New GODZILLA Sourcebook Announced For Marvel Multiverse
Start practicing your SKREE-ONKs...
Well, this is unexpected!
A few hours ago, the announcement came from Marvel Comics’ various social channels that a Godzilla sourcebook for the Marvel Multiverse Roleplaying Game is on the horizon. Written by Matt and Marty Forbeck and featuring a mini-comic by Paul Allor and Ig Guara, the book will delve into all things Kaiju, and handling battles with Marvel’s massive-est monsters like Fin Fang Foom and other fan-favourites from the Toho films like Mothra. Profiles for a few of Marvel’s giant monsters, name Giganto and Tricephalous, have already been featured in the adventure Fantastic Four: From The Depths and there was also a Fin Fang Foom profile in the free Marvel SNAP! supplement from earlier this year.
The major thing worth noting here is that this is not an expansion. It is explicitly stated to be a “sourcebook”, which is a totally new product for the MMRPG line. If the promo image is anything to go by, it looks substantially thinner than the expansions that have been released so far, and if I had to guess from the look of it, I’d say it’s probably about as long as your average hardcover or trade paperback graphic novel.
The implications of this being a “sourcebook” and not an expansion are quite intriguing. For one, it means we may start to see smaller releases like this one throughout a given year, with each book focusing on a very specific corner of the Marvel Multiverse. Books pertaining to specific eras in Marvel’s history like the Golden Age, or a specific alternate universe would make for prime real estate for a sourcebook.
While this Godzilla Sourcebook marks the first time the MMRPG line has had any kind of crossover content from non-Marvel IP, there’s every possibility it won’t be the last time that this happens. Both the Alien and Predator franchises are currently under the Disney umbrella and could very easily be packaged together in an AvP sourcebook that includes material relating to the recent Aliens Vs. Avengers and Predator Vs. Wolverine comics. If I had to guess, I would say that any material that has recently featured an actual crossover with the Marvel Multiverse proper is fair game for one of these sourcebooks.
Battles with giant monsters have always been a staple of superhero comics and media, and rule-sets for such fights are clearly a hot topic, as the recent Invincible Superhero RPG makes a point of including such rules from the jump. In Marvel’s own catalogue, giant monsters were very much the preamble to the superhero craze of the Silver Age, thanks to Jack Kirby and his many variations on such a classic trope.
“Kaiju” doesn’t just suggest giant monsters though, and the question remains on whether we’ll see any attention given to the likes of the Shogun Warriors and their giant mechs, or even a rule-set for the construction and maintenance of giant mech-suits, and the keeping of kaiju as companions or even player characters. There’s a lot of fertile ground for a book like this, and I’m excited to see the material that ends up on its pages.
What sorts of sourcebooks do you want to see in the future? More crossover material or something more Marvel-specific? Let me know in the poll and comments below!
Till next time, have fun out there!