Kang comes to the Marvel Multiverse RPG

Kang, one of Marvel’s most devious and famous villains, has arrived in the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. The newest game supplement, The Cataclsym of Kang, available everywhere as of November 15th, is a multiverse-spanning adventure book that includes six interconnected adventures, new character profiles, and more.

Heroes will need to scour the Multiverse in search of clues, solve puzzles, and defeat powerful enemies to ensure Kang’s mad plans of multiversal domination are put to an end.

What you’re getting

The Cataclsym of Kang is primarily an adventure book. It gives a narrator all the tools to take heroes from rank 1 (rookies) to rank 6 (cosmic beings) in six interconnected adventures that span the cosmos. Written by lead designer Matt Forbeck, and veteran scribes like Elisa Teague and B. Dave Walters, amongst others, the story of Kang’s obsession with multiversal power shines through.

The adventure book was a great choice for a second supplement, because as I mentioned in my review of the core rules, the crispness and simplicity of the rules is going to bring in a lot of fans who may not be familiar with RPGs, and they may be intimidated by the idea of trying to build their own worlds.

It’s a big job for a rookie.

Giving them the option to use this pre-prepared adventure so early in the life cycle of the game is a smart one because now they can narrate to their heart’s content without the pressure of coming up with a story worthy of a crossover, and for fans who want to create their own stories, well, there’s plenty of content to “liberate” for their own games, without using the whole book cover to cover.

Another thing that is of real benefit to players, and narrators alike, is that while there are six interconnected adventures, they can be played independently. You don’t *need* to play the whole story out. Maybe your group has no interest in hitting the streets as rookies, trying to figure out how some random occurrence is actually the precursor for a galactic event – they just want to grab and pummel Kang directly.

They can.

While they provide a meaningful experience when played together, they can easily be separated and played individually without too much work on the narrator’s part. With other major RPG adventures of this type, it can be done in theory, but it isn’t nearly as direct a consideration as it is here.

Maybe your rank 3 heroes need a break from their ongoing campaign, and the war against Kang is happening in the background, so you chip in the rank 3 adventure to change it up and give yourself a break from customized writing for a couple of weeks.

I like the flexibility the approach provides. I hope that Marvel not only continues to publish their adventures this way, but other big companies follow suit.

The Heroes

You’re also getting another decent chunk of profiles in The Cataclsym of Kang, nearly 50 pages worth. Fan favourites like Beta Ray Bill, Ironheart, Warlock, and more join all-new character profiles created just for this adventure, which I won’t spoil.

The Marvel Universe has hundreds, maybe thousands of exciting heroes and villains to explore in this game – by adding profiles, even to an adventure book like this, it feels like they’re adding value for non-narrators to encourage them to pick the book up.

Is it worth buying?

The answer, as always, is it depends – but I’m leaning toward yes.

If you’re a new RPG player or somebody who’s looking to run a campaign with a limited familiarity of the Marvel Universe and its complex stories, The Cataclsym of Kang is a great start. It gives you everything you need to run your game, all in one spot, and it will be a rewarding experience to watch your heroes grow to meet the rising threat of Kang.

If you’re a player, The Cataclsym of Kang really does expand the profiles of characters you can play and adds some favourites. If it’s within your budget, the book is definitely worth adding for them alone. It isn’t a must-own for players, but it’s surely a nice to have.

If you don’t like RPGs, or comic books (I really don’t know how you made it this far), you probably don’t need to buy this book – but you’re probably not much fun at parties either. You probably talk about bond yields, and the dollar versus the yen…which is cool…I guess.

A final note, I am consistently impressed by how these books look. The layout is superb and extremely user-friendly. Everything is where you’d expect it to be. It suggests a deep love for this product because they’re paying attention to every detail. Profit margins in RPG books are counted in cents and the fact they’re investing this much care into their product is to be commended. I hope other companies follow their lead.

I hope you do consider picking up the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: The Cataclsym of Kang…because without you…Kang conquers.

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A review copy of this book was provided.

All images copyright marvel unless otherwise indicated.