I recently looked over the Marvel RPG using the SAGA system. I came away with mixed feelings over what the game offered compared to the way role-playing was presented. On one hand, I enjoyed how TSR had simplified Marvel characters while on the other I was left cold with the way combat was handled. While I enjoyed what the game attempted to offer, I ultimately decided I liked the old Marvel gaming system better. Here are just a few of my reasons.

While I was hesitant to even look at the new game system for fear of a card system replacing the old, tried & true method of rolling dice, I was nevertheless determined to give the new Marvel SAGA system a try. While I might feel like an old dog at times, there's nothing that says I can't at least be open to new tricks. When I first perused the game, the one thing that caught my eye was how it simplified character generation to a great extent. Not that I thought the old game system was complicated (it remains my favorite system – easy to learn, easy to operate). I just thought how characters were presented was an interesting way to do things. Although a part of me yearned for my trusty Ultimate Powers Book, the simplicity of the material held my attention.

It was novel how with ten drawn cards you create the statistics of your character. The idea of having your Health derived from the hand you would have during play was something I had trouble with. Then again, I could see how the given powers could offset someone like Thor (one of my childhood favorites) having only 30 points of Health. The game still had hope for me at that point. I made several original characters & I was eager to give them a try. The concept of Doom cards to hold the element of negative modifiers throughout the game, from character design to actually playing the game seemed to maintain practical play with a much needed dosage of uncertainty. I ran a test-run with the given adventure that came with the game. This was where the attraction of the SAGA system fell apart for me.

It seemed as though combat was a trifle less challenging than with the old Marvel game system. Although you had an element of randomness to the hand you held during play, something didn't feel right. There wasn't enough randomness to things for my taste. I read the rules more carefully this time to make sure that I read things correctly. That was when it dawned on me that the system seemed slanted against any characters from dying. I don't know about most people, but when the chance of my character biting the proverbial "big one," that's an awful lot of challenge & randomness that has been taken away from me. I'm not against games that are designed to avoid the death of characters – I think it has its place with such classic games as Toon & Teenagers From Outer Space. However, with a super-hero environment, it should be up to you to determine how you want to play it. Far too much reworking is necessary to have the SAGA system to have a grittier feel for my taste. I felt sorely disappointed. To my surprise, the problem wasn't that I had plopped down money to check this game out but because I wanted to play it so bad because it had much potential. So much untapped potential remains in the game system that I had to make a hard choice I have often made on a mere whim in the past, only to regret it. Do I keep this game, or do I sell it with no regrets? There was only one answer after reviewing the combat rules for two days. I no longer have the game. That's a shame.

It's a shame that TSR can come up with a game system that can tantalize but can deliver only a game that feels like it's a few rules short of being complete. Of course, this is my opinion & everyone is entitled to have their own feelings about this new system. However, after years of being able to do whatever I envisioned with the campaigns I ran with the classic Marvel game system, the whole SAGA experience only left me with a deep nostalgia for those campaigns instead of inspiring me to work on any new ones. That was the real tragedy for me - that the new system didn't inspire more than what it presented. Isn't that what we all look for in a game system, after all?