Marvel Superheroes RPG (FASERIP) Retrospective

[TristramEvans]

Figured I'd do this before someone beat me to the punch, and also to reignite my passion for the Phaserip project as it hit's it's final stretch. I'm going to go in order through the various editions of the game, including the major supplements.

​

The Marvel Superheroes Role-Playing Game, known affectionately by fans as "FASERIP"*, was first published in 1984 by TSR. The system was primarily designed by Jeff Grubb and written by Steve Winter.

Steve Winter was a journalist who replied to an open call for editors in Dragon magazine and began working for TSR in 1981. Winter edited the first two Star Frontiers boxed sets, Gangbusters, The World of Greyhawk, and The Top Secret Companion, before getting promoted to TSR's 'Manager of Game Editors" in 1984, the same year FASERIP premiered.

Jeff Grubb was a wargame enthusiast growing up in the '70's, introduced to D&D during his freshman year at college. He went on to oversee the design of the "AD&D Open" events at GenCon . wherein Grubb DM'ed adventures set in his own fictional "Toril Universe"**. This led to TSR hiring on Grubb as a game designer in '82, and he consulted on the first edition of Unearthed Arcana and The Monster Manual II before going on to author the original Manual of the Planes***

​

Some time ago on his blog, Grubb Street, Jeff Grubb provided some fascinating insight into the FASERIP design process...

1) What was to become the Marvel Super Heroes game was originally a homebrew super hero game I ran in college as a break between D&D campaigns. At that time I called it Project Marvel Comics. It was set in the Marvel Universe (a smaller place back then in the late 70s, when there was one X-men book and it had until recently been bi-monthly), in West Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University, my alma mater.

2) The heroes were all members of the Junior Achievement branch of the Avengers (this was before the West Coast Avengers or others of that ilk). They were all original heroes, with guest stars from the Marvel Universe. The group of heroes (both in campaigns at Purdue and later in Pittsburgh) included such luminaries as Big Man on Campus, The Crimson Ram, Carl the Firebreather, and Super-Pin, the pro-bowler of steel. It was a pretty light-hearted game that involved destruction of large chunks of the wherever we were playing. Eventually the heroes got to visit New York City, where they met Spider-Man and fought Mayor Koch. I originally intended that to work out the other way around, but that was the nature of the campaign.

3) Soon after I joined TSR in Lake Geneva, all the designers were asked for "Blue Sky" projects - what they would do given their druthers. I did not suggest PMC first. Instead I suggested a very dark cyberpunk campaign (this would be, 1982 or so). Very dark and bleak. So bleak that it ate a hole through the bottom of the file cabinet. The management came back and asked what my second choice was. At this point I suggested Marvel Super Heroes.

4) The two dominant Super-Hero games at that time were Villains and Vigilantes, which was relatively light and popular in the East Coast and Midwest, and Champions, with was number-crunchy and popular in the West. I liked both games - V&V had my favorite power - Mollusk Control. Champions was very much about fine-tuning your character and was the first RPG I encountered that encouraged serious min/maxing of the characters.

5) About that time, Mayfair games announced they had the license to do an RPG for Marvel. TSR double-checked and found that they did not have the license. TSR then got the license with Marvel. Mayfair soon afterwards got the license for DC. When their game came out, I gave it a nice review in DRAGON magazine. Mayfair used part of that review in its marketing. I was asked TSR's management not to write any more reviews.

6) FASERIP was the listing of the stats of the game - Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intelligence, and Psyche. In the original PMC it was FASECMT - Fatigue, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Cosmic, Magic, and Technology. We also had FEATs - Functions of Exception Ability or Talents. Very Marvel Universe.

7) Karma, a spendable experience point that could be used to increase abilities or modify die rolls, was a descendant of the Hero Points from the earlier Top Secret game, but more granular.

8) The original PMC was more number-crunchy in its first incarnation. We quickly moved to what would become the Universal Table, a color-coded chart that was the one-stop shop for task and combat resolution. It is a descendant of the old Combat Result Table from Avalon Hill and SPI wargames.

9) Once I started working on the game for TSR, I think I went through about five different version of the Universal Table during the design at TSR before ending up with the one you see in the game. I would lay one out on Monday, Zeb Cook would shoot holes in it Tuesday, and I would try again Wednesday. I think it was five versions - it only feels like a dozen.

10) Original credits for MSH (later called Basic Marvel or the Yellow Box) were Jeff Grubb and Steve Winter. I did the mechanics and very rough draft, and Steve turned it into the Marvel style text. I think he did a great job at it, and that's why we're co-creators on the original, a veritable Claremont and Byrne.

11) We playtested the rules in-house with other designers. They also playtested it with kids, about 9 or 10. They videotaped the playtest, and made me watch it. I think they had to tie me into the chair. It was very illuminating about how kids used the game, but I really hope someone burned that tape.

12) It took longer to work out the licensing deal than it did to design the game. In the end, we were at the printer, ready to run, waiting for the final language for the legal statement.

13) The game was almost called "Marvel Comic Book Heroes". Our marketing department changed it because that was what people thought of when they thought of Marvel - comic books. I protested and was told that they didn't want "everybody and the janitor" getting involved in the marketing process. I ended up in a couple comic book shops in the Wisconsin and Illinois area with a questionnaire to disprove their point.

14) I would take liberties with the legal indicia (the mouse-print in the front of the book) on future projects. I think I used the phrase "Mess with Hulk's Lawyers, and Hulk will smash!" and that one got through, and soon afterwards I stopped writing the legal indica.

15) The original game got a mixed critical response. The reviews of the time were of the type of "Well, its OK if you like that sort of thing" or "It's a little basic" (well, yes. Yes it was). Champions did a very nice job holding down the very-complex end of the spectrum, and this one was going to be easier to run and play. One review dinged us for our "Face-front, True Believer" tone. A few years later, when we did the more hobby-market Advanced set (the Blue Box), the same reviewer complained that he missed the "Face front, True Believer" tone of the original.

16) The contract called for a dozen products from TSR in the first year. We were unsure if that meant a calender year or a full year from the first product. That was one reason we had so many early products, 16-32 pages in length. We had the advantage that we had the entire Marvel Universe to play with.

17) We were also an early pioneer for full-color maps in the gaming product, since the game used area movement. The city maps could be eventually fitted together into a larger city. It was kinda New York, but I made the mistake of making the numbered streets East-West instead of North-south. The businesses were all named after other people in the company, until someone in management found out that didn't like the idea and we stopped.

18) I was incredibly excited when we got John Byrne to do a cover for us - Murderworld. On the back of his original art were some sketches re-drawing the TSR logo.

19) Working with Marvel was great. In those days, all the art was in a warehouse "across the river". To get pick-up art, I could ask by issue and page number, and they would send out the stats. It was very easy, and the process made it possible for us to do a lot of things very quickly.

20) Another Murderworld story - Someone at Marvel's legal department asked us to put all the trademarked names in ALL CAPS. We pointed out this was a bad idea but they insisted, which is why the names in Murderworld are in ALL CAPS. After they saw the product in print, they changed their minds and we went back to the original presentation.

21) Marvel owned all the characters, of course. I created one character, Cascade, for an Alpha Flight adventure. They never picked him up. Pity.

22) When we did the Basic MSH, Marvel didn't want us to put in any character generation - they wanted people to play Marvel character (which makes sense). We put in a rudimentary system in the back. When it came time to do the Advanced Set, Marvel sent the note "Whatever you do, be sure to put in a character generation system. That's what fans really want to see." I'm not bashing on Marvel here - they were learning like we were learning.

23) MSH did a wonderful job opening the doors of the comic book shops to RPGs. It arrived at a great time, when local direct-sale shops were blossoming, and looking for ways to expand. I'm sure a lot of them would have picked up D&D on their own, but it provided a nice bridge.

24) The first time we showed up as a company at the Chicago Comics Con (then in a hotel in Rosemont), we had a table in the hallway outside the main dealer's hall, and were armed with a map, a tripod with a picture of the cover on it, and some metal miniatures. We gave away a lot of Wolverine miniatures at Comics Con to people who would play our demo, and to this day people tell me they got a miniature from me.

25) The Ultimate Powers Book came about because one of our editor's boyfriends was in the office, making a list of every superpower he could think of. One of the managers found out about this and thought it was a great idea, and that was how the UPB came about. That sort of thing happened more often than you would think.

26) Similarly, the Official Gaming Handbooks came about from the same sort of inspiration - A manager reasoned that Marvel must have computer files of all the text from the original Official Handbooks of the Marvel Universe (OHOTMU), so all we have to do is add the game stats. Unfortunately, Marvel DIDN'T have all the text in a computer file, and we had to input it all in. In-house, we referred to the large books as "The Phone Books" since they were the size and shape of the Lake Geneva White Pages.

27) Early on, we had a knack for publishing things that were immediately outdated in comic book continuity. We would publish a map of the Baxter Building and they would blow it up. We would do an Alpha Flight adventure and they would change the line-up dramatically. Peter David once suggested we do a New Universe adventure so they could wipe out the line (they did, eventually, without my help).

28) Most of the fan comments I got about Marvel over the years fit into three categories:

1) I love your game!​

2) I love your game, and here's how to fix it!​

3) I play Champions, but I buy all your stuff to convert it over!​

29) Eventually, I drifted off to other projects, and the responsibility for running the line moved to Steven Schend, who did a great job through the phone books and later projects. He was also our next door neighbor in Lake Geneva. Thanks, Steve!

30) We ran the Marvel-Phile articles in Dragon magazine for what seems like forever - so much so that I became a "Contributing Editor" on the masthead. The main purpose for the articles were to cover characters that changed suddenly, or character that would never show up in a regular product (say, Howard the Duck). We even did ROM, Spaceknight, which resulted in Marvel and Hasbro getting together to figure out who actually owned the character.

Finally, my best Marvel games were always ones were people brought their own heroes into the world of Marvel Comics, mixing their own stories with the "established continuity". It was a blast, and I really enjoyed it, and it feels very good to know that the game still has a warm spot in a lot of gamers' hearts.

* Note that all uses of the acronym "FASERIP" in this retrospective refers to the original game and not the recent pseudoclone of that title.
**Grubb's "Toril Universe" would later form the basis for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
***In this manner, Grubb could also be considered the grandfather of the Planescape campaign setting.

 

[Silverlion]

Man, I love MSH (This FASERIP) so much. Not that I think the other FASERIP is bad at all. Just so much love I've got for the game. I still long to run the games of yesteryear or new ones.

 

[daniel_ream]

the Universal Table, a color-coded chart that was the one-stop shop for task and combat resolution. It is a descendant of the old Combat Result Table from Avalon Hill and SPI wargames.

This surprises me not one bit.

 

[TristramEvans]

Before getting into the game, let's take a brief look at the source material, i.e. Marvel comics circa 1984.

Marvel began life as "Timely Comics" in 1939, with Marvel Comics" being the name of one of their titles. Early issues of this era largely featured pulp scifi and typical Golden Age WWII propaganda superheroics with Captain America, Namor The Spock.. er "Sub-Mariner", and the original Human Torch

​

In the early 50's, Timely rebranded itself as "Atlas Comics", and as the first Dark Age of Comics was ushered in following the Wertham Trials and institution of the Comics Code Authority, superheroes were abandoned in favour of bland and innoculous romance comics and ( I kid you not) comic books based on the lyrics of popular Country songs of the day.

When The Silver Age brought superheroes back into popularity, starting with DC's re-imagining of The Flash in Showcase #4, Martin Goodman (then Editor in Chief) approached staff writer Stan Lee about attempting a new superhero team book. This led to the creation of The Fantastic Four and the birth of Marvel Comics, with The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-man, and The Avengers quickly following.

Though modern readers might not perceive it, Silver Age Marvel comics were largely deconstructionist in nature, undermining or inverting Superhero genre tropes of the Golden Age. This not only set them apart from DC, but also attracted an older audience. This was the beginning of the shift from comics being aimed exclusively at a pre-adolescent audience to a primarily college-age audience (even if outside of the hobby it would take decades for American society to catch up).

Just as DC ushered in The Silver Age, Marvel kicked off the Bronze Age in 1973 with The Death of Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-man #121. It is from the Bronze Age that FASERIP arose, and the "genre conventions" of this era of Marvel that the system seeks to emulate.

 

[Endless Flight]

Loves me some MSH!!! My second favorite RPG.

The Bronze Age did start with the death of Gwen Stacy. I didn't even realize it was widely argued. I always thought there was more debate about when the Bronze Age ended. I tend to go with 1985 or 1986. The Crisis on Infinite Earths was definitely the beginning of the end.

 

[Oculus Orbus]

11) We playtested the rules in-house with other designers. They also playtested it with kids, about 9 or 10. They videotaped the playtest, and made me watch it. I think they had to tie me into the chair. It was very illuminating about how kids used the game, but I really hope someone burned that tape.

I'm more than a little curious about what exactly went on during that playtest.

 

[Endless Flight]

I bet the kids ended up doing freeform/not using most of the rules. I bet that would drive some designers crazy.

 

[TristramEvans]

When most people think of the "classic" or "traditional" superhero genre tropes, they are almost always referencing The Silver Age, with it's strict adherence to the Comics Code's morality clauses, despite frequently mis-attributing this to the Golden Age. Golden Age superheroes often murdered without qualms, attacked traditional authority figures, and more closely resembled anti-heroes such as The Punisher in modus operendi than any post Comics Code "Four Colour" superheroics.

While retaining many of the Silver Age conventions, the Bronze Age is characterized by darker or morally ambiguous storylines with the exploration of contemporary socio-political issues. The concurrent rise of independent comic retailers and the indy or "underground" comics scene took the artform in new directions that influenced the more mainstream superhero comics, and the gradual loosening of the Comics Code standards allowed the return of supernatural or "occult" characters and storylines*.

​

Bronze Age Marvel specifically made a move towards pseudo-realism, diversification, and attention to Continuity, especially under Jim Shooter as EIC. Shooter took over from Archie Goodwin in 1976, bringing a new stability to the role after the rapid progression of Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Gerry Conway in the early 70's. Shooter will always in my mind be as much the embodiment of Bronze Age Marvel as Stan is of Silver Age Marvel. For Shooter, the aforementioned motifs were moreso personal goals than genre observations, perhaps no where manifesting as strongly as his lovechild, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

*The Code originally forbade the use of even vampires or werewolves in comic books

​

 

[TristramEvans]

I'm more than a little curious about what exactly went on during that playtest.

I'd give anything to get that video uploaded to Youtube

 

[Endless Flight]

The five year period of Marvel Comics from 1982 to 1986 will always be my favorite.

 

[TristramEvans]

Loves me some MSH!!! My second favorite RPG.

The Bronze Age did start with the death of Gwen Stacy. I didn't even realize it was widely argued. I always thought there was more debate about when the Bronze Age ended. I tend to go with 1985 or 1986. The Crisis on Infinite Earths was definitely the beginning of the end.

Crisis is my benchmark for the start towards the second dark age as well, or "Image Age" as I like to call it. I then point to Marvel's bankruptcy as the beginning of whatever "now" is (I've heard "tin" or "copper" Ages, but that just seems stupid to me).

 

[Endless Flight]

I learned much later how genius some of Shooter's staff moves were, like putting G.I.Joe into the able hands of Larry Hama.

 

[Endless Flight]

Crisis is my benchmark for the start towards the second dark age as well, or "Image Age" as I like to call it. I then point to Marvel's bankruptcy as the beginning of whatever "now" is (I've heard "tin" or "copper" Ages, but that just seems stupid to me).

The absolute abyss for comic books was 1992-1996. "The Death of Superman" killed hundreds of comic book stores in and of itself. There was somewhere around 9,000 comic book stores at the beginning of that time period and around 3,000 at the end. Rampant events, foil embossed covers, bagged comics off the shelves and speculation nearly destroyed the market.

 

[Endless Flight]

I don't want to divert away from your wonderful retrospective, Tristram, but I love these conversations.

 

[TristramEvans]

The absolute abyss for comic books was 1992-1996. "The Death of Superman" killed hundreds of comic book stores in and of itself. There was somewhere around 9,000 comic book stores at the beginning of that time period and around 3,000 at the end. Rampant events, foil embossed covers, bagged comics off the shelves and speculation nearly destroyed the market.

Yeah, I was pretty much completely driven away from superheroes at that point, and Vertigo took over my reading habits. The nadir for me personally was the clone saga, which managed to finally drive me away from Spidey comics.

 

[TristramEvans]

I don't want to divert away from your wonderful retrospective, Tristram, but I love these conversations.

Not at all, I plan for this to be a long ongoing thread, and I am fully prepared to embrace any digressions, especially regarding comics.

"Gone, gone, Oh form of Man! Come the fanboy of Spider-man!"

 

[Lunar Ronin]

Yeah, I was pretty much completely driven away from superheroes at that point, and Vertigo took over my reading habits. The nadir for me personally was the clone saga, which managed to finally drive me away from Spidey comics.

The only (and I do mean only), good thing that came out of the Clone Saga was the Scarlet Spider Kaine costume, and that was nearly twenty years later. Even then, not worth it.

 

[TristramEvans]

To further these goals, Shooter put together the strongest and most cohesive editorial staff in the company's history. While strict attention was paid to Continuity, characterization, and internal consistency, writers were likewise given the freedom to experiment and the stability to pull off complex multi-issue storylines. This was the era of The Dark Phoenix saga, Walt Simonson's legendary run on Thor, Roger Stern's Hobgoblin saga, and Iron Man's "Demon in a Bottle" storyline that saw Tony Stark succumb to alcoholism. Not to mention the oft-overlooked Captain Britain series by industry newcomer Alan Moore for Marvel UK.

Shooter's Marvel managed to find a balance between accessibility for new readers and consistency to retain longterm fans that I don't think either of the Big Two have managed since.* Additionally, the creation of the "Star comics" imprint aimed at capturing an essential new generation of readers, starting with Marvel's answer to the Carl Barks Duck comics by Gladstone: The Spectacular Spider-Ham. **

(what I love most about this character is that his origin is that he was a spider bit by a radioactive pig, instead of the other way round)​

Star comics also offered a plethora of mini-series adapting popular (and some not) Saturday Morning Cartoons/Toylines and children's film adaptions. Interestingly, there were two popular children's franchises of the '80s that were spared the "Star Comics" designation and published as Marvel comics, including crossovers with the Marvel Universe - namely Transformers and Larry Hama's GI Joe.***

​

*The closest modern equivalent is probably the Mignolaverse, but that's only a fraction of the size.
**The success of Sony's Into the Spider-verse means there are now talks about doing a Spider-Ham solo film. Into it.
*** Hama would also go on to write Marvel's The 'Nam, comic adaptions of true stories from soldiers who served in the Vietnam war, Hama himself was a veteren.

 

[Silverlion]

I always tend to think of Watchman and The Dark Knight, as indicators of the Dark Age. Sure comics hit some emotional topics, but they weren't murder-happy grimdark sorts. That doesn't mean they didn't punch you in the gut now and then. But that's my perception. Before the Dark Age was the "Copper" age for me, when comics could tell stories that could give you emotional weight, but still kept things generally late Comic's Code appropriate. Despite the fact that Wertham was a loon, and killed off some really good comics like EC/horror comics, and faked his research. I think the Comic's code had some good elements when the restrictions lessened a bit.

 

[PolarBlues]

My first thought, looking at the first panel, was "Why is Batman beating up Spider-Man?"".

 

[daniel_ream]

writers were likewise given the freedom to experiment and the stability to pull off complex multi-issue storylines

I have to be honest, I find the Shooter hagiography odd. The writers hated him.

 

[Voros]

I have to be honest, I find the Shooter hagiography odd. The writers hated him.

Not surprising. If you've read this book I don't think there was an Editor who wasn't hated by the writers and artists and that includes Stan Lee.

 

[TristramEvans]

Yep, he was not well liked by writers Giffen and Byrne especially. it's kinda funny actually, writers at Marvel complained about being restricted by Continuity, while writers at DC complained the multiverse made it too hard for new readers to follow along. So we got Crisis at DC and Marvel imploded it's continuity in favour of tulip sales

I ways lucky enough to meet Shooter, I can understand why creative types wouldn't want him for a boss - he has a very clear personal vision, a very Type A businessman personality, and places a high priority on "realism" despite working in comic books

Ultimately though, from a comicbook reader's POV, Marvel's output during Shooter's tenure speaks for itself IMO. I think Shooter's greatest "sin" was prioritizing the readers over the writers/artists. Of course. a decade later Image comics showed us what the exact opposite approach looked like

 

[Endless Flight]

Shooter made writers and artist stick to their deadlines. Good overall strategy where every book did well. Years later, when Quesada took over, it was like the inmates running the asylum. Books out years late sometimes, ridiculous events and no thought into how bad certain things looked, like the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane being erased by a deal with a devil. I don’t think he could shine Shooter’s shoes.

 

[TristramEvans]

Shooter made writers and artist stick to their deadlines. Good overall strategy where every book did well. Years later, when Quesada took over, it was like the inmates running the asylum. Books out years late sometimes, ridiculous events and no thought into how bad certain things looked, like the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane being erased by a deal with a devil. I don’t think he could shine Shooter’s shoes.

I think Gareb Shamus is at least partly to blame for that last one. I remember on an almost monthly basis Wizard magazine claimed Spiderman comics hadn't been any good since Peter's marriage to MJ, and the wedding was a mistake (completely overlooking IMO that it was more just bad writers overall). But I think Quesada took that to heart, especially the sort of revisionist history set in motion by Kurt Busiek with Marvels and then Untold Tales of Spider-man that also led to this weird veneration of Gwen Stacy where she was reinterpreted as this ultra-sweet girl next door type that is actually pretty far from her personality during the Ditko-Romita era.

Of course, none of that excuses One More Day, a storyline that requires (even more than the clone saga) completely ignoring the character and motivation of Spider-man up to that point. It was more than just a cop-out, it asked readers to accept that a character whose defining motivation is personal accountability and taking responsibility would make a Satanic Deal in order to shirk the responsibilities for his actions.

 

[Endless Flight]

I really enjoyed the JMS/Romita Jr. era of ASM (up to "Sins Past", which was awful by any measure). It got me back into Marvel.

 

[TristramEvans]

I really enjoyed the JMS/Romita Jr. era of ASM (up to "Sins Past", which was awful by any measure). It got me back into Marvel.

Up to issue 500 it was quite good, yeah. That also brought me back to Spidey for a time until ....well, more clones. Or were they supposed to be Norman and Gwen's kids? I've mostly put it out of my mind. I still have those issues. There was also a series about Mary Jane in high school from her POV around that same time that I really liked. The Spectacular Spider-man cartoon reminded me of that.

 

[Endless Flight]

Well, ten years ago they were Norman’s kids. They might have retconned that since then. JMS apparently wanted them to be Peter’s, but that was vetoed and the worse alternative was used, much like every other controversial thing they did during the Quesada era. It’s amazing (no pun intended) that the original Spider-Man, Peter B. Parker, in Sony’s Spider-Verse movie is a 38 year old divorcée, but Marvel thought that was too extreme!

 

[Oculus Orbus]

The absolute abyss for comic books was 1992-1996. "The Death of Superman" killed hundreds of comic book stores in and of itself. There was somewhere around 9,000 comic book stores at the beginning of that time period and around 3,000 at the end. Rampant events, foil embossed covers, bagged comics off the shelves and speculation nearly destroyed the market.

An amusing byproduct of the ridiculous cover enhancement trend was the third edition of DC Heroes which featured...wait for it...a foil embossed cover. I hate the 90's so much.

 

[daniel_ream]

Not surprising. If you've read this book I don't think there was an Editor who wasn't hated by the writers and artists and that includes Stan Lee.

While that's true, my impression is that unlike other editors a number of the writers hated Shooter so much they left the company because of it. That's atypical.

As far as continuity goes, I'm a McDuffie fan myself.

 

[TristramEvans]

Despite the tendency towards more mature themes and complex plots, what ultimately distinguishes the Bronze Age from the Dark Age to follow is that superheroes themselves retained the ethical standards established in The Silver Age. This meant a taboo against killing as well as a general aversion to lethal weapons such as guns and blades. Clear distinctions were made between superheroes and vigilantes, and loose cannons like Wolverine and his "Berserker Rage" were regarded thematically as severe disadvantages.

This was the state of the Marvel Universe circa 1984 when the Marvel Superheroes RPG premeired. And it all began with a slim yellow box...

​

The first edition of FASERIP, later referred to as the "Basic Game", featured cover artwork by John Romita and included

"a 16-page introductory Battle Book, 48-page Campaign Book, and the 16-page adventure, 'Day of the Octopus.' Also included are a 21 x 33 inch full color, two-sided map [by Dave "Diesal" LaForce], 25 cardboard playing pieces, and two dice."

This blurb from the back cover of the yellow box fails to mention the thick cardboard sheet of character write-ups, actually a rather sparse assortment of only 8 superheroes - the Fantastic Four, Spidey, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Wolverine.

Without further ado, let's crack open the Battle Book...

 

[PolarBlues]

Ah, those were the days the Fantastic Four were still Marvel A-listers.

 

[TristramEvans]

The Battle Book

The inside cover of the BB contains a 6 panel illustrated example of play, with three diverse adolescents gaming a brief encounter between Spider-man and Captain Marvel and a group of burglars. Functionally, this at least demonstrates the essential dynamics and atypical exchanges between players and Judge (GM) for beginners, a format that would be mirrored a decade later in White Wolf's rulebooks.

Opposite, on the first page we get the general introduction, featuring an oddly-distorted Spider-man pose whose neck-tilt wrapped to the text always bothered me. Especially with the copious negative space on the right column that an illustration could easily have been customized to.

This is our introduction to Al Milgrom's art. Milgrom's attempt to mimic the Marvel "housestyle" of the period (largely defined by Romita, Buscema, and Byrne) is...okay. I never hated it, but I don't think I could offer any praise beyond "passable."* I lament them not making more use of Marvel archive art, however there is at least something to be said for a consistent visual approach across a product line.**

The introduction itself is succinct, highlights including 2 paragraphs on how to use the percentile dice*** and the notation that subsequent sections marked with a "spider symbol" are optional rules. It's worth noting that to begin playing, one player should read (not memorize) this 16 page rulebook to get a general idea how things work and wing it from there. This is guerrilla-style gaming at it's best.

* - to be fair to Milgrom, there were a few "artists" working at Marvel at the time I consider much worse.
** - subsequent Marvel RPGs would use a mishmash of comicbook art with clashing extremes of styles that ended up looking a right mess, the MURPG (aka "the one with the stones") being the worst offender in this regard.
*** - including the recommendation to colour in the numbers on the dice with a crayon, because that's how we rolled in the Old School.

 

[TristramEvans]

Ah, those were the days the Fantastic Four were still Marvel A-listers.

Yeah I think nothing like the way that current Marvel have treated the FF (and to a lesser extent the Xmen) in a petty tantrum over another company owning the film rights displays how little the company resembles the Marvel I grew up with.

 

[ExCrusader]

I grew up playing Advanced, but the Battle Book might be the crown jewel of the entire line. It’s the book that actually explained how to play, not just what the rules were, and it’s also incredibly approachable in my opinion. I found some of the basic concepts just weren’t explained well in Advanced. Advanced also makes the occasional reference to Basic, though it claims it isn’t needed to play. My own personal table copy of FASERIP has the Battle Book integrated into Advanced. I think it actually makes for a better book overall.

 

[TristramEvans]

I grew up playing Advanced, but the Battle Book might be the crown jewel of the entire line. It’s the book that actually explained how to play, not just what the rules were, and it’s also incredibly approachable in my opinion. I found some of the basic concepts just weren’t explained well in Advanced. Advanced also makes the occasional reference to Basic, though it claims it isn’t needed to play. My own personal table copy of FASERIP has the Battle Book integrated into Advanced. I think it actually makes for a better book overall.

I definitely concur, after a few years with the Advanced set, going back to the original box I was amazed not only how good it serves to introduce the game and get people playing, but also just how much is covered just in the slim 16 pg BB and 48 pg Campaign book.

BTW, welcome to The Pub!

 

[PolarBlues]

I see an invisible line from MSH to Fudge and Fate. I don't know how much was deliberate and how accidental, but I can see a lot of shared DNA.

The obvious connection is the adjective-based scale, which is quite a unique feature. But they are also margin of success based systems. Finally I see similarites with how Karma works and Fate's Aspects and Fate Point economy, earning Karma for doing things that are in-character, paying Karma to do something that would out of character as well to win at a cost.

Of course it all joins up in ICONS, which is probably why it works so well.

The point, I think MSH has had a greater influence on game design than is often given credit for.

 

[TristramEvans]

The point, I think MSH has had a greater influence on game design than is often given credit for.

Yeah, I see it's influence in many games, most recently the Doctor Who AITAS RPG seemed to me to have some FASERIP DNA.

 

[Edgewise]

I love the history and perspective in this thread. The quotes from Grubb were incredibly entertaining...sounds like a great guy to meet! I love how he got in trouble for giving a positive review to his main competitor.

At risk of derailing the game discussion slightly, I'm wondering how folks would characterize the current "age" of comics. I'm someone who dips in and out, so I don't have a strong sense, but I do get the feeling that there's a lot of high quality stuff coming out, and there's a bit more competition to Marvel/DC, from the web if nothing else. Is there any truth to this impression?

 

[PolarBlues]

I'd call it the Celluoid Age on the basis that, at least for Marvel, it's all driven by the movies.

Actually I don't really know that's going on in comics today but the headlines always seem to suggests that anything that isn't Avengers is either sidelined or absorbed into the Avengers.

That said, I'm not bitter because I do love the MCU. I've lost count the number of times I've watch Infinty War. it just flows so well.