribad Ideas I’ve Had (Added 4/11/12)
- Actual Play Report #1: A Turian, a Drell, and a Human Walk Into a Bar on Palaven… – on Terribad Ideas I’ve Had (Added 5/10/12)
- Actual Play Report #2: Medical Supplies for Some, Mutiny for Others – on Terribad Ideas I’ve Had (Added 5/24/12)
- Ideas for running Mass Effect
- Mass Effect – on that70sgame – Hack index and completed files
- Mass Effect – by PK (@p_k_sullivan) on pksullivan.com
- Sword & Sorcery / Sword & Planet – by Dain Lybarger (@DainXB) here on Exploring Infinity
- S&S Hack Basics
- Part One, Part Two – Character Creation
- Part Three – Sample S&S Characters (Conan the Cimmerian, Elric of Melniboné, John Carter of Mars)
- Part Four – Classic threats, foes, and obstacles for your S&S game
- S&S Events/Adventures
- Rogues in the House – 1-Act Event for a single hero, who begins imprisoned on death row
- S&S Hack Basics
- Torg – by Arcane Springboard (Added 4/27/12)
- One Piece Heroic Roleplaying – by me (in process) based on One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (http://onepieceofficial.com/)
- Zalazny’s Amber – by cpip on MWP forums (Added 5/5/12)
the link to Zelazny’s Amber is no longer valid (as the former MWP forum disappeared). Does anybody has kept a copy?