Borrowing Ideas From the Comics

The PDF of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game is out. You want to play. How do you come up with a plot for your game?

Here’s your answer.

Steal from the comics.

There are a lot of comics out there. More than most have ever read. When you’re having trouble figuring out where to draw inspiration from, grab a 5-6 issue story arc from the comics, and have the players play through that. More likely than not, none of them will have read it, if it’s not one of the major events in the Marvel Universe. That’s what they’ve done for the mini-Event in the Basic Game; they took the Breakout series of New Avengers comics (1-6) and converted it into a game.

Those comics above? Those are from Chris Claremont and Salvadore Larocca’s run on the Fantastic Four. Those comics are directly responsible for me getting into comics. Issue 10 (the one in the middle), I picked up in Washington DC at the train station, and I’ve been a comic reader ever since.

However, not too many people remember those two’s run on FF. Doubtless, my players haven’t. They won’t even know that it’s not an original plot!

That’s what you should capitalize on. Take from the comics, often wholesale. You won’t get found out, don’t worry about it.

Besides, if you look at the release schedule, they’re expecting your players to be playing out the adventures of some of the best known story arcs, so if your players do happen to notice, it’s not going to matter. Just roll with the punches. Every decision your players make diverges from the comic, even slightly. It’s your world now.

About Mark

Mark is a military veteran, game designer, a believer in the oxford comma, and an all-around nerd.

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