Marvel's tabletop RPG is sending players into Battleworld this summer, and they're up against God Emperor Doom himself. The Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Secret Wars Expansion lands 18 August 2026 as a 256-page hardcover at $49.99 (around £40 in UK shops), adapting one of Marvel Comics' most ambitious crossover events into something your Tuesday-night group can actually run.
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Start organising for freeThe setting borrows from Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars run, which smashed the Marvel Multiverse to pieces and stitched the survivors into a single patchwork planet ruled by Doom. Each region (or "domain") is a different alternate reality with its own rules, from the dystopian 2099, to the zombie-infested Deadlands, to a Planet Hulk-style gamma-irradiated Greenland. The expansion gives groups an adventuring framework to play heroes navigating Doom's broken world, with options to either serve as Doom-loyal barons keeping order in their domain or join the resistance trying to put the Multiverse back together. Lead writer Matt Forbeck reckons Battleworld makes for "the best sandbox ever," and once you see the genre toybox you can see why.
The book also introduces rules for Rank X, the new top tier of cosmic might. In practical terms that means you'll finally have stats for Galactus, the Beyonder and the Living Tribunal at your table, the kind of foes the base game's d616 system has been politely sidestepping since launch.
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Find events near youSpeaking of the base game: the 2023 core rulebook landed well. Polygon's Cody Pondsmith called it the best tabletop RPG he played in 2023, and reviewers generally liked the d616 system and the deep roster of pre-statted heroes, even if some grumbled about progression. Two and a bit years on, the line has rolled through Avengers and X-Men supplements and built a healthy organised play scene. Secret Wars looks like the most thematically ambitious release yet, the kind of book that turns into a year-long campaign.
UK fans can pre-order through standard book channels for the August street date. If you fancy gathering a group of supers-curious mates, find a friendly table and start sketching characters now.
Sources: Marvel | Penguin Random House | ICv2
