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Krisis's coverage Dungeons & Dragons and 5e-Compatible supplements, board games, and the occasional video game.

Marvel United: Multiverse adds a Secret Invasion expansion (plus, 20 events that could be expansion boxes!)

January 31, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

Earlier today, CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced its fourth new expansion box: Marvel United Multiverse – Secret Invasion!

This box, its theme, and its characters were not on my list of predictions in this weekend’s post about the Marvel United Multiverse – Civil War expansion! It includes the O.G. Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Quake, Clint Barton as Ronin, and several Skrull opponents.

I’ll admit, I’m slightly negative on the contents of this expansion box.

While I love the idea of having a set of Skrull villain sculpts, it didn’t add a group of hotly-anticipated heroes. Having Nick Fury Sr. is fun, and Quake has a following from the Agents of SHIELD TV series, but Maria Hill is relatively anonymous as a standalone hero and an alternate Hawkeye wasn’t exactly at the top of every list.

Who else can you include in a Secret Invasion set?! Most of the story was about not knowing who to trust, so it’s shorter on iconic heroes than some other Marvel Events. Yet, there were options available. Hank Pym as Yellowjacket is core to the event, but they just included him in the Civil War box. It’s a pivotal event for Janet van Dyne, and the Wasp in the core Marvel United box is technically Hope van Dyne! Why not give us a Janet figure?!?! And, Norman Osborn plays a massive role in the event, but we just got his Iron Patriot as a stretch goal.

I think including Hank and Janet in this set was the way to go, which could’ve freed up a spot in Civil War for a different hero. CMON really missed their chance here. As a completionist I’ll eventually add this box to my final pledge, but I’m not excited about it.

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

I’m much more interested in what this set means for the remaining expansion boxes in this campaign – and it’s looking like we can expect 2-3 more. To this point I’ve been predicting teams of characters, because that’s how the past two campaigns worked. However, this campaign is all stories and events – The Coming of Galactus, Age of Apocalypse, Civil War, and Secret Invasion.

With that in mind, it’s time to pivot to an all-new, not-entirely-different list of 20 predictions that repackage major characters into events-based boxes. For a list of all of Marvel’s many line-wide events over the decades, check out my Guide to Marvel Universe Events. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse adds a Secret Invasion expansion (plus, 20 events that could be expansion boxes!)

Breaking News: D&D continues support of Open Gaming License (OGL 1.0), releases their core rules SRD under Creative Commons

January 27, 2023 by krisis Leave a Comment

Huge news breaking in the past hour: In a totally shocking reversal, D&D and its parent companies Wizard of the Coast and Hasbro have abandoned plans for a restrictive update to the Open Gaming License (OGL) that would revoke the existing OGL v1.0. Even more shocking, they have released their “System Reference Document” for free under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License!

Image by ScalyDragon from Pixabay

I first wrote about these changes and the depressing effect they have on TTRPG creators and players alike a few weeks ago.

The OGL v1.0 is the license that allows 3rd-Party creators to publish products that use the rules and core concepts of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Now, D&D has gone beyond re-affirming their support for that license by offering free and irrevocable access to their entire 5th edition core ruleset – called the System Reference Document (SRD) under Creative Commons.

The now freely-available information not only includes rules of play, but standard spells, and classic D&D monster state blocks. You can access the massive 400+ page document here.

This is a massive shift, not only compared to the proposed restrictive OGL v1.2, but compared to what anyone imagined was possible a few months ago.

In the words of D&D executive producer Kyle Brink from his announcement post:

This Creative Commons license makes the content freely available for any use. We don’t control that license and cannot alter or revoke it. It’s open and irrevocable in a way that doesn’t require you to take our word for it. And its openness means there’s no need for a VTT policy. Placing the SRD under a Creative Commons license is a one-way door. There’s no going back.

Our goal here is to deliver on what you wanted.

Of course, many 3rd Party producers have already announced creating their own open gaming platforms, like Paizo and Kobold Press. However, D&D has undercut those plans by making the 5e rules available in Creative Commons in perpetuity. That changes the playing field for smaller creators, who can continue to create content that will sell to 5e fans with total security.

Gizmodo has more context on this breaking news story.

Marvel United: Multiverse has a Civil War in their new expansion box (and uses it to solve their Young Avengers problem)

January 27, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

Breaking news! Minutes ago, CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced its third new expansion box and a new stretch goal: Marvel United Multiverse – Civil War!

While Civil War wasn’t on my list of 10 predicted expansion boxes in my last post, I’m still claiming victory. That’s because this box includes Kate Bishop, and if you buy it from Kickstarter it will also include Hulking.

That’s two of the four core Young Avengers down. Plus, the box came just as the Kid Loki stretch goal was met, which introduced a Wiccan stretch goal. That’s two more Young Avengers down, including another of the core four.

We’re now missing just three characters able to play a complete Young Avengers team across any of their incarnations: Stature (Cassie Lang), the final core founding member; Grant Morrison’s creation Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr), from Kieron Gillen’s run; and the depowered mutant Prodigy, also from Gillen’s run.

Given the potential Ant-Man synergy I’d still expect them to fit in Stature before this campaign ends. Marvel Boy and Prodigy are slightly more obscure, so I wouldn’t lay heavy odds on seeing the pair of them.

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

The Marvel United Multiverse Civil War box does more than just introduce Kate Bishop and Hulking to the game. It re-implements Captain America and Iron Man from the core Marvel United box with beefed up cards. It introduces a MCU-friendly Iron Spider skin for Peter Parker with new cards. Plus, it includes missing 80s Avengers Tigra, Wonder Man, Yellowjacket, Spectrum (Monica Rambeau), and the first giant-size hero sculpt with Bill Foster AKA Goliath!

Civil War also introduces an entirely new mode of play: player-vs-player. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse has a Civil War in their new expansion box (and uses it to solve their Young Avengers problem)

Marvel United: Multiverse enters the Age of Apocalypse! (plus, predicting the 10 most-likely expansion boxes)

January 25, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

Yesterday, CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced a second new expansion box bringing more heroes and villains to the game… and they’re all more mutants! That’s right, CMON has dipped into one of Marvel’s most-popular alternate timelines to announce Marvel United Multiverse Age of Apocalypse box!

There’s no question that Age of Apocalypse is Marvel’s most-popular and well-known excursion into an alternate timeline parallel to 616 other than the expansive Ultimate Universe. Based on that, it’s no surprise to see the box pop up here – especially since it checks off four unique X-characters we were missing.

(See my Guide to Marvel Universe Events – Age of Apocalypse for details on how to read the entire event.)

Am I pleased? Not entirely. I think this box brings both good choices and questionable choices with it.

The good choices are very good choices: we get playable heroes of Nate Grey and Morph, and some seriously scary villains in the form of AOA Apocalypse, Holocaust / Nemesis, and Dark Beast.

That’s five key mutants we were missing from the massive list of possibilities in my prior post on the campaign.

It’s the other pair of choices that I question, plus one conspicuous absence. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse enters the Age of Apocalypse! (plus, predicting the 10 most-likely expansion boxes)

Marvel United: Multiverse makes more mutants, plus Inhumans enter the fray with War of Kings!

January 20, 2023 by krisis Leave a Comment

We interrupt this post I had just started writing about the Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign to bring you breaking news from the Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign! Today, CMON announced their first new expansion box of the campaign, and it’s a massive one: War of Kings, including the entire primary cast of Inhumans and two X-character Shi’ar foes!

Let’s talk about this newly-announced box for a moment, and then I’ll get back to what I was already in the process of writing about – which is the many mutant characters who have been popping up as stretch goals over the past couple of days.

I have a 800+ character wishlist for Marvel United. I’ve ever grouped them into potential boxed sets whenever I could theme a group of them together. I know some of them are far beneath CMON’s threshold for notice. Maybe we could get Wiz-Kid, but we’ll probably never have my beloved Siena Blaze.

The Inhumans are one of those potential boxed sets, but I wasn’t sure if they were popular enough to merit their own expansion. They haven’t had their own ongoing for several years, and they were unceremoniously excised from the Marvel Universe. Casual comic fans likely only know half the royal family at best. CMON has snuck in many niche characters like Cloak & Dagger and the Starjammers via a steady drip of Stretch Goals, and I thought if we were lucky we could score half the royal family that way.

I was far to pessimistic about our chances! We’re getting the full royal family that I selected in my spreadsheet – Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Karnak, & Triton. Plus, a full sculpt and set of cards for Lockjaw! Plus, Gladiator – leader of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard – as a dual-playing Anti-Hero that can be a hero or a villain. And, one fully-evil Vulcan, the lost Summers brother.

ALL IN ONE BOX. For $35, that’s less than $4 per character. The only way this box could be any better is if they made Vulcan a hero (after all, all mutants fight for Krakoa!) – but I can take care of that on my own.

Cue me screaming my head off in Marvel geek delight. Also, all of their figure sculpts look amazing, and their power dynamics sound unique. Crystal can use her earth control to block villains from moving into a location, and Triton gets special advantage in locations marked with water tokens.

Meanwhile, the post I was already working on is this: CMON has really stepped up on filling in mutants they didn’t get to in their X-Men campaign. We’re only on Day 3 and they’ve already completed the entire Starjammers, gotten two characters into Generation X, and added everyone’s favorite good boy – Doug Ramsey!

Let’s take a quick look at which X-Characters have been announced and who remains MIA. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse makes more mutants, plus Inhumans enter the fray with War of Kings!