Dragonmeet 2023!

I am heading out soon to be a guest at Dragonmeet, a legendary one-day gaming convention held at the Novotel Hammersmith in London. My schedule at the show (so far):

Saturday, December 3

  • Noon: What Board Games Mean to Me. Why are board games so important to so many of us, and why have they become so popular? Inspired by the new book of the same name from Aconyte, games expert James Wallis is joined by a panel of games industry experts and enthusiasts, including Sir Ian Livingstone and Matt Forbeck, to explore the many ways in which games have shaped all our lives.
  • 4 PM: Learn about the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. Come hear writer/designer Matt Forbeck talk about the Marvel Multiverse RPG and its development through its public playtest to the full game that debuted in August.

I’ll likely have a signing at the Modiphius booth at some point too. If all goes well, they should have a good stock of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Core Rulebook and The Cataclysm of Kang.

I haven’t been back to the UK since I left Games Workshop back in 1990, so I’m looking forward to wandering about a bit in the week beforehand, seeing the sights, and catching up with old friends.

Anyhow, if you’re in the London area around then, join me at the show! It’s bound to be great fun.

U-Con!

I have a couple trips coming up in the next few weeks. First off, I’m going to be a special guest at U-Con in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, Michigan from November 17–19. Then it’s Thanksgiving, which I’ll spend at home, but the Saturday following that weekend — December 2 — I’ll be a special guest at Dragonmeet in London too.

I’ll post more about Dragonmeet soon, but at U-Con, my schedule looks like this:

Friday, November 17

  • 5 PM: U-Con Talk: Leonard Balsera interviews me and other guests.

Saturday, November 18

  • 10 AM – 1 PM: Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game

Sunday, November 19

  • 9 AM – Noon: Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game

Those Marvel Multiverse RPG events are sold out but you should be able to find me wandering around the hall and playing games most of the weekend. I went to school at the University of Michigan and lived in Ann Arbor for 9 years, so I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and wandering around my old haunts — and maybe finding some new ones. I hope to see you there!

The Cataclysm of Kang Is Here!

The Cataclysm of Kang, the first full-sized adventure book for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game debuts in bookstores today, November 14. You can find it in comic-book stores tomorrow, November 15. You can also grab it from Roll20 and Demiplane.

This book features six adventures, one for each character rank in the game. You can play through them all as a massive campaign, bringing the same characters from their origin stories all the way up to cosmic-shaking powerhouses, or you can pick and choose among them, playing them as one-shots with the suggested Marvel heroes.

Although I came up with the concept for the book, outlined it, and wrote a good chunk of it, I had a lot of help on this one. There are seven chapters in the book, plus a comic book reprint from Captain America Annual #11—by Peter Sanderson, Rich Yanizesky, Dave Sharpe, and Max Steele—explaining Kang’s origins, and a massive glossary that explains many of the references in the adventure.

  • I wrote “Chapter 1: Ready for Adventure” and “Chapter 2: Origin Story,” and I finished off the adventures with the climactic, Multiverse-shaking “Chapter 7: Galaxy of Hurt.” I also wrote that gigantic glossary/index.
  • Jesse Scoble and Devinder Thiara wrote “Chapter 3: Friendly Neighborhood” and “Chapter 4: New York State of Mind.” These blow the doors off of New York City in more ways than one. By the time you finish them both, you’ll know Marvel’s version of the city better than ever.
  • Elisa Teague wrote “Chapter 5: National Emergency.” This cracks open the Multiverse for the book and shows the heroes the trouble they’re really in.
  • B. Dave Walters wrote “Chapter 6: World of Trouble.” This time-travel crisis hauls the heroes through centuries to find the culprit they need to stop.
  • Marty Forbeck wrote all of the character profiles, once again, bringing loads of stunning Marvel heroes and villains to life.

My fellow writers all did an amazing job, and I couldn’t be prouder of how it all came out. They took my ideas, built on them, and made them better and more fun. It was a delight working with each of them.

Huge thanks also go out to: 

  • The Producer, CJ Cervantes: For always pushing us to do our best and focus on the fun.  
  • The Editor, Brian Overton: For keeping the trains moving and checking to make sure all those different writers were always in tune with each other.
  • The Assistant Producer, Amir Osman: For invaluable input at every stage, especially when it comes to mechanics.  
  • The Graphic Designer, Simeon Cogswell: For making all those words look fantastic. 
  • The Cover Artists, Iban Coello & Jesus Aburtov: For yet another stunning cover. 
  • The Interior Artists, Ruairí Coleman, Sean Izaakse, Paco Medina, Jesus Aburtov (again!), and dozens more: Ruari, Sean, Paco, and Jesus provided the all-new chapter headers, bringing all the new material to life.
  • The Cartographer, Brian Patterson: For stunning maps that make each adventure easier to use.
  • The Proofreader, Ray Vallese: For polishing the prose and checking the rules.
  • The Business Team, Trent Bielen, Tim Dillon, Jeff Youngquist, Mark Annunziato and Daniel Fink: For keeping the lights on, both in the office and our homes. 
  • The PR pro, Hayley Strichman: For making sure I sound reasonable when chatting with folks about super heroes. 

I am unreasonably blessed to have such a wonderful group of people to work with, on such a fun and exciting game. I hope you all enjoy what we came up with here and have just as much fun playing it as we did putting it together.

If you’d like to learn more about the book, check out this excellent article on Marvel.com. It features interview snippets with each of the adventure writers (including me), and a list of the new vehicles presented and of all the new character profiles included.

Gamehole Con 2023!

This weekend, I’m heading out to Gamehole Con, in crisp and brisk Madison, Wisconsin, about an hour’s drive north of me. I’ve been going since GHC 2, and I’m excited to be back to help Alex Kammer and his amazing crew celebrate their 10th show.

I have a lot going on at the show, but I don’t have a booth. You can find me at any of the listed events and probably also just wandering the floor, playing games, catching up with friends, and having fun. Don’t be shy to say hi!

Thursday, October 19

Friday, October 20

Saturday, October 21

Sunday, October 22

Marvel Multiverse RPG Update!

The folks over at Marvel just posted three new things at Marvel.com/rpg, the online home for the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game. If you scroll down to the Game Updates section, you should see:

  • Enter: Hydra. This is a free introductory adventure I wrote for the game, as a PDF. It updates the adventure originally published in the Playtest Rulebook for use with the finished rules. It also serves as a prequel to the upcoming massive adventure book, The Cataclysm of Kang, due out in November.
  • A Rules FAQ. This PDF answers a bunch of questions people have had since the release of the game.
  • Rules Errata. While we had a lot of people going over the rules, a number of mistakes crept in anyhow. This PDF points those out and offers corrections.

Thanks for keeping up with the game. There’s lots more to come!

The Marvel Multiverse RPG Is Out!

The Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game officially debuts today, August 1. You should be able to get it through your favorite book/game retailer today, while comic-book stores (which have new-book day on Wednesday) should have theirs tomorrow.

You can buy the book wherever you find comics, games, or books. You can also get electronic editions via Roll20, Demiplane, and Kindle. I recommend supporting your favorite local store whenever you can, but grab it whichever way suits you best.

The team of folks I worked with on this did an amazing job, and I want to thank each of them publicly. They include:

  • The Producer, CJ Cervantes: CJ led this project all the way to the finish line, and he always kept the whole team focused on making a game that would appeal not just to hardcore gamers (like me) but Marvel fans new to tabletop RPGs (like him, at least when he started).
  • The Editor, Brian Overton: Brian brought a wealth of knowledge about Marvel history to the game to correct my occasional goofs, and like me, he’d worked a bit on the previous edition of the game (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying). He did everything humanly possible to keep a large and unwieldy project on track.
  • The Assistant Producer, Amir Osman: The junior member of the main team (including CJ, Brian, and me), Amir came onto the project just over a year ago when we realized we desperately needed more hands, and instantly made everything better.
  • The Graphic Designer, Simeon Cogswell: If you like the way this gorgeous book looks, blame Simeon. They went above and beyond to make it fun and accessible, and it shows on every page.
  • The Cover Artists, Iban Coello & Jesus Aburtov: I mean, just look at that cover. I’ve been staring at it as my computer’s wallpaper for months on end, and I never tire of it. It’s just perfect.
  • The Interior Artists, Mike Bowden, Andrew Dalhousie, Juan Fernandez, and dozens more: Mike, Andrew, and Juan provided the all-new art in the book, which is incredible. On top of their work, we also got to tap into Marvel’s phenomenal library of existing art for the book, which cannot be beat.
  • The Proofreader, Ray Vallese: Ray stepped in with his keen eye and his decades of expertise in tabletop RPGs to make sure we got all the details right. Whew!
  • The Instigator, John Nee: I’ve known John since he hired me back in the early ’90s to work on the WildStorms CCG for Jim Lee (who’s now in charge of DC Comics). When he was the publisher at Marvel, John was the one who decided Marvel was ready to publish its own RPG—and that I was the right person to write it.
  • The Inspirer, Mike Capps: Mike has an amazing list of credits as long as Doc Ock’s arms, and he came on to help out at the start of the design phase. Although he had to leave the project early on, you can see a lot of his work in the Playtest Rulebook that came out last April.
  • The Business Team, Trent Bielen, Tim Dillon, Jeff Youngquist, Jesse Berger, and Daniel Fink: These are the folks who keep the lights on and make sure that our P&L’s wind up on the profit side rather than loss. We literally couldn’t do any of this without them.
  • The PR folks, Tim Cheng and Hayley Strichman: These wonderful people—who are pros at dealing with mass media audiences—help get word about the game out there and keep me on message—as much as anyone can.
  • The Additional Writer, Marty Forbeck: My eldest son Marty decided to follow in my footsteps as a writer and game designer after he graduated from college during the pandemic lockdown, and I couldn’t be prouder of him and the work he did on this book. He wrote and built nearly all of the character profiles, and he’s been a massive help with the whole thing.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank the writers and designers of the previous editions of the game. These are the giants on whose shoulders we stand. They include:

  • Marvel Super Heroes (1984), Jeff Grubb and Steve Winter: I played this like crazy in high school and even ran it for the RPGA at Gen Con back in those days. It’s the FASERIP rock on which all the others were built. Steve ran the first convention adventure I ever played in, a game of Boot Hill back in 1982 or so, and Jeff co-authored a Guild Wars novel with me many years later.
  • Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game (1998), Mike Selinker, with Michele Carter, Bill Olmesdahl, Steven Schend, and Steven “Stan!” Brown: This one uses a card deck (the Fate Deck) instead of dice. Mike is another all-time great designer, leading the folks over at Lone Shark Games. I worked on the Apocrypha game with him a while back, and we’re currently polishing a board game based on my Monster Academy novels for Calliope Games. Michele is a legendary games editors. Bill, Steven, and Stan! are all great friends as well, although we sadly lost Bill to cancer a few years back.
  • Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (2003), Dan Gelber, Jeffrey Simons, and Evan Jones: This was the first RPG that Marvel published, twenty years ago, and it used stones instead of dice. I don’t know any of the designers personally, but I loved Dan’s work on the classic Paranoia RPG.
  • Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (2012), Cam Banks: There’s a long list of credits for this Cortex System version of the game—which Margaret Weis Productions (yes, that Margaret Weis of Dragonlance fame)—published 11 years ago, but my pal Cam was the lead designer and guided the whole thing. Others who pitched in on the concept team (a.k.a. the Illuminati) include Rob Donoghue, Will Hindmarch, Philippe-Antoine Ménard, and Jesse Scoble—plus me. They’re all excellent designers, and I love this version of the game as much as any of the others.

Thanks to every one of these folks for all they contributed to the game and to Marvel over the years. My name might be on this book’s cover, but that never would have happened without all their heroic contributions.

I hope you enjoy the game and have a fantastic time playing it with your friends and family for many years to come. After all, you’re who we created it for. A game doesn’t really come to life without people who play it.

Thanks for playing!

Gen Con 2023 Plans (Includes Marvel)

I had a wonderful time at Comic-Con, but Gen Con — the largest tabletop games convention in the world — is just around the corner. I’ll be there all four days, and here’s where you can find me.

Wednesday, August 2

  • 9 PM–Midnight: The Diana Jones Award Ceremony. As the president of the Diana Jones Award Foundation, I host the party and the award ceremony, at which we spotlight the winners of our Emerging Designer Program and this year’s winner of the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming. If you’re a gaming industry professional, ping me at matt@forbeck.com for an invitation.

Thursday, August 3

Friday, August 4

Saturday, August 5

  • 11 AM–12 PM: Signing the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game at the World of Game Design booth (2661).
  • 12–1 PM: Writing Tie-In Comics. With John Jackson Miller, Jennifer Brozek, Dan Jolley, and James Lowder. Part of the Writer’s Symposium. Free!
  • 2–3 PM: Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Panel 2 – How to Play. I explain how to play the new Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game (for which I’m the lead designer and writer). Plus I’ll answer questions about the game. Free!
  • 4 PM–6 PM: 37th Annual Gen Con Costume Contest. Once again, I’m the MC of the Gen Con Costume Contest. This is always amazing fun, and the costumes blow me away. Free!

Sunday, August 6

  • 12 PM: Andrew Hackard Memorial Munchkin Game. My kids and I played a game of Munchkin at the Steve Jackson Games booth with Munchkin Czar Andrew Hackard every year at Gen Con until he passed away due to glioblastoma. We continue that tradition by playing a game in his honor. We have loads of con-exclusive Munchkin cards and prizes to give away to those who attend, provided by Steve Jackson Games. We’re also taking donations for the Diana Jones Award Foundation. Show up and cheer my kids on as they ruin my plans for victory. $2.

Of course, the biggest draw for me this year is the debut of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Core Rulebook. Here are the details as I know them. I will add more as they come in:

  • The game comes out on August 2. (That’s the official comic-book store date. Book stores often get theirs a day early, so you might be able to find copies on August 1. Hell, some book stories might be breaking the street date already.)
  • Marvel will have a booth at the show (#2661) staffed by World of Game Design, who will be running demos of the game there in the booth. If you play a demo, you get a con-exclusive transparent Marvel die for free!
  • You can purchase copies of the game at that same booth.
  • They will have limited quantities of the official dice for the game (produced by CMON) for sale at that same booth. They plan to sell just 200 per day.
  • They’re also running 25 sessions of the game at other locations in the show, both in 2-hour and 4-hour slots. These are almost entirely sold out.

I would be honored to sign copies of the game any time you can find me. See above for some ideas on how to manage that.

I hope you can make it to the show, and if you do, I look forward to seeing you there!

Shotguns & Sorcery
Art Book & Comic Released

In honor of heading off to Comic-Con tomorrow, I’m finally releasing two Shotguns & Sorcery books that were original created for the Shotguns & Sorcery RPG Kickstarter. Backers have had them for a while now, and now the rest of the world can grab them too.

tl;dr: Grab these things now:

The Art Book showcases the best of the art created for Shotguns & Sorcery, the fantasy noir setting created by New York Times-bestselling author Matt Forbeck (um, me!). This includes the new covers for the six Shotguns & Sorcery novels and stories (which I haven’t updated yet) as well as work from Shotguns & Sorcery: The Roleplaying Game and the Shotguns & Sorcery comic book, all reproduced in glorious color—and sometimes in brutal black-and-white.

Featuring the amazing artwork of Allan Gallo, Brian Koschak, Paul Little, Jeremy Mohler, Lee Oaks, Aaron Palsmeier, Jim Pinto, Andrew Poole, and Shannon Potratz. I went through and added notations to everything, explaining how each piece came to be.

The Wizard’s Wife is the first Shotguns & Sorcery comic. It comes in at 22 glorious full-color pages and tells a previously unseen early tale of Max Gibson, the hero of the Shotguns & Sorcery stories.

Every night, legions of zombies scratch at the outer walls of Dragon City, trying to claw their way into the grim and gritty metropolis ruled over by the Dragon Emperor, the mighty beast that keeps the hordes of hungry dead from storming the place and tearing it to the ground. Inside, ex-adventurer Max Gibson — now “Freelance” — tries to keep his head down and enjoy his early retirement, but something keeps digging up parts of his long-buried past.

Case in point: a woman knocks on Max’s door and asks him to follow her husband. Normally this would be no problem. The man is powerful, but the money is good. Good enough anyhow.

But Max already took on this same job for this same woman last night… 

Written by Shotguns & Sorcery creator Matt Forbeck, with illustrations by Shannon Potratz, colors by Paul Little, and letters by Ed Dukeshire. Cover by Jeremy Mohler. 

If you’d like to grab a copy of Shotguns & Sorcery: The 5E Sourcebook, which is not quite released to the public yet, I’m still taking order for that through BackerKit. I have a few boxes of the standard and deluxe editions sitting here in my office, and I can sign them for you on request.

I also have some copies of the first printing of Shotguns & Sorcery: The Roleplaying Game left. I sell these through eBay, and I can sign these too. You can also pickup the POD version through DriveThruRPG, but the rising print prices there have driven the price up to $75, while the ones on eBay are still only $60 while they last.

Go get ’em while they’re hot!

Off to Comic-Con!

This week, I’m heading out to Comic-Con International in sunny San Diego. Once again, Marvel is bringing me out, this time to help promote the upcoming release of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Core Rulebook, which debuts a couple weeks after the show on August 2.

That means the game will not be on sale there. Despite that, I’ll be running quick demonstrations of it on the convention floor for a few hours a day. The actual location of these demos hasn’t been announced yet, but I will let you know the moment it happens. The demos will be first-come, first-serve — and may feature a prize for players — so stay tuned for more details.

Here’s my schedule:

Thursday, July 20

Friday, July 21

  • 1:30–4:30 PM: Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game demos
  • 5:30–8:30 PM: Glass Cannon Network Actual Play of Marvel Multiverse. Come over to the Omni to join me and watch the talented Glass Cannon folks + Marvel VP, Executive Editor Nick Lowe perform the first live actual play of the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game.

Saturday, July 22

After that, I run home, panic relax recover for a week, and then head out to Gen Con for the game’s actual debut. All while I keep plugging away at the X-Men Expansion, which is slated for release in early 2024. Whew!

Anyhow, there are great things ahead for the game, and I hope to see you out there as we introduce it to the world.

How to Break in as a Video Game Writer

Today, a tremendously polite writer contacted me with a question I get a lot. It essentially boils down to, “I want to write games, and I’ve been working on it for a while. I built a great website/portfolio, and I’ve applied to all sorts of jobs. Still, I can’t seem to get much traction. How do I break in?”

They literally wrote: “Can you please advise me on what I am doing wrong or how I should improve myself to get a dream job as a game designer/game writer?”

Here’s what I told them, and I’m posting it here too on the off chance that it might help someone else with the same question.

Hi!

That’s a huge question without any solid answers. Your website looks solid, and you’re clearly working on getting experience, so you’re taking the right steps. 

One problem, of course, is that there have been massive layoffs in the tech industry over the past year, which means that a number of those places aren’t hiring. And when they do, you may find yourself competing for spots against some of those laid-off veterans. 

In your position, I’d recommend three things: 

1) Work on your own projects as best you can. This could be game jams, mods, things you make with Twine or RPG Maker or Unity, or even tabletop games or other creative projects. Put them out there for feedback. Self-publish if you can. Just go at your own pace and have fun with it. 

2) Join the IGDA’s Writers SIG. It’s a group of professional and aspiring game writers that there’s to share knowledge about the industry, including job postings. It’s also free to join, even if you’re not a member of the IGDA. It used to be mostly active on an email list, but it’s now moved over to Facebook and Discord. 

3) Make friends with other game designers. Lots of game jobs never get posted anywhere but are filled through personal recommendations. If one of your friends can recommend you for a gig, that gives you a shot at it. If you find yourself in a position to recommend others, you can do the same for your friends. 

I hope that gives you a bit of guidance and some hope. Like most creative fields, this is not an easy one to make a living in, but it can be loads of fun. Good luck!