Marvel Multiverse RPG: Escape From Planet Hulk Starter Set Review - Smashing!

From web-slinging teenagers to mutants with god-like powers, I think just about any gamer who's ever read a Marvel comic or watched a Marvel movie or show has thought to themselves this would be pretty sick to play in an RPG. And while RPG systems have come and gone, the newest entry in town, The Marvel Multiverse RPG, from CMON is here to help you get right into the action. Distributor Asmodee USA sent along a copy of the new Starter Set for us to check out, so you know what to do... read on for my thoughts!

What's Included In The Marvel Multiverse RPG Escape From Planet Hulk Starter Kit?

The Escape from Planet Hulk Starter Kit comes with everyone you need to get your group of gamers suited up and ready to fight the big bads. Each set contains:

• Booklet with Starter Set Rules, 64 pages
• Booklet with Power References, 8 pages
• Booklet with “Escape from Planet Hulk Adventure”, 24 pages
• 6 Character Sheet Folios
• One 2-sided giant map, sized 864x1120 mm  
• 1 Punchboard with 6 Heroes and 50 round tokens for Villains and other Characters
• 3 custom “616” Dice (2 regular dice and 1 Marvel dice)

With one Game Master and six available characters to play with, you could potentially run this box set for a group of 7! I wouldn't recommend it, that feels a little on the heavy side to me, but it is possible. The included characters are an interesting mix, allowing you to play as Black Panther, Captain America, Black Widow, Storm, Spider-man (Miles Morales), and Wolverine (Laura Kinney).

The Adventure In The Box

The adventure contained in the box begins with a bang, as our characters find themselves instantly and magically transported to Planet Hulk by The Grandmaster, where they're forced to face off against robotic drones in a televised bout. But as a captured Hulk begins doing what he does best, chaos erupts and offers our heroes a chance for escape.

Without spoiling too much of the story for interested players, you'll spend the rest of the adventure finding other captured (and unexpected) allies, battling back against the Grandmaster, and using your strength, speed, and cunning to make an escape - but not before an iconic villain steps into your path to mess things up.

This adventure works really well as a teaching device, slowly introducing the many different systems of the game. The funny thing about Marvel Multiverse is that, for a system designed around such a popular IP, it's honestly kind of crunchy! So having an introductory adventure to guide both the game master and the players through is crucial. I'm honestly not sure that I'd want to run this game straight out of the core rulebook for new players.

The Core Mechanic Behind Marvel Multiverse RPG

The core mechanic of the game revolves around the ingenious d616 system. In essence, this system sees you rolling 3d6, with one of the three d6's being designated the Marvel die. Those dice are rolled, added up (along with any relevant modifiers), and set against a target number to beat. If you beat the number, your action (attacking a villain, throwing a car, shooting laser beams from your eyes) is successful (and damage will be rolled if relevant).

But here's where the system has a fun twist - the Marvel die. If you roll a six on that die, something good will happen whether you succeed or fail the check. So, for example, let's say you're playing as Captain America, and you want to use your shield to smash a control panel before automatic doors slam shut, locking you inside a chamber. You roll your dice and fail the check, but that Marvel die is a 6!

How do we squeak out some benefit from this failure? Maybe the shield ricochets off of the console and, while it doesn't shut it down, it bounces and crashes into an air duct, opening up a new (but potentially more complicated or dangerous) route of escape! Or maybe the shield misses the console completely, but knocks out a few of the guards coming to take you down!

Though the game can get complicated with its damage and powers, this element really shines bright for me. It reminds me of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG's like Edge of Empire, where you would roll custom dice with pips that could see you failing a check but still getting some sort of benefit (or the opposite, succeeding with some bad luck thrown in). This leads to a lot of narrative flexibility, inviting both the players and the DM to get into character and think creatively about the situation they find themselves in.

BONUS: Marvel Multiverse RPG 2D Miniatures

The adventure itself only includes cardboard tokens for your heroes and villains, but Asmodee also sent along their two new kits of 2D miniatures, which each feature a random assortment of heroes and villains. It should be noted that this product wasn't made with the adventure in mind - so none of these characters show up in the adventure itself.

The first pack contains Captain Marvel, Photon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Titania, Iron Man, Bullseye, Jessica Jones, Kraven the Hunter, and Doctor Doom. That's quite the mix!

I really like the quality of these 2D acrylic miniatures - in a world where plastic painted minis are constantly elbowing for space on my shelves, it's nice to be able to tuck twenty miniatures into a tuck box.

And I think the 2D nature even adds to the experience when playing with these comic book characters. It's like they're jumping off the page!

The second set contains the following characters: Ms. Marvel, Wasp, Thanos, Sabretooth, Luke Cage, Doctor Strange, Doctor Octopus, America Chavez, Hela, and Iceman.

It's an odd assortment across these two kits, but I think it encourages players and GM's to incorporate these heroes and villains into the game in a fun way. It's kind of like hero and villain adlibs! I could see a GM looking at this pile of miniatures and, in a pinch, throwing Doctor Octopus, Titania, and Luke Cage into a scene just to see what happens.

Marvel Multiverse RPG - Escape from Planet Hulk Final Thoughts

Giving final thoughts on this product is interesting, because I have different thoughts about the game system itself and this box, but how do they intersect with one another?

I find the game itself to have a really fun core mechanic, I love that d616 dice rolling mechanic, it's clean and easy to grasp, but then there are other elements - like the way you calculate damage - that either feel unbalanced or overly complicated.

But here's where it gets confusing for me - I'm not just reviewing the core system, and I think this box itself is pretty damn great! With a nice and slow intro into the game, and good components, this Starter Set could help a lot of players get past the learning curve.

If you love comic book action, and the Marvel comic book world, this is a great entry point - but be warned, this isn't going to be the Kapow! kind of action you might expect from a Marvel RPG.

The products used in the creation of this review were provided by Asmodee USA.