Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today, our writers share what they’ve been reading over the last month. Feel free to share what you’ve been reading this past month, too, because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang. I’ll get things started with what I’ve been reading this past month.
Kyra’s Reads
I have a Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game session planned at a public event this Saturday (May 16, 2026, at the Bellevue, Nebraska, Public Library), and while I could’ve read one or two core books, I fell down a rabbit hole. I’m sure I read something else this past month. I’ll probably remember it while I’m typing this entry, but picking up four 300-page rulebooks for a tabletop role-playing game is a good reading load. Throw in multiple auxiliary role-playing game books, and it becomes a lot of reading.
One feature I like about the Marvel Multiverse RPG books is that their pages are color-coded. At first, I didn’t care for these color-coded pages. They look garish on the shelf. But those colors help with quickly locating chapters. Rules can be found at the beginning. These page colors may be difficult to spot at first because the chapters are really small (the Marvel Multiverse RPG is a rules-light game), but you’d expect rules to exist at the beginning of a TTRPG book. The larger sections are for Powers, Characters, and World Building. I know to look at the red pages for a character and the purple pages for Powers and so forth. Color-coded pages may look weird on your shelf, but I’ll sacrifice aesthetics for functionality.
I picked up the core rulebook, and you don’t even need to do that if you want to get started playing the Marvel Multiverse RPG. The company uploaded a quick-start book on its website. Just click the “Try Free” button, and a laundry list of content loads. I was surprised by how much content Marvel made available for players. Sure, other sites like Fuzzy on the Details offer copious fan-made content for the game, and you can check them out here if you’re interested. But Marvel gives players everything they need to demo the game before buying.
The Quick-Start Book with a Thunderbolts* Adventure is a great place to begin. The Quick-Start Book offers an abridged version of the rules, everything you need to get playing. And the Thunderbolts* Adventure introduces game elements almost like a video game tutorial. My group is choosing a different starting adventure, the Marvel Rivals Timestream Adventure.
I talked about the Marvel Rivals Timestream Adventure in last week’s Whatcha Playing, so I won’t repeat what I said in that post here. But I will say that I like the Adventure’s flexibility. It can be a one-shot or the beginning of a longer campaign if we choose to continue the story. Getting back to the major Expansion books, I picked up Spider-Verse and X-Men. I prefer X-Men to the Spider-Verse because this Expansion adds more powers. More options. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get any new abilities in Spider-Verse. Even so, Spider-Verse is solid.
All Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game’s bigger books have a third to almost half of their pages dedicated to character entries. This could change in the future, but you’ll be seeing a lot of red pages. And that makes the Marvel Multiverse RPG different from many other TTRPGs. With so many choices of pre-constructed characters, why would anyone make their own character? That’s not to say that the Marvel Multiverse RPG doesn’t have a good character creation system. It does. I can easily whip up a compelling character in short order, and I’m in the process of converting the TSR Marvel RPG rolling charts to aid with character creation. After I’m done, I may post those charts here. Let me know if you’d be interested in that. But the Marvel Multiverse RPG lends itself to players assuming the role of established characters.
How you play the Marvel Multiverse RPG will depend on your gaming group. I also picked up The Cataclysm of Kang. This Adventure differs from the others (one-shots) I mentioned earlier. The Cataclysm of Kang requires hundreds of gameplay hours to complete. It’s a massive campaign, and fewer players will have interest or patience for this long a campaign. Note: I picked up The Cataclysm of Kang because it could play out like an alternative MCU Kang storyline. What could’ve happened if the MCU didn’t biff that villain? Just like the other hardbacks in the Marvel Multiverse RPG, The Cataclysm of Kang offers plenty of pre-generated characters. $40-$50 is a lot if you’re only interested in more characters. Fortunately, DriveThruRPG offers $5 deals on just the characters. The site even sells easier-to-print versions of the game’s maps. And while you’re on DriveThruRPG, check out some of the other free content.
You could play the Marvel Multiverse RPG without ever buying the core book or any of the expansions. Or you could drop considerably less money than I have and pick up some essentials and cheaper content on sites like DriveThruRPG and FuzzyOnTheDetails. You also don’t need to be the biggest Marvel buff. No one will quiz you on Marvel lore. You could take a show or movie you liked from anything Marvel, even the stuff that predates the MCU, and ask what if.
I continued with The Game Master’s Book Of series with Random Tables and a handful of other titles. Like I said, I went down a rabbit hole. Send help! Naturally, I’ve been converting some of these random roll tables for the Marvel Multiverse RPG, but if you’re running a high fantasy role-playing game, you shouldn’t need to adapt anything found in this book. I love The Game Master’s Book Of Series. They provide so much for any role-playing game. Sure, they do lean toward Dungeons & Dragons, but most of these books–except for the dragons book, but who doesn’t love dragons?–can be useful for numerous RPGs. I read the Proactive Roleplaying and Collaborative Campaign Design books last month. Those two are paperback, but the hardback books are only $25 or less, and they’re high-quality books. You can’t beat The Game Master’s Book Of series’ value.
I did read something else this month. I started re-reading Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. I read this book so often that I forget to include it in these lists. Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style is a great book to refresh one’s grammar. And I need all the help I can get.
That’s all I have for what I’ve been reading this past month. I’m sure I forgot several other books on my list, but hey, that’ll give me something to talk about next month. And it looks like I’m on my own for this week. We’ll have to check in with Season and Skye next month with their reads. But let us know what you’ve been reading in the comments, Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
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