Tweaking the Numbers in the Marvel Multiverse RPG

As many people have broken down by now, the numbers in the Marvel Multiverse RPG Archetype Tables don’t quite work. The game isn’t utterly broken or unplayable, despite what you may have read from the more vocal community members, but it definitely needs some tweaking. Various alternative suggestions have been put forward, but many of them are quite drastic changes.

The Problem

Fundamentally the issue is that the spread between the lowest possible numbers and the highest possible numbers on the table gets bigger as the Ranks go up. For example, at Rank 1 the lowest numbers are +1/12 and the highest are +3/14; a spread of 2. At rank 15 the lowest numbers are =+6/17 and the highest are +13/24; a spread of 7. At rank 25 the lowest numbers are +9/20 and the highest are +19/30; a whopping spread of 10.

This is why the game works fine at low ranks, but starts to break down a bit as you start playing with higher ranked characters. The distance between a character who doesn’t have Might or Agility as one of their high numbers and one that has becomes unsurmountable with the roll of 3d6.

I believe the numbers start to spread out like this because the designer wanted something to change every Rank, but the average number only goes up every 2 ranks.

The Solution

Some people have proposed removing the tables and number progression entirely. That works, but it’s also something I don’t see the designers going for since they clearly have a goal in mind there. To my mind the answer is much simpler. We just need to stop the spread expanding as we go up ranks. Keep the Rank 1 spread all the way up. It’s also fairly easy to calculate. The mid number will remain the same all the way up, it’s just the outliers that need reigning in. Defence numbers are always 11 points above the equivalent (Low/Mid/High) Modifier.

For example, at rank 15 the average modifier is +9. So the numbers should look like this:

• Low +8/19
• Mid +9/20
• High +10/21

So, for each rank the numbers should look like this:

As an example of the impact this makes; currently Captain America needs to throw an unlikely 18 to hit Black Panther, whereas Black Panther merely needs to get a 5. Using the new numbers Captain America needs to throw a 15 and Black Panther an 8. It’s still tricky for Cap to land a punch, but no longer nearly impossible.

Doing the Work For You

So, here are the revised Archetype Tables. I have taken the liberty of adding Rank 0 to each table for unpowered ‘bystander’ roles as discussed in my NPC creation article. I haven’t included the Damage, Health and Focus numbers for Ranks above 0 to avoid any potential copyright issues, but they remain the same as in the playtest document.

Blaster

Bruiser

Genius

Polymath

Protector

Striker